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It was a day like any other, the German winter was gray and damp, no sign of snow nor sun in days. No sign of monsters either.
It should be a blessing but for Marek it was an invitation to reminisce and well. He really didn't enjoy that. Less time spent on beating dark creatures into a galactic pulp, more time spent with his teammates and he was losing it, especially with Iván meowing every time Martin was doing anything he deemed meowable. Which was all the time.
He was shooting daggers at his two offending teammates, who didn't seem to care in the slightest. This was a fucking work environment, for the Light's sake, not a school prom. They had two full-time jobs, winning LEC and fighting monsters, it was no place to flirt.But Marek wasn't being honest with himself. Cause if he had been honest with himself, he would have admitted that it wasn't his teammates' unprofessionalism that was bothering him. He'd admit that he himself hadn't been that professional, only a few months ago. With a pang, he realized that "a few months" had turned to six months. Half a year. Half a year since he had last happily bickered with a teammate, with bright eyes and a carefree smile.
Fuck. "I have to get, er, something, in my room." Marek all but ran there, tears already stinging his eyes, unaware of the concerned gaze of his teammates. He slammed the door behind him and put his face in his pillow to scream silently.
You have been deemed fit for service. Usually, you would have gotten more time, after the death of a… close friend, but we are in dire need of guardians, with the corruption spreading. To make it less painful for you, you've been moved to another team. The Mad Lions thank you for your service and Fnatic is welcoming you with open arms.
Well, fit for service maybe, but not not for whatever his teammates had going on that only made his life from before flash in front of his eyes. Being roommates. Fighting monsters together, his metal ball stunning them only for a whip to hit them right after. Late-night soloq sessions and disgusting instant ramens. Pillow fights and hysterical laughter. Standing guard together, protecting the city and beyond. Falling asleep together on the couch, exhausted. Chestnut curls, a green and a brown eye. If he was fit for service, why did he feel like his heart was being ripped from his ribcage all over again?
In the empty room sang one last whisper from the past “You are waay too serious, Marek. I’m not doing it because I have to, I fight because it’s fun!” Then the voice got spooked by a shy knock knock knock.
“Is everything alright? I’m sorry for disturbing you, I was planning to call a team meeting. Mundane matters, not supernatural ones. January is just around the corner, afterall."
Marek bit his lip. He couldn't wait for the split to start, he needed to do something other than watch his teammates have lives and enjoy them. Iván and Martin were loud and annoying, Hyli and Elias nowhere to be found. At least.. At least Nightshare was here. “Yeah, I’m alright coach, just… lost in thought.”
"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Nightshare paused, as if thinking about how to be as delicate as possible with his player. "It happened to me too, you know. Losing teammates. I'm always here to help, even if it's just by listening." Marek felt his eyes filling with tears at "losing teammates", and when Nightshare opened his arms, he couldn't help but accept the hug, letting his tears fall on his coach's shoulder.
“Thanks, coach. I will be fine, the memories are just..”
“Painful?”
“Suffocating, but yeah. I will- I will manage, continue what we started.” Even if he no longer could find the joy in it, he could still fight. Destroy all who wronged him.
Revenge does not require joy.
Marek sensed a sigh from his coach, followed by a slightly too-firm pat on the back. "Alright, let's go. I assume our team hasn't touched LoL since Worlds; we have a lot of work to do."
And life went on. Marek couldn't pretend that he hadn't considered the alternative, but it felt like the coward's way out. Like Matyáš would welcome him to the afterlife with disappointment in his eyes. So Marek carried on. He played soloq, reviewed, played stage games. He fought the monsters, and even glimpsed at the Corruption, but the corrupted ones always seemed to escape narrowly, refusing to fight them, sending monsters and playing dirty tricks but never facing what they had left behind. It was infuriating. He needed some real fight to distract him from his bleak life. The split had started, they were not doing great, but not awfully either. It had always been hard to give it all with their supernatural job on the side, but now it was downright hell to pretend that he cared about which nexus was exploding.
