Third POV:Ahri, Grey, Xayah and the man, who is Xayah"s lover Rakan, exited the High Summoners chamber, but both female Vastaya were not happy.
"Out of all the Ionian champions, it had to be you" Xayah said shaking her head.
"Trust me, I"d rather have anyone else too" Ahri replied with a tired expression.
"Look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot" Rakan said raising his hands "I"m Rakan" he then pointed at Xayah "and this beautiful lady, is my lovely girlfriend Xayah".
"Aww, you don"t have to show off for me, much" Xayah replied as Rakan winked at her.
Ahri rolled her eyes while Grey didn"t care "well, I"m Grey Ashnex, and this is Ahri" he said.
"Yeah, we already know who you and the race traitor are" Xayah said and Ahri glared at her "this is Vastaya business, and I really don"t want a human like you to miss it up".
"I"m not actually human, I"m undead" Grey replied correcting Xayah.
"That"s even worse!" the winged Vastayan said "humans are bad creatures who mess with nature" she then gained an evil smirk "but you? You"re worst than the humans. You"re just some undead leech, something that should"ve never crawled out of it"s grave. So why don"t you do everyone a favor, and find yourself a hole to jump and stay in".
Rakan just looked at his lover a little shocked, he had to admit that she went a little far.
Meanwhile, Ahri was outraged. She didn"t approve of Xayah saying any of that stuff without knowing about Grey"s curse.
She was about to lunge at the winged Vastayan, but stopped when Grey put a hand on her shoulder.
Ahri looked at him, and the Abyss Watcher just shook his head before looking at Xayah "are you done?".
Xayah smirked "yeah. What are you gonna do about-".
"Good, then let"s go" Grey cut her off shocking everyone by just turning around and walking towards the transport station.
Xayah got over her shock "what"s wrong? Too scared to say anything back?" she asked with a smug smile.
"No, I have two reasons" Grey said raising a finger "one, I genuinely do not care what you think of me" he then raised another finger "two, what you said isn"t even close to the worst thing I"ve ever heard" he said that while remembering a certain dual-wielding Dancer with his eye twitching. He shook his head and looked over his shoulder "now, are you coming or not? Because I was given a job, and I"ll do it with or without you".
Grey continued. Ahri enjoyed the look on Xayah"s face before following him. Xayah looked at Rakan who just shrugged and they both followed them.
They reached the transport station and the summoner there stood up seeing them "h.e.l.lo champions, leaving the Inst.i.tute?".
"yes, we"re going to Ionia" Grey replied with a nod and looked at the lovers "do either of you know where the attacks happened?".
"I do" Rakan said as walked to the summoner who pulled out a map of Ionia "the last attack happened... Right here" he said pointing at a place in the forest.
The summoner nodded and motioned to the rune circle "stand in the circle please?".
They all did as they were told and the summoner started motioning with his hands.
The vanished in a flash of light and appeared in the forest. They looked around and saw the forest around them.
Ahri saw a spot where the tree branches were removed by force "I guess we go there?" she said.
"Thanks for stating the obvious" Xayah said and the nine tailed Vastayan glared at her.
"Calm down ladies" Rakan said standing between them while facing Xayah "let"s not fight each other".
"Let"s go" Grey said making them look at him as he walked through the cleared path.
The followed him with Ahri being closer than the lovers. While walking through the woods, Rakan looked around "Isn"t it beautiful?" he asked.
"Nature?" Xayah asked.
"No" her lover replied and smirked at her "I mean you".
Xayah blushed "you big tease" she said as she kissed his cheek.
Ahri rolled her eyes "does those two ever stop" she asked herself and then looked at Grey as he walked in front of her "if only he can be like that to me".
The four of them walked into a clearing with a big rock in the middle.
Half-way to the giant stone was the dead body of a tiger Vastayan laying on his back. They walked up to him and saw his chest had three big slashes.
Rakan hissed through his teeth "that had to hurt" he said as Grey knelt to the corpse "poor guy didn"t know what hit him".
"What do you think did this?" Ahri asked looking at the Abyss Watcher who was inspecting the body.
"Like you actually care about other Vastaya" Xayah said.
Ahri glared at her "hey, I do care! Why do you keep saying that I don"t?" she asked.
"Because you want to be more human" Xayah said returning the glare while Ahri"s eyes widen "it"s obvious from the way you act and people you hang around with. Instead of trying to follow the creatures that hurt our kind, you should help us" she said.
Rakan opened his mouth to say something but he closed it knowing better than to get in an argument between women.
