A/N: Hello again, everyone! I realize I have been updating very regularly for this story, or well, more regularly than is normal for me, and I may have spoiled you guys. I will definitely not be able to continue on this kind of schedule, you will most likely get one more like Lilium's – irregular, with months of emptiness in-between. Especially now that I'm in my final year…

Also, Danganronpa is going to be my priority – there's going to be an anime which will have the school years of my precious SHSL Despairs, as well as 12 new characters, and another game! I'm really excited! But that also means LoL and writing will most likely take a backseat.

Still, I will not abandon this story, even if I can only update once a year, I will continue. Please be patient with me!

Haruka

Riven's POV

Somehow, I have ended up in my bed, though I have no recollection of ever returning to my room. Sitting up, I suppress a gasp of surprise as I notice the Lady of Luminosity sitting, asleep, next to my bed, one hand loosely wrapped around my own. It seems that she carried me here after I passed out at the library…

A small smile tugs at the edges of my lips as I gently pat the top of her head, careful not to awaken her, "You're too good for me, Lady of Luminosity."

Why does she treat me with such kindness, going out of the way to keep me comfortable, when I have done nothing for her? All I have done in my life is hurt others, why does she not treat me as the monster I rightfully am? Where is the enmity that exists between our city-states? It is puzzling, for some reason, this Demacian has ignored all the bloodstains that cover me, choosing to treat me with warm selflessness that I do not, will not ever, deserve.

Why, Luxanna Crownguard, why?

The blaring alarm of an emergency news broadcast causes both of us to jump out of our skins, startled, as the screen hums to life before us. More yordles have joined the worldwide rebellion, and one of the training barracks in Demacia was blown up last night, resulting in the deaths of more than two hundred young Demacian cadets. The Lady of Luminosity pales as the report continues, saying that the yordles seem to be going insane, some of them frothing at the mouth, and the Institute's own yordle champions have similarly lost their sanity. Soraka is currently caring for them, administering medications to calm them, while the rest of the world scrambles to respond to the rising threat.

Leaders from all over the world have harsh, condemning words for the yordles and for Bandle City, ordering that the yordles stop their heartless, mindless acts of terror and expressing their solidarity with Demacia and the families of the victims. It's all pointless frivolities, to be honest, just empty words that cannot even hope to stop a terrorist organization.

But… the whole yordle terrorism thing is extremely unlike them. They are not bloodthirsty creatures, not under normal circumstances, and there is no way so many of them could have been corrupted by solitary confinement so suddenly. Is this possibly the work of the supernatural being I am supposed to combat? Is that why Noxus and Zaun have not been targeted, because they are allies of this being? Is this another round of… what did the book's author call it… bloodletting?

Immediately, I grab the book off my nightstand and flip through it with a frantic desperation, stopping only when I have come to the page I am seeking.

He has strength beyond our imagination, and unbidden, he crawls through our minds – no, he does not crawl; he rampages through claiming its space as his own. But there are limits to his power, since he is restrained and weakened, if you prevent his initial entry, he will not be able to harm you. Once he enters, however, he can always return, he is a voice in your head you will scream to hear, and should you attempt to resist, you will become a frothing zombie desiring blood. If you give in, you will be a semi-intelligent puppet, still out for blood, just less… rabid.

Indeed, the yordles are exhibiting signs of being possessed, but how will I know for sure? Will it be dangerous for me to approach the yordles to find out? Will he be able to see me through their eyes, and mark me as an enemy? Is there a way to release them from this creature's hold?

"Riven, what's wrong? You're white as a sheet," the Lady of Luminosity gently takes hold of my trembling hands; worry clear in her crystal blue eyes.

Looking around the room carefully, I ensure there are no bird-related objects around before answering, my voice trembling, "I think I know why the yordles are that way." Shoving the book at her, I point out the relevant passage, fully aware that she probably thinks I am insane as I plead, "I need to talk to one of them, please, will you help me?"

They are in the Ionian Wing, I dare not walk into it, I cannot walk into it, but I must. At the very least, I would like not to meet an Ionian, and the Lady of Luminosity can help me here by distracting the Starchild while I speak to a yordle. There are more important things than my trauma right now, and I must overcome it, for the sake of redemption.

"If it will make you feel better, sure," she smiles, trying to keep the skepticism out of her voice, "Do you want to talk to them now?"