Thankfully, Tomáš was there every step of the way. Without him, Marek would have quit Fnatic and destroyed a few desks and computers on his way to the door, or maybe punched his very punchable ADC. Whether it was a sparring partner, someone to vent his frustration to, a chest to sob on, or a kiss on the forehead, his coach seemed to know exactly what he needed, and gave it to him without question. Before he even knew it, Marek was spending hours with him every week, his arms the only place he could forget his depressing life for a few moments, breathing hard to smell his coach's scent, a mix of sweat, soap and aftershave that he found himself craving when he was alone at night, sleep eluding him.
He could almost forget. Almost. However, his field of work quickly brought back all the horrors.
"For fuck's sake, MAREK, MOVE."
"Slow them! I can't hit those flying bastards while they jump around!"
"Fuck, I'm trying, okay?!"
Marek hated Wednesdays. When he had woken up in the morning only to get a scolding from Upset for not washing the dishes (it wasn't even his turn) and then lost a ranked match because of a power outage in the district, he should have known this day wouldn't be a successful one.
Fate quickly proved him right when it turned out the blackout wasn't caused by any renovation works, or even by students overloading the power supply in the building next street, but by a Voidling Invasion in the nearby Valoran Park.
Of course.
Everything would have been fine if, in addition to the normal creatures, the annoying one-eyed Minions and their Impunity Beams hadn't spawned.
Despite everything, the team coped quite well, working as one, Razork and Huma slowing down enemies together, Elias firing from behind them, and Wunder parrying any attacks that flew adc’s way with his axe.
When one of them stumbled, Zdravets was immediately at their side, pulling the monster away with his hook or bailing them out of trouble with his lantern.
Then the Corrupted Guardians appeared, with their empty smiles and eyes full of simmering hatred. Mere husks of their predecessors, swallowed by their own pain and envy. The ultimate form of all Guardians, the higher-ups once told them, that’s why it was so important to stay pure, their thoughts uncorrupted.
Marek didn't know all Star Guardians, and most of the corrupted ones were almost unrecognizable anyway, depending how long ago had the corruption taken hold, but sometimes you were still fighting against the people you had fought with. So it was a pang in the guts when he heard a voice he would recognize anywhere.
"So, I heard the lion has turned his back to the pride?" Luka Perkovic. If Perkz had been annoying when he was his cocky rival on the rift and remote comrade in the fight, it wasn't making it any easier to see him like that.
"Where is your little friend? Are you hiding him?" Perkz laughed mirthlessly.
All the empathy Marek had felt for his fallen comrade turned to hate instantly.
"Fuck you, Perkz." he spit, launching a direct attack in his face, that the corrupted being narrowly dodged.
"Such a little sunshine, a shame, what happened to him. Don’t worry, he’s in a better place now,” he said, his voice dripping in sarcasm.
Humanoid screamed in rage, and blasted his full power towards his enemy, despite how much it was drilled into him during training that he should never do that. He at least had the satisfaction to see Perkz' limp body being projected several metres behind and falling with a very pleasing noise. But before he could make sure that the job was done, a Realm Warp took Perkz away, and Marek could only swear under his breath before losing consciousness, his energy entirely depleted.
He woke up with a sense of déjà vu. A familiar room, familiar walls, familiar pink Peppa Pig curtains. Matyáš had chosen them. He hated them. He missed them.
He hadn't seen them since they'd burned in the attack along with-
"Boop." He heard a giggle from his left, followed by a damp, warm finger pressing into the apex of his nose. The world spun.
"M-Matyáš?" Marek didn't dare turn toward the voice, afraid that any overly obvious gesture would shatter the illusion he found himself in. Instead, he glued his eyes stubbornly to the hand, still in his peripheral vision.
Smaller than his, with a thin, pale scar at the base of the thumb that hid the story of their beginnings as Guardians, when Carzzy, drunk, tried to show off his marksmanship in an abandoned parking lot.
“Who else, silly?” A sweet voice sounded to his side. “Or did you already forget me, after leaving me to die?”
This made Humanoid jump up. The moment of peace vanished, and everything rushed at him at once.
