Qeth

The junkyard. A place that held many memories for Ashe - bittersweet, but memories all the same.
Even now it was hard to believe she had wound up here of all places, even harder to think that this place would later become the starting grounds for rebellion.
Something crunched beneath her feet as she stepped forwards. It was hardly uncommon, given the junkyard was filled with the remains of many scrapped robotics, some being dragons like herself. During her time at the junkyard, Ashe had been forced to grow accustomed to the sight of scattered body parts littering the ground, to see bits and pieces of what once could've been a dragon lying strewn across heaps of trash. Now, however, she was quite immune to it, Ashe paused just long enough to inspect the mangled remains of it, expecting to see some metallic component or other flattened into the ground.
Instead, haunting white fragments of bone stared back up at her.

What were organic remains doing here?
As far as Ashe was aware, the junkyard had been a home solely for artificially created dragons, those who had been scrapped and left to fend for themselves. Never in her months of patrolling this area had she ever come across any sign of organic life in this godforsaken place - there was hardly any water or food for regular dragons or even animals to subsist off, so the only ones to inhabit the area had been those who needed neither food nor water to survive. The tiniest of frowns wrinkled her features, but for the time being she shook it off, perhaps new life had somehow managed to flourish in these parts, she shouldn't be too quick to begrudge them of that, even if the bone was a fairly large one…

Behind her, Gigabyte frowned at the splintered remnants on the ground, prodding at them disbelievingly with one claw. She would have opened her mouth to question further had Ashe not shaken her head and pressed their little group to move forward. The junkyard was vast, after all, it wasn’t about to patrol itself. In addition, they very well might not be alone in patrolling the area, Project had a tendency to send androids for routine inspections of the place - no surprise given that this was their dumping yard for scrapped machinery, not to mention the very place Ashe herself had been ordered to investigate so long ago.

Once, this place had been full of other dragons, creations abandoned by Project and presumed otherwise dead. Unbeknownst to Project, however, the junkyard’s massive collection of spare parts had allowed them to forage and repair their broken bodies in order to live on. Once, there would have been eyes around every corner, peeking out curiously at the patrol trooping past, but now the yard lay devoid of life, with naught but the wind whistling through the labyrinthic passageways. The former inhabitants were gone now, had found a better home within FL/GHT’s safehouses, but the sight of the now-deserted makeshift slums was enough to make her wish for those peaceful days again. Ashe closed her eyes, whispered a silent farewell to him, as was her custom every time she came here. It seemed his memory still lingered here, even long after his passing.

The silence of the junkyard was shattered by a bone-chilling battlecry unlike anything they’d ever heard before - not even Tryndamere’s roar had ever sounded so savage, so hungry for blood. In a heartbeat she had nocked an arrow to her bow, sensors alert and scanning their surroundings for any signs of someone else’s presence here. Her group fanned out behind her, each one tensed and as watchful as the last, every one of them prepared to launch themselves at potential attackers.

Nothing. No hostiles came rushing at them, no hidden ambush to fend off. Ashe frowned, lowered her bow just an inch.

Another howl, this time it split the air no less than several hundred feet away. Without another moment wasted Ashe waved on her team, breaking into a sprint towards the source of the growing commotion. After so many months of being undisturbed save for Project androids on patrol, what else could possibly be causing such a racket? No robot she’d ever heard of made such sounds, she highly doubted Project would start making those now either. So then, who else would be down here in the depths of these barren ruins?

Her answer was made clear when she burst into the clearing, only to be forced to duck as an android head was sent flying mere inches away from her face. From the sound of the cursing behind her, her companions hadn’t expected the whizzing projectile either. Ashe tightened her grip on her bow once more and brought it up as soon as she straightened upright - and was promptly bowled over by a flurry of snapping jaws and crimson hide. Thankfully, her throat plating was made of durable metal that survived the first bite, Ashe tucked her chin down as soon as she was able to and simply lashed out hard with her legs, her bow would be no use in such close quarters. Just outside her field of vision she glimpsed a second blur slamming into the body atop her, attempting to pry her enraged assailant off - it did the trick of loosening their grip on her, enough for Ashe to send them reeling back with another kick.

Staggering, still snarling with unbridled fury, the dragon scrambled back to her feet, fully prepared to make another rush at them when a commanding voice rang out.

“Enough.”

The words alone were enough to bring the seething bogsneak to an abrupt halt, jerking backwards as if she’d been tugged by an invisible leash. It was only then that Ashe had the chance to properly observe the bizarre scene laid out before them - the scattered remnants of a pair of Project androids that had been brutally ripped apart, the ragtag group of dragons that huddled together behind the one who had spoken out. What truly caught her attention, however, was the way the pale gleam of bone was visible through some of their hides, where skin and flesh had been rotted away. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight - there were even several with bones that looked as if they’d been corrupted somehow, nestled in what remained of their bodies. From just beside her, she heard the collective gasp of her patrol group, who had been equally horrified to lay eyes on their macabre appearance. Just what had caused this?
“They’re diseased.”

The wary hiss came from Gigabyte, standing just behind her. Before Ashe could even begin to shush her, a dry chuckle sounded from the imperial who had pushed her way to the front of the other group.

