Heya, BJ coming right at you.

_INSERT EXCUSE FOR LATE STORY HERE_

ERROR 404: Excuse not found

Like seriously, this story was 90% done for two weeks and I only got around to finishing it today. On the flip side, I am also giving you two chapters of The Heartseekers, so #worth? (Been playing a lot of league, forgive me)

Anyway, as per always, RRF (Review, Follow, Favourite - Why do I bother abbreviating it?), and let me know what you think.

Chapter 8 - Subconscious Decisions

It's always a strange sensation coming back to consciousness. It's an even stranger sensation coming back to consciousness in somebody else's arms. Zed could feel the warm appendages wrapped lightly around his neck, hear the feint beating of blood with his overly sensitive hearing. He'd been unconscious before, but he felt particularly drained this time, causing him to worry about exactly how long he'd been out. Trying to move he felt pain surge through his body, as well as a gently pulling as the arms made him rest back. Opening his eyes he cringed at the early morning sun, it's light too much for his tired senses. As they adjusted he searched for the source of the arms, and almost had a panic attack upon seeing Akali's face. Ignoring the pain and the resistance, Zed leapt to his feet, putting a few meters between himself and Akali before falling onto his ass with his head spinning.

"Zed, I'm only trying to help, please." She came over and sat in front of him, rubbing a hand along his bare face. For a fleeting moment Zed wondered what had happened to his helmet, but quickly dismissed the train of thought in place of a far more pressing one.

"What happened?" Akali raised an eyebrow.

"I'm surprised you don't remember. Just before we hit the ground you managed to shadow-jump us into a small lake. Thank the stars it was shallow, or I'd never have managed to drag you out of the water. You've been unconscious for just over two days now, which given how much energy you used in the space of an hour, isn't too bad." Zed registered the words but was far more distracted by the warm palm still resting on his scarred face. He could feel the blood rushing to his face, and desperately hoped it was not so obvious on his cheeks. If it was, Akali had enough decency not to say so, simply staring at his face. She smiled.

"I'm impressed, not a month ago you would have taken my hand off by now." Zed reached up and gently removed her hand, the idea that he would have hurt Akali making him feel a little ashamed. She was right, he would have, and having met Fole and where that path would have led him, he really didn't want to think on that anymore.

"What are you doing Akali?" She pulled her hand free of Zed's grip, turning her head to the side to hide her blush.

"Do you know how many years I hoped you'd come back to the Kinkou? Apologise for your actions and make peace. Come back to me." She stood, tears in the corner of her eyes.

"I thought I had finished with you a long time ago, and now you come and do this! Save my life, and potentially all of Ionia? You didn't get to hear half of the horrors those brutes condoned, what they believed." Akali was pacing now, sadness turning to anger and hysteria. She wasn't finished however.

"Not only that, but Shen is still back there, and if anything ever happens to him, I don't know what I will do. He risked his life to get me out of there, broke every moral code in his body in trusting you, and all I can do is sit here and think of you! Gods, what is wrong with me." Zed refused to let her train of thought continue. Acting on instinct more than anything, he leapt to his feet and pulled Akali closer to him, feeling her warm tears trickling down his unarmoured chest as his arms found their way around her shoulders.

"I don't know what I'm doing anymore Zed."

"You aren't the only one." Zed muttered under his breath, praying it wasn't loud enough for Akali to make out. When her sobbing continued, he gently stroked her head, thinking of anything he could say to soothe her, something that certainly was not within his comfort zone.

"We need to keep moving, Fole will be looking for us by now." It was blunt, but it got Akali moving. She slowly pulled away, collecting a couple of things lying around their small setup. Zed took this opportunity to take in his surroundings, eyes finally having adjusted to the morning light. They seemed to be in a forest of sorts, the flora reminding him of the Navori region still, which didn't bode well for the man-hunt that was probably under way. Although Zed knew he had a collection of shadows in the region, he could still feel the nagging sensation in his core telling him that his energy levels were beyond depleted. Akali however seemed to be one step ahead of this, having made a pair of loose packs from the large foliage of the surrounding trees, the few necessities they required already packed.

"Figured it will make the road a little easier on us." Zed just smiled at Akali's ingenuity, accepting the packs. He felt exposed carrying so little, his armour gone in place of the simple Ionian clothing typically worn by commoners. This raised another question.