He glanced to the side.
The bed was empty.
Then flames appeared, black as the void, loud as sobs. Scorching cold.
"I hope you at least remember my screams. I hope they don't let you sleep at night."
⊹₊⟡⋆
This time he woke up with a wail.
"Marek, Marek, are you okay?"
The anxious voice is unmistakably Tomáš'. Was he okay? Not really. But what else could he say?
"Yeah, yeah, I'm ok. Sorry coach, I..."
He made a stupid mistake, the one they were warned about since their first day of training, and endangered his teammates because of it. Because of Luka fucking Perkovic.
"How are the others? I'm sorry..."
Images of his dream were coming back to him, Carzzy venomously telling him he had abandoned him to die. Who else died because of his mistakes?
"They're all ok, don't worry. Well..."
"What?"
"Hyli got hurt getting you out, but don't worry, nothing fatal."
Marek felt like he had been stabbed.
"Tomáš, I..."
"Shhhh... It's ok, don't worry. You're fine, Hyli is fine, Elias will come around.
Oh, fuck. Elias probably hated him, right.
"It's ok, Miláčku, everything will be fine."
Marek wanted to say that nothing was fine, that he had endangered his team, and that maybe he shouldn't go back on the field, even if the idea of not avenging Matyáš was tearing him from the inside, but before he could talk, Tomáš kissed him. Not on the forehead as he had done before, but on the side of his jaw, cradling his face in his hands, and then on his mouth, a tender peck.
"You frightened me, Marek. Please, don't beat yourself up. You're okay, everyone is, it's what matters. Let's fight them together."
He kissed him again, and Marek had nothing else to anchor himself than these lips on his, so he deepened the kiss, putting his arms around his coach's neck desperately, as if he was drowning and Tomáš was a lifebelt.
From then on, Tomáš became his constant safety. When Iván and Martin gave him uncomfortable glances, when Upset as much as scoffed at him, Nightshare was there for him with his warm smile and burning eyes.
Marek was so thankful.
He heard them whispering behind his back, saying that a player wasn't supposed to sleep with his coach, a guardian with his handler, but they didn't understand anything. How could they? Tomáš was everything to him. Without Tomáš, he wouldn't be able to fulfil his duty. The man managed to make him smile again, laugh again, live again. So what if their relationship was a bit unconventional? They were both adults, and he could take care of himself.
But in the end, nothing happy in Marek's life lasts forever.
"Nice inting." Was all he heard from Upset before he passed him as they left the stage, bumping his shoulder aggressively against his.
"I don't know why you're angry, your KDA was impeccable as usual." Marek didn't even blink, burning holes in the back of Elias's head. "Not that your kills and assists were high or something."
Hyli nervously glanced from one to the other. "Elia-"
Support needn't have worried, as soon as the German turned to Humanoid and opened his mouth to surely not thank him, their guardian crystals started shining.
"Damn, now?" Iván swallowed hard, seeking comfort, pressing his side into Wunder's warmth.
The toplaner raised an eyebrow at him. “Better now than during the game. Let’s face it, I think some of us need to let out some steam.” He looked meaningfully at the mid-adc duo.
Martin was right, of course, but he hadn't anticipated that fighting wouldn't be the best way to deal with it. Especially since everything went to hell rather quickly. With Wunder on the left and Hyli on the right, Humanoid pressed forward, clearing a path for Iván and Elias. This time, the plague targeted a construction site in a neighborhood Marek knew well, near the Madlions' former apartment.
It had advantages and drawbacks simultaneously. The pro, of course, was that Marek knew tonight’s battlefield like the back of his hand. The cons were that everywhere he looked, he felt only pain and memories he wished he could forget. Yet he held them close to his heart.
One too-long glance at the red bench, which probably still bore the marks of Carzzy's markers, and Marek lost his footing.
Suddenly, there was a pain in his side, where the claw of the mantis-like monster had grazed him.
"Marek!" Hyli jumped toward him immediately.