“She’s not wrong. That’s what they,” she jerked her head to indicate the dismembered shells of the Project androids, “think of us too. They want us gone, because we’re a threat to them, it seems.”

Ashe finally mustered the will to speak once more. “Project… sent those here to eliminate you?”

The other imperial’s eyes narrowed to suspicious slits, though she was quick to wave off the still-glaring bogsneak. Ashe noted that she had not budged an inch since their scuffle had ended.
“And just what do you know about Project? Are you reinforcements, sent here to kill us too?”
Ashe flinched at the outright accusation, though for the sake of appearances she forced herself to ignore the jab. These were no foes, that much she could tell just from the situation alone. More importantly, these were enemies of Project who had been able to not only defend themselves from an attack by said company’s robots, they’d well and truly routed them.

“No. We’re from FL/GHT, a group consisting of those Project has abandoned that they now seek to eliminate as well. On any other day, we’d be the ones fighting those androids, but…” Ashe paused to give the lifeless corpses a nudge with her foot, “as you can see, your group has already taken care of them.” The gears were racing in her head even as she spoke, could this be the break that they needed so desperately? FL/GHT was severely lacking in field units like herself and Tryndamere to defend the safehouses and carry out routine patrols, which was why even as the leader of the organization, Ashe had no choice but to pick up the slack. These dragons seemed more than capable of defending themselves, and shared a common enemy with FL/GHT.
What could be better than utilizing this opportunity to secure fresh allies?

“You said that Project wants to wipe you out,” Ashe started slowly, searching for the right words that would sway their decision in her favor, “and from the look of it, I don’t think you don’t have proper homes, or else you wouldn’t be hiding here.” Beside the imperial, the bogsneak that had attacked her gave a menacing growl, but reluctantly fell silent when the imperial laid a claw on her shoulder. Before she could respond, however, Ashe pressed on.

“So come with us. Join us, help defend us from Project - we can offer a guaranteed safehouse for your members to stay, and all we ask is for your assistance.”

“And just what would this ‘assistance’ be?” The imperial shot back warily, still eyeing Ashe up and down, her stare lingering on the bow still at her side.
“Manpower.” Ashe told her simply. “We’re short on field units to guard our bases, and to help patrol the areas near us. You are clearly capable of fighting, and have already confessed to being no friend of Project’s.” A brief smile crept across her features. “Any enemy of theirs is a friend of FL/GHT’s, I’d say.”

The imperial considered this for several long minutes, turned back towards her little party to confer with them in hushed whispers - more than once Ashe caught them sneaking glances at her, as if they feared her overhearing somehow. It couldn’t be helped, so instead she too turned back to her squad, who met her with various levels of apprehension on their faces.

“Are you sure about this?”

“Of course. It’s a win-win solution for both sides, is it not?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“But what about their disease? I don’t want to think of anything like that being introduced to the others…”

“Gigabyte, most of us are immune to disease, yourself included. We’re androids, remember?”

“Oh.”

A pointed cough from across the clearing prompted them to fall back into formation beside Ashe once more. The crimson imperial stepped forward, beckoning Ashe to join her in the middle ground between both their groups.

“We agree to your proposal.”
Ashe blinked. That had certainly been easier than expected. Yet something told her there was more to this than a simple agreement, and so her only response was a polite nod. The other dragon studied her for several seconds more, before holding out a single bone - weathered and worn away by time, but clearly the arm bone of what used to be a dragon. It was sheer discipline that kept Ashe from recoiling at being presented with such a grisly object, but thankfully the imperial took it a favourable sign and graced her with a toothy grin.

“In our clan, we swap bones of our fallen, or the trophy bones of our enemies, when we make important promises.” Once again, she paused, as if expecting something of her in return. Catching on, Ashe was quick to snatch up a dented elbow joint from the scrap heap just beside her and hold it out in exchange - they didn’t exactly have proper bones to give, after all. A bemused expression crossed the imperial’s face for a moment, but she shrugged and let it slide - even she could see that Ashe and her companions weren’t of flesh and blood.

"Qeth se dii zeymah, sos se dii fron. Zu’u gron hi wah zu’u, tol zu’u mulaag los hin ahrk hin kinzonjot los dii. Ol middovah mu nir."

“My name is Ashe. I would have yours in exchange.”

“Qeth. My second-in-command, Bloodybones.” The dragon inclined her head to indicate the bogsneak at her heels, who shot her a somewhat resentful look. “We are honoured to fight alongside you and your kin, Ashe of FL/GHT.”

And that was that.
Ashe gingerly ran a claw along the length of the bone now in her grasp, inspecting it even while she led the patrol back home towards FL/GHT headquarters, with an additional half-dozen or so new members in tow. Perhaps being in diplomacy wasn’t such a bad idea, she mused. The lead imperial from the ‘bone dragons’, as they called themselves, fell into step beside her, head cocked to the side.

“You know the meaning of those words I said to you, just now?”

They’d been on her mind ever since she’d heard them. “Of course not.”

Qeth’s rumbling laugh drew raised eyebrows from those surrounding them, but she paid them no heed and leaned in close to whisper in Ashe’s ear anyway.

"Bone of my brother, blood of my kin. I tie you to me, that my strength is yours and your fangs are mine. As allies, we will hunt."