The betrayed beast
Smoke, screams, murmuring, the smell of blood clouded her senses. She heard the familiar growl of Sylas along with his laugh. With difficulty she tried to stand on all fours, her light was aching, it was missing, part of it was missing but she could feel it around her.
Rays of pure light ending guards in whole lines leaving just their shadows imprinted on the tiles and at the center of it all was her friend. Using her power, he stole it for him. She can feel the places where the chains have been in her body, they have formed perfect lines in their wake. She felt like she was gonna crack and die, she could almost see the masks of death filling her marble blue vision. But the rage was the only thing that lingered at this moment. So with pants and low growls she tackled Sylas to the floor, they rolled around, Lux bit him hard on his shoulder, performing the stone with her tusks, bashing his head to the floor almost taking a chunk out. But when she tasted silver blood she was kicked of in the stomach by his hoofs, letting all the air out of her figure, her magic flouring of exploding at his feet sending him near the edge of the castle bridge they were fighting in.
Lux had extended her wings and went at him again, their claws locking together trying to push the other out. Lux was gaining ground impulsing herself with her wings ones that Sylas didn’t have.
And then a voice aperrear in between the rumble, one that broke Lux immediately, with a Smirk Sylas pushed her to the ground.
“I'm terribly sorry little light, but it was the perfect time for me to strike, they were gonna demolish me. You know I had to do something”
“I could have help you, we could have prevent all this”
“Look around you Lux, you really think people would have seen us as anything more than monsters. Even your brother doesn't recognize you”
Lux growls at her ex friend that ends up chaining her up with her own light magic, when she is finally able to absorb the chains the magic inside gets too much to handle. Her body has incresided sizes. Her wings break and in their wake forms of light go out of her back forming ones of pure burning magic, her joints scorching with the same power. Her chest cracking as well leaving an opening of light lava that drops a little to the floor in inconsistent drops, that can’t decide between staying liquid or sparking, her horns having grown in her head as some kind of crown. Her eyes are full of gold and silver spirals, that move like the clouds of the earth looked from space.
“You foul beast! Where is your companion! You must pay for all the harm you have done to the innocent people of our nation! FOR DEMACIA!”
And a broaded figure charges at her, she wants to talk to him, to tell him who she is. To make her brother stop charging at her, she swats him away with her tail full of moss and crack now and thick. But he spins around with his sword making her back away. She doesn't want to hurt him; she has her ears down and her body lowered in her fours. Just grunts and whines can go out of her throat, when she stands to try and approach her brother in really unsteady talons she lets out a gasp…
The sword bigger than before enclosed in an orange aura is in her stomach. It has pierce her skin completely.
She spits silver blood from her mouth looking at the sword and Garen.
“Brother….”
“What….”
Lux feels the sword caging her body when Garen pulls away with a horror face, she looks how her parts open are being sealed again but she also can’t move, her talons and her body becoming stone completely along the property of not mobility.
“Sister…?”
And it all went dark.
[.............]
“I ordained that no harm was meant to be done!”
“We are so sorry captain, the children panicked and were in a dangerous state so we…”
“They were children for Kaylse sake, you didn't need to drop a whole automaton on them!”
“Captain, I need to remind you that the protocol with wild mages implies aplying force if necessary. All sinners are dangerous, in every state of formation. Children or adults”
“Wysteria please just…not now…I’m going to interview our prisoner, please put the enforcers at ease…”
“Yes sir”
Garen massages the bridge of his nose, he hadn’t expected the plan to go so sought. When Quins Eagle had returned with a trail he wasn’t even sure of the truthness of what the sarcastic avian had shown.
But It had been right they had found his sister, not alone. And everything spiralled from there. He knew he should have gone with them but the king had required him in the throne room.
Garen started to walk down stairs, going gloomer with every heavy slump of his metal boot, until he was in front of magic bars. A growling creature was inside thrusting against her chains, she had been stone during the day and now at night she had awoken again.
Garen took a look at the beast, different from what she remembered on the battlefield. Without its leaking magic pouring out of her and without any armor, instead there was a childish decorated shirt. Probably from her companions.
Taking a deep breath he stepped closer, the gargoyle stopped her struggles. Her ears going up to someone entering, she turned around the most she could and let out a roar. Garen almost decided to back away, but the beast was crying from those marble eerie eyes, droplets of silver going into the stone floor of her cell.
