Katarina couldn't believe what she had just heard.
Earlier, she was just lamenting on the dire circumstances of her situation, and suddenly Fallon shows up? This seemed less of a realistic situation and more of a stupid situation forced just to make this mission easier to get over with.
"Move over." She ordered. Barry obeyed, standing up and walking away while the redhead walked over to take his position. She looked at the people passing through. Sure enough, the Noxian flag was being carried with them, and the people were wearing armour of Noxian colours as well.
Her jade-green eyes then wandered forward and she saw a person wearing a grey trench coat and what seemed to be a cap on his head.
"Yep, that's General Fallon, alright." She said, standing up. "What do we do, Lady Du Couteau?" Barry asked. "What do you think?" She asked, sarcasm dripping in her tone. "We introduce ourselves to them properly." She then pointed a finger to where they were. "From the front, not the side." The two other Noxians silently nodded and made to move.
As the four of them walked back to catch up with the front of the battalion, Katarina noticed there was a group people walking in the middle of the platoon. They wore stained clothes and their faces had bruises and cuts on them. Their arms were shackled to their feet and chains connected the manacles together, organising them together and unable to break away. Their pitiful appearance earned them no sympathy, for whenever one of them slowed them and began lagging behind, a commander would smack the back of their heads and harshly yell at them to pick up the pace.
Katarina looked back to her companions and saw Lux looking on in horror. As soon as she saw the mage's expression, a smirk spread out across her face. That expression looks good on her, She sadistically thought.
Screw whatever happened the previous night, the mage deserved to be scared of her fate after showing no gratitude to the assassin for her help last night.
Katarina briefly wondered if she should have just let Ansel have her at the moment.
Finally, they reached a point where Katarina told them to stop and step out into the clear path. Initially, she had avoided it since it meant full exposure to possible Demacian patrols, but since a Noxian battalion was here, they had the manpower to fight them off if it came to it.
As she and her group stepped out into view, the person wearing the grey trench coat stopped and raised his hand, causing the others to stop as well. As Katarina approached, she heard the sound of chains clinking and some jostling. The chained people must be getting it hard.
"General Fallon." She greeted, taking another step forward as her group followed her movement. "Lady Du Couteau." Fallon greeted back, and Katarina did a once-over of him. Obviously, he was wearing a grey trench coat with a similarly grey peak cap instead of Noxus' standard black armour. How he got away with it, Katarina would never know. To sword hilts stuck out from inside his coat, and Katarina remembered he had named his swords Lucia and Valeria, Lucia being the longer one and Valeria being the shorter one.
His body appearance hadn't seemed to have changed since the last time Katarina had seen him. He was much taller than Katarina yet shorter than some of the other generals like Darius. To further distinguish him from the other male generals, he had a lean and somewhat robust build and a clean-shaven face with features that sent women swooning. From the little details of his hair Katarina could see under the peaked cap, Katarina saw brown hair that was styled the way Fallon liked. He could be finicky about his hairstyle. Under the shade of his peaked cap, striking blue eyes shone through.
"Why are you here?" He asked. Katarina jerked her thumb to Lux. "Package delivery to your camp," she answered. "Orders from General Darius. Fallon nodded, pursing his lips and nodding slightly as he put his hands to his hips. "You want to head to the camp and rest up, or accompany us on this short trip?" He asked.
Katarina was extremely tempted to choose the first option, but her curiosity as to why Fallon was hauling people chained and shackled took over, and she said, "I think I'll stick to you."
Besides, she was tired of having to depend on herself to navigate her way through this damn forest. And she was sure Fallon wasn't the most generous person in expanding his manpower.
Fallon nodded again and then jerked his head back. "The Lady of Luminosity can join the stains." He said. Katarina nodded and walked towards the platoon, his companions following behind. As Fallon began walking again, she watched as Barry wearily pull the blonde mage to the shackled people. Her brow furrowing, she caught up to Fallon and asked, "What are the shackled people for?"
Fallon responded with a smirk. "You'll see later."
A smirk like that was not good news. Katarina would know, she had seen that smirk once when Fallon was getting ready to murder a child during the Ionia-Noxian war.
oooooooooo
Tianna watched as the troops lifted fallen debris and throw them to one side, revealing the burnt materials and equally burnt corpses. Some ran to one side to throw up from the grotesque scene. So far, they hadn't been able to find any injured Noxian to question, the only ones at the camp in its current state were dead.
