So yeah... it's been a while. Enjoy... please.

"Again!" shouted Cal from across the field.

Flynt was standing in a grassy field sweating from his exhaustion. He raised the bulky two handed sword materialized from his own shadow and prepared for the next onslaught. Cal raised his hands and from the ground rose three dark swordsmen. They advanced at Flynt at once and he responded by allowing the sword to dissipate and rolling past two of the three men. He formed a small dagger and thrust it up through the remaining enemy's chin. As the man dissolved Flynt tossed the dagger into one of the other two's arm, staggering him. He took advantage of the situation by forming a one handed sword to swiftly cut the two shades down.

Flynt glanced at his father for any sign of acknowledgement, and was met with a scowl of disapproval.

"Shay, how many times have I told you that our people thrive on power." He began pacing around Flynt. "The power in a warhammer, a battle axe, a greatsword. Even any simple weapon coupled with a sturdy shield." Cal stopped in front of Flynt. "But we do not practice exercises in speed, because what good is speed if you have no power for which to end your enemies?"

Flynt kept his head lowered. He was breathing heavily and his face was covered in sweat. He had been "training" with his father for the entire day, and the sun was beginning to set. "My name is Flynt." He whispered.

Cal's face was frighteningly calm as he approached Flynt slowly. "You are not one of them Shay, and therefore you shall forget the name they gave you. Are we clear?"

Flynt said nothing and Cal placed his palm on Flynt's head. "I said, are we clear?"

Flynt still refused to speak. Cal sighed and squeezed Flynt's head lightly for a brief instance. In response, Flynt fell to his knees, holding his mouth open in a silent scream. As his father towered over him Flynt clutched his head and refused to yell or scream, knowing that it would only make the pain worse. Something stabbed at the back of his head and as he closed his eyes he saw the cold, unresponsive faces of the friends he'd come to make at the Institute. The last thing he saw was Ahri's peaceful face with a thin trail of crimson blood trailing from the top of her head.

Flynt yelled as he woke up in a cold sweat. He glanced around the cave that served as his resting spot and sighed. He stood, picked his broken katana off the floor and sheathed it in its scabbard where the other half was already lying in wait. He was dreaming again; at first it was the recurring dream about the institute. He was a spectator upon the ruins or destruction of the last place he called home. They started during his first night alone; he had planned to return to Runeterra via his unique teleport method the next morning, but that dream was the only reason he didn't. The first night's dream was similar to last night's dream. In it he stood among the freshly ruined buildings of the institute; some of the buildings were still ablaze and threatening to collapse any second. A lone, dark figure stood before the disaster basking in the destruction as if he were proud of it.

"Father."

The most convincing thing were the eyes: bottomless pits of darkness that stared directly into the soul or lack thereof.

"My father, somehow, will be the cause of the Institute's destruction. The only way I can stop that is to make sure he never finds out about it, so going back now is too risky."

His only options were to stay here to protect the Institute, or to kill his father before returning. He was effectively trapped here through a combination of strong loyalty with The Institute and his inability to take on his father in a direct confrontation.

The next dream was about his fathers "teaching" methods. He had come to the conclusion long ago that he didn't want to become one of whatever his father was. From his experience they were heartless beings that only knew strength and order, both at the same time if possible. All traces of creativity were dashed during Flynt's conditioning, even his own name was threatened. His power was only to be used one way, the right way, or else he would face punishment. The experience did have its moments. Even if his methods were cruel and unforgiving, his father did teach him new methods of mastering his gift, as well as some advice-ish in reference to mastering the art of creating a shadow clone.

"I learned how to fly without being over-the-top berzerk, so that's good."

He walked out of the secluded cave that served as his living area for the night and continued on. Flynt had been on the move ever since he managed to take advantage of the Prentice citizen's uprising. He managed to deceive his father with his attempt of a shadow clone -Zed would have yelled at him for his sub-par efforts- to get away. He was honestly glad that the clone was far enough away so that the quality of it didn't matter else he'd be under the watchful empty eyes of his father, learning the ways of "Their People," as if Flynt was no longer half-human and half-... whatever he was. Since then Flynt hoped Prentice was drawn into some sort of hell due to the revolt. Perhaps the uprising of the farmers and merchants who wielded pitchforks and butter knives would occupy his father, if only for a few days. Hopefully the Prentice guard and the Fez get involved as well; a civil war would definitely occupy the "King" long enough for Flynt to distance himself from it all.

