A/N: We've hit a thousand views - so i want to say thanks so much to every one of you readers! The story's just getting started, and I'm so happy that the first arc is getting so much love. Kudos!

Ezreal waited for her, as stupid as it was.

"She couldn't have gone that far right? Maybe I can find her and talk to her and - and - ah, who am I kidding?"

Unable to finish, he instead sends one clenched fist crashing into a nearby tree's trunk. Ezreal's breathing hitches. Frustration pressed his teeth together to the point where they threatened to crack, the boy unable to move past the fight. Pieces of the jovial charisma he once had scattered across the sand, leaving the explorer a listless husk.

"I fucked up man."

His voice cracks - admitting the truth of his situation. The combined weight of all his failed expeditions and his uncle's verbal lashings was less painful than the sheer disappointment he saw in her face. Ezreal sighed, splaying himself on a flat rock for the vultures to devour.

"I should have just - shit."

The dried bushes rustle at his cursing.

Kog'Maw approached tenderly, poking at him with his tongue. The pitying glint in his eyes reminded him of a child consoling an upset parent, a twisted reversal of what should have been. Ezreal laid one hand over his eyes - making his displeasure extremely clear. The creature was a persistent reminder of the consequences of his actions: of the choice he had made.

"Not now." Ezreal groaned hoarsely, throat dry and itchy. "Go away."

One by one, rocks are dropped at his side. For a second, the explorer considered lashing out: but a glance at the limping Kog'Maw cooled his anger. Ezreal sits upwards, patting the creature on the head and earning a little purr. He tried to put a little strength behind his arm, but Kog'Maw was surprisingly heavy for his size.

"Thanks but - I could use some alone time."

Regardless of his attempts to push the creature away, Kog'Maw defiantly plopped himself down next to Ezreal silently. The creature's limbs retracted into its spherical body, vibrating to produce a gentle warmth. Dozens of Zaunian potions had been spent to keep the creature alive after what happened to it.

After what Kai'Sa did to it.

Was it worth it?

Ezreal had never meant for it to hurt her this badly: Kog'Maw was just a little secret he had kept for himself. Despite everything that he had been through, his glove reached out to rub the creature's body as it slept.

"I-I had no choice. I had to."

But despite what he said to himself, Ezreal didn't believe it.

Sure, Kai'Sa had overreacted - but he wasn't exactly scott free in this situation. For the Number One Explorer in Piltover, he messed up enough times to count on one hand. Maybe if he had just told her about Kog'Maw beforehand, she wouldn't have been so upset. Maybe if he was a little stronger and tried harder in their fight, he would have been able to stop both of the Voidborn from fighting one another. Maybe if he had been a better person overall, Kai'Sa wouldn't have left him like everyone else did - and they could still have been a team. Still could have been friends.

But that bridge was burnt and gone. And it was all his fault.

"Ugh." He blinked away a tear. "Shit."

Derailing his train of admittedly self-deprecating thoughts, Kog'Maw abruptly scrambles onto its small feet: hissing venomously at the horizon. The little guy was gutsy, even with the slight limp in one leg.

"Woah buddy! Wh-what happened?"

Like all the Voidborn he had seen, Kog'Maw turned a bright purple as the gargantuan sandstorm rolled in from the horizon: pulsing with colors in preparation for war. Shaking fingers managed to snap his goggles into place in the nick of time as a huge cloud of sand crashed into the oasis, bending trees and kicking up a cloud of sand. Ezreal barely managed to see his hands as he Arcane Shifted forward, escaping the tidal wave of sand and reappearing on the other side unscathed.

"Well, glad that's - oh."

A single broken horn erupts from the sand, reaching skywards like the claws of a great beast. Even from here, he could tell that it was huge. Kog'Maw bristled at the enemy as he emerged from the 'sandstorm', shrieking in a vain attempt to ward it off.

The Dunebreaker.

Behind it is a tidal wave of purple and black, the Voidborn making up the swarm had to have numbered in the thousands at least. What he had assumed was a sandstorm was simply dust kicked up by their footfalls, an army rivaling those of the long-dead Ascended.

Worse still, they were heading towards Zuretta.

After what felt like hours of flying, Kai'Sa could not ignore her condition any longer.

