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Ruination: Return Chapter XXI
Fool's Errand Part V
"Ezreal!"
His own voice still echoes in his ears as he turns to see the young man screaming on the ground, feet from him, writhing on the ground.
Towering above them, Skarner looms, and the mural lies shattered into dust.
But that no longer matters.
He darts to the younger man's side, carving clean through one of the approaching elementals with a twinned shot with so much internal fury the stone melted at the blast.
"Hey, hey," he murmurs, kneeling beside Ezreal as he continues to writhe.
Skarner has the mein of a scorpion, done magnitudes of magnitudes larger. Does that mean he has venom? If so, how potent would it be?
"Ezreal!" he shouts, cutting through the young man's agony, causing him to fall still for a moment, even though his body was still wracked with contortions of pain, "Hold still."
A thundering explosion roars above them, and he glances up briefly to see Skarner stumbling back, Grave's cannon smoking, the still glowing cylinder clattering to the ground, the entity's carapace cracking across one of his great claws.
Lucian turns his attention back to Ezreal and rolls him onto his back as gently as he can.
Ezreal gasps in pain, and the damage is immediate and terrible to behold.
His cheek hung in tatters, cut nearly entirely in twain by the force of the glancing strike. His teeth, stained pink, are visibly in a warped half-grin.
Lucian immediately shifts him back to his side as blood begins to pool in his mouth, threatening to fill the near-unconscious man's throat. Instead, he hacks, painting it across the ground as he barely opens his eyes.
"Got it," he gurgles, weakly holding up his journal; Lucian acknowledges it for a moment, pushing it back to Ezreal's chest and holding it there.
"Thank you, and I'm sorry." Lucian states, guilt threatening to consume him, "I should never have had us come here."
"It's f-" Ezreal murmurs, his eyes rolling back in his head as blood continues to seep from his body.
"Is he breathing?" Yasuo demands as he rushes past.
"Yes, but we need to leave!" Lucian bellows, pulling Ezreal closer to him.
"How?!" the swordsman demands, sending a throng of elementalists flying with a torrent of wind. Graves and Pyke fall in beside them, cannon barking, knife flying, while all the while the wounded Skarner skulks around them, snarling at them in a language none can understand.
"I've been in tighter spots," Graves remarks, stooping for a moment to grab up his cylinder.
"Liar." Pyke returns, eyes locked on the distant Skarner.
"Can't even let me play brave," Graves notes bitterly.
"We need-" Lucian remarks, looking towards the tunnel, which was now largely unblocked by their attackers. A familiar hum reaches his ears.
He grabs Yasuo by the arm, "Get him out."
"What-" Yasuo begins, but before he can say anything else, Lucian gently pushes Ezreal into his arms.
"Get out." Lucian repeats, "I'll be right behind you."
"You can't fight that damn thing alone!" Graves states, firing another shot that sends the vast insect skittering backward.
"He ain't." Pyke growls, "Go."
Pyke races past them, lunging towards Skarner, body rippling like water, and then he vanishes.
Skarner stares about, searching for him, and then goes to bear down on the fleeing Sentinel as Lucian pushes the others before him and whirls around, both guns steaming from the force building within them.
He fires. Shot after shot, pounding into the vast creature's carapace. He feels a roar building in his chest, glancing back to see Graves huffing after Yasuo, the swordsman carrying Ezreal across his back, already at the mouth of the cavern.
"None leave!" Skarner bellows, and one of his tails lashes against the cavern walls. Dozens of cracks spread outward, threatening to shake the sanctum to splinters.
A dirge echoes above the chaos, and Lucian's eyes are drawn up to Pyke as he lunges down from the air like a watery comet, blades gleaming a green-blue.
Skarne parries the blow, but an ear-popping crack echoes through the chasm and Skarner shrieks.
Pyke is thrown flying, clattering across the stonework, his harpoon embedded in a newly formed crack in the middle of Skarner's left claw.
Rocks begin to fall, threatening to bury the only entrance, and Graves and Yasuo are forced into the wider tunnel.
Pyke glances at Lucian and vanishes into the ground, swimming towards them.
Lucian begins to run. Then, he is airborne.
As Skarner picks him up with his good claw and swats him away like a gnat.
