A/N: Really sorry, but my life is far from sorted. A lot happened and while I don't want to rant too long, just know that my professional and personal life was not conducive to writing. This is on top of me constantly feeling like I'm writing non-canon things which will only confuse people. IDK..

I'm still trying to finish this. I want to feel like I finally completed something worthwhile and I want to be able to do it with this fanfiction (it's not the first one I've written, but I would love for this one to the first one I finish).

/rant

So, this is part 2. I have tried my best to somehow connect back to the present timeline (refer chapters 4 and 7part1). Feel free to skip the longer, tangential rant in the [] coz that's exactly what it is..

[Just to make it clear if it wasn't already, I am trying to follow a Varus - Karma - Yasuo sequence for the chapters.

Varus is the hardest to write because his lore got changed and Pallas is a challenging thing to tackle considering what I have made/will make Pallas out to be over the course of this story (Hint: Lulu makes 'light' of it in one of her voice-lines (don't worry if you can't figure it out, it's not a direct hint and may be poorly worded)). The direction may or may not be all that appealing to readers, but whatever.. I don't think I can do any better at this point.

Karma is next hardest to write, imo, because I feel like she is rather tropey and the thing that makes her tropey is the way Ionia is written and it makes any further growth in her character (if any is possible) to pale in comparison to the Ionian invasion. I struggle to think of a single way in which her personality can be seen as deficient and in need of refinement or growth. She is the 'enlightened one' ffs. How do you make the case that the enlightened one needs, well, more enlightening? (I'm referring to the Karma from before she became Darha possessed by a 'Karma' spirit)

This brings me to the easiest character to write, which is Yasuo, a character that I have a love-hate relationship with. I'm a big fan of Samurai legends, etc. (to the point where I watch Samurai movies and TV shows almost exclusively, learned Japanese formally and currently work for a Japanese company as an interpreter, heh) and his personality (or what can be gleaned from his lore) is very similar to my own - Being talented, being told you're talented, letting that get to your head, you fucking up royally and then losing damn near everything, except said talent, and wondering perpetually how things got so shitty for someone so talented. This is why I sympathize so much. But I absolutely hate playing against a Yasuo (I'm a level 6 trashuo myself, I wanna be a yas god too someday, but god fucking damnit, making it through the first 100 or so games with him is hell on earth). What makes me love Yasuo is the character design and lore and not so much the gameplay, personally I think his kit is cancer (it is fun if you can pull off mad plays while mashing buttons without rhyme or reason, but that's also why it's cancer. You're pulling off mad plays by mashing buttons without rhyme or reason. Katarina is way harder than yasuo is..). But by golly do I love writing Yasuo chapters. So much to explore, personality-wise. So many ways for him to change and grow. So many possible interactions that can be depicted. I am so proud of my Yasuo chapters.. They showcase some of my best writing (a low bar to be sure, but whatever).

In summary... I want to be able to flesh out the directions with Karma and Varus' stories with some inputs, either from other people or other similar characters that others may have encountered in other stories/games, etc. Perhaps if you guys have questions about anything I've written for the characters, it could help me think more and finally pick a direction to go with for them. I'm not saying that I won't entertain any questions/suggestions on my treatment of Yasuo, but I am reluctant to incorporate anything in his character as I already have a pretty good idea of where I want to go with him.

So, if you've made this far into the rant, thank you kindly for your patience. I hope you will not demonize me for my opinion on Yasuo's gameplay. I also look forward to anything you want to say or ask about any of the characters, or the story.]

Although there had never been a recurrence of incidents such as those in their first month together as one being, Pallas continued to learn from Varus. Only several years later did Pallas demonstrate that it had learned to communicate with the human half of Varus. It was a disorienting experience initially, but Varus grew accustomed to it over time.

Pallas' speech, however, was not speech per se. It was more akin to visions, or hallucinations. Varus saw images of things that represented Pallas' understanding of the human world, and of Varus. Over the course of the decade, as Pallas' understanding grew, so too did its speech and representations of human concepts grow clearer. Varus' connection to Pallas had transcended that of a vessel to the thing it contained. It was as if Varus could no longer tell where he ended and Pallas began.

But despite the strengthening of their connection, Varus never felt all too comfortable with Pallas. As the boundary between him and the other faded, he had started to question much that a normal person would take for granted. He doubted his motivation for most everything – did he eat to survive or did Pallas allow him to eat in order to learn about the creatures he ate, as he ate them? Did he participate in the League because it provided him some access to Noxus, or did Pallas want to expand its understanding of Valoran? He did not know if things he wanted were truly what he desired, or if Pallas had a hand in shaping his choices.

The lack of progress over the past decade towards the one goal – the only goal, to avenge the death of his family and his fellow villagers - made Varus ever more apprehensive of Pallas' intentions. Had he failed to make progress due to political complications, the lack of access to Noxus through the Institute, as he had initially hoped? Or had Pallas slowly steered him away from that goal? Yet, even as doubt continued to haunt Varus' mind he never felt alarmed at the imminent loss of his identity as a human. All of that had changed a fortnight ago, however, when Pallas once again displayed how well it had adapted to human concepts of hunger and power, things Varus was not entirely sure Pallas knew before its union with him.