A bad choice. This caused a hole in their formation, leaving the creatures a path straight to Upset. The man miraculously managed to fall to the ground while reloading before the acid-spitting worm blew his head off. Unfortunately, some of the corrosive substance managed to burn him quite severely, putting the Guardian out of commission.
Hyli took cover with Upset, shielding him, and the rest of them managed to deal with the threat, thanks to the arrival of another team of guardians on the scene. Marek tried to not think about how close they had been to being outnumbered and... eliminated.
He went to find his botlane duo, Tomáš' hand resting on the small of his back while Martin and Iván were walking right behind them. His relief to see Upset badly burnt but awake quickly disappeared when the marksman opened his mouth, looking right into his coach's eye. "What will it take for you to deem him unfit for combat? Someone needs to die?"
"Wow, Upset, you are way out of line here. Bad hits happen and..." Tomáš said with a slightly patronizing voice.
"Cut the bullshit, coach," Upset spit, "last time he got Hyli hurt, today his mind was the Light's knows where and it got me drenched in fucking acid. Who do I have to fuck to have the problem taken seriously?" Elias was looking at Marek with such disgust that the midlaner wished to go back to the monster, to get dissolved in acid and put an end to his miserable life.
“That’s enough!” Tomáš snapped and it was the first time anyone had seen him this angry. It felt oddly unpleasant. “He is doing his best, given the circumstances.”
“His best is getting all of us constantly in danger!”
There was an ugly feeling gathering in the cavern of Humanoid’s belly. Nightshare snapped his eyes at him, probably to intervene again but Marek was faster. “Well if i didn’t have to waste my time supporting you, it would be easier!"
“Oh, wasting your time? Weird, last time I checked, it was your fucking job! We are a team for Light’s sake.” If gaze could kill, midlaner would be six feet under. “I can't shoot while they move at me!”
"Well Carzzy could!" Humanoid snapped and the words felt like acid.
"Oh apparently not enough, because HE IS DEAD!" It was the last thing that left Elias’ mouth before he went rigid, horror blooming on his face. “Wait no, I-”
Before anyone else could react, everything went really loud, and the world spun.
An explosion, Marek realized, his thought barely a whisper above ringing in his ears. Everything was spinning, everything was blurry. But, oh Light, he knew where he was.
He was in a parking lot. For anyone else, it would have been a random supermarket parking lot, mostly empty because it was after opening hours. But for him, it was the place where he had spent hours sparring with Carzzy, perfecting their skills and synergy. The place where he had jumped at his side after Matyáš hadn't gotten back up from an energy blast, apologies and panic on his lips, only to have him prop himself up just enough to kiss him. The place they had escaped to when the gaming house felt too claustrophobic. The place their love had developed, beautiful and incandescent and so young. The place was now saturated with the thick purple smoke of corruption, and he only had time to catch his breath before hearing the sound of footsteps.
It was as if the whole world held its breath. Footsteps sounded like thunder amidst absolute silence, without a breath of wind, without the sound of urban life or the ubiquitous din of Berlin and its subway.
Marek, still half-lying on the cold concrete, slowly turned around.
The hall behind him was empty.
Then he felt a cold, cold hand on his shoulder, nails digging into the flesh beneath his suit. The claw was grayish-pale, with purple smears of corruption. A rainbow-colored scar cut through the skin just above the thumb.
“Hello, dear. Long time no see~”
Humanoid choked on the train of his words, with only a tino “No-” spilling over.
"Surprised to see me? That's what happens when you leave people to die, other people can... pick them up." Matyáš, purple eyes and lifeless voice, was standing in front of him. Corrupted.
"Matyáš no... You were dead. I saw you die." He looked towards the sky. "Stop playing tricks on me!" he yelled. It had to be a trick. Carzzy was dead.
Then he heard footsteps behind him, and even through his sorrow, he felt his heart calm down a bit when he saw Tomáš running towards them. Tomáš will help him fight the shapeshifter that decided to torment him.
"Oh, hello Tomáš. Care to join us?" Matyáš' disincarnated voice rang through the parking lot.
"We have a shapeshifter. Call for backup while I handle him." Marek tried to make his voice steady.
