(A/N: Hey guys. Firstly thanks everyone for reading the story so far, and everyone who left reviews, it is so rewarding to know people enjoyed something I've worked really hard on, and it helps motivate me to carry on, so I appreciate it a lot.

I had planned on leaving this story as it was, but seeing as so many of you asked me to do more (and asked me so nicely as well!) I decided that I would write one final chapter for you all. As always I got a little carried away and one chapter quickly became three because it was getting pretty long – hopefully not too long.

That said this is definitely the final part of this story. I have really enjoyed writing it, and giving Lux and Katarina the happy (happy-ish) ending that they deserved, but now I think have taken it as far as I can.

Okay enough rambling, basically it's a one shot of Lux and Katarina's life on the run, its set quite a bit after the events of the main story, and it all takes place over the course of a single day.

It's a little different to the my other stuff so I hope you enjoy. Thanks again :) see you on the other side.)

Epilogue:Dust Blood and Rain

Part I: Dust

Several months later…

The heat was relentless, it smothered the dusty town like a blanket, squashing all of the air out of the place and making it hard work to simply keep breathing. There wasn't a cloud in sight and yet the sky was a dull, featureless orange that stretched on endlessly, uninterrupted but for the great blazing orb of fire at its centre.

Here the sun seemed to hang perpetually above them all, as though it had some undue fixation on this particularly desolate corner of the Shuriman desert. This was obviously an illusion, but two weeks in the sweltering heat was enough to drive anyone a little mad, and Katarina Du Couteau had been there for nearly three.

She sat alone in her room, her crimson hair plastered to her face and neck. She was perched on the end of a simple wooden bed, her long legs crossed and her bare feet drumming a restless and rhythmless beat on the rough floorboards. She had begun to dress but quickly given up, the buttons of her white blouse proving far too much for her distracted, sweaty fingers, the shirt still hung open over the underwear she had slept in, clinging uncomfortably to her clammy skin.

The room she was in was more like a prison cell, a kind of claustrophobic brown hell. Everything was brown; brown walls, brown floor, brown ceiling, brown sheets on the bed…even the sunlight, filtering in from the single tiny window set high into one of the walls, somehow seemed to turn brown before Katarina's eyes. This place was going to be the death of her…

Katarina was a long way from home, about as far as she had ever been in fact, although she didn't really know where home was anymore. That was just her life now, she supposed, a lost soul, wandering from one god forsaken town to the next, forever running from her past.

Over the last year she had seen parts of Runterra she hadn't even known existed, many of which she would be happy to never see again, but this particular city was about as god forsaken as they came. It had started as little more than a watering hole, sat right in the middle of a sprawling desert, but then people had settled around it, and continued to settle around it, until without warning one day it was just kind of, there. A seething and tumultuous metropolis, seemingly risen from the sand itself. It was a great, colourful patchwork sewn from thousands of lives and held together by the most basic of human needs; the need for water in the driest place in all of Valoran.

Katarina did not find any charm in such a place. She didn't even know its name… All she knew was that there was sand and dust everywhere, the buildings were covered in it, the air was thick with it – and it was all over the soles of her feet…

"Fucking sand…" She grumbled under her breath, swatting madly at her foot as though trying to kill some invisible insect. Her efforts were futile. The harder she tried the more the stuff seemed to spread and after several frantic seconds she gave up, collapsing backwards onto the bed with a groan. The old rickety bed groaned right back at her. For a while she just lay there, staring despondently up at the ceiling.

She could hear the muffled roar of the world beyond her dingy cell, the buzz of life wafting up to her from the street below. There was a thriving market place almost directly below her window, where people with raised voices haggled for pittance over the price of fruit, children laughed and played and cried, and various indeterminate animals mewled and grunted in the midday heat – there was even, slightly bizarrely, the sound of a flute, its gentle song all but lost in the chaos – The inescapable sounds of life marching on… normal life. It was taunting her.

She was so sick of this place. Not just this room, or this city, but everything. She was not meant to live like this, in a frenzied paranoia where cold beady eyes watched her from every shadow, and every creaking floorboard could spell a sudden violent death sneaking up on her. It was unbearable. Even in sleep she could not escape it. Jericho Swain mocked her every night from her dreams, his cold, pitiless laugh left ringing in her ears for ours after she woke.

