Forge of worlds - League of legends fanfic

Chapter 36 - Nightmare

Spark of fire scattered from every collision that the rebel's feathers hit, rays of lights sprung shone as the explorer jumped from place to place to avoid getting his face sliced in two. Grunts of annoyance and frustration would rumble from her lips, summoning another hand full of daggers. Her pace did not slow down after running for minutes after the young man, the feathers that were clenched between her fingers stroke over each other leaving a sound of metal rustling over each other. Ezreal held his breath, feeling drops of sweat rolling down his temples as he had managed to hide behind another pillar to dodge another set of daggers. 'This is not what you want, Xayah!' But his voice did not reach her. She wanted to see blood and it was blood that she would get in the end. 'What happened to the girl that protected me each time I stumbled?'
The corrupt guardian broke through the pillar and meet head first with the explorer, with just a single pounce she had managed to push him in to a wall, throwing another feather that had missed him be a hair if he had not ducked. 'Shut up! You're just here to replace Rakan.'
'Rakan?' A shriek rolled over his tongue when the guardian once again had her means out to claw his eyes out every moment that was given to her. The gem in his gauntlet gave him the sign he needed to call upon his powers and teleport away. With his breath sticking in to his throat he ran away, the ticks of her talons hitting the floor that haunted him. 'I doubt that's why Ahri brought me in.' Ezreal promptly turned in his tracks, the glistening of a dagger that reflected in his eyes. With just a single gasp for air he had managed to deflect it with a arcane shot.
'Oh really? You talk just as much as he does on a daily basis. Act like him, speak like him. There's nothing that differs you from each other!'
A silence fell in between them, even the pupils of the rebel stared to the ground and for just that moment did Ezreal feel like he had struck a snare. The sound of their heavy breathing synchronized and her stare slowly became a haze before her eyes. 'Doesn't that prove how much she cares about you guys?'
Xayah rose her pink eyes to him, confused to what she had to believe. 'If she really cared about us she would have tried to save us. She ran, along with Sarah. They both ran while they could have stopped her.' Her eyes had slowly become watery the more she spoke of her suffering, in that same tone as she spoke Ezreal could envision his experience through the maze of truth once again. Kai'Sa laid in his arms, there was nothing that he could have done to save her and his death would not have made anything better. If he had chosen to die with her, there was so much for him that he would lose. Kai'Sa's death would only have given him two lives to life for and both had to be spent happily.
'But what if they died too?' Flashes of the cave sprung before his eyes again, the puddle of blood and broken pieces of mass that stained his body.
Xayah shook her head intensively, losing herself to dark matter in another war that raged inside of her she opened her fist, spreading each fingers with pressure resting on every muscle sparkles flung from her tips and called back on every feather that was scattered around. Ezreal's eyes widened when even the feather in his gauntlet had pulled on him, but he negated the call by collecting all of the energy within Ne'Zuk's gauntlet to refuse it from escaping. Instead he leaped away to avoid the missiles of feathers racing through the atmosphere. 'If only they had died.'
'You're really a mess without Rakan, aren't you?' Though he wanted to let it sound like empathy, he could not help but to grin at that sentence as he could not imagine a world where he weren't able to deal with his own problems. It simply seemed weak to him. Xayah wrinkled her nose out of disgust when he had read one of her weak spots and flung another dagger to his head, that he had easily dodged. Now it was obvious to him she lacked sense of aim and let her anger take over. 'I always thought he needed you, but you just couldn't let it, could you?'
'I'm going to kill you!' The corrupt guardian summoned another dagger, growing tired of the range between them she ran for his position. All guardians within their group were familiar with Ezreal's lack of skill in close combats. Something that they had not updated, since the group was no familiar with the Kai'Sa of their timeline, the one that had trained him to face greater threats than the one racing for him now. The sharpened edge of her blade swung to leave a cut in his face, but only reached for three strands of hairs. A dance that longed for the spill of blood, was only held to slowly tire her out and draw out the vulnerable version that hit inside.
