DUEL IN THE SANDS

SAI DESERT, SHURIMA

SHURIMA EXPEDITION

1220 HOURS

Peace and tranquility that's what she felt in the moment, walking on the path of a cool garden, with her hand grasping her father. She only made it to the waist of her father. Too tall she couldn't quite make out his features with the sun bearing down on them. She was happy, she felt like she didn't feel this content in a long time. The walled gardens were pretty this time of year blooming with majestic colors of red, yellow, purple, and more.

This experience was serene, yet something felt off to the girl. The air felt... almost stagnant, but she could see the cool summer breeze blowing the plants with them dancing in the wind. It was probably nothing she thought to herself, perhaps she was just tired from walking. She asked her father to sit down for a bit and they sat by a fountain. The water spouting in the marble bowl was intricate and well crafted, she sat by to admire it for a bit. Yet again she felt something was amiss, she had this feeling she was forgetting something. It was just her imagination she thought to herself.

The girl stared into the water of the fountain to see a reflection, but... it didn't seem to be herself. At least it definitely wasn't the reflection of a young girl. It looked like her but much older, with tired eyes, odd whiskers and longer hair that was dyed purple. She rubbed her eyes and looked again and the reflection was gone, replaced with a confused young girl. Just a trick of the light? She thought to herself, but this time she was getting a bit more anxious. She tugged her father's sleeve to tell him what was wrong. Oddly though she couldn't quite hear what he was saying, the mouth was moving but no words were being heard.

The girl distraught, started to breathe a bit harder... What was going on with her she thought to herself. She leaned into the fountain and cupped her hand to take a sip of water. The water was refreshing and cool, it was probably the best water she'd ever drank. Now that she thought about it she was very thirsty, weird she didn't notice it until now, but her throat was parched and dry like she hadn't drank anything in days. Maybe that's all I needed. I was just being a bit delirious from dehydration she logically thought. She leaned over into the fountain and cupped her hands bringing the refreshing liquid to her face. But it wasn't water this time, it tasted like... she couldn't even describe it, but the texture definitely wasn't water. She spit it out immediately and to her shock the entire fountain had some sort of purple viscous ooze. She fell over onto the floor and called out to her father that something was wrong with the fountain. Her father came by her side, and picked her up to her feet and dusted her off. He was saying something, but still she couldn't make out the words. Before she could say anything else though the man picked her up by the waist and... threw her right into the ooze filled fountain.

She started screaming and crying wondering how her own father could do such a thing, She pleaded for him to help her. If this was a prank it was a very poor one. The ooze felt like it was grasping on to her like it was alive, melding on to her. She was flapping around and struggling, but the ooze seemed to be taking her deeper and deeper into the depths. Her father was yelling something though, it looked like a face of desperation and pleading. She was starting to make out the words, he was yelling to her, but her vision and hearing was getting more and more faint and she was going more under the ooze. She heard her name. "Kaisa...wake up...wake up Kaisa..." Her father's voice grew fainter and fainter until there was only blackness... Suddenly she felt a shock through all her nerves, and then a cold sensation to the front of her body and face... She heard a loud booming voice "HEY! WAKE UP!"

Kaisa jolted up breathing hard, it felt her heart was about to burst out of her chest. She felt...moisture on herself, she instinctively wiped her face of what seemed to be water. She looked around to see two people in front of her, one was a sharply dressed man in a blue coat and fancy looking cap and the other wasn't a human at all but someone short with pointed ears and fur in overalls and goggles strapped to his head. The man in the coat with a canteen in his hand, swashed it around to see if anymore water was in there, before taking a chug for himself.

"Huh, color me surprised I didn't know that would work commander." the fluffy one said.

"Honestly me neither, but it looks like all she needed was a bit of motivation and shock therapy" the man said while electricity sizzled out while putting a glove back on his hand.

Kaisa coughed a bit and put her hand on her forehead, trying to make sense of the situation. She groaned before managing to say some words, "Who are you people... and where are we?"

The man handed her the canteen and introduced himself. "I'm Field Marshall Sthal and this fellow here is Chief Engineer Gizmo, we're part of the Demacian army. As for where we are... We were kind of hoping you'd help us with that, a sand storm swept in and we've lost our bearings." Sthal and Gizmo then turned to a huge metal mechanical beast in the distance with a look of annoyance, "And it seems our guide isn't as competent as he stated."

The woman looked around to see nothing but dunes of sand and the large boxy metal vehicle the Field Marshall looked towards. The mechanical...thing was pretty big and intimidating, it reminded her of the Dormunns that walked the desert dunes though much smaller in size. At the very least she was still in the Sai desert of Shurima. She struggled to get up, but her legs were too wobbly to stand.