Flynt began walking in the same direction as yesterday, countless nights of stargazing both during his isolated childhood and his young adulthood, when he learned what the bright dots in the dark sky could actually be used for, kept him on the right track. He was headed west and as he continued, he went over his current plan again and again in his head. If he was going to end his father, and get back home at the same time, he only had one slight chance, but before he could even execute his plan, he would have to get to another city first. Filmoar, it was the closest city that hadn't received the verbal threats of war and conquest that Prentice had gotten itself into with countless other cities and kingdoms. This was likely because Filmoar and Prentice were involved in an interdependency that had lasted for several generations, at least it had according to the stories. He figured he had one more week at best before he reached the city; he had already been walking for a bit over a month, and he was beginning to grow tired of eating stew made from whatever he could catch with his broken katana that day and berries. The berries at least served another practical function. Each night he smeared some of the dark ones all in his hair in an attempt to turn it to a darker, ideally black, shade. It was all he had in terms of disguise, and it was important that no one knew who he was when he arrived.

Ahri was sitting outside Karma's office. She was waiting for her to finish with whoever had signed up for the hour before hers to finish. According to the clock above the door opposite her they were now over twenty minutes off schedule. The door opened and Yasuo walked out of the room, he nodded at Ahri as he passed.

"Ahri." Karma said from inside the room. "You may enter."

All expectations of a neat rom were dashed away as Ahri walked into a room surrounded with stacks and stacks of papers, folders, and boxes labeled various things such as "records" "criminal records" "match records" and "vinyl records."

"Umm..."

"You must excuse the mess, I have enough to deal with being the counselor for one hundred and nineteen champions and counting, I have no time to organize but I know where everything is. Forgive me but we must make this quick as the summoners have recently informed me that the one hundred and twentieth champion will arrive shortly and I need to give him an initial reading."

Ahri nodded. "Well..."

"You have a metaphorical aching pain in your heart?"

"Yeah, I guess, but-"

"You don't know why it hurts so much?"

"Sure, and-"

"You've never felt this way before and want to know why?"

Ahri nodded.

"Well my dear, I suggest you forget about who or what is making you feel this way."

"But I-"

"Miss Ahri I think we both know who the subject of this conversation is and I will remind you that you only knew the man for a week and a half, and now he's gone. Correct?"

"Two weeks."

"In any case I hardly think that two weeks is enough to develop sincere feelings for any person especially for you given your… habits."

"Excuse me?"

"Please do not take offense to this, I am simply trying to get you to understand that however long you managed to restrain yourself, and however strong your friendship was, in the end he would have just end up becoming another source of essence."

"No, I never thought about him like that."

"When will people understand that lying to the enlightened never works out?"

"Fine, when he fell from the damn sky and I didn't know him sure he was just another source, but later it was different."

"In what ways?"

"He didn't fall for my charms, and even if it wasn't solely him that was resisting, it made me curious."

"And?"

"And what? I was curious, well after I was furious for him completely trashing my place, but still, I wanted to know more about him, and I found out. He was more than just another idiot for me to seduce."

"Even so, your efforts could only persist for so long correct?"

"Maybe, but I never got the chance to know how long."

"Ahri, again with the lies."

"I'm not lying. Maybe I did like him, but it never got to that point."

Karma sighed. "Then there are two possibilities here. Either you are lying to me, or the rumors circling around about the two of you were false."

"I'm sure you know which is true."

Karma nodded. "And I trust that you will sort this business out on your own?"

Ahri nodded as well.

"Good, please take what I've said into consideration. If Flynt ever comes back and you feel the same, take things slow and give it some time. That's how these things traditionally work."

"He will, and I will."

"Excellent, please send the next person in on your way out."

Ahri closed the door and leaned against it as she left, sighing in thought. Karma was right, two weeks wasn't enough time to really get to know someone. Once she started thinking about it she realized she really didn't know him at all, and he didn't know her either. They didn't have a clue as to what each other's greatest desires were, or their deepest fears, or even who their parents were, not that either of them had any idea but that's beside the point. All they knew was the worst of each other, his past and the shameful part of her present.

"Grey," she knew his favorite color, and he knew hers. It was nothing big, but it was something.

"Gway!" shouted a child-like voice from below.

