Chapter Text
“Shit!“ Vi let out a curse as she tripped over her own feet and promptly landed on her ass. Instead of getting up she just sat there for a moment and questioned all her live decisions that lead to her sitting on this street freezing her butt off.
She looked around herself and saw the various items that lay scattered around her, the items that she was previously carrying in a bag over her shoulder, until she fell and tossed the smuggled goods across half the Lanes that is.
With a sigh she got up and began to put everything back when she heard footsteps approaching. She looked up and saw Powder peeking around the corner of the small alleyway where she tripped and fell like an idiot.
“Vi, are you coming? We’ll be late if we don’t-,“ Powder stopped talking as she quickly approached Vi. “What happened?” asked Powder confused as she looked at the mess Vi has made.
“Nothing, I just tripped. Just help me pick up the stuff and let’s make it quick. And you’re right, we should hurry up or it’s going to be dark before we even made the delivery! We were supposed to drop this off at Benzo’s like five minutes ago so we’re already late,” replied Vi as she continued were she left off, trying to safe the last of her dignity she still had left after this stunt.
“Right,“ said Powder, who was holding back a grin at the mental image of Vi slipping and landing on her backside, as she began to help her sister pick up the various objects.
Vi paused to stretch her arms for a bit. She liked to think that she had rather good stamina for a 15-year-old, but after a nearly four hours training session with Vander this morning followed by a full shift at The Last Drop with only a single short food break at Jericho’s, Vi really started to feel the weight of the loot Powder and herself were transporting through the back-alleys of the Undercity.
After she was done stretching, she continued to pick up the loot and thought about how Benzo’s mood was probably darkening by the minute. Powder dropped the last of the items in the bag and gave Vi a questioning look. “Do you think Benzo’s going to be mad at us for being late?” she asked. “Yeah probably,” Vi grumbled back, “so let’s just pick up the pace or he'll be even more pissed.”
They continued their track through the Lanes to Benzo’s shop. The sun had completely gone down by now and the streets were only illuminated by neon signs and bright shop windows, not that the sun made a big difference down here. Vi listened to her sister’s idle chatter as they walked the empty streets, but she didn’t comprehend most of what Powder was telling her, although she did her best to act interested.
It's been like this ever since Ekko found this engineering book, mused Vi. Powder has been obsessed with this book for the last three weeks now, Vi could hardly remember a time when she didn’t have her nose buried between the pages, either that or she was trying to apply her newly gained knowledge practically.
Previously Powder’s and Ekko’s engineering skills were almost entirely gained through trial and error and if they couldn’t figure something out, they would ask around the bar until they found someone who was willing to indulge their curiosity. When Powder first started with her tinkering, she would ask Vander or Benzo and later Silco, but what little technical knowledge they possessed was pretty much only related to mining.
She’s such a smart kid, I bet she would give all these Piltie kids who’re going to their fancy Topside schools a run for their money, thought Vi while Powder was still tossing around technical terms and formulas.
After a while, Powder seemingly ran out of things to tell Vi and they fell into a comfortable silence as they continued on their way.
Usually at this time The Last Drop and the whole neighbourhood around the bar were still bustling with activity. In comparison this part of the Lanes was a ghost town. Officially, they were walking the streets of the Lanes’ market- and business-district, but everybody knew that the only business that was done here was the exchange of smuggled and illegal goods, or rather the trade of those items that were too hot to sell at the bazars that stretched on for miles all around the Lanes’ centre-district. Here, deals were made behind closed doors; there were no voices haggling, no cacophony of footsteps, no sound of people jostling against each other nor any of the noise that one would normally associate with a place called “market-district”.
The eerie atmosphere of the too quiet neighbourhood was made even more creepy when the streets were completely engulfed by a thick industrial fog that appeared to have been summoned out of nowhere, although at least this fog seemed to be of the rare non-toxic variety for once.