"Hey now take it easy, I don't know what happened to you but you had a foot in the grave when we found you" Gizmo said while helping her up. "Come by the shade and drink some water slowly."

"Thanks." Kaisa managed to say, while leaning on the two soldiers. They placed her in the shade of the metal beast with her back on the treads, not the most comfortable spot, but it would do. "My name is Kai'sa, I hail from a small village in the desert, I was doing a routine patrol looking out for some outer beasts. Little did I know I'd be tangling with the mother.

"Outer beasts? Mother?" Gizmo questioned.

"I think she's talking about those strange creatures we've encountered, but I'm also curious about this mother." Sthal asked while lighting up a cigarette.

"The people call her Rek'sai, the scourge of the sands. She's an apex predator that attacks anything that disturbs her nests. I guess she's decided to expand her territory much further than I had anticipated." She chuckled a bit before coughing. "Ow... laughing hurts."

"Hmm I've been meaning to ask, what's with the armor? I've never seen anything like it, but it gives off a vibe of something otherworldly." Gizmo asked curiously.

Kaisa looked at herself before looking at the yordle with a bit of surprise, it just dawned on her that these people weren't running off in fear or treating her with revulsion at the sight of her voidly appearance like the locals, perhaps they didn't know? Well they did save her life after all so maybe they didn't fear her much at all. Though the way the yordle looked at her wasn't of fear but looked like one of morbid curiosity which put her at unease, it looked as if he wanted to dissect her void symbiote and maybe even her for study.

"Ahh haha well it's a bit of a long story you know, might not be the best time to tell it." Kaisa nervously said, trying to dodge the question. Even though these people saved her life she shouldn't just give out her entire life story to them, she scarcely knew what these Demacians were here for and why.

Out from the hatch popped out some blonde hair, before the whole figure came out. It was a boy, probably somewhere around her age give or take. He had an odd appearance at least compared to the soldiers, his outfit consisted of a brown jacket and had a lot of belts and other apparatuses protruding off his person. He also had some goggles strapped to his forehead, but the thing that she noticed the most was the odd gauntlet on his wrist.

"Hey Ezreal, say hello to our wayward traveler Kaisa" Gizmo said as he introduced them. The boy looked down to see the girl and his eyes widened a bit before giving a greeting, "H-hey there..." he stammered out before coughing "Hey there I'm Ezreal from Piltover at your service" he repeated in a deeper tone of voice. Kai'sa gave him a nod and smiled, suddenly becoming a bit shy herself, though she didn't quite know why. Another hatch opened and another yordle popped out. "Wow, I guess seeing a girl finally put you at a loss of words huh." Gage teased.

"Sh-shut up! It was her armor that piqued my interest, that's all..." Ezreal exclaimed.

"Sure… her armor" he said in a sarcastic tone. "It was the same look you gave Crownguard when you met her." Gage referenced. He leaned over to Kai'sa, "You gotta understand human boys at that age get a bit weird with their hormones, and although he may look like an idiot he's not a bad catch, honest!"

"ERRRGH, You want to go pipsqueak!" Ezreal shouted while readying his fist.

"Hey- that's offensive and I was helping you out. You should be thanking me for helping out your ass, but if it's whooping you're a wanting blondie I'll oblige." Gage retorted.

"GRRR!" Ezreal growled as he reached out to grab Gage, while the yordle did the same as they began to throttle each other.

Sthal and Giz looked at each other with a look of annoyance while Kaisa seemed very confused about what was going on.

"AHEM" Sthal coughed very loudly to get everyone's attention. "If you children are finished we should get moving, If our new friend says is true we shouldn't stay in one place for too long. I'm not too particular about meeting this lady for a date." Sthal said dryly.

"That's too bad commander, I thought you liked the feisty ones?" Gage continued to joke.

"Just get in the damn driver's seat Gage" Gizmo said, fed up with all the annoyances of today, while climbing onto the panzer.

"Alright alright!" Gage droned as he dusted himself off from the scuffle, and sank back down into the hatch.

Their banter though was suddenly interrupted by an ear splitting shrieking scream.

Ezreal looked to the distance of the cry and sighed, "And that must be mom." he said in a slightly higher inflection then he wanted to, out of fear.

Sthal cursed his great luck and wasted no time, quickly shoving Gizmo up the tank while grabbing Kaisa, Ezreal grabbed her hand and pulled her up into the hatch. In the ensuing frantic boarding Kaisa seemed to end up on top of Ez who was blushing madly before being interrupted by a yell from the commander. "GET US THE FUCK OUT OF HERE GAGE!"

