Oh look, it's a zombie fic - and just in time for Halloween! You know, cause it came back from the dead. (I'm getting more and more creative in covering my shame up.)

This is the longest chapter of the story thus far - and by the way, I've revised the previous ones; nothing important was changed, just a few errors, typos and just plain stupidity that I had to fix.

Great thanks to everybody for reviewing, following and favoriting the story so far! You guys really make me smile :)

Art Promotion: Check out the illustration for this chapter by the amazing artist (and a great person, too!), Shagan on her tumblr here: pastwiska tumblr com/post/134352858730 (replace spaces with dots! or go to my profile for a normal link, hate you too, ffnet)

Issue: As Pancake Master said in reviews, my description of Baron Nashor is not valid anymore; this story was written long before the Summoner's Rift visual update, so you'll just have to bear with it ^v^

Note: The characters are dressed in their usual clothes, but Diana and Leona don't wear heels. Things written in italic are emphasises.
Disclaimer: All characters and places mentioned belong to Riot.

Stray Dogs

Chapter 7: Darkness

Leona stared in the glistening eyes of the dragon before her.

It took her a good few seconds to realize what was going on; one moment she was looking ahead at Katarina and the Demacian siblings, the next she looked at the big, scaly underside of Baron Nashor.

She ducked on instinct, dragging Diana along as the beast's forelegs landed where the girls have been just a second ago. The Lunari let out a shout of surprise and Leona cursed silently as the blonde landed on top of her, obscuring her view of the dragon and everyone else; she couldn't even see if they were alright.

Baron Nashor seemed focused on them for now, though. Gathering all her strength, she rolled them over just in time to avoid a strike of the massive tail; the Solari jumped to her feet and reached for her sword, turning around to face the monster again.

"Get away!" she shouted to Diana over the roaring wind as Baron Nashor struck once more, aiming for Leona with one of its forelegs. She ducked the blow and was on the ground again, eyes searching wildly for the shield she'd let go of when the beast arrived.

Finally, she noticed a flicker of light. The Sun shone off the shield's smooth, golden surface, just twenty feet away.

"LEONA!"

Diana's scream brought the redhead back to her senses as she barely avoided another blow. She gasped in surprise when the dragon's tail smashed the ground right beside her and a loud, deafening thud erupted in her ears and shook her insides. A crack responded from beneath the ground, but Leona had far too little time to care about it now.

Suddenly, the beast turned around, the enormous tail flying just a few inches over her body. Something caught its attention on the other side and it roared loudly, acid falling from its mouth to make hissing holes in the snow around them.

Still dazzled from the near-blow, Leona felt arms sliding underneath her shoulders, trying to drag her up - it seemed the adrenaline rush brought the Lunari back to her feet. She shook her head to clear her vision and fought against the fuzzy feeling in her knees as she stood up on her own, eyes locking briefly on Diana's face before venturing back to the shield. It shone bright against the white snow, still embed in the place where she'd let go of it. She tightened the grip on the hilt of her sword, quickly estimating the distance in her head. If she hurried up, she could reach the shield in about—

"Tail!"

Diana threw herself against Leona's back, crashing them both onto the snow one more time as the tail flew above their heads again. Unable to stop the momentum, the beast hit the ground once more; this time, a louder crack sounded from beneath them, but Baron Nashor's roar drowned all other sounds out.

Leona could only shoot the blonde a quick glance, but it was enough to notice the terror written all over her face. The dragon was staring right at the two of them, approaching them slowly as they made a futile attempt to crawl back. The earth cracked again as one foreleg stepped close to them, almost landing on and crushing Diana's legs in the process. Another crack accompanied the dragon's bellow as it stood on its hind legs, preparing for a finishing blow.

Leona reached for the blonde's shoulder and gripped her hard as she realized the cracks were getting louder and more frequent.

She managed to get them out of the beast's way as it crashed into the ground one last time.

oOOo

The fall lasted for eternity.

As the earth opened beneath them, there were two things Leona was sure of; one, her sword was still secure in her right hand and her left arm was wrapped firmly around Diana's shoulders. Two, they were going to die in the next seconds.

Darkness engulfed them as she felt her back crash into a stony ledge. Sharp pain bolted through her left side, but her grip on Diana's arm only tightened. As her hip collided with a cold stone, she let out a short, painful yelp; her sword slipped from her hand then. Something thudded above them and she heard Diana's cry, but it wasn't until she felt the absence of the blonde in her arms that Leona wanted to truly scream as well.

She must have hit another wall in her fall, as the air was knocked out of her lungs and despite the best effort, no sound came out her mouth. No new breath entered her chest. Darkness only grew thicker as the world seemed to end and her body got surrounded by endless void.

oOOo

"—ona..."

