Author's Note: New chapter! It's a little on the shorter side but that's mostly because it's a bit of a transition chapter. It was a lot of fun to write :). Hope you guys enjoy it!
Kennen slowly came to, stifling a groan. His head felt like it was stuffed with wool and his limbs were as heavy as lead. There was no pain, only a deep-seated exhaustion unlike anything he had ever experienced before. It felt like someone had sucked all the energy right out of his body – or the magic, he grimly realised.
Despite the exhaustion, the yordle forced his mind to stay on alert. He kept his eyes closed as his ears swivelled to pick up on his surroundings.
The first thing he immediately picked up on was the rowdy chorus of voices all around him. Though muffled (most likely by a thin wall or the like) the ninja was able to identify the rough, thick accents of the Southern port. That meant he was still amoung the Bladewood gang that had attacked them. He couldn't hear the familiar breaths of Shen and Akali but with all the noise around, that didn't mean they weren't nearby. It just meant they weren't in here with him. As for where 'here' was, Kennen guessed he was being held in some sort of wagon or carriage based on the frequent but inconsistent rocking motion shaking whatever he was lying on.
Judging by the lack of weight on his figure, they'd also confiscated all of his shuriken. Joy. Not that he was in much of a position to escape anyway. The yordle didn't think he had the energy to stand yet, let alone break out.
Unhappy with the conclusions but satisfied he'd gleaned all he could about his situation, Kennen decided to stop stalling the inevitable. It was time to let his captors know he was awake and see what knowledge he could gain from them.
The first thing he noticed when he opened his eyes were the thick iron bars cutting his vision of the dusty wagon interior into lines. Turns out he'd been stuffed in a small, portable cage. Fantastic.
The next thing that caught the ninja's attention was the young gang member slouched across from him, trying to balance his knife by its point out of boredom. When the kid looked up and caught the yordle staring at him, he swore and jumped out of his seat. Only to comically fall over the back of the chair; knife clattering off the table in the process.
Kennen had to hold back his snort of laughter, thankful that his mask was at least hiding his smirk from the hapless goon.
However, before the ninja could so much as get a word in, the teen was out the door. "Rida," he called out, "he's awake!"
A few moments later the familiar figure of the Bladewood leader entered. Kennen immediately tensed up, but if the gang leader noticed he gave no indication. Instead he looked over the yordle with a critical eye.
"It's about time you woke up," he said bluntly. "I was getting worried we'd damaged you permanently. Guess that crystal was more potent then we thought."
The young yordle raised an eyebrow, eyes never leaving the rugged man before him. "Crystal?"
"We got it specifically for this mission. It's supposed to absorb magic," the younger gang member babbled excitedly. "We figured it would take away your lightning powers allowing us to get a good hit on you while you were adjusting. Never expected you to collapse though."
He was silenced by a glare from his superior even as Kennen eyed the two warily.
His natural magic manifested itself as energy. It was what gave him his speed, stamina and electrical abilities. However, these thugs had assumed that his physical capabilities weren't related to his magic. While they were obviously suspicious about his collapse, as long as he could stop them making that connection it might give him the edge he needed to escape. So he stayed quiet, despite the multitude of come backs that quickly came to mind.
Turning back to the yordle, Soji Rida continued, "As my young companion so nicely pointed out, we weren't expecting just how powerful our strategy would be. Which begs the question, how are you faring?"
In all honesty, his limbs ached and his whole being still felt exhausted, but there was no way Kennen was telling them that. Instead he shot out, "Why do you care?"
The Ionian just raised an eyebrow, "Let's just say, I need to make sure my investment isn't damaged. Otherwise we won't get our money's worth."
The ninja in the cage bristled. "You're selling me?"
Rida snorted. "Don't look so indignant about it. You of all people should know about the darker side of life. Almost anything can be bought for the right price and our buyer is offering a lot of money for a healthy yordle specimen. Sure, we could have gone with any yordle. But considering just how much money your clan cost us last time we met, I figured it was about time you paid your due."
