#fortiche productions

Flashlight [Part 2 of ??]

[Inspired by the song “Flashlight” by Hailee Steinfeld. Vi’s Voice in Arcane]

WARNING: This the second part of this fic (?) It retells Arcane’s events from Vi’s PoV with a bit of spice on my behalf. From the years in Stillwater to episode 8 from Season 1.

If you’d like to catch up with the previous part, here’s the link to it.

Also, Spoliers for Arcane Season 1.

Flashlight [Part 1 of ??]

I became a shadow to the brute, spying on him.

At the gym, in the yard we prisoners were left out to do…whatever. He stayed on the corner, constantly looking out and guarding his side. He was wounded, I didn’t need to know medicine to figure that one out, I have been there and that was my chance to get him to talk. Still, I needed for him to let his guard down, it would make things easier.

Or that’s what I thought…

Lunch time came, and they served us that…shit they call food. No flavor, no nothing. A slop of things I may be afraid to ask about. When I would normally eat it, today, my priority wasn’t survival; it was him.

Took the tray and followed the line, not serving a thing on the metal plate, waiting for me to walk freely. Couldn’t get my eyes off him. The adrenaline I felt that night rushing again to my head as I recalled everything from my last night free:

Vander’s gauntlets on my hands, snug against the vandages wrapped around my arms. Ready to defend my own. Mylo was crouching, frantically trying to free our father as Claggor hit a wall, hoping it would crumble fast enough for us to take a run for it. My old man’s face, beaten up, fearing for us…for me…more than for his own life. He had come to terms with death…still, we weren’t going down without a fight.

I was finally free of the row, looking out for the guards. There were few, it was their break too. They exchanged places every couple of minutes, which gave me a chance to come close to this brute.

The tray felt hot in my hand, as my blood started to boil and it’ll soon need a valve of release.

“Hey!” I said, before sitting on the table this bastard was already on, focused on his ‘food’. The word left my mouth as a bitter bark, letting him know I wasn’t here to play.

He said nothing for a moment, only a growl came. He didn’t even looked at me.

“Tch! I don’t recall you being deaf!” I scoffed, waiting for him to react.

“Fuck off, kid!” His voice was raspy, low. Annoyed at my presence.

“In fact, I recall you listening quite well as Silco asked you to kick the shit out of a girl…after probably beating his mentor into a pulp” my sarcasm slowly turning somber, I almost snarled as I looked for his gaze.

He froze for a second. His moral compass working silently. His gaze fixed into the void, before stammering a reply. “How do you…?”

“Look up, dumbass…” I finally snarled, smirking as his eyes, scardely, darted upward to meet mine, not before taking my body first. As he reached my face, he grew paler, as if he had seen a ghost. That made me grip tighter the tray I had in hand. He shook in his place, dropping the spoon in his grasp as he mouthed the word tattooed in my cheek. “Remember me?” A threatening growl building in my chest. His eyes grew wide in disbelief. “Or maybe, you still need a refreser…”

In a split second, the tray left the table, hitting the goon to the ground. If these things weren’t made out of metal, it would’ve bent. The noise made my timer run, as I felt the tense eyes of the enforcers looking at the scene. 5 minutes, maybe ten if I was lucky.

The brute looked at me, scared enough he would probably shit his pants. I pinned him to the floor with my own body, one of my knees over his chest as I pulled his uniform up against me, making him look at me. “Where’s my sister?! What did Silco did to her?!” I roared.

“Everyone thinks you’re dead…” panicked, gasping for air. “The sheriff told us you were…!” I cut off his words with a swift punch to his jaw.

“I don’t give a damn!” Hissing to him, before punching him again, droplets of blood coming out from his mouth. “Where’s my sister?!” I asked again, my face against his. Breathing heat towards his face, which shifted from panic to pain, not from my punches, but from the wound on his side that opened up due to my weight over his and my knee on his torso. I put more weight on my leg, making him squeal in pain as the wound ripped open. Bleeding through it’s vandages and uniform. “I’ll ask again, where the fuck is my sister?!”

His painfull grunts echoed between us, as he frantically tried to push my leg away “Cut it out, bitch! I don’t know shit about your sister!” He roared in pain, squirming below me. A fast as he answered, another punch hit his jaw, stronger than the last.