Her exhaustion was matched only by her defiance. Katarina Du Couteau did not hide! Katarina Du Couteau did not run! In her opinion, sneaking around or covertness of any kind was only to be tolerated if it culminated in her stabbing someone firmly between the shoulder blades. She was no coward. Every waking moment she spoiled for a fight, desperate to carve her frustration across a man's face and paint her fury on the walls in his blood.

There was a part of her, a big part of her, who wanted them to find her… Another even bigger part of her wanted to march back to Noxus and butcher every last one of them herself…She could picture her triumph, it was one of the few pleasures she had left, their lifeless and bloodied corpses draped like banners over the walls of the Immortal Bastion, Jericho Swain's ugly head skewered atop the highest flagpole she could find. It was a beautiful image, enough almost, to bring a tear to her eye…

But it was just that, merely an image, a dream. For the moment at least, it wasn't possible. There was no one for her to fight except her own imagination, and (although she had seriously considered it) stabbing her imagination just wasn't practical.

The inaction was eating away at her soul. She felt trapped, like a caged animal, skulking in this tiny airless room in the middle of this shithole of a city! In the middle of this fucking wasteland! How had her life come to this?

Katarina sighed heavily, her pent up frustration and anger turning quickly into a deep sadness. She allowed her eyelids to flicker closed.

The truth was she knew the uncomfortable answer to that question. She knew exactly how her life had become this way, but she wasn't going to think about it. It was far too hard, far too painful…

Somehow, she must have fallen asleep because when she next opened her eyes, the room was much darker. The last of the evening sun was streaking in low through the window, dust danced in its path, and it cut golden stripes across Katarina's bare stomach, but everything else was thrown into deep shadow by comparison.

The red head grumbled sleepily, rubbing her eyes with her hands and trying to roll out the crick in her neck. She briefly considered the rather attractive possibility of just rolling over and going back to sleep… but then she heard it. A noise in the hallway, not much, only the tiniest hint of a footstep, but enough to set her on high alert.

She was instantly wide awake, all thought of sleep forgotten. She shot up, and darted across the room to the door, moving with incredible speed and agility for someone who had been lying for so long in such an uncomfortable position. A gleaming dagger had materialised in her hand, seemingly from nowhere, and a second in her other hand for good measure. She crouched behind the door, poised and ready, balanced on the balls of her feet, hands clutched firmly but easily around the hilts of her knives. She was barely breathing. For the first time all day the faintest hint of a smile had appeared on her full lips.

This was much more like it.

Slowly the door swung open, and a hooded figure stepped into the room. In the blink of an eye Katarina was upon them, one blade against their throat, the other angled against the small of their back. There was moment's silence, neither of them moved. And then…

"Really? Must we do this every single time Kat?" Lux said, quite calmly, although there was a note of indignation in her sing song voice.

Katarina stepped back, releasing her friend. She laughed, but it was a hollow, empty laugh. For once in her life she was almost sorry to hear Lux's dulcet tones…that time she had been so sure it been a Noxian assassin, she could not help but feel slightly disappointed.

"Hey - what about yesterday? I didn't threaten you once yesterday!" Katarina replied sheepishly, running a now dagger-less hand through her flaming hair.

"Yeah but that's only because you were asleep!" Lux sighed. She lowered the hood of her cloak, tossing back her own golden mane and sending ripples of light down its lengths. She turned round to face Katarina for the first time.

"If this is how you greet your, lover (she smirked at her choice of word and Katarina snorted), then I shudder to think how you must greet your…your…your -

She stopped talking abruptly as her eyes fell on the red head, her mouth left hanging open stupidly. There were few things in the world had could stop Luxanna Crownguard from talking, very few things indeed, but a scantily clad Katarina Du Couteau was certainly one of them. Lux was staring unashamedly at the other woman, her sparkling blue eyes lingering far longer than they ought to on her shapely form. It was several long and awkward seconds before she managed to compose herself enough to speak.

"Just who were you expecting anyway?" Lux asked without taking her eyes off of the assassin. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" The corners of her mouth twitched upwards.

Katarina blushed deeply, squirming under Lux's gaze and drawing her shirt across her chest to cover herself up a little.

"Don't be stupid," She snapped, her voice louder than she had intended. "It's just so hot…" She said trailing off.

