Just an idea that came to mind and wrote a little of it down, not sure if I'll continue with it although I do like Varus x Diana but atm it's a slow start and looking more like Diana x Leona :/

NB: Some references to speculative/contemplative red posts about Diana and the rest is my fanciful fluff.

The cool afternoon breeze blew through the rock pillars lining the path to the Institute of War.

She stood in their shadows, leaning against the stone hewn column with her head bowed, waiting.

The Institute was rather new compared to the long history of Valoran but the building itself seemed to reflect the age of the land, the grey walls already weathered and splayed with thin fractures beneath the film of frost peppering the surfaces. Patches of dark green moss dotted themselves in the crevices of the walls, rimming the edges of the building. One of the spires had already broken and the other showed the tell-tale signs of crumbling from the endless days of hot and cold. The steps into the building had been smoothed out, the middle of each step dipped from the constant tread of champions into and out of matches.

Another gust of wind whistled through the pillars, whipping up her long hair and swirling the dancing flames in the two urns by the entrance into the building. Absentmindedly, she spun her blade in her hand, glancing up to regard the orange sun.

Twilight would come soon.

Diana hadn't been part of the League for very long, having only been inducted in rather recently. After she had laid waste to her past she had abandoned Mt Taragon, promising to never return to that damned place under any circumstances. Those that had denied the moon's power had paid their price but there were others who still held unshakable faith in that cruel star. Other Solari - guilty by association. And her.

Diana muttered under her breath, clenching her blade.

Leona.

Theirs history was a long one - a simple one yet at the same time complex in its own way.

They had been friends at one point - if you could call it that. A time too long ago to remember. Sightings between classes and prayers. And a brief meeting in passing.

Back when she had still been too young - too naive - to see the flaws of the Solari.

When she had been severely punished by the Elders for her latest demur against the Solari, for her belief in the moon's power. They had been quick to respond, quick to quash her challenges with force.

Derision and punishment. That was all they had offered her in answer. Forced to kneel outside under the midday sun, the heat splitting rocks on the ground as she clenched her fists and endured the searing rays. Morning turned to noon then afternoon where the rays were deadliest and scorched all in its wake. Time ticked away by the drip of sweat trickling down her exposed skin. Hours on end... they had wanted the nail in the message alright, stamp out her inquisition and teach her a lesson.

Diana grit her teeth in reflex.

Those were the days when she had still sought acceptance of sorts, when she was was still a Solari herself - but different. Why was it too hard to accept someone a little different? So rigid with their rules, how obstinately blind they were. They couldn't see the bigger picture, the wider world, like she could. Just because she had a fascination for the moon... foolish acolytes.

It had been the worst punishment to that date, the most... memorable. Oh the physical pain could no longer be recalled, that fades with time. But Diana was determined to never forget that day - to forget would be to forgive and there was no mercy for them. Those that forced her to kneel beneath the sun were not worthy of her sympathy, every groveling one of them.

Ten hours. Ten hours of slow persecution. Burning flints on the ground cut into her knees and the tendons in her back, her legs, her feet, were taut in strain. Merciless rays beat down on her, singeing her hair where it touched her scorching golden armour - an incubating suppression over her body. Even through her closed eyes the burning light shone through, a glaring orange through the back of both her eyelids. No shirking away from the light - it was everywhere, omnipresent and beating down on her in waves of heat. Sweat dripped relentlessly down her face, evaporating with a hiss where it landed on her armour. Drops on the ground disappeared up in a wisp of evaporation, the baked gravel tinged a shade darker a mere second before reverting back. Any slight breeze was a bittersweet relief, briefly sweeping away the cloak of heat enveloping her but stinging her lips; chapped and cracked already, dried blood caking the cracks where it had split her skin.

And then there was the brand. That metal sigil secured to her forehead.

A slow heating up, from cold to warm to hot to scalding as the temperature rose incessantly. Forced to endure it as the steel artifact seared into her forehead, as her skin burnt and puckered and split and blistered. Her whole body cried in agony but nowhere more so than where that metal brand was pressed firmly to her forehead. They were definitely... creative with their punishments. Why use fire to heat a metal poker? Let the sun burn the mark into you, for then you will never forget what the 'true' faith is.