With even less visibility Vi found herself looking over to Powder to make sure they didn’t lose each other only to find that the blue haired girl wasn’t walking next to her anymore. She stopped and turned to see where her sister went but was relieved to immediately find her standing just a few meters behind Vi, staring at nothing and seemingly trying to concentrate on something.
“Powder? What’s wrong?” asked Vi, not sure what caused the younger girl to stop when they had been talking about hurrying up. “Shush!” Powder hissed at her, holding a finger to her lips and started frowning. “Do you hear that?” asked Powder. Vi was about to ask her what she was talking about when she heard raised voices arguing somewhere up ahead.
“-old you to go easy on her but she bruised your ego, so you just had-,”
“Come on man, as if you’re innocent, I saw you get in some good hits before she bit the dust, who’s to say it wasn’t you instead of me?”
“There’s no fucking way you are putting this on me, I’m not the one who stomped on her like a fucking maniac!”
Vi stopped and listened. One of the voices sounded distorted like it was coming through a gas mask. Vi had no idea what they are arguing about, but she was sure about one thing, namely that the voices were getting louder and that she could hear the distinct sound of heavy footsteps, footsteps that suggested that there were more than only two people.
Vi knew that if the two sisters weren’t careful, they very well might end up getting robbed, this was the Undercity after all, and if whoever was coming at them from the fog realised that they could easily get away with it through the night, then there was little Vi could do about that. It’s not that everybody in Zaun was a criminal, she liked to think about it more as pragmatism. Sure, most people wouldn’t try to rob them at most times, but this was a rather unique opportunity that could even make the most pure-hearted Zaunites swallow their morals. Poverty was one hell of a motivator for crime after all.
Vi, Powder and their brothers got robbed before when they were making deliveries, last time it even was in broad daylight (as much as one gets down here anyway). In comparison this night seemed to be the perfect set up. Normally nobody dared touch the Hound’s kids, but Vi suspected that once somebody saw the bag full of valuable loot, thoughts about Vander’s retribution were probably already forgotten.
Vi looked around for an alleyway where she and Powder could hide until the newcomers were gone but she found nothing of the sort. Letting out an frustrated sigh, Vi realized they had to flip the coin, although she doubted that it was a fifty-fifty chance between them getting robbed and the strangers just walking past the sisters. Hell, Vi knew that she would’ve probably robbed them if she caught an opportunity like this.
She would obviously not just give up the loot without a fight, but she was under no illusion that if the sisters were to be outnumbered, that she alone could not hold off what seemed to be at least four people.
Sure, she had Powder with her, but she was only ten, by Janna she was nine just two months ago. There shouldn’t even be any need for her to defend herself in the first place Vi thought, anger rising at the prospect of her likely failure.
Up ahead she could start to make out the shapes of the quickly approaching strangers but as they got closer Vi had a horrible realisation. “Fuck!” Powder let out a soft curse and although Vi probably should’ve told Powder not to use words like that she couldn’t help but agree. The people arguing up ahead, who Vi thought to be random Zaunites that were going to be their soon to be robbers, were instead six Enforcers. And Vi and Powder were walking around with a bag filled to the brim with stolen and smuggled goods.
“Let’s just stop fucking around and finally get thi-. Who are you? What are you doing out here?” the Enforcer at the front of the six-men squad was the first to notice the two girls who from the Enforcer’s perspective must have appeared out of thin air.
“We were just on our way home officer.” Vi lied. “C’mon Powder let’s go.”
Vi hoped that if they escaped this situation fast enough the Enforcers won’t even notice that there was something suspicious about them but when she turned towards Powder one of the Enforcers grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her around.
“You’re not going anywhere, you little sumprat!”
Before Vi had a chance to protest she and Powder were encircled by five Enforcers, while the sixth stayed behind. “Why are you doing this? We haven’t done anything wrong!” Powder yelled, stepping closer to Vi, who had no idea how an otherwise uneventful day could turn out this shitty.
“In my experience Trenchers who lurk around empty streets at night are rarely innocent, even if they are children.” Said one of the Enforcers in a low growl that was made even crueller by the distortion the gas mask added to his voice.
