The Betrayal - Arcane (Season 2 in progress)

Chapter 5: Everybody Wants to Be My Enemy

"Boring. Wow," Jinx begins saying as she flips through the pages of a book, "Super boring..." She sits up turning towards me and the device that she made, which is now sitting on the floor beside her.

"Here we go!" She closes the book and examines the device. "Care to explain?" I ask, leaning forward on the chair. I'd moved from the couch to Jinx's desk a while ago, drawing a couple designs. "It's all about these runes," Jinx takes a pencil she had in her mouth out, twirling it around.

"They form some kind of math-y magic-y gateway," she faces the book toward me then the dolls by her couch, her representation of her adoptive family. I walk up to the machine on the floor, carefully examining it. "To the realm of heebie-jeebies," She continues.

"And this... Turns it on." She holds up the gem, looking at me before placing it in the machine causing it to light up. "So, here goes." I stand back a little and she turns a dial causing the gem to emit a blue static before a blue wave hits us, throwing us back.

"You have to work for me. Ok?" A younger Jinx asks a toy monkey before winding it up.

She carefully sets the monkey inside a building and activates it. The monkey begins to walk and hits the crystal that is tied to its chest. Jinx and I quickly turn our backs to the building and I shut my eyes, awaiting the explosion.

A wave of disappointment makes its way through my body.

I turn my head to Jinx who is peeking into the building. Suddenly a blue explosion goes off, sending us flying.

The explosion is beautiful. Blue whisps flying everywhere as we fall through the air.

I look over at the girl beside me in awe. One day, she'll be a respected girl. No longer will she be a "Jinx", but a smart, reliable girl.

I look back up down at the now quickly approaching floor and squeeze my eyes shut as I bring my arms in front of my face in an attempt to protect my head.
It's in vain however as I am met with darkness.

I breathe heavily, my back against Jinx's desk. My body shakes in fear and I swallow a lump that had formed in my throat.

I hear a sob to the side of me, "No!" Jinx says, beginning to freak out. "Jinx. Hey, Jinx." I say, going to stand, but my shaky legs give out from under me. "No! It was a mistake! It was a mistake." She scrambled up to her feet and run away.

"Fuck..." I say, my eyes filling with tears.

~~~~~~~

Jinx steps through the broken glass window with me following behind here. Jinx walks through looking around the place. She accidentally steps on a piece of metal on the floor. She glances at it for a moment and kneels down and picks it up, dusting it off.

"Do you remember this?" She asks softly, holding it so I can see it. It looks to have a terribly drawn face on it. I stare at it for a moment longer before shaking my head. "No. Sorry." I say, walking to the side.

Jinx sighs going about her own thing again. I lean against a wall, watching her as she pulls her gun on a bird. She tilts her head, the bird imitating. She shoots it before walking over to the boxing ring.

She looks at the machine in the center and inserts the metal piece into the center. She then goes about repairing the contraption. I tilt my head wondering why she's bothering.

A couple minutes later, she has the machine working again. She stands in front of it before beginning to spar with it. Her score climbs the leaderboard quickly. She shrieks before delivering a final blow to the center of the machine.

She looks up to the board, breathing heavily. I follow her gaze and see her score finalize. She missed beating her sister by a measly three hundred ninety-four points. Jinx takes a moment to catch her breath before shooting the center of the machine in anger.

~~~~~

Marcus holds a bloody object in his fingers, fiddling with it. He places it in his palm and clenches his fist right before Silco walks in, "Sheriff, what a lovely surprise." He says, walking over to his desk.

"The Hextech wonder boy is on the Council now. And he's asking questions." Marcus begins, "Its only a matter of time until he finds the truth."
"What is truth but a survivors story?" Silco says sitting forward.

"If I'm discovered, we're both finished." Marcus ignores Silco's question. Silco places one of Jinx's bombs on the desk, "Good thing you've located proof of the Firelights's involvement." Marcus walks up to Silco and grabs the bomb off the table.

"This has gone too far." Marcus says, holding up the bomb. He fiddles with the pin for a moment. "Hmm? Imagining yourself a hero? One final act to make you the martyr you've always seen yourself as?" Silco asks the enforcer.

Marcus stares at the bomb for a moment, thinking. "Then what are you waiting for?" Silco ponders. Marcus looks up from the bomb at Silco, sighing. Then he turns and walks out.

"Ah, he's faltering." Silco says, turning around, "you need to weaponize the Hextech soon." I have to swallow a lump that had formed in my throat at the mention of the Hextech. "Once we've cracked their prize, topside will have no power over us." Silco continues.

"I can't do it. Just... give it to the doctor." Jinx says. I move closer to her and put an arm around her shoulder. "You're the only one I can trust with this, Jinx."
"I keep seeing them, that day." Silco stands up and looks at us, "fear haunts us all, child."

~~~~~~~~~

We're standing in a little lake, and the sky's dark and grey. "I almost drowned in these waters." Silco says to Jinx. "You told me a million times." Jinx sighs. "Vander wasn't the man you thought he was." He continues ignoring her.

"Right, he was like a brother to you, and he turned his back and blah, blah, blah. Did I miss anything?" Silco let's a snicker escape him, "I've got a new one for you." He puts his hand in the water, waving it back and forth, "that day, I let a weak man die."

He leans forward, putting his entire body below the surface. Then he stands back up, clearing his hair out of his face, "and another was reborn. Betrayal, that pain that feels like it'll eat you from the inside out, can either break you or forge you into something greater. You need to let Powder die. So the fear of pain will no longer control you. And you need to let go of your forgotten past. Reforge your past into something greater."

Jinx walks over to Silco and I follow behind her, "you're strong now. Just like you were always meant to be. Jinx is perfect." Silco carefully begins lowering Jinx into the water. She casts me a look and I nod. Silco gives her a moment before completely lowering her in.

After a moment he lifts her out of the water, "Your turn, Blade." I nod before hesitantly walking over to him. He places a hand on my head and my lower back before slowly lowering me into the water.

~~~~~

I help Jinx and grab some of the tools she needs to get the Hextech crystal to work to our advantage. She places the crystal on to the device and turns the dial. The machine starts to spin, throwing blue sparkles everywhere, just like the ones that caused the explosion. Jinx takes off her goggles and spins around in her chair as I let out a chuckle at our newfound success.