The scout runs like the wind, she dashes across the empty corridor filled with open doors and jammed windows, containing nightmares and grotesque abominations disguised as her loved ones.
And she shouts, no, she is screaming, calling for help behind every dark new doorway but the only answer she ever receives is the sinister Specter's screeching laughter and the appearance of a new nightmare.
How long has she been running? Not even she can be sure of that anymore, her feet are trembling from exhaustion and she can still feel her brother's pale fingers wrapping around her bruised neck. She gulps and she suddenly comes to a halt when she abruptly realizes that there is a group of shades blocking her way to the next hallway.
Quinn curses, she attempts to turn and run back the way she came from when a skinny hand shots out of the crowd and grabs her forearm, small bloody fingers coil around her arm with enough force to break her bones and Quinn screams in pain as she comes face to face with the smiling visage of her deceased brother.
"Hey, Quinny, are you going to abandon me again?"
The voice of the puppet is cheerful, carefree, a perfect imitation of Caleb's own tone and speech pattern from when he was alive and Quinn has to pause and glance down at the ghost child's foggy eyes before she remembers what kind of creature is actually standing before her.
"Stop using my brother's voice, you vile creature!"
Quinn attempts to pull her arm away but the specter's grip is tighter than a Shuriman merchant's purse and Caleb smiles wickedly as the rest of the specters start approaching them slowly.
"You aren't going anywhere anytime soon Quinny and you are the one that should have died that day anyway. You left me behind just to save your own skin!"
Quinn shakes her head vigorously, she takes a deep breath and pins her gaze straight on the nightmare's smug face, so much alike and yet completely different from the beaming lopsided grins of her dear brother.
"You are wrong, I did everything in my power to save you. Shauna was just too fast for me to react to, everything was over by the time I realized what was happening."
And then the specter giggles, his smile threatens to split his entire face in half and he leans back before bursting into laughter. Quinn cringes and makes a final futile attempt to take a step back as all the shades in the corridor join him producing different kinds of disturbing laughter that range from horrifying imitations of childlike giggles and shouts, all the way to booming sounds of joy.
And it isn't long until the whole corridor is quaking from the volume of the inhuman screeches and the puppets and shades hiding behind the doors start slouching out of their chambers and start moving towards them, walking forward, stumbling on disfigured appendages and atrophic limbs. And Quinn? Quinn can't even breath properly as the.. Thing wearing her brother's face finally stops laughing and shakes its head in amusement.
"Shauna? When did you suddenly become so close to that disgusting murderer? I thought that you were supposedly tracking down my killer in order to avenge my death, oh dear sister."
"I will and I promise that, but I can't just shove a knife between her ribs anymore. Things have changed since I forced her into servitude, brother. She is not just a monster, she feels remorse and the burden of her sins has almost obliterated her."
The boy sighs and every sign of joy suddenly disappears from his visage, he glares at his sibling in contempt and Quinn withers under his gaze.
"So what if she is being overwhelmed with guilt? So what if the weight of her actions is practically killing her? She murdered me Quinny! She sank her fangs into my throat and snuffed the life out of me! She took me away from you, daddy, and mommy! She made daddy go away and she shattered our lives without even a shred of hesitation and you now want to forgive her?"
Caleb glares at her and the specter's voice lowers dangerously.
"You are a traitor, dear sister. You let this… Shauna murder me and you are now even taking the side of my killer. You are a failure as a Demacian, a sister and even as a human being."
The shades around them silently nod in agreement and Quinn is shoved to their outstretched arms and all she can do is squirm as the specters start dragging her towards an elevated wooden platform.
There is a pair of iron shackles waiting for her at the center of the construct and a rusty guillotine glinting ominously above them and there are even some chairs placed in front of the stage and Quinn can already spot the faces of her parents seated somewhere on the first row.
Her mother's features are twisted in disgust and her father spits on the ground as the abominations shove her roughly near the shackles.
"Traitor!"
"Harlot!"
"Vampire sympathizer!"
"It's like you killed him yourself!"
"You beast!"
"Have you no shame?"
"You let him die so you could escape instead!"
"Gouge out her eyes!"
The crowd starts jeering at her, insulting her, spitting on her face and it isn't long before the fist rotten fruit hits her shoulder, flung by none other than her favorite uncle. Quinn knows that all of this is just a cruel illusion, a vicious spectacle created by the sadistic Spirit known as Nocturne, but she still can't bear to look at the obvious disgust coloring her beloved ones' faces and that makes her burst into tears. She shamefully lowers her head as a final shove pushes her before the altar.
A shade approaches her and starts securing her hands into the shackles and Quinn still can't take her father's scowling face out of her mind when suddenly another shade jumps onto the stage and kicks the first puppet away.
Quinn blinks, her eyes widening in surprise as little Shauna grabs her hand and starts dragging her back in the safety of the corridor and away from the angry ghoulish crowd jeering at them.