Now that the Enforcers were close, Vi got a good look at them and saw that only two of them were wearing their masked helmets. Oddly, she noticed that the faces of the pigs in blue seemed to look rather tiered and nervous, pretty much all of them had dark circles under their eyes and she noticed dark brown stains on the uniform of the one that just spoke.
Next to her, Powder let out a sharp gasp as she stumbled closer to her sister, knocking into Vi. Her sister’s eyes were fixed on the sixth Enforcer, who has been blocked from Vi’s view so far, due to the absurdly large Enforcer that was standing in front of her. He seemed to be some kind of humanoid with greyish blue skin and red eyes. He was towering over the girls as he was just half a head shorter than Vander, but what little he lacked in height he made up for his girth that made even Benzo look like a twig. Vi saw sharp yellow teeth when he started to speak.
“I feel like we got off on the wrong foot,” he started, speaking in a surprisingly soft and high-pitched voice. “Excuse my colleagues here for being a little rough,” he smiled at them, which might have been meant as a reassuring gesture but did nothing to boost Vi’s confidence that this evening was going to have a peaceful conclusion.
“We just had a complicated evening, and we didn’t expect anyone to be out here. I guess we got a bit jumpy, this isn’t exactly the safer side of the river for the likes of us after all, eh?” He stepped closer, in response Vi tensed her exhausted muscles, ready to hurl the heavy bag at the Enforcers ugly smile in a split second to hopefully give Powder a chance to escape. None of them seemed to carry a firearm so if Powder managed to outrun them, she’d probably get away quickly in all that dense fog.
Vi’s thoughts were cut short however when the sixth officer started to speak. “Why the hell are you playing nice cop with them? They saw our faces! You know what that means,” Vi should probably be quite alarmed at what he just said but Vi’s attention wasn’t on the pig’s voice but on what he was holding in his arms.
When the non-human Enforcer stepped closer to them, Vi could finally catch a good look at the particular officer that Powder kept staring at and saw that he was holding what Vi first thought to be a red tainted pile of clothing. She then realised that he was actually holding a young girl in his arms, a girl that seemed so small and fragile to Vi that she seemed to sink into her too big jacket.
She immediately saw that the girl wasn’t in good condition. Most of her face was swollen and her complexion was a colourful combination across various blues and purples. Her hair seemingly used to be blonde but now it looked like some shade of brown to Vi, due to what she suspected to be dried blood. Stains of the same colour could be found all over the girl’s cloths, and her legs and arms seemed stiff and jutted out of the big jacket at unnatural looking angles.
Janna this girl can’t be much older than Powder, what have these pigs done to her?
Vi’s thoughts were spiralling into panic. She was pretty sure that one of these Enforcers was holding the corpse of a child, a child they more than likely killed. Upon realising what she saw a terrible coldness spread out within Vi’s chest as she thought about the words of the enforcer who was still holding the limp body.
They will kill us! We are witnesses to the murder of a child, if this gets out these pigs would be fucked so they’ll make sure that we’ll never talk. When Silco and Vander made peace with each other, her dad and uncle (or at least that what she considered Silco to be) managed to do a lot of good for the Undercity.
While corpses were still a common sight in some places of Zaun, it has been years since such an open display of police brutality has happened. After all, Sheriff Grayson worked closely together with Vander and Silco to make sure that the Enforcers are held accountable for the all the shit they do down here.
“Hey! Girl, don’t look at him, look at me,” the smiling Enforcer was stepping back to block Vi’s view from the kid. “I know that this looks bad, but I assure you there’s nothing to worry about for you two.” While he was talking with a smile on his face, Vi noticed that his hand drifted to his belt where she could see the handle of a baton sticking out.
“Wait, I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding,” Right she though real smooth Vi, I’m sure they’ll let you go now “Just look,” Vi took a step forward in front of Powder, who was still staring at the dead body. “We have no idea who you are or what this all is about, so how about we make a deal and forget we ever ran into each other tonight?”