She could feel the friction of her eyelids against her eyeballs as she blinked, a sensation almost painful if not for the fact that her whole body throbbed in pain. The realization hit her hard; she was alive - hurt, but alive. She might be dying in the next second, but at this moment, her heart was still beating.

"Leona..."

She had probably lost her consciousness for a brief moment. She couldn't remember the last part of the fall, though she couldn't be sure how long it had been. Not more than four minutes, that much she knew; staying out of breath for longer would do much more damage. Her lungs were still airless and on the verge of collapsing, but her brain was working, even if her opened eyes were not seeing.

"Come on, Leo..."

The touch to her shoulder was gentle, but she was able to feel it over the pain, as if some subconscious part of her mind wanted to bring her out of this state. She clung on to it as she forced her eyes to focus; no shapes came clear in her vision, but at least she saw light. Bright, immense light that would blind her, but she stared into it like a moth fascinated by the only lamp in a dark hallway.

Then, the face behind the light became visible; brows furrowed and blue eyes wide open, parted lips. She was even paler than usually, though that might have been due to the stark contrast against the blackness behind her.

Muscles contracted on their own as a breath finally entered Leona's lungs and a new wave of fiery pain flooded her chest. An irresistible urge to cough formed at the back of her brain and the rational part of it almost yelled at her for such masochistic thoughts.

If there ever was a time she hoped she'd seen Diana happy to see her again, it certainly wasn't under such circumstances.

"What hurts?"

Straight to the point. Leona realized she must have looked horrible if the other girl didn't even feel the need to ask if anything hurts. She closed her eyes back and concentrated on the question; there was no simple answer. The pain was pulsing through her entire body with every beat of her heart.

"Chest," she gasped out, pointing with her right hand to the middle part of her torso where she could swear a few ribs got broken. She smiled mentally as she noticed the hand was alright. Her breath was starting to even out as she got used to the pain that accompanied every inhale.

"And head?"

She shook it gently, both to reply and to test the honesty of the answer. It did hurt; but the pain was something she'd associate with a fall, a normal side effect to hitting the ground. It was certainly less painful than her chest. No serious damage was done.

"You're bleeding."

To prove the point, Diana brought her gloved hand to the side of the redhead's face then brought it in front of her now opened eyes. The tips of the Lunari's exposed fingers were covered with dark red.

"Mmm, can't feel it." She slipped her golden gauntlet off and brought her own hand to apply some pressure to the place just beside her headpiece. Again, it did hurt, but it was more of a bruise than anything else. "Must be a scratch."

"Must be." She nodded shortly. Leona looked at her, trying to focus her vision. The blonde was indeed the source of light; the mark on her forehead was shining in the deep darkness surrounding them, making it harder for Leona to see Diana's face in details. There was a dark mark on her cheek, but she couldn't be sure whether it was a bruise, a scratch or just a shadow playing with her mind.

Other than that, the girl seemed no worse than before the fall. She was partially crouching in front of her - over her, to be exact, kneeling on one knee between Leona's thighs and leaning forward on the leg braced against the Radiant Dawn's left hip. The redhead was lying uncomfortably on the ground, with her hips higher than the rest of her body. She made an attempt to move, but a firm hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Wait," Diana said, her voice underlined with worry. "I'm not sure you should—"

"I need to sit up," she cut in, gritting her teeth as her chest hurt more from a mindless, sharp intake of breath.

Diana seemed to give up without a fight as she watched her stir, the redhead trying to work a way to lever herself without hurting her ribs more. After a while, the blonde moved to her side, circling one arm around her torso and gently probing her up. Leona's back slid up against the wall as they shifted, slowly, awkwardly trying to change the position.

When she was finally seated, Diana made an attempt to move away. Leona caught her forearm before the girl was out of her reach.

"What about you?" she asked, masking the pain with what she hoped was a normal smile on her face. The Lunari's expression told her she saw through Leona's lie. "Did the wound—"

"It's alright," she answered quickly, her eyes skipping all over Leona's body. There was some uncertainty in her voice, but Leona let it pass. "It didn't open."

The Solari closed her eyes with a relieved sigh.

"But..." Diana started again, and Leona's eyelids snapped open upon hearing the blonde's voice break. "I think we're trapped."

She pointed to the space above their heads and, as the redhead's gaze followed her finger, she saw a vague picture of a narrow ravine; Leona recognized it from the fall. Most of her view was obscured by a weird shadow, but it seemed that the hole has closed back above them, as no light was entering from the outside; the only source of it was the Lunari's forehead mark.

A muffled roar came from above. Leona's eyes widened.

"The others," she said in a grave tone. "Oh gods, they are left there with it..."

"They are," Diana admitted, her eyes cast down on her folded hands. "But there's nothing you can do about it."

