A/N: EDIT: Alas, this story clearly isn't as popular as "Everybody Wants to Be My Enemy". I suppose people don't enjoy single pairings...and here I thought everyone would enjoy an update with season two finally out...T_T
Still, Season 2 is a go and so are we~! Those first three episodes were wild! So glad I waited! I'm tempted to give"Everybody Wants to Be My Enemy" weekly updates again. Thoughts? Really need to here from you, here.
Just wanted to say, I appreciate you all! More feedback means faster updates! It's especially important, in these, trying times, with the main site notifications down. Every word counts and all these reviews really keep me inspired! Looking forward to hearing from you~!
As ever, I own no quotes, references, themes, or memes. Not a wit or a one! They're tributes to legends far greater than I.
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~! Here we go. And yes, obvious references are very obvious.
I had "Woodkid - "To Ashes and Blood" (from Arcane Season 2) blasting the entire time. It fit perfectly, at least for me. More aptly, I had two separate iterations of the song playing ATOP one another. Really set the scene. They seem to be setting up Isha (Arcane) as another version of Jinx, which is bloody terrifying when you think about it.
Speaking of terror...
"Vi used to say I fix everything...before I broke everything. She used to say a lot and you...yeah, you're kinda like her in a way.
Always talk, talk, talking. Now its so quiet. I don't know what do do with quiet. What am I supposed to do with QUIET?!
Its always me, isn't it? Whether I pull the pin or not, everyone who gets close to me suffers or dies.
Wanna know the kicker? Right now? You're the closest one of all.
Still think you can fix me? No? I'll let you in on a little secret.
...I don't wanna be fixed."
~JINX.
Ashes and Blood
Fear met fire.
Fire clashed with crows and steel fought with flesh, tumbling through the lower levels of Zaun.
Naruto could scarcely make sense of it all; everything was heat and light and claws, his foe an ever-shifting shadow of teeth and foul energy that threatened to taint the very world around it; everything seethed and shifted and shimmered around them like so much oil in water.
Until it didn't.
Deeper and deeper they went, fighting without a care for the surroundings, shattering walls and buildings alike.
He had fought with Sevika, danced with Jinx, dueled with Silco, and most recently? Brawled with Vi.
This was nothing like that.
To even call this a fight would've been a farce; it was fiercer than a fight, more brutal than a brawl, something far beyond both. Neither nobility or laws, nor nothing.
It was raw and feral, two monsters trying to kill one another and little else.
And make no mistake, they did kill one another.
Over and over and OVER again.
Naruto grunted in pain as Fiddlesticks impaled him through the chest, puncturing his lungs with a clawed hand. Undaunted, he pushed through them, impaling himself yet further still to shove an unstable rasengan down the cackling horror's throat. From there he forcibly detonated the jutsu and blasted out its insides; only to hiss in pain as the ghastly amalgamation clawed away half his face, exposing skin and bone. He spat scalding chakra through his ruined jaw to send it shrieking to the floor.
He had just finished healing by the time the nightmare found its footing again.
"CaNnOt DiE...
He snapped off a pipe from the nearby wall and brandished it like a crude club. "Everything dies."
"NoT mE!"
Naruto pushed his hands together and slashed down with his new claws, rending an arm from its ruined torso to tear out its hideous insides besides. Both healed in the same instant. A frustrated scream tore out of his throat and much to his annoyance, the creature mirrored it. Damn thing was learning as it fought!
Likewise, he could feel himself changing. Twisting. His temper gave him strength. His hate made him stronger.
One tail of chakra had already grown.
Nearly two, actually.
Soon came three.
Already he was nearly at the point of no return, and he just couldn't keep this slippery bastard down for the count. He had to stop it here; if only because he didn't dare let it near Jinx. It feasted on fear, and hers were all too dangerous. A veritable buffet. Who knew how strong it would become if it got ahold of her?
No. He held the line here.
"Then you die, here."
Damn fox again!
Fiddlesticks rushed him abruptly, claws flailing for his face. He swayed right, left, right again, gave ground until he saw the moment. It came when the crazed creature tried to bite him, foolishly overextending itself. He reacted accordingly and clobbered it across the face with his new weapon several times. On the fifth pass, he beat its skull into the ground, momentarily stunning it.
Gotcha.
Stomping down on its jagged head, he used the badly corroded pipe as a spear and pinned the writhing eldritch horror to the ground through its chest. It screamed and struggled and squealed, but the moment brought him a brief reprieve to raise a hand and conjure an even larger rasengan into his palm. Planting his feet, he wasted no time slamming down on the creature's head.
Just like that, its sinuous shrieks became a squeal of agony.
The vents around detonated explosively around them as the jutsu went off like a bomb, bathing the world in scalding Gray fog.