"Yes please." As she heads out the door, I slide the book into a shoebox and shove it under my bed, aware that bringing it along with me might be a very bad idea. It will not be difficult for a possessed yordle to attempt to ruin the book, it is so old and fragile that spilling water on it will probably cause the pages to disintegrate. The author was adamant about keeping it safe, and I will do my best to continue that.

Who cares if I am but a mere human trying to rise against an ancient immortal from beyond time? If I accept this, the future will not exist. Hence, I will do whatever I can to stop him, no matter what it costs me.

This duty has fallen to my shoulders now, and I must carry it out to the best of my ability. I cannot sit back as more wars are fought, as more children are sacrificed in a pointless, bloody act that brings nothing but suffering.

War does not determine who is right, only who is left.

The author of the book and I share the same beliefs, and hopefully, these beliefs will be able to change, or at least shape, the future. My body may have been weakened, my mind might have collapsed, but there is still enough strength within me to see this through to the end.

[Ionian Wing]

"Hey, Soraka!" the Lady of Luminosity enters the hospital first, greeting the Ionian cheerfully. Struggling to control my rising panic, I lay in wait until the duo draw far enough away for me to avoid them completely, slipping quickly into the nearest ward.

By the door is Edmund, standing at attention, and he smiles sadly at me as I pass him. Kendall and Maes are lingering by the yordle's bed, looking curiously down at the screaming, yelping bundle of fur and restraining bandages.

"Who is this little guy?" Maes asks with a lopsided grin, the yordle's furry fist passing cleanly through his bared collarbones, "And why's he flailing around?"

"I intend to find out, Maes," I tell him, gently pushing him out of the way. Beneath the bandages, the Swift Scout's face has been swollen almost beyond recognition, light pink spittle foaming from between clenched teeth. His eyes are puffy slits, eerily green, and he mumbles senselessly to himself.

"We'll keep an eye on the door for you," Kendall says as he guides the ever-curious Maes away by his rotting elbow, the sense of comradeship I have missed for years flowing warmly over me. Death may have pulled them away, emotions and loyalties may have formed a wall between us, but we are still the Fury Company. The years in Shon-Xan, the battles that we have fought, nothing can ever erase them. We are comrades, in life, in death and even beyond.

"Swift Scout," I call the yordle's title softly, snapping my fingers in an attempt to get his wild, glowing eyes to focus. He refuses to respond, whimpering as he rocks back and forth, his teeth stained red with his own blood from having bitten his tongue. "Swift Scout, can you hear me?"

"I won't listen… no… destroy… must… complete… point… bloodletting… must not… be interrupted… we cannot fail… no… I won't… I can't… I must…"

Bloodletting. The word echoes warningly in my head, and I know right then that I am facing the very monster that immobilized the author of the book, who frightened her enough to flee amongst the Solari, amongst the Ionians, until somehow, she lost her life.

"So you've found the truth," Maes' voice fades out partway through the sentence into the voice of the author, a girl barely out of childhood, "What will you do now?"

At the sound of the girl's voice, the Swift Scout begins raving and shrieking, straining against the bandages as blood streams from his glowing green eyes. His tone has changed to something more depraved, something far angrier and much more desperate; she must have dealt quite a blow to the creature to have it react this way to her presence.

"Fight," the moment I make my response, the yordle shudders, his wild thrashing spraying foul-smelling blood all over the room.

Startled, I draw away from him, conscious of my weak and unarmed state, as the author in Maes' body gazes almost sadly at the heaving bundle of fur. She seems to want to say something, opening her mouth briefly, but quickly closing it and shaking her head.

"Commander, you should take your leave," Edmund calls from the door, his voice knocking some sense back into my body, "An Ionian is on the way."

Thanking him, I dart out the door as quickly as possible, the author of the book calling after me warningly, "The path you are embarking on is stained in blood. Do not take with you anything you are unwilling to lose."

It is an ominous warning; it seems almost as if I am to prepare myself never to return. Still, it is not enough to scare me away; nothing will stand in the way of my redemption, especially not my own fear. I walked onto that battlefield in Shon-Xan, very much a child, prepared to lose my life, and I can still summon that long-forgotten bravery to march into the next life-threatening conflict.