The disgraced monster crashed onto the shores of a small oasis, steam rolling from where her plasma-filled armor touched the water. Gritting her teeth through the burning, Kai'Sa doused her wounded arm into the coldness of the depths. It did little to soothe her anger. Gray spots marked areas of dead skin, places that she would have to tear in order to allow it to heal. It was going to hurt - but it was necessary if she wanted to survive. Kai'Sa had grown used to it anyway.

CRACK.

CRACK.

Ignoring the tingling pain from her second skin's healing, the girl waded to the shore and sat on the sand. Kai'Sa glanced over at one arm, ignoring the acidic burns on her skin and watching her unnatural parasite cover it up in Voidflesh.

Her claws clench into the sand.

That thing. What was so special about it? The way he had protected it was nothing short of foolish, a futile attempt at befriending a Voidborn that could kill him with a touch. They all were monsters, monsters who could only hurt and eat and kill. Monsters who did not deserve love or affection of any kind. Worse still was the fact that he had the audacity to berate Kai'Sa for doing what was right, for doing what was necessary for his safety. Regardless, the huntress pushed aside these useless thoughts: refocusing on the war at hand.

She fails. Kai'Sa inevitably thought back to Zuretta.

Their time together was nice. It was a welcome break from her usual life as a monster who hunted other monsters. He was the first person in a very long time to want to befriend her - to want her company. Going back to the Void meant leaving all of that, and embracing the darkness of the underground. Kai'Sa would have nothing left but plasma and memories to keep her warm at night. As much as she hated to admit it, the girl had grown to somewhat like the charismatic young man and his antics.

But did Ezreal feel the same? Did he appreciate her like she appreciated him?

"..."

Of course. To him, Kai'Sa was no better than the Xer'Sai. Everyone knew that, even her, but he was cunning enough to trick the girl into thinking that she was more than that to him. She was not his friend, or his companion. Kai'Sa was but a weapon: a trinket that he played with until he grew bored and threw her aside. The huntress curses herself for believing such an obvious lie.

The ground shakes.

Cresting from the sands a distance away is the Dunebreaker, briefly gasping for air before diving back into the sand. Despite the eagerness at which she flew towards it, barreling over the sands at dangerously high speeds, Kai'Sa felt nothing as she opened fire. There was no disgust at the way its blood splattered onto her mask, or fear at the gargantuan beast's swinging limbs.

There was only rage.

Making sure to aim for its old wounds and scars, Kai'Sa unleashed a rain of plasma missiles onto the creature's gargantuan back. Her constant barrage narrows in focus, dorsal spines bursting from the impact from her attack. The Dunebreaker did not rise to meet her challenge, diving back deeper into the soil. Its bass roar sent a volley of sand towards the huntress, who easily streaked past as the creature vanished to the safety of the underground.

Coward.

Thankfully, there were more where that came from. A lot more.

Following in the Dunebreaker's wake are hundreds of assorted Voidborn, a singular river of armored bodies and boiling plasma. A few Xer'Sai dorsal ridges poke from the sand: each one larger than the one she had fought back at the temple. Kai'Sa was by far the most experienced when it came to matters on the Void, regardless of what a certain blond thought about her opinions, but not even she had ever seen this many creatures in one location. Their movements were distinctly purposeful: compelled by some kind of invisible pull.

The Tunnel.

Without the Dunebreaker, Kai'Sa could easily slip past the stragglers and return to her original mission. It would be far too easy for her to turn a blind eye and fly off into the horizon. Clicking on her insectoid mask, Kai'Sa adjusted her position in the air. Her rockets climbed to a roar, preparing to take her back to her war. Shurima had dozens of cities just like Zuretta, what was one less?

But the girl falters.

Memories of Malzahar's unwanted visions play in her mind. Memories of the dead and dying, consumed by lavender. Of Ezreal and everyone else in Zuretta condemned to death, just as Narjah had been. But Shurima had thousands of cities with thousands more lives - why did Kai'Sa even have to bother saving such a cruel dark place?

"This is your fate." The voices had said. "Accept it or die."

The Voidborn army screeched as plasma rained down from above, the huntress unrelenting in her attacks. A few broke away from the horde to meet her in battle as Kai'Sa dashed along the sand, bathing these monsters in a barrage of fiery plasma.

Die it is.