A/N: Sorry for vanishing yesterday, was polishing this up. You're about to see some rapid fire updates soon, including "Dance of the Dread" and "To Be Worthy" along with "Foxfire" and "A Golden Soul."
In other news, its a double update day~! This, and No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
My uncle's passing awhile back really threw me off my game for a bit, as did the holidays and Covid. It doesn't help that I'm still recovering from that. Heart rate's all over the place. At this point I'm just trying to keep on, but its bloody hard.
...I slept for a good bit of the last five days after that last collapse.
I'm mostly recovered now, although with more appointments -blech- coming up.
In other news, my birthday -at the time of this author's note- has come~! Another year older, another year wiser...and now I finally have a PS5 meaning I can FINALLY play Baldur's Gate 3 and Honkai...once I finally get the bloody things downloaded. That might take a bit, seeing as my internet is slow as hell on this old router of mine, but I'll get around to it eventually.
That's one nice thing about being older, I suppose. Lots of friends to celebrate your birthday with. Naturally, I count my readers among them.
In other news, Slifer and Advent really stepped up these last three days; Advent's helping crank out more chapters for "Worthy" and "Dance of the Dread" while Slifer's working on "A Golden Soul" and the like.
I'm aiming to get back to "Apples and Atoms" "Doctor of Demons" then "What Could Have Been" along with my other categories. "Shed No Grace On Me" is also calling my name..
With my sixteen year anniversary on this site rapidly approaching, I find myself reflecting on the little things in life. What was once a lazy pastime meant for me and a few friends really grew and evolved over time. There are days when I look back on the last fifteen years here and I wonder if anyone will remember me; if I made an impact, despite never making a single cent on any of these stories. Some days were happier than others, and some stories I enjoyed writing WAY too much; to the point where I'd stay up all night working on them.
And of course, there are times when I look to the future and wonder what will become of things when I'm gone.
Of course, I try not to dwell on the latter overmuch; I'm still alive and still writing. In an ideal world, I'd like to keep doing so for as long as I can. But old age is catching up to me and these days, the world is filled with so much madness and death. Feels like everyone's lost their minds sometimes. Even before that, so many friends and fellow writers I once knew are gone, now. Will I still be here in twenty years? Ten? Five? Its a chilling thought. But for now, I'm still here, still writing.
So here we go. The fate of this story depends on you, the reader. Your feedback determines the fate of this tale, and many others.
I'm just a humble author trying to make his way in this wild world, one word at a time.
Time and feedback will determine if this remains a story. Simple as that.
In other words...its up to YOU, the reader. Do let me know~!
Minor verbatim from Arcane here.
"He stabilizes her, and she stabilizes him.
Together, they complete one another.
But should you try to harm them...
...may god have mercy on you...
For I...I shall not."
~Silco.
Shot in the Dark
The door crashed open in a shower of splinters.
And they saw.
Blood.
Jinx had been shot; that was Naruto's first an' only thought as he barreled into the room and beheld her blood; saw her sprawled out on the floor, clutching her leg. Alone.
In an instant he was at her side, checking the wound.
Vi was nowhere to be seen, but the gaping hole in the wall leading out to the street and the distant whine of a rapidly retreating hoverboard might've something to do with that. Firelights? Why were they here-no, that wasn't important right now. Whatever the case, they were running, and Jinx was hurt. His fault. All his fault. He hadn't been there to protect her, and she'd gotten hurt because of his lapse. He saw red; his every thought went spiraling down into a dark place
Silco was only a heartbeat behind him and by contrast he looked downright murderous. "What happened here?"
Her eyes flashed, wild and angry. "Some punk broke in and shot me, then they ran off with Vi."
His face turned thunderous. "Who shot you?"
"M'fine!" Jinx rasped and idly rubbed at her leg, eyes blazing a bright violet. "It looks worse than it is. I took some Shimmer to compen, comp...erm...?" she flubbed the word once more before giving up. "To fix it! See?" She took her hands from her limb, revealing an ugly red line running down her outer thigh, not a complete through-and-through as he'd first feared. Perhaps sensing his mood, she rambled on. "You don't need to worry about me; I'll be fine. Its okay...
