Hello. We're finally done with that long-ass story-line. Now, we start a shorter one that will lead into another one that I set up many chapters ago.

The question is, will this get more cheerful or less? Well that depends on what kind of mood I'm in.

Nah, that's a lie. I totally know what it's gonna be like.

You know the chapter is about to begin because the next text is underlined and in the middle.


Chapter 58: Aftermath

Ahri's POV:

It didn't take long for the last strongholds of the League to fall. The brutality of their leader's end had led most of the remaining Summoners to give up. However, that was only a small part of it. The instant the Head Summoner died, just under a third of all Summoners snapped out of some sort of mind control. From what I heard, all of those that disagreed with the way the League was heading were imprisoned and slowly, over weeks or months, they all decided that maybe it was right after all.

That didn't mean it was a clean victory though. Most of the remaining strongholds had to be fought for, but some were found abandoned. But there was one, way out in the searing wastes of Shurima, that no-one talked about. It was taken like the abandoned ones, but the people marching in didn't find a deserted ghost town. There were bodies. Everywhere. I guess they just couldn't stand to live with what they'd done, or feared what the people would do to them when it was over.

I was all-right. I guess. I didn't really feel sad, just… tired. The longest day of my life was over and I had to sleep in Lux's house. At least I had Zoh there. He didn't feel any better than I did, but he was there.

Eventually, we had to go back to the League. I was thankful that Lux had offered to let us stay with her family for as long as we wanted, but it wasn't where we belonged. The way the world was rebuilt had to be decided on the only neutral ground there was and, as much as everyone hated being there, that was the League.

As we headed through the familiar halls of the housing wing, I couldn't tell what I was feeling. It was familiar, but it was almost like I didn't belong there anymore. Everything else had changed but the room was still there.

Neither of us really wanted to open it. I couldn't speak for him, but I was worried that it would all be burned to a crisp, or converted into a storeroom.

When I eventually opened the door it was, all things considered, not really that bad. It had been ransacked and all of Zoh's technology was gone, but it was otherwise the same.

I didn't really know where to begin with it, so I just went to the sofa and turned it the right way up. We both sorta collapsed onto it, not really wanting to deal with the wreck that they had made of our room.

After leaning my head on Zoh's lap and putting my feet up on the footrest, I asked: "You don't happen to have something to clean messes up, do you?"

"I did, but…" He glanced back at his room for a moment: "I don't think I'll be finding it anytime soon."

"That kinda sucks. Do you think they left anything alone?"

"Uhh, the kitchen might still be fine. Island is probably okay."

I tried to think for a moment before getting up from the sofa and heading into my room, going over to the chest of drawers and linen basket. It was, horribly, as I expected.

"Oh god!"

"What?"

"All my clean underwear is still here."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Cause the dirty underwear is gone."

"Oh… that fucking sucks, man."

"Yeah, that's a way of putting it." I agreed while heading back into the main room. I sat down on the sofa's armrest and sighed: "What are we going to do? There's so much we have to do and I don't even know where to start…"

He pondered for a second before joking: "We should probably start by finding Bob."

"I don't think I've ever just 'found' him. He's normally the one who finds us when he's hungry or wants to be petted."

"Fair point. Well, I'd suggest we start by sorting out which bedroom we want to use and getting it to a less 'recently attacked by a perturbed hippo'-looking state. I'd rather not sleep on the sofa, to be honest."

"Good idea. If you don't mind, I'm gonna say that we should use yours. I've got a lot of good memories in there."

He smiled and pointed at me: "You're god-damn right."

Over the next few hours, we slowly put everything back to the way it used to be in Zoh's room. It didn't take long to actually get it all back in place, but dusting and vacuuming was a chore on a scale I didn't know existed. It just took so damn long. Didn't help that, while I was cleaning his damn room, Zoh was spending the time restoring the piles of technology in various points of the room. If it didn't seem to make him so infectiously happy I'd have smacked him on the ass until he helped me. Zoh was lucky that he had such a cute smile.

Eventually, we did finish. For the first time in longer than I cared to think about, it actually started to feel like we were home. Actually home, not in some cave under a mountain.