"What happened to my armour?" Akali didn't make eye contact, Zed already beginning to assume what had happened.

"You were too heavy to get out of the water."

"So you stripped me?" Zed was smiling, enjoying the way Akali was stammering out a response.

"Would you have rather me let you drown?"

"Oh no, I'm glad you did, but maybe we should have dinner first or something next time." Akali punched him in the shoulder, which was quite the hit given her strength. Zed found himself rubbing the glowing red flesh, but his smile still could not leave his face. He wasn't even sure why he was so happy, his humour had been poorly timed given everything that had happened. Even with that aside, it was still a joke, something Zed never dabbled in. As he began to sober up he could feel the headache in the back of his head return, as well as his muscles slowly becoming heavier and heavier. His body was literally draining him of energy, desperate to fill the reservoirs Zed had expended in the previous few days. He felt uncomfortably hot as well, fairly convinced he was running a fever, his body not coping well with the stress of having to walk in such a weakened state. Akali kept sparing glances back at him, her face sporting a constant look of concern. Zed wasn't worried about his health, he had lived through more than enough diseases to truly feel worried by a small fever, but more the fact that if they were attacked there would be absolutely nothing he could do. As it was, he knew that he'd need to rest frequently on the walk back north towards the order of shadows. It was going to be a long walk, and with Akali, it was going to feel even longer.

It was midday when they finally stopped moving, the pair almost collapsing at the foot of a small lake, panting for air as sweat dripped from their brows in small rivulets. Zed felt physically sick, his skin chilled all over despite it clearly over-heating. His stomach felt as though it were rising to his throat, causing him to thank all the gods for his strong constitution. Akali did not look in much better shape, her skin pale as a ghost and her eyes distance and unfocussed. Neither of them had kept a track of how far they'd walked, or where exactly they had been walking other than a general northerly direction. Akali turned to her bag, fiddling with the strap to no avail before eventually collapsing over onto her side. Zed tried to push towards her, but his body too refused to act, falling in a heap next to Akali. His dreams were no more welcoming than his reality. He could feel the cold, dark steel of Fole's blade upon his throat, although he could not see the blade or the wielder. Instead all he saw were faces, disembodied and ghastly, but all familiar. Ancient foes and recent friends, all were present and talking, but they all spoke with Fole's voice.

"Of all the things you struck me as Zed, I'd have never said you'd be so sentimental." It was a taunt, one line playing over Zed's mind again and again and again. He closed his eyes, or what he took for his eyes in this dreamscape, and upon reopening them found himself standing in an empty plain, nothing but golden grass as far as the eye could see. It seemed to be early evening, the sun not thirty minutes from its decent below the horizon, casting streaks of pink and orange across the almost cloudless sky. It was calming, tranquil even, and seemed to resonate with all the happy memories Zed had stored over the years.

"What happened to you Zed?" The voice was unmistakeably Shen's, although the figure he saw did not match. He saw a reflection o himself, fully armoured with weapons drawn. His eyes were glowing red behind his helmet, an aura of death emanating from him.

"You were the perfect assassin, exactly what the shadows had craved for so many years. Yet now you are no more than an emotional wreck, making stupid decisions for no particular reason. Have you forgotten your training, your oaths?"

"You treat him too harshly, he is only human, he could never hope to supress his feelings for all his life. He has loved and lost, just as much as anyone else has. Who can judge him for doing so again?" This voice was Akali's, but again the form was not her own. This time Zed stood unarmoured and youthful, a figure from many moons ago, one he barely recognised now.

"That was too long ago you fool, he surpassed such primitive means. He had reached his own point of perfection, and you would bring him low again."

"To fall low is to fall to nothingness, where all feeling is pointless, the fate you would bestow upon him. Is your path really any better than mine?" The armoured figure lunged towards the youthful one, who expertly dodged to the side, laughing. The two figures continued their fight, and as they did Zed began to feel his head spinning, two halves of his subconscious tearing into each other in an attempt to claim dominance. He fell to his knees, then his hands, and soon his forehead was pressed into the sharp grass as he tried to clear his mind. Then he heard it, a third voice, finding its way through the pain and fighting.

"This is your chance at something new Zed, don't let it slip away."