"To be a racist jerk like you? No thanks" Ahri replied and crossed her arms "and stop saying all humans are bad. Because you"re wrong".
"No I"m not, I"m just stating facts" Xayah replied and both female Vastaya started glaring at each other.
They stopped when Grey"s voice broke them out of the glare match "if you two are done trying to kill each other, then I figured out what happened here".
The three Vastaya looked at him "so, what happened?" Ahri asked.
"He came running from there" Grey said pointing at where they came from "he was heading for the giant rock, but then the attacker jumped from there" he pointed to his left "and killed him in one hit".
They all just looked at him confused "that"s it?!" Xayah said frowning "I could"ve told you that just standing here!" she said since what the Abyss Watcher said was obvious.
Grey kept his cool when he replied "could you have also told that he was killed by someone, not something?" he said shocking them.
"Wait, what?" Rakan said and looked at the body "but the wound, aren"t those claw marks?" he asked since the three slashes were all the same size, same direction, and had the same distance between them.
The Abyss Watcher shook his head "no, the cut is too clean. No claws can make a cut like this, it was done by a weapon" he said and walked to the big stone in the middle the clearing "then the killer stood her and cleaned their weapon" he knelt near the stone "there"s a splat of blood here as proof" he said running his hand over some dry blood. He stood up and pointed south "then they jumped back in the forest through there".
They all looked stunned at the detailed inspection. Ahri then looked at Xayah with a smug look and her hands on her hips.
The winged Vastayan noticed the look and glared at Ahri "beginner"s luck!" she said.
Rakan whistled "I got to admit, those are some tracking skills" he said making his lover frown at him while he smirked at Grey "you sure you don"t come from a wolf Vastaya tribe? You do smell like one after all" he pointed out what any other person with enhanced sense of smell had already did.
Grey shrugged "I wouldn"t know, I have no idea who my blood parents are, but I do know something" he replied and looked at them over his shoulder "I"m an Ashnex, and there are no better hunters than us".
"so what should we do?" Ahri asked looking at Grey "follow the trail? Or-" she stopped when Grey raised his hand.
The Abyss Watcher slowly reached for something under his cape. He suddenly sent a throwing knife towards the tree behind the three Vastaya.
They all looked on guard as a bird that had the throwing knife in his chest fell on the ground.
"Whoever killed the Vastayan is still here" Grey said as they relaxed slightly "I say we split in two teams, we"ll cover more ground like that" he said while they looked at him "one team well check the road that the Vastayan came from, while the other goes to check where the trail leads" he explained.
Ahri crossed her arms "well, if we"re splitting up" she said and pointed at the lovers "those two can"t be together".
They both glared at Ahri "and why is that?" Xayah asked suspiciously.
"Because we don"t want you to end up being distracted by "each other"s eyes"" Ahri replied in slight sarcasm in the last part.
Xayah rolled her eyes "like that"ll happen".
"Are you sure?" Rakan asked and smirked at Xayah "because I"m lost in your eyes now".
"Well, now I"m lost in yours too" Xayah replied as she and Rakan looked deeply into each other.
Ahri groaned "this is what I"m talking about" she said pointing at the lovers "we can"t exactly find anything with you two like this".
Xayah glared at her "so what, I go with the undead and you go with Rakan. Not gonna happen!" she said pointing at Grey "first, I don"t want to go with him" she then pointed at Ahri "second, I don"t want to leave Rakan with you. You might use your magic to charm him".
Ahri looked at her confused "and why would I do that?".
"Because all women wants Rakan" Xayah said in a matter of fact manner with a smirk "like you"d know what to do with him".
Ahri rolled her eyes and looked at Xayah with a bored expression "as a woman, I can tell you this fact that not all of us want your boyfriend" she said and pointed at the male Vastayan "mainly because he keeps looking at himself in the mirror".
Xayah looked at her lover and saw him fixing his hair while looking at a pocket mirror.
Rakan noticed them looking at him and raised an eyebrow "what?" he asked curiously.
"Enough" Grey decided to end the argument "I"ll go with Rakan and you two go together" he cut in and they all looked at him surprised.
"You want me to go with her!?" both female Vastaya asked pointing at each other.
"You do realize that you"re basically asking them to kill each other, right?" Rakan said.
"No, they won"t" the Abyss Watcher replied and looked at the two female Vastaya "because this is important to your people, Xayah won"t let her argument with Ahri distract her unless she"s just a racist. And Ahri can prove that she cares about other Vastaya by focusing on the mission other than fighting, and whoever starts arguing is just going to prove that the other one was correct about them all along".