He cracks into the wall and feels something snap deep within him. He falls, head swimming, pain racing through his body, gasping for air. Each breath stabbing like a knife.
He lies amongst the Sentinel weaponry and items the great beast had taken as his own.
"Your bones will join the dust of your forbearers," the entity snarls, the scar of Black Mist flaring across his back and the mark of the Ruined briefly flaring across his forehead.
Skarner turns from him, moving towards the other.
Lucian meets Yasuo's gaze.
"Go!" he bellows, fighting to rise, but his legs don't quite want to cooperate.
He raises his guns, desperation, guilt, and anger funneling into them.
He needs them to get out. They can't die because he allowed himself to become obsessed.
And in spite of all of that, the way to save Senna is still in Ezreal's hands.
He looks down as time seems to slow, the sleek forms of his pistols heating up in his grip. The one he always opened with had been Senna's. The sleek white stone fitted snugly into the black metal she had carefully tooled to hold it.
The other had been his mentors, a gift that had seen far more wear. He used it again and again in desperate moves as he refused to give up the last piece of his beloved he could hold on to.
So he lowers Senna's and concentrates all his will through his scarred pistol.
He feels the slumbering relic weapons around him begin to wake up. The dust layering them, the remains of their former wielders wicking away and wiping up as they all begin to glow and steam.
He draws upon the magic within, mingling it with the roiling emotions consuming his soul and the love he ever refused to release.
The shot that fires from his cannon burns brighter and hotter than the sun for an instant, yet he feels no pain even as the stone shatters from its mooring.
It collides with the harpoon left embedded in Skarner's raised claw and detonates it.
The blast shakes the cavern, and the way out smashes closed. The muffled cries of his allies as they are forced back are drowned out by the shriek of Skarner as his vast claw is blown into hunks of carapace and meat, the latter filled with the thinnest threads of Black Mist.
The entity, mad with pain, thrashes and shrieks, rounding on him with feral fury. The deific guardian's mien is pushed too far, dropping away.
His wound pulses, and it charges, intent to smash him to a pulp.
He feels the ground open up beneath him, and the weapons clatter past him into a wet cavern that is distressingly familiar.
"We had a deal," Tahm Kench growls, and Lucian watches the world go black as the demon's teeth snap shut above his head.
Senna lunges into the ruins as the ground begins to rumble and shake. Vex's shadow lashes out at her, but she dodges behind a pillar, firing a shot at the Yordle, who vanishes.
Quiyana laughs, and a torrent of hail peppers the ground, causing Nidalee to scoop Milio up and lunge after Senna. Olaf bellows a challenge, racing towards Quiyana with Riven right behind. Gwen and Vayne follow them into the ruins, the latter firing several bolts towards Vex.
The Yordle's shadow slaps them out of the air and nods to Quiyana, who lunges to meet Olaf and Riven, chakram spinning.
"Who is she?" Senna demands.
Milio looks up at her from within Nidalee's arms as she follows her, pulling him behind cover.
"Quiyana!" Milio exclaims, "One of the Yun Tal, she mastered three of the Axioms earlier than most ever master one!"
"What does that mean?" Vayne demands, firing several more shots at Vex, causing her to weave and dance away. She is lifted and spun out of the way by her shadow, which morphs and shifts, briefly taking on a tall crowned form.
"She is a very powerful mage!" Nidalee states.
Vayne's eyes narrow behind her glasses, "Is she now?"
Thunder booms across the battlefield as her chakram clashes against Olaf's axes. She grins widely as the ground shakes beneath her feet, a flurry of rocky spars firing upward, threatening to skewer him a dozen times over. He leaps back, and Riven replaces him, bringing her broken sworn down.
Quiyana moves to block, and the wind roils around her. Riven's blade is halted. The wind begins to kick up around her, and she continues to press, the green rune igniting at the base of her sword.
The winds whip around them, sending rock and ice scattering, wrenching free loose masonry, and threatening to shake every leaf from neighboring trees. The winds coalesce into a bubble. between their blades and then bursts, sending them both sliding backward.
Riven and Olaf charge back towards her, yet Quiyana continues her dance, prideful sneer never falling as she slashes, weaves, and parries, wind, ice, and rock rising at her voiceless command.