Vi took the bag from over her shoulder and lowered it in front of her in an angle so that the officers red eyes could see the items inside. “How about we share some of our haul with you and in return you let us go on our way?”
“But Vi, they killed that girl! And you want to give them the stuff?” Powder was finally able to tear her eyes away from the corpse and whispered her objections in Vi’s direction. “Just follow my lead, Pow. Trust me,” Vi whispered back, hoping that her younger sister would listen to her when it was time for her to make a run for it.
“Well, first let’s see what you got in there and maybe then we can talk about a deal, although I suspect that you didn’t just find this lying abandoned on the street did you?” the big Enforcer was now bending down and reached a hand out to see what exactly he just saw shining in that bag when Vi lowered it to the ground.
“Dammit Lev, what the fuck is it you think you’re doing? We have to get rid of them and then you can have the whole damn bag and what’s in it, but we must get rid of the bodies first,” the masked officer with the cruel voice said and whipped out a baton from his belt.
The big pig turned his head at that and made to reply but Vi already smashed the heavy bag against his lower jaw using as much strength as her exhausted arms could muster up, causing him to fall straight onto his back. This guy clearly underestimated her, he thought he could make her docile by acting nice, by acting like he didn’t already make up is mind the second her sister saw the poor girl’s lifeless body.
“POWDER RUN!” she yelled and lifted the bag to block the incoming baton the masked Enforcer swung at her. To her satisfaction she heard Powder footsteps, and she saw in the corner of her eye how Powder successfully got away in the second of confusion. This small victory didn’t last long. She felt a sudden, sharp pain at her side when something impacted with her ribs from behind her, causing her to let go of the loot.
She barely managed to dodge the next strike from the masked asshole when he swung at her legs and was just in time when she turned to see one of the Enforcers (probably the same that just hit her in the ribs from behind) who kept silent before was about to smash her head. She didn’t have the momentum to dodge, so she lifted her arms in front of her face. As expected, the impact sends a searing hot pain jolting up and down her forearms, making her eyes water, but she kept her arms up.
To her horror, she saw between her fists, that two of the six Enforcers have started running in the direction Powder disappeared in. With a jump she tried to tackle one of her sister’s pursuers down before they could vanish into the fog, but something grabbed her foot, causing her to fall towards the ground, once again protecting her face with her arms.
The impact made her cry out and her forearms felt like they were submerged in acid for a second, but it quickly faded due to the adrenaline currently running rampant within her bloodstream. However, before she could get up again, she felt a different kind of pain as something impacted with the back of her head and the world came to a sudden stop.
Powder ran through the dense fog that clouded the streets of Zaun. She made a right turn around a sharp corner and almost collided with a trashcan that someone just left standing in the middle of the street. After narrowly avoiding the crash, she continued running, because that’s all she ever did, running was all Powder really excelled at.
The only way she could have been useful was if she had her bombs with her but all her creations were still lying disassembled on her bed at home, not that they would’ve worked anyway.
You’re a piece of shit! You left your sister to die! You abandoned her! Traitor! Jinx! Jinx! JINXJINXJINXJINX
Powder tried her best to ignore the voices that where whispering to her from the fog all around her, she just kept running. She had to reach The Last Drop; she had to tell Vander what had happened and that they had to save Vi.
A couple of streets ago, she had tried alerting the people who live here. She had frantically knocked at the next door she saw but only got told to piss off. She tried again two more time’s with similar results, her pleas for help falling on deaf ears.
They will hate you! Vander will throw you in some rundown orphanage near the Sump and you’ll deserve it! If Vi still lives she won’t ever want to see you again after you left her with the Enforcers!
The girl turned a corner and came to a sudden stop. She was staring down a dead end, when in Powders opinion there should have been the street/bridge that connected the market/smuggling-district where Benzo lived to the centre-district of Lanes, the place where her home was.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Powders thoughts began to spiral, she must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, but she had no idea where. Trembling, the young girl turned to look where she came from only to see nothing but fog. She was lost; she jinxed it again.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Should’ve went to Benzo. I would already be there if I did. If I turn back now it will take too much time and Violet doesn’t have time.