“DON’T LIE TO ME! YOU WERE THERE THAT NIGHT! WHAT DID YOUR DAMN BOSS DID TO HER?!” I asked again, feeling the cold in my knuckles as his blood ran freely from his mouth. He coughed, grunting, looking at me with fear and anger.

“I DON’T KNOW, YOU CRAZY BITCH! FOR ALL I CARE, SHE MIGHT BE WITH THAT COWARD ON THE OTHER SIDE!” He snapped, his words unclear as his jaw started to fail. His insult and may-be-fact sent my mind into overdrive.

“YOU FUCKING SHIT!” The adrenaline clouded my thoughts.

The last I can recall, is me, picking up the tray from the ground, before plunging it into his jaw with every ounce of strenght I own.

Everything went black, as a snap remained lingering in my head.

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My mind came back to normal a couple hours later, surprisingly, I wasn’t beaten up…yet…but I was in a place I knew quite well: Solitary Confinement.

This gray stone box becoming my silent sanctuary once more.

His words echoed through my memories. He may be right. As far I was concerned, Silco could have killed her that same night, as she cried for me, as she kneeled before Vander’s shimmered-up corpse.

I was supposed to save her, and…at the end…I left her to that monster’s mercy…

How can I be so frightened about things…I don’t really know…? Of the idea of me hunting a ghost? Of the idea of…leaving her to die…?

That train of thought was about to make me cry bitterly, again, in that dark corner of the cell. Until…

The elevator rang…the doors opened…footsteps.

They were coming to punish me.

It snapped me out of my pitty driven bubble, as I started to warm up. Standing in that cell, punching the wall, preparing for the beating that’ll soon come. It didn’t make it any better, but the pain after wasn’t as bad as if I was caught unaware.

I hit the wall harder as the footsteps drew closer.

I couldn’t hear the lack of the wooden staff hitting the bars as it usually did. The bluffing of the enforcers and the heating up of their forsaken teasers. The only thing I could hear, was the wall in front of me and the clicking of someone’s heels. They wouldn’t catch me with my guard down, never, as long as I was trapped here.

The heels stopped their pacing, right beside my cell. At the same time, I stopped hitting the wall, sweating from the work out, but mostly out of my adrenaline pumping.

From my rear view. The sillouhette wasn’t the one I was used to, it was the exact opposite.

A lean, tall and stoic enforcer was standing still next to my cell. A sight I didn’t knew I needed, but one that nevertheless made me scoff. Was this another shitty trick? Another new form of torture? Those thoughts made me bark at her, not expecting any answer in return…

“Who the hell are you?”

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Her voice was stern, yet gentle. Harmonized by the posh accent the topsiders usually have.

She asked me about my crimes, that were none, according to the papers the warden gave her. There were some, but none confirmed.

She asked me about the idiot I had beaten up. Appearently that sucker was part of an investigation. Bummer…

Why did I punched him? She didn’t have to know.

Her calm demeanor as she interrogated me was draining out my patience, I paced, waiting for the door to open and her to come to beat me, even though she had no weapon in sight. Just a notebook filled to the brim with photos and notes. Still, I ran her patience thin, hoping the punishment would begin fast and end faster. Instead, she just walked away, frustrated at my answers.

She sighed “This was a waste of time…” starting to walk away.

“Couldn’t have put it better!” I hissed sarcastically. Then dropping something out of spite, maybe out of what happened earlier “Hey, give Silco a kiss in that winning eye of his, will you?”

Usually, I didn’t expected a response. Those commentaries usually were followed by a scoff or a “Fuck You” from the guard in charge to look out for me. I was expecting her to walk away and maybe tell the warden to beat me. Instead, she turned around.

“Silco? The industrialist?” Her narrowed eyes looking at me, not believing what I’ve said. I didn’t knew what she was looking for, but my patience had officially ran out.

“Okay, this is getting old. Can you just…” hating what I was about to say, but if it went on a moment longer, the beating would caught me cold, and I wasn’t up for that. “Send whoever is gonna kick the shit out of me so I can get on with my night?” Day, Night, Dawn. In that place, days ran rapidly. I just wanted her to stop teasing me.