"Tell me about it." Lux replied quickly, not allowing the tension between them to grow any further. She finally tore her eyes away from Katarina, and set about unpacking the contents of her bad onto the bed. "Apparently there's going to be a massive storm, that's what all the locals are saying anyway." Lux said, as she pulled out a large loaf of bread.

Katarina looked up sharply.

"You've been speaking to the locals again? I thought we agreed that-

"Yes I know! And I'm sorry, I just can't help it. There is nothing to worry about though. I don't suppose any of them payed me very much attention."

"Ha." Katarina grunted distantly, "Somehow I doubt that…" In her head she was remembering the man who owned the inn they were staying in, an old man with dark, sunken eyes, leathery olive skin and a huge greying moustache. In particular she was remembering the way he had leered at Lux when they arrived, the ugly greed in his eyes, and the way his slimy tongue had slid over his bottom lip. It made Katarina scowl just thinking about it.

The truth was that as a pair they could hardly have been any more conspicuous. In a place where everyone had dark hair, dark eyes, and dark skin, two very fair women, sharing a bedroom no less, was sure to raise some eyebrows – and some dark eyebrows at that. All of their collective training and experience meant nothing when their physical appearances were so distinctive.

Lux was apparently oblivious to Katarina's concerns. She was too busy trying to untangle herself from the long traveling cloak she had been wearing. Katarina strode over to help, lifting the heavy material easily from Lux's slender shoulders before flinging it to one side. Lux twirled round to face her; she was wearing a pale blue dress with long lace sleeves. She looked beautiful.

The light mage smiled up at her, but Katarina did not smile back. She looked incredibly serious, her jade eyes were full of worry.

"You need to be more careful Lux - I mean it!" She added, noticing the incredulous expression on Lux's face. There was a moment's silence, as Katarina tried desperately to find a way of not saying what was on her mind. She failed. "I couldn't bear to lose you again…" She said eventually, and her gaze fell to the floor, her chin drooping down against her chest.

Lux slowly reached up and cupped Katarina's jaw before gently tilting her head back upwards. They looked deep into each other's eyes. The very last rays of sunlight were catching in Lux's hair, causing it to sparkle and shimmer in an almost other worldly manner.

"I'm not going anywhere." The mage said softly, before standing on her tiptoes and planting a kiss on the other woman's cheek.

Katarina's fingers rose instinctively to that spot on her cheek. That one kiss was almost enough to settle the matter there and then.

Lux's lips brushing her skin was a different kind of weapon, more dangerous than any other she had known. It struck as hard as any sword or axe and the marks it left upon her were no less permanent. She could remember every single time Lux had kissed her, she could still feel each one like a fantastic scar upon her soul. Those gentle lips made her more awake to the frailty of her form than any slash of cold steel ever had, or ever likely could. It was its own form of magic, a magic that the Sinister Blade - the revered and fearless warrior, the lonely Noxian girl - had never known before.

It could make her feel alive like nothing else could; scared and safe, vulnerable and powerful. There were some days where Katarina resented, even hated, the immense power that the Demacian girl held over her. There were others where it was all she lived for.

On this particular day, it was almost enough to make her forget the months of fear and frustration that had been bubbling away dangerously inside her, just below the surface, ready to erupt and explode into the world in a fury of desperate destructive energy. A single kiss from Lux was almost enough to let her forget it all, almost, but not quite…

"No, NO, NO!" Katarina cried, shaking herself, as though from a daze, trying to lift the warm, sultry, fuzziness that was invading her mind like a fog, preventing her from thinking clearly. She fought against the overwhelming urge to kiss Lux again, to take her in her arms and lose herself in the golden haired girl's tender warmth –

"NO!" She shouted again, more firmly this time. She was breathing very heavily as though she had just run a great distance. "No Lux. You can't just keep avoiding this!"

"Kat, what are you –

"How can you live like this?" Katarina cut in, a crack in her voice, deep and hollow as the Howling Abys itself. Lux's face fell, dismay etched across her youthful features. She looked as though she was trying hard not to cry, her jaw clenched and teeth gritted, her bright blue eyes swam with what looked like fear.