"I know, but—"

"It's not your fault." She placed a hand on the Solari's shoulder and squeezed gently. "And not your concern anymore. We are here, not there."

Leona nodded her head slowly as she let the Lunari's words sink in. For the first time since they fell in, she realized they would eventually need to find a way out. She looked to her right; there was a wall close to them, and it seemed there were no holes or passages, just as if it was the end of a tunnel. When she turned her head to the left, she saw a narrow, but not too steep way down; something shimmered a few tens of feet away from them and down the passage. With a squint of her eyes, Leona could vaguely make out the shape of her sword. She turned her gaze back to Diana and noticed the Lunari weapon was lying just behind her, next to the golden Solari gauntlet that she mindlessly threw on the ground a few moments ago. With a sigh, she slipped the other one off and let it join its twin.

"I lost my shield," she murmured as the echo of the armored glove hitting the ground stopped. The blonde's eyes widened at that, and even through the blinding light Leona could see the worried expression on her face.

"I'm sorry."

Leona grit her teeth; if she hadn't been trying to carry both her weapons and Diana in the first place, she probably wouldn't let go of the shield. She was acting purely on instinct when she unstrapped it from her back, thinking she might have a bigger chance of moving around freely without a heavy, broad object restricting her moves. Rolling around in the snow like they did would be impossible... but then, she was sure she was going to get it back.

"No, I..." she stopped to let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding, "I tried to reach it, but I couldn't, not with the beast attacking us." She gulped down the bitter feeling in her throat. "It can't be helped now."

"We'll find it when—"

"Diana," she cut in sharply, though she wore a smile to cover the pain she felt - both physical and from the loss. "We're in a... I don't even know where we are. In some cave— that we're not supposed to be in, there wasn't an entrance here before the beast made it. There's no saying when and if we get out—"

"There's got to be some way," the Lunari said, getting back to her feet before Leona could stop her. Though the blonde tried hard to mask it, Leona could clearly see now that she was hurting; there was a slight limp from when she fell over in the snow above, right before the Baron's arrival, and she did seem to be uncomfortable with her abdomen; her left arm hung awkwardly by her side, too, probably from when they hit the ground - Leona could only wish she'd served as a cushion for the Lunari. She walked directly to the middle of their landing place and looked up, bright light illuminating the ceiling of their cavern. "Can you see it from there?"

The redhead looked up as well, but a rock protruded out of the wall that she was leaning against, partially blocking her view.

"Not really."

A long, drawled sigh could be heard as the Lunari stared into the darkness above them, shedding light onto the rocky walls with the Moon mark on her forehead.

"There's..." she hesitated briefly. From the distance, Leona observed her as she moved; it was clear she was leaning more on her right leg, but Leona couldn't be sure whether it was from the fall. With some relief, she noted Diana was repeatedly flexing the fingers of her left arm; it couldn't be broken, but there was something off in the way it worked. "It's like a massive avalanche swept down the walls, I think that's the snow we were lying upon when Nashor attacked. It seems to have blocked the opening, but maybe we could dig through it somehow..."

"It's a mix of ice and snow, we were walking on it and didn't even know it wasn't solid ground," Leona answered, and the bitter tone of her voice was surprising even to herself. "If we had a— a shovel, maybe we'd have a chance... how high is it?"

There was a moment of silence as the blonde estimated the distance.

"About seventy feet, I guess," she said dryly. She walked over to the wall and put her right hand up to test it, before attempting to pull herself up a bit. With a short groan, she slid down and landed on her backside; unfazed by that, still sitting on the ground, she turned around to face Leona. "But the wall is covered in ice, too slippery to climb."

The Solari let out a short, bitter bark of fake laughter.

"Even if it wasn't, neither of us is fit to climb now."

"I told you I'm fine." She pushed herself up and walked over to the redhead, the limp almost invisible as Leona knew she was trying to hide it, then kneeled before her. With a second of hesitation, she put her right hand to the back of her neck, searching for the clasp. As she found and undid it, the familiar pneumatic hiss followed by a series of cracks sounded and the front of her armor became loose before she pulled it off.

Leona had helped her remove the armor countless times over the course of the past few days to change the dressing on the wound; however, most of the times she just settled on removing the detachable lower-torso part of the soft suit the Lunari wore underneath the traditional armor. This time, Diana didn't play around with unclasping that part, instead she settled on untying it from her pants and rolling the whole thing up to her chin. In response to the chill of the cave, her skin immediately erupted into goosebumps.

Even though she tried hard to avoid it, Leona's eyes landed on the thin, cotton undershirt that covered the Lunari's breast before she managed to move them to her abdomen; the bandages were gone for a couple of days now, and safe for a small patch of darkened tissue just above her navel, the heretic's stomach looked just like she remembered it from years ago - though far more toned.

