Arcane: Bond Beyond Death

Back in their lair, the dim glow of their hidden underground base flickered as Bael and Jinx stumbled through the door, both laughing and leaning against the walls for support. The remnants of the night's chaos clung to them, their clothes disheveled, and their bodies flushed with the effects of a generous amount of alcohol.

"You know, Bael," she slurred, her voice lighter and more carefree than usual, "this whole rebel thing? Kinda suits us, don't you think?" She wobbled a little, and Bael caught her by the arm before she could tip over.

"Yeah, sure, Jinx," Bael replied, his words a little slower than normal, the alcohol thick in his voice. He shook his head, though the smile on his face couldn't be hidden. "But right now, we gotta find a way to keep our heads. You're not exactly the best at keeping things under control when you're this... inspired."

Jinx pouted dramatically, sticking her lower lip out. "I'm always in control," she insisted, but it was clear her balance had long since betrayed her. She waved the bottle in the air with an exaggerated flourish, nearly sloshing the liquid out. "Who needs control when we have fun?"

Bael leaned against the wall, trying to steady himself as he swirled a glass of something stronger than the last. He looked at Jinx with an amused glint in his eyes, watching as she made a show of trying to maintain some semblance of dignity despite her wobbling.

"You know," Bael said, his voice softening, "I don't think I've ever seen you this... relaxed." His lips curved into a rare, lazy grin. "You've always got that edge on you. This is... a bit different."

Jinx tilted her head at him, her gaze going unfocused as she tried to zero in on his face. A mischievous grin tugged at the corners of her lips. "Maybe it's because we actually won tonight," she giggled, hiccupping as she took another swig from the bottle. "And, hey, we made history together, babe."

Bael raised an eyebrow at the familiar nickname but didn't comment. Instead, he leaned in closer, his smirk growing. "Yeah, we did."

Jinx, now leaning into him, giggled again. She poked him in the chest, her hand surprisingly strong despite the alcohol. "You and me, Bael. We're unstoppable!" She gave him a dramatic wink, though it was sloppily timed and almost ended in her falling sideways.

Bael caught her again, this time pulling her back to her feet. "Careful, Jinx," he warned softly, though the affection in his voice couldn't be masked. "You're gonna hurt yourself if you keep that up."

She smirked at him, her eyes glinting with both drunken playfulness and something deeper. "Oh, I know," she purred. "But I trust you'll catch me, babe."

"Oh and by the way, it's time for your Shimmer antidote," Jinx said, her voice steady and serious despite the chaos earlier. She paused for a moment, staring at Bael, who was still swaying slightly, his usual sharpness replaced by the fog of drunkenness.

"I got it, Jinx. I can do it myself!" He slurred, his voice carrying an exaggerated confidence that didn't match the way he was wobbling.

Jinx climbed on his lap and picked the syringe placed beside him, she missed the spot atleast fobe times, causing him some blood spots and a few groans of pain, resulting of trying something delicate while being drunk, then she struck his vein and injected the anti-shimmer inside him.

"There! Babe!" Jinx called out, proud of herself. The drug canceled Bael's drunkeness. "Thanks, Jinx." He appreciated.

...

Deep in the cold, suffocating confines of Stillwater Hold Prison, Vi sat alone in her dimly lit cell. Her back was pressed against the damp stone wall, and her arms rested on her knees. The faint hum of distant conversation and the occasional clinking of chains echoed through the corridors. It was a world of monotony and shadows, a far cry from the streets of Zaun she once called home.

Her appearance had changed dramatically over the years. Her fiery red hair was now cropped short, jagged strands framing her sharp features. Tattoos adorned her arms and shoulders, their intricate designs telling stories of defiance, loss, and survival. Piercings glittered faintly in her ears, subtle rebellions against the system that had caged her. She looked hardened, every inch of her bearing the marks of someone who had fought too long and lost too much.

But today, something broke the monotony.

Whispers spread among the guards and prisoners alike, their voices carrying news of chaos in Piltover—a brutal attack orchestrated by two rogue figures. Names she hadn't heard in years. Names that stopped her dead in her tracks.

Bael and... Powder.

Vi's breath hitched, her chest tightening as the weight of those names pressed down on her. She whispered the second name to herself, her voice trembling with disbelief. "Powder..."

She leaned back against the wall, her head tilted upward toward the faint sliver of light creeping through the tiny, barred window of her cell. A flood of memories crashed into her—Powder's wide, innocent eyes looking up at her with trust, the sound of her laughter, the way she used to cling to her when the world felt too big and cruel.

Powder was alive. Not just alive, but out there, raising hell alongside Bael. The little girl she had left behind had survived, had grown, had found a way to carve her place in the chaos of the world.

A sparkle of hope shimmered in Vi's heart, something she hadn't felt in years. For so long, she had convinced herself that Powder was gone—that she had failed her utterly and completely. And yet, against all odds, she was still out there.

A small, bittersweet smile tugged at Vi's lips, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "You made it, Powder," she murmured to herself. "You and Bael... you survived."

But as that hope flickered to life, it was accompanied by a pang of guilt so sharp it was almost unbearable. What had Powder become in her absence? What had she gone through without Vi there to protect her? And Bael... had he been the one to keep her safe all this time?

Vi's hands clenched into fists, her knuckles whitening as resolve hardened in her chest. She didn't care how long it would take, or what she had to do. She would find Powder again. She had to.