"Wha?"
"Stop talking, just keep moving."
The voice is young like the child's previously screaming in the torture chamber, her hand is small and pale, barely big enough to fit into the scout's sweaty palm, the top of the specter's head doesn't even reach Quinn' chest and yet Quinn instantly realizes that there is something about this shade that is entirely different from all the other versions of Shauna she has encountered thus far.
The two of them are soon back into the ever stretching corridor, running past the endless rows of doors filling its deserted hallways and the specters doesn't seem interested in chasing them for some reason.
The nightmarish child keeps pressing forward dragging her behind her while she intently peeks into the open doors as if searching for something. Quinn unconsciously follows her gaze and instantly regrets it.
Terrified eyes stare right back at her while ironclad madmen torture the girls in the worst ways possible, corpses litter a wealthy manor leaking scarlet rivers, bloody carcasses collapse on the ground and a crimson eyed child holds onto one such carcass sobbing its mother's name into the corpse's ear.
"Don't look at them."
The child-specter's voice is strained but gentle, as its own gaze wanders inside the rooms memorizing every little detail of the bloody spectacles. Vayne lightly squeezes the scout's hand and Quinn blinks in surprise.
The corridor seems to stretch endlessly and now the scenes inside the rooms change as Shauna's memories starting mixing with the vampire's fears, desires and ambitions.
The brilliant capital of Demacia is burning, the imposing royal palace has already went up in flames. Prince Jarvan IV howls in agony as everything he ever loved and held dear turns to cinders right before his very eyes…
A line of Vaynes are violently being led into a platform much like the one Quinn has just escaped from, the guillotine falls repeatedly and the vampires' heads start rolling onto the bloodstained wooden planks of the gallows. The crowd cheers loudly and when they turn to face her, Quinn realizes that they are all Vayne….
A familiar gravestone illuminated by the pale moonlight, Quinn can read her brother's name etched on the grey gravestone and Shauna is standing next to it, obviously waiting patiently for something to happen and suddenly a small hand shoots out of the ground and then another one as her brother starts crawling out of his grave.
"Stop staring at them!"
Little Shauna pulls her forward and Quinn's gaze slowly returns to the child-specter's small trembling back and it's only then that the scout finally notices that the specter's skin is covered in burns and whip marks peeking shyly from under her torn, ragged clothing. Quinn impulsively extends her arm and runs her palm across the dirtied, bruised skin and Shauna suddenly hisses in pain, she whips her head to the side in order to shoot her an agitated glare above her skinny shoulder and Quinn gasps in surprise. Because the child's irises aren't misty orbs of malice like the nightmarish puppet's she has encountered so far, but a beautiful shade of red instead, gentle and vivid and welling up with tears.
"…Shauna?"
The specter jerks its head back in an instant, flinching as if it has been slapped and stays silent as it continues leading her deeper into the hallway and Quinn smiles a little as she can finally see the end of the corridor. A dark, dusty staircase descending into a dark pit of shadows.
A cry of pain draws her attention and her eyes dart across the room closest to her where an adult version of Vayne is tearing into her neck, but oddly enough her doppelganger isn't crying out for help or struggling for freedom, but she wraps her arms around the vampire's head instead and leans closer in order to kiss her ear as Vayne moans loudly while feeding from her neck…. The fake ranger seems to be enjoying the whole thing and… are they taking their clothes off?
Little Shauna hurries to close the door and she then clears her throat awkwardly, her face as scarlet and flustered as her fleeting gaze.
"Please, stop looking inside those rooms, those manifestations are personal and only meant for me."
Quinn just nods absentmindedly, her eyes still glued on the closed doorframe and Shauna sighs giving her hand a small final squeeze before she shoves her towards the staircase.
"There you go, your way out of this hellhole. Just reach the bottom and open the door and everything will be fine."
The scout nods and takes a step towards the hole, she can hear voices coming out of the swirling darkness, argent ones at that.
"Her heartbeat is rising."
"Give her more blood."
"Something is wrong! She is getting worse!"
"Stars hear me!"
"She goes into shock!"
"Someone bring me more bandages!"
She takes another cautious step and the world seems to brighten, the shadows disappear, she can finally make up a room, brimming with people dressed as healers and a body resting upon a bloody mattress.
She turns to smile at her pint-sized savior and the smile freezes on her face when she realizes that little Shauna is still standing at the end of the corridor, surrounded by angry nameless terrors, her expression grim and her tiny arms stretched to the side creating a pathetic excuse of a barrier, blocking the nightmares' advance.
"Shauna!"
The first shade moves forward and Quinn instantly recognizes him from Shauna's memories, it is her father. Shauna takes a small step back and then stops, she starts shacking when another specter makes its appearance clad in a golden suit of armor. Jarvan.
