It has been a month since the last update. I got kind of busy with the end of the year, so I'm sorry.
Also, I will be trying to update the fic more. From one chapter every two weeks to one chapter a week, if I have the time.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and don't forget to follow and review!
"Welcome back, master." A masked ninja in black robes welcomed Zed, who simply nodded, walking to the main hall of the Order of the Shadows temple, before known as the Kinkou Order temple.
The same temple he had stormed with an army of ninjas one year ago.
Zed took a turn and entered a door, which leaded to an upper corridor at the training section, where he could see all his students training from above.
"So many…" he whispered in a half-cherished tone. The Order of the Shadows had grown immensely in those years. While Ionia tried to recover from war, he took those that did not have family, friends or power, but still had ambition, anger and will to become stronger, and turned those poor sons of war in real warriors. Strong, disciplined and loyal.
That was all he needed.
He stopped in front of another door, grabbing the doorknob but not turning it. The room that was from his old master, who took him as an orphan and raised him to become a ninja. The same old idiot that banished him because he wanted to be stronger, also the same stupid man that refused to acknowledge the shadows.
Still, nostalgia was not the reason he stopped.
"That stupid woman…" he muttered to himself, before finally opening the door. "Just what are you doing here?"
Inside the room, sitting in his chair, a woman using dark and purple garments. The woman had long white hair and purpleish eyes. Atop her head, a black helm with a purple stone at middle.
She laughed a little at his angry remark, fixing her posture in the chair. "Obvious, dear, I was waiting for you."
"I don't remember ever asking you to wait for me for anything."
"Really, so grumpy early in the morning?" she sighed, supporting her head in the table with her hand. "Your little students called me because you hadn't appeared yesterday, they got really worried, you know."
"I doubt it." Zed took off his cape and his weapons, putting them in another table. "I did not train them to be worried for me, and I know you are not the one to do this kind of things too, Syndra."
She chuckled. "Of course I worry about you. Who knows what may happen with such a rebellious boy, after all." She stopped for a second, observing him taking out his armor. "Hey, won't you take off your mask?"
"With you near? Not in a thousand years."
"Oh, c'mon Zedy!" she got up, jumping on his back. "You have no problems showing your body to a girl, but if it's about your face you get all shy~~"
"Get off my back, woman!"
He struggled a bit with her at his back, before she decided to get off it, sitting at the table. "So, I heard you have gone to Zorak, is that right?"
Zed turned to her, a half-surprised look in his face. "How do you know that?"
"Well, after some of your students called me, one of the higher-ups decided to take the situation at hand and search for you."
"Oh, that must have been Lockt." He got back to putting on his training garb. "He's hard worker and mentally strong. He has only to grown."
"So, what were you doing in Zorak, from all places?"
"Nothing too important."
The girl made a pout, getting angry. "You can tell those things to me."
"What if I don't want to?" he sat down in his chair, not minding the girl that towered him. "We are allies, not friends."
"I wonder…" she started, in a low tone. "I heard some rumors about an orphan from Zorak that was taken by a ninja master, years ago. The same orphan that grew up to become—"
"I was not in Zorak for nostalgic matters." He cut her off, getting up from the chair again.
"Then what was the reason?"
The ninja sighed, going to the table where he had left his clothes. Picking up a scroll from there and throwing it to Syndra.
"Have you ever heard of the Darkin?"
"Grrh…" A ray of light woke Volk up. He lift his hand to block the sun from reaching his eyes. "… Now you are here…" He remarked, sarcastically. "Where were you yesterday? Behind a moon?"
He got up slightly on the bed he was sleeping, sitting and opening his eyes.
"Groan…" he scratched his head, visibly sleepy. "I guess I'm not a morning person."
His hand went to his stomach, the place where he had been hit by that masked ninja's shuriken. The same place that now was covered in bandages.
"So it really happened… It was not a dream…"
The amnesiac took the time to look to the room where he was sleeping for god knows how long. White. A lot of white. A small white cabinet. White bed. White curtains that did not do a good job of preventing the sun from entering. And a white apparatus with a bag of some kind of liquid.
"I guess I had to take some serum. Oh well, I should just be glad to be alive right now." His thoughts were followed by a long sigh. "What an awesome first memory…"
"Now is… Patient nº 16…" at that time, a woman entered the room. She was wearing a revealing nurse outfit with white stockings and red shoes. Long brown hair that was tied in a big ponytail and green eyes completed the girl that was holding a clipboard. "Oh, you woke up."
