Neutral Through Chaos

Chapter 21: A Needed Betrayal

Silco chuckled smugly to himself, peering up at Vi.

"Vander's prodigy," he mused.

Then, she saw me. Vi's grey eyes widened in a panic, which quickly turned to rage. All that I felt was guilt, she knew that I had betrayed her. I had to tell her the truth, I had to resolve this. Silco snatched a vial away from one of the hooded figures attempting to steal it away from his grasp.

"I've regretted that we never had the opportunity to speak," the crimelord continued.

I had to think fast on my feet. I knew where Silco kept his dagger, a sheaf concealed by his coat. I was right beside him, I could grab it, however his henchmen would surely intercept any attempt that I made to stop him. They were strong, trained to attack. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I saw the bespectacled man being handed a vial from the blonde's dirty hands.

Like some innate instinct my hand went to the wrench in my pocket, grasping it in my hand firmly. I chucked it at the vial, the hooded traitor jumping backwards as it shattered, purple liquid splashing to the ground and glass grazing his face. Silco looked around bewildered, while he processed my sudden move I saw my opportunity and seized it. I leaped over and plucked the dagger from the crimelord's waist, immediately going to the place I had in mind. His neck. Holding the dagger firmly in place at his throat I laughed a bitter laugh. Everyone around me was disorientated, unsure of my next move.

"Now you know how it feels," I hissed in Silco's ear, glowering over at Ran who was creeping towards me, "Don't you dare come near me, or I'll slit his throat."

"You want to go down as a martyr, don't you y/n, instead of a feeble little engineer?" Silco quipped, "Go ahead, do it, although you're probably too spineless to."

I pressed the knife into Silco's throat even harder.

"Don't test me," I spat, feeling him tense up.

My gaze returned to Vi, nodding at her. She nodded firmly back, eyebrows furrowing as she glared at Silco.

"What have you done with my sister," Vi fumed at him, starting towards us.

"I've freed her," Silco smirked, "Candidly, I thought that you were the prize of your second-hand family. But Jinx... oh, she is more than I ever imagined."

"I'm gonna find her and erase whatever fucked up delusions you put in her head," Vi retorted, "But first I'm gonna bring your bullshit empire down all around you, and y/n's going to join me."

"So much for neutrality y/n," Silco ridiculed me as I tightened my grip on the blade.

Suddenly, I gasped as I was thrown to the floor, the knife falling away from me. A beast was above me, purple veins pulsating through its sickly skin and eyes a glowing purple. And not too far away from us were broken glasses. In his desperation, the addict must have drunk the leaking shimmer from the ground. My ears rang as I weakly tried to stand up, being pinned to the ground. I could faintly hear Vi roar out my name in the distance. Silco smirked down at my powerless form, releasing the vials to the hunched addicts surrounding him. Ran did as well, the misfortuned victims of shimmer guzzling it down eagerly. Silco returned to Vi, I vaguely heard him say something about limits, how it got Vander killed and drove Jinx away.

A weight was lifted from my chest as the shimmer addict relented and began to approach Vi. Through my blurring vision I witnessed the other shimmer-infected monsters closing in on my childhood friend too.

"Yeah? Well you talk too much," Vi remarked.

With that, she spun on her heel and sprinted into the building. I felt vibrations pass through the ground, looking up in shock to see the entire clubhouse wavering. She must have been punching it's support beams, weakening it with each strike. Silco and his goons were too distracted by the shaking structure, opening up an opportunity for me.  I groaned as I dragged my bruised body up and began to run towards the collapsing clubhouse.