Her words sparked his temper.
...no!" Naruto bulled in, utterly incredulous. "Not okay! They shot you!
"Hey, heeey," she drawled the last word, took his face in her hands and kissed him slowly, softly, sweetly. I'm not dead-ow, damnit!" a growl escaped her as he touched a hand to her wounded leg. "Not so rough! That really hurts!"
"That settles it, then." Silco crouched down on the opposite side of her. "You're on light duty until that heals."
She pouted at him.
"Booo...
He laid a hand on his shoulder nonetheless. "Rest assured, we'll find those responsible for this and have their heads." he looked back to the hole in the wall and beyond it, a rapidly receding speck in the sky. "The Firelights may have a mole in our organization... a highly placed one at that." he almost seemed to mumble the words to himself. "How else could they know exactly where Vi was, let alone send an agent to retrieve her right from under our noses...
Naruto perked up. "You think she's working with them?"
Silco took the bait, or perhaps he'd been the one to bait the hook in the first place. "Its entirely possible. Time has clearly changed her-
"N-No," Jinx thrust herself between them with a gasp. "That can't be right. She didn't let that masked floozy finish me off."
Naruto exchanged a ruefully exasperated glance with Silco, silently urging him to back him up, to say something.
And he did, but not what he wanted.
"Be that as it may, we need to root out the traitors in our midst immediately."
Naruto gave him a mutinous look. "Now's not the time."
...forgive me." much to his surprise, Silco heaved a long-suffering sigh, rolled one shoulder and shook his head. "Old habbits, I suppose. Age makes one hasty." He looked between them and that murderous mask of anger softened almost imperceptibly. "Take some time. Recover." his hand descended, idly tousling Jinx's hair. "Sevika and I will see this done.
He couldn't leave it at that. "When you find the ones who hurt Jinx, don't kill them."
Silco sighed anew. "Boy...
"You didn't let me finish," he smiled at his father figure, baring his teeth in a cruel grin. "I want to be the one to pull the trigger."
"Hey, hey!" Jinx snapped. "I'm the one who got shot here! I wanna pop a cap in 'em!"
"Fine, you can take the second, third and fourth shot. How's that sound?"
Jinx made happy Jinx noises and squirmed in place, hips swaying with unadulterated glee. "Best boyfriend ever.
"Quite." Silco almost smiled as he stood. Almost. he could see a faint upward twitch of his lips. It was enough. "I'll leave you be." he paused at the door. "Make sure she gets come rest."
Naruto saluted lazily.
The door closed behind them.
To her credit, Jinx waited until her Father was gone before she acted, and it was a credit she managed to restrain herself that long at all.
The second he departed, she looked to the closed door. Her message was clear.
Naruto loped over to it, locked it tight, and knelt down.
As soon as he did, she rounded on him.
"C'mere...!"
Jinx seized him by the face and dragged his mouth to hers.
He kissed her fiercely. "Don't scare me like that again."
I won't. You're perfect, you know that?
She shivered. "Say it again?"
"Jinx is perfect."
She grinned blearily. "So are you."
Was she blind?! "I'm not perfect, far from it."
"You are to me." she pressed closer to him, cutting him off.. "You love me for me."
Most couples would've been scarred by an event like this, terrified, even. They were just angry. Angry, eager, and itching for payback. They really were broken, weren't they? The though brought a small, shameful smile to his lips.
"Now, then...!"
Jinx flung out her arms in a grand flourish.
He knew that look. 'Here it comes...
"Carry me!"
Yuuup. He knew it.
"Jinx, that's no a good idea-
She draped herself over him. "Hey, I was shot!
A blow brow rose. "You're also high on Shimmer."
She scuffed one boot sullenly on the floor. "Maaaaaaaaaaybe."
Ain't no maybe about. She was high as a kite. That was that and no one could convince him otherwise.
Really, it wasn't that hard to carry her -she was lighter than she looked-but it was the way in which she demanded to be carred that left him more than a little red-faced.
