Neutral Through Chaos

Chapter 14: A Belated Apology

"Who the hell are you," a familiar voice muttered, the owner of it glowering at Caitlyn distrustfully.

Her grey eyes flicked over to me, widening in shock. It was Vi, her pink hair now grown out and her body covered in tattoos. She had been hardened up after the years of being in prison, now a woman and not the teenager I had left behind nearly a decade ago. Guilt overcame me.

"Y/n is that you?" She muttered in astonishment.

"Vi.." I gasped, tears welling up in my eyes.

"You know her?" questioned Caitlyn, glancing over at me with a look of suspicion.

The overwhelming guilt was nauseating, I had to leave.

"I'll be back," I announced.

"Y/n-" both Caitlyn and Vi began.

I ran down the hall clueless as to where I was going as tears began to stream down my face. All of those years ago I had let Vi get taken away, and she had suffered horrors unimaginable because of it. All because of my failure to help her. Skidding in front of a wall and sliding to the ground I began to sob. It was pathetic, I was crying in my own self pity, after I had destroyed another person's life. Time seemed to freeze as I sat there, breaking down. Then, I felt a comforting hand on my shoulder. Looking up I met Caitlyn's concerned gaze.

"What's wrong y/n?" she asked softly, "I couldn't find you."

"I'm alright," I responded, hastily wiping the tears from my eyes, "How is Vi?"

Caitlyn shook her head, staring at the ground.

"Quite uncooperative," she sighed, "She said something about a man called Silco though, that the inmate worked for him. I'm sorry I didn't explain to you earlier what was happening, I wanted to give you time to recover from last night."

Silco. She couldn't find out that I had formed somewhat of an allegiance with him, and that that allegiance protected the very perpetrator of the crimes. Recollecting myself as best I could I nodded carefully, looking up and waiting for her to continue.

"However, I think I owe you an explanation now. An airship was hijacked yesterday, do you know anything of it?" she queried.

"I heard of it," I said, keeping my response blunt.

"Well there was a criminal left behind at the scene, he was imprisoned today. He's the inmate," she continued, "Do you know this Silco that inmate 516 mentioned?"

My heart thudded. I had to answer with great care, as slip up would inevitably result in incriminating evidence against me.

"I'm an engineer, I do jobs around the undercity. I've done a couple for him before, but just fixing stuff that's all," I disclosed to her.

"I see, well you'll be a lot of help to the investigation y/n," she hesitated for a moment, "I'm sorry to bring this up seeing how much inmate 516's presence upset you, but how exactly do you know her?"

The tidal wave of guilt washed over me yet again, I looked back up at Caitlyn's concerned face shakily.

"We were childhood friends, I didn't even know she was still alive," I explained, voice trembling.

"I'm sorry," Caitlyn murmured, "So do you know what this is? She recognised it too, it seems."

She pulled open a battered old book. I stood up to get a better view of it. My pulse drummed in my ears as I recognised the painfully familiar drawing of a monkey painted onto the scene of crime.

"It was there last night too," Caitlyn clarified.

I couldn't betray Jinx in this way, not after all she'd been through. The consequences would have been devastating, and if it was discovered that I was the informant Silco would surely have had me dead in a heartbeat.