Chereads / Arcane: Road To Perfection / Chapter 17 - Part 14 - Build Up

Chapter 17 - Part 14 - Build Up

Within that same morning, Silver returns home, hoping to find the object that Ekko gave to him. But when he gets home, he's more than shocked at the state in which his place is. Broken glass and furniture everywhere, and the object nowhere to be found.

The entire time Silver is inside of this room, he questions why Jinx took the energy and time to destroy everything. After no luck in finding the object Ekko gave, he goes back to the place where Ekko and Mylo had him tied up. Unfortunately no one is there anymore, and it's empty, as if nothing happened. "God.." Silver says to himself in aggravation, as he stands all alone.

After standing alone for a few seconds, he walks back outside. He sits down against a wall, questioning what he's going to do, or how he's going to contact Ekko and Mylo. In this moment, he also feels like he shouldn't have been on his own for all that time. Being alone for as long as he has, has slowly pushed some of the others away. Especially Lucy. He even begins to question what happened to Vi after the explosion six years ago.

With all these thoughts running circles around his head, he's interrupted by Marcus, and a group of enforcers walking past him with gas masks on. "Excuse me, have you seen an enforcer around lately. A young woman with blue hair?" Marcus asks Silver, who slowly begins to stand up.

Silver looks around in a confused manner, before responding to Marcus. "Nope. I have no idea." Silver responds to Marcus and the other enforcers. It becomes obvious that Marcus is annoyed, so after Silvers response, he walks off with the other enforcers.

Silver watches the enforcers walk away with focused eyes. Instantly, he remembers the girl that Lucy was carrying yesterday. That enforcer with blue hair. But why would they still be together? Silver questions with curiosity before sneakily following behind the group of enforcers.

Silver jumps behind buildings, and hides behind corners while looking at the group of enforcers who make their way lower down into the Undercity. "Who's there?" One of the enforcers in the back calls out, before pointing their gun in the direction where Silver just was.

Silvers heart begins to race, as he's hiding behind that very corner from afar. "No ones following us. let's keep moving." Marcus says to that specific Enforcer, though he's still skeptical.

"I'm gonna check it out." The enforcer pointing the gun says. Marcus shakes his head in annoyance as a result. "We're going to keep moving. Just catch up with us when you're done catching frogs." Marcus says before signaling the other enforcers to continue following him on his path.

Silver begins to question what to do, as the enforcer pointing the gun creeps up closer and closer towards the direction of him. "If you're following us, you're going to be in real trouble-" Suddenly Silver pops out from the corner with a rock in his hand. Catching the enforcer off guard, Silver swings the rock at the enforcers head. Unfortunately for Silver, the guard immediately dodges the attack, and swings his gun towards Silver.

Silver quickly grabs onto the gun, and the two struggle to overpower the other. Using all of his strength, Silver manages to knock the enforcer over his head with the gun, which releases his grip.

With one last attack, Silver hits the enforcer in the head one last time with the gun. This knocks the enforcer out immediately.

As Silver looks down at the unconscious guard, he quickly comes up with a plan on the spot. So, Silver takes the uniform of the unconscious guard. He then catches up to the rest of the enforcers. Thanks to the gas mask, his face isn't visible. "Was anyone there?" The enforcer next to Silver asks.

Silver looks towards the other enforcer with confusion, which creates an awkward silence between the two. "Oh-uh, no..all clear." Silver reassures, before facing straight ahead. The enforcer who he responded to, begins to look at Silver in a suspicious way.

Moments later, Silver and the other enforcers make their way to The Last Drop. The memories that Silver tried to break off comes to enter his mind once again, as he stares up at the sign of the building. "Wait out here. I'll be right back." Marcus orders the enforcers, before walking inside. Silver watches Marcus walk inside, while questioning what business Marcus has here.

In the Topside, in a very fancy room with a gigantic bed, Mel and Jayce lay within it with their shirts off. While looking towards the ceiling, Jayce begins to think. Mel quickly picks up on it. "What is it?" Mel asks Jayce.

Jayce turns to look at Mel for one second, before looking back up at the ceiling. "Professor Heimerdinger. He was a great teacher, and I looked up to him. But now it's like he's against everything I'm trying to achieve." Jayce explains to Mel.

Mel begins to rub her hand across Jayce's chest, as she slowly moves into his arms. "Do you know why that is? Mel asks, with Jayce having no answer whatsoever. "It's because you're looking ahead, while he isn't. It's the main reason I elected you for council." Mel adds on, as she slowly begins to smile and look up towards Jayce's eyes.

Jayce then stops looking at the ceiling, and instead looks at Mel. "You're right." Jayce admits with a smile. "I shouldn't allow this to get to my head so much." Jayce adds on. Mel gives him another smile, as the two continue to embrace one another.