Katarina could no longer bear to look her in the face. Every fibre of her being screamed at her to stop, to leave it, to not do or say anything that could put such an expression on the other girls face. But deep down she knew she couldn't just leave it, not anymore, it would kill her.

"How can you live like this?" She repeated. When Lux did not respond she carried on. "Because I don't think I can much longer Lux. It's killing me…Every time you walk out that door I'm terrified that I will never see you again. Every second of every day you are in danger because of me… because of who I was – who I still am! Because I was so weak willed, so naïve as to think that we might actually be able to be together…"

Katarina talked and talked. With every word she found it easier and easier to speak, to breathe even. As though she was descending a mountain and the air was becoming richer and purer with each step. Soon she found that she couldn't stop herself. The words were pouring from her lips of their own volition, faster and faster, and her voice was growing stronger.

It felt good, she could feel her heart growing lighter as she spoke. All the dark, bitter thoughts that had infested her brain, that she had struggled for so long to repress, finally surging free.

The few times she dared to steal a glance upwards she found that Lux had barely moved at all. She was like a statue, cold and unblinking; it sent a shiver down Katarina's spine just looking at her. It was impossible to tell what the other girl was thinking, her beautiful face, almost entirely in shadow now, was still set in the same stony expression.

She spoke for what felt like an age, by the time she finished it the tiny room was in almost complete darkness, the small rectangle of light in the far wall enough for them to see each other but little else.

"You're the only, good, I've known in my whole wretched life…You are the good in me Lux…I don't want to - No! - I can't hide that from the world anymore. I can't live without you Luxanna, you must know that…but why shouldn't we get to live…real lives! Together!"

She stopped finally, taking a deep breath, her throat raw. A heavy silence filled the air between them, and Katarina's hands tugged nervously at the hem of her blouse while she waited for Lux to say something… anything.

Still she waited, longer and longer, until the aching silence was almost too much to bear, and then…

"Let's go for a walk!" Lux said brightly.

For a moment Katarina was so relieved that Lux had finally said something that she didn't immediately register exactly what that something was. It was only as Lux sidled past her and over to the doorway that it finally hit her.

"Wait what? Lux…where you even listening to me?" Katarina snapped, her frustration rapidly returning.

"Of course I was." Lux said calmly, "Are you coming or not?"

"But- Katarina began before the other girl interrupted her.

"Please?" Lux pined, and although Katarina couldn't see her face, she could feel those big, blue, puppy dog eyes boring into her across the room; she could never resist those eyes…

"Ugh fine!" She said sulkily, and stomped across the room. Without another word she flung open the door and set off down the dimly lit corridor, it wasn't until she was about to turn the corner at the far end that she realised Lux was not following her. She spun round irritably to find the mage still framed in the doorway of their room, gawking at her with an infuriating smirk on her lips.

"What?" Katarina barked, struggling to control her temper, hands balled into fists at her sides and her old scar twitching ominously.

Lux stifled a giggle, the same high pitched sound that had always been so affective at driving Katarina into a frenzied rage – she had since learned to endure the sound, even to quite like it, but on this occasion it was doing little to help her stormy mood.

"Lux…" She growled threateningly.

"Right…yes… my apologies." Lux squeaked, still clearly struggling to contain her amusement.

When Lux was embarrassed she often slipped back into her old habits, and right now that sickening sense of propriety - that all Demacians had apparently had ingrained into them since birth, and that Lux had always had a particularly strong aptitude, and aversion for – was shining through so plainly that Lux may as well have been waving a Demacian flag and singing the national anthem…

Katarina usually found this highly amusing – the conflicted look in Lux's eyes when she caught herself doing it, the adorable way she wrinkled her nose and pouted with disappointment. It was like watching a robot fighting against its own programming and, in many ways, that's exactly what it was, but right now Katarina was not in the mood to find it anything other than irritating.

"It's just…well…I'm certainly not complaining Miss Du Couteau, but –

"SERIOUSLY?"

"–but you probably can't go outside dressed like that." Lux finished quickly, biting her bottom lip and looking fixedly down at the dusty stone floor.

"Oh." Katarina said weakly, all her anger and indignation fizzling away, like air, rushing from a punctured balloon. Her cheeks had flushed a deep shade of red, not dissimilar from that of her hair. At the other end of the hall, Lux's stoic politeness finally failed her, and she broke down in a fit of giggles.