The Lion gave a roar of its own as the engine sputtered to life and rocked forward knocking everyone not seated around a bit. Sthal, not quite in the vehicle, clung on for dear life, before balancing himself on top of the tank and entering one of the hatches but not completely entering the bowels within. He took out his binoculars and frantically searched for the rumbling in the sand. Eventually he found the ripples in the sand, and the very ground itself shaking. In a moment a large beast erupted from the sands with a shrieking cry. She was clad in tough armored plates of blue while the rest of her skin was purple with a huge three pronged mouth. Sthal actually took a moment to admire the creature, Rek'sai evolved to not only survive but thrive in this harsh desert environment. A perfect apex predator, designed to kill mostly anything, probably even 60 tons of Demacian steel but he wasn't willing to test that out right now.

"TARGET!, TURRET ROTATE 186 DEGREES, ELEVATION 10, EZREAL GET ON THE MG! KAISA GRAB THE SILVER COLORED SHELL AND LOAD A ROUND!" shouted Sthal.

Ezreal and Kaisa sprung to action, Ezreal climbing up the hatch and grabbing the pintle machine gun, while Kai'sa scrambled to grab one of the big round looking things on the shelf. She didn't exactly know what she was doing, but felt compelled to act fast. After grabbing it and taking it off the shelf it dropped a bit, surprising her. She pulled on the last vestiges of her and the symbiote's strength and managed to rebalance it in her arms before it hit the ground. Crap she thought, this thing was really heavy or she had no strength left, probably both. She loaded the round into the open port, closing the lid and locking it with a click.

"HYDRAULIC TAKE OFF 450 P-S TO TURRET" Gage shouted.

"ROUND umm LOADED." Kaisa shouted, hoping that was the correct terminology.

The Lion's turret slowly started rotating almost painfully slow. Ezreal, quickly rotated his pintle to meet the beast. Ezreal always did want to fire off one of these things, and now was his chance. It was just too bad it was in a life and death situation, but it did give it a lot more excitement. He squeezed the trigger and the continuous sound of thunking lead started to rain down on Rek'sai.

Sthal observed the rounds of the MG merely ricocheting off her thick armor plates. "ROUNDS INEFFECTIVE, AIM AT THE CHINKS THE BLUE PARTS!" Sthal shouted to Ezreal.

Ezreal focused and started to fire more slowly at the more exposed parts of the beast, well the best he could on a very fast moving vehicle shooting at an equally if not faster moving creature. But with enough rounds down range some found their mark. Rek'Sai keeled for a bit and stopped and let out a huge intimidating roar. "Uhh… I think we just pissed her off." Ezreal said with a feeling of dread. And indeed Ezreal was correct, Rek'sai, enraged, started to pursue them at an even faster rate moving more frantically making her harder to hit.

"200 METERS AND CLOSING...QUICKLY!" Sthal shouted updating his crew

The turret finally reached the correct degree behind the tank, but Rek'sai was within spitting distance of the Lion.

"150…100!" Sthal kept shouting.

"TARGET ACQUIRED" Gizmo shouted

"FIRE AT WILL!" Sthal yelled.

Gizmo gritted his teeth, sweat dripping down his face. He looked through the targeting scope with his right eyeball, "That's it...come to papa" he whispered before clicking the trigger.

The Lion roared with a huge boom answering Rek'sai in return with a gigantic bite of it's 88mm cannon. "SHOT OUT!" Gizmo yelled. The armor-piercing round streaked through the air and slammed onto the front of Rek'sai, smashing into one of her armor plates before exploding, cracking it. She recoiled from the kinetic shock and looked as if she was in massive pain bellowing out an ear-splitting scream.

"DID SOME DAMAGE, TARGET STILL MOVING!" Sthal updated.

Rek'sai shook her head a bit, dazed from the massive concussion she just received. Most of her children would have turned into paste from a shot like that and the bigger ones who survived would have scurried back into the ground with their tails between their legs. But this wasn't an ordinary void creature, she was the Scourge of the Sands, THE QUEEN! Undeterred she renewed her assault with a second wind fueled by pure rage and fury.

Sthal had to give Rek'sai his respect, she was the first living thing he'd seen to take a direct hit from a Petrycite infused anti-magic armor piercing shell and keep moving like that, fired from the massive cannon of the Lion no less. A round that downed cragbeasts back home with a well placed shot. Another few rounds would probably work, but Sthal didn't think he had time for another few rounds. He decided to use his last resort.

"KAISA, LOAD THE KF! THE RED ONE!"