Also, there is nothing I am afraid to lose any more. What have I got left for misery to snatch from my fingers? My friends are gone, buried; they have been that way for years. My homeland has rejected me, I can no longer even dream of returning. My family, or whatever remains of it, has not attempted to contact me for almost a decade. What have I got left that I do not want to lose?

Nothing. I have absolutely nothing left to be ripped from me, but this pathetic thing some would call my life.

I'm afraid of tomorrow, of course I am, just like any other mortal being faced with a dark, crumbling future. Everything is most likely going to continue breaking, shattering beneath my fingertips as I walk onward in the suffocating hopelessness, but that doesn't mean I should give up. I might be able to help light the spark that will let the next generation escape from this darkness.

War does not determine who is right, only who is left. The line echoes in my head, strengthening my resolve with each repetition; I do not want to sit back as more pointless blood is shed, as more lives are callously thrown away by people with spirits too brave for their bodies.

There will not be another Ionia; I swear it on my life.

In step behind me, charred boots barely making a sound against the marble tiles, the Fury Company silently shows its support, a mixture of hollow eye sockets and sparkling eyes trained on my weakened figure. In life, we had marched together, swords in hand, bows at the ready, trusting one another with our lives. In death, we march together, a broken battalion of ghosts, but we will not back down.

This is the true Noxian spirit, unbreakable, honorable. From Alexandros to Peter, from Maes to Shin, it shines strongly; no soldier will ever walk alone.

Lux's POV

The light in Riven's eyes has brightened tenfold, burning with an almost suicidal determination, the unbreakable will of Noxians that makes them so frightening yet so admirable at the same time. No matter how much we hate them, Demacia cannot deny that Noxus is a land of iron; even in the torture chambers of the Royal family, they maintain a feisty defiance that never falters. I have no idea how I should feel seeing that light in her eyes, but it is better than seeing the hollow death that was there just a day before.

Whatever it is that Riven has discovered, crazy as it may sound, it is undoubtedly a threat that she has taken upon herself to eliminate. Teemo's condition is not something I have ever seen, the senseless mumbling, the bloodied frothing; even Soraka has no clue as to what ails them. If she will allow me to, I will do everything in my power to assist her. After all, I promised the Institute that I will be her friend, her confidante, and that includes strange supernatural happenings.

"Riv-" before I can even knock on the door, it swings open and Riven drags me in, slamming it shut behind her. Surprised, I let out a little yelp as she warily looks me over, "What's going on?"

"The book is right," she replies matter-of-factly, the look in her eyes telling me that she obviously expects me not to believe her, "The yordles are being possessed by whatever this being is, and I am going to have to stop it. I promised."

Before I can say a word, she continues fiercely, "Ever since I picked up the book, my nightmares have stopped, and my Company's ghosts no longer rip me apart. It doesn't matter if you think I'm crazy, I am not changing my mind."

There it is again, the indomitable spark of a Noxian warrior. The sight of it brings a smile to my face as I reassure her, "I believe you, Riven. I've seen Teemo myself, and I know that whatever is plaguing him is not natural."

Am I mistaken, or did I see a brief flash of relief in Riven's eyes? It was there for just a moment, barely a flicker, before the Noxian determination floods back in, mixed with very un-Noxian concern. "Something extremely dangerous is at work here, Lady of Luminosity, and it does not involve you. You should leave while you can; I am capable of surviving on my own."

"I'm not going to leave you," I protest immediately, refusing to let her cut in, "I'm in, no regrets. I know that whatever this thing is can probably kill me in a heartbeat, but I never give up."

Riven looks startled for a moment, before her dry lips tilt upwards in a tiny smile as she chuckles. The genuine smile, stretched across sallow cheeks, shines like a diamond in the rough, a little spark of hope in the darkest of hours.

"Thank you," she says, her voice cracks a little. Smiling like a village idiot, I throw my arms around her, nearly bowling her skeletal frame over with my weight, cheerfully telling her that we are going to kick some supernatural butt.

Positivity is a big key in victory, though it is the most overlooked. A smile cannot win a battle, but a soldier who thinks he can win will fight harder than one who thinks all hope is lost.

[Institute Library]

Huddled over the book with a little notepad and a pencil, we search through the passages and take down every little warning of any kind of enemy, just so that we will always know what to look out for.

The darkness is an enemy, so are the eyes of eagles, which means we will most likely be giving the Shuriman-decorated sections of the Institute wide berth. Apparently, through the eyes of any shape that resembles an eagle, this being can watch anyone and anything, and we should try our best to avoid showing our hand.