Interestingly, the troops reported one or two corpses in the fallen facilities having stab and slash marks, which meant that some had taken to committing suicide to escape the painful fate of burning to death, or foul play had happened.
The latter was more probable.
A caw sounded in the air, and Tianna looked up to see Valor, the magnificent blue eagle, swooping down. She extended an arm, and the bird extended his wings to slow its fall and gently landed itself onto her arm. "Hello Valor," she greeted as the eagle turned to its leg. "What's the news?" The bird managed to free the parchment of paper from his leg and held it up. Tianna raised her hand out and the eagle dropped the parchment into her hand.
The note read: Nox cmp app 10mi u Nrth.
Tianna nodded and thanked the bird, who spread his wings and took off into the sky. A commander saw this and walked over to the Crownguard. "What's the news, Marshal?" Tianna turned to the slightly taller man. "Ranger-knight Quinn has reported that the Noxians' new camp is approximately ten miles North from where we are. If we begin to move towards them now, there's a chance we can catch them."
The man shifted his stance to one of attention. "Marshal, shall I assemble a team to head to their location?" Tianna paused. If she assembled a team to go there now, there would be a chance that the same person, or people, who burnt the Noxian camp down would come back to attack them. If she sent Garen however, the man would be too caught up in emotion to properly lead a platoon. He had since Lux's kidnapping.
"Get me a piece of paper, an inked quill, and one of our fastest messengers. We'll have to put other people to use for this case." The commander nodded once and briskly walked off, leaving Tianna alone to ponder her next move.
Soon enough, the commander came back to her. In his hands were the items she requested, and at his side was a young-looking boy. The boy looked to be in his late-teens, fidgety and jumpy. "Your requested materials, Marshal." Tianna thanked the commander and accepted the items. She eyed the boy momentarily before jerking her head to one side. "Come with me." She ordered, and the boy meekly bowed his head and made to follow the blonde woman.
Tianna walked over to one of the trees and sat down, placing the paper on her lap and held the quill up. She made a silent invitation to the boy to sit, which he quickly obliged. As she began to write, Tianna decided to grill the boy a little.
"What's your name?" She asked. "Issac, Marshal." The boy's pitch was quite high and filled with the anxiety he was probably feeling. "Issac," Tianna called, not looking up from her work. "Where are you from?"
"Meltridge, Marshal." The boy quickly responded. "Meltridge." Tianna repeated. "Didn't the people there begin rebelling against Demacian military? Against Demacia's order and word?" Poor Isaac looked absolutely frightened of the older woman. "I uh, enlisted before that happened." Tianna raised a brow. "Why did you want to enlist?"
"I enlisted to serve Demacia and the people, of course." He quickly replied, but Tianna could immediately detect the boy's dishonesty. "That sounds too generic a response," she said, her eyes still focused on the paper. "I cannot tell you how many times I've heard the soldiers give the exact same response you just gave. It gives me the migraines." The boy seemed to perk up nervously at this, and through the corner of Tianna's eye, she saw the boy lick his probably dry lips.
"To tell you the truth Marshal, I uh, enlisted to charm some ladies." He sheepishly admitted, scratching his head. "I remembered some ladies swooning over some soldiers, and since I didn't wanna be part of the family business, I enlisted." Tianna took his words in with amusement. "You do realise that you could have just used your desire to not be part of your family business as a reason for your enlistment, don't you?" Isaac blinked once before realisation dawned on his face and a blush crept into his cheeks.
"Ah." Was all he could say, and Tianna felt the corners of her lips curve upwards ever so slightly. Young people, still growing as they go.
After a few more words in neat cursive and a sign off, Tianna briefly waited for the ink to dry up before rolling the paper. She then held it out to Isaac, who hesitantly took it. "Bring this back to Demacia and ensure it gets delivered to Lady Laurent." Isaac nodded once and got up. "I won't let you down Marshal!" He said quickly before running off into the distance. Tianna hoped he knew where he was going.