Zoh wasted no time in building something from the piles of scrap technology he'd strewn around the room. I got a bit worried when he finished because he seemed to think it was necessary to summon his armour.

I stood up from the bed and went over to his machine, which was basically just a waist-high cube with some bright red light seeping through the holes in its patchwork frame.

"So what does that do exactly and should I be hiding?"

"You probably won't have to hide."

"Yes, but what does it do?"

"Well…"

"Zoh. Tell me."

"I would love to, really. But-"

"You don't know, do you?"

"Well, I'm sure it does something cool. I mean, I chucked a toaster in there so it must do at least the same thing as a toaster.

"Do you mean you used a toaster as a part of it or literally threw a toaster into the cube?"

"I'd love to say it's the former… however that would be a lie."

"You are literally the worst person at your job."

"Since I don't think 'victorious revolutionary' counts as an official job, I'm technically unemployed."

I looked up at him and put my hand on his shoulder-plate before requesting: "Please just shut up and turn on the machine."

"I can do that. I don't have a hundred percent success-rate at turning on machines but who cares if I sometimes miss the button? That's why I usually make them so big."

"You've already failed at one of the things I asked, so let's just move onto the other one."

He nodded and gave me a thumbs-up before reaching down and pressing the button. The top of it split down the middle and the two sides moved away from each other to reveal a second layer underneath. That layer then split into many triangle-shaped wedges that folded up and outwards, opening up the layer below. That one fizzled into non-existence, leaving us with a final one which rolled to the side like a can of sardines. Zoh, who was looking down into it at the time, was smashed in the face by a speeding toaster, knocking him backwards and onto his ass. I fell back on the bed and laughed, toning it down to a giggle as he stood up. He turned his head to me and, probably, glared under his helmet. I tried to settle down a bit as he sighed and looked at the toaster.

"At least it didn't explode."

So, of course, the toaster exploded to pieces.

I had to try really hard to restrain my giggling, but I couldn't hide the smile. Zoh turned back to me and remarked: "That toaster was a twat."

"Uh-huh. Does that machine happen to do anything else, because I'd be okay with a repeat of that?"

"Let me check."

He knelt down and stared into the box, realising that wasn't such a good idea shortly after. Keeping his head to the side, Zoh reached into the box and searched around. After a moment, he pulled out a strange metal cylinder that looked like it was made of the same stuff as his armour. It was about the size as the average sword handle but slightly thicker. All along the length of the metal, it was detailed with a complex network of engravings that didn't depict anything but seemed to be there for aesthetics alone. Altogether, a relatively unremarkable piece of metal.

What made it interesting was when Zoh pulled off his helmet and examined it with a confused look about his face.

"What's that?"

"I… don't know. I didn't put this in there."

"So the machine throws toasters at people and produces cylinders of metal."

"It appears so. Hang on…" He trailed off while fiddling with something at the top of the cylinder. Suddenly, the top slid to the side and revealed that the device was hollow. Zoh only looked more confused at that point.

"Looks like you've got something to do for a while."

"You're certainly right about that." He agreed while closing the cylinder and setting it down on a nearby table. He got up and removed his armour before pointing out: "But you don't. So I think I'll let that be a mystery I solve later."

I didn't get up from the bed for a very specific reason as I questioned: "And how do you suppose we should prevent boredom for the both of us at the same time?"

"I know where you're going with this, and I've got a better idea. Or, well, pretty much the same idea, just in a different place."

"Where would that be?" I asked while standing up from the bed and stepping close to Zoh.

"I figure, how much can they really mess up a desert island?"

"Sure you're okay with the inevitable Shen visit?"

"Yeah, I haven't seen much of him recently so it'll be good to catch up."

"Even if we're in the middle of the act?"

"I can multitask."

"You're awful." I stated happily while moving past him. On the way past I grabbed his wrist and dragged him along behind me.

"You know, for most of my life getting pulled along by the wrist meant I had done something stupid in the classroom and my teacher was done with my bullshit. This is a nice change of pace."