The look Kennen levelled at the man was nothing short of terrifying, causing the younger member to take a step back in fear. "That shipment you were going to sell to the Noxians would have destroyed entire regions. There was no way we could turn a blind eye to that."
"My point exactly. Do you have any idea how much that sort of thing would have brought us? We would have been as rich as kings. Top of the market. But you had to go and ruin it."
Kennen really wished he had access to a weapon right now to wipe the conceited look off of the gang leader's face. Meanwhile, Rida took a step back, brushing the vendetta aside.
"Unfortunately, the past is the past. There's nothing either of us can do about it. Besides, I have a feeling you've got a lot more to worry about right now."
He turned to the teenager, "Watch him. If he looks like he's doing anything suspicious, you know what to do."
Frustration boiled up within the hazel yordle as the gang leader left the wagon. But he let it out with a long breath. In one aspect the Ionian had been right: he had more pressing matters to focus on than disputing the past. He slowed his breathing, reaching past his exhaustion. Hopefully, he could build up enough energy to escape when the time was right.
It took the gang a few days to make it over the mountain to the port city of Zhyunia. In that time, Kennen was able to collect a fair amount of information about his fate.
The young gang member, Hojin, was fresh-faced and eager for companionship and it only took a little prompting from the yordle to get him to open up. After that he was willing to talk about almost anything. In those few days, Kennen learnt almost all there was to know about Hojin's life growing up, the other gang member's habits and a fair few of their shady past dealings.
Much more useful was the information about where they were going. Apparently, they were going to meet up with their external supplier; the young gang member more than willing to tell him how the man had come to them with the request from an eccentric, Piltovian noble offering a high price for a yordle.
However, much to his continuous frustration, the Ionian remained tight-lipped about the strange crystal they'd used to absorb his magic. No matter how much prompting he did to turn the conversation towards it, the yordle was unable to find out anything about it. Not what it was; where it had come from; or (most pertinently) where it was.
It was the only thing throwing a wrench into his plans for escape and it seemed like the Bladewood gang knew it. However, despite the risk, the yordle was confident that the transaction was still his best opportunity to get away. With the extra chaos and the large city to hide in, as long as played his cards right he should make it out just fine.
They had arrived in the city at nightfall. Using the remaining hours of daylight to make their way through the streets to one of the dock warehouses. Once there, Kennen's cage was placed in a dimly lit storage room with Hojin while Rida and some others went to meet with the dealer.
This was the moment he'd been waiting for. Carefully, he slipped a long thin wire out from the hem of his tunic before quietly fiddling with the lock. The low lighting wasn't an issue for him but it would definitely prevent his guard from noticing what he was doing.
Eyes flicking between the young guard and the lock, the purple ninja raised his ears, trying to pick up any incoming noises as he deftly worked away.
Finally, the lock gave a quiet click just as approaching footsteps caught his ears.
"-been partners for years. Do you really not trust me on something as simple as this job?" The yordle could make out Rida's voice as the conversers drew near.
"It's because we've been partners for years that I want to check the goods first. I know you." The second voice was a higher pitched and fluttery one that Kennen didn't recognise but could infer belonged to the dealer. "While I have no doubt you did technically fulfil the requirements, you have a funny way of doing so in some – unorthodox – ways."
Swiftly, Kennen hid the lock-pick up his sleeve and moved away from the bars just before the lights were turned on. The sudden glare from the lights blinded him as the two newcomers approached.
As his eyes adjusted he heard an exasperated and slightly panicked sigh. "You stole a member of the Kinkou? Really?"
His vision returned just in time to see the rotund, bearded man the Bladewood leader was with wipe the sweat from his brow. "Look, I brought you into this deal because it was easy money and would set us both up nicely in the aftermath of the war."
"That and if we did it and got caught it wouldn't lead back to you," Rida cut in, casually ignoring the glare it earned him.
"Instead we'll both be caught because you couldn't let go of a petty revenge scheme!"