On the other side of the Underity, away from Silver, Vi sits down at the ledge of a hill. Beneath her lays a body of water that's several polluted. But infront of her, there's a warm sun that doesn't shine to brightly that it'll blind. "I feel like there's still so much I don't know about this place." Caitlyn says from behind Vi, before slowly sitting down next to her.

Vi turns to look at Caitlyn for a split second, before looking back towards the sun. "Is Lucy still asleep?" Vi asks Caitlyn. Caitlyn nods her head. "Mhm" she replies.

The two then sit in silence for a bit, until Vi replies to Caitlyns comment. "But um-no. You haven't even scratched the surface of this place." Vi says with a slight chuckle. "And why would you? It's not so pretty. There's so much wrong with it." Says Vi, who begins to grow more serious.

Caitlyn watches Vi with a sort of shocked expression. She then looks down at the polluted water. It's so polluted, that she can barely make out her reflection. "All my life, I've been severely sheltered. That doesn't help when you want to see the world you're apart of. My mother never saw my vision of wanting to help others. That doesn't stop how I feel though." Caitlyn explains to Vi. Suddenly Vi let's out a sarcastic chuckle.

The moment Vi let's put that chuckle, Caitlyn glances towards her with confusion. "What's humorous?" Caitlyn asks.

"Helping others?" Vi questions as she raises an eyebrow at Caitlyn. Even still, Caitlyn doesn't understand what Vi finds funny. "There's no enforcer that wants to help others just to help. You're obviously getting something out of this. Whether it's to show your mom that you're capable on your own, or maybe you're just bored. But helping? No, not a chance." Vi explains, and Caitlyn begins to frown as a result.

"That's not true. I've always wanted to help others, ever since I was a small girl." Caitlyn says to Vi, though Vi begins to shake her head in annoyance. "Not all enforcers are bad, Violet. Even your sister Lucy, before we came to you, she told me that she wanted to be an enforcer." Caitlyn admits, and Vi immediately stares at Vi with a face of annoyance, disbelief, and shock.

"I don't believe that. All our lives we saw how corrupted you enforcers are to the people of this city." Vi says to Caitlyn, while staring into her eyes. The entire atmosphere around the two begins to grow more sensitive as well. "It's cool if you say you want to help us or whatever. But don't lie to me." Vi demands, while continuing to stare at Caitlyn.

Caitlyn quickly begins to feel sympathetic with a loss for words. The two continue to stare for a bit, but quickly after, Vi stands up, and walks away. Caitlyn remains with her sympathetic eyes as Vi walks away from her.

Jinx remains sitting in her hideout, talking to herself more than usual. Her eyes seem to be lower, and the rings around her eyes are also growing darker. "He says I'm dangerous..That I'll kill her, but it was just a mistake!" Jinx vocalizes to the voices in her head, as she begins to rock back and forth, while wrapping her arms around her legs. "I'm not like that anymore! I can do better, my gadgets will work!" Jinx yells as her eyes wonder from place to place.

"Do it."

"Do it."

The voice of Silver encouraging her to do it all those years ago, causes her to get up and go towards a current invention of hers. "Njh it's fine, we're a tinm after all. All for one and one for axl." The voice of young Silver rings in her head.

"Sometimes it doesn't feel like that when Mylo says the things he does. It also doesn't help when a lot of the time, he's right. Makes me wonder if one day I'll just be abandoned by you all because all I do is jinx you." Jinx defects on what she said to Silver when they were younger.

"Oh shut up, I can't focus!" Jinx yells, before grabbing the gemstone from a bag of hers, and moving it towards a device infront of her. "This little do hickey here, and this right here." Jinx continues trying to focus, but her mind continues to run wild. With a lack of sleep, and traumatizing events from her past, she struggles to keep her composure.

She quickly grows more frustrated and annoyed. "I said shut up!!" Jinx screams one last time, causing her voice to echo down into the abyss of her hideout. With a gun of hers pointed to her head, and her breathing heavily, the hallucinations finally begin to stop.

Once the hallucinations stop, Jinx stares ahead in shock. After a few seconds, she slowly lowers the gun from her head. "Okay..okay, test run.." Jinx says before entering the gemstone into the invention.

The moment she enters it to power up the invention, it begins to go haywire. It begins to beam with a blue light. Suddenly, it explodes, causing Jinx to fall back and instantly remember the events of her past that killed Mylo and Claggor.

The scene fairly resembles the day where she caused the explosion, in an attempt to help the others six years ago. Jinx lays on her stomach as she watches with wide eyes filled with sadness, regret, and guilt.

After the invention finally stops, and the blue lights stop beaming, Jinx let's out an emotional sigh. "It was a mistake. It was a mistake." jinx sobs, as she stands up, and begins to run away from the scene.

After trying to run away, she kicks a bag. Out of the bag comes two cylinder like objects. One from long ago that Vi gave to her. And the recent one that she stole from Silver.

With tears in her eyes, and hesitation, Jinx slowly reaches down to grab both objects. She stares at the both of them with conflicting thoughts and feelings.