Zed bolted upright from his sleep, gasping for air. He was still running a fever, but he had at least regained some of his senses. He searched through his pack for anything to help him, not that he was expecting to find any medical supplies in the makeshift packages Akali had put together. He was surprised to find a collection of roots and herbs, not that he knew what any of them did. He turned to Akali to ask for her advice, only to realise she was not where she had collapsed. It wasn't the fact she was missing that got him worried, she was a more than capable fighter, she could probably even best him on a good day. No, he was worried in case she collapsed somewhere else and he couldn't find her. Pushing himself up onto his knees Zed took a moment to let his head settle before standing up. Everything seemed to spin for a while before he was comfortable enough walking. It didn't take him long to catch Akali's trail, she wasn't putting much effort into hiding her tracks. Broken branches and squashed bushes were a testament to how much stumbling she had probably been doing in her small journey. Zed could hear running water, and soon realised he had been roughly following the bank of the water. The further he walked the louder the noise became until the trees peeled away, revealing the oasis beyond. There was a small rocky outcrop over which a river flowed, supplying the lake with a continuous source of water. Unlike the rest of the lake, the water here was crystal clear and clean, but it was not the nature that caught Zed's eye. Resting on the bank, splashing icy water onto her now topless body was Akali, still as pale as before.

"You have a habit for making a bad situation worse, do you know that?" Zed wasn't aware Akali knew of his presence, so her words caught him off guard.

"I guess I'm sorry then." Akali turned on him, her eyes now red with tears.

"Is that all you have to offer me? A half-hearted apology?" Zed clenched his fists.

"What do you want me to say? We haven't talked in years and the first few conversations we have you go from proclaiming your love for me to accusing me of ruining your life. Which is it?"

"Both you ignorant fool!" Akali stormed up to him, beating her fists upon his chest.

"You tell me you love me, then become so distant." Another beat of the fists.

"Shen finally pulls me out of it, then you show up as our enemy." Another beat of the fists.

"And now you appear, saving my life and acting as though everything is normal." Akali beat his chest one more time before collapsing, drained, into Zed's awaiting arms.

"Did you ever truly love me?"

"I've always loved you." Akali scoffed.

"Lier."

"I mean it." Akali pushed him away, turning and walking away before stopping herself.

"When you found out I was engaged to Shen?" Zed shrugged.

"Your will is your own, does not effect how I see you."

"When I refused to join the order of shadows?"

"I cannot help it if you are blind to true power." Akali gripped her hair in frustration.

"You stupid, stupid man. You can't just say things like that and still say you love me. It doesn't work like that!"

"Why can't it? Why can't I love you and still be my own person?" Akali sighed, rubbing her temple before becoming still. She took a deep breath before her next question.

"What about when I asked you to run away with me, to abandon the shadows and the kinkou both and take me, did you love me then? When you broke my heart and left me in our sanctuary, did you do that out of love?" Zed wanted to say yes, with every fibre of his being he wanted Akali, but he knew she'd see through this lie, if no others.

"The shadows would never have let me. That was a different me."

"Is that a yes or no?"

"Why has everything got to be so black and white with you! Is it not enough to say I change, that I loved you before the shadows controlled me, and I love you now that I control them. Is that not enough for you?" Akali said nothing, she just smiled silently to herself.

"So you didn't love me?" Zed was confused as to how this made her happy, but decided he was done trying to explain himself.

"I guess so. Is that funny for some reason?" Akali came forward and kissed him, passionately but without lust. It wasn't the most pleasant experience, both running a slight fever and feeling unwell, but it was comforting none the less.

"You're really quite handsome when you aren't pretending to be tough, you know that right? Make sure that when you find the right girl, you know what you want before you confess to them." With that Akali turned and walked off into the jungle, not bothering to turn back this time.

Zed eventually made his way back to the encampment where Akali had already packed their stuff and was ready to be on her way. She held out a small white flower, which Zed took.

"Flowers now? Will I ever understand how you think?" Akali smiled.

"Eat it you idiot, it'll relieve the fever." Zed followed Akali's orders, and sure enough he felt his light-headedness begin to subside. After not too long he could feel some energy returning, he even risked a shadow jump to test it. He was ecstatic to find it working.

"Careful how much energy you use, the effects won't be permanent." With that the pair headed off, making their way towards Zed's temple, and to somebody Zed was suddenly very excited to see.