"Right," Vayne states, firing one last shot at Vex, which her shadow grabs with a low chuckle, "I'm changing dance partners."
The bolt detonates, wrapping Vex's shadow in gleaming silver wire. It cries out, and Vex screams in pain as the metal begins to hiss.
Senna nods, emerging from behind cover with Gwen darting past her, scissors spinning into her hands. Vayne darts for Quiyana.
Nidalee sets Milio down, "Stay here, stay safe."
He nods, and she transforms, a massive cat lunging towards the writhing Vex, clearing both Senna and Gwen. Vex falls into her shadow, and both vanish for a moment. They appear again at the edge of the ruin, Gwen and Nidalee pivoting and racing after her, a snarl on the latter's lips.
Senna glances around, allowing herself to reach for the fetter.
There! Hidden beneath a heap of loose cobblestone at the highest point of the ruin.
She moves towards it, firing a passing shot at Vex, who dodges only to find Gwen's scissors lunging towards her.
'I think you are more outmatched than you believe!' Gwen confidently states as Nidalee slashes clean through one of the shadows' grasping limbs. Further punctuating her sentence is Vayne landing a shot on Quiyana, her magic faltering for a moment.
"What?!" the supposed Empress demands as Olaf and Riven charge her at the same time, their weapons sparking across her chakram and forcing her to her knees.
"Petricite, oh 'Empress,'" Vayne taunts dryly, "Quite a problem for folks like you."
Quiyana growls, wrenching the bolt free and ducking under the next Vayne fires. The earth rumbles once more, and the three Sentinels are forced to dodge away as the ground erupts in more stabbing spires.
Vex glares at Gwen, her eyes flicking to Senna as she bolts for the half-destroyed stairs leading up.
"You're right." Vex remarks, "Whatever will I do?"
She slides back into her shadow, which sinks into the ground. Standing there, pistols burning with green fire is Miss Fortune.
"Hey there, dollface," she says, grinning menacingly. "Don't think we've met yet."
She fires, and Gwen cries out as one of the bullets sinks into her shoulder.
Senna whirls and dodges back as a bolt of Vex's magic nearly takes her head off.
Nidalee lunges for Miss Fortune and pauses as Milio calls out, "Look out!"
She manages to turn just slightly so her flank is not utterly exposed as a vast form crashes into her and sends both of them rolling across the ground.
She snarls and strikes at her attacker, her claws clattering against a smooth carapace. The pair finally stop rolling, and the new enemy lunges, sinking mandibles into Nidalee's neck. She feels a chill pump of toxins, both natural and magical, begin to enter her veins.
She bites back, catching the bottom of her attacker's throat, the blood almost as vile as the toxin in its jaws, and wrenches it off of her, tossing it aside. It shrieks and chitters, and she finally gets a good look at it, a vast black spider, Black Mist, seeping from the nooks and crannies of its carapace.
"Elise." Gwen murmurs, dodging out of the way of Fortune's next volley.
Riven feels a slash across her back, and Vayne ducks under a thrown blade as Draven appears, too wide grin plastered across his face.
"Miss me?" he demands, throwing his arms wide—Riven pivots and attempts to ram her blade right through the center of his torso.
He parries, tutting at her, "Too slow, but-"
Quiyana lashes out, cutting Riven across her heels, who screams and nearly falls to her knee.
"She isn't," Draven taunts, aiming to carve into Riven's neck. However, several bolts sink into his armor and chest, causing him to stumble. "Ow."
"Shut up," Vayne demands.
Olaf surges forward, scruffing Quiyana before she can attack the still-recovering Riven again.
"You are royalty, you claim?" he demands as she writhes in his grasp. "You do not seem all that regal to me; you seem pompous."
She snarls.
"I never did understand the need for leaders that sit on high chairs and claim empty titles, though." he remarks, and he headbutts her, breaking her nose and dropping her to the crown, "No honor in not winning your place."
"You do not know me.' Quiyana growls, and Olaf shrugs.
"Royals are all the same to my people; we have no need of th-" he continues to taunt, only for a great head to wrap around his head, and the next thing, he is lifted off his feet and cratered into the ground.
"Who-" he groans as the hand releases him, and he sees looming behind Quiyana, a towering Troll wielding a club of ice that bleeds the Mist, "You."