Ezreal stepped aside to dodge a hit aimed for his heart, observing every movement that ran through her facial features. In just that split second did he notice her eyelids dropping slowly, indicating exhaustion. 'You're only being haunted by your nightmares, Xayah. I lost someone too while I went through that pool of dark matter,' But his words seemed to reach her halfway as she drove her blade in his shoulders, leaving a clean cut that spread a red stain on his collarbone. The explorer flinched and resumed to keep his focus in the battle, wearing off some of the attacks with the back of his gauntlet. 'I didn't really tell this to anyone but the healers, but when I went through that maze I had to face one of my greatest nightmares. I saw Kai'Sa die and had to make the decision to walk away, my death wouldn't have made me morally better or shown her that I cared-'
The tip of Xayah's feather stuck in the mechanic of Ezreal's gauntlet, forcing Yuuto to escape so he would not get killed in the action. 'If she were in the same situation, she too would have gone out to hunt you.'
'Rakan died for your sake too, what did he gain out of it than your approval?' A glimpse of astonishment had given him the sign to strike her down, not even a single thought of it being a bad idea had hit him yet. Gritting his teeth on each other he slammed his body in to her, his hands holding on to her wrists he pinned the Vastaya down to the ground. 'Ahri and Sarah couldn't have done anything in that moment, if they died just like you there would be more bad in the world than good.'
'Get off me!' The rebel shook her head in all sorts of directions to wear the explorer from her, but to no avail.
'Our death doesn't bring a difference, I made the right choice by walking off and living my life for her sake. I would have let her done the same thing if she had no way to save me. They probably ran because there was nothing that they could have done,' Xayah's pink eyes sunk in her pupils a the reality that was hit in her face. An expression of pain and sadness crossed her, but she did not let it in. 'I honestly didn't care when you guys came back in to the group, at first I even started to hate it because Ahri wouldn't stop crying whenever I was near her.'
'Why would she cry?' In another world she would have been sarcastic, already knowing the answer to her question. But in this one, she gazed at him in wonder. Even the pink in her eyes slowly grew green, similar to her original form.
Ezreal sighed, the sight of the Vastaya's innocence almost made him think of Kai'Sa who waited at home for him. While she waits for him to get back, he himself did not know if he would get out of here alive. 'You, Rakan and Neeko are the only one of her own kind that still accept her. She sees you as family.'
Her peach lips drew slowly from each other to gasp for breath, a curtain of tears covered the surface of her eyes and made the corner of her lips tremble. His words had finally reached her, the sight of her tear drops rolling over her cheeks and slowly releasing the dark matter that had conquered her. A smile had taken over him the more her original form would radiate through the darkness, revealing her usual colour palette of green and pink. How many more times did he have to go through this? It had certainly not been the first time he had to release people from their demons, he just never felt like he was suited for it. Especially after all the men that fell prey to monsters, Ezreal was the first to run with the prize in his hands. Every advantage, was his advantage. Kai'Sa truly had an influence on him, maybe for the better.
Xayah slowly rose from the ground, her pupils shrunk to the size her green eyes were finally visible now. Her eyes gazed around the room, clearly looking for Rakan and when their eyes met Ezreal shrug his shoulders. A few seconds had gone by and her stare did not break a single time, before he knew she had wrapped her arms around him for an embrace. Though he wanted to act surprised, after the first time Ahri had saved them he and Rakan had spent much time together and spoke of tales of the past, one of them being Xayah, who was a lot more sensitive and caring than she'd like to admit and show. Ezreal rolled his eyes when her nails dug in his shoulders. The Vastaya's mouth was near his ear whispering how he should not get used to it. They both break out in laughter and share a smile.