"A change of pace? You're still getting dragged by someone who's done with your bullshit and wants to shut you up for a while. I've just got a different method."

I pressed the button and we both appeared on the island. Letting go of his hand, I made sure to make a show of slowly removing my clothes. Zoh was getting undressed with me at the start, but froze solid when I slid my top down. His eyes were locked on me from that moment to the second my chest slipped under the waterline.

Zoh joined me once he was undressed and immediately pointed to the waterfall without looking at it: "Shen's there."

I checked for him and, surprisingly, Shen wasn't there.

"Wrong."

I'm not sure he believed me, because he turned to confirm it himself.

"Huh… maybe he's not ready to start up that old tradition yet."

I was about to agree with him when Shen appeared on the waterfall.

"Sorry I'm late, I had to clean up my room. Did I miss anything?"

We shook our heads and said a few variations of the word 'no' in response.

"Good. I do not actually have a reason to be here and Brand just arrived at the League so I'm gonna go make sure he doesn't try to 'catch up on missed time', so to speak."

He waved and disappeared before either of us got a chance to wish him luck with Brand. I certainly appreciated that Shen had decided to take a leading role in the rebuilding process, but I was also quite afraid that he'd have to put himself in serious danger to get all the old Champions back to the League. Some of them weren't very inclined to accept the recall order willingly.

Despite my worry for Shen, I was confident enough in his ability to keep his limbs in their correct places that I didn't think too much about it. I had to focus on the nude guy next to me. The one with muscles so perfect I had to wonder if a sculptor had come along and carved him out of stone.

Now, it had been ages since we last were in that situation, but I still remembered what worked best. Any position I could put myself in where Zoh could touch wherever he wanted was pretty much a sure thing.

After hooking my arm around his neck, I pulled myself onto his lap. I crossed my legs and shuffled as close to him as I could without technically starting anything sexual. He got a very good view of my chest from that position and I could tell he was enjoying that fact. Just as I leaned forward to kiss him, Shen appeared behind Zoh, exclaiming: "I need assistance! Kha'Zix and Rengar arrived at the same time and I cannot stop this fight alone!"

I sighed. All of the Summoners, even the previously brain-washed ones, were still being held in prisoner camps at the time.

"There's gotta be someone else around to help." I guessed, not really believing it myself.

"Apologies, but there's only nine Champions in the building right now and none of the others are what you would call 'trustworthy'."

"Okay, go do what you can while we get dressed."

He gave a quick bow before teleporting away. I started to get up when Zoh put a hand on my shoulder and smiled: "I've got this one. You stay here and relax."

"If you're sure."

He gave me a kiss on the forehead before moving me off him and getting dressed. Before he left, he affirmed: "I'll be back in a minute."

I leaned back on the edge of the pool and tried to get comfortable. With nothing to entertain me, my mind immediately brought up images of the fight, as if it was taunting me. I wiped my face, trying to clear away the thoughts. It only worked for an instant, but when the thoughts came back, they weren't about the fight. They were about the end of it.

Even though weeks had passed, the memories alone were enough to make tears slide down my cheeks. It felt like something was silently berating me for almost having sex for the first time since the fight. I hadn't earned it.

I sobbed into one of my tails for who-knows how long. Nothing I could say to myself would help, so I just sat there feeling awful about myself until, eventually, Zoh returned. I'm not sure what his mood was like before he got back, but he was already looking concerned by the time I stared up at him. It wasn't the first time he'd found me in that state, so he knew exactly why I was crying.

Without a word or moment of hesitation, he stepped into the water and hugged me close. His shoulder took the job that my tail had been filling, and we stayed like that until I was too tired to stay there any longer. Our bed was the only thing I needed in the world at that point.

The next day (10th February 11:50):

The clock on the opposite wall told me how long I'd slept, and it actually made me kinda happy. I'd got a full night of sleep despite not going to bed in the best state. Somehow, it actually made me feel much better.

A beam of sunlight was coming through the slightly-open window and going straight into Zoh's face, but it wasn't enough to wake him. I didn't want to wake him and I was happy enough laying there butt-to-butt with him for a while.

