4 - Nocturne, Syndra
The dreams all began the same way.
Ever the observant child, she diligently kept track of the growth of her magic as each day went by. Before the elders sent her to learn under the tutelage of the old mage, the amount of power she controlled grew exponentially, a fact which delighted her. However, once she had stepped within the boundaries of the temple, the power curve began to flatten out. At first she attributed it to incomplete data, as she hadn't gotten a sizable amount of day-to-day changes at the time to accurately judge the nature of the magic. But when she noticed the curve begin to ascend rapidly on the few days when the mage allowed her to spend some time with her family, she knew something was going amiss, and she would walk up to him to demand an answer.
"My child, you already possess more power than the elementalists of the Placidium. There is no need to teach you what will come to you naturally. But in order to truly realize your potential, you must understand restraint. Within the temple, I have set limits to your power, so its growth will not overwhelm you. Here, you must learn how to use your gifts moderately. The case is the same for all young mages - if you exert too much force, the power will not hesitate to turn on you and consume you."
A motion of her hand, and her mentor's body flew into the air before colliding with the temple wall, going limp upon impact. However, her dream self would always walk to the body to gaze upon his face, something she never did in reality. She saw no need to associate with the weak, to give any regard for those who tried to put a leash onto something as wonderful as the magic flowing through her. Confinement was the learned man's way of dealing with the things he feared. Although he appeared different from the coward who merely runs away, neither of them could embrace the strength which lay in front of them like she would.
When she looked upon his face, she would find her mentor still alive, gazing at her with wide open eyes and a wildly shaking head and shoulders. "Wh-what have you done, Syndra?" he would plead as no matter how many times she smashed his face into the ground, he continued to stare at her with that eerie look on his face and repeated the same word. Why? And though she wanted to show no concern towards the weak, she couldn't ignore the effect he managed to bring upon her.
It haunted her.
Tonight's dream sequence progressed much the same way, the body thrown against the wall, the pale face keeping its accusing gaze riveted at her. Instead of calling out to her, however, the mage's body began to dissolve into a black mist, which began to fill the temple. She frowned, wondering what the new proceedings could mean, and watched as the mist began to take form. A blue torso materialized, followed by two wispy arms and hands. The face which appeared to her could frighten even the bravest of heroes, and even she felt the temptation to take a step back, but she managed to hold her ground. Hollow eye sockets, spheres of pure white, scrutinized her, and the visage on which they rested rippled in the black cloud which surrounded them. Two tendrils shot out from its hands and attempted to assault her, but she quickly forced them back with a command of her own.
The figure's expression of pure malice softened for a split second as it halted its advance. "You do not fear me."
"Why should anything in this world cause me concern? There is no being greater than I."
"In which world, mage? Yours… or mine?"
It disappeared into a swirling vortex, and as she tried to follow where it went the portal began to suck her in with such force that the entire dream collapsed and forced her to wake up, not because of surprise, but due to the complete destruction of her temporary mental state.
She did not attempt to go back to sleep.
When she joined the League of Legends, it made the most sense for her to seek out the most powerful beings she could find, to see if any of the superhuman champions or supernatural entities could match up to her raw strength. Many of them showed promise, until she did some digging into their histories and became disappointed. Glorified superhumans wielding an ancient power, relegating themselves to protecting the world from the aftermath of an arcane ritual gone wrong? She scoffed at their folly, noting that if a magus truly deserved to receive that power, it would not consume their body and make them a mere slave, a new vessel to contain it. When her power first called to her, it behaved no differently than the blood flowing through her veins, becoming a natural part of her body's processes.
She had not heard of the Void until her first days within the Institute, but she believed it could be a land of unlimited potential, if the summoners spoke of the area so carefully she would've thought they were balancing a sculpture of glass with their words. One man looked into the Void and became a disfigured creature, barely surviving its horrors in order to become a living warning to what he claimed would be the end of Runeterra. Another had become enchanted with the fantastic creatures it spewed forth, for some reason believing their invasion would bring a golden age to the land. She pitied the fates of both, the first man too weak to resist the Void's mutative powers, the second too eager to embrace the nature of a dimension which would only bring destruction. The creatures of the Void which made it to the Institute, somehow being given admittance by the summoners into the League, did not exhibit power the way it was supposed to display itself. They were disgusting filth, horrendous to look upon, the complete opposite of her. She was beautiful, the pinnacle of human achievement, the summit of individual progress.
She was power itself.
Not until she stumbled upon the darkest corners of the Institute's corridors, into the forbidden wings of the building reserved for the most horrifying of horrors, did she come across a specimen to interest her. Easily knocking unconscious the summoner who monitored the access to the chamber of confinement where her objective lay chained to a nexus fragment, she recognized the creature as the one from her dreams, several years ago.
If it noticed her entry into the communications room directly adjacent to its prison, a mere glass window separating the two, it did not make any motion. Only until she addressed it did it stir from its resting position and glance at her with the same familiar white eyelids.
"You are the girl whose mind I could not destroy."
She hadn't heard such good humor in a long time. "You? Even thinking about overpowering the mind of someone as mighty as me?"
"The darkness eventually gets to everyone… but you… you have already embraced it, it seems."
It might have mentioned something of interest there. "What do you mean, I've embraced darkness?"
A ghostly hand attempted to point at her, its advance halted by the manacles. "Do you not see it? It circles all around you, acting as your secondary life force. You parade around, gloating about your untapped power, but only I am aware of what deeds you can perform if you become completely attuned with the darkness. I could unlock the door to such omnipotence."
The prospect definitely appealed to her. "Even more authority, huh? How could you possibly know this much about me?"
"I said I could not destroy your mind. That doesn't mean I could not infiltrate it, like I had many times over the years. There is strength within there, and the fact that you still exist today proves this."
Their conversation had definitely reached an apex. "There's a reason why you're telling me this. What do you want from me, nightmare?"
"Can you not guess? Deliver me from these chains, allow me to run rampant across this world to destroy the dreams of man, and I shall bestow upon you the power to become a god."
A wicked smile formed on her lips. She was aware of his subtle manipulation, but she would ensure that she was in control the whole time.
"Then I shall set you free, Nocturne."
A/N: spooky, huh? if you buy in to those wacky theories that Nocturne = future Zed then this partnership seems very likely indeed.
Darkness was a really easy theme, like what other champion would I write about? I considered some kind of horror story with another female champion but Ascendancy is supposed to focus on partnerships which can happen, so the only gal wacky enough to go along with him would be Syndra (or Morg or Eve maybe, but Syndra's just fun to write).