"It still hurts a bit, inside," Diana admitted, tracing a finger over the pink scar tissue. Unbeknownst to her, Leona was occupied scanning every exposed inch of her body for additional bruises; thus far, she's counted four, including a big, nasty one at the base of her ribs. "But it's not even real pain, it's more like... a tugging sensation when I stretch too far..."

"Can I?" Leona asked as she reached her hand out. She waited for the blonde's nod of approval before touching the soft skin of her stomach. Diana hissed upon the contact, but Leona guessed it had to be from surprise; her fingers were much colder than the Lunari's abdomen. As she reached the disfigured place, she put just a little bit more pressure on it.

"D-don't," Diana stuttered, her voice strained as she obviously tried to hide the fact it hurt her much more than she'd admitted. "It's still sensitive."

Leona took her hand away and placed it upon her own knee.

"It's incredible how much it has healed," she marveled, her eyes still fixed to the pale stomach right before her. "When I first saw you like this five days ago, I was sure you were going to..."

She trailed off, but they both knew what she was about to say.

"I know," Diana agreed, sitting down beside Leona and pulling the top of her suit back down. As she leant against the wall, she let out a long sigh. "I didn't think I was going to live, too. When I woke up in the forest..." she faltered. Her voice was hoarse and shaky, but the tone she spoke in was soft. "I remembered the last thing I saw before I passed out on the Rift was your face. It made sense."

For the past days, there were nine of them - always at least two or more people sitting close by, listening to every word they said. So they didn't talk much; nobody did, to be honest. Every conversation they held was centered around getting out of the freezing forest and surviving.

But, right now, the two of them were in a cave - and, surprisingly, even though it was hidden beneath a thick layer of ice, it wasn't as cold as on the surface. There was no wind and the air was stale, but it was warmer. And as for survival, Leona noted bitterly, their chances dropped so low there was no reason to talk about it anymore.

"Thank you." Diana's voice echoed off the stone walls, even though she spoke quietly, barely over a whisper. She turned to face the Solari and saw the genuine smile on her bruised face. Her own face fell at that; there were things she wanted to say and ask, but behind the cheerful expression she could see the weariness in the redhead's eyes.

"You're tired," she stated the obvious, resisting the sudden urge to touch her. Some water dripped in the depth of the cave as Leona nodded shortly, closing her amber eyes. The Lunari noticed her eyelids twitching every now and then and looked down to see the redhead's hand trembling from what she hoped was exhaustion. "You should rest."

"No, we should—"

"Later." Losing the battle against her own body, she reached out to place her hand on Leona's shoulder. "You almost smashed your head on the ground."

"I suppose," the Solari whispered, leaning gently to place her cheek atop Diana's fingers. The blonde frowned as she noted that even the skin on Leona's face was much colder than her own.

"I'll wake you up in a while."

The dripping water was her only answer as it seemed Leona had been fighting against her exhaustion the whole time and was out in a matter of a second. With some hesitation, Diana slipped her hand away, leaving the Solari leaning against her own gold armor-clad shoulder.

The blonde watched her for a couple of minutes, before deciding the girl was asleep for good.

oOOo

She woke up with a start to silence so overwhelming she feared she's gone deaf over her nap.

"Diana?" she croaked, and was relieved to hear her own strained voice. A rustle echoed from the other side of the cave, and Leona caught some light in the corner of her eye.

"I'm here," she heard the other girl, though it was clear the Lunari was a good few yards away from her. The redhead forced herself to turn her head to the left, fighting against the blazing hot pain that spread in her neck upon movement. Some footsteps followed, and she could clearly distinguish the sound of tiny pebbles moving away from under Diana's boots as it seemed the blonde was climbing up, panting and grunting.

The light grew brighter as the girl approached her; the redhead realized she was still leaning against the wall in an awkward half-lying, half-sitting position when she was met with Diana's knees on her eye level. The Lunari crouched beside her, and Leona squinted her eyes as the light hit her face.

"How do you feel?"

The question was tricky. Both of them knew there was no way she could feel any better - if anything, the rest allowed her adrenaline level to fall down and she was now aware of every little bruise and other results of the fall. Both of them knew what she was going to answer, too.

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

The Lunari studied her with piercing, ice-blue eyes; her usually intense make-up had faded and smeared on her cheeks over the few days they spent in the Freljord forests, but it still provided a stark contrast to the intense color of her irises. Leona let her own gaze drift away from the other girl's face, and her heavy eyelids immediately came down to protect her eyes from the light. She was still tired.

"I will be."

"You'll have to," came the bitter answer, and even though she wasn't looking at her anymore, Leona could tell the blonde was frowning. "The tunnel is slightly steep and narrow but passable, at least as far as I went."

