Hey, SeaJade here. So, I know it has been awhile, but life has been giving me lemons so I've been quite busy making lemonade...in other words I have been busy.

Well, a thank you to all the people who decided to follow this story, you guys are the reason why I write:D

Anyway, here is the next chapter thing, its again a little on the shorter side but I hope you enjoy it regardless.

It is as the saying goes, "time flies when you are having fun," and indeed the time did fly on this day. The hours that passed felt like seconds as Akali and I explored every inch of the festival. From a cold, Freljordian dessert known as "ice cream" to the strangely alluring and exotic dances of the Shuriman dessert, many different cultures blended together to form one giant festivity.

Soon however, the sun began to set and the energy of the day seemed to wane. A comfortable silence fell between Akali and myself and even though the crowd was still enormous, it seemed as if their noise had lowered to a forgettable rumble. I turned to look at the Ionian princess at my side, her face looked tired from the day's activities but her eyes shone bright, reflecting the lanterns that had been recently lit as the sun went down.

Akali looked on ahead, unaware of my gaze. It was only then I was conscious of the difference in our height. I mean, I knew I had grown taller than her long ago, but it was somehow different now. A complicated feeling arose within me, something I could not place. A feeling which sent warning signals throughout my body. Although I did not know exactly what I was beginning to feel, I felt that if I let myself continue down this road, nothing good would come out of it.

Akali looked up at me, finally aware of my gaze, "What?" she asked.

I averted my eyes, "Nothing."

We walked in silence for a few moments before Akali turned her gaze up to the sky, "I want to go back."

We stopped walking, "Back where?" I asked.

"To the pond that we found this morning," She clarified, "If it was as beautiful as I remember it in the morning light, I think it will be even more beautiful with the sunset."

I grunted my agreement, racking my memory to figure out where exactly we had found the small pond. Luckily, my sense of direction was above average and I had a good knowledge of the area that we had walked that day. "If I am not mistaken," I said, "it should be just up ahead."

"Let's go then," Akali said, taking the lead.

I followed quickly behind her, my eyes searching for any landmark that might betray the position of our destination. We continued like this for a few minutes before Akali let out a breath of exclamation and took off down an alley.

I ran to catch up, and I was reminded that Lady Akali was by no means out of shape. We reached the end of the alley to once again find ourselves back at the small garden which had so captivated us earlier in the day. We gazed upon the surface of the pond, its beauty unchanged. The gentle light of the setting sun cast the pond in a gentle, orange light. Both the sun and moon were reflected in the clear waters of the pond at that moment, the moon a graceful orb, the sun casting an arc of light which covered the moon's reflection. As I looked at the reflections, they looked strangely like the mark of the blood moon, reminding me of the clothes that I had been carrying with me all day.

"Akali," I said breaking the silence.

"Yes?"

"I have something for you," I took out the blood moon robes and mask, "In celebration of your first blood moon festival outside of the castle."

She took the present from my hands, her mouth slightly ajar, "Thank you," she managed.

"Your welcome-" I began before I noticed the tears that started to fall down my Lady's face.

"Akali, what's wrong?" I asked my worry growing, "are you hurt?"

How could I have let my liege suffer harm on my watch!?

"No," she hiccupped, the tears starting to flow freely, "not physically at least."

"Then why-"

"I am so happy, yet so distraught!" she exclaimed, "this present, this day, feels like a dream. A good dream, one that I do not want to wake up from. Spending time with you like this, not as vassal and servant but as friends means so much to me. Half of these tears are tears of joy."

"And the other half?" I asked quietly.

"Tears of sadness," she replied, "I know of what you and father talked about today. He didn't realize it, but I had woken up early and listened in to your conversation…part of it at least."