"Royalty sticks together," Trundle growls in halting Common.
"As slaves to a fool." Olaf returns, lunging to his feet with a grin, "Think you will be my end, Troll King?"
"I know it!" the towering figure bellows and Olaf laughs as they lunge for each other.
Senna fires a shot at Vex and continues to move for the tower; the Yordle darts aside, growing closer and closer.
All around them, chaos reigns as the Ruined pin down her allies, attempting to force and draw them apart. Gwen looks over to her, and a veil of Hallowed Mist rises around her. She begins to shift towards Vex from behind. Fortune fires a shot, which sinks harmlessly into Gwen's barrier, and then fires another, clipping the side of Vayne's cheek, distracting her, and leaving her open to a crushing torso kick from Quiyana.
Vayne vanishes as well.
Nidalee and Olaf roar from opposite sides of the battlefield, slashing and carving at their opponents. The former's just a bit too swift for her blows to land, the latter letting them fall, chuckling as they seal back together almost instantly.
Riven manages to hold off Quiyana and Draven now that she is aware of both of their presences, full blade drawn. With each strike, she sends them sliding and rolling across the ground, even as she dodges thrown axes and shards of elemental energy. Yet, Miss Fortune, now drawing a bead on her, will likely distract her enough for them to get hits in.
And amidst all of that is Milio, huddling close to the ground, utter fear in his eyes.
Senna goes to fire, and her cannon is knocked aside as Vex lets loose a screaming bolt of shadow magic.
"I like the new look," Vex taunts, and Senna pivots, firing a shot at her shadow as it tries to slink up the stairs toward where she knows the mask to be hidden.
"Right back at you," Senna states, taking in the changed elements. They ever so slightly resembled bridal attire, but not enough that most would recognize it at first glance. Yet something in Senna recognizes it and feels… a mixture of affronted and dismayed: "It carries a certain air of pitiful."
Vex's eyes narrow, "I was going to say the same for you, about the arm, is it yours or hers?"
Senna blinks, looking down, and for a moment, she sees a ring on her finger that she knows is not hers.
"Viego wants me to bring you to him," Vex states, shadow roiling across her. "He thinks he can convince you of the truth."
"That being?" Senna demands.
"That you're nothing but a hollow mask that Isolde has become too comfortable in wearing." Vex states, faux-sweetly, "Just like the doll. A puppet she has grown fond of."
Senna feels a chill go through her, remembering the words of the Bearded Lady, "Will you be able to let her go?"
"I'm not sure I agree," Vex says. "In fact, I prefer that you are as defiant as you are!"
Senna gives the Yordle a questioning look, even as she fires another shot, chasing the shadow back yet again as chaos continues to echo all around them.
"It means I have a better excuse for killing you," Vex states.
Gwen and Vayne appear, both gleaming with light, the former holding her main crossbow, the latter a handful of needles.
Vex's shadow smiles.
And erupts in a scream, that sends cascading waves of shadow magic coursing free of Vex.
Senna, Vayne, and Gwen are sent clattering across the ground, and Vex is catapulted into the air, landing atop the leaning tower. Vayne collides with a wall, her eyes rolling back as her head cracks against the masonry, a bit of blood left on the stonework as it begins to topple over her.
Senna scrambles to her feet and moves to lunge after Vex but freezes as a brief whistle catches her ears.
Miss Fortune stands over Gwen, one hand pinned under her foot, both pistols pointing directly at the doll's face.
"Got a feeling she matters about as much as that little fetter up there, right?" Fortune taunts.
Nidalee yowls in pain as smaller spiders emerge from the undergrowth and swarm to aid Elise as they bear down on her.
Olaf and Riven are slowing down as they are battered from three sides, and Vayne remains unmoving.
Vex's shadow looms large, grinning at Senna eagerly as the Yordle preens slightly from her new perch.
"Two close at hand, and one left to go," she taunts, putting extra emphasis on the 'go.'
She turns towards where the fetter is hidden, eliciting a gasp from Milio, even though he tries to muffle it too late with both of his hands.
Senna glances around, hunting for options. What risks would be worth it to prevent another fetter from falling into Viego's hands?