Powder felt tears run down her checks as her breathing started to quicken but no matter how much air she breathed, it didn’t seem to satisfy her lungs. Before Powder had abandoned Vi, before Vi told Powder to trust her, Powder had seen what the Enforcers had done. When she saw the blank eyes of the girl, eyes that were staring into nothing, a storm began to brew inside her head.
She noticed white scratches tearing through her vision, sometimes taking forms, sometimes appearing to be random patterns. It was just like that day at the bridge. Back then she had seen dead people too, dead people whose faces were forever etched into the young girl’s memory as distorted, smiling masks of white scribbles with scratched out eyes.
She closed her eyes and tried to focus on breathing steadily. Slowly breath in, hold for a couple of seconds, then slowly breath out, just how Silco said she should do when she’s feeling like she’s drowning. Calming down, she was able to apply some degree of logic to her thoughts again. Vi said that Powder should trust her and Powder does, she trusted her older sister with her live. Vi told her to run and she ran, so maybe she didn’t jinx it.
She did what her older sister asked her to do, she just had to figure out where in Janna’s name she was and get to Vander immediately. Her breathing slowed and when she opened her eyes, she did not see any scratches and the voices seemed to have gotten tired of bullying her too. She wiped away her tears and turned back to where she came from.
Retracing her steps didn’t turn out to be as difficult as Powder expected, fog or no fog. She was back at the trashcan that she almost ran into in no time and realised that this is exactly where she went wrong. Powder also realised that from here it would be only a short while before crossing into the centre-district of the Lanes, where she should be safe since even at this hour the main hub of the Lanes should still be full of people.
Her growing hopes came crashing down as she recognized the sound of someone running from the direction where she came from. Shit! How did the Enforcers follow me through the fog? Powder’s mind was beginning to teeter to the edge once again as she took off in a wild panic.
“I hear her, the brat’s somewhere up ahead, we almost have her.” Powder could now make out the voices of her pursuers which only made her more afraid. What were the Enforcers going to do to her if she got caught? They talked about getting rid of Vi and her, so Powder wasn’t sure she wanted to know what they had planned.
She heard the Enforcers coming closer while she fled further down the foggy street. Just a couple more streets and she should start seeing the first people, but the way her legs started to burn her hopes of reaching her destination diminished step by step.
She messed up, if she hadn’t gotten lost then the Enforcers would never have caught up to her and she would be at the bar to tell Vander that Vi was I danger. Instead, she was still running when she once again began to hear the raspy chant from the shadows.
JinxJinxJinxJinxJinxJinxJinxJinx
“There she is! Stop running you little shit!” Powder jerked her head around as she heard the voice of the policeman. She was so distracted by the voices making a comeback and her own exhaustion and desperation that she didn’t even notice how fast the Enforcers caught up to her.
Now she saw her two pursuers running at her from the fog. Before she really had the time to process what was happening one of them already tackled the young girl and her world tipped over sideways.
She hit the ground hard, and she would’ve cried out in pain if the impact didn’t drive the breath out of her lungs. She primarily fell on her left side, which was throbbing dully with the pain of the fall, but she was fine otherwise. She wanted to get back up but before she could even try a pair of gloved hands clasped down on her arm and back and painfully pressed her against the street.
Finally, her mind caught up to the situation and the fear that overcame her send icy waves down her body, making her tremble even more while she was still being held on the cold ground. They caught her, she failed. She didn’t reach Vander or Silco or anybody else. Powder was alone and no help was coming.
Powder felt a third hand at the back of her neck as the second Enforcer roughly pulled her up from the ground while the other released his grip.