“WHERE IS MY FAMILY, WHERE DID YOU TOOK THEM! I SWEAR IF SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED TO THEM I’M GONNA BURY YOU ALL IN ASHES OF YOUR OWN SHADOW”
Lux is crying more now, her words intertwined with growls that make her voice sound deeper. Family? Garen has to stop himself from crying too. He falls to his knees in front of the bars, the snarls of the beast are still there but her eyes investigate this soldier more.
Dreams. Memories. Feelings. They all come again to her.
“Garen…?”
“Luxanna. Oh Lux, you remember me? Oh my precious sister, my little hero, what has happened to you? What have they done to the lady of luminosity?”
Garen wants nothing more but to burst into the cell and have his sister in his arms again. Even if his arms can't hold a little creature anymore. The creature almost lets out a laugh shrugging and looking at her state.
“Throw a guess…you might get a price”
“I told them to not use force. I’m so sorry Lux”
“You…told them to do this?”
“No I gave them the order to capture you, to escort you, never this, I didn’t want to take any harm on you”
“They hurt my daughter Garen! They made my mate drop to the ground and pry away our kid from her in tears. How is that no harm!”
“They…were your daughters? And your partner?”
“Yes, they are”
“For Kayle's sake I’m…I’m deeply sorry…I just made mistakes when it comes to my relationship with you. I’m an awful brother aren’t I?”
Lux calms her growling letting out some breaths.
“You weren’t in the attack, I know you would have stopped them. I remember you stepping into bullies paths just to get beat up and be a shield to the victim. You were a hero…”
“I was…I haven’t been a hero for a long time though”
“Are they okay…?”
“They are…I made sure some medics were sent their way”
“Good…”
Aside from the sound of the bars the estance is filled with silence.
“How did you find me?”
“One of our soul eagles caught your magic flow, I wasn’t hopeful but it turned out to be true…”
“I see…Garen please let me out, let me go to my family, you can be part of it as well, I want you to be. But I need to see them”
Garen looks at her again, his gloves and sword feel heavy. He can even feel his weapon dripping silver. He has to stop his hands from shaking. He has to do things right this time. He has to help her.
“We will, we will be a family again, don’t fret Lux. Specialists are in their way, they have been working so hard since they knew about you”
“What are you talking about?”
“You would go back to yourself, no more running from your country, you can join the Vanguard with me, like we always dreamt to do when we were kids. Your magic subdued and your affliction controlled. Everything would go back to normal. We can fight for our nation again”
“Garen I…I don’t need a cure! Not from my state not for my magic”
“Lux you do, this is hurting you, clouding your mind. The last time I saw you, you barely could talk, you were a raging beast. You need to go back, to be yourself again, I don’t want you to be in a cage ever again”
Memories finally start to puzzle together, along with times of fear of being found out, her awakening of being a mage, her mother wanting to treat her, her meeting with Galio. Her pleas to be normal, to be a true Demacian. The guards chased after her when she proclaimed she wouldn't subdued her power. Her eyes filled with gold, the chains struggling to content the overflow that was happening.
“ I WAS ALWAYS ON A CAGE, MY WHOLE LIFE I HAVE BEEN IN ONE GAREN. FOR BEING A CROWNGUARD, FOR BEING A LADY, FOR BEING A MAGE, FOR BEING A MONSTER. I WAS ALWAYS ONE! EVEN MY SMILE WAS WEIRD AND CONCERNING FROM THE REST OF STOIC DEMACIANS. I WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE NORMAL, I AM NOT NORMAL AND I DON’T NEED FIXING.”
“Lux please calm down, the affliction would just get worse if you get consumed by it”
“ARE YOU SERIOUSLY SO BRAINWASHED THAT YOU CAN’T SEE WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS HURTING ME? MILLIONS OF PEOPLE LIKE ME AS WELL. CAGED UP IN OUR UNCLES PRISONS, THEY KILL THEIR SOULS. Have you ever seen a living casket brother? Have you?”
“I…they tried to save them, they do”
“QUIT LYING TO YOURSELF AND WAKE UP. YOUR NATION IS NOT PRECIOUS, IS NOT WORTH FIGHTING FOR. IT’S PEOPLE IS, AND YOU ARE KILLING THEM.”