Leona's brows furrowed as her eyes snapped back open.

"How far did you go?" she asked, giving the heretic an incredulous look. She tried bending her legs at the knees, but her joints were so stiff she could barely move them an inch. "You shouldn't— How long was I out?"

There was some hint of hesitation visible in Diana's expression.

"A few hours," she answered after a while. "It's... hard to tell in this place. I think less than five."

"Five?" she repeated, wincing at the stinging pain in the side of her head as her eyebrows raised sharply.

"You needed to rest," Diana sighed. "There was no point to wake you, really. I was just exploring the cave, and you probably wouldn't be able to mo—"

She stopped mid-word with her mouth still open as she saw the other girl stir, then move to a fully sitting position. Before Leona, with her teeth gritted and lips twisted in a painful scowl, could go any further, she put her hands on both the Solari's shoulders.

"Stop," she said quietly, but firmly. With as much force as possible without actually hurting the other girl more, the Lunari pushed her back into the wall.

The sound of water dripping somewhere in the background faded as the cave filled with the echo of Leona's sharp yell.

Diana jumped back as if her hands just got burned, and stared wide-eyed at the redhead; the Solari was panting and clutching her armored side, but her expression was shocked more than it was pained. As her breathing slowly returned to normal pace, the blonde scooted back closer to her and kneeled, locking her eyes with the other girl again.

"Let me see." She motioned to the place Leona's hand was covering; from the location she could guess it was the ribs, but with the golden armor on there was no way to see just how much damage had been done.

With a short nod, Leona reached to the back of her neck. For just a moment, she struggled to find the clasp of her armor, fighting her way past the tangled red mane of her hair. As she finally reached it, she undid it and the breastplate immediately became loose - a stark contrast to the way it hugged her chest tightly all the time till now. Breathing became easier and she inhaled deeply, which send a wave of new, hot pain through her side.

Fighting back the urge to scream again, she allowed the Lunari to help her take the golden breastplate off. Diana laid it down on the ground beside them, and Leona noticed both of her gauntlets, the bags they both carried and the Solari sword put in a nice pile by the wall.

"Thanks for taking care of these," she murmured as she pointed at her things, earning a brief shadow of a smile from the blonde. Before Leona could say anything more or even react in any way, Diana was already tugging at the bottom of the upper-body part of the redhead's suit. In less than ten seconds, her toned stomach was exposed to the cool air of the cave, and the heretic's neutral expression immediately changed into full-blown shock.

"Roll it higher up," she instructed the Solari, and Leona moved the thin fabric of her suit up to right below her breasts. She glanced down at her own torso and winced; an angry, purple bruise spread across the whole of her left side.

"It looks horrible," Leona admitted, before reaching tentatively with one finger to touch the wounded spot. She managed to bite her tongue before hissing out of pain. "But it doesn't feel as bad as it looks."

Diana gave her a skeptical stare.

"I don't think you realize just how much your face betrays you," she huffed, sitting back on the balls of her feet.

"No, it's... really, it might have been some years since I last fought a real fight, but I can deal with pain just as well as I used to back in—"

She stopped immediately as she noticed Diana wasn't listening to her anymore; the Lunari's eyes were fixed on Leona's chest again, but there was no way she could be looking at the bruise.

Realization slowly hit her as the Solari studied her blonde companion's face; there was a flicker of golden light in Diana's pale blue eyes. With a sudden wave of self-awareness that she couldn't even explain, she moved her hand to cover the source of the glow. The motion seemed to free the Lunari from the dazzling spell.

"I-I'm sorry," she stuttered, facing away from the redhead. Leona couldn't help but smile softly at the other girl's obvious embarrassment. She reached out to touch Lunari's hand, but the girl quickly moved it out of her reach.

"Diana—"

"I'll go and..." she faltered, pointing with her thumb in the tunnel's direction. After a very short while, she just shrugged and stood up quickly, as if deciding she couldn't find a fitting ending to the sentence.

"Wait!" Leona almost shouted, but the blonde's back was already turned towards her and she was walking away, ignoring the Solari still sitting on the ground with her stomach bared. "Diana!"

The footsteps sounded for another couple of minutes before the girl got too far away for the redhead to hear; she could only wonder just how far away Diana could run away from her in this cave.

With a sigh, she covered her sore torso back with her purple suit. As the golden glow died, the cave slipped back into complete darkness.

oOOo

Diana heard the approaching footsteps long before she saw the girl coming from around the corner of the cave. She tried to ignore her, though, as if that alone would make Leona disappear - or at least go away. She was sitting on the stone ground of the cave, facing a pile of rubble that she'd found some while ago.

