Ezreal and Quinn stalked through the streets of the south end of the city, the former cringing more than he should at the filth and leering stares. The street underneath foot now horrifically uneven and partially coated in grime causing most steps to end in a squelch like sound. As the duo continued, Ezreal got held up momentarily as a few less than appropriately dressed woman walked up to him. However his plea's for help were ignored for the moment as Valor suddenly spotted something, alarming Quin to the sheen of a metallic gauntlet with a loud screech. Immediately recognizing it as one of the pieces to Lux's armor she yelled for Ezreal to stop dawdling and started on a dash towards the owner.
Suddenly sprinting into action the blonde activated his bracer shifting past the escorts and quickly into pace right behind Quin. At the quick movement of the two, the person showing off the gauntlet to the other freezes for a moment as their reflexes to run kick in. Turning around the person starts running down a small dank alley, tipping over what crates and other objects they could as they sprinted down the back alley.
Unfortunately for the young man, the two champions were just as fast, and even more fit than he was. Eventually causing him to be exhausted long enough for Quin to tackle him to the ground. Upon being caught he immediately started trying everything he could to escape.
"Hey! What do you want!? I already told the sheriff everything I know!" He squirmed under the scouts grip.
"And what exactly was that?" Quin demanded without letting up on the thief. At his silence and continued squirming she added in "Alright, I'm sure Garen would like to know how you came across a piece of his little sisters armor." Which in turn caused the young man to instantly stop resisting and spill everything he knew, again.
"You sure it's okay here?" The blonde asked once more as she lay on the extremely comfortable bed while Jinx arranged the room just so. Making sure her weapons were where they wanted to be.
"If I didn't think you would be safer than the last place I wouldn't have brought you here." Jinx replied as she propped Fishbones against the bed and set Pow-Pow on the table. Stretching with a yawn Jinx sat down on the bed and worked at unbraiding her hair before tossing herself face first into the pillows. Even though it was just past noon Jinx mumbled a barely audible few words before passing out. Staying up most of the night to make sure her favorite toy was alright took a lot.
Slightly surprised by this Lux was about to think about the past days events and her current predicament, when something caught her eye. Jinx's electro pistol in its holster a mere few feet away. The blonde started reaching for the weapon, thinking about how little it actually hurt to walk here today. She might be able to escape. Suddenly her focus faltered and her reach froze. She might have been taken captive but, had her time with the tealette really been that bad?
The memories of last night flashed through Lux's vision with a shudder, she had killed each of them. If she was going to get out of here, she would definitely have to do that again. The blonde's heartbeat quickened as she imagined trying to get out of here. How she would have to personally exterminate everyone who got in her way. A prickle of goosebumps traveled over her arms as another unbidden flash overwhelmed her sense. The incredibly warmth and excitement from earlier. The explosions of petals and the brilliant red.
It was such a pretty color, but for some reason Lux found it hard to pinpoint the exact shade. Maybe she would see it again on her escape? Then again if she did then-
Cutting off Lux's racing thoughts were cut off by a mumble behind her bringing her back to reality. Jumping in shock, she nearly dropped Zap in surprise. When exactly had she picked it up again? Another mumble stopped any further thought as Lux hobbled over to the bedside to find Jinx sound asleep. However her hand was grasping thin air and her voice mumbled in a sad tone.
"please...no more...someone..." Jinx mumbled in her sleep.
Somehow the psychopathic murderer seemed so innocent at this moment, even...cute? Lux blanched at her last thought. She had come to terms with her alternative likes but... Jinx was something else entirely. Yet, she had taken care of her right? She went out sometimes for most likely shady deals, but always returned with the things they needed... Deciding that escape was too much trouble and there were worse things than relaxing on an overly comfortable bed, Lux lay down facing the tealette. Taking pity on her the blonde reached out towards her grasping hand, and for a moment regretted it as the instant they made contact, Jinx locked her in a tight clutch. Pulling her closer and causing a spasm of pain to race through Lux's leg.
After a moment of movement and pain, Lux found an extreme amount of comfort. Jinx had pulled herself to have their legs intertwined and her arms around the blonde. And for some reason, it felt...nice, right even. Letting herself enjoy the warmth of the smaller girls embrace Lux slowly dozed.
The duo were awakened by a knock on the door some time later. After a short time of Jinx mumbling and slowly waking up , the knock sounded again before the door knob started to turn.
Graves pushed himself inside, one of his many "employees" holding the door as he did. Concealing his initial surprise the gruff man continued into the room with the silver platter in hands. Jinx finally sat up in response, waves of teal hair spilling over her captive and cushy bed.
