Chapter Text
– SIDE : BLUE –
When Powder sees the electric blue light racing towards her, she's convinced she's dead.
When Powder is sent back flying against the illuminated blue scene, she's convinced she's dead.
When Powder hits the concrete ground, she's convinced she's dead.
But when she finally opens her eyes, she realises.
“My…— My monkey bomb!” Comes the gasps for air. The girl scrambled to push herself back onto her feet as she watched her masterpiece's work before her eyes. The corner of her lips tugged gently into a small smile, then a massive grin. Her awkwardly lanky frame hopped around in celebration.
“It worked! I saved everyone! I— I finally got it to work!” She cheered, eyes nearly watering from her relief. Despite how her body ached from the fall, Powder was on an insane high. She had to tell then - they'd be so proud. Mylo wouldn't be able to call her a Jinx anymore ! Vander would teacher her how to fight! And Vi…
Vi wouldn't have to worry about her anymore.
Hastily, she hid the remaining crystals in her hair, just in case they got so jealous they tried to take it, hehe! Then, she set off to search for Vi in the thick smoke.
“Viiiii! Violet, haha! It worked, it worked!’ Powder called out, eyes squinted as she tried to scan the area.
“Viiiii? Vander? Where are you guuuys! Claggor, Mylor?” Her pace quickened when no response came - had they left already? Should she meet them back at the bar?
Or maybe they went somewhere she couldn't find them… No– No, they wouldn't do that. Violet wouldn't do that.
Between her rapid thoughts and footsteps that were catching up, Powder was all but oblivious to the figure that had been sneaking up behind her.
Her lips parted to scream for Vi once more, but was muffled by a cloth being pressed over it. Powder tried to scream, but it came out as unintelligible murmurs. She tried to kick, but her legs began to feel like steel. Her whole body, in fact. What was happening? Was this a prank? No— No you can't take her, she needs to go back to her family! Let her go
“Don't say a word. You're coming with me.”
And with those words whispered into her ear, Powder's eyes slowly closed and she became weightless, her feet dragged across the rubble as she was thrown into some sort of vehicle.
– SIDE : RED –
“Protect Powder…”
Those were Vander’s last words, ringing in Vi's ears long after they dissipated into the suffocating air.
How… How the hell did this happen. Was it Silco? Damnit, damnit, DAMNIT!
Throwing her head up, a bellowing scream from the depths of her chest released from her lips.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! WHYWHYWHY!”
Her eyes blurred from her own churning tears and ears blocked from her own deafening screams, Violet hadn't taken heed to the tall man who had creeped around the corner. Silco watched the broken girl shriek until she began doubling over in a coughing fit, laying on the gravel and ashes.
“Oh dear. Poor Violet. How truly alone you are..” Silco made himself known, kneeling but still glaring down at her. His voice felt like snakes, slithering up Vi's neck and tightening. From behind his back, Vi's eye's landed on the glimmer of a dull, jagged knife.
'Protect Powder…'
No matter how much she wanted to die, right there and then. Powder needed her. She couldn't.. She couldn't… Resonating with the last of her strength, Violet pounded on Silco, pinning him to the ground. Her eyes looked around wildly and she was damn near foaming at the mouth from pure vitriol.
“YOU! YOU killed them all. I'LL KILL YOU!” Violet snarled, lifting her trembling, balled fist over Silco.
Silco's goons were prepared to jump into action, but, for some reason, Silco waved them off. The man wasn't afraid of Violet at all. In fact, he was smiling. A thin line between sinister and pitiful.
“Oh, Violet. Do you even know who you're fighting for? They're all dead.” Silco poked in a hushed voice.
“Shut up. P-Powder is alive. I need to—” Vi squeezed her eyes shut, her voice jagged with rapid breaths.
“Is she?”
Before Vi could even comprehend his words, she felt Silco press something wooden into her hands.
Nononononononono it can't be. It can't be .
It was bloody. No, not just bloody. Damn near bloodbathed. All the signature scribbles of Powder's monkey bombs had faded behind the sheer amount of blood painted on the toy.
“She thought she was ready to help you. But an enforcer caught her before she could ever make it here. Quite a few times.” With Vi now stunned by the item in her palm, Silco managed to slip himself out from under her hold.
“H— How do I know it wasn't you, you bastards.” Despite her words, her voice no longer held the bite it once could've. Her heart was sinking.
“Believe it or not, but I don't kill for no reason. Honestly, I'm enraged. Everything I've done, it has always been for the undercity. Even when it comes to the hard calls.” Silco's eyes briefly flicked towards Vander’s body before back to Vi.
“You want to kill them, do you not? You want to overthrow the boot on your neck. You never saw eye to eye with Vander. Now, you can seek the path of revenge you've always craved.”
She couldn't respond. All that could be derived from her was the heaving of her back. She felt herself sink into the gravel once more, cradling the broken toy close to her chest, maternally. Powder couldn't be gone... No, it wasn't possible. Powder...
'Pow-Pow'
Vi's heart soon swelled with a new feeling, neither grief or hopelessness. Her heart thumped with it, it pumped in the blood through her veins. It was suffocating, yet addicting. Like a feral animal biting at her flesh, one she had the contradictory urge to feed. It was pure anger.
"I want to kill them. All."
– SIDE : BLUE –
Frayed rope burnt into the indents of Powder's wrists. Her eyes stubbornly refused to unblur in the pitch dark. Where was she? Where was Vi? Eventually, the door swung open and a blinding light, entirely unfamiliar to the child. Blinking slowly, Powder's vision soon revealed to her the figure of a masked enforcer.
“Get up.” They spat, yanking her onto her feet before she could even comprehend the circumstances. Was she going to be executed? She didn't want to die. Powder's heart began to thump for its life as she heaved and gasped for air. The cruel enforcer paid her no mind as twisted her arm and pushed her to walk forward, sandwiching the tiny girl.
...
“We got the trencher responsible for the attack on the Talis workspace.” Powder heard one snarl as she was taken to a desk. Behind it stood a towering monster of some sorts. Without warning, her body was thrown towards him, causing her to slam her head and kneel over in pain. More conversation passed between the two, nothing that Powder could bear to pick up… Except for one thing.
“She's a bit small for a 15 year old, ain't she?” The receptionist inquired.
“She's small, but she's damn reckless. A little Jinx, even. Huh, shall we call yer that, ya damn Jinx?” Sneered the enforcer.
Powder cowered by the wall of the reception desk, whimpering as she tried to pull away from the taunting glares above her.
A Jinx. Just a Jinx. Mylo was right— She's a Jinx. She got herself captured.
“Well well well, then. Welcome, Jinx. You're gonna be here for a long, long while.”