Gizmo and Gage seemed shocked at the decision and looked to their commander with a look of I wouldn't use that even on my worst enemy. While Kaisa and Ezreal seemed confused, a weapon was just a weapon right?

"So… we're trying to do some war crimes now?" Gage asked in a disturbingly excited tone.

Sthal looked towards the distance to see the charging voidbeast, before looking back to the others. "...well I didn't see her at the signing of the treaty.".

Gage and Gizmo both started to laugh, before the Sthal joined in too. Ezreal and Kaisa looked at each other with worrying concern as the crew descended to hysterical laughter.

"Man... I'll admit that was a good one commander" Gizmo said while wiping a tear from his eye.

Kai'sa, though a bit disturbed from what she witnessed, went to the task she was assigned. She unlatched the loading door and an empty shell popped out with a clunk. She looked for the described colored shell, to see a space on the shelf with a lot of warning labels plastered on it. After ripping off the tape she found a red orange colored shell that on closer inspection was actually a clear container with what looked like fire pulsating through it. Kai'sa touched the shell and it felt hot, unlike the cold silver round she grabbed before. Even though she didn't know exactly what this thing was she could guess it was extremely dangerous. It felt like holding the power of the sun in her hands. Quickly grabbing it she carefully inserted it into the loading compartment and shut it with a lock and click. "ROUND UP" She yelled signifying she was finished.

"TARGET 182 DEGREES, ELEVATION 6, 200 METERS… SHIT SHE DOVE UNDER!" Sthal exclaimed

Ezreal saw Rek'sai quickly burrow back into the ground in the distance, and only saw the hole she entered through. He stopped the bursts of the machine gun, and started to look around. He thought seeing a giant shrieking voidbeast chasing after them was scary, but not seeing her at all was actually much more terrifying. His head kept going on a swivel, his breathing increased rapidly. Thoughts were flowing of his and everyone's imminent demise, which led to fear and outright panic. But then he felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned around to see Kai'sa who looked at him with steadfast reassurance. His mind snapped back, taking a deep breath and looked to Kai'sa with a nod of appreciation.

That's right he thought it was not a time to lose his cool, especially in front of a lady. There had to be a reason why Rek'sai would dive in the ground. Was she faster underground?, it was quite possible. But then why was she chasing them above ground at first? Maybe the terrain was easier to dig through? No… it's all around the same here in the desert. Unless… Of course! Rek'sai was no mere beast and was more cunning than he realized. She was funneling them into her territory. Places where she and her kind had already dug tunnels, giving her the advantage. Upon that realization he shouted to Sthal.

"WE'RE ON HER TURF SHE'S SETTING AN AMBUSH!" Ezreal shouted loudly.

Sthal hearing this new information quickly ascertained their new situation and started to formulate a plan to counter the enemy strategy. He motioned to Ezreal to keep a lookout, as he went under the hatch.

"Gage turn us around, Gizmo put the turret to around the 200 degree arc" he ordered

"But..sir?" Gizmo asked to reconfirm

"Proceed...," Sthal said calmly yet sternly.

"Umm...okay turning towards the vicious voidbeast." Gage responded in a deadpan tone.

Gage fiddled with the levers of the cockpit and the Lion responded by quickly creating a sharp turn rocking the tank a bit throwing everyone a bit off balance. It turned around heading towards the last known position of Rek'sai. While the turret slowly hummed and rotated the turret to the designated position.

"Okay on my signal, discharge the smoke canisters, and bank right immediately, understood? Sthal explained.

"Got it!" Giz and Gage both responded as they began to ready their controls for the plan.

The stage was set for the showdown between beast and machine banking for a decisive battle with one final joust. For a couple of moments there was a lull of silence besides the hums of the engine. Waiting, anticipating when the queen would strike.

Kaisa in the midst of the silence felt her symbiote communicating with her. Perhaps through instinct or its connection to the void. To maximize their chances of survival they would need a distraction. She took a deep breath and slowly lifted her out of the hatch and carefully balanced herself on the hull of the Lion. The only one to notice was Ezreal who made a shocked expression, but soon stifled it when she saw the look of a hunter ready to strike. Her suit oozed and formed a helmet around her head while she took a deep breath. Her vision changed from normal colors to a spectrum of blue, yellow, green and red. Everyone and some parts of the Lion lit up as red with traces of yellow while everything else was a bluish green hue. She focused on the ground to see a huge blob of red in the ground. There was her target and as the distance between them closed, she saw her target elevate as well to meet them.

"NOW" Kaisa yelled, jumping off with the assistance of her suit which propelled her into the air, at that moment Rek'sai erupted from the sands in a lunging motion to meet her steel adversary. Kaisa rained down a barrage of missiles homing in on the chinks of Reksai's exposed areas. The missiles blew up on contact with a swath of small explosions, making Rek'sai recoil and distracting her momentarily.