Taking a breath, she stood up and began walking back to the waiting commander. "What's the next move, Marshal?" He asked as Tianna handed the quill to him. "I've asked Lady Laurent to lead a platoon to the Noxians' location. If we manage to clear this place soon, we can probably serve as support for her." The commander nodded and turned to look at the site with her.
"What do you think is the cause?" He asked. Tianna lightly scratched her chin. "I doubt a Noxian would burn his own base down, one of our own definitely wouldn't, and we have no moles among them."
"So, another force is at play it seems." The commander said. Tianna tensed her jaw and grimly said, "I suspect that is the case as well, but we can't be sure yet. The possibility of a Noxian being bought off or having a psychotic breakdown may still stand."
Just as she finished her sentence, a soldier raised her hand. "Marshal!" She called out, quickly walking over and saluting the woman. "We've found something!" Instantly, the commander and Tianna turned to the soldier with interest. "What is it, recruit?" The commander asked. The soldier turned and pointed, and Tianna saw two other soldiers carry a man out onto a gurney. Although the man looked like he had stabs in his chest, he let out a few groans, meaning he was alive.
"Get the man the medical attention he needs now, and once that's done, chain him up." Tianna ordered. The soldier nodded once and ran off to echo the marshal's instructions. Tianna huffed once as the commander looked on.
What are Noxus' plans?
oooooooooo
The man was hiding out in his little cave when his stone buzzed in his pocket. Hastily pulling it out, he held it out as the image of the figure popped up. "You're needed again." The figure said, its voice a whisper this time. The man immediately snapped to attention. "Anything you need me to do." He said enthusiastically.
"Good." The figure responded before the image flicked to a map. A marker was placed on one part of the forest, slightly far from the man's current location. "Fallon has relocated here. I think he needs more provocation to start the fight we want to see." The man grinned and nodded. "You can count on me." He said confidently. The image flickered off and the man tucked the stone into his pocket.
Now, where can I find the armour that I had previously worn?
oooooooooo
"Where are we heading?" Katarina asked quietly, not really wanting the Noxian soldiers behind them to hear. "Demacia's Western gates." Fallon replied just as quietly. Catching Katarina's confused look, he quickly continued."A few weeks back, a fire broke out in our Eastern side. We had to relocate. We decided to set up camp somewhere South-East from Demacia." He craned his neck for a moment, as if trying to make something out, before dropping back to his normal posture.
"The Demacians may have found our earlier camp, but they can't now. Besides, we have easy access to one of their Western gates." He said as he adjusted his cap. "I'm still trying to figure out how they found us out, and why they would resort to just burning our base." Katarina nodded slowly. In front of them, the white walls of the Demacian frontier began to come into view from behind the forest's trees. "You're gonna enjoy this." Fallon said, a wicked grin spreading across his face.
After a while, the Demacian frontier came into full view. Demacian soldiers who saw the Noxians approaching frantically sounded their bells. As the Noxians continued to advance, the gates opened and a Demacian platoon hurried out, spears and shields at ready.
Fallon whistled once, and instantly the Noxian soldiers got rougher with the shackled people. Katarina turned saw Lux being forced to move as well by a burly man. She turned and walked towards the blonde mage. "Leave her," she said. "She's my responsibility." While her statement was technically true, Katarina felt like she wanted to keep this mage under her control for a while more.
Besides, if Demacia saw one of their beloved heroes captive, there was a probability that they would quickly rebel, and Katarina had a feeling that not getting to fulfill his intentions with the shackled people was not in Fallon's favour.
The soldier handling Lux nodded and left to grab another shackled prisoner, leaving Katarina with Lux. Katarina gave Lux a once-over. "Stay close me from behind, understand?" Lux looked reluctant, but muttered a response.
Unsatisfied, Katarina grabbed the mage's face and forced the shorter woman to look at her in the eye. "I asked, do you understand?" She hissed. "I understand." Lux said, her tone dripping with venom. Katarina roughly let her face go and turned to face the front again, where Fallon was beginning to confront the Demacian leader with the shackled people kneeling in front of him.
"Hello Demacians! We are gathered here today to decide the fate of these people here."
In case y'all are wondering, Katarina is (in my headcanon) 179 cm, Lux is 177 cm while Fallon is 190 cm.