Naruto grunted against it; having prepared for just such an outcome. Slapping on his spare rebreather, he channeled to chakra to his eyes, coating them in a thin protective film, and dared to hope.
Was it dead...?"
"FoOoOl...
Nope.
Movement in the mist ahead of him, scuttling frantically past on all fours like some deranged dog. Naruto throttled back his chakra and lazily tracked it with one eye, breath muffled against the rebreather. Gauging the distance between him and it, he plucked one of Jinx's borrowed pistol's from his belt-sorry, hun-thumbed the trigger with a sigh aaaannnnndddd...
"Bang."
He took the shot.
A pained shriek was his reward.
"Chakra bullets, bitch." he grinned behind the rebreather, red eyes glowing in the gloom. "Not so brave now, are we?"
Something else ran past behind him, impossibly fast; the silhouette of a shape that might've been human...or monster. He rounded on with a scowl behind the mask. It was impossible to tell in the Gray with all these shifting shapes and shadows. But this one looked smaller. He hesitated, afraid to shoot a hapless civilian, and turned his eye to the crater he'd left Fiddlesticks in.
Yup. Very much empty. Bugger.
Something slammed into his leg and he reacted instantly, bringing Jinx's pistol down between their eyes.
Frightened amber orbs gazed up at him, framed by messy brown hair.
He hesitated.
It was just a kid. A little girl, wearing little more than dirty rags and a goggled-miner's-cap far too big for her. She gasped and gazed up at him with a fearful expression, incidentally revealing a gap between her two front teeth as she coughed into the haze. Blast it all, she was just so small...
...it didn't speak well for Zaun when a child expected you to blow your brains out.
He blew out a sigh. "Damnit. Almost capped a kid. Scram, brat."
She didn't budge.
"Didn't you hear me?" he whirled back to nudge the girl with the back of the barrel. "Scoot. Go find your parents or somethin'. This'll all blow over in the morning."
Still no movement. Her eyes had grown very large and very wide indeed.
"Whatsamatter with you?" he frowned down at her. "Don't you have parents? I know I look scary and all, but I ain't a bad guy-
Movement behind him, a towering shadow in the swirling Gray.
The little one gasped. Not him. He was prepared.
Annoyed when a twisted scythe whistled out of the dark, but not unprepared.
Apparently it could use weapons, now. Great.
Naruto stepped to the right, let it bite into the metal decking, stomped down on the ghastly thing to keep it there, and without so much as a second glance, spun Jinx's pistol between his fingers. The barrel arced back over his shoulder and slammed down against his jacket, bracing itself, unable to miss. From there, he squeezed the trigger three times in rapid succession.
Three shots, three bullets, three more rounds infused with demonic chakra.
Fiddlesticks reeled back into the fog, fists flailing as it screamed.
Naruto turned a baleful eye its way...then paused.
The kid was coughing in the Gray.
...damn his bleeding heart.
Taking a deep breath to fill his lungs, he pulled the rebreather from his face and pressed it to the brat's visage. She needed it more than him. The hermetic seal pressed tight across her nose and cheeks, quickly banishing the worst of the smog. Baffled, she clung to it with both hands, still staring up at him with very wide eyes.
Would his and Jinx's kids look like her, someday?
"Aw, jeez." he couldn't help but pity the poor thing. "What's your name?"
No words. She waved her hands. Was she mute?
Fiddlesticks lunged at him while he was distracted; to which he emptied a clip into it in retaliation, smashed one of its legs out from under it, and kicked it back into the fog.
When the beast made to rise, he launched another pipe at it, skewering the creature to the wall.
It wouldn't last.
He looked back to the girl. "Well?"
She hiccuped once, voice muffled behind the breather, barely audible to his ears, and traced letters in the air.
"Isha? Great." he crouched down before her quickly. "If you need somewhere to go, head to the Last Drop. Silco will look after you."
Sure, he'd be surly about it, but the old man was a softy where kids were concerned. And besides, little Isha could do so much, much worse. Smeech would probably carve her up for shits and giggles, to say nothing of the other Chem Barons and their erratic taste. Better she be with the Boss than the others.
And hey, Jinx would take a liking to her. Definitely. Hopefully. Maybe...?
Blasted brat was still staring at him, though.
Small wonder why.
She looked at his shimmering red chakra, then peered past him into the Gray, the fog already rushing back in. He could already imagine her question, if she could speak.
"Are you gong to make the monster go away?"
How could he possibly do that, when he was so much worse than that wretched, rambling thing?
Already, he heard the skittering of claws across steel. It was coming again. Time to go.
"Beat it, brat." he flashed his fangs at her and patted her helmet. "Run along now. Go on, get."
He waded into the Gray, leaving her behind.
If she was smart, she'd scarper.
Fresh smog rushed into his lungs, burning but not choking him. His foul chakra kept it at bay. But not for long.