"He has probably seen me through the Swift Scout," Riven says, "And if he has, leaving the Institute will be rather dangerous for me."

"I can always cloak us," I tell her cheerfully, gesturing to my baton, and her brows furrow as she contemplates it. "His minions don't really like the light, don't they?"

Her lips twitch upward very slightly, and in her hollow, pained form I see more of myself than I'd like to admit. Her devotion to Noxus, pure, powerful, foolish, is exactly the same as my devotion to Demacia. We grew up loving our city-states because we knew no other way, and it was that love that enabled us to survive the horrors we had to endure in our respective armies.

Riven tread a bloodstained path through Ionia, while I lived an empty life, pretending to be someone I was not, regardless of whether I was infiltrating Noxian ranks or on Demacian soil. Yet, our faith never faltered, our love never faltered.

"Lady of Luminosity?" Riven's brow furrows in concern as she snaps skeletal fingers in front of my face, "Are you alright?"

Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I nod quickly, changing the subject, "This is the second book, am I right? Do you think it would have clues as to where the first one is?"

Her frown deepens, and for a moment I wonder if she is going to press me. Fortunately, she does not, flipping the page of the book instead, the words she meant to say dying on her tongue.

Scrawled across the last two pages in a heavy, panicked hand with what looks like blood are three statements:
HE IS WATCHING
HE NEVER RESTS
HIS EYES ARE EVERYWHERE

A cold wind swirls around us, rustling the pages of a thousand books as it travels through the library. The book before us, however, does not even twitch, a leaf in the eye of the storm. Fear spikes, primal and desperate, through my being, and it takes all my willpower not to flee like a cowering idiot to the relative safety of my room.

"M-maybe we should take a break," I stutter, trying to calm my breathing, but Riven shakes her head fiercely. To my surprise, she does not seem particularly affected – no – afraid, of the wind, because it seems to have merely strengthened her determination.

"I am a little hungry," she says, giving me a half-pleading look, "Would you please get me some food?"

I have no idea if she is truly hungry or if she is giving me a moment to escape and calm myself, but I accept the offer immediately. Fear is not a good emotion to work with; it colors your judgment and makes you prone to bad decisions. I will be of no help to her in this state, in fact, I will almost be a liability.

Wrapping myself in the warm, bright aura of a light shield, I take deep breaths in time to my steady footsteps, banishing the icy tendrils of dread and terror from my being as I head to the dining hall, trying my best to ignore the creeping silence of empty corridors.

C'mon, Luxanna, pull yourself together! You are light, you are warmth, you will be fine…

The emptiness is echoed in the dining hall – the buffet table has not been filled, not that it should be a surprise considering that most of the champions have left. There's barely anything there, and whatever dishes that have been prepared are mostly picked clean by those who did not return home, or those like Riven and Yasuo who have no home to return to.

The sight of the pathetic scraps of food annoys me a little, I mean, I understand that not many champions who are allowed into the dining hall are left, but they still need to eat. The least they could do was make two meals a day, or maybe start making those tiny, personalized meal packages like they used to before the League expanded into the monstrosity that it is today, with more than 120 champions and thousands of Summoners. That way, those of us who make it to the dining hall late won't have to starve for the entire day.

Sighing deeply, I scrape the plates clean before heading back to Riven's room, trying not to shudder at how eerily silent the halls feel. On normal days, they are alive with activity, Noxians on their way to training rooms, Bilgewater natives heading out to get their daily dose of sea time, Demacians on their way to the bar or to meetings with Prince Jarvan IV, yordles going about their businesses, Caitlyn and Vi hurtling after Jinx with choice expletives as the tiny blue haired terror rushes off with their underpants or bras or Caitlyn's top hat, the sound of moans and drawn out musical notes from Ahri's bedroom… However, today, the only sound is the tap-tap of my boots against the hardwood flooring, echoing unnervingly through empty halls.

Don't freak yourself out, Luxanna, that monster can't enter the Institute's grounds. Sure, he may have grown stronger since he can possess beings within the barrier, but he has not shown his hand even though he made Teemo lose it upon sighting Riven, so that should mean that it is beyond his power. Calm down, you are safe here, you are safe…

A/N: Please leave a review if you have anything to say. I love hearing from readers, and your words really encourage me to keep going!

Haruka