It would have been really nice and peaceful if it wasn't for his nonsense mumbling. Different to his usual nonsense, which was just a bunch of unconnected words, this was a bunch of words I didn't even understand. I guessed it was his people's language, but he likely knew thousands, so I couldn't say for sure.

He shifted around in bed quite a lot for a few seconds before waking with a start, sitting up in bed and reaching over to put a hand on me, checking if I was there. Can't have been a good dream.

It obviously took him a couple moments before he realised where he was and what was happening. When he did, he sighed and dropped back onto his pillow, his hand still on my side.

I picked his hand up and turned over, placing it back down on my other side before asking: "Bad dream?"

"Uh-huh."

"Want to tell me about it?"

"I'd rather not."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Some of the things I've seen in space have given me much worse dreams than that."

"Okay." I nodded before leaning over and hugging him.

After a bit of sleepy kissing, we got dressed and went out to find Shen.

It was really eerie being in the League with so few people there. The only people I saw as we went through the halls were Champions who had decided to return. Speaking of which, it really was a random assortment who'd decided to return. Vel'Koz had returned for reasons I didn't want to understand, while Draven had also arrived because he left his favourite bottle of axe-cleaning fluid in his room. Lissandra, Ashe, and Sejuani had all come back to represent their respective areas of the Freljord, while some random-ass fucking space dragon arrived because he thought the building was the only place on the planet that was pretty enough to serve as his house. I'd never even met the dude before, I didn't even know he existed until then, but apparently he went around creating stars like a kid making sandcastles at the beach.

I wasn't even sure that he was actually a Champion. Seemed like he just turned up and declared himself one, and everyone just accepted it because he was a fucking space dragon.

Why didn't Zoh tell me about space dragons?

It took us a while to find Shen, but we ended up stumbling upon him in the mess hall. He'd pushed all of the tables into a big circle for the negotiations and put up banners of all of the groups who would be present. What he clearly hadn't done was clean up the mess that Zoh had made of the hallway. There wasn't much blood at all, but it was practically covered from top to bottom in black dust from the explosions, and there were a fair few holes that couldn't have come from anything but one specific axe.

Shen was in the process of placing down a massive map of Runeterra in the centre of the circle. He must have got it from Zoh, because it was clearly taken from space. And recently. All of the giant purple gaps in the landscape were shown, and I was slightly taken-aback by it all. Huge swathes Icathia and Urtistan had been practically consumed by gaping purple holes, while Shurima, which was literally in the middle of the two, was practically untouched. It had to have something to do with Azir. No-one else could command enough power over the desert to quite literally stop the ground from ripping apart below it. I'd definitely be finding out about that when he came back. If he came back.

When he had it properly lined up, Shen stepped away from the map and came over to us, greeting: "Good afternoon. Finally out of bed, I see."

"Give us some credit, we didn't have to get up at all today." Zoh retorted happily.

"Actually, you did. Demands have been made that you represent the Champions who are not from Runeterra but also not from the Void."

"Demands? By who?"

"All the other Champions who are not from Runeterra but also not from the Void. Also a considerable amount of people of all stripes have contacted me requesting you be present. I think some of them see you as a bit of a hero."

"I'm as flattered as I am annoyed about having to be part of these talks."

"If it helps, I've also received communications asking that you be tried as a war criminal."

"Funnily enough, that doesn't help at all. Thanks for trying though."

"I also received a letter asking if I would film a pornographic movie with you and sell it…"

"No offense, but I think I'll pass on that."

"None taken. It's not like I need the money. A letter from a Shuriman prince assured me that I would be receiving millions after sending him my bank details."

Zoh raised an eyebrow to Shen, prompting the ninja to explain: "I'm kidding. I stole that joke from the internet."

"Good to hear."

Out of curiosity, I asked: "I'm not going to have to do anything for this, right?"

"No. Karma has offered to represent Ionia in the negotiations."

"You have no idea how happy that makes me." I stated, sighing with relief. Even if I had to do them alone, the list of things I'd prefer to do over negotiating was so long it could be used as a bridge between the mainland and the Shadow Isles.