"You shouldn't be moving," she said as soon as she knew that the redhead would hear her. Of course she shouldn't be moving; from what Diana saw, the Solari might have had a smashed ribcage. How the redhead managed to get here in the first place - climbing down the dark tunnel - was beyond her. "If you really have a death wish, I could end it right now."

"If you wanted to, I wouldn't wake up," she answered, ever positive. Diana just scowled.

"Really, Leona, just..." she trailed off as she turned around and looked at the other girl. The Solari was leaning against a stony wall for balance, her face bruised but, above everything else, concerned. "What?"

"I've been thinking," she said quietly, the echo in the cave making it useless to speak loud at all. "For some time now, to be honest."

Their eyes locked and, immediately, Diana knew just what the redhead was thinking about. She'd hoped the news hadn't reached her in the Institute - that is, obviously, Leona had to know that something had happened. When they last saw each other, before the League of Legends, the blonde was still a Solari acolyte, and not the Avatar of the Moon.

"So you know." A statement, not a question.

Diana had seen the murals in the Lunari temple; she realized the fate that awaited the two of them, though more often than not she tried to delete it from her memory. There were times that she wished she'd never found out the truth - times she just wanted to go back in time a year, to when Leona had still not left the temple at the peak of Mount Targon.

She almost jumped when she felt the other girl's hand on her shoulder.

"Of course I know," she said softly, sitting down clumsily beside the blonde with a painful scowl - Diana couldn't be sure whether it was only the result of physical pain, or the words that just left the Solari's lips. "I knew as soon as I saw you in the Institute. And I guess I've always felt that."

Diana's brows furrowed.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked, turning slightly to shed some light at the redhead's face, but not enough to blind her.

"That we were brought together. It wasn't just a coincidence we both happened to be the Avatars." She stopped and just stared at the ground for a few seconds, her face bearing an expression that Diana couldn't decode anymore. "I always felt you were... different than other people, though I may have misunderstood that at first."

Diana had come to the Institute of War as a last resort option; not a single fiber in her body wanted to fight, to overuse the power she was given— blessed with in such a disgusting way, just as the Solari wanted to exploit Leona. But she had no option; it was either join the League of Legends or be executed for what she'd done at Mount Targon's peak.

And, though she wanted to convince herself otherwise - it was the meeting with the Radiant Dawn that she'd dreaded the most. After hours of interrogations to deem whether she was stable enough to fight beside others, after being admitted to the most prestigious para-military organization in the whole of Valoran even though she never possessed any fighting abilities prior to the exploration of the ruined temple, there was still fear gripping her throat upon the thought of just one person. The leader of the people she'd murdered, her supposed adversary. The only friend she'd ever had.

So, naturally, she had been avoiding Leona ever since she entered the League.

And yet, here they were. Just the two of them, trapped together in what might as well be their tomb.

"News travel faster than people," Leona continued after a while, squinting her eyes as Diana's head snapped to her side to look at the redhead. "I heard of what happened at the temple. I..." she trailed off. Her eyelids fell as she seemed to be thinking of the proper thing to say - and Diana wasn't eager to interrupt. Finally, the redhead continued in a quiet, soft voice, "They told me the elders had been annihilated, but many followers managed to escape the temple as soon as the bloodbath started. Those who witnessed... they didn't tell me it was you, but somehow, as soon as I heard about what they called the Moon Avatar, I just... knew."

She finished with a smile, though her now open amber eyes were glistening with sadness. They searched the Lunari's face, fighting against the bright light of her forehead mark.

Diana scowled. "Then why are you talking with me?" She hissed out, feeling anger boil in her guts. "Why are we sitting here together— I've seen the murals at the temple. I saw what we—"

"Because I know why you did that."

"You don't!" She snapped, standing up as she was no longer able to sit beside the other girl. In the darkness of the silent cave, her voice echoed a billion times before she spoke again, so quiet she was almost whispering, "you have no idea what happened. What they told you must have been a lie if you think of it so lightly. I killed the elders." Her chest was rapidly rising and falling as she stared in the Solari's calm face. The blonde pointed to the Lunari sword lying by her foot. "With this very blade, I massacred their bodies until they were nothing but a bloody pulp," she spat out through gritted teeth. "I left the temple covered in their blood, searching for any others that might have ran away— I never found them, for one simple reason." She stopped to catch her breath and let the words sink in. Still, Leona's face remained stoic. "I spent so much time with the elders the evening had turned into morning."

The redhead just looked at her from the place where she was sitting on the ground. Diana had seen a similar scene in one of the murals, one in which her counterpart held a blade against the kneeling Solari's throat.

She shivered at the sick feeling stirring in her stomach.

"I know what you did," Leona said calmly, her eyes never leaving the Lunari's. "And I know why, Diana."

"How could you know!?"

"Because I did the same!"