Ahri glanced down and saw an orange furball with large blue pointed ears and a pointed bone in one hand. The yordle stared at her with its large black eyes and smiled at her with a grin that included its two tusk-like teeth pointing out of his mouth.

She smiled, patted the orange yordle on the head, and opened the door. It hopped up and ran into Karma's office, chanting something in a language Ahri didn't understand.

"Ahri, how was it?" Syndra was slowly drifting over to Ahri's table at the cafeteria.

Ahri was sitting alone with a cheeseburger sitting on the table before her. It was half-eaten and accompanied with a few remaining fries drizzled with ketchup.

"Why do you put the ketchup on your fries before eating them? It's messy. Nevermind, how was the therapy?"

Ahri shrugged. "It was ok I guess."

Syndra sat in the seat opposite her. "How are you?"

Ahri shrugged again. "Confused."

"Explain."

"I just don't know anymore."

"You're going to have to do better than that."

"I mean, Karma got me thinking… I only knew Flynt for a few weeks, so it couldn't have been anything too serious right?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Love is weird and no one ever understands it, not even the ones who are already confused by it."

"I know." Ahri put her head down on top of her folded arms that rested on the table. She suddenly remembered something she needed to find out. "What have you heard?"

"About what?"

"Me and him, any rumors or anything?"

Syndra tried her best to hide a grin as Ahri shifted her head so that her golden eyes were just visible above her forearm. With a hand raised to her mouth in an effort to hide her amusement, Syndra confessed, "Maybe I've caught wind of one or two rumors drifting around."

Ahri groaned and returned to her solitude within the confines of her folded arms. "You don't have to tell me, I already know what they are."

Syndra raised an eyebrow. "Really? So is it true?"

"No!" She nearly yelled as she brought her head from isolation. "I mean… no, it was never like that. I liked him, sure but he never seemed to return the affection, much less do that. I just don't know, all I can say for sure was that he was my friend, one of the best I've ever had even if it was only for such a short time."

"Even so, I don't think I'm in any position to tell you how you do or should feel, and neither is anyone else. Only you can determine how you feel about him; others may try and succeed in influencing you, but in the end it's only your thoughts that matter."

Ahri seemed lost in thought for a moment, then she asked,"Who told you?"

"You mean the rumors?" Syndra shrugged. "Well I heard Zed and the other ninjas talking about it with Lee, but I don't think it was them who started it. If I had to guess I'd say it was started among the yordle community since Kenen seemed to be the most informed."

Ahri nodded. "Right, thanks."

"Anyways, did you hear about the new champion? I heard he's a yordle, and an odd one at that. I asked Lito if he knew anything about..."

As Syndra continued talking, her words were lost in the air between the two women as Ahri eventually allowed her mind to drift off.

"I'm sorry Syndra, but I really have to go." She said standing. "And please tell Zed for the millionth time that I'm not mad at him and don't intend to kill him." She said as she began walking away.

"He's not going to listen to me, you have to tell him yourself."

Ahri turned, walking backwards as she responded. "It's a bit hard to do that when he avoids me on purpose all day."

Syndra chuckled and waved to the fox as Ahri turned around and continued to exit the cafeteria.

Flynt was resting, he'd found another stream and decided to satisfy his thirst and then some. He'd been getting extremely lucky with the number of water sources he'd come across within the past month. It was more than enough to sustain him, and that was why he was taking full advantage of each one he came across since he had no place to store the water. As he sat on the fallen tree trunk he found, he began to think. He thought about where he was going, and what the process would be after he got there. He would have to start the plan as soon as he arrived as well; he didn't know when rumors of the Thrall's arrival, rumors that Flynt planned on starting, would reach his father. Flynt fished in his pocket and brought out his pendant. Though he failed to gather anything useful, aside from a few gold coins, from the castle prior to his escape, he did manage to find the pendant in his father's new room before his escape. What was once a symbol of achievement, a reminder of betrayal, and even a vessel for an insane territorial parent was now a reminder of home. As he glanced at it he was filled with emotion, several emotions actually: sadness, regret, pain, but those negative feelings were dwarfed by the feelings of companionship, acceptance, and maybe even love. He remembered faces, and names to those faces.

"Zed, Syndra, Soraka, Akali, Lito, Wukong…"

He placed the pendant around his neck, where it belonged.

"and Ahri. I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it."

GG