She can't risk Gwen—herself, gladly, but not Gwen, who even now looks to her for guidance, courage, and direction. Worry and determination swim in her two-colored eyes.
Vex's shadow looms ever taller as it inches closer.
And then freezes as the barbed tip of a harpoon pierces out front of its chest.
Vex screams in pain and then surprise as his shadow is ripcorded away from Senna, dragging her with it off the tower.
And emerging from the jungle, eyes gleaming, is Pyke.
"Found 'em!" he calls back.
A thunderous boom answers in response, and Miss Fortune vanishes in a detonation of golden light, freeing Gwen.
Graves races out of the jungle, firing shot after shot at the Ruined as he runs, "Hey there, boss! You get in a pickle, too?!"
Senna finds herself smiling despite everything.
A tornado blooms at the edge of the jungle and races towards Olaf and Riven; Olaf bellows a laugh as the winds envelop him and force Trundle back, emerging from them a moment later, wreathed in lightning.
Riven catches the tornado on her blade and turns, shifting the winds green for just a moment and splitting it. Cascading razor winds cut across both Draven and Quiyana, eliciting shrieks and bellows of pain.
Yasuo alights within the ruin, and Senna's smile drops as she sees blood covering his shoulder and seeping into his scarf.
She rushes towards him and then falters as she realizes the blood is not his but the person he is gently maneuvering off his back: Ezreal.
"What happened?" Senna asks.
Yasuo glances up at her, and there is… guilt and anger in his gaze, "It's not my story to tell, and is far too long to begin with."
She glances around, expecting to see Lucian.
But he isn't there.
"Where—" she begins, but a shriek cuts her off as Vex extricates herself from Pyke and slams him aside with a shadowy tendril. She steps into her shadow, and the figure changes, shifting and growing until it resembles a feminine figure with a black bridal veil and a hooked, barbed-looking sword sliding from its hand.
"No time, look after him. Where is the fetter?" Yasuo says, and this time, he can't meet her eyes.
Her heart stops.
No.
No.
He can't.
He can't have.
We wouldn't.
She feels the Black Mist try and force its way in using the grief welling up inside her.
Vex darts to get back to the fetter.
Senna joins her, shedding her mortal visage for the raging spirit beneath.
She tackles the Yordle and savages her, claws digging deep into her shadowy torso and the cloth and flesh hidden beneath.
"No!" she snarls,
Vex's sword pierces her, and she can feel it, the shadow magic snapping at her spectral form.
"What, afraid of losing something important?" Vex taunts, "Seems like that already happened."
Senna shrieks wordlessly and, for the first time, feels her spectral form changing unbidden, jaws extending, growing monstrous, skeletal, fanged.
She has to protect the fetter. Protect Gwen. Protect what remains.
She bites into Vex, and the Yordle cries out as the pair spiral into the air.
"Senna, no!" Yasuo cries out, going to race for her but faltering as he looks down at Ezreal, and then a cry of pain draws his attention as he sees Riven stumbling, shaking her head, a gash on her forehead oozing blood.
"Go!" a little voice says, and he turns, looking down to see a young boy wreathed in comforting flames, eyes glowing orange, looking up at him as he places a portly and gentle spirit on Ezreal's chest.
"I have him," the boy says, so sure and earnestly that Yasuo can not help but believe him.
He surges to Riven's side, his sword singing as it clashes against the chakram of a Ruined woman dressed in finery.
The wind fights him for a moment as she concentrates on her own magic, but his will wins out.
She is sent spiraling and then to the ground as he cuts her feet out from under her and then whirls to pommel strike Draven right between the eyes.
He brushes against Riven, smiling slightly as she looks at him with weary eyes.
"Told you I'd be back," he states.
She smiles and then pushes him to the side, her blade carving clean through the wide grasping hand of a towering Troll that howls before Olaf shoulder tackles him to the ground and begins to savagely beat him with his fists.
"Head on a swivel," Riven warns, though she smiles gently and briefly takes his hand.
He grins and then feels a rush of guilt as he thinks of Lucian vanishing behind the cascading boulders, defiant and contrite. Then to Senna and the brief moment of utter loss on her face before she cast herself aside.
"More lovebirds." a voice growls, and he looks up to see Sarah glaring at him, skin smoking from Graves's attack, both guns trained on his head, "Wonderful."