Finally, the redhead's pose broke as the echoes of their voices battled for dominance in the black tunnels leading out from the cavern.

"What?" Diana just asked, not even able to form any coherent thoughts.

"That day, when they first brought me to the temple," Leona breathed out. She was obviously struggling to speak, but Diana couldn't be sure whether it was because of her injuries or what she was saying. "I killed over twenty people, and left twice more severely burned..."

Diana shook her head. She knew what happened there, Leona had already told her before. The truth, not the lie the elders told the masses to cover the true nature of the Sun.

"But it's completely diff—"

"It's not!" The Solari shouted again, silencing the blonde. There was pure desperation in her eyes and a painful scowl on her face. "I— I've never told you..."

Diana's eyes narrowed in aggravation.

"What haven't you told me?"

"That it was me," she spat the last word out as if it was some curse she was trying to get rid of. "I called upon the Sun, I— I prayed for it to save me," she stopped and gasped, stifling a cry. "I wanted it to destroy the people who tried to hurt me."

Diana came back to the Solari and kneeled in front of her, staring straight into the amber eyes.

"You were tied to a pole," she whispered, touching the redhead's cheek with the tips of her fingers. "Completely unarmed against... almost a dozen grown warriors content with the idea of killing a girl," she emphasized the last word. Leona was barely sixteen years old back then - and while she was trained to fight, she stood no chances tied down, bared and facing away from the executioners. This still made the Lunari angry, whenever she thought about it. "The Sun saved you—"

"Because I begged it to," the redhead finished, her eyes glistening in the light of Diana's mark. "Because I hated those men and wanted them dead. Because I didn't even care if they cut my head off, but I just wanted them to pay for what they forced us to do."

To this, Diana had no idea how to respond. She'd known the other girl for some time, but has never heard her speak with such... rage in her voice. True, whenever Leona mentioned what happened at her execution site, her voice shifted from its usual calm tone, but this... this was completely different. And just as she said, there were things that Diana didn't know of, but still...

"You were armed, and that's the only difference," Leona continued after a while, casting her eyes down in shame. "But you were scared just as I was and they wanted to kill you just like the Rakkor warriors wanted to execute me. You were a heretic," she spat the word out with such disgust that it surprised the Lunari. "And so was I, not obeying the rules of a hundreds years old tradition."

Her awakening at the peak of Mount Targon happened over half a year ago, but she'd never thought of it this way - she never realized just how similar it was to what happened to Leona.

"The Sun and the Moon sacrificed those people's lives to save us," the redhead concluded quietly. "I never forgave myself for what happened at the fighting pit, but I understand why it had to be so. And I understand why the Moon helped you at the temple, the elders..." she trailed off and again, a look of utter disgust entered her face, "they have lost their faith in favor of— of sick fanatism. They saw the whole world as lesser to them, and were eager to dispose of anybody that challenged their words."

Diana just stared at her with wide eyes. To hear a Solari— the leader of the Solari say such words, it was beyond her wildest dreams. She'd always thought Leona respected the elders more than anything else, and yet... the bitter expression on her face when she mentioned them spoke volumes, more than any words could do.

"They were lost," the Solari continued, her expression softening. "Other followers didn't see that, but I— I came to the temple when I was sixteen, but I already knew what I was supposed to do in life. I don't know if it was the connection with the Sun or just the strong... opposition I felt towards the way of Rakkorians, but I knew that what the elders were doing was wrong and not much different from the warriors below."

"You never told me," Diana managed at last, her voice bearing the conflicting emotions surging through her right now. She was mad at Leona from keeping the things she'd just told her a secret for so long, but, at the same time, she... was so very glad to hear them.

"I didn't want to," she admitted, somewhat ashamed. "Even though I knew you... didn't exactly follow the order," she stopped briefly to look at the blonde, with a faint smile on her face. "You were a Solari from the moment you were born. I didn't want to—"

"What? Corrupt me?" The Lunari snarled, turning her face away from the redhead.

A few moments of silence passed, where the only sound was that of water dripping somewhere deep in the cave. Diana still battled with her feelings, and Leona seemed to be lost in thoughts as well.

"You're right," she said at last. She reached out her hand blindly and placed it on the Lunari's knee; she waited before the girl turned her head to look at her again before continuing. "I'm sorry."

Diana didn't say anything, but neither did she move out of the Solari's reach.

"And I'm sorry for leaving. I never got round to apologize."

"You should be," the blonde huffed, finally locking her eyes back with Leona's.

"I should have at least said goodbye."

"You damn well should."

A bitter smile entered the Solari's face again, and her hand moved from Diana's knee to take hold of the tips of her fingers. The blonde frowned, as she again realized Leona's hand was much colder than her own - and much colder than she knew it should be.

