Arcane: The Young Hound

(LN-Sooo, yeah, I've taken the radical option and decided to rewrite the time skip. It seemed a bit more than a bit forced and didn't like it. Now the story is going to focus more on Nyx getting the Firelights up on their feet and understanding the extent of the changes coming his way.)

(1st Pov-Nyx)

Sigh

Sitting down at my new desk in Jayce, Victor and my new lab, I thought about my situation. 'I'm gaining money quickly. Fast enough to get the Firelights up and running like it should be. Right now, I need to start gathering people up- those that are both desperate and still have a moral code. I need to trust them enough to do jobs for me while we set up and gain a reputation.'

Raking a hand through my hair, I noticed that it was getting silkier by the day before flickering back into focus. 'I should get together with Ekko and Powder and start working on some of the important tech like the hoverboards, as they'll be instrumental in putting raids together and still remaining untouchable. We'll be able to get in fast, and get out faster. With some preliminary work on magic and Hextech, I should be able to refine the things to use actual antigravity in their design, opening up a whole other path I can walk down invention wise.'

"On the side, I should start investigating the changes I'm going through as my blood awakens. I don't want to hurt everyone."

"Who could get hurt, Nyx?" Victor's Russian-like accent interrupted my thoughts.

"Hmm? Oh, just an invention I'm working on, I'll run it by you and Jayce somewhat soon." Victor frowned, as if he had heard more than I thought, but decided to put it at rest for now.

Carefully putting himself down into a chair, Victor placed his cane off to the side, sighing to himself. Presumably at his frail body.

"I've been looking into The Arcane recently, specifically into runes to do with transformation and life…I think we eventually could free you of your disease, Victor." I had met him not too long ago, but I was already taking a liking to him. He was far too kind and caring to be doomed to die.

Not like that was his destiny, but still.

Victor looked up in surprise, and I saw a flicker of intense hope flash across his eyes, before he quenched it, nodding slowly. "...We could look into it, but we'll have to be careful. We don't know how The Arcane will react to a living being."

I nodded excitedly, pulling out one of my many notebooks that recorded parley on The Arcane. "I've been looking into these runes for a while now, and have done some minor testing on small animals. I believe that if we can find the right combination of runes and a magical source, as well as a cost, we can do practically anything."

Victor leveled me with a hard stare, before slowly melting into a small grin. "I think I'm beginning to like you more now, Nyx." He nodded gratefully. "We can look into it on the side, after we work on the Hextech designs."

I nodded readily. "That's great Victor! Well get you fixed up long before you're at any risk, I promise that!"

Victor laughed, causing a small coughing fit. I handed him a towel to which he nodded gratefully. "And I keep my promises."

—

(Zaun)

Zaun has multiple levels and they all have strange names. I don't remember whether or not they had other names, but they're definitely not pretty sounding. The first was called The Gate, the gate to The Grey to be more specific. See people in runeterra viewed death differently. When you die, you don't go to heaven or hell or reincarnation portals, you go into the Grey, where your will is whistled down until your soul ceases to exist. Of course if you can survive it and make it through the fog, there's stories of how you'd become a god. But that was not going to happen in The Gate.

Below the Gate was The Lanes. It was the second layer of Zaun and still got some sunlight when the sun was the highest. While safer than what you'd think, The Lanes were still terrible. They were the equivalent of Gotham City in DC comics, and they were still Tame compared to The Pit.

Said Pit was the deepest, darkest, and most dangerous part of Zaun. It was so incredibly run down that the only people who 'lived there were the emaciated drugees and the people who needed a place to hide away from their actions. The most dangerous type of people lived down there, and that was why it was called The Pit, because no one who ever lived there came back up to see the light.

There wasn't even a working elevator like the one from The Gate to The Lanes, just a very steep and nearly unclimbable rock path and a parkour trail for those agile enough.

Currently, I was standing at the edge to the Pit, In full Firelight gear.

A new and improved wolf mask, black base with red highlights around the edges like a mane of fur mixed into the black and piercing white eyes that stared into the soul. A sleeveless muscle shirt and vest that held daggers and a few rounds of smoke pellets. Ripped jeans curled around my ankles, all black of course. Finally, a large trench jacket atop it all, graffiti of a wolf pack painted on the back, courtesy of Ekko, and names pained where my shoulder blades were.

IVAR

ASTRID

BENZO

KLINE

ENID

Names from the past. My parents, my old mentor/father figure, and some old friends who I lost along the way. Kids that never got to grow up. Never got the chance to breathe fresh air that didn't bog down their lungs.

Those were the exact thoughts running through my mind as I looked at a refugee camp, where several emaciated children were running around with energy that they shouldn't have given from their obviously malnutrition.

These kids, WILL. GET. THAT. CHANCE.

It wasn't long before I was noticed by them, as I didn't come down here to hide. One of them ran off for their parents while the rest circled around me, unafraid.

I was confused for a moment before I realized something: If I wanted to hurt them, I would have already. It broke something inside me with the realization that they knew something like that.

Kneeling down to their eye level, I showed one of them my empty palm, turning it slowly and when it reappeared in his vision again, I was holding a fresh Zipler for him. It was a type if fruit the I recently fell in love with. A mix between an apple and a grape, a delicious treat that not many from Zaun could partake in.

The boy was surprised, fascinated even with my act of magic, before reality set in and he snatched the fruit from me before anyone else could. I chuckled at his fierceness, rolling my sleeve up to reveal tens of other fruits for the other kids to eat along with him.

I came prepared for this.

"Get away from the kids." I looked up to see a fairly strong looking teenager, just a bit younger than me. I raised my hands and backed off.

He was holding a knife, I noticed, but he was hiding it from the kids. "I mean you no harm. I just want to help."

The kid only became more suspicious. "Get out of here with your help. We don't need it."

I raised an eyebrow that he couldn't see, grabbing a pouch full of clinking coins in the air, grabbing his attention.

"Not even the shiny kind?" There weren't a lot of venders that bought with coins down here, but they were very valuable anyway. Because one could use them to get out of Zaun entirely.

I threw the bag in the air, making him drop the knife to catch it. He sent a glance at me as more people started crowding around, watching the interaction with interest.

When the teen opened the bag, I could practically see his mind stop working when all he could see was the overwhelming color of Golden Hexes. He would have dropped it, if the thought of dropping something so valuable wouldn't have broken his heart.

He quickly closed the bag, dropping it into his trousers for safe keeping. He was looking at me differently now, more interested in hearing me out after I gave him a small fortune. "What do you want?"

"..." I dropped my hands to my sides, sighing in relief. "To light Zaun with the flame of hope again."