"Yay! Princess carry!"
He chuckled once. "Yeah, you're definitely high...
Almost on cue, she giggled and kicked her legs with a giddy laugh. "Wheeeeee!"
In short order he brought her back to her workshop and -gently!- laid her down on the bed. She didn't resist in the least; the moment he set her on the mattress she flopped gracelessly onto her back with a tired sigh. He didn't miss the mad, merry glint in her eyes. All that Shimmer was still coursing through her. How much had she taken...? Surely not that much...
"Try not to move too much, alright?" he jabbed her ribs, checked her leg, and bandaged it again. "You need time to heal."
Jinx granted him a bleary grin. "Sleep with me~!
"You're in no shape to-
"Nah, not that." she dragged him down. "I wanna cuddle."
How could he say no to that? Not when she was in such a state.
The fox snorted in his head. "Wuss."
He rolled his eyes.
...fine."
He lay beside her and let her nestle her head against his chest. Basking in her warmth was one of the few pleasures he allowed himself these days...even if she did hog the blankets. So he lay still and let her curl up round him like some giant teddy bear. If this helped her sleep, it was the least he could do.
"Hey, Naruto."
He sighed. "Hmmm?"
"Vi...she loves me, right?"
His smile died an ugly death.
"There's no need to think so much about it.
She gripped his arm weakly. "But she does, right?"
Warning, warning, warning! Loaded question! Dodge! Diffuse! Deny!
...we'll find out when we find her. She won't escape us a second time."
"Hmmm." She nuzzled her face into his shoulder. "I like the sound of that."
The world fell silent for awhile, so much so that he wondered if she'd fallen asleep.
Surely she must have. He began to drift off himself.
And then.
...you awake, whiskers?"
He stifled a yawn of his own. "What now?"
"I've been thinking...will we be good parents?"
Fear. It burst up his throat raw and visceral to choke him, strangling anything he might have said.
"Not now, I mean," Jinx babbled on, heedless of his silent panic. "But later."
A blanket of thick, wet, cloying silence clung to the two of them.
"Sure." he finally gasped the word. "Later sounds good."
Her hands curled in his silently.
Because now he understood.
They were mortal.
Vulnerable.
One slip, and Jinx would be gone. One mistake on his part, and their kid might become...
He wanted until he was absolutely certain she'd fallen asleep.
Finally, he counted to ten, just to be sure.
And then he bolted.
(.0.0.0.)
Fiddlesticks rose in the darkness.
Its new body twitched.
"F...e...a...r...!"
(.0.0.0.)
Naruto burst into Silco's office with a terrified yelp. "I'll be a terrible dad!"
.
..
...
A beat of silence followed the boy's abrupt statement.
Silco blinked. Closed his eye. Blinked again.
"Excuse me?"
For a terrifying, wonderful moment he thought that might mean...no, surely not? It was much too soon for that sort of thing.
"You heard me!" Naruto was in full-on-panic-mode, all but flinging himself over the desk to get at him and grab him by the collar. "Jinx was talking about kids, and for the first time, it really hit me. I don't know how to be a parent! I'm terrified! What if I screw up?! What if I'm not a good dad, what if-
Silco held up a hand. "No one knows how to be a parent until they become one. I was no exception.
That seemed to calm the boy somewhat. He let him go and leaned back, expression quizzical. "Even you?"
A bittersweet pang of nostalgia flitted through him. "I hardly expected to find Jinx that day, weeping in the rain."
Even now the memory was fresh in his mind, sharp as shattered class:
Hello, little girl...where is your sister?
Gone. She left me. She is NOT my sister anymore.
...its okay. We'll show them. We...we will show them all.
Where had that resolve gone? That fire? Not just his, but that of Jinx?
When had his plans changed? When had he come to care more for these two than the whole of his organization? If given a choice between the two of them and the nation of Zaun, which would he choose?
.
..
...He already knew the answer. Even now, it startled him.
May it never come to that.