"Oh, Marek..." Tomáš said, his voice full of misery. "It's not a shapeshifter. We lost another Guardian to corruption. Let's fight him, he is not who he was anymore. He is no different than any other monster."
"What? No! No, it can't be, Matyáš was confirmed dead! By, by..."
"Sometimes mistakes are made."
"Yeah," Carrzy lazily interrupted, "sometimes some people make mistakes on purpose, too..."
"It's ok my love," the coach said, "we can take him. Together." But Marek was stunned. His gaze went from Matyáš' to Tomáš' face, trying to make sense of it.
"Now, Marek, before he attacks. Trust me. Now!" Something was there, at the back of his mind, screaming at him. Carzzy wasn't attacking, he was only looking at them with what would have looked like polite interest, if it wasn't for the purple veins on his skins and the corrupted aura.
"You... you don't seem surprised? Why are you not surprised?"
“Oh, I wonder why? The plot thickens.” Carzzy, still staring at the exchange between the two, tilted his head to the left, curious. “I guess your new, better boyfriend wasn’t so honest with you.”
A bile rises in Marek’s throat. “Tomáš?”
“...I’m sorry Marek, I swear I wanted to tell you, but the higher ups-”
“You lied to me?” Humanoid wasn’t sure if the world was spinning because of the corrupted fog or if it was all happening in his head.
“I never lied to you, I was forced to withhold some of the files.”
“You lied, You lied by omission.” He wanted to cry.
A low whistle reminded him they weren’t alone. “Uuuh, trouble in paradise?”
"Matyáš... Matyáš what happened? I thought you were dead."
The corrupted ones are virtually dead. The person they were before doesn't exist anymore, and any indication that they do is only a trick to make you lower your defenses.
This has been drilled into them from the start of their training. Marek knew it. But it was Matyáš' face. His soft curly hair. It was the outline of the body he had held against him so many times.
"Well, I wasn't, you know. Dead. Surprise, surprise!" he said in a sing-songy voice.
"Marek, together! Attack formation!" Tomáš cut them, trying to appeal to Marek's training. Marek ignored him.
"Matyáš, Carzzy, please. Tell me. Tell me you can come back from this."
"Come back to what? The people who left me to die and be eaten by the void?"
"No come back..." his voice cracked "come back to me."
Before Carzzy could answer, Marek heard a very recognizable sound, and he only had time to push Matyáš to the floor and go with him, narrowly pushing him out of the way of an energy blast coming from Tomáš. A purple energy blast, with the telltale oozing rainbow tint to it.
“Damn!” Carzzy's eyes were blown wide, and for the first time, Humanoid was able to see real emotion in them. The theatrical mask the man had donned cracked at the edges.
Alas, the midlaner's gaze quickly shifted in the opposite direction. “What the—”
Nightshare stood where Humanoid had left him. It was the only thing that hadn't changed. The shift couldn’t be faster than a blink. One moment, his Tomáš stood there, with his nerdy glasses, messy hairstyle, and warm brown eyes. Then his shell cracked, like a butterfly’s chrysalis. What emerged from beneath it had the coach's face, but the resemblance stopped there. White hair, golden, tainted eyes staring at them with hatred, two sore spots on the otherwise unblemished porcelain of his gray skin. From his back sprinkled black, rainbow wings, neither butterfly nor bird’s, looking like a grotesque tribute to some unethical interspecies experiment.
It was as if the corruption perfectly molded into his skin, making something nearly beautiful in its terror. Something completely wrong.
“T-Tomáš-”
“Oh Marek, my Marek. It's too early, you shouldn't have seen this." The creature smiled, perhaps trying to calm him down, but the grin was too big, full of pin-sharp teeth, his mouth splitting at the corners, "Don't be afraid, I'll explain everything, but first we have to stop him." His claw was pointed at Carzzy, whose face was quickly growing from shocked to calm, the mask sewing itself back on.
But before he could open his mouth, the whole Fnatic team arrived. Marek had never been so happy to see them. "He is corrupted! Help!" he yelled, pointing at his coach.