The elders and others had gathered to watch her, mock her. Murmurs, murmurs all around, a ring onlookers hiding in the shade of the pillars encircling the open plain. Look here! A silly girl who dares question about Sun! What blasphemy! She deserves it! But as the hours went by they had eventually scattered as the sun went down. The last of them to leave was her. Leona.

Brushing past her, Leona had almost knocked her over, so weak and drained from the exertion and the enduring of her punishment. But she had slipped something to her, something cool and cold. A flask of chilled water. Diana had gulped it down hungrily without thought, splashing the last of it over her head, the water hissing where it met the searing brand as it sealed her skin.

Diana shook her head.

That had been too long ago. It didn't mean anything. Things have changed. Their paths had split on that day, that fateful day Leona was to be executed for refusing to participate in the Rite of Kor. That was also the day... her execution day...

Since then, Leona was no longer the same, and neither was she.

And their paths taken them different ways yet ultimately in the same direction; towards each other, no longer as allies but as enemies.

Leona will not be forgiven.

When Diana had heard about the League, it seemed a petty thing, a playground for settling who stole whose toy. Summoners seemed to like using others to fight for them, the city states too. They were all like that. On hearing that Leona had joined though... things got interesting then. It had been a long time since they had last met, much too long. Meeting Leona on a battlefield, what more could she ask for? For that, she had rashly signed herself up too.

A pretty promise of being able to eliminate that one shinning beacon of falsehood was tempting to say the least.

The concept of this League and Institute of War and whatnot were trivial things, a mere platform for her to justly slay Leona, time after time. Contracts and bindings, she didn't really care for them, biding by the rules did not bother her. All that matter would be defeating Leona. What relish it would bring, she had thought, to finally face each other as equals and let her see for real the true power of the moon. There will be no denying it then.

The first time it had felt glorious.

There was chaos and blood and carnage all around her and she felt truly alive again. This was her element; this was where she was home, what she knew best. This was the feeling of being free. Yet as she tore her bloodied blade from Leona's stained golden armour, her last pitiful breath wheezing though her punctured lungs, there was something missing. Something... Standing over her collapsed corpse as the adrenaline faded, it didn't feel quite right. This was what she had wanted all along but it did not feel entirely like it.

The second time the unease was stronger still.

Again she tore he blade from Leona's body, this time from her stomach. Again her last breath wheezed through her crimson stained lips, the blood gushing from the cavity through her abdomen. And again, there was something missing. Even after the relentless chase through the jungle, even after the jukes and stuns, even after the tooth and nail fight as adrenalin pounded through her veins. There was just something missing.

And each time after, the thrill dimmed little by little.

She had become frustrated, the matches just repetitions of the same thing, the same tantalising feeling always just out of reach. There was always something missing, something that she could never quite reach. Soon Diana found herself slaying without discrimination, trying to find the thrill again, match after match. A living vengeance.

As time went by, she slowly came to realise what was missing. It wasn't a feeling she was missing, no. It was something else - an unsatisfaction, a denial. Now when she faced Leona on the battlefield she didn't even bother so savour the kill anymore – her death as was the same as any other kill, if not less.

It provided little relish, knowing she could slay her a thousand times over yet she would still stay bound to her damned Solari. There was nothing that would change that.

And no matter how many times she would decimate Leona's body, her crescent blade soaked with the blood of the sun, Leona would always come back and bring back with her that damned perseverance to the Solari and their ways.

She couldn't kill her baseless conviction to the sun.

And now she couldn't even kill Leona properly anymore, not when she had foolishly bound herself to the League and the workings of the battlefields in a moment of heated delusion, of fanciful promises.

Thing were going to change today though, Diana had had enough of the play fighting on the Fields of Justice.

Tonight, it will be for real.

Credits to MiaZueSepp for the cover picture 'Diana x Varus?' on DeviantArt