For now, all she could do was wait, but for the first time in years, Vi wasn't just waiting to survive another day. She was waiting for a chance to fight her way back to the only family she had left.

She needed to get out of there. She needed to find a way to find her sister. But how? Stillwater was impossible to escape. All she could do for now, was to wait for an opportunity

...

Meanwhile, in the lair, the gauntlets Jayce made had become now nothing more rubble and circuits as everything was dissected by Bael who advanced exponentially in his research.

Meanwhile Jinx was cheering him up and singing while also making her newest weapon. A rocket launcher in the form of a dry shark. Fishbones.

Bael had fully dissected the Hextech gauntlets, putting math formulas to practice and unlocking new secret. Once he knows how to evolve a weapon from Eta to Omega, which is the final version, his arsenal would be unstoppable

"How in the world...?" Bael muttered under his breath, leaning closer to inspect the pieces again. His mechanical arm twitched slightly, the fine-tuned appendage automatically adjusting to his microscopic tools. He turned over a fragment of the gauntlet's circuit, exposing faint, glowing runes etched onto its surface.

"Runes," he whispered, his voice a mix of awe and frustration. "It's not circuitry—it's magic."

Jinx, sitting cross-legged on the floor nearby and tinkering with Fishbones, looked up at the tone in his voice. "Magic?" she repeated, wrinkling her nose. "Like, poof! Rabbits out of hats kinda magic? Or the sparkly kind that explodes in your face?"

Bael ignored her sarcasm, his mind racing. The lack of conventional wiring was an anomaly he couldn't wrap his head around. The gauntlets weren't relying on physical connections to regulate their power but instead some sort of intrinsic energy transfer through these glowing runes. It was completely alien to him—yet undeniably effective.

"It's Hextech," Bael finally said, mostly to himself. "But not like anything I've seen before. The control system is... invisible. No wires, no circuits, no direct links. The runes themselves are the regulators. They're channeling energy without needing physical connections."

Jinx tilted her head, intrigued despite herself. "So... it's like ghost wires?"

Bael sighed, rubbing his temple. "Something like that. The runes are coded to respond to specific frequencies of Hexcrystal energy, but how the hell do you program that without a physical medium?" He tapped a finger against the table, frustrated. "This isn't science. This is... something else entirely."

Jinx shrugged and went back to her work, hammering a jagged piece of metal onto Fishbones' frame. "Sounds like you're overthinking it, babe. If it works, it works, right?"

Bael shot her a glare, but her carefree attitude was beginning to seep into him. Maybe she had a point. Still, the scientist in him couldn't let it go. "If I don't understand it, I can't replicate it. And if I can't replicate it, I can't make it better," he said firmly.

Jinx smirked, waving her tool in the air. "Then maybe you just gotta mix a little bit of their magic with your brains. You've already made stuff nobody else in Zaun could dream of."

Her words struck something in him. Maybe the answer wasn't to fully decode the magic but to find a way to combine it with his mechanical expertise. Blend the unknown with the known.

Bael nodded slowly, his frustration giving way to determination. "You might be onto something, Jinx," he admitted, giving her a rare smile.

"Of course I am!" she said, grinning wildly. "I'm a genius, remember?"

Returning his attention to the gauntlets, Bael picked up the fragment with the glowing runes, his mind already working on ways to integrate them into his designs. "If I can't understand it fully," he thought, "I'll make it work anyway..."

Bael leaned back in his chair, the glow of the Hexcrystal shard reflecting in his determined eyes. He glanced at Jinx, who was now fiddling with her sketches for the rocket launcher she was dreaming up.

"But before that," he said, his voice firm but laced with a faint smirk, "I need you to make Fishbones."

Jinx paused, her pencil hovering over the blueprints. Her eyes lit up with excitement as she turned to him. "You mean it? You're actually gonna help me with it this time?"

Bael nodded. "Of course. But we're not starting from scratch, Jinx. This time, we're skipping the prototype stages. No testing or half-baked versions—when Fishbones comes to life, it'll go straight to Eta."

Jinx's grin stretched wide, practically glowing with anticipation. "Now that's what I like to hear!" She hopped off the workbench and grabbed a handful of tools, already buzzing with energy.

Bael watched her for a moment, his mechanical fingers tapping rhythmically on the desk. "But," he added, leaning forward, "when I figure out the runes... things are going to change. Fishbones won't just be Eta—it'll be something entirely new. Something no one's ever seen before. It'll be Omega."

Jinx paused mid-step, turning back to look at him with a gleam in her eye. "Omega, huh? Sounds fancy. You think you can pull it off?"

Bael's smirk deepened as he grabbed one of the gauntlet fragments, holding it up to the dim light. The runes etched into the metal seemed to hum with latent power, an untapped potential he was determined to unlock.

"I don't think, Jinx," he said with quiet confidence. "I know. Once I figure out how these runes work, there won't be a weapon in Piltover, Zaun, or anywhere else that can rival ours."

Jinx twirled a wrench in her hand, her grin turning mischievous. "Then we better get to work, babe. Fishbones isn't gonna build itself."

Bael chuckled, rolling up his sleeves. "You handle the chaos, Jinx. I'll handle the precision. Let's make something the world won't forget."

And with that, the two dove into their work, the lair buzzing with the sound of tools, laughter, and the promise of something revolutionary in the making.