"Get out of here! I can't follow you any further! I need to stay behind for this to work."
Shauna's father smiles, Jarvan starts laughing, Caleb's doppelganger slowly joins him, white milky eyes shining with glee. A disturbing screech of a voice suddenly fills the dimly lit hallway.
"Night Hunter, how nice of you to join us.."
Another shade glides forward, this one darker than the others, crueler, more sinister, ancient.. Nocturne stops just in front of the trembling child and presses a curved blade under the huntress' chin.
"Shau-"
"QUINN, YOU HAVE TO LEAVE THIS PLACE OR WE ARE BOTH DEAD! GAHh!"
Quinn doesn't stop when the umbra blades penetrate the vampire-child, she turns around and darts into the staircase as Shauna's blood paints the floor crimson, and the world seems to be fading only to shine blighter than ever before with every panicked stride she takes. The voices around her also grow louder but also more desperate by the second.
"We are losing her!"
"Contact the Head Summoner, tell him to remove the spells limiting our powers! This is an emergency."
"Blood, give her more blood! She keeps puking it!"
"Stars, hear me."
"Stars, hear me."
"Stars, hear…"
She takes a final step, grasps the handle of the glowing door, opens it and jumps into the light as the world around her explodes.
00000
"Charge! Everyone clear out. "
*Thuck
The room is white, her vision is blurry, someone is yelling next to her. She is too weak to get up and see what's happening, she opts to turn her head to the side instead.
"Charge! Everyone clear out. "
*Thuck
"No vitals, keep trying!"
Blurry, everything is too damn blurry for her to make out anything, she focuses her gaze on the red dot in the background waiting for her sight to start clearing.
"Charge!"
*Thuck
"Where is the Head Summoner?!"
"He is undoing the spell, but it's going to take some time. The restrictions are.."
"We don't have time, we are losing her!"
"Stars hear me."
See can make out some shapes now, the white things running all over the place are some sort of healers, she recognizes Soraka chanting frantically above a motionless patient covered in crimson and the red dot.. The red dot is.. Shauna's glassy eye staring at her lifelessly.
"Charge! Everyone clear out. "
*Thuck
"Any changes?"
"No, sir, there is still no heartbeat, keep trying."
*Thuck
"We have permission from the Head Summoner, you can now use your powers to their full potential!"
"Live!"
"For life!"
"Have hope!"
*Thuck
*Thuck
*Thuck
*Thuck
"Get the girl out of here."
Someone seems to finally notice her, a Summoner dressed in white nods and starts pushing her bed out of the chamber, away from the panicked healers, the agitated nurses, the sobbing Starchild, the mangled form of her enemy turned savior.
"Shauna!"
*Thuck
*Thuck
"SHAUNA!"
She can no longer contain the flood of her tears and she lets them out along with an agonized scream of her dead savior's name.
"SHAUUUNAAAAA!"
"Stars hear me!"
The last healing spell collides with the vampire's motionless body and suddenly as if to answer the healer's desperate prayers and silence her beloved-not-yet-lover's agonized screams Shauna's heart jump-starts.
The machinery around her starts beeping alarmingly and the entire room holds its breath as the vampire comes back to life with a violent convulsion and a pained scream raised towards the heavens before she collapses back on her mattress unconscious.
Akali blinks blankly and clears her throat before giving the Starchild a small squeeze on the shoulder.
"Good job."
Everyone pauses for a moment in order to congratulate the Celestial healer, huskily repeating the medical ninja's words, but Soraka just shakes her head wearily. Akali spares Soraka an inquisitive glance, but the healer's expression is one of dumbfounded amazement and her eyes are opened wide, slowly traveling between the speechless scout and the unconscious vampire. She gives Quinn a look of awe.
"I didn't do that."
A pale purple hand rises only to point a single digit at the Wing of Demacia.
"She did it. She is the one that brought Vayne back to life."
Quinn numbly gets up from her stretcher and stumbles towards the unconscious vampire, she pauses for a second before she presses her hand against one of Shauna's scarred, pale cheeks and when she does the vampire starts purring softly much to the Celestial healer's amazement.
Akali briefly glances at the heart monitor and gives Soraka a look, then jerks her head towards the scout and then back at the machine. The Celestial healer, raises a single eyebrow, then takes a look at the screen and her eyebrows almost disappear under her hairline. She nods frantically.
"She can stay."
You are a wizard Harry.. Well not really, Quinn doesn't actually have magical abilities, the whole reanimation thing was mostly symbolic and because Quinn was screaming Shauna's name… And because of Teemo. Yes, you see Teemo secretly loves Vayne and fought Satan in order to return her soul back to her body, but the fight chanced him however, corrupting his soul and mind and now he is the new Demon King of Valoran. That's.. That's canon you know! Explanations are overrated anyway.