"Morning" Jinx yawned, rubbing her eye with one hand while the other supported her before rolling to the side and untangling herself from Lux casually. The blonde on the other hand simply pushed herself back and sat up, trying to ignore just how nice the past few hours had been. "What's up?" The tealette stated in a nearly bored tone.
"Well, you haven't been out of your room. I thought you might want something a bit...nicer ...than you're used to for dinner." Graves stated, glaring at Lux as he set the reflective platter onto the foot of the bed.
While Jinx seemed oblivious to the tension in the air, Lux suddenly felt slightly offended. In fact this man's entire demeanor seemed offending especially his attitude towards Jinx. As he sat at the foot of the bed and talked about the expensive food he had brought, which she was sure he had no actual part in preparing, Lux noticed that his gaze at Jinx was similar to the tealette's gaze at the platter of high class food.
"Thank you so much for your hospitality, but I'm sure you have more important things to do than wait on us." Lux suddenly said in an overly sweet tone, taking herself by surprise. This man hadn't exactly done anything wrong.
"Oh there are few things more important than treating a, Lady... right." Graves stated, however it sounded more like a passive insult to the blonde.
Jinx who had already begun eating piped up in between bites. "See I told you sparks, you'll be treated fine here." Upon the look of confusion received by the gruff man Jinx elaborated. "She's my princess."
Silence only broken by Jinx's eating followed her statement. After an awkward clearing of his throat and a statement of something elsewhere being important the duo were once again alone. Metal on plate and the sound of several frustrated huffs sounded through the room before Jinx broke the silence. "Hey Sparks, do ya mind?, It gets in the way sometimes." She stated referring to her overly long flowing hair.
"O-oh sure..." Lux answered, still slightly shocked at the others last statement. However she quickly began dividing and braiding the lithe womans hair while she continued the dinner that was placed before her.
As her hair was pulled back Jinx uttered a small "Thanks".
"S-so... Why did you...call me that?" Lux asked slowly, heart beating slightly faster than normal.
"Well, you said you were royalty, and you belong to me. So you're My princess." Jinx answered casually in a possesive tone.
Slightly crestfallen for some reason Lux felt slightly guilty at lying to Jinx. "Actually... I wasn't being entirely truthful then. I'm a royal guard, not actual royalty."
"Oh... Well that's much more fun! You mean you get to fight off assassins and be the king's champion and all that?!" Jinx suddenly exclaimed, forgetting about her food and suddenly much more interested in the blonde.
"W-well kinda... I mean most of that is in the job description." Lux answered thinking about the fields of justice and how far away her old life seemed now. Not even because of how hard it would be to escape, but because how strangely normal everything seemed now.
Valor's call echoed from above the city causing a certain inventor to pause and wonder about the anatomical structures and how they might be replaced within that annoyingly loud bird. Fortunately he had much more important work at the moment. Another illegal acquirement of rare outer-dimensional creature samples. In simpler words, beings born of the void. As dull as it was to have to repair simple non-sentient constructs for Graves, working for him had its perks. Viktor thought as the beast on the table squelched forth another series of chittering noises. Another one resembling an Insect, hopefully this one will give me a little more insight on how to perfect my earlier work in progress. The machinist thought as he peeled off a section of carapace to the obvious pained sounds of the subject. Unfortunately for the creature mercy and pity were not something Viktor had for the lower races, namely the organics. They were weak, with their flesh and their blood, growing old and frail. This was the necessary sacrifice, to ensure the conservation of life, and the next step in evolution.
The battlecast schematics were only the first stage, the control core made the perfect addition, and yet... It still felt as if SOMETHING was missing. Something. Something, Something Something SOMETHING. Oh... it appears the specimen has ceased vital functions... Seeing as there was no other work or research available at hand, Viktor began replacing the damaged or removed tissues of the creature. The nagging however, did not stop. There was still...something missing. Some design, some prototype, some thing.
The machinists thoughts were interrupted as the boss barged into his workplace.
"A heads up, you're going to have a volunteer soon" Grave's told the man after shutting the door to ensure privacy.
"Oh? One of your lackeys finally recognized the brilliance of my research?" Victor asked in a tone laced with pride and curiosity.
"No no, let's just say I'm volunteering her. So get your shit together and make sure this room is sound AND escape proof. Got it." The gruff man answers in anger, his tone never allowing a response, before leaving.
Sighing Victor looked around the room, his lack of trust in the staff meant he would have to clean the entire place himself. Setting down his operational tools he got to work even though escape was not something in his experiments vocabulary.
Author's note: sorry for making you all wait such a long time for this chapter. I was planning on making it longer but I figured an update 1 year since it's post would be slightly better than a larger chapter later this week. No promises on the next update besides I'm working on it xD
Lastly thank you everyone for your support, and thank you Nyx for being a return reader =) you're all the best!