While I thought about what I could do to keep myself busy while Zoh was doing the boring stuff, he asked: "How many people are actually going to be at these talks?"

"Well…"

A few hours later (18:00):

Oooh boy, Zoh was in for a fun time. I'd thought that Shen had gone over-the-top with the amount of tables he'd set up for the talks, but I was severely mistaken. Leaders from Demacia, Noxus, Zaun, Piltover, Ionia, Bandle City, the Freljord, Shurima, and a couple other places were all there. Every single one of them had brought along guards and I was pretty damn sure that whatever armies were left could be found hiding in the trees outside.

As everyone started to settle down, I gave Zoh a final kiss on the cheek for luck before making my way out. I'd have bet money on that room becoming home to one of history's largest shout-fests once the talks began in earnest, and I didn't plan on sticking around for it.

It was starting to get pretty dark and cold by the time I found my way outside and into the gardens. Since we'd only got the magical flames working on the inside, I had to make my own as I stepped into the quickly-darkening evening. The sun was just then starting to fall below the mountain range to the West, so I wasn't going to have much light for my little adventure. That wasn't about to stop me, though. I had already put too much effort into planning and preparing to let a little lack of sunlight put an end to the idea.

I'd even go so far as getting Zoh to make something for me. As far as he was concerned, I needed the little device to stop me from falling flat on my face while practicing flying. That wasn't entirely true, but he didn't have to know that.

I was surprised by how well-kept the gardens were. On a planet that had nearly been torn apart and had spent the majority of a year in constant war, the flowers and bushes of the League's gardens had managed to stay absolutely pristine. It was really nice to walk through. Reminded me of how pretty the planet was before it had all gone to hell.

Sadly, I didn't really have time to hang around in the gardens. The problem wasn't that the sun was going to be gone very soon. It was that some nasty-looking clouds were hanging around in the distance and I wasn't about to do something that would be safe in the rain. My idea was already pretty stupid, no point waiting for some water to fall from the sky to make it even dumber.

Knowing that I didn't have all-that long, I found a good spot and started climbing. I'd have to get onto one of the wings first, then start making my way up to the very top.

I was going to reach the top of the League. Not metaphorically. Literally.

Zoh's POV:

That conference had been going on for, what, ten minutes, yet already my body had been converted to fifty percent frustration and fifty percent boredom. I was as likely to fall asleep as I was to throw a chair at Swain for going on for so fucking long. I'd lost track of what he was even talking about. Something to do with the Head Summoner originally being from a Demacian corporation, as if that somehow mattered.

Technically, I shouldn't have really cared about whatever the hell he was saying. I was representing the Champions from space and, as far as I could tell, space didn't give a good-god-damn about some insignificant planet in the corner of the galaxy that almost blew up. Soraka might, but Aurelion definitely didn't. I'd met him once and he seemed to care even less about Runeterra than I did before I came to the planet. Why he'd chosen to shrink himself down and fly down to the planet, I had no idea.

"How are we supposed to put our trust in Demacians if one of their own caused all of this?"

I made a show of groaning and slamming my head into the table before pulling it back and looking him dead in the face: "He wasn't a Demacian. He wasn't even Runeterran."

"If you know so much, what was he then?"

"He's from an excessively powerful and old race who predate the galaxy itself. For fuck-knows how long, he's been in charge of monitoring empires for reasons I don't care to understand. Eventually, envy got to him and he decided to build his own, starting here. Does that clear it up?" I queried, understanding that my condescending tone was probably pissing him off at least a little bit.

"But why here? Surely there is an empire he can take for his own if he is truly so powerful."

"The only decently-sized one has an army of people with armour similar to mine who are all beyond-brainwashed into adoring their current leader, whoever that is these days. If it suddenly changes, the new guy is going to get murdered soooooo hard."

Lissandra butted-in: "Why, then, did he decide to start out in a Demacian corporation?"

"Hell if I know. Probably stole someone's body and thought it was easiest to go for some high-up Demacian. I'm not a man of magic myself, but I'd think possessing a regular person would be much easier than a Summoner."