Fnatic fell in formation, but of course, the other corrupted one didn't go unnoticed. Damn Hyli, the ever perceptive motherfucker.
"Is that... Carzzy? They are two?"
"He hasn't been threatening. The real issue is him" he said the last word with as much venom as he could muster. His heart really hadn't needed more breaking.
His team had no reason to trust him. He had given them no guarantees, lately, that he was a trustworthy fighter, or person.
"Please. Please guys."
They probably shouldn't have listened to him, but Nightshare's appearance was working his favor. The Eldricht-type corrupted monster did look more threatening than the wide-eyed, stunned Carzzy.
“Holy Light.” Even standing quite a distance from Upset, Humanoid could hear him muttering under his breath. Then came much louder: “Alright, fine! One threat after the other. But! If he makes even one tiny, funny move towards us that I don't like—”
“We put him down,” Wunder finished, his voice unshaken. Then he added much softer. “Sorry.”
Marek barely stifled a sob. They agreed, if only for a moment, after all he'd screwed up, they were giving him a chance. They'd broken the rules for him, and they didn't owe him that.
The ground shook, spiderweb-like cracks spread across the asphalt, with Nightshare at the epicenter. Around them, the corruption fog thickened, becoming almost physically tangible.
Marek's skin tingled, as if he'd spent too much time in saltwater. His breath came short.
Matyáš, still silent, hesitantly touched the back of midlaner's hand with his fingertip, the press barely a flutter but an anchor at the same time.
“Alright, team, focus.” Hyli, always calm, commanded them softly, his voice somehow steady. “This isn't gonna be an easy fight.”
“We don't have to hurt each other, you know.” Tomáš' voice sounded soft like velvet and unpleasant as a rasp at the same time. “I'm your coach, I want the best for you. I am aware of my form but I am still your handler, I got the green light from higher ups, you see.”
Nightshare's attempts didn't even make a crack to Marek's resolve, but it made him distantly realize that their whole... relationship had only been an attempt to corrupt him-
“Oh really? Because I think if higher ups knew, then we would be well informed.” Elias’ voice dripped with disgust.
“And if they know, and hide the truth from the public, then it means treason.” Iván added quickly. “And we won’t stand by it!”
Right, I have a more pressing matter to attempt, he thought as he made his metal ball appear at the monster's feet, while his teammates' formation was closing. Soon, the blasts of light and energy were flying into the parking lot, Nightshare compensating their numbers advantage with his powers and knowledge of their fighting way.
They never fought something like this before. Abyssal monsters, while dangerous, tended to specialize in just one area: dealing damage, protecting, or buffing; their patterns were easy to learn. Even Corrupted, as former Guardians, focused on the fighting style they had in life, whether attacking or supporting. Of course, battling them was more difficult; after all, they were beings who retained high intelligence.
The fight with Nightshare was nothing like that. With a single motion of his hand, the monster created a barrier around itself, nullifying Upset's shots instantly. And with another, almost lazy wave, a massive, cracking arm of stone with a spear appeared, stabbing at them in quick tandem. It was a matter of time until one of them missed the timing and stumbled.
Humanoid vaguely felt the burning gaze of the other Corrupted, his Corrupted, still sitting behind the team, where Marek left him after he pushed him away. He knew what risk the team was taking for him, stuck between two Fallen, between a rock and a hard place.
They needed to end it, as quickly as possible.
Then, finally, Elias’ lucky shot snuck through the hole in Nightshare’s defence, light missile piercing through the suit, singeing monster’s skin underneath.
The creature growled, and looked at them with such dripping hatred they all froze but for a second. But second was enough, and Nightshare, with a guttural growl, punched the ground with his fist.
Everything went airborne.
The world was spinning, upside down. But even with the concussion Humanoid was certainly sporting, he could see Nightshare ripping out a huge, uneven javelin from his own chest. He tossed it in his hand as if casually noting its weight, assessing it, only to quickly snap his head towards Razork who, barely conscious, was scrambling to his feet, angry red cut from explosion marking his forehead.