The bars start flickering, trails of the arcane leaving them and being absorbed by lux, her cracks starting to open up but the chains shock her hard, the arcane thunder making her heart almost stop by the force of the magic cut. She falls against the wall, panting, her wings aching from being caged in the metal bond.
Garen shakes the unconformity away and stands again, cleaning the tears away and going out.
“This is for your own good…”
[.........]
Vi and Caitlyn have been able to pry away Jinx from the guard taking her into custody as a fleeing criminal from their city alongside Isha, but Alina hadn’t been such a luck. And Jinx and Isha were still in a cell so it wasn’t any better.
Jinx had woken up a time ago, her gaze was lost, rocking her baby girl on her arms, trying to lure the bunny into sleep with the lullaby of ‘across the river’ her mom used to sing, but it was not working. The little bunny was just clutching her back trying hard not to cry anymore. She was scared that if she went to sleep her mom would go away as well.
It has been her fault, Isha was the one who told Lina to go with her and sneak up on Vi. They should have stayed in the clear. They should have stayed together, now they were apart and that fact stung more than the cuts on her hands. Some healers have tried treating her but they had just been able to put on some bandages. She was not letting them get near, not to her, not to her mom.
“Jay-jay, don’t worry okey? We are gonna get you out of here.”
Jinx pink eyes finally catch Vi clenching her fist to the bars.
“Thank you Vi…”
“Don’t thank me yet until we have you and your family out of here”
“Have you heard about Ali…? Is my goldie okay? And…my sunrock?”
“Alina…she…she can’t move her legs…The burn was near her lower body…and the healers were just able to cure the burnt skin.”
“She…can’t walk?”
Vi shakes her head gripping the bars tighter. Isha in Jinx’s shoulder lets out words, syllabus that don't make too much sense. But her mom can make out L’s and i’s.
Jinx is a mess too, she just grips her daughter closer to herself, covering her little ears and letting out a broken scream with all the force she has left. She then stands up, still with Isha in her hold and approaches her sister by the bars.
And the sisters try to put their foreheads together as much as the metal between them allows It.
“Take her to me please…”
“Cait is on It…but I didn't want to leave you alone”
“Sis, what about Lux? Is my darling sun okay? Please I…I need her, she can't leave us. We promised we wouldnt. We have to stay together. She is mine and I'm hers. Forever, Vi please bring me to her. I know she is hurting, I can hear her, don't let them take away her light. If you don't I…I can't control myself of what I will do”
“Jay…”
“No, I know what I would do. I will kill everyone in this place. Even if that means blowing myself up”
Her shimmer eyes gain more brightness and Vi can see the Jinx of the tea party again. But…her sister couldn't blame her when she was at the same odds right now.
“I Will get them Jinx, I promise”
[......]
Alina was in a prison zone meant to treat injuries. Aunty Cait had been arguing with the mask people but the blonde couldn't tell what. She just felt numb. Her fingers had gone purple by this point. The shackles in her wrists stopping her magic flow.
She couldn't feel her dada’s connection either. Nor her sister's firework soul nor her mom’s colorful painted soul.
Or…her legs. No matter how much she tried to move them, they wouldn't respond.
Then she felt a buzzing on her knee. Not a touch, but a sensation. Caitlyn had approached her, kneeling in front of her with a sad easy smile.
“Ey, honey, how are you holding up? Do you feel hurt? “
“Not hurting…a sensation, unpleasant but no…hurting is not the word”
“...I…Ali I think you…”
“My legs don't work anymore do they?”
“....No…”
Alina just nods and Caitlyn cradles her cheeks.
“But this doesn't make you any less worthy of love or weak. Giving your moms genius mind she can make something cool for you to move around in. And you can even ask for free rides on Lux shoulders whatever you want.”
Alina smiles lightly at that.
“Are they okay?”
“Wanting to see you mostly, I'm sure. We are going to take you out of here. All of you’
Alina holds her pinky out, and Caitlyn takes It.
“Promise?’
“Promise. Sheriff's honor, Teemo’s too”
[.......]
A group was marching to the enclosure. A spell of invisibility not letting anyone see their approach.
Sylas was going at the front, his chains clashing into his claws not to make noise. He's chest fur standing on its end, his horns adorned with them as well in their curvature.
They were getting all of the prisoners out.
_________________________________________________
Reference for beast mode is a little combination of B's wings, and C's chest. And A's claws.
Link: https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/LOL_CMS_55_Article_02.jpg