Fiddlesticks was hiding now; it had learned from its reckless charge; he could sense the creature lingering in the smog, just out of sight. A muscle jumped in his jaw, and not from fright.
"I need more."
The fog didn't answer him.
"Give me the strength to destroy that thing."
Something else did. Something older. Something darker. "You can't. Not in your current state. At best, you can banish it for a time."
"Didn't ask for excuses." he rounded a corner and gripped a wall, fingers biting deep into the brickwork. "I asked for power."
"Foolish brat. You can't handle the full extent of my might."
A growl rumbled in his throat. "Give it."
"Did you not hear me...?"
"I don't care!" he punched the wall, fighting down a cough. "Give me strength! GIVE ME WHAT I NEED RIGHT NOW!"
Fiddlesticks exploded from the Gray above and fell upon them in a whirling dervish of death.
"Fine! But don't go blaming me for what happens next!"
Four chakra tails manifested behind him in an instant.
Heat surged through his veins in response as his skin smoldered away, allowing him to lash out in a burst of furious speed. Claws scraped off his cloak, allowing him to reach up and grab the beast by the face, slam it down to the ground. Once. Twice. Thrice. Pinning it with his new appendages, he dug his chakra into the creature's crude carapace, blackening its body with malice.
Five tails now. Thoughts slipping away. Hold on.
"You think you're the monster here, don'tcha?!" he dug his crimson claws into Fiddlesticks' face, boiling away the sack that covered its skull. "But ya ain't! I AM!"
SIX TAILS. Focus...!
Wicked armor plating grew over his body, but he scarcely felt it. He only had eyes for the creature before him. It screamed and tore at him, trying to gouge out his eyes. He barely felt it as he redoubled his grip. It was stronger than before. Faster. Smarter. But so was he. His thoughts were spiraling downward, but that was fine, if insanity was the price he had to pay to stop this thing, then it was one he would gladly pay.
"I won't let you hurt Jinx again! Do you hear me?! You're done tormenting her!"
A ghastly red orb roved his way. "YoU wIlL lOsE hEr AnYwAy...
His eyes blazed with fresh fire. "Shut up and die!"
Light built in the back of his throat, white hot.
He took all that energy and unleashed it.
Fiddlesticks absolutely shattered.
(.0.0.0.)
"Little puncher...little coward...yes...you smell of feAr...YoU wIlL dO...
Vi awoke with a violent start, heart hammering in her chest.
Just another nightmare, a bad dream...right?
Baffled, she looked about herself.
Where was she...?
(.0.0.0.)
Right.
Okay, now.
This was a thing!
Jinx stumbled into the Gray, clutching a rebreather firmly over her mouth and grimacing behind it as she wove her way through the chaos. Her wounds still hurt like a bitch but at least she could walk, if only just. Running was definitely outta the question, but she had her trusty minigun strapped back to her back and one of her pistols besides.
Whiskers musta swiped one when she wasn't looking. Sneaky bastard, touching her stuff. She'd ride him into the ground for that later.
Leaving the Last Drop had been...difficult, if only because Silco -stupid dad- was watching her like a hawk. Thankfully he'd been distracted by Sevika and she'd used the chance to escape.
She had to, if only to see what in blazes was going on outside the Last Drop. Whiskers was gonna chew her out for sure if he found her first, but that didn't matter because SHE was going to find him first...
...it made sense when she thought about it, alright? She had a few screws loose. Tough.
Still, they'd really torn up the place.
It wasn't hard to find him; he'd torn up a good bit of Zaun chasing that Thing, ripped his way through the Underground, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. She just had to follow the fires, the holes, the blast marks and the screams, probably the roaring, too...
.
..
...waitahotminute. Roaring?
That couldn't be good.
"Shiiiiiiiiit."
Scaling a pile of rubble she beheld a burning figure in the distance, a creature etched in red and white, hunched over the rapidly dissolving remains of what might've been a scarecrow once upon a time. She wasn't sure. The crude caricature of a corpse -heh, funny words- crumbled even as she looked on, leaving the Beast looming over a blasted crater, dark and pitted. He remained there, hunched nearly double, growling softly as the people of the undercity kept their distance.
Not Jinx; she walked toward him. "Whiskers? That you?"
The Beast saw her coming and snarled, tails thrashing at the street.
"Aw, crap." she grimaced. "You lost control again, didn't you? Six tails, though? That's two more than last time. You ever gonna reach nine?"
The Beast bared its fangs anew, hackles rising as its claws dug into the street.
"Hey, hey! Don't make that face. You won. Be happy!"
A crimson tail lashed at the ground, warning her.
She wasn't afraid; why should she be?
"You won't hurt me."
...would he?
No, no bad thoughts. That way lay disaster. Be brave, Jinx!
