Arcane: A Stroke of Death [Male Reader]

XV. A Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell Just as Sweet

(Y/N) ignored the pain in his lungs as he continued running through the streets of Piltover, looking for Vi and Caitlyn.

When he finally found them, they were hiding behind a wall, Caitlyn recovering from whatever injuries she sustained on the bridge.

"Hey," He said, running over. "Where's Ekko?"

Vi shrugged.

Caitlyn looked in the container Ekko had been keeping the gem in. "It's gone."

"What?" Vi asked.

"It was all for nothing."

Caitlyn led the group to a large house deep into town. (Y/N) had chosen to remove his armor and weapons and was currently carrying them on his back.

As the three of them climbed into the window of the house, (Y/N) felt an odd familiarity about the place, some sense of Déjà vu. He had been here before.

The room they were in was a large bedroom, and (Y/N) quickly stashed his armor and weapons to the side of the bed that wasn't facing the door.

"Who lives here?" Vi asked. "Another councilor friend of yours?"

The door to the room suddenly burst open, and a woman came in aiming a shotgun.

(Y/N), Vi, and Caitlyn all froze.

The woman suddenly recognized Caitlyn and came over. "Caitlyn! Oh. We were so worried. Thank goodness you're safe!" She looked at Vi and (Y/N). "It seems you found a couple of strays."

"This is Vi," Caitlyn introduced her. "She's from the undercity."

"So I see. And him?"

It took (Y/N) a second to realize he was speaking to his own mother. "I'm Art. Art... Vandelay."

"And what do you do, Mr. Vandelay?"

"I'm an architect."

"I see. Caitlyn, could we have a word? In private." She and Caitlyn left the room, leaving (Y/N) and Vi alone.

"Seriously?" Vi asked. "Art Vandelay? That's your mom, dude."

"I know. I just... wasn't ready to tell her that yet. She thinks I'm dead, you know. She thinks Caitlyn is all she has left."

"You're just going to pass up the opportunity to meet your real family?"

"Vi, it's not like I can just walk in there and drop that kind of a bomb on her. Then there's the fact that I'm a literal assassin-for-hire who's wanted in this part of town. I doubt she'd want a son like that."

"(Y/N), don't say things like that. You did that to survive. You did it to keep yourself alive long enough to find me and Powder."

"No. I did it for me." (Y/N) nodded, regretful. "I liked it. And I was good at it. I was, really... I was alive."

Vi stared at him, mouth agape.

"It was the work I had been bred for. The people in the experiment bred me to be a warrior. Vander raised me to be a warrior. Ra's trained me to be a warrior. All my life, people have been telling me what I should be, and I just wanted to indulge in that... so I did. But now, everything's falling apart."