Jarvan, acting as the main representative of Demacia, asked: "How do you know these things?"

"Because one of the many people who I've lost recently was of the same species as the Head Summoner. There's only a few hundred of them left, so they all know each other personally."

It was starting to feel like 'question-time with that dude from space' by the time Karma asked: "If there are more of them, should we be concerned about the rest?"

"Doubtful, but I've still got the axe if any of them want to give it a go."

I could tell from the moment he started speaking that Swain was about to be annoying again: "How did you, of all people, kill him anyway? Surely a man who could destroy entire armies in an instant would not struggle to deal with a scientist with no level of magical ability whatsoever?"

"If you want to try your luck, I can get in my armour and we can see if you can even scratch the paint. But, as much as I'd love to do that, this is all way beside the point. We're not here to work out how or why we ended up in this situation. We're here to find a way to fix the planet before bits starts floating off into space."

Everyone was silent for a moment before Azir asked: "But how did he become the Head Summoner?"

"Urgh…" I grumbled, dropping my face into my hands.

Those were not going to be a short series of talks.

Ahri's POV:

If it wasn't spirit-fire, I would've been worried that my flame was going to go out. It was getting really windy the further up I went.

My list of positives was definitely bigger than my list of negatives with the idea so far. I was nearing the very top, but the wind and cold didn't bother me much at all. It all seemed insignificant compared to the view I was getting. If I looked up my vision was filled with the perfect darkness of space, dotted by so many stars that I couldn't even begin to guess how many I could see. If I looked in any other direction I was reminded of how beautiful Runeterra could be. The scars were dim that night, so most were practically invisible on the landscape. I got a perfect view of all the mountains, lakes, forests, and villages for miles around. For some reason, I could even remember the route we had taken all that time ago when first coming to the League.

I almost didn't notice when I pulled myself up to the very top of the League building. It was flat and cylindrical, a couple metres from side to side. Plenty of space to sit down and enjoy the moment for a bit. For once, there were no Summoners to stop me from going up there. It still felt like I was breaking the rules, but in a good way.

I clicked the fire out of existence and laid on my back, staring up at the sky. I'd never felt as close to it all before that moment. It was so breathtakingly vast. It made me think of something Zoh had told me ages ago: "Stars look big from up close, but from here, I can fit one in my hand. We seem insignificant from far away, but from here, we're the most important thing for as far as the eye can see."

When he first said that, I thought he was quoting something. He ruined that idea by immediately following it up with: "Except tanks. Tanks are the most important thing no matter what perspective you see them from."

If I ever quoted that to someone, I'd have to remember to put 'a slightly insane man once said' at the start of it.

For whatever reason, I didn't feel lonely up there. The wind was the only company I needed. I didn't even have a need for Zoh to be up there with me. For months I'd felt like every moment I was alone was one that could've been better with my best friend to share it with. But right then, on top of that building, with the stars above me and clouds moving in all around, I was happy with my solitude.

A few hours later (21:00):

I was still trying to repair the main room when Zoh came through the door. Even after spending ages struggling to put everything back in place and cleaning it all up, I was clearly the less tired of the two of us. He looked exhausted, but still helped put the final touches to the main room without a word of complaint. Come to think of it, neither of us said a word at all until we sat down on the couch.

"Do I wanna know how it went?"

"Does the phrase 'everything went wrong that could have gone wrong' mean anything to you?"

"That bad?"

"Immediately after answering every question from 'what was the Head Summoner's favourite childhood pet's name' to 'why is water wet', we got into the section where Demacia and Noxus shout at each other so loudly that no-one else can achieve anything because they've resumed their dick-measuring contest like nothing even happened."

"Do they even have any armies left to back-up their big talk?"

"Oh yeah. Fuck-knows where they got them from, but satellite imagery says there's a few camps nearby with thousands of soldiers in them. Neither would even admit it, despite me showing images of them to the entire room."

"Sounds like you're taking a bit of a leading role here."

