So I, like many, many, many people, watched Arcane on Netflix and holy hell was it amazing. After it, pretty much been on a binge either rewatching it or reading fanfics of the characters.
Then a friend of mine who loves RWBY who I got to watch Arcane said they'd love to see a crossover fic done of it and basically would not stop talking about it till the idea got stuck in my head. So that's pretty much how the thought of this all came about.
Piltover. The self-proclaimed "City of Progress".
The city on the cutting edge of hextech, and blah blah blah.
Vibrant pink eyes stared out over the city, from high up where the owner of said eyes was perched on top of a spire. The city had recovered pretty well from the events of J-Day.
All in a matter of just three months too.
It was incredibly annoying.
Newer, shinier building now reaching up towards the heavens where old ones used to stand. Statues of the lives lost on that day standing tall in the very center of the city. The reminder of those lost on that day infuriated her.
Because the most important person was missing from those statues.
Jinx grit her teeth as she lightly bonked herself on the head before shaking it wildly, her long twin braids flying in the air behind her from the motion of her head.
She hadn't come all the way here to be all sad and mopey and emotional. That junk could be saved for after the job was done.
Her vision slid over to the prestigious academy building, standing tall and imposing and oh so blow-upable.
But no, this wasn't one of her normal trips up to Piltover that was filled with beautiful explosions, horrified screams, and that unique scent of gunpowder and ash that always hung in the air after one of her pranks.
Jinx was here on a personal mission. Word had spread around Zaun that some promising inventor in the academy had managed to make a handheld hexgate generator. One that allowed the person with the controls to even pick where they would end up, meaning they could choose to pop in and out wherever and whenever they wanted.
Obviously, that meant Jinx had to have it. Not just because of what it would mean for her, to be able to poof in and out before anyone even had a chance to scream.
No, it was because a device like that would be heavily guarded and secured. Protected with the highest of security systems available and the best guards money could buy.
In what world could Jinx not try to steal it?
Something that valuable, that heavily guarded, that desired by others, it was impossible not to go after it. It was why she was up on a spire only a few thousand feet away from the academy. She'd break in, shoot her way through whoever tried to stop her, take the thingy and leave after writing a nice note for the one who made it.
Something like this would need stealth, cunning, planning everything down to the finest of details.
Which was why Jinx had decided the best way to handle it was with the remote currently in her hand. A remote linked to five different explosives in five separate parts of the city. Explosions that would send shockwaves across the ground and send the entire city into a state of panic.
The perfect cover for a heist.
A wicked smile stretched across Jinx's face as she pressed down on the switch. Her smile only grew wider at the amazing and deafening sounds of explosions that followed suit.
A swarm of enforcers spilled out of the building a second later. Jinx could hear their yells and cries even from her perch as they shouted out which direction to go in and who would go where.
Not a single one yelled about who would be staying and guarding the academy.
Honestly, it was a bit disappointing really.
This was a trick she had even used before, only on a larger scale.
Glowing eyes watched as clumps of people marched off in different directions.
A pout formed on the Zaunite's lips. "Stupids. I won't even get a challenge like this."
"They're just concerned because of the explosions and being responsible."
Jinx turned her head to Fishbones, her hextech rocket-launcher which was currently resting on her shoulder, a deadpan expression on her face as she brought her fist down on the things shark-themed head. "That's just stupider."
It was even more annoying that Fishbones even sounded like he approved of the way the guards were handling the situation. The last group began to rush out of the square and off to another location. Jinx watched them go and smiled before she made her way down the building, easily hopping from ledges or clinging to window sills before reaching a comfortable distance to just drop onto the ground.
Taking one second to right the straps across her body that secured Fishbones to her back and hung Pow-Pow, her minigun, at her side, Jinx smiled wide as she ran straight into the building.
That smile slowly faded as disappointment and a bit of frustration began to fill up the wild girl. The two main reasons were that the forces guarding the building really had all cleared out at the explosions, leaving her with nothing to shoot.
The other, even more irritating issue was that all of the halls looked the EXACT same.
Weaving through hallways and doors to try and find the lab she was looking for, Jinx was quickly starting to lose her patience with the building and was becoming extremely tempted to just blow the stupidly designed thing up and just dig through the rubble for the prototype she was looking to steal.
That option obviously would not be ideal as it would draw the enforcers back to the building and also more than likely destroy the bounty she planned to make off with.
Didn't make it any less tempting for her. Not one bit.
"Go left."
"You already went left here, go right."
A pink eye twitched at the two voices sounding out in her head, trying to help her. All they managed to really do was annoy her. At the very least, Fishbones was sparing her from having to hear his less than helpful tips.
"Both of you, shut up! I'm trying to think."
Luckily, both of the voices listened to her. For once.
Jinx's eyes shifted back and forth between the hallway to her left and the hallway to her right.
Had she already gone left? Once more her mind screamed out that the entire building looked the SAME!
Whatever. She didn't have time to insult the building, the architect who designed it, or the interior designer who didn't understand the necessity for diversity or signs.
Jinx had a heist to pull! Time was of the essence, whatever that meant!
Meaning of dumb and weird sayings aside, she really didn't have all of the time in the world to just prance around the building while arguing with the voices in her head. Eventually the enforcers would put out the fires her explosives caused and come running back to their post at the academy. Closing her eyes, Jinx spun around a few times in place, her long braids slapping against the walls as she twirled. Before coming to a sudden stop and opening her eyes and bolting down the hallway she was now staring down.
Boots pounding into the ground, twin blue braids flailing in the air behind Jinx in a trail, the Zaunite just continued to run through the building until she finally came to the location she was looking for.
The way she had come to know that, the enforcers hadn't been so stupid as to leave the place completely unguarded. Oh no, they were wise enough to leave two guards at the door of the vault that was surely packed with many inventions. Many dangerous, many that could certainly lead to plenty of fun, destructive times.
And the two guards left to protect it were sat in chairs and snoozing away.
Life just isn't fair. Was the only thought to leave Jinx's mind. Finally, she found the vault and found apt target dummies.
And the two idiots were asleep. One of them was even snoring loudly with a bit of drool dribbling down his chin.
Unholstering her trusty Zap from her hip, Jinx twirled the handgun on one finger over and over as she walked in between the two.
A cough left the blue-haired anarchist as she deepened her voice as she spoke the next few sentences, alternating between two random male voices. "Oh no, it's Jinx! Whatever shall we do Micky?"
"I don't know Timmy! We're so dumb and useless and asleep on the job!"
"We're a disgrace to the uniform!"
"We're a waste of the taxpayers hard earned money!"
Slowly, one of the guards stirred from her one-woman conversation. His lips smacked loudly as his brown eyes blearily glanced around the hall before turning to regard her.
Her pink eyes stared into the enforcer's own brown eyes that were still hazy with sleep.
And the criminal watched as the sleep slowly seeped from his eyes as panic and horror filled them.
"Goodnight!" Jinx cried out as she placed Zap on the man's temple, pulling the trigger as a loud KA-CHUNK sounded out through the hallway as electricity surged through the man's body from his brain downward. Smoke rising from a black mark now on the side of his face as he fell from the chair and collapsed into a convulsing heap on the ground, notably still breathing though.
The thud of his partner's body hitting the floor seemed to finally wake the other enforcer up, his eyes snapping open in panic as he immediately shot out of the chair and looked all around the hallway.
Somehow not managing to turn around and see Jinx who was now just a little bit behind him.
"Wow, you people are really incompetent."
The large enforcer twirled around, his hand at his hip and unlatching the clasp that held his gun in its holster.
Jinx spun around at the same time and brutally slammed the butt of her own taser-pistol combo into the poor drowsy idiot's face. The man fell fast, spilling onto the floor in a pile with his hand on his gun and said gun still resting in its holster.
"Rare of you to let them live." Fishbones chimed in.
Pink eyes rolled as she turned to the door and pushed it open and walked into the vault, starring at the large door that had laid beyond a smaller door to hide a bunch of valuable things. Probably, dumbly, all behind even smaller doors of their own.
"Someone needs to know I was here. And that I valiantly fought through the dogs of the Piltovian military to get what I wanted."
Hacking her way through a hex-core powered vault door that weighed close to a bazillion tonnes, child's play.
She expected finding the handheld hexgate generator to be a bit of a challenge.
But nooooo. Dumb Pilties and their inflated egos meant that they had to put the thing in the center of the room, a glass cover over it while it sat on a golden stand.
Walking forward, Jinx reached out, snatched the glass dome thing off the table and threw it into the wall of the vault, a spray of shattered glass littering the floor as a result.
This was so stupidly easy.
It was honestly disappointing.
If only Vi was here. She had been an enforcer now for a month or so, and fighting and pranking her was the most fun thing for Jinx.
Shame she and her dumb partner with the equally dumb hat had been assigned to some escort mission. Which meant no surprise visit from the pair to make this job feel at least a little bit more fulfilling.
Oh well. I could leave the thing here and come back after their mission's over to steal it when they can try and stop me…
"Pfft, nah!" Snatching the thing off of its literal pedestal, Jinx hoisted the device into the air and inspected it all over. It matched the description that the academy student she had interrogated described to a tee. She also knew that the student hadn't been lying.
No one bawling their eyes out or pissing their pants like that would lie with a rocket launcher leveled against their face.
No instruction manual though, but with the echoing cries and sounds that Jinx could hear sounding through the halls and into the room she was in, some of the enforcers had come back after cleaning up her mess.
Two options were left for the bluenette. 1. She could shoot her way out. Or B. Use her new toy to open a hexgate and vanish away.
The only viable option was obviously using her new toy. Who in their right mind would not take advantage of a dangerous and potentially deadly situation to test out just what the new machine in their possession could do?
None of the buttons were labeled, no clear indicator on any of them aside from the power button.
So after hitting said power button, Jinx did the only reasonable thing she could think of and furiously pressed every single button on the device randomly and repeatedly until a beam shot out from the machine and a swirling vortex of magical energy appeared before her.
Now, some would say it's a bit reckless to jump head first into a portal with no idea of where it would spit you out or if it was even safe for someone to enter it at the devices' current stage in development. Jinx was not most people. That was why, without a hint of hesitation and a wide smile on her face, the Zaunite criminal jumped right into the portal.
A flash of light cracked in the air as she went through it, a small storm of residual energy as Jinx and the machine went through.
The only sign she had been there in the first place was the missing handheld generator, and a small card that simply read three words.
JINX WAS HERE.
[-]
When Jinx's body popped through the exit portal, she was unceremoniously dropped out of the sky and fell hard into the ground. Letting out a small groan as she sat up, Jinx rubbed the back of her head with her hand, trying to soothe the ache that lingered from the impact. Slowly, her pink eyes slid around the area as she tried to figure out where exactly she was at the moment.
Red. Everything was red. That was the thing that stood out the most. The grass on the ground was red, the leaves on the trees were all red. It was honestly shocking.
Partly because Jinx had never seen a place like this before, but mostly because it was insane looking at a place that looked to be painted blood red by some kind of gods.
The gunner rocked in place on the ground for a few seconds before hopping to her feet with ease. Patting off some of the dirt and grass now stuck to her pink and purple striped pants, Jinx did a quick inventory check.
Zap in its holster. Check.
Pow-Pow hanging to her side. Check.
Fishbones strapped to her back. Check.
Hexgate generator… Check. But also busted.
A growl left her as she looked at the device. The screen on the front was shattered, the casing was dented and bent in places and some of the wiring was torn up and sticking out of the thing.
"Which one of you was it?" Jinx growled, one hand pulling Fishbones over her shoulder so she could look it in the eye while the other hefted Pow-Pow in front of her. "Well? I'm waiting." To emphasize her point, she began to tap her foot.
Neither gave her an answer. Another growl left her along with a clicking of her tongue as she tossed the two deadly weapons back and away from her. Oh well. It was annoying and meant it would take a lot of work for her to fix the thing when she didn't have any schematics to go off of but she'd been in worse situations before.
But it did leave her with no way of really knowing where she was without it. She hadn't bothered to look and see if the thing had said where it was sending her or anything like that before jumping through the vortex.
Glancing around, Jinx began walking in a random direction from where she had been spat out of the portal. Nothing around but trees and grass and some very rare bushes. The bushes also were red like everything else. It was a little better than the gray and gold two-tone buildings of Piltover but going completely to one color was not any better. Oh hey, random gray boulders were sticking up out of the ground in spots now too.
Out of boredom, Jinx began whistling a tune as she walked along. Fighting for something, anything really, to fight off the empty trek with some kind of entertainment.
It was after a few minutes that Jinx finally heard it. A soft rumbling noise that was coming closer to her. That rumbling noise then became accompanied by a very light tremor in the ground under her feet. Breaking into a run in the direction of the noise, Jinx smiled wide as she caught sight of what was causing the commotion.
A train of some kind. Nothing like the ones that ran through Piltover but it was almost certainly a train. And a train meant civilization, it meant people, but most importantly, it meant food. With how famished the Zaunite was suddenly feeling, she was wanting that food as soon as possible.
Charging into a full-on sprint, Jinx ran as fast as she could head on at the train as it sped towards her. Her feet occasionally ringing with a clang as she stamped down onto one of the rails that the train ran on. Just as the train was getting dangerously close and in danger of smearing Jinx on it's windshield like a bug, Jinx pulled her rocket launcher onto her shoulder and leaned forward before pulling the trigger. A rocket burst forth from the shark-shaped maw of her gun, Jinx jumping with the force of it as it propelled her to flip through the air. The train sped past where she had been standing and the Zaunite landed easily on top of the speeding vehicle.
Skipping down the length of the train cars roofs, Jinx caught the hints of another sound. An even more familiar sound.
The sound of gunfire. The sound of bullets ricocheting off of metal.
It should have been difficult for her to hear over the sound of the wind from the train, but there was no way in hell that Jinx would ever not hear the sound of gunfire.
Her skipping sped up as she moved faster down the length of the train until she could see three figures appear near the end of the train. Two were people, one was a giant mech machine. The likes of which put the whole 'Chem-Tank Juggernauts' at home to shame.
Now this looked like it could be fun!
And then the red-haired man with horns on his head suddenly glowed before shooting forward and slicing the thing in half with so much power that the killer robot evaporated into nothing.
All before she could even shoot the thing once…
Life was so unfair!
[-]
Blake Belladonna let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding after witnessing her partner decimate the security drone. It wasn't anything that she hadn't seen before, but given what she was currently wrestling over in her own mind, the faunus girl felt just a little uneasy around Adam. Even if she was certain he had no idea of her thoughts of potentially leaving the White Fang, it did not make it any less worrying about how he'd react if she did.
Walking over to him as he sheathed his blade and moved to one of the many crates on the open-air car they were standing on, Blake lightly patted his shoulder. "Good job."
Adam let out a grunt, before nodding his head towards a container. "Let's just finish this job and blow this train before any more annoyances appear."
Some could say that his words could be interpreted as some form of slang, but as he pulled a charge out of his pocket and secured it to the side of the crate, Blake was suddenly feeling like she'd rather be anywhere but here with him.
"What about the people on board? This train has passenger cars." It was an important thing to point out. A small part of her hoped that pointing that out would mean that Adam would put the explosive away.
"What about them?" Was all he said as he rigged the charge.
Okay, that made her decision for her. She needed to get out. More importantly she needed to get away from Adam.
"You're gonna blow up the train? That sounds awesome!" A voice suddenly called out. Blake jumped and immediately held Gambol Shroud tightly as she looked at the new arrival, Adam doing the same with Wilt.
The sight that greeted her was a shocking one. A girl with long, incredibly long blue hair done in twin braids stood at the opposite end of the car. She had blue smoke cloud tattoos that ran up the length of her right arm and right side of her torso. A black crop top that clung to her body with four holes in the front with some kind of cord laced through them. Black gloves on each of her hands with a striped arm warmer on her left arm. Pink and purple striped pants that looked either styled or ripped just below her knees with her outfit ending with a pair of what seemed like overly big black boots on her feet.
Then Blake's golden eyes landed on the weapons the girl had strapped to her body. A handgun holstered at her hip, a minigun hanging at her side from a strap across one shoulder, and a third gun that hung on her back that had weird set of metal teeth at the barrel. The girl was strapped with weapons, all ranged options, at least at first glance. The problem with that was that she had that range on them.
Before Blake could open her mouth to try and figure out more about the girl, Adam stepped one foot closer and spoke. "This does not concern you, human. Leave now and your life will be spared."
He could be meaning what he said, but if the feeling of dread that was creeping up Blake's stomach meant anything, it was that the moment the girl turned around, Adam's blade would be buried in her throat.
"Aww… But I wanted to see the fireworks!" The girl's pink eyes practically glowed at the words, and an eerie smile seemed to stretch across her face.
Was she serious? No, no. She couldn't be. She had to be a huntress or huntress-in-training that was riding the train and somehow caught the commotion. Now she was acting silly and dumb to try and make the two terrorists lower their guards.
Blake's hand holding Gambol Shroud shook as she squeezed the handle of her weapon tightly. There had to be some way out of this. She didn't want to see an innocent girl who looked about her age suddenly dead at her feet.
"Fireworks, huh." Adam's hand fell to his scabbard. His finger slipping over the trigger.
"Adam, wait!" She cried out in a panic, stepping forward and grabbing hold of his wrist. "We don't need to kill her or hurt her. We can just take what we want and go."
"Where's the fun in that?" The girl called over to them. "You're not seriously gonna leave without setting off those bombs are you?"
One of Blake's eyes twitched in agitation, this girl was not making this easier with comments like that. Especially since it really only made it that much harder for Blake to keep telling herself she actually was an innocent and not some crazy criminal.
Adam's head tilted towards her, but she doubted that his eyes underneath his mask actually left the girl's form. "Do you really think she would just let us go? Best to just take her down and destroy any trace of her or us ever being here."
There had to be another way. There had to, Blake refused to think the only way through this situation was murder. Scenarios ran through her head in a flash.
Try to charge the girl in a feint before disconnecting the cars and leaving Adam behind. That had potential, if the girl didn't shoot her in the face with one of her many guns.
Trust the random girl to have her back and fight to stop Adam in some make-shift tag-team. No, that would end with both of them dead. Adam was way beyond her level and she doubted the girl was any closer to it than she was.
Talk Adam into leaving and forcing her own wants to leave the White Fang down so she could pull him away from what was soon to be a mass-murder scene. That was just as doubtful as the rest. There was no way Adam would just walk away, even if Blake begged him to and tried to use whatever feelings Adam had for her against him.
A click sounded and broke her concentration as her partner flicked the safety off of Blush. Her hand on his arm squeezed down just a bit tighter. "Adam, don't."
"Blake, this is the only way. How do you not see that?"
A pit formed in her stomach. Was this the only way? The only way for this to end for the girl who was only guilty of checking out a suspicious sound and riding a train?
Maybe in some way, he was right. Maybe the only end would be with the blue-haired girl dead and Blake taking the chance to flee Adam as he killed her.
But she couldn't just accept that. She wanted to turn over a new leaf, leave the White Fang and cause real change as a huntress.
How could she do that if she would always see that pale pink-eyed girl in her head after abandoning her and leaving her for dead?
Letting go of Adam's arm, Blake slid her hand up to his shoulder before cupping his cheek and forcing him to turn towards her. "Adam, please. I'm asking you, please don't kill her."
She saw the way his lips twitched and the skin of his forehead creased. Good, she had him at least somewhat conflicted on what to do. She just needed one more big push and-
"Man, you two are taking waaaaay too long. I'll just do it for you!" The blue-haired stranger called out as she pulled something out from behind her and tossed it over to their feet.
Both Blake and Adam glanced down at the thing in confusion, until the things metal mouth began to chomp randomly and its eye began to blink red as a ticking noise sounded out from it.
Adam moved before Blake could, grabbing onto her and throwing her back with himself as the grenade that the girl just threw at them exploded in a spray of shrapnel and smoke.
"Damn it! This is why you should have let me kill her!"
In the current moment, Blake wanted to agree but knew it was wrong too. The girl was a huntress of some sort, she was trying to fight off the terrorists she had encountered. She couldn't fault that.
What she could was the apparent lack of worry that her grenade might set off the explosive that Adam had just planted only moments ago.
The bull faunus turned around to face the girl, his teeth grit as the smoke kept her from view for a moment.
Once she did though, Blake was suddenly really wishing that she had let Adam attack the girl, because she had that shark-themed weapon hefted onto one shoulder, gun pointed squarely at her and her partner.
With a very clear sight of a rocket tip poking out of the things mouth.
"W-Wait! Don't shoot! If you do, you'll blow all of us up!" The cat faunus cried out, fear and panic taking over as she stared into the girl's wild eyes in hopes that her message would get her to put the weapon down. Even Adam wasn't moving just yet.
After all, he was fast, but all the girl needed to do was pull a trigger and boom. He wasn't fast enough to reach her to stop that.
The seconds ticked by agonizingly slow. Golden eyes staring into burning pink in a desperate plea.
And then the girl, no, the now very clearly deranged girl spoke.
"Duh! That's what makes it so fun!"
And pulled the trigger.
Blake dashed for cover.
Adam dashed for cover.
The blue-haired maniac just laughed wildly as her rocket hit the ground where she and Adam had been not two seconds ago before a powerful explosion sent shockwaves through the area and drowned out her laughter.
For one iota of a second, Blake felt relief at not having been blown up.
That relief died an ugly death as one of the now many damaged dust containers blew up right after.
The force of the shockwaves, the heat of the flames, the deafening sounds of the explosions knocked Blake off the train and sent her skidding across the ground before she lost consciousness. Her last thought being one simple sentence. I should have let Adam kill her.
[-]
Jinx's eyes slowly opened.
Where was she now?
Her entire body felt sore, which meant that her blowing up the train for those two dumdums hadn't killed her. Whether or not it had killed the other two was not something Jinx was going to bother worrying about. Her pink eyes glanced around the surroundings she was in. Some kind of doctor's office maybe, though she had never been in one as fancy as this one looked.
So much pristine looking tech that beeped by her bedside, an IV drip that was currently fed into her right arm. A right arm that was now wrapped in bandages and also had a cuff at the wrist that chained her to the bed.
Huh. So… kinky or incarceration.
Suddenly though, panic filled her as she sat up. Not panic at being chained to the bed, but at the fact that all of her weapons and grenades were missing from her person and from the room.
No, no, no! She could not lose those. They were the only things that mattered to her anymore.
Suddenly, the door to her room opened, causing Jinx to turn and glare angrily at the person who entered.
A gray-haired man with brown eyes. A cane in one hand and a steaming mug filled with something in the other. Jinx didn't care to bother focusing on anything that he was wearing or anything else about the man.
All she wanted to know was where her guns were.
The man opened his mouth to speak, but Jinx beat him to it, anger and pure venom in her voice. "Where is Pow-Pow and Fishbones?!"
The man took the yell in stride and simply walked over to her bedside where he pulled up a chair so he could sit next to her bed, though out of reach if she lunged at him with her free arm.
"Are you referring to the weapons you were found with?"
"They have names! And they're mine! You can't take them from me, that's stealing!" Ironic, given she had just stolen something not even twenty-four hours ago. Well, assuming she hadn't slept for too long after being knocked out. But still, her guns were hers. They were her family and no one was allowed to take them.
"They've been stored in a safe place." The man's calm tone as he spoke was aggravating, but he clearly missed the way Jinx was trying to glare a hole into his head so she just assumed he was an idiot. "They'll be returned to you in time once you explain what happened on the train and what had led to numerous cars being blown up."
Jinx bit the inside of her cheek in anger. Of course, she had to give something up in order to get her guns back. It didn't make her any more comfortable being without them, even knowing they would be returned. That was, if the man actually did return them.
Taking her silence as an invitation to continue, the man sighed. "Please, make this easy for both of us. First, I'd like to know your name."
Her name huh? Yet another clear sign that she was far away from Zaun, Piltover, hell even Noxus had her wanted posters plastered all over the place last she'd heard. "My name is Jinx." She said simply, her right arm weakly tugging at the cuffs keeping her stuck to the bed. If only her body wasn't so banged up right now, she'd force her way out of the cuffs and maim the man.
"Jinx? Just Jinx? You don't have a surname?"
Surnames weren't things people in the Lanes-turned-Zaun had. Family names were things Pilties and people of notable importance had. "Nope. Just Jinx."
"I'm sorry to hear that." He reached over and pulled a clipboard from her bedside table, along with a pen and scribbled something down. If Jinx had to guess, it was her name. "How old are you, Miss Jinx?"
"Uh… 17, I think. Or 16. Umm." Jinx's eyebrows furrowed as she tried to think. How old was she again? She'd long since stopped caring about her birthday. She could only really ballpark her age off of knowing Vi's birthday and how old her sister was.
"I see." The man didn't question why she was struggling to say her own age and instead moved on. "And why were you on the train? There was no records of you buying a ticket or any surveillance footage that shows you inside of it."
"I needed to get somewhere and was stuck in the middle of a forest." She said simply. Jinx wished she could force her usual snark out and mock the man. But the aching muscles in her back and the lack of her guns, she felt empty and weak. She couldn't force the energy into herself. "Saw the train coming and hopped on."