"Vi used to say I fix everything...before I broke everything." her lips parted as she chuckled bitterly at the reminder. "She used to say a lot and you...yeah, you're kinda like her in a way. Well, when you're not like this." a hand gestured his way, "Always talk, talk, talking. Now you're so quiet. I don't know what do do with quiet." palming her face, she covered her right eye and shook her head, sending her braids thrashing about like a pair of long blue whips. "What am I supposed to do with all this quiet, huh?! I need you to come back and start talking again; because if you don't, I...I don't think I can function without you."
He growled at her, and the sound made the Voices louder.
"Shit, sorry." she muttered under her breath. "Its always me, isn't it? Whether I pull the pin or not, everyone who gets close to me suffers."
She dared a step closer.
"Wanna know the kicker? Right now? You're the closest one of all."
Another step.
"And maybe that's my fault," she muttered. "You did this because of me, didn't you? You were trying to protect me."
One more.
"Is it because you want to fix me?" she spread her arms wide and tilted her head. "No? I don't think you wanna do that. And that's good."
She reached the lip of the crater and slowly -carefully!- eased her way down into it. All the while the Beast watched her, growling softly. But he didn't attack. That was good, right. It meant that, whatever he was, whatever he'd become, Whiskers was still in there. Which meant she could talk to him.
Jinx wasn't the best talker. She was hardly what you would call a motivational speaker. She tended to ramble at the worst times, and right now she was really rambling.
"I'm shit at this, aren't I?" she laughed aloud, at herself, at him, at everything. "Sorry for being so broken."
But she had to try. If not here, then who else would? It would only take one sicko seeing and shooting Naruto to unleash his wrath on Zaun. He'd rip up the entire Undercity in his rage, root and stem, and not a single soul down here would be able to stop him. Most would try. Most would cry. Most would die.
And she...she couldn't have that.
Because he was her Whiskers.
She loved him.
"But hey, I'll let you in on a little secret." she removed the rebreather and leaned forward, daring to expose her face to him. "...I don't wanna be fixed. And neither do you, I think. We're perfect just the way we are. "We'll make Piltover pay, just like Silco said. All those posh noble bastards in their ivory towers, we'll show them all."
Inching forward, the rest of the way, she dared to kiss his blazing forehead. It made her lips tingle.
The Beast growled at her again. It almost sounded like a whimper of pain, at least to her ears.
Jinx stepped into him and embraced the Beast. "We can be monsters together."
Holding him hurt. His body was scalding; positively hot to the touch. She could already feel herself beginning to burn. But she didn't let go; to let go was to give up on him; he'd never given up on her, so she wouldn't on him. That's what couples did, right? They were supposed ta be there for each other. Even through the pain, even through the hard times, the awkward times, the agonizing times; because the good times always came afterward, didn't they?
That was what it meant to love someone. You where there for them, even if no one else was.
Her chin came down on his shoulder as she pulled him closer, holding tight.
"Lets burn it all down, Naruto."
He heard her.
"...!"
Jinx knew he did; because his transformation shattered; broke like so much glass. Red light bled away, revealing the young man beneath. HER man. Gradually she glimpsed him as he reappeared, the feral light leaving his eyes. He staggered for a moment, sagged against her like dead weight, but she was still holding him onto the first place, refusing to let him fall further than he already had, so that was fine. At length he recovered enough to stand under his own power and leaned into her, pressing a singed whiskered cheek against hers as he tried to take in his surroundings.
"Jinx?" he rasped her name, confused. "What did I miss?"
"Nothin', Whiskers." she kissed his cheek. "
"Where's the Scarecreow? Did I win?"
Even now he worried for her. Idiot. No, her idiot. Mine, mine, mine.
She hugged him.
...yeah, you dolt. You won."
There was no fear here. Only ashes and blood.
A/N: Piltover ain't prepared.
Little Isha is precious. Must protecc.
I'm sure you can all see where this is going...or can you?
Well? What say you? Would you like weekly updates again? Do let me know!
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)
"Who's the kid?"
Isha managed a nervous little wave.
Naruto dragged a hand across his face. "Right, forgot about her...
"You want us to break into Piltover again? Sure. Don't see why not. It'll be fun. Could always use more of those gemstones...
"You never learn. Its almost sad, really, how utterly predictable you are...
Silco hummed softly and walked away from the Chem Barons. "Don't forget again."
Smeech flung up his arms. "Nope! Not dealin' with that!"
"Black and white and gray, I don't know what to do with gray...
"Enough! I won't let you get away with this!"
"Get away with-we already have what we needed. Its too late to stop us. All your precious ideals mean nothing!" The blond berserker righted himself with a grunt. "Nice hammer, pretty boy. Lets see if you know how to use it."
He closed the distance in an instant.
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 ~!