"Oh," I said, "Your father-"

"Probably told you to not tell me," she finished, "Yes, I know. But how could he just leave me like this! First Shen, then him! Mother is not getting any better, I can't see my brother anymore now that that Demacian Princess took him and not Demacia is even taking father form me as well? What am I supposed to do? Everything is falling apart! My royal duties are killing me, I have to be perfect all the time, everyone watches me as the last in line for the throne, I can't ever relax and they are leaving me! All of them! Guy…what do I do?"

Tears flowing freely now, Akali grabbed my hand and stared up at me with red eyes. I could feel her pain just by looking at her, and it killed me inside that the lady I was supposed to serve, the lady who was my friend was in so much pain. My mind raced, wondering how to handle this situation, when a voice in my head said, "A hug and a smile can melt away all pain."

The voice was gentle and sweet, loving and kind. It was a woman's voice, from a time years and years in my past, a voice that belonged to a woman who I had long since forgotten. My mind fought against the voice however, my training telling me that such an intimate act with royalty could cost me my life. The difference in status was much to great…but I couldn't just leave Akali in this state. Then another voice went through my head, this one a little more recent, 'make sure to always do the right thing, even if it is the incorrect one.'

The emperors voice drifted through my thoughts, erasing all form of argument I had. I grabbed Akali and pulled her into me, my arms wrapping around her. She froze at first, before hugging me back and sobbing into my shoulder.

We stayed like that for a certain time; seconds, minutes, hours all seemed to blend together as she cried into my shoulder. Eventually the crying slowed to a stop, but she didn't let go. In fact, she dug her fingers into my back and her face into my shoulder and took deep breaths. I tightened my hug and she let out one final deep exhale before gently pushing me away.

I looked into her eyes, still red from crying, but they held a renewed firmness, "Thank you, Guy. I needed that…and don't worry, I won't tell father, not that he would care."

I gave a sheepish laugh, "Thanks."

"Already beginning to hide things from your father, eh, princess?" a voice said.

We spun around, looking for the owner of the voice, when we first couldn't see who it belonged to, we looked back at each other only to find an armored figure standing between us.

"How-" Akali exclaimed, jumping back.

The figure lashed out and grabbed Akali by the neck. Effortlessly he lifted her off of the ground with only one arm. Akali flailed her legs, and tried to hit the arm, but the figure holding her didn't budge. I jumped into action. By grabbing Akali, he had turned his back to me, a fatal mistake. A went low, aiming a kick at the back of his knees to cause him to fall. He tilted his head in my direction, raised a leg and blocked my kick.

I jumped, using my momentum and spun around attempting to land a back-spinning kick to his head. Almost to quickly for my eyes to see, he raised his arm and blocked my kick. I landed only to find his foot heading towards my face. I raised both arms to block. The blow never came.

Akali used the assailants momentary shift in weight to throw a double legged kick into the assailant's face. The attack took him by surprise and he dropped Akali and stumbled back a few steps. Akali landed in a role and stood up next to me, facing our attacker.

The man grabbed his chin and rotated his head, "Nice kick, you're not as helpless as I thought you were."

I took a good look at the man. He was tall, broad, and covered head to toe with armor. The 'eyes' in his mask shone bright red and his arms were adorned with extremely sharp looking blades. "Who are you?" I demanded.

"You have lost the element of surprise," I continued, "you cannot defeat us two against one."

"Two against one," the assailant muttered, "I wonder about that."

His voice had an amused growl to it, and I was at first confused at what he meant. Then, I caught movement in my peripheral vision and tackled Akali to the ground. Another attacker had appeared and had just missed a blow to the back of Akali's head.

I got to my feet to meet the new attacker, only to come face to face with what looked like a shadowy clone of the other man.

"Wow," the armored man said, "I'm impressed. Those are some great reflexes you have there. At such a young age too."

"Who are you," I asked again.

"Don't get distracted now," he instructed.

The shadow threw what looked like shuriken at me from point blank range. I bent backwards, being cut by the attack but avoiding any major damage, when the mask man suddenly appeared right where the shadow was. He placed a hand on my face and shoved me into the ground. His hand held me there, his strength far superior to mine. He raised a blade over my chest.