But then, that photo. I knew those doodles anywhere.

'Powder’ my mind cooed as the monkey doodle stared at me. The same damn monkey that ended three lives five years ago. 'She’s…alive!’

I threw myself to the bars of my cell, making the enforcer jump in her stand. The most expressive I’ve seen her since she arrived at my cell.

At that moment, everything faded. That idiot lied! He was lying and I knew it! She is still out there!

“Where did you get this?” I asked, as that spark started shining once more. Hope lighting the dark I was in.

A dumb question later, a snarky answer later, and I asked again. “Where did you find this?!”

“There was an attack, this is evidence. I need proof if I’m to believe what you’re saying about Silco.” She said, calm as ever.

Proof? First time someone had asked for it, at least proof against Silco’s bullshit. And I knew how to get it…those years in the lanes, and those days when Slico started doing his stuff served me as a bargaining chip. Until…

“In what mad world would I trust someone like you” she bluffed, teasing me again. Stepping back once more.

The dim light that once took my mind was drifted aside, as my rage came back swinging.

There had been a while since I spoke my goddammned mind, and this was the time to do it!

“Someone like me?!” If this…wannabe detective wanted me to bargain, or beg for freedom, she was going to get a big fat surprise! “You enforcers are all the same, just asshole criminals in fancy uniforms! You know what? Go find Silco yourself”

She straightened once more, before walking away. Another pampered, spolied girl from topside.

I bluffed as she walked away. “The undercity is gonna eat you alive…” not gonna lie. If she wasn’t a shitty enforcer and I wasn’t behind bars. I would have eaten that cake in a second, if you get my drift. The blue dress and belt made her assets shine, even in the dark alley that led to the elevator. That was a sight worth looking at, fortunately, it was all for me.

She left, not before I saw her second guess on her way out of solitary confinement.

Once she took the lift. The image of her slender, yet curvy figure left my mind.

“Powder…” I whispered, talking to myself. A desperate sigh left my mouth as I brushed my hair with a hand. All these years, and she was still out there. Shining bright, waiting for me to find her. Hell, maybe she even already tried firing the flare I gave her before going to the warehouse. And…I didn’t come.

I growled, punching the wall once again. Shrieking at the powerless feeling weighting my heart to the floor. I punched harder, and harder, trying to silence the guilt as my desperate yells pitched higher.

I left her, helpeless at the mercy of that shithead!

Grunted once more. I deserved whatever beating that sexy and snob enforcer was planning to get me once she made her way up the warden.

I left my little sister alone in the lanes!

I left my flashlight alone in the dark undecity.

And I had probably lost the only chance I had to find her!

Damn my big stupid mouth!

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Some time passed, and I had tired myself up enough. And, as if they were hearing my every movement. The elevator opened, and that fucking wooden staff beat against the tiles. Rythmicly, as a cane of an old man, accompanied by familiar footsteps.

I didn’t even care to look out, I knew what was coming. It was long overdue.

I just stood there, cooled off or not, bracing myself for another round of punishment, as many before this.

The banging, the footsteps, everything stopped, right in front of my cell. I cracked my shoulder, as the bars slid open. My mind and body were ready, yet…nothing came.

The heavy footsteps faded into the hallway. Along the hitting of the staff.

Then, I turned around. Only to find her.

Stoic, lean and, somehow, gentle. The enforcer from before stood in front of me once more, without bars to protect her from me, still, she looked calm. She looked into my eyes from her height, but didn’t looked down on me.

It reminded me of Vander, when he scolded me for getting into a fight head first. Stern, yet kind.

She…reminded me of someone else. But I couldn’t put a finger on it.

A sigh, before she walked away down the hallway, hoping I could take the hint and follow her. I looked as she left my sight.

Somehow…that dreadful hallway had gained a bit of life, just from her coming back…for me…

The dim light of hope was lit. Along with another, softer than the first, but shining nontheless.

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PART 3:

Flashlight - Chapter 3 - BastetXCat - Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021) [Archive of Our Own]

PART 4:

Flashlight - Chapter 4 - BastetXCat - Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021) [Archive of Our Own]