“You gave us quite the chase, kid. Almost thought we wouldn’t find you but here you are!” The Enforcer tightened his grip around her neck and painfully jerked her up until she stood on her feet. The pain made her want to cry again but she refused to give this Piltie-Pig the satisfaction of letting him know how afraid she was.
She heard some clicking noise from behind her and before she could protest her hands were roughly clasped into a pair of handcuffs behind her back, and that the handcuffs were painfully digging into her thin wrists did nothing to help her calm the rising panic that was building inside her.
“Okay, we finally got the little cockroach. So, what now?” The one who just handcuffed her asked. “What do you mean what know?” answered the other one who was still holding Powder up by her neck. “I mean, do we deal with her now or take her back first? I personally don’t really care, just wanted to know what you thought about it, that’s all.”
Powder felt the acrid taste of bile rising in her throat as she listened as this Piltie spoke about her death like it was nothing but a mild inconvenience. Powder thought she never hated someone more in her life than she hated this man right now.
“Well Rass, I say unless you want to carry her, I’d say we let her breath for now. I mean it’s only fair to let her use her legs while she still can, don’t you think?” The Enforcer finally let go of her neck, letting her stand on her own wobbling legs and looked Powder in the eyes for the first time they met. To her surprise this monster who was tormenting her had a face as ordinary and bland as it got.
He seemed to be in his mid-thirties, had a full head of brown curly hair and a short but scruffy looking beard. Nothing about his face was remarkable except for his light brown eyes which drew Powder’s attention. They seemed almost as lifeless and dull as the eyes of the girl he and his friends killed. It also reminded her of how the dead people on the bridge looked, how her mother had stared into nothing even though her eyes were wide open.
This was the first time she had seen eyes like these on a living person, but she supposed you had to be dead inside to become an Enforcer. Powder saw his lips move as he looked at her, but she couldn’t hear anything. The whispers grew louder all around her, while the Enforcer’s unremarkable face deformed itself into the grimace of a grinning monster with scratched out eyes.
She was brought back to reality when her head flung to her side, a burning sting spreading across her left cheek and she would have fallen to the ground if the Topsider behind her hadn’t grabbed her shoulders to steady her.
She rolled her head back to look at the Enforcer who just slapped her in the face. “Don’t you dare ignore me! I’ll give you one more chance or we’ll end this right here and now. We will go back to my colleagues, and you won’t try to escape or fight or cry for help or any of that pathetic shit! You will walk silently in front of us, and do as we say, understood?” He asked her impatiently, and judging by his look Powder thought that maybe saying anything but “Yes sir” would earn her nothing but even more pain.
It was all too much. Her cheek stung and every breath she took hurt on account of how hard they threw her to the ground. She tried to be brave but whatever courage she did have before had abandoned her now. Once again, hot tears began to cloud her vision.
“P-please, please. J-just let me and my s-sister go. We won’t make problems I swear it.” Her voice came out as a squeaky half sob. Janna, do I always sound this pathetic? No wonder Mylo always tells me to shut up.
“I thought was clear about what was going to happen. Now will you cooperate, or do you need further encouragement?” He slowly pulled out his baton from his belt and raised it as if he was preparing to strike her, so she quickly shook her head.
“I’ll behave”, she managed to choke out between silent sobs that were making her entire body shake as if she were close to freezing to death. “Good, and stop crying, it’s annoying.” The Enforcer called Rass pushed her forward and so they went back into the fog.
The first thing Vi noticed was a true monster of a headache that was currently pounding inside her skull, threatening to explode her head into a million pieces, or at least that’s how it felt to Vi.
The next thing she was aware of was that she was lying down on some kind of cold and wet ground. Wouldn’t be the first time she woke up like this, she was strong, but she sometimes had trouble knowing which fights to pick and which to avoid, which according to Vander is exactly how she ended up in situations like these.
So she lost a fight, but to whom? Maybe Sevika? She didn’t remember pissing anybody off recently, at least not bad enough that would warrant what Vi assumed had to be a whole lot of blunt force trauma to her head.