Marek acted before his voice even reached his ears, his ball flying through air, intercepting the thrown javelin mid air, with a cruel, dull grating sound that hurt the ears. The javelin cracked and Iván, wide eyed, was safe.
Which could not be said about Humanoid, his side wide open after the save. The rest of the team rushed towards Nightshare, knowing they would not make it on time.
A huge arm with a spear fell right towards Humanoid and he could do nothing but stare into the void gaze of the monster in front of him. It was now lacking even hatred, leaving only emptiness, hunger to swallow his life.
He could nearly hear the screech in his own head. If I can't have you, nobody can.
It’s actually a good thing, he thought, at least nobody else gets hurt because of me again.
Then suddenly he was on the floor, Matyáš straddling him, and the spear had missed them, redirected by the former Guardian’s double whip. Similar to before the fall, but sharper, textured like a wire.
"MAREK." Elias turned his head for a second, checking his condition. Humanoid could swear he saw relief on his face when he realized the midlaner was fine. Then the expression hardened swiftly, as the adc turned towards Nightshare with the rest of the team. Wunder’s axe was already in motion, taking advantage of the creature losing tempo upon his spear getting caught.
One blink later the monster's arm flew off, followed by a loud, animal-like screech and tone of muddy black gore that must have been an equivalent of Nightshare’s blood.
Another blink and Iván and Hyli caught him in chains, left arm and right leg stuck, unable to move, flawlessly presented in front of Elias to shoot.
Third blink, the last one and there was a clean hole in the monster's suit, still smoking from the blast. Marek could see through it, and it made him sick. Nightshare spluttered more of the black goo, before, finally, succumbing to the wound and falling.
For a moment no one said anything.
Then Marek noticed it. One of Matyáš' eyes had turned back to green, while the other stayed purple. Overall, he looked more human? More Matyáš. Marek took his hand, and Matyáš didn't take it back.
"I... I don't think Carzzy can come back to the office." Elias said, breaking the silence.
"No, he would be put to death. Our word would be nothing against corruption." Wunder agreed.
Marek gripped Matyáš' hand tighter.
"I don't know about you guys, but I never saw him." It was Razork's voice, determined.
"Of course we never saw him, he is dead," Hyli said matter-of-factly. Everyone nodded.
Marek felt tears prickling his eyes. "Guys, I'm sorry for... for everything I said and did. For getting you hurt. For... I don't deserve..." Sobs overwhelmed him.
"We are a team. We got your back." Wunder said.
"You lost your best friend and were immediately ensnared by a corrupted superior being. If anything, it's a miracle you didn't fall into corruption yourself, or lost your mind. I need you to know that it's not your fault, ok?" Hyli, of course. Always the support. It only made Marek sob harder, until he felt a touch on his cheek and realised Matyáš was catching his tears with the tips of his fingers, looking puzzled.
The Matyáš from before would have hugged him, would have called Nightshare every name under the sun, would have kissed him until he forgot the outside world. But a corrupted guardian would have attacked him and killed him at the first opportunity. He stifled his sobs.
"I'm ok, Matyáš, I'm ok. We will be fine. I love you, and I think you love me? It's probably the reason why this is happening, right?" It felt weird to say this to a half-corrupted person, in front of his team, but what else was there to say? Why else would they be in this situation? He kept going. "We are going to go somewhere, just the two of us, and try to heal you, ok? You will like it. It will be calm, and nice, and beautiful, and no Nightshare, and no Star Guardian fighters to haunt you. Just you and me.”
Carzzy almost smiles, or Marek at least hopes it's a smile he sees in the upward tilt of Corrupted' lip. His purple eye looks dead but the green one, the green one holds too many emotions for midlaner to even begin to decipher.
They need time, he thinks, but they have it, they have all the time in the world. He smiles, helping Carzzy up, their hands still intervened. Slowly he rubs his calloused finger over Matyáš' rainbow scar, and this time he knows the man smiles back at him.
Later Humanoid is reported to be KIA but Marek, Marek never felt more alive.