"Only because no-one else is willing to say a word when the two bullies are going at it. Azir seems like he doesn't even want to be there, probably because Shurima hasn't been affected at all. All the Freljordian queens spent the entire thing sending each-other nasty looks, and everyone else may as well have gone home the second the questions part ended."

"Really? No-one else could get a word in?"

"Nah. The dude from the Tempest Flats didn't seem to have a whole lot to add to the conversation."

"Where?"

"Exactly. The only people who can contribute a lot are either saying too little, or saying too much and having it all be about the wrong things."

"You'll sort it out. You always do… eventually."

"Normally I have to get killed or go missing before I get to solve these problems. I'm not in the mood to get murdered, so I guess we know what's gotta happen."

"Please don't. I'm not sure I could handle it right now."

He started idly stroking my hair as he assured me: "Don't worry yourself. More than ever, I've gotta be here for you…"

"There's something else, isn't there?"

"Yeah… I really want to work out what that metal bar does."

I smiled and shuffled over to him, covering my legs with my tails to keep them warm. A few minutes passed by in silence until I realised what was coming and tried to be polite: "Can I cry on you for a minute?"

"For as long as you need."

I was afraid that my makeup was going to smear onto his jacket, but at some point I realised Zoh didn't care. Even as my tears made a damp patch on his suit, he just continued to soothingly caress my hair.

"Does it… feel like this every time?"

"No. You get… used to it."

"I never even got to know him… I barely… even got to talk to him…"

"It wouldn't be better if you did. He was twisted beyond recognition. Everything that happened in that chamber was decided long before you got there, and they made sure to give you no good alternatives. No matter what you did, someone was going to die."

I pulled my face away from Zoh and wiped it, mumbling through occasional sniffles: "I'm going to bed now."

We both got up and I was about to go to the room when Zoh put his hand on my shoulder, stating: "I'll join you in a minute. I'm gonna quickly make sure that Shen is still doing fine with the new arrivals."

I gave him a hug, partially because it was chilly in there and he was warm, before heading to bed. If nothing else, I had come up with a nice idea while I ruined his jacket.

Shen's POV:

Nocturne had turned up a few minutes before my shift greeting newcomers ended. He was happy enough to wait for me to be done so that we could catch up properly.

I'd always appreciated my talks with the creature. He could make fun and joke with casual ease, but I could still talk with him about more serious things whenever I needed to. Thankfully, he had not been changed by the war at all.

In fact, one of the first things he told me about was his regret that he had not returned to assist us after Zoh re-emerged. He tried to assist by invading the Head Summoner's dreams immediately after our attempt to take the League head-on, reasoning that he would be weakened considerably. Apparently, he was still strong enough to lock Nocturne away in a mental prison. Only when the Head Summoner was killed could he escape, and even then it took a few weeks.

"What of Morgana?"

"I don't know. Haven't seen her since I got out, despite a fair bit of looking."

"I am sorry to say, but she has not arrived here yet. But do not fear, she will surely come when she hears that it is in our hands, if she is not already on her way."

"Sure hope so. I think I realised while I was in there that I want to spend the rest of my un-life with her. I'll leave it for a while to make sure she feels the same way of course, but I think I'm gonna start looking for a good ring."

"Congratulations. I'll be waiting on my invitation to the wedding."

"Don't be too hasty. She's still gotta say 'yes' first."

I stared blankly at him for a moment before chuckling and stepping away. Nocturne's arrival and news was definitely something that Zoh would have appreciated, if he was still awake. It was getting late and Ahri had been very sleepy since the day of our victory.

When Nocturne caught up with me, his first question was: "So, what's happened that I should know about?"

"You know about the one good thing."

"Give it to me straight."

"Most of the world was scarred by the release of energy when the Head Summoner unleashed on our army and the magical energy has been slowly pouring out, mutating the fuck out of pretty much every creature on the planet. From what we can tell this early on, only individuals with some connection to magic are unaffected. The only notable exception is Zoh, who quite literally has the lowest level of connection to magic out of any human on the planet. He's a zero out of fifty on the Tenning Scale."