Volk looked at the girl for a few seconds, widened eyes. "… Sexy nurse?"
"… What are you talking about?" she looked at him with reproving eyes, as she approached the bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Oh. I… I'm fine." Hearing that, she slapped his stomach, making him grunt in pain. "Argh, what was that for?!"
"To see your reaction." The nurse picked a pen and started writing in the clipboard. "Still feels pain, but can already keep his consciousness…"
"What do you mean 'keep my consciousness '?"
"You lost a lot of blood." She picked the bag of serum from the instrument. "By normal means you would still be sleeping. And even if you would woke up, you would just faint in few minutes."
"That's… reassuring." He said, rolling his eyes. "So, what happens now?"
"What a ridiculous question." She gave another tap at his wound, making him grunt in pain again.
"Damn, girl! Stop that!"
"You should sleep to recover yourself." She smiled. "You survived Zed in the middle of that eclipse. That's no small feat."
"Wait, Zed? Is that the ninja's name?"
"Yeah. Zed is the leader of a ninja order that prays that you should always focus on power. They don't really care for the balance of things, like the rest of Ionia."
"And you know all that because…?"
"Because…" she smiled again. "I'm also a ninja."
Volk stopped, dumbfounded, before starting to laugh. "Hah… A sexy nurse…? A ninja?! Hah!"
Anger started to show on the girls face. Before Volk even noticed, he had a blade right in his throat.
"W-wah…"
It was a sickle-like bladed weapon. A green handle that ended in a golden blade that had the best format to behead someone. Surely not something you would hand right at your neck.
"A-alright! I-I believe! Sexy nurse is also an awesome and dangerous flippin' ninja!"
She sighed, putting the kama back at her back. "Also, stop calling me that. My name is Akali."
"Ah. I am Volk. Nice to meet you if you don't put a blade in my throat again."
He just received a chuckle from the girl, as she answered. "As long as you use my name to refer to me, you don't need to fear it."
She picked up the clipboard again, walking in direction of the door.
"I have to tell the doctor about your condition. Are you hungry? Should I bring some food?" He nodded in response. "Gotcha."
The amnesiac leaned back in the bed, looking at the ceiling of the room. He sighed at where his thoughts were leading him. "Am I really worrying about that fox-girl at a time like this…?"
At one of the main buildings of the Placidum. Irelia was in front of a group of old men and women sitting in a big table. She was visibly angry, as her fist met the table with great strength.
"What is so hard for you to understand?!" she yelled, taking the attention of the group. "Monsters attacked Zorak! Monsters! The Royal Guard can't defend the entire continent if that is to happen again!"
Silence.
"… There's no certainty of it happening again." One of the men started. "For all we know it could be just a lone case."
"And if it's not?!" she yelled again. Irelia was in the brink of losing it. Arguing with those hardheaded elders was a waste of time. "Are you really betting that it's a one-time only thing?! Especially if there are lives at stake?!"
Silence again.
"… We have no confidence in it yet." An old woman started. "Even if it did happen again, what would an army do against it?"
"Protect the people!" she hit the table once more. "The people are scared! Even if we did manage to save a lot of civilians in Zorak, we still lost some! We can't let it happen again!"
This time, instead of silence, many whispers between the elders could be heard.
"I see…" a bald man with a long white beard got up, towering the others.
"Elder Kaine." Irelia said, this time with a normal tone.
"Guard-captain Irelia. We have decided to not build an army yet."
"But elder Kaine…!" before she could speak, the man stopped her.
"No buts, guard-captain." His voice was serene, but also severe, as his statement took Irelia aback. "We still don't see the needs for an army, so we won't do it. If you want to protect the people, make sure your Royal Guard can do it."
She bit her tongue in anger. This was simply unreasonable.
"This is our final decision. You may retire yourself now."
And without even looking at the elders again, she left the hall.
Karma, on one of the seats, just watched her friend leaving. "Irelia…"
"It's better if you don't enter now." A male voice coming from the hallway woke up Volk. The voice looked like it was trying to convince someone.
"But I am his friend! I want to see him!" A female voice could also be heard from the hallway, disagreeing with the man together with her.
"Really, you shouldn't…" another voice, this one a more squeaky and child-like one. "Hey! Stop! Don't enter!"
As the voice shouted, the door to the room opened to show a fox-eared girl running to the side of the bed.
"Ahri, what are you doing here?" he asked, somehow easing his worries about her.
"Volk! Are you alright?!" her worry was visibly, as she answered him with a question of her own. "I was worried when you didn't came back yesterday, and then Kennen and Shen told me that you were in the hospital and…!"
"Oh, yeah, things happened, I guess…" Volk answered, trying to put things lighter than they really were.
"Don't joke with me!" she yelled, scaring the boy a little. "You fought against Zed, didn't you?!"
"Well… I… Ah…" Volk had nothing to go against the girl, her scolding just felt… warm. He probably has not been scolded in a long time.
A long sigh left Ahri's mouth. "You are really lucky Akali was there. You could have been dead by now."
"Ah, so she was the one who saved me… That explains a lot." He scratched his head in embarrassment. "I… I am sorry. I guess I overlooked the danger. Huh?"
His eyes focused back on the girl, who was looking away from him, red in her cheeks.
"… And it's good that you didn't die." She said in a low tone, almost too low for him to hear. "Especially after what you did yesterday."
"What I did…?" he asked, before remembering of what happened when they searched for survivors. "Ah…"
"It's been a long time since I have been comforted… So I would be mad if you died after doing that."
"I-I see…" the embarrassment took him also, as red started appearing as his cheeks. "I-it's good then."
"So, you guys done?" a male voice asked, entering the room. "I need to do a check-up on the patient."
A tall man, wearing surgeon's clothes. Besides that, nothing could be seen about him because of the mask and glasses that covered his face.
"Yeah, we need to do our job, you know." The squeaky voice spoke, from the side of the tall man. Volk lowered his head to see a squirrel-like creature in a white coat and with a stethoscope around his neck. He had brown fur and brown eyes.
The amnesiac just kept his stare at the little squirrel, visibly surprised.
"… Something wrong…?" the squirrel asked.
"Ahri, I think I'm hallucinating." He turned to the girl. "I can swear a squirrel wearing medic clothes just asked me if there's something wrong."
"Erm, Volk." Ahri smiled awkwardly. "You're not hallucinating. And he's not a squirrel, he's a yordle."
"A yordle…" he thought about it for a few seconds, before doing a victorious smile. "Ah! Those little dogs with a lot of fur on their heads!"
"What… No. You are talking about a York? Yorkshire."
"So… He's not a little dog?"
"Not a little dog." She nodded in disagreement.
"Yes. I'm not a dog." The yordle said, approaching the bed. "I'm Kennen. And the masked one there is Shen."
"Very well. Shall we do the check-up? Can you please leave for a while, miss Ahri?" Shen asked the girl, who simply nodded, before leaving the room. The masked man then turned to Volk. "Surviving a fight against Zed, huh? That's not something many can say, especially since you survived him in his own terms."
"I suppose you guys are also ninjas, like Akali."
"Yes. That is about right." Kennen sat in a chair at the side of the bed, laughing slightly. "You can just say that we are the good guys and Zed is the bad one."
"Well, then I'm glad for the help, I really are."
"You should say that to Akali." The surgeon removed the bandages from Volk's stomach to analyze it. "She was the one who saved you. We just brought you here and treated you."
After looking at the wound, that now had a scar, Shen changed the bandages, wrapping it up again.
"You are… Abnormally well."
"And that is good… Right?" Volk asked, looking at the doctor.
"Yes, but… You should not be like this. Anyway, we will keep you under observation until we—"
"No. He's coming with me." Ahri said, entering the room.
"Miss Ahri, I don't think we should let the patient leave just yet." Kennen spoke, clearly against the idea.
She stared at the yordle with a fierce look. "You guys said he is alright. So there shouldn't be a problem if he comes back tomorrow, right?"
Shen sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Very well. I see no problems with it." He turned to Volk. "Just make sure to come back tomorrow."
"Irelia, are you alright?" Karma entered in Irelia's office, just to find her friend looking through the window.
"You know about that boy that Ahri met? Volk, I think." She said, still looking at the sky.
"He had some pretty bad injuries, isn't that right?"
"He had bad injuries because Zed was there."
Karma's eyes widened a little, but soon went back to her calm state. "I assume the Kinkou told you that."
"Yes." She lowered her head, this time looking at the merchants in the main plaza. "If Zed was there, what does that even means? Monsters, an eclipse and a shadow ninja."
"So that was the reason why you pledged the elders for an army?"
"I don't believe it was all just a silly coincidence. It's not normal." Her hand formed a fist, as she punched softly the wall. "Things can end up a lot worse. I wanted to make sure nothing could get us unprepared."
"Irelia…"
"I really hope they are right…" She said, looking at the now setting sun. "Just what is happening in Ionia right now...?"
"Well, you should be alright here." Ahri said, giving him a wink. "Good night, sleep well."
She left the room, leaving Volk alone with his thoughts once more. A lot of things happened in those two days, but he finally was able to take a break.
He laid down on the bed, feeling its fluffiness.
"I think this is the first time where I sleep in a bed by my own volition."
Once more, he still had many questions. And those two days did not do a good job of answering them. They actually gave him even more to think about.
Ninjas. Zed. The eclipse. Monsters. And of course, his new-found friends.
This time, as he feel asleep, he had a smile in his lips.
Noxus. High General Headquarters.
The moon was already high in the sky as Jericho Swain walked to his personal office.
Yesterday, that strange man had offered him power. Coincidentally, an eclipse that was not foreseen happened just sometime later.
Swain had worked the entire day, but he knew that, at the exact moment he opens the door to his office, that man will be there, with that pathetic grin and opening one of his finest wine.
He knew what he was going to win in the bet. What he did not know was "what there is to lose".
With those questions vanishing slowly, he opened the door.
"Hey, Jerry! Had a nice day?"
And there he was. With the shadows still covering his face and with a glass in his hand.
"So…" the man started. "Sit down, drink the wine!"
"I want to talk business." With a straightforward answer, Swain stared at the shadowy figure. "I'll give you five minutes to convince me."
As Swain had already expected, the man laughed, and with a grin in his face, said to the General. "You are naïve, Jerry, as I've already said before."
"Not naïve enough to just let you go away."
"I see…" the grin softly turned into a smile, as he put the glass on the table. "Let me ask you a question first… Do you know about 'the void'?"
"The void? Are you talking about that big nothingness which that stupid cult loves to idolize?"
"Nothingness…?" he chuckled. "No, no. You are wrong. The void is far from empty."
"What are you talking about?" the general's stare became fierce. "If it isn't empty, what is there?"
"I wonder…" he made a big pause, much to Swain's anger. "The void would be more exactly described as the 'opposite of our world'. The rules there are different from the ones here." He looked to the ceiling, resting his head in the wall. "It's like if our 'insides' were 'outside', if that makes any sense."
Swain kept quiet, so the man took that as a cue to go on.
"Instead of our feelings being inside our heads, they are out there, floating in the air."
Jericho's eyes widened a little. "So those monsters that live in the void are…"
"A concentration of emotions and wishes. The 'hunger' they always feel." He chuckled again, smirking. "Of course, that is just a theory. Not even the cultists know a lot about the void."
"And what does that have to do with the matter at hand?"
"Who knows…" he took a sip of the wine. "However, as you must already know, Jerry, knowledge is power. And power means strength."
Swain got up. "If you aren't going to talk about what matters, then leave."
"Jericho Swain." He answered in a fierce tone. "The first time someone ever heard of this man was when he was just a kid, as he entered the medical ward with his leg snapped in half, with the bones showing. The boy did not cry or complain, even during the surgery. No one ever understood that, or even how the boy had such a bad injury."
"Your point?" Swain stared at the man, as if telling him that everything was the truth.
"My point is that everyone has things they can't tell or don't want others to know." He leaned, supporting his head with his hand. "What I can tell you is that I have the means to make you the ultimate power in Valoran. Nothing more."
"…Very well." The general said, surprising the man. "You said that you could give me a 'free trial', right? Well, then get to it."
The man laughed. Laughed a lot. As his laughter subsided, he dried an invisible tear, already beginning to speak. "You never cease to amaze me, Jerry. Consider it done."
"So, what do I need to do?"
"Just get your army ready to fight in a month. I'll deal with the rest." He got up, going in the direction of the door.
"One more thing." The general made he stopped in his tracks. "How should I call you?"
A small chuckle was heard. "A name? I have a lot of names."
"Here in Noxus names and titles are important. If we are going to work together, I need to know yours."
"Very well."
He turned to Swain, who finally was able to look at the man's eyes.
Blood red.
"You can call me… Rayvel."
And he disappeared.
End of Chapter 5