She fires, and he deflects the first shot, ducking under the next, and goes to charge her. He nearly takes an axe to the arm from Draven, whom he pivots to face.
Riven is at his side, pushing back the woman in finery and then kicking one of Draven's legs out from under him.
He follows that up with a pommel strike to the woman's head, dazing her, and spins, seeing Fortune lining up another shot on Riven.
She fires, and he is forced to parry a slash of freezing water as the other woman whirls on him.
The bullet races for Riven, who is turning too late to guard it.
And then his fingers are burning as he catches it, an inch from her nose.
She blinks, absentmindedly decking Draven as he tries to take advantage of her distraction and looks up to Yasuo.
"Thank you," she murmurs.
"Always," he returns.
He hears Sarah draw back the hammers on her guns once again.
And then a flurry of crossbow bolts fly past him and pin her to the crumbling wall behind her.
Vayne materializes beside him, "Enough flirting. We need to get the fetter, now!"
He nods, gives Riven's hand a final squeeze, and races back the way he came, glancing up to see the shrouded Vex and increasingly feral-looking Senna clash in the sky.
Nidalee is worried.
She has more allies than before, which is good, but Senna is changing. She can smell the Black Mist growing stronger, her now familiar scent vanishing within it.
The horrid spider that beset her is now being pressed back by a man who smells of the sea and rotting plants, who carves and cuts its limbs, while another man who smells of old alcohol and smoked herbs blasts its children into paste. Gwen is aiding in distracting the spider, darting and dancing around it, staying just out of reach of its stabbing legs. Yet her attention, too, is more closely tied to the sky.
He glances at her warily, "Friends?"
She shifts back to her vastaya form, "Perhaps."
"Oh…" he begins to say, but she ignores him, looking towards the tower.
"Cover me.' she states. He nods, firing a shot that pulps another spiderling.
"Gwen!" she cries, pointing to the tower.
"Let's go!" she agrees, flipping away from the spider and joining her as they race for it.
"You first," Nidalee states, joining her hands together and crouching. Gwen nods, stepping into her palms, and Nidalee throws her up, where she hovers for a second, her scissors shifting gently in the air like a bird.
Nidalee blinks, "Oh."
"Hurry!" Gwen states, holding out her hand. Nidalee leaps, grabbing hold of her arm, and together they ascend to the top.
Nidalee touches down first and sees their target: a beautiful, expertly crafted jade mask inlaid with gold. It smells of something distant, something… lonely.
Gwen shifts past her.
"It's okay," Gwen mutters, gently shifting the rubble away and pulling the mask free. A blue light briefly flairs across it, and Nidalee sees tears brim up in Gwen's eyes.
"You're safe now," she murmurs, clutching the mask tight to her chest.
"So this is what you were after?" Nidalee asks.
"Yes, but we must get it away from here," Gwen states, looking down and seeing the injured Ezreal.
"I can carry you." Nidalee offers.
"They would only chase us," Gwen says, shaking her head and looking up at Senna and Vex. "We need to leave the jungle entirely."
"That would take days." Nidalee remarks.
"Not if Ezreal gets on his feet," she glances down at the mask and up at Nidalee. She presses the mask into her hands, clutching them tightly for a moment.
"Keep her safe," she says, and with that, she leaps back down, dancing through the chaos and sliding to her knees beside Ezreal. Silvery mist coats her hands as she reaches for him and begins speaking to Milio.
All around her, the fight continues as she crouches low, willing herself to be unnoticed.
The Ruined are too focused on their enemies as if the one that should be commanding them is… distracted.
The ground rumbles. She glances out, expecting it to be Quiyana's doing, but she, too, briefly becomes unbalanced.
It shakes again, and Olaf is thrown free of his opponent, who surges to his feet with a roar and bashes him into the ground.
A claw burst free of the earth, bigger than anything she had ever seen, snatching him up and chucking him away. His bellow fading into the distance.
Her hackles rise, and her mouth goes dry as the creature pulls itself from the ground, more and more of the Black Mist threading through his body, shaking and jittering. One claw ends in a ragged stump that intermittently ignites with spectral flame.
Skarner.