"We'll have to ask about that. I'm sure he will conveniently reveal another aspect of his strain of human that so happens to be perfect for this exact situation. But, anyway, what else?"

I intentionally led him around the long route to Zoh's room so we had more time to talk while explaining: "All of the Summoners have been taken into prison camps built by the Demacians and not even a third of them were brainwashed."

"So we can't give the public a good excuse to bring them back to get it all running again."

"Precisely. We'll have a hard enough time getting the average citizen to trust the ones who were acting against their own will."

"So what happens with the rest?"

"That's the dilemma."

"Right. Go on."

"The name change from Mount Targon to Mount Gargantuan has finally been undone."

"Hey, there is some good news."

"Noxus and Demacia have immediately begun rebuilding their military strength and arguing over everything."

"Aaaand we're back to the bad."

"They got the factory that produces all of the biscuits for the Valoran up again."

"If only I could eat."

"I and Zoh acquired new armour, as you can see. We both look excellent."

"There's a lot more good news than you led me to believe."

"Finally, before Zoh could get to the Head Summoner to kill him, Ahri was forced to fight and kill a ten-year-old child that was made from genetic material that she had aborted before this all started, making that child her and Zoh's."

"…Shit…"

"Yeah. She's not taking it very well and Zoh is-" I was cut-off by the sound of metal crunching into rock. The noise came again not even a second later, and then again, and again, and so on. Nocturne looked over to me as I did the same to him. Seeing as no-one else was nearby and it came from very close to us, we silently agreed to deal with it.

Rushing to the source of the noises, we discovered Zoh, in full armour, smashing the wall of the main hallway apart with his axe. Even as we got closer, he just kept swinging at it, right up until I grabbed his arm to, hopefully, make him stop. I had to step back a few paces when he turned to me with his axe raised. Finally, something clicked in his head, and the axe dropped to the ground.

He stepped backwards until his back hit one of the pillars, where he slid down to the ground and yanked off his helmet. He was hyperventilating and clearly as confused as I was.

I didn't want to say anything, I didn't really know what I could say, so I waited for him to calm down and think a bit. Nocturne floated next to me as Zoh tried to work out what he'd done.

Zoh looked up at us and asked, through heavy breaths: "Did I hurt anyone?"

"No. We're the only ones here." Nocturne replied as I stepped over to Zoh and knelt down to examine him.

"Thank fuck." He leaned back and sighed in relief.

"So, care to explain?"

"I don't know, man, I don't know…"

"Shen? Professional opinion?"

"I'm a surgeon, not a psychiatrist, but I believe Zoh just had a bad flashback. Whether this is a one-off or part of a larger issue, I cannot say."

"Before you even suggest it, I'm not letting a doctor check me. It's too much effort to go find one."

"Zoh, you cannot allow this problem to go unchecked."

"Don't worry, I'll check myself later. I think I know how to make just the thing to help here." He guessed, clearly unsure if he did or not.

After getting his feet, Zoh took off his armour and waved to Nocturne: "Hey. Good to see you."

"Same to you. Would've been nice to meet again after all this time in better circumstances."

"Yeah… Anyway, I'm just gonna go do that thing I mentioned. So, uh, cya."

He left in a hurry, however I caught a brief glimpse of the incredible worry that covered his face the second he turned away from us. Why he thought it was necessary to hide his concern from us and try to brush that incident under the rug, I couldn't tell. Probably pride.

"Shen, we shouldn't have let him leave like that."

"No, we should not."

"Then why did we?"

"Because we are as confused and scared as he is right now. The prospect of him being mentally unstable no longer being confined to self-derogatory jokes is concerning."

"Truly horrifying. Every wall on Runeterra must be shaking in their boots."


I feel like I should've made the room-cleaning bit a montage. It would be a bit useless without montage music, but that'd be up to you guys to add in with your imagination.

Also, I totally forgot to mention that last chapter was the end of season 2. That should probably be the kind of thing I remember, but I'm a fucking idiot, so I'm having to say it now. I'll update the previous chapter's bottom description to make this one pretty much irrelevant, but I'll still keep this so that people in the future can know how good I am at this.

I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you next time.