"I thought I'd be back," she said softly, the apologizing tone never leaving her voice. Of course she'd thought she'd be back; Diana thought so as well, for the longest time. "The Elders never really told me much. They treated me as an ornament, not a leader."

Again, silence reigned between them. Diana closed her eyes for a few moments, allowing their fingers to intertwine, but not yet willing to see it. It seemed so absurd; after all this time, after all she had done in the absence of the Sun Avatar, she thought the first thing she would do when they finally met would be destroying the Solari.

For a long time, she wanted to. The murals she had seen back at the ruined temple filled her with nothing short of hate for the past Avatars, but she didn't associate them with the radiant redhead; when she finally came back to the peak of Mount Targon she was battered, bruised and broken, but at the same time exhilarated that she'd discovered the forgotten truth. She was certain the elders would share her joy - the wise men she had thought they were would not make the same mistake of their ancestors - and the Lunari could rise again with the help of the Solari, like many thousands of years before.

When they ordered for her execution, she was convinced they were mindless thralls, following the false light like moths flying towards the flame, burning in their blind devotion. Leona wasn't there to help her and, in her frenzied bloodlust, as she cut the throats of the wailing men pleading for her mercy, Diana managed to convince herself it was all the redhead's fault.

Had she not left, she would never go to the temple at all. She wouldn't suffer the terrible pain she did; she wouldn't be ostracized by the people she thought to be her people, men and women that had raised her up ever since her mother's untimely death. Had Leona not left, Diana would never had become the Avatar of the Moon - this she was convinced of for the longest time.

As soon as the Institute of War offered her safe retreat, a place to hide from the other Solari hunting her in exchange for her service on the Fields of Justice, she was repulsed - but at the same time, she was scared. Both of joining and refusing; had she refused, the Solari would have eventually caught her and killed on site, she couldn't keep hiding in holes forever. Had she joined, she would have to face the one person she dreaded the most. Leona would want to kill her for what she'd done.

And she would want to kill Leona for what she hadn't.

But when she first saw the redhead, all the hate she had built up in her lonely nights, running away from the Solari soldiers, all the pain and grief she was still holding - it vanished. She wanted to break down in tears and just wait for the other girl to come to her and protect her like she used to, but she knew that couldn't happen anymore.

"I thought I would kill you as soon as I joined the League," she whispered breaking the silence and making the redhead snap her head to look at her. "You— you have no idea what happened, what... I had to go through, and I blamed it all on you," she admitted, feeling somewhat ashamed as the words left her mouth. Before Leona had the chance to interrupt, the Lunari continued, "when the first shock faded and I found myself just sitting on the bloodied stairs to the Solari temple, staring straight into the red sunrise, I swore to myself I would hunt you down," she broke for a breath, her voice deeper than ever as she tried to cover the panic rising in her chest, "and that the Sun would never rise again."

She half expected Leona to freak out and snap at her at this moment; instead, she found herself pulled closer to the girl, as Leona closed the distance between them and was now embracing her with such strength it was almost impossible to breathe.

She didn't say anything. She didn't need to say anything. Diana had already gathered that, despite everything she had done, Leona still felt the same way about her as she did before she left. The pure fact that she was still alive was enough to prove that.

"Sometimes, I wish the Moon hadn't chosen me," she creaked out, her voice breaking from the tight embrace and the sorrow gripping at her throat. "We could— just go back and everything would be as it used to."

Leona pulled away just enough to look in her face.

"We are not adversaries," she said calmly, though Diana could see the sadness glistening in her eyes. With some shame, she realized the last remnants of her heavy makeup were smeared on Leona's damp cheek, and it was not the redhead who cried. "And if we work together, we will show the people they are lost."

Diana gulped down the sick feeling.

"Provided we get out of here," she answered bitterly. To her surprise, a smile entered Leona's face.

"We will." Her tone was confident and, though Diana didn't share the redhead's optimism, she was aware they both had played against worse odds and won. "I'm sure of that."

A/N: Thank you very much for reading - and I apologize for the lack of action in this chapter. The next one is going to compensate. Leona and Diana had to have this talk eventually - and what better place than a cozy, dark, damp cave, right? Right?

Anyway - as always, I encourage you to leave reviews - or PM me if you'd rather - I love getting feedback, especially that of critical nature. I had no Beta Reader for this chapter and I'd be thankful for pointing out my mistakes.

I will update - I can't promise it will be soon, though surely it won't take as long as this one.

Self Promotion: If you like Stray Dogs, check out my Think of Piltover - the Twisted Treeline counterpart!

Art Promotion: Check out the illustration for this chapter by the amazing artist (and a great person, too!), Shagan on her tumblr here: pastwiska tumblr com/post/134352858730 (replace spaces with dots! or go to my profile for a normal link, hate you too, ffnet)