'-I told you to capture him, not steal him!' A high pitched, childlike voice cut through the silent ambience. Ezreal didn't get the chance to look up as Xayah's first instinct was to cover him, her pink wing was wrapped around him, weighed down as steel to keep him protected for the blow that was about to strike them. It was clear to him that the person who had just yelled in their direction was none other than Zoe. Jealous that her minion had broken herself from her spell and fought against her. A thud echoed from the chamber they were in, leaving Xayah and Zoe left in a gasp at something he could not see for himself. The rebel had tried her best to keep him under her wing, to prevent him from something she wished he would not see. But it was too late, through the peaks of her feathers did he see Kaisa's feet, her knees trembling and ticking against each other. His heart leapt in his chest and he quickly pushed the guardian off of him, Ezreal rose from the ground to catch Kaisa, who was about to fall. Her body shuddered at the touch of his hand grasping onto her, watching him with wary eyes only to see the explorer herself. A smile formed hesitantly on her lips, a gap as deep as her ribcage gasped to ho him. Zoe was not just out to stop Xayah after breaking from her spell, she had her means out to definitely kill her. Despite her not bleeding, it was even more horrid to his eyes to see her slowly fade in to particles of stardust.  Xayah grunted, her shadow that crawled over them. She drew her daggers at hand, each piece that rustled over each other like razor leafs. To defend them at their most vulnerable state she faced Zoe herself. Kaisa took a deep breath staring as the two women broke out in a fight, one that fought for the safety of her friends and the other that broke out in rage.
A laughter sounded from her cherry lips, her hazel eyes that met with his. Sparkles slowly consumed her fingers, leaving almosy emptiness while she held on to his cheek. 'I'm sorry, I couldn't let her die again. Neither you.' Her words almost came out in a whisper, it was difficult for him to hear her clearly. Ezreal sunk through his knees and held the remnants of her body in his arms. 'My time is limited from here on out, so please hear me out-'
Holding her close to his face he brushed strands of lost hair from her cheeks, taking every bit of her in his mind. 'Anything.'
Kaisa smiled gently, pinching him in his cheek. 'Once I disappear, all of the stardust inside of me will scatter. It's enough to break the others that are trapped out of her pocket dimension and boost their powers so you can break out.'
The sound of daggers crossed through the chamber, followed by the hysterical laughter of Zoe. Ezreal lowered his head even closer to meet with hers. 'I'm sorry we didn't get to spend more time together.'
The girl laughed, her hand that had almost disappeared while trying to hold on to him. 'We've spent a lot of time together, I'm linked with the real Kai'Sa. All the things that you're doing with her gets immidiately linked to me.'
Ezreal rose his brows, squinting his eyes to ask her if she even saw their intimate times together. Another laughter rumbled from her throat, her almost transparant fingers that stroke the golden locks from his forehead. 'Even those moments.'
How could she make death less terrifying than it should be? He wondered to himself as he brushed his thumb over the skin of her bottom lip. 'You really don't deserve this.'
As if it had been one of the most normal moments in their lives Kaisa shook her shoulders and chuckled. 'Take good care of me, she loves you a lot more than she thinks she does.'
His heart skipped a beat at the thought of the original Kai'Sa waiting for him, while her alternative version faded in his arms. 'S-She doesn't love me, I don't know what you're talking about.' The explorer broke out in a stutter, frowning his forehead as he tried to brush the hint of false hope away.
'You really need to stop talking.' Before Ezreal could even ask his lips were already sealed by hers. In a split second of shock he quickly recovered and held her closely to his chest. Even the alternative Kaisa felt the same as the original, just like her did he taste more than just her lips. A wave of compassion, love and their close bond would overwhelm him and drag him even more down. When her body was no longer present in his arms he opened his eyes to meet the stardust of Kaisa that was left, glistening on to the stone cold surface of the floor. How he wished to spare a few more seconds with her, just to ask her more of what his Kai'Sa felt. Instead he watched as the dust gathered to become a pile of concentrated magic, ready to combust and meet it's new makers. Ezreal rose his eyes to the child that gasped at the sight of her fallen teammember, knowing her death would only make the others stronger. Zoe stared a few more seconds into Ezreal's eyes and from just that look did he know that he guard was completely down.

'Time for payback.'