She tried to open her eyes but her lids felt too heavy so she decided that it was probably not worth it and that maybe if she went back to sleep the world that she would wake up in might be a kinder place. That was until she felt the metal handcuffs that were holding her hands behind her back while she was lying on her side.
As her brain went into crisis mode, she forced her eyes to open only to be met with the blurry picture of what seemed to be a dark backstreet. How did she end up here? The last thing she remembered was that she went with Powder to make a delivery to Benzo, but they were already late and then something must have happened that led to a fight which Vi obviously lost.
She pointlessly tried to wrestle herself out of her handcuffs but all she managed to do was to hurt her already throbbing forearms. Instead, she did her best to manoeuvre her body into an upright position from where she could look for her sister.
Before she could succeed in her little exercise a familiar, distorted voice caught her attention, making her stop. “Look who’s still alive! Quite the thick head you got there. Most teens wouldn’t have woken up for another day after a blow like this.”
The speaker’s footsteps approached her from behind her turned back. Vi still wasn’t sure where she heard that voice before but when she rolled onto her back to look at what seemed to be her captor her eyes fell onto the polished, brass-coloured lenses of an Enforcer’s gas mask.
Seeing this, the previous events came back all at once; she remembered the dead girl. She remembered that the Enforcers talked about getting rid of the witnesses and that she managed to buy Powder time to escape before she got knocked out.
She mumbled a quick prayer to Janna to let her sister already be back home to inform Vander about what was happening. Vi wasn’t particularly religious but being tied up like that she didn’t have a whole lot of options.
She turned her head to search for the rest of the Topsider goons and found them standing only a couple meters behind the one who greeted her, however the non-human with the bluish skin was coming over to them. When he looked down at Vi it looked like he was going to speak but Vi interrupted him before he got the chance.
“This won’t end like you think this will end,” she said through gritted teeth. “You Topsiders can’t pull shit like this anymore and get away with it, or do you want the Hound of the Underground to come after you?” Vi felt kind of pathetic as she had to resort to her father’s name, but she could swallow her pride for a while given the situation. The two Enforcers seemed to be nothing but amused at what she said, and the non-human began to speak in his high-pitched voice once more.
“I fear that we already gave this glorified thug more than enough reasons to hate us. Our problem now isn’t how to appease him but to make sure he and no one else learns of this in the first place.” He shook his head while speaking as if he was saddened about what he just said, he seemed almost sorry for it, as if this was simply something that had to be done even as unpleasant as it was.
Vi’s heart started to pound in her ears. She would die if no help came. She could try to roll to her feet and run but she probably won’t even make it off the ground. She would be killed by Enforcer like so many other people in the Undercity, just like her mom and dad.
“But don’t worry,” the Enforcer continued with his monologue. “When you were out, we decided that enough blood has been spilled today. We came up with a, well let’s say more humane solution.” He ended his speech with another one of his yellow grins but just as before it did not fill Vi with confidence in this guy’s honesty. She was about to ask what humane meant in his book when another voice came from the fog.
“Lev? Satin? Is it you?” Vi saw shadowy figures approaching through the fog in the same direction the voice came from. “Yan, Rass, you’re back, what the hell took you so long?” The masked Enforcer snapped at the newcomers, who quickly became more recognizable the closer they got, and to Vi’s horror, Powder was with them.
The Enforcer was holding her at her shoulders to make sure that she won’t try something, even though her hand were behind her back like Vi’s own.
“Powder! Are you alright? Did they hurt you?” When Powder didn’t answer Vi scanned her sister’s body for any injuries, but Powder seemed to be fine other than that she has clearly been crying and that she was avoiding Vi’s gaze. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “It’s my fault, I was too slow,” Vi could make out new wet streaks on her sisters face as she was holding her head down.
“Enough with sweet family reunions, if you are family that is, I don’t care either way,” the red eyed Enforcer named Lev turned his attention to the older sister and gave her a threatening stare before looking back at his Enforcer buddies who caught Powder.
“While you were away, we decided what our plan’s gonