This was a bit rushed as I wanted to get as much as I can out before my inspiration dies. I will either have to binge-watch Arcane once more.

There will no doubt be spelling errors here. If you could point them out for me that will be great.

I would also like to thank Eon Twilight for the spelling error he or she had pointed out for me about the misspelling of Miss Fortunes' name.

Chapter 04

The Return

Streets of the Undercity…

Lark walked through the streets of the Undercity for the first time in years. The smugglers from Bilgewater were more than happy to sneak him into the city with the coin he was willing to pay and a recommendation from Miss Fortune herself. Upon his arrival, he saw the green smog the city's factories produced and the smell that lingered in every street showcasing once more that everything the Council once promised had been thrown out the window upon his mother's death.

With his cloak covering him Lark wandered through the busy streets staying out of the way from other people and trying to not draw attention to himself. His lower mouth was covered by a rag and not a gasmask as wearing the latter would have drawn the again out of the residents of the city, just wearing one made people think the wearer was disrespecting the Undercity and its people.

The Undercity was a maze that newcomers would have difficulty navigating and would more than once get lost in, yet even though it had been a few years Lark remembered every street there was and building that still stood. Coming around a corner Lark stopped and saw the object that he had been looking for.

In the center of the graveyard was an iron statue of his mother. Something that had been beautifully crafted from the best blacksmiths in the Undercity and the materials they could find. Lark had been banished before it had been completed and had been disheartened Lark since he had not been there for the unveiling. At the base of the statue were candles that had been lit up which showed there were still people who remembered his mother and showed they still missed her, there were also flowers and other offerings that laid on the ground which brought a small smile to Lark's face.

But that didn't help with the fact someone was taking a piss on the feet of the statue. There was a group of teens a few years older than himself. The leader who had his pants unzipped was cackling as he urinated on the base of Julia Hamilton's statue while his friends laughed at the antic.

"Happy progress day you bitch" the blond said while laughing

Lark had expected many things upon seeing the memorial of his mother. He understood there would be some people that didn't like her due to the fact she had been born out of the city and wasn't even born in Piltover, but he expected there to become common courtesy in the Undercity. But he guessed that didn't apply to the blond prick that was urinating on his mother's statue.

Before the offender could do anything, Lark reach out and grabbed him with one of his abilities. Having the system gave Lark a number of abilities he could choose from, and the one particular that match his high intellect amplified his telekinesis lowering him to reach out with what was commonly known back on earth, the Force.

There was a yelp and cry as the offender fell face-first into his own piss and was dragged towards Lark before being lifted onto the air.

"W… What the fuck is this!"

Lark didn't reply as he grabbed the offender by the face and slammed him to the ground. The others who had been watching charged at him thinking their numbers mattered. But after everything Lark had gone through over the years, doing the special events dungeons for the System and secretly fighting Gangplank's supporters made the five other teens look like nothing in his eyes. With a snap of his fingers, the teens were thrown back onto the ground without hitting or damaging any of the gravestones.

"I expected a lot of things coming back to this city" Lark said as his gripped tightened on the offender's head "Enforcers beating people in this city out of some sick amusement, a dead body in the alleyway, or a poor sod getting mugged for what little they have. But rather than any of that, I found some blond prick pissing on my mother statue"

Lark's grip grew stronger to the point the sound of cracking was heard underneath.

"I expected the people of this city to treat her memorial with respect and decency. After everything she did for this city, after all the people she looked after and treated with nothing but love and respect"

Lark's hand just gripped the offender's head just a little tighter.

"Yet I find you pissing on her memorial on the day she had been murdered"

At this point, Lark let go of the offender's face and watched the prick fall to the ground at his feet. The offender gasped for breath and cried in pain as just touching his face sent waves of pain throughout him, a symbol had been burned into it which wouldn't fade for years and would continually remind him of the pain Lark just put him through.

The other teenagers looked towards Lark in pure fear with more than a few of them having pissed their pants or had to shit themselves. Lark was honestly disappointed in the lot who couldn't even stand back up and offer him a proper fight, the teens in Bilgewater were a lot stronger than this lot as they kept getting back up and fighting him during a dispute.

"What the fuck happened to this generation?" Lark wondered out loud

Walking up to his mother's memorial he places some purple flowers at the foot of the statue. With a wave of his hand, he gathered all the piss into a ball and tossed it into one of the teen's faces, the teens ran off at this point helping the offender onto his feet and dragging him off,

"I'm so sorry mom" Lark started as he placed the flowers down "I should have come visited earlier. The Council threw me out because of some fear that I'm going to help create an uprising and overthrow them, their morons. Why help someone do that when I can do it myself"

"Sarah Fortune picked these flowers by the way" Lark continued "I was sent to Bilgewater to die. Sarah found me and we worked together getting Bilgewater up and running again, some old fuck that went as Gangplank was screwing people over, breaking pirate laws, and doing things that were even frowned up by pirates. Mine and Sarah's relationship is strong, we intend to show the world our nations can be better, stronger. We're going to change the world"

Lark continued to talk, while he had no idea if she was listening to him as his understanding of the afterlife was much different than the average person considering he had already died once, he hoped Julia Hamilton was in a better place. Out of all the people he had met in Runeterra, Julia Hamilton was a pure kind-hearted person that didn't have a touch of evil in her body.

"You would like Sarah, she a one-of-a-kind woman mom" Lark smiled "We had to keep our relationship a secret, every male on that island has their eyes on her, manly her breasts and ass most of the time. Didn't want the ever-single male on the island gunning for me and kill me in my sleep"

Lark looked up at the dimming sky and saw the neon lights of the Undercity lighting up the green smog that was generated by the factories.

"I'm going to finish your work mom" Lark said seriously "The poison in the air, the Rust-Lung that's been killing everyone down here, the freedom the people down here deserve. I'm going to fix it all. You might not like the methods I use mom, but we tried your way, and everyone respects you for getting as far as you did" he smiled "I'll make everything right"

[[Paying respects to the Angel of Zaun has been completed]]

Lark waved the notification away. He didn't travel to the graveyard just to complete a mission. The whole point was to pay the respects that had been denied to his mother for over four years. The disrespect that blond prick had given, it was the Council and a few others in Topside who ordered his mother's assassination would pay dearly.

Turning he walked through the graveyard until he came upon the gravestone of Alexander Hamilton.

"Hay old man" Lark said with a small smile.

The gravestone was well kept and there was an empty spot between his father's grave and its neighbors.

"I'm going to get her back dad. One way or another I'm going to bring her here where she belongs" Lark said

Even though his mother had a Will which clearly explained she wanted to be buried right next to her husband in the Undercity. While Lark might have not known the man for long as he died to Rust-Lung when Lark was a child, Lark did remember the time he and his father shared together and remembered the doting father Alexander Hamilton was.

At this moment Lark Hamilton knew who was behind the assassination, he didn't know who pulled the trigger, nor did he have proof, but he did have the suspects and the ones who had the most motives to have her removed and profit off her death. It became obvious why her Will was denied and his own banishment following close behind, he was surprised as to why it had taken him two years to figure it out, but considering all the missions the System had sent him on and the grief he had gone through had affected his logic thinking at a time.

"I know who did it dad" Lark said "I have no evidence of yet, but I know where to find it. All those letters mother was sent to her father, those will be the key to destroying them. That bitch will regret ever crossing us"

For an hour Lark stayed at his father's grave telling him everything that had happened in his life so far. Reaching into his cloak he pulled out a bottle of wine and started pouring it onto the ground.

"A gift from Sarah Fortune" Lark smiled "The finest wine from Bilgewater. She stole it from a Demacia ship. Said the wine was for the royal family. You can have the whole bottle"

The amount of money that bottle of wine could fetch enough coins to buy a house in Piltover's Topside. Lark wondered how Sarah would react if she found out he was pouring the whole bottle on his father's grave.

"Probably would smack me over the head"

Undercity…

One month later…

The building had a number of guards watching it, it wasn't the Enforcers guarding the place but rather it was volunteers from the Chem Barons who had the building built as a makeshift hospital, it wasn't the nicest looking place but it offered a level of comfort which the residents lacked in their own homes and were suffering Rust-Lung.

The residents inside were people who had contracted the Rust-Lung mutation. A deadly mutation caused a person to spit and vomit out orange mucus in its first stage. Later on, the person's lips would turn black, it would become hard to breathe and a fever would breakout-causing the person to be bedridden. Blood would later be what they cough out which would end in their deaths.

For years Rust-Lung had been ravaging the Undercity and everyone knew and understood it was the fumes from the factories which caused it. This was also known to the Council but had ignored it for so long as the people in Topside were unaffected by Rust-Lung as the toxic fume of the Undercity never reached them.

Julia Hamilton had been the best and only hope for the Undercity as her expertise in medicine helped her make great strides in finding a cure for the deadly mutation. It was her death that brought those hopeful men women and children who had the mutation down to complete despair.

The building was to keep track of the infected and try to make their last days as peaceful as possible. Charity was a hard thing to come by in the Undercity, it was something the Council had outright ignored and voted against when the subject came up. Most believed the Chem Barons had done it out of the need for good PR, but the truth of the matter is it had been done out of respect for Julia Hamilton, someone even the most ruthless men and woman of the Undercity respected.

Whenever someone saw the building they would see the name, The Hamilton Resting Home, above the double doors.

Stepping into the building were a number of tall figures in black leather coats, tophats, and bird-shaped masks. Some of the guards were about to intervene and stop the group from entering but were compelled to stop and look the other way. Neither the men nor women understood what had compelled them but kept an eye on the group by following them.

Moving into one of the resting areas where a group of children who had Rust-Lung were been read stories or playing games with their caregivers and parents. The children were frightened by the sight of the group in black and their parents moved in to stop them from coming any closer. But like the guards outside the parents were simply moved aside and knelt down to one of the children.

Pulling out a respirator device one of the figures in black places the mouthpiece over the child.

For ten seconds the people in the room watched as the child breathed in a red mist before the respirator device. People gasped in shock as the black lips on the child retreated and rather than having trouble breathing the child could breathe with ease and no longer looked pale.

As if curing the child had been a demonstration the figures in black with bird masks moved throughout the building placing their respirator devices on the people who had Rust-Lung. Over and over the people who had Rust-Lung started to feel better and no longer felt any of the symptoms they once had. Some of the children were running around and bouncing with joy while the rest were crying in relief as they no longer had to suffer the pain anymore.

One of the nurses came up to one of the miracle healers and asked who they were and how they came to have a cure for the Lung-Rust. The only reply that was given back as a simple sentence that would shake much of the Undercity and Piltover itself.

"Lark Hamilton send his regards"

The miracle of The Hamilton Resting Home spread like wildfire across the two cities. For those that had the Rust-Lung mutation, they found hope for the first time since the death of Julia Hamilton. Those that had loved ones who had Rust-Lung found some sense of peace that there was hope for family members and friends with Rust-Lung.

For people in power, however, there were a number of reactions that were both good and bad.

The Chem Barons who had built The Hamilton Resting Home discovered a chest of gold and silver out their front doors with a thankyou note attached to them with the initials L.H signed on them. Those men and women were found the gifts to be a nice surprise and felt a bit of respect should be sent to Lark's way. Orders were sent out that if any of the people in black leather coats and birds masks were spotted were to be left alone and reported on, the last thing they wanted was for someone to do something incredibly stupid and attack them. They also sent offers for negotiations so they could get in touch with Lark and find out what his intentions were and if he had anything to sell, a cure of the Rust-Lung could have made him an incredibly rich young man if he had decided to sell it rather than give it out for free, there was no telling what else he had created and hidden away.

While the Undercity was singing Lark praises the people on Topside were not happy. Those that had removed Lark through banishment found their authority challenged as he sent people working for him into the Undercity which was considered Piltover property. There were also rumors that Lark Hamilton himself was in the city which caused a bounty to be placed on his head. This caused tensions between the Undercity and Topside to automatically rise as it was hinted by the figure in black and bird masks that Lark Hamilton had either created or discovered the cure his mother had been working on, considering these figures were administrating the cure for free was placed Lark Hamilton into the residents of the Undercity into their good books.

In response to the figures in black handing out the cure for Rust-Lung, the Council sent Enforcers to capture and bring them in for questioning concerning the cure's origin and the procedure to make them. This sounded good in theory, but trying to make it happen turned out to be more troubling than the Council or the PPD thought. Upon finding one of the figures in black with bird masks, or were quickly commonly known as the Ravens, the Enforcers tried to subdue the Raven will little success. When the Raven refused to answer them back the Enforcers tried to use force as they did with many of the other people in the Undercity, what followed was a one-way flight with the Enforcers having all their clothing stripped from them besides their hats which were used to cover what little modesty they had left.

Word spread throughout the Undercity of the fight and a high amount of respect went out to the Ravens. So far, the Ravens stuck to the Undercity out of sight from most people, they only ever appeared when they discovered someone with Rust-Lung. Every time the Raven cured someone they always repeated: "Lark Hamilton send his regards" before moving on. The voices were neither male nor female, which made identifying the identity of the people under the coats and masks impossible. Most of the Underside let the Ravens be, they couldn't outright help the Raven's when the Enforcers surrounded them trying to capture them, but help was not required by the Raven's as they effortlessly made quick work of the Enforcers even when the Enforcers pulled out their guns.

With repeat failures and wounds that took time to heal, Sheriff Grayson had put a halt in capturing any of the Raven's much to the disproval and annoyance of the Council. While the people with Rust-Lung were being treated in the Undercity no one in Topside who had started getting the mutation a year ago had yet to see one of the Ravens, while they might not listen to the cries and complaints from the people in the Underground as they didn't matter as much, the people in Topside were a different matter and they were getting increasingly upset at the fact the people of the Undercity were being cured of the Rust-Lung mutation and not themselves.

There was no telling when the Ravens were going to cure anyone in Topside, or if they even were going to. The people of the Undercity couldn't care less about the people from Topside, even though they understood the pain of Rust-Lung, the amount of resentment the people of the Undercity had for those in Topside was so strong to the point they couldn't care less for what happened to them. As far as many in the Undercity were concerned the people in Topside could suffer as they had.

Standing on top of one of the Undercity's apartment buildings, Vi looked down at one of the buildings she had been scoping out for the past three days. She had heard word that the owner of the apartment had the Rust-Lung mutation, which meant sooner or later a Raven would appear and heal the owner. No one in the Undercity needed to seek out a Raven, rather the Raven tended to find the people who were infected with the Rust-Lung mutation.

The moment Vi heard that Lark had something to do with the Raven's she had gone out to look for them even when Vander was against it. While she respected the Hound of the Undercity and was more than willing to listen to him, there was one subject to butted heads with each other was Lark Hamilton. As much as Vander tried to explain his reasoning for letting Lark be thrown out of the Undercity and Piltover as a whole Vi would never accept any of them, Lark had been there when Vi needed someone to help her with raising Powder, he had been there with food and water when they had nothing, he had been there to put a roof over their head when Vi had accidentally burn theirs down, he had been there When the whole world felt like it had been caving in on her.

The day left he promised Vi that he would be back one day and wanted her and Powder to be strong for when he returned. It was a simple request and one that had been kept hidden from Vander and the others and one that Vi and Powder intended to keep. Yet there had been no word from Lark for over four years, and the only now word had spread that he was back or had sent people working for him into the Undercity to cure the Rust-Lung mutations.

Vi was on a fence when it came to seeing Lark again. Part of her wanted to run up and hug him and the other part was punch him in the face for not sending a letter or any word that he was still alive.

'A punch in the face first' Vi thought smugly to herself.

It was another five minutes until she saw a Raven step into the building. When the Raven stepped back out Vi stalked the person from the rooftops. Unlike Powder who was silent as a mouse when moving across the rooftops, Vi had to watch her step making sure she didn't make a sound. For ten minutes Vi followed the Raven to wherever he or she went, more than once she had almost slipped because she wasn't watching where she stepped and nearly fell off the rooftops. It wasn't until they arrived in the Undercity docks that she discovered where the Raven's had been coming from.

'Are the Enforcers this bad?' Vi thought as she watched the Raven move down an alleyway and open a secret passage.

Just then she watched as a group of Enforcers run past looking left and right.

"Where the fuck did that Raven go?" one of the Enforcers yelled out while running past the alleyway.

Vi just stood back and waited for the Enforcers to give up and walk off as they continuously walked past the alleyway a number of times. Not once did the Enforcers notice the alleyway, which was bothering Vi as the more she looked towards the alleyway the more she felt it would vanish if she turned away from it.

'Must be my imagination'

Making sure she wasn't followed, Vi jumper down to the alleyway where the door was located. As expected, the door was locked but rather than a simple shaped keyhole, there was a circular shape around it which matched perfectly with the lockpick tool Lark had left her and Powder. Placing the lockpicking tool over the keyhole Vi took note of the fact the tool circular frame fitted perfectly over the keyhole, within a minute there was a click and a ping and the door opened.

Walking inside Vi found the hallway she had walked into had a hole in it which led to a mineshaft dug under the building. Not being deterred Vi hopped down and explored the tunnel trying to find out Raven. There was a chance that Lark wasn't even in the Undercity and the Ravens were just using his name to piss the Council off.

But then again, Lark's mother had been at the forefront of creating a cure of the Rust-Lung mutation, if the Ravens didn't have any idea where Lark was then Vi would leave and go her own way if they refused to not tell her where Lark was or refused to let her go then Vi was more than willing to get physical and knock a few heads. She had seen the Raven's in action more than once when they went up against the Enforcers with ease and took note of their fighting movements and skills, she didn't want to fight the Raven's, not after all the people they had cured, but Vi wanted to find Lark, and she was willing to walk into the nest where the Ravens gathered.

After ten minutes of walking in the tunnel, Vi finally managed to find where the Raven's gathered, and it was safe to say she was gobsmacked at what she stumbled across.

For generations, the Undercity was the main source of Piltover's raw resources and the residents of the Undercity carved out the carven their city was built in and the mines alongside and underneath them. What Vi was looking at was one of the gigantic mineshafts she and her generation had been told of and brought up on through stories their parents had told them. Vi had never dared to find them or explore them as the raw resources that lingered in them let off toxic fumes killed many of the miners in the past.

But rather the mine being empty and abandoned Vi saw the whole place been converted into a giant factor, one that outdid all the others seen in the Undercity and the few in Topside. Buildings had been erected with conveyor belts moving items out of one building and into another, cranes moving building materials around an even a line of railroad track with a working train shipping gear and goods deeper into the mine.

Machines as tall as her waist walked around speaking to each other in an odd language that Vi had never heard of before. They looked to be handling the more delicate side of building and constructing while much larger lanky and bulkier machines did the heavy lifting. None of the machines took any notice of Vi, or if they did, they just ignored her.

"What the hell is all this?" Vi questioned out loud as she started wandering around the place.

The more she walked into the underground factory complex the more she discovered how advanced much of the machinery was. While it had the bulkiness of the modern machinery the factories in the Undercity had, there were key differences she took note of, like the lack of a steam engine or generator creating smoke, or the humming sounds the machines emitted. This also explained the lack of smoke and smog in the enclosed area which would be impossible with conventional machinery and factories.

Walking inside one of the buildings she came across a six feet tall humanoid machine which was breaking rocks wearing a set of oversized gauntlets. There was a dozen of them doing the same thing breaking down the rocks and placing them on the conveyor belts where the smaller humanoid machines picked the broken rocks apart or rare materials. Seeing a pair of the gantlets laying on one of the workbenches Vi could not help but get her hands in them and try and lift them up.

Much to Vi's surprise as the gantlets fitted snuggly around her hands and arms, she felt a hum coming from the pair and was able to lift the two of them effortlessly as if they weighed the same amount as your average working gloves. Throwing a few punches into the air and getting feel for them, they felt perfect to Vi she could see herself punching the Enforcers with ease.

"Oh, what I could do with these" Vi said to herself

Just as she was going to take another swing, she felt someone tap her shoulder causing her to yelp in fright.

Turning around she found three Raven's standing there looking at her. Two had their arms crossed with the one who had tapped her motioning her to follow them.

Part of Vi wanted to fight or run, but the more logical part of her simply followed the one that was leading her and with the other two following behind.

None of the Raven spoke to her, nor did they tell her to place the gantlets back where she found them. Following the Raven's Vi was led deeper into the mine, or what was more like the gigantic inner workings of a factory. They used one of the train carts to move faster into the factory in which Vi could see how far and deep the mine went, she was fascinated by the speed and progress the place was being built. it wasn't until she came to the expansion of the deeper parts of the mine where she saw materials being gathered and mining work being done.

The question on her mind was… how?

"Time and effort" said a mature but familiar voice "It took time and effort to get all this set up"

Turning, Vi saw the person she had come to find. It was just a bit taller than her, shirt black hair, and wearing workers overalls but had the straps tied around his waist showing the tank top that was hugging his chiseled chest. Lark looked different from how Vi remembered him, but in a very good way.

Vi did the only thing she could think of as her cheeks heated up after realizing she had been staring and seeing the smirk on Lark's face.

She punched him in his face.

With the gauntlets still on.

Very… very… hard.

"I thought of a number of reactions you might have upon seeing me after so long…" Lark sighed as he placed an ice pack on his face "Getting punched in the face with Reinforced Hex-Tech Gauntlets was not one of them"

"I said I was sorry!" Vi said with a pout

The two had moved to Lark's office. The place had a modern look to it and was nice and cool inside compared to the heat in parts of the mine slash factory. The two sat on the comfy couch in the corner of the room where one of the Service-Bots as Lark called them brought both food and drinks.

"You get all flustered for a moment and you attack a guy. I can only imagine what Powder is like right now"

"You never wrote!"

"I've been on a pirate island for the past four years planning to overthrow the current ruler and install someone whose help keep me alive and improve the stability of the island while planning a full independence movement to get Zaun to succeed out of Piltover's and the Council's control while also creating a new form of technology out doing everything that Piltover currently has while also building the infrastructure to make the Undercity as a self-sustaining powerhouse and dealing with every little Event, Mission and Fucken Quest the System throws at me" Lark said catching his breath.

Vi just sat there looking at him.

"Sorry I didn't write" Lark said apologetically "With everything that had been going on… It's been…"

Lark couldn't come up is an excuse, part of him knew he shouldn't.

"Do you have an idea how many letters Powder sent?"

"None of them made it to Bilgewater" Lark said

Vi's eyes went wide at that.

"Bilgewater is much different from the Undercity Vi" Lark said "Most of the people there want nothing more than to live their lives out to the fullest, which normally tends to involve attacking other people's ships and plundering seaports and villages. There used to be rules and regulations against such things, but about a decade ago a pirate named Gangplank, I know; it's a shit name, took over and dubbed himself the Pirate King. The man was more than willing to break the Taboo Laws the original Pirate Founders created and did things to people that were frowned upon"

Lark thought about the unfortunate people that Gangplank came across.

"I never received any letter Vi. Not one. My guess is that Vander had someone watching the mail that was going in and out. I'm thankful for that since Gangplank would no doubt get information about me and information about you and Powder. He would have come for the both of you if it helped him get to me or if he believed Powder was worth his time"

"What do you mean, worth his time?"

"You don't want to know"

Both Vi and Lark sat quietly for a moment before Lark spoke up again.

"How is Powder?"

"I have to drag her out of the workshop he cobbled together" Vi smiled and shook her head "You should see some of the stuff she's built"

"I would love to" Lark smile, but then faded "If the Council didn't have it in for me and placed Wanted posters of me all over the Undercity and Topside, I might have stopped by and hang out like old times"

"Maybe if you didn't have those Raven's walking around saying "Lark Hamilton sends his regards" after curing people with Rust-Lung then the Council might not know your back"

"Ravens? Is that what people are calling them? I wanted them to be called Plague Doctors! There goes having an SCP meme"

"A what?"

"Something from another life" Lark said with a sigh "And the reason I did that was to get them to have a mental breakdown and do something incredibly stupid. The destruction of Greyhounds little fleet and framing the Stoneheart House in Noxus is just the tip of the iceberg for what I got for those assholes"

Vi's eye went wide looking at Lark.

"That was you?" Vi asked as her mouth started dropping

"Could have done it with any of those stuck-up assholes in charge of the Piltover Navy. Picked the Mutt because I remembered you telling me that bitch used your father as an example to why the Undercity should not have anything to do with the armed forces. Also, it helped keep her on land where she can't do anything besides licking her wounds with anger building up inside her for a Noxus House that had nothing to do with it and a traitor they think is a woman"

"That was all you?"

"With the help of a few others. Let's just say thanks to that, no one going to be looking in the direction of Bilgewater or the Undercity, they will have all their attention directed to the traitor that doesn't exist and a House in Noxus that had nothing to do with it. Though I had nothing to do with that break-in at the apartment that formally housed the only other person in the world that was working on Hex-Tech, I would pay a great amount of money just to see the guys notes they stole"

Vi thought back at the heist she and the gang pulled off and sighed.

"Now that you mention it…"

For the next hour, the two chatted and told each other of their experiences over the years. Lark could not help but laugh at the timing Vi and her little band of thieves had robbed Jayce Tails, the timing couldn't be any more perfect, and the fact they had managed to get away without alerting the Enforcers made it all the better. Vi also went on to explain other things like how far Powder had grown since Lark had last seen her the two boys that Vander had adopted.

Lark frowned at what Vi told him about Mylo, more than once the skinny loud mouth had gotten them in trouble and the fact Vi had caught the little prick staring at her ass more than once. Claggor sounded an alright guy and a voice of reason when it came to arguments, something Lark could respect considering all the arguments he had to defuse between pirates and even between Vi and Powder on occasions when they were younger.

"I have a question" Vi said

"Go on" Lark encouraged

"I saw a bunch of Enforcers following the Raven as was following. But the moment it walked into the alleyway; it was like the Enforcers had lost complete sight of it even though there was no one else in the street"

"I a mind fucking Ward I put on the place" Lark confessed "Keeps enemies from seeing the alleyway and forgetting the route the Ravens take. It the reason so many people have trouble following them, there are a number of locations around the Undercity my tunnels exit from"

"Then how was I…"

"Able to get in? You had a key obviously"

Vi pulled out the lockpicking tool Lark had given to her years ago and looked at it.

"Anywho tried to use it without my permission would find the thing falling apart in their hands" Lark said "Have to take precautions with what I'm planning to do. Don't want those assholes on the Council getting a foot into my doors now do I?"

"You plan for everything didn't you"

Lark took a sip of his drink and looked at Vi and nodded.

"Mom had so many plans for this city" Lark started "She wanted so much for everyone, more than most people realized"

Lark motioned Vi to follow him as they exited his office to the balcony which had a good view of the completed parts of his factory.

"Everything down here is for the Undercity and its people. I've been working on machinery the will clean the air for up and the river water. My mother wanted the people of the Undercity not just to have a better chance at living, but have the ability to breathe easy and not drink water that took hours to filter and clean. No longer will people get sick because they wanted to shower and wash or have a simple sip of water"

Vi frowned at that. Not at what Lark was offering, but what she and everyone else had to endure because the Council found it too costly to give them a proper standard of living.

"You know sooner or later the Council will notice the living conditions in the Undercity improve" Vi pointed out

"Of course, they will" said Lark "One of the weapons I used to destroy the Mutt's little fleet is being manufactured down here. Uses the same technology the environmental-cleaner machines use. The moment they see some of those cleaning up the city, they'll know I had something to do with the fleets destructions, which is why I installed these into them"

Lark clapped his hands together and a crystal-shaped machine appeared floating in the. It was a large-looking machine that floated in mid-air and yet didn't create a single noise as it floated in the air.

"What is that?" Vi asked

"An Air Purifier" Lark stated "All the toxins in the air my factory has been producing is sucked into it and blows out nothing but clean air. I have a number of these floating around in the air"

"And I didn't see a single one" Vi stated

"And if you can't see them then I doubt the Enforcers would ever be able to see them. There is a module that bends light around it, with no light touching the surface it makes it impossible for anyone to find them"

Vi could only imagine a breathable Undercity.

"What about the smell?"

"You mean the shit and piss because of the backed-up sewer system that hasn't had any maintenance done to it for over forty years? Give me and my creations about… three or maybe five weeks and I'll have it sorted. Hell, I might as well get the sewage treatment plant back up and running. God and Goddess know the Council will never do anything about it"

Vi could only look at Lark starstruck. While it hurt that he had kept out of contact with herself and Powder, Lark had been doing everything in his power to get things ready so that people like Vi and others were able to live without the pollution and segregation the Enforcers and Topsiders tended to subject them to while also making sure the Council couldn't do anything to stop it.

"No nation will ever have the right to look down at us ever again" Lark said firmly before turning to Vi "Everyone that died on those bridges that day will be avenged. Every man woman and child will stand tall and the Council will get what coming to them. I'm just wondering if youre willing to help me in getting everything ready. I know I'm asking a lot of you Vi, and you don't have to if you don't want…"

Lark's little speech was halted as Vi's mouth met his and her tongue battled his own. Lark knew Vi had a crush on him years ago, and just meeting again and showing the time he had given up to make sure the Undercity and its people had a future that wasn't dictated by the Council brought those feeling out.

He could only hope that she didn't punch him with a Hex-Gauntlet again when he told her about Sarah Fortune.

I have another project you all might like building in my head. Something that is a lot slower than this story is progressing.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year