"Traitors! Outsiders! Fiends!" he bellows, thrashing and clattering, the ground quaking and buckling all around you, "Ixtal has no need of you! No desire! I will bury you all beneath the heart of my kingdom!"
He raises his claws and tails, and she instinctively knows that if he drops them, they are all done.
She needs to stop him.
She glances down at the mask in her hands.
"Senna!" she shouts, holding up the mask for her to see. She turns, eyes widening, and darts towards her, Vex not far behind.
She tosses the mask into the air and gathers all of her strength, transforming as she does.
She launches into the air, and everything feels like it slows. The Ruined and the Sentinels continue to battle while turning to get away from Skarner. Vex tears and lashes at Senna, but she is resolute, claws extending to snatch up the mask. Milio and Gwen urge Ezreal to wake up.
She transforms mid-leap and draws her arm back, spear poised to strike.
She fires it with all he might toward Skarner, too distracted by his pain and rage to notice his comparatively tiny shape racing toward his colossal head.
She falls.
Senna grabs the mask.
Ezreal snaps awake.
The spear strikes home, and screams, unlike anything she had ever heard, buffet them all like a hurricane.
A deep, sonorous cry that threatened to shake the ground to splinter itself.
And then, there is nothing but light.
Senna blinks, and she finds herself back in the Isles, hovering inches off the ground, with a sword embedded in her abdomen and the fetter clutched in hooked claws she vaguely recalls as her own hands. She reaches down, wrenching the blade free, and drops it to the ground without even registering the pain.
"Everyone, okay? Everyone here?" Ezreal slurs, his cheek not fully stitched back together.
He looks around frantically, turning his journal over in one hand, the Wayfinder smoking in the other, a fresh crack running down its length.
She looks around as well. They're all here, including Nidalee and Milio. All except…
"Lucian?" Ezreal asks, looking around at the others, "What happ-Lucian?!"
He shouts it, whirling around, unsteady from blood loss, Gwen gently grabbing hold of him to keep him upright.
"But I got… I…" Ezreal mutters, wincing at the pain in the side of his face.
"He… wanted to make sure we all made it out," Yasuo offers. "He didn't want us to pay for his mistake."
"What happened?!" Senna demands, startled by the harsh, echoing rasp that escapes her.
"It…" Yasuo begins, faltering until Riven grabs his hand, "That entity that burst free of the earth, he kept its attention so we could get out."
"No." she breathes, and the damn breaks.
She wails, and the others are buffeted back, Nidalee stepping in front of Milio as she falls to her knees.
She is unraveling, and she isn't sure if she cares.
"What is-" Ledros calls, emerging from the base with Diana a step behind and freezes at the sight of her, "Oh."
"Senna, it will be okay," Gwen offers, attempting to get close, but Senna can't hear over her rasping sobs, clutching the mask to her chest, feeling so utterly and completely alone.
"Senna."
She freezes and looks up, and the others turn, and standing there, arm hanging limp, covered in bruises and cuts, is her husband, weapons she has never seen piled on a sled behind him as he unsteadily climbs the hill behind them.
"Hey, love," he murmurs, and she tackles him. The Black Mist sheds off her until it is just her and him, nothing else in the world, enclosed in an ever-tightening embrace.
"What happened?" she demands, voice muffled as she buries her head into his chest.
"Far too much." he returns, kissing the top of her head and looking at the assembled Sentinels, his gaze tracking to a few members in particular, "But the short story is, I was foolish, and I am sorry."
Yasuo glares at him, and then sighs, smiling slightly, "Glad you're around still."
"As am I." he returns, and then he falls silent, leaning into her embrace.
The others depart after a time, but they stay in their embrace for what could be hours in comfortable silence.
Senna breaks it, "Lucian, what happened?"
He sighs, "Where do I start…"
And scene!
Next time we will be getting into a brief interim chapter, where a certain figure finally takes center stage, and after that, we move into an OC Arc.
I take it many of you will have guessed at this point Rengar is not getting Sentineled, and you are correct. He just doesn't fit in and has the weakest connection to the narrative I felt and the reason for being there. He isn't a guardian or a protector, in fact he is pretty inherently selfish. So, instead, I present to you Sentinel Nidalee!
That will be built out more next chapter.
As always, comments, questions, and critiques are appreciated! This has been VerBeeker, signing off!