"How did you come to be lost in that forest?"
"I don't know." A lie, but even if she told the truth, it wasn't like there was any way to prove it true since the hexgate machine was busted. "I just got lost."
The man let out a hum and nodded, before taking a sip from his mug and asking another question. "Are you the one who set off the explosives on the train? I feel it important to say that all of the evidence currently points to you." That wasn't a surprise to hear. "After all, having grenades and a rocket launcher do not paint you in a good light here."
Jinx let out her own sigh. Her muddy brain forcing itself into gear as she thought through the conversation. There had to be a way she could say something that would mean she would be set free and get her weapons back. Wait a minute. Those two people she had encountered… She could easily pin the blame on them! But, she had to play it right.
"I… I did." She said, voice full of shame and sadness as she hung her head. An act she had learned to put on years ago. Everyone let there guard down when a girl was crying in front of them. It was a bit difficult with how weak she felt at the moment, but Jinx could force herself to do at least this. "B-But it's not my fault! There were people there, they were trying to steal stuff and were gonna blow it up themselves!"
The man's eyes widened behind his small glasses, clearly surprised at the news or perhaps just how much emotion Jinx suddenly had in her voice. Or the fake tears that she had forced to spill from her eyes. "I see… Can you describe the people to me?"
Her head bobbed as she nodded, letting out a little sniffle as she forced a few more tears out. "One was a guy, he had red hair and horns and a sword. I couldn't see his eyes though, he wore a mask." Before she could continue, the man stopped her.
"A mask? Can you describe the mask for me please?"
"Uh huh. It only covered his eyes but not much else, and it had red markings all over it."
Jinx took her chance to glance at the older man, in time to see how tightly he was gripping the clipboard in his hand. "The White Fang." Huh. That was actually a surprisingly cool name. "I guess it was only a matter of time before they moved operations into Vale."
Jinx took that chance to jump on the clear scapegoat. "T-They were trying to steal the stuff on the train and were gonna blow it up. I tried to stop them, promise! But… I ended up accidentally setting one off and then everything just went…" She made an explosion noise with her mouth and raised her free left hand into the air in a weak attempt at miming a mushroom cloud.
Surprising Jinx, the man stood from his chair and placed a hand on her shoulder in a show of support. "I'm sorry you were forced into such a difficult position. I'm sure you did everything you could to try and protect the people on that train."
Jinx almost laughed in his face. Almost. Not trusting herself to not actually do that if she opened her mouth, she just nodded her head.
"However, this puts things in a complicated bind."
Pink eyes widened at his words as more panic set in. Why was he saying that? Wasn't he supposed to be all like, 'You did good Jinx, you're free to go, please take your dangerous weapons and be on your way'? "W-What do you mean?" This time, the stutter in her voice was entirely real.
"Well, you clearly acted in the best interest of the people in the train and to protect them. However, since you are not a licensed huntress and are not a citizen here, you very well could do time for this."
Oh, wow. It had been a while since Jinx had felt fear grip and squeeze on her stomach like this. "B-But, I only wanted to help!" She cried, eyes staring up pleadingly at the man's own.
He just nodded solemnly, "I know. Believe me, I know. That's why I am going to give you an offer to help you out of this situation."
Her lip trembled as she thought over his words. "What kind of offer?"
The man stepped back from her, "I apologize, I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Ozpin, I'm the headmaster at Beacon Academy here in Vale. A school that teaches students to become huntsmen and huntresses." Jinx nodded, showing that she was following what he was saying and he was free to continue. "This situation is complicated because you are not a huntress or one in training, and also not a citizen of Vale. The offer I'd like to extend to you is a place at my Academy."
As for things Jinx might thought would happen to her today, this was certainly not one of them. "How would that fix things?"
"Because as a student of Beacon, you'd be able to have some immunity that forbids a person from having weapons such as yours and from using them on people regardless of the situation. It would also become your home for the next few years until you graduate and would all but give you citizenship here."
Jinx lowered her head, thinking hard. What options were there? His offer was an okay one on the surface but would surely come with conditions, limitations and other things. The other two options she had was try to break out when she was still healing and make a run for it, but that wouldn't work without her weapons. The final one, was see just how badly the judicial system here threw the book at her for her hand in the destruction of a train. Which would also lead to her not getting her guns back any time soon.