They all looked at him with mixed emotions. Rakan was impressed that he found a loophole in their fighting. Xayah was angry because he was right. And Ahri was a little annoyed because she thought she should"ve seen this coming.
The nine tailed Vastayan sighed "let"s just go" she said looking at Xayah "I"d rather not get into an argument with him like this, because I"ll never win" she said knowing that if they don"t agree, then Grey will force them to.
Xayah glared at her before sighing "fine" she said and started walking to where they came from "we"ll search there, you two search where the trail goes, and we"ll meet here at sunset" she said and Ahri started following her.
"Take care baby" Rakan said waving his arm.
"You too babe" Xayah replied with a awave of her own.
"Be careful Ahri" Grey said walking away.
"I will, and try not to miss me so much" Ahri replied in a teasing tone before she and Xayah vanished in the forest.
Grey and Rakan turned to where the trail leads and started walking towards it removing the trees.
"I got to admit" Rakan said breaking the silence "that was pretty impressive, how you stopped them from fighting".
"if you think that was impressive, then you should see Sulyvahn do his work" Grey replied and shivered slightly remembering how the leader of the Pontiff easily manipulated people without them realizing "let"s just go" he said as he started following the trail with Rakan.
However, when they left, a cloaked figure landed near the bird that Grey shot down. The figure looked at where Grey and Rakan went before going to where Ahri and Xayah left.
Time skip: (brought to you by chibi Rakan and chibi Xayah dancing together. Chibi Ahri looks from the distance and glances at chibi Grey with a sigh).
Ahri and Xayah were looking around the forest for a couple of hours, but didn"t find anything.
"Do you see something?" Ahri asked removing a few trees from their road.
"You mean besides trees, rocks, dirt, and more trees?" Xayah said sarcastically "then no".
Ahri sighed. She then decided to ask something that"s been bothering her "hey Xayah, why do you hate humans so much?" she asked and the winged Vastayan looked a little taken back "I"m not stupid enough to believe that there are no bad humans, I met Jhin not two days ago for crying out loud, but you can"t believe that they"re all bad".
"Yes, I can" Xayah replied and looked at the sky "humans don"t understand magic, don"t understand us, and humans fear what they don"t understand, so they fear us. They treat us as freaks without giving us a chance, and I"ve seen more than enough proof" she said and Ahri couldn"t argue. She knew that it was human nature to fear what they don"t understand.
The nine tailed Vastayan looked at Xayah"s eyes, and she didn"t need her magic to study her emotions. It was obvious that the winged Vastayan had really bad experience with the humans.
Ahri was about to say something, but then her ears start twitching as she heard something.
"Something is here!" Ahri said as she looked around and prepared an orb of fox fire.
Xayah jumped besides her and held three sharp feathers in between her fingers ready to throw them.
They just looked around for a few seconds. They didn"t spot anything but then a shadow pa.s.sed by on their left.
Ahri sent her fox fire there, but only to scotch a rock missing her target. The same shadow pa.s.sed above them and Xayah immediately threw her feathers in it"s direction.
They heard something being hit, and a weird object fell on the ground. It was covered in cloth, wasn"t very big, and had Xayah"s feathers stuck in it.
They got close to it to inspect "what is that?" Xayah asked.
Suddenly, the object exploded into a cloud of purple gas. Ahri managed to get away using spirit rush, but Xayah wasn"t as quick.
The winged Vastayan ended up inhaling some of the gas and started coughing, falling to her knees before she fell on the ground unconscious.
"Xayah!" Ahri said and was about to rush to help her fellow Vastayan. But then she felt something hit her neck.
She reached for it, and pulled it out to see it was a red dart. Ahri fell on her knees as her vision became blurry.
The nine tailed Vastayan looked above her to see a cloaked figure land there. She couldn"t see them clearly before she laid on the ground and lost consciousness.
Time skip: (brought to you by chibi Ahri shaking while feeling cold and covering herself with her tails, and chibi Grey shows up and covers her with his cape to warm her).
Grey and Rakan were back at the clearing with the giant stone. It was sunset, and they"re supposed to meet back the other two.
The Charmer was using his pocket mirror as a soccer ball, kicking it and keeping it in the air.
Grey was leaning on the rook with his arms crossed waiting for the female Vastaya to return.
They tracked the trail, but it just went in circles. Meaning that whoever the killer is, is just going around the jungle. So they returned here.
"Hey listen" Rakan said breaking the silence "don"t tell Xayah I said this, but sorry about what she said. It"s nothing personal, she just hates humans in general" he said referring to their conversations in the Inst.i.tute.