"EXECUTE!" Sthal yelled, suddenly the Lion was obscured with a cloud of gray smoke, and veered right, the claws scraped the side of the panzer narrowly dodging Rek'sai's savage charge. From her momentum she ended up on the other side of the smoke cloud. Knowing she was duped, she howled in anger and quickly slammed her claws into the sand as a brake to quickly turn around and assault the Lion. Unfortunately for her the Lion had already lined up a shot.

"SHOT OUT" Giz yelled as he pulled the trigger. The Lion roared, firing its cannon. The payload screamed across the desert with a streak of red colliding with the void beast, exploding in an eruption of fire and light. The light was extremely bright momentarily blinding everyone who looked at it. When the light subsided there was an inferno of fire and the very sands burned so hot it turned to glass. Rek'sai was lit ablaze and screaming in pain. She rolled around trying to put out the flames on her, but they wouldn't cease. Knowing she'd been beaten she quickly burrowed into the sands and made a hasty retreat.

"WHOOO TAKE THAT YOU OVERGROWN VOID…THING!" Ezreal yelled in triumph.

"HELL YEAH! She'll think twice before messing with Demacia's finest" Gage added.

Sthal and Giz just let out a sigh of relief that it was over.

"Oh crap, where's Kaisa" Ezreal asked, caught up in the elation of victory.

"She's fine" Sthal pointed out to a figure in the distance.

Kaisa lied on a sandy dune, not impressed by her own fumbled landing. She could barely move as she overexerted herself in the battle. She managed to give a wave to the Lion and it slowly trudged towards her ready to pick her up.

"That was some fancy shooting girl," Sthal said, impressed while reaching for Kaisa's hand to pull her up.

"Well, you guys did most of the work, I just thought I had to do something instead of sitting there" she said as she made her way into the bowels of the Lion. Speaking of which she had to ask. "What was that explosion?"

"Oh the KF Round?" Giz replied. "Stands for Kayle's Fire, when you need something positively and absolutely smited!

"You mean Kayle as in the Aspect of Justice!?" Ezreal asked to clarify.

"Yeap she's a big figure in our homeland, and according to legend whenever she smited something it looked like… that" Giz pointed behind him which had a bright look of shiny distorted glass. It looked fantastical as well as unsettling.

Kaisa and Ezreal both looked at the impact zone, they both felt awed and also a bit terrified. To think that mortals could make something like that and be so nonchalant about it shocked them.

"Well I guess that about wraps it up…how bout lunch?" Gage suggested.

"Yes, I think we can all use a bite after going through that ordeal," Sthal agreed.

Kaisa and Ezreal just nodded as they were still in a bit of shock and the adrenaline was tapering off from the battle.

"Great! The base doesn't have a lot of selections but I'm sure you kids will find something you'll like, we got these really good pies that'll…" Gage said trailing off.

Kaisa slumped to the ground and rested her head on the back of the steel wall of the Lion. She had survived another day with some unlikely allies. The symbiote in her though, told her that today's allies could be her worst enemies, and those Demacians fit the bill as a huge threat. She tried to stifle those thoughts but a small part of her couldn't help but agree with its logic. Her eyes became heavy as her thoughts changed from the constant struggle to survive to one of better times as she slowly drifted into a dreamy slumber.

# # # # # # # # #

TWO HOURS LATER

DEMACIAN FOB, SHURIMA

A clattering of plates and utensils filled the air as well as the murmurs of conversations of soldiers eating their lunches in the Messhall. At one table in particular there seemed to be a large amount of traffic surrounding it. Cooks were walking to and from the officer table and the kitchens with a frantic pace of fresh dishes and empty plates.

Sthal, Giz, Gage, and Ezreal looked a bit in awe as Kaisa kept devouring plate after plate of bread, soups, meats, vegetables, and whatever else was on the menu.

"I umm, didn't think this was possible" Gage managed to say.

"Perhaps there's some sort of pocket dimension in her stomach" Giz theroized.

"Well that was about 2 weeks of a soldier's rations…in one sitting" Sthal counted

"Really? I kinda lost count." Ezreal replied.

Kaisa gave her last plate to one of the cooks and gave her most sincere thanks. "Wow for soldiers you guys eat pretty well! Thanks for lunch Commander!" she beamed.

"Oh you're actually done? You weren't saving room for some desert?" Sthal joked

"Now that you mention it, Gage did say something about the pie being pretty good right?" Kaisa asked

"Sure why the hell not." Sthal said laughing with a smile.