"I am power," he said.

But before he could bring the blade down and end me, Akali kicked at his head. He abandoned his attack and grabbed her leg, stopping her attack. With both hands now occupied, I brought my knees up and kicked up towards his chest, pushing him off me. Getting to my feet I reached into a pocket and pulled out a small grey sphere. I threw it to the ground and it exploded, covering the area with smoke.

The masked figure muttered something, but before I could make out what it was, I grabbed Akali and bolted for the alley and ultimately, the street. If I could get to where people were, we would be safe.

The first part of the plan went well, in the sense that we indeed make it out of the park and into the alley. However, our attacker was tenacious. He knew what we wanted to do and headed for the alley as well. Akali and I broke free from the smoke first. We sprinted down the narrow alley. I was right on the heels of Akali when we noticed that the shadowy figure of our attacker materialized in front of us. Then, our attacker himself was there, his blade sweeping towards Akali's neck. Akali fell into a slide while I jumped, the blade passing harmlessly between us. We continued to run, the open street just feet ahead of us.

She broke out to the street first, I felt an impact in my back and fell forward, tumbling onto the street. I got to my knees, blood pumping in my ears, but the attacker was nowhere to be seen, not even in the alley we just came from.

"Where-?" I muttered, confused.

Akali let out a little gasp, "Guy…"

I turned around, "Yeah?"

That was when the pain hit me, a sharpshooting pain from my back which made me fall to my knees. I turned my head and saw two shadowy shuriken dissolving, leaving two wide gashes in my back, and blood soaking my garment.

"Oh, that's a problem," I said before blackness consumed me.

I woke on my bed. My body ached but that only served to prove that I was alive. I tried to sit up, but my body groaned in discomfort.

"Just keep laying down," a voice said, "you've been laying there for two days, you need to take things slowly."

"Master Jax," I said, "what-what happened?"

"I feel like you should know better than I do," my master said with a half-jovial tone, "but from the sound of it, you need some more training."

I remembered the difference in the power level between myself and the attacker, "I have no idea how we survived that. I failed as Lady Akali's guard."

"He was probably just playing with you," Jax said, "but, let us not overlook your skill as well. I did train you after all."

"And your training is the only reason why we are still alive," I noted.

Jax let out a laugh, "well, despite the shape that you are in, you did manage to protect the princess form harm for the most part, that in itself is not too bad. It's harder to protect someone else besides yourself."

I nodded, "Thank you for the compliment. But that does not excuse the fact that Lady Akali did come to harm under my watch."

"A fact which neither her father, nor herself put any blame on you," Jax said, "A ninja that could control shadow and teleport would prove an impossible challenge to many."

"If it were you," I argued, "You could have dealt with him easily."

"Maybe," Jax said, "but then again, I am the master, and as I said, you are still a student whose training is still incomplete."

I lowered my head, "Yes, and I hope that I can continue to train under you, to make up for my weakness."

Jax stroked his chin, "Sometimes, I don't understand you, Guy. The things that you say…" He let out a sigh, "I will complete your training, you do not need to worry about that. All in all, good job protecting Akali. I am proud of you. Get some more rest, you need it."

Jax left the room, leaving me to my thoughts. The memory of my first real battle replaying through my mind again and again. Thoughts of what I could have done better mixed with thoughts of how lucky we were to survive. I closed my eyes, and the mask of the enemy flashed in my head.

Next time, I thought, next time things will be different…as long as the next time isn't like tomorrow….

Then, I fell back asleep.

So, to clarify the "wait, but that is obviously Zed, how do they not know who there attacker is?" question, let me say that everyone only knows Zed when he is not in his fighting garb. He is known as a Duke, not a ninja, hence the mystery of the character.

Well, I apologize for any grammatical errors I am bound to have made, feel free to point them out.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

Ciao,

SeaJade