"So all it would be is me as a student?"
"For the next four years at least. It would be the only way to ensure that the Council and everyone else involved would have no way to argue your actions or intentions."
Four years. That was a long time, but it would mean four years of limited freedom at the very least. The other current option would be no freedom for way too long.
"And I'll get Fishbones and Pow-Pow back?" She forced herself not to let the tremor come out in her voice as her body shivered. Jinx could not accept having to let either of those things go.
"I can guarantee that they will be returned to you. You may be restricted on when you can have them and where you can take them, but they will be given back to you. Along with the grenades, pistol, and all of your other belongings. This I promise you, and will personally ensure." Once more, Ozpin moved over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. A small, caring smile on his face. An almost fatherly smile…
Jinx quickly shook her head to stop the thought. She didn't need those particular ones popping up now when she's working out her current predicament. "Would I be limited too? On where I can go or what I can do?"
"Potentially. I can't promise that you'll have the freedom to walk the streets of Vale but you will have freedom within Beacon's grounds."
"Better than any other option right now…" Jinx turned away from the man and glared at the voice that sounded to her right. No surprise the big softy would be all for her being forced into a school.
"I'd take it over prison at least." As annoying as the second voice was, the point was a good one. A school with limited freedom and her weapons was vastly different to a cell with no freedom and no weapons.
"If I accept, what happens if things don't work out?" It was the glaring question in Jinx's mind now. What happened if something caused Jinx to flunk out or be expelled.
"I can't say that's an easy question to answer but let's not worry on that for now. We'll cross that bridge if we come to it." When, he should have said when. But then again, Ozpin truly had no idea just who he was talking to.
"O… Okay. Then, I'll take your offer." Licking her chapped lips nervously, Jinx looked up and into the man's eyes, giving him a small uncertain smile. Her free left hand reaching out to him with an open palm.
Ozpin brought his own hand to meet hers in a firm handshake, the smile on his own lips growing so much that it looked like the smile had reached his eyes as well. He released her hand before writing down a few things on the clipboard once more before tucking it under one arm, grabbing his cane from where he set it on the chair let out a sigh. "I'll go inform the necessary people and have all the paperwork taken care of. Worst case, you'll have to spend one night here before coming with me."
One night without any of her guns, any form of comfort. Jinx really wished she could say that the thought didn't terrify her but it did. It's just one night. It'll be okay, it'll be okay. Her mind repeated the words as she tried to raise her hand to rub at her eyes only for it to just pitifully pull at the cuff on her wrist chaining her to the bed.
Apparently Ozpin took her silence and tugging at the cuffs as a sign that she wanted them off, and she did but that wasn't why she had done it. "I'm sorry, those will be removed as well as soon as I can manage to have the order put in."
Jinx nodded, letting out a sigh as she let herself fall back into the bed, not caring of the man's eyes on her. "Guess I'll see you tomorrow then teach."
"Yes you will, please try to rest as much as you can before tomorrow."
Ozpin turned away from her and began to walk towards the door, soon to leave Jinx all on her own until either a doctor checked in on her or someone came to take off her cuffs. Stopping just outside of the door, the man turned to give one more smile to the Zaunite. "Oh, and an early welcome to Beacon Academy."
With that, Ozpin left the room and Jinx was alone in silence once more.
Her pink eyes stared up at the ceiling, her mind running with the thoughts and events of the past day in her mind.
She pulled off a heist that was disappointingly easy.
Watched a guy disintegrate a killer robot without getting to even shoot at the thing once.
Got caught in the middle of a robbery of some kind and had to blow up the train for the two idiots.
Got caught in the ensuing explosions and passed out.
Then woke up in a hospital, handcuffed to a bed, her weapons confiscated, with an old man asking her to come live with him for the next four years.
Life was sooooo unfair!
That's a wrap for the first chapter. I wanted to try and make it to at least 10k words for the first chapter but this felt like a more natural ending for this first chapter. Not sure when the next chapter will be out.
Going to put a tentative release date for it at Dec. 20th. Could come out earlier or later depending on how free my week is coming up.
Anyways, hope you've enjoyed the read and look forward to more of the story as it comes and how Jinx's presence has altered, and continues to alter, the course of Remnant.