Grey shrugged "It"s alright" he replied. He didn"t exactly blame Xayah for thinking humans are bad. In his world, it was common knowledge that humans come from the dark.
But he can"t think that all humans are bad. After all, light cannot exist without dark, and dark cannot exist without light.
So that means if humans have darkness in them, they also has to have light. They cannot be just pure darkness, that is what the great knight Artorias believed, and that"s what Grey and many Abyss Watchers believe as well.
"Hey, I have a question" Rakan said still kicking his mirror "those things you humans cover your feet with, what are they called?".
Grey looked at his feet and answered "shoes" he replied.
"I want shoes! Red ones! I want them bad!" Rakan said suddenly thinking that the red shoes would match Xayah"s wing.
"You can probably have them costume made" Grey said seeing that Rakan"s feet were talons. The Abyss Watcher then looked at where the female Vastaya went "they"re taking too long".
The charmer snickered "Yeah, that"s what women do when a man is waiting for them" he joked.
"No, something isn"t right" Grey replied shaking their head as he moved from the room and faced the direction of the two missing Vastaya "something must have happened".
"Xayah"s in danger?" Rakan said as he stopped kicking his mirror and grabbed it "okay, now I"m worried. Let"s go get her".
"And Ahri" Grey reminded the charmer.
"Yeah, her too" Rakan said as Grey started leading the way.
They started walking, following the trail the two female Vastayan left and making sure they didn"t miss anything.
They reached an area were Grey raised his hand and Rakan stopped. They saw a small bag with three red feathers in it.
They walked to it slowly and Rakan pulled out one of feathers "those are Xayah"s" he said in worry.
Grey saw a rock near them with some burn marks, which means that Ahri used her fox fire. He also noticed that there wasn"t anymore signs of struggling.
Rakan clutched the feather in his hand "If whoever did this actually hurt Xayah, I"ll-".
"Calm down" Grey said putting a hand on his shoulder "there"s no blood or shredded clothes, whoever did this just captured them, which means they"re fine. We just have to find them" he said.
Rakan looked at the Abyss Watcher with a determined look and nodded. Grey looked around and noticed signs of bodies being dragged.
"That way" Grey said pointing with his finger "it"s looks like the same direction the victim came from, let"s go" he said before he and Rakan started going there.
With Ahri and Xayah:
Ahri stirred as she slowly opened her eyes to and her vision started clearing "nice to see you"re awake" she heard Xayah say.
The nine tailed Vastayan finally realized where she was. She was tied to Xayah"s back with her arms heavily tied together.
She was sitting down with Xayah being in the same position. Her legs and tails were also tied together to make sure she doesn"t move at all.
Ahri saw they were in a cave with someone else. It was someone wearing a long, pitch black hooded cloak with their back turned to them sitting in front of a campfire.
"What"s going on?" Ahri whispered to Xayah.
"I don"t know. I woke up like this a few minutes ago" Xayah replied also whispering. She was tied up just as much as Ahri with her wing tied to her back. She moved around in her robes "hey, can you burn these with your magic?" she asked since they were back to back.
Ahri nodded "yeah, just let me..." she trailed off as her eyes widen. She tried again but nothing happened "I... Can"t use my magic".
"What?" Xayah asked surprised.
"Don"t bother" the cloaked figure said making them look at them with their back still turned. From the voice, it was obviously female "those robes are infused with runes that steal magic away, you can try all day and you won"t be able to create a spark".
"Who are you?" Ahri said as she struggled against her robes "why are you doing this?".
"It"s pretty obvious" Xayah said struggling against her own bindings "this human enjoys killing our kind, typical humans".
To their surprise, the woman chuckled "you know, there are two things wrong with what you said" she said standing up "first, I"m not typical" she said "second..." she trailed off as she turned around and brought down her hood.
It revealed a woman with really long black hair tied into a braid and her eyes closed, but what truly drew their attention was the fact that the woman had ears similar to Xayah"s.
Her cloak split in half from the back and revealed it was actually a pair of pitch black feathered wings.
Her she had a slightly built figure, just enough to make the muscles visible but not too much.
She was wearing a black shoulderless and sleeveless black top with a diamond shaped cleavage cut out in the middle.
She was wearing black shorts that reached her knees and clung to her body with a bird skull on her waist. She also had talons like Xayah.
In her right arm was a gauntlet with three giant claw blades that were almost as long as her arm.
She opened her eyes to reveal bright red irises with slits for pupils "who said I was human?" she said with a grin.
Both Ahri and Xayah looked in shock as they realized what her features mean "you"re... Vastayan?" Xayah said absolutely stunned.
(A/N: thank you for reading this, please leave previews.)