Varus' anxieties had grown to a fever pitch since that night in the forest with that strange blob-like creature. He wondered what Pallas was hoping to derive from his actions irrespective of whether he can exact revenge on Noxus. Did Pallas have goals of its own? It most likely did, given its speech and visions on that ominous night. But what could they be? Could an entity as old as Pallas truly care for the affairs of mortals? Or, could it be that Pallas, purely by virtue of its incredible longevity, had plans that did not factor-in the many feeble, mortal creatures of Runeterra?

Things only continued to worsen with the Kinkou having found out about that ominous disk in the sky and about Varus' tryst with that unearthly creature. It was certainly expected that the Kinkou would find out about what had happened, yet Varus was afraid of how they would interpret his involvement. It was also troubling to think that Pallas could have incorporated the Kinkou in its plans, given how it chose to speak in the presence of Shen like it had done in the presence of that gelatinous monster from a few weeks ago. It was clear to Varus that something was afoot, but what it was and what was causing it were far from knowable right then.

The temple was barely visible in the last of the twilight rays of the day. The night was moments away and Varus was crawling on his hands and knees, climbing to the best of his ability on a slightly sloping track leading to the temple entrance. He had stopped thinking about Shen around the time when his body started to falter. Pallas was somehow aroused and Varus could feel it in his body. His limbs tingled and his head was throbbing with intense pain so much so that even the last light of the sun seemed to bright to behold. He only just wanted to make it to the temple. Whether or not the Elders had been honest about the temple having the power to contain the evil of Pallas, Varus believed that the temple somehow subdued it. No matter how awful the episode, at least inside the temple Pallas could do no harm to anyone but him, and thereby to its own host. It brought Varus some comfort to think that he may be able to rid himself of Pallas, even if meant his death and it was only fitting for him to die in body in the same place where he had died in soul a decade earlier.

"Just a little bit more," Varus muttered out loud, trying not to give in to the pain. But Pallas would not have any of it. The pain intensified and the layer of corruption on his body had started to swirl. He could no longer keep his eyes open and Pallas' mumbling had grown louder, transforming into the rhythmic beating of war drums. Increasingly, it seemed like his head had started to throb to the tune that Pallas played.

"Make it stop! Aargghh!" he yelled.

Placing a hand on his forehead Varus tried to ascertain if indeed his head was throbbing but he could not tell. Little by little Varus' senses were drowned out by the cacophony of Pallas' wicked voice and all he could feel was pain. Like prey being poisoned with a dart and being chased till it's body gave out, Varus felt helpless. The trembling grew violent and Varus collapsed on the ground, convulsing like he had been bitten by giant spiders from Northern Ionia. Unsure of what was to follow, Varus' mind raced but he laid on the ground stifling both tears and screams. When Varus was finally able to open his eyes again, he could not tell how much time had passed if any. He couldn't feel his body and he was strangely at peace.

Is this how Pallas felt while it was trapped inside the temple? Consciousness without form, will without the ability to give shape, a mind without a body. Was Pallas looking to take over his body to compensate for its formlessness? If so, why had Pallas waited a decade? Did it not know what it wanted to do, or how to do it? Or was it all just a dream? Would he wake up inside the temple a month later to discover more rat and lizard bones next to him? There was no way to be sure, Varus reasoned, but just as he was about to close his eyes once more the surroundings seemed to get brighter.

A faint glow of purple pulsated from somewhere behind him. It was a beautiful hue, calming, hypnotic and felt familiar. The light intensified at first, approximating the brightness of a bonfire until finally the light was gone and was replaced by a deep rumbling noise. In no time Varus was able to deduce that the events of the day bore an uncanny resemblance to that night a fortnight ago. Pallas' excitement, bright purple lights, that familiarity he felt all pointed to the same conclusion.

The deep rumbling was periodic, as if someone was breathing heavily. Varus started to grow afraid. If someone, or something, were to attack him now there would be nothing he could do and although he had wished for death countless times ever since the Noxian invasion of Ionia he could not bring himself to accept it. He had much retribution to rain down, much blood to spill before he could give in to the loneliness and despair of existing as a half-man, half-unknown-chthonic entity. In vain Varus tried to move his body, to pick himself up and defend himself against more creatures out to devour him while the rumbling sound moved closer.

Trying his hardest now, Varus managed to lift his torso off the ground and whirred around as quickly as he could only to come face to face to a visitor most unusual and definitely unexpected.

"K..Kassadin? Is that ... Kassadin?"

A/N: Ok.. this is it.

Really sorry for the slow pace but this is going to continue for as long as my life continues to be the way it is. Would love any feedback anyone has to give.

Thank you all for reading and for your time.

Thank you to Nina chan once again for not giving up on me. :)