"Relax," the gang leader waved him off. "It's not as bad as it seems. We were never going to snatch a yordle without anyone noticing anyway. The species are close-knit by nature. Their friends would have alerted the peace-keepers as soon as they noticed one was missing."
Watching the two men casually talk about his species like that made Kennen's ire peak. "You know I can hear you right?" he snarled at them, however, both humans continued to ignore him.
Fidgeting anxiously but still holding his ground, the dealer pressed his point, "The peace-keepers are easier to deal with, especially after the war."
"And you think the Kinkou isn't? Haven't you noticed how sparse their presence has been lately?"
The bearded man stilled as he thought over what his partner had said. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen much of the ninja clan since the war had ended.
"Rumour has it, they've had their own problems to deal with. Their numbers have noticeably thinned and members of a rival 'Order of the Shadow' have been popping up instead. They don't have the time or the resources to hunt down the likes of us. Case and point, there were two other members with this one when we attacked. The Valerian powder we used on them only lasts 6 hours and yet it's been almost a week since that incident and there is still no sign of them."
Internally Kennen winced. Once he'd found out that Shen and Akali had been left behind it hadn't taken him long to figure that they'd continued on with their original task first. It was not a decision he held against them. Just as he knew it would not prevent them from coming back for him afterwards (assuming he didn't escape first).
However, as Rida had so rightly pointed out, it was not helping their image as the untouchable protectors of the land. Should rumours of their weakened state spread it had the potential to stir up more unrest and would most definitely result in more work for the whole clan.
The supplier was still skeptical as he mulled over this new information, but even he could see the logic that the Bladewood leader had provided. "Fine," he finally conceded, "but I will be paying you less as insurance should the buyer recognise him and pull out of the deal."
"That old coot?" The Soji Rida snarled, clearly not happy with this new turn of events. "He's a reclusive elitist who lives on a private island and wants a yordle as a pet. I doubt he'd recognise a League Champion if they kicked him up the arse, let alone a member of a foreign organisation."
Until now the heavy-set supplier had been perpetually on edge and nervous but at the rebuttal of the other man his spine straightened, and a steely undertone came to his voice. "This is non-negotiable."
With all of the attention on the two men squaring off, Kennen took his opportunity. Gathering up his reserved energy, he leapt from the cage straight for the rookie guarding him and the young Ionian went down in one hit; then Kennen swivelled from his spot and leapt at the two men in the middle of the room before the guard had even hit the floor.
He aimed for the gang leader first, landing a punch in his gut before he could even react. The big man grunted in pain but that was all he had time for before the ninja came at him with a flurry of attacks, not letting up or giving Rida the chance to go on the defensive. The yordle wore through his defences before knocking him out with a swift uppercut.
He turned to the last man, dodging the sword that was headed towards him just in time. The supplier was surprisingly resilient, making it difficult for Kennen to get close with the sword in the way. But in the end the ninja had more training than him and it didn't take long before he found an opening to take the dealer out.
All this happened in under two minutes.
He paused briefly, scanning his surroundings to ensure there were no more threats before gunning it for the door. He'd barely gotten within reach of it however, when a sickeningly, familiar sensation hit him and the ninja crashed to the floor in front of the doorway.
Frustration and panic surged through him as an unfamiliar gang member stepped out from her hiding spot next to the door. He had been so close!
Wearily, Kennen raised his head to glare at the glowing stone held securely in new member's hands.
"Did you really think I would be so stupid as to leave the stone with someone so obvious?" the Bladewood leader rose shakily to his feet, checking on the rookie guard as he kept an eye on the downed yordle. "I may not be as skilled as you but I haven't gotten this far in my career by being stupid."
By this time, the dealer had also gotten to his feet, eyeing the stone with renewed interest. "Well, well," he said amiably to his partner, "That's an interesting rock you have there. Maybe we can make a new deal after all."
Rida smirked, "I'd be willing to negotiate."
Annoyance and uselessness were the last things Kennen felt before everything went black again.