He hadn't cared overmuch about the Firelights before, enough to deter them, yes, but not actively hunt them; and because of that, they'd grown bold.
They would be dealt with, yes, but even as he dwelt on his impending vengeance, his thoughts drifted elsewhere.
By the pits, a child. A little one running about, giggling happily.
A thousand times he'd imagined this moment.
Never like this.
He'd already told Jinx the truth; that she needed to let Powder die, so that the fear of pain could no longer control her. And what had it caused her but pain? Oh, the misery. Such pain would be passed onto her child if she didn't deal with her issues, and soon.
The path forward was clear, to him at least.
With Naruto by her side, Jinx had been well, not stable, this was Jinx they were talking about, she was chaotic good on a normal day, but she was happy. Content, even.
And then her fool of a sister came barreling back into her life and all hell breaks loose.
Powder must die for Jinx to live. But that choice was hers to make and hers alone. He could try to force it for her, yes, force the issue and thrust the impetus of chance upon her, but that left a sour taste in his mouth. More than that, he knew she would resent him for any interference on his part, just as he had once resented Vander so long ago. But there was a chance.
...Naruto."
He paused at the door.
That keen azure gaze turned his way. "Yeah, old man?"
He really was, wasn't he? Never had Silco truly felt his age until this moment; the weight of countless years seemed to press down on his shoulders all at once. The thought of a child -Jinx and Naruto's child-even in the far flung future both lifted his spirits and threatened to drag him down into the watery depths and drown him once more. There were so many things he could've said in that moment. Only one really, truly mattered.
"Be better than me."
The blond winked his way.
"That's a pretty high bar, ya know.
Even now the boy thought kindly of him. From one monster to another.
If he'd met him years ago, would he have been appalled? Would he have spat at him?
He would neverk now. Instead crumpled up a stray piece of paper and flung it at his back as he darted out the door. "Brat."
.
..
...he waited until the sound of his footsteps had receded.
"It all makes sense now, Vander." Silco drew a flask from his belt, uncorked it, and knocked it back. "Is there anything so undoing as a family? As a daughter? Or a son-in-law? A grandchild?"
They were coming to the end of things. He had been fortunate to survive thus far, lucky even, but he knew his days were numbered.
Once things in Zaun were settled and Piltover was no longer a threat...yes, he decided, then it would be time to settle things.
Vander's daughter would never suffer him to live. Not after what he'd done.
Nor could he let her break Jinx even further.
Their worlds stood at an impasse.
One of them had to die.
It was inevitable.
A/N: Aaaaand scene~!
Well? What say you? Would you like weekly updates again? Do let me knoew!
As ever, we're following the Ember's Rule for this and other stories. That's no joke. Really, it isn't.
If folks don't like this...well, it will remain, but I'll not be able to continue it. Every bit of feedback helps. Reviews are the fuel which keeps me writing in these crazy times. With my tight schedule an' bouncing between two jobs I simply don't have time to write a story folks don't like. Without them, my inspiration cannot take wing and I can't write a word. So by all means, speak up!
As ever, reviews are my lifeblood, my fuel, my sustenance. Without them, I cannot write.
So In the Immortal Words of Atlas... ...Revieeeeew, Would You Kindly?
And enjoy the previews. References are strong here...
(Preview)
And what do you know of pain?
"Don't forget again."
"You never learn. Its almost sad, really, how utterly predictable you are...
"I warned you."
"Black and white and gray, I don't know what to do with gray...
"Enough! I won't let you get away with this!"
The blond berserker righted himself with a grunt. "Nice hammer, pretty boy. Lets see if you know how to use it."
EDIT: Hey, you made it! Sorry for the lack of length. Still down with the sickness, as it were.
As ever, the Embers rule remains. If folks don't like this story...well, it will remain, but it won't be continued. With two jobs, and rent to pay, my free time is at an all time low. I'm lucky to have four hours to write a day. I can't afford to pen stories that no one enjoys. So by all means, speak up! Every bit of feedback matters here! Truly, it does! That's no joke!
Looking forward to chatting with you all when I get back from work,
~Nz.
R&R~!