The day after the tense meeting with Silco unfolded in a strange harmony of controlled chaos. The air in the workshop was thick with feverish energy courtesy of Jinx, and a series of absolutely atrocious noises courtesy of Kaen.
Sitting on the battered sofa, with Mylo's doll as his silent seatmate, Kaen devoted himself to the sacred task of "tuning" the Beast of Noise. For him, it was a process of sonic exploration. For any other living being, it sounded like he was trying to extract a confession from a metallic turkey using nothing but torture. Every failed strum, every discordant note, was, in his mind, one step closer to musical perfection.
Meanwhile, Jinx was sprawled across the metal floor, a tangle of blue braids and frustration. She held Jayce's research notebook above her head, flipping pages with an impatient finger.
"Boring," she said, her voice echoing through the workshop. Flip. "Boring." Flip. A dramatic sigh. "Whew, super boring."
She dropped the book onto her face with a plop. She stayed like that for a moment, as if expecting knowledge to seep into her brain by osmosis. Then, with a growl, she sat up suddenly, the book falling into her lap. She opened it again, her blue eyes scanning the diagrams with newfound intensity, a chewed-up pencil clenched between her teeth. Something clicked. An invisible connection sparked in her bright, chaotic mind.
"Here we go," she muttered to herself, her eyes narrowing with focus.
She leapt to her feet and darted toward a half-built device on the floor, an intricate construction of copper coils, gears, and a central frame. It was her creation, a cage for the power she had stolen. She spun toward Kaen, who had just produced a screech from his bass that made Mylo's doll tilt slightly.
"Hey, Dead Fish! Science class!" Jinx announced. "It's all about these runes." She ran back, grabbed the book, and jumped onto the sofa beside him, showing him a page covered in intricate symbols and mathematical equations. "They form a kind of magical-math gate thing."
Kaen studied the symbols. "Hmm. Looks like the logo of a very pretentious metal band. You sure this isn't just a lyric book?"
"Shut up!" she snapped, though without anger. With a dismissive flick, she tossed the book over her shoulder. "To the land of creeps!"
She ran back to the device and grabbed the Hextech gem from its pedestal. She held it high, its blue glow shining against her face. "And this," she said with a predatory grin, "turns it on."
With a soft click, she slotted the gem into the device's central receptacle. "Hehehe," she chuckled as it came alive. Thin filaments of blue light crawled across the copper wires, and a low, powerful hum filled the room. Anticipation buzzed in the air. Jinx rubbed her hands together, then clapped.
"So," she whispered, voice trembling with excitement. "Here we go."
She leaned down, blew a stray blue braid from her face in a gesture of concentration, and with a firm motion, pulled a brass lever.
The world turned white and blue.
A burst of raw Hextech energy erupted from the device. A flash of light and force. A shockwave—silent but immensely powerful—expanded across the workshop. It slammed into Jinx, throwing her backward. Kaen, watching from the sofa, was shoved violently against the backrest, the air leaving his lungs in a hiss.
But for Jinx, it wasn't just light.
The bright blue flash of her improvised bomb. Vi's face, screaming her name. The sound of twisting metal. The frozen silhouettes of Mylo and Claggor, caught forever in the instant of the blast. The vision of the past violently overlaid the present. The hum of the device became the screams of her family.
The device's power dissipated as quickly as it had come, leaving only the steady hum of the gem.
Jinx landed hard on the floor, sobbing. Pure, unfiltered terror overtook her face. She scrambled backward, desperately trying to get away from the glowing device as if it were a monster.
"No!" she gasped, her voice broken with panic. "No, it was a mistake! It was a mistake!"
Kaen recovered, shaking his head to clear the spots of light dancing across his vision. The horrible screech of his untuned bass was replaced by the gut-wrenching sobs of his number one fan. He saw her on the floor, trembling, lost in a hell only she could see.
He rose from the sofa. His movements were calm, deliberate. He walked toward her, past the device still humming with indifferent power. He knelt by her side. He said nothing. He offered no hollow words of comfort.
Instead, he held her.
One arm beneath her knees, the other at her back, he lifted her off the cold floor. She was light. Jinx flinched, but the moment she felt his touch, she clung to him, burying her face against the collar of his jacket. Her sobs shook her small frame, a torrent of pain and guilt finally spilling free.
Kaen held her firmly, his face as expressionless as ever, and carried her away from the glowing device. He brought her to the sofa, away from the source of her terror. He sat down, holding her in his lap as she cried, her hands clutching his clothes as if he were the only anchor in a storm that threatened to drown her.
He didn't understand her ghosts. He didn't understand her past. But he understood that his one true fan was broken.
After what felt like an eternity, the sobs began to fade, turning into silent tremors. Kaen stayed still, a solid, oddly comforting presence in the middle of her chaotic workshop.
Finally, his monotone voice cut through the silence, soft but clear.
"Is there anywhere," he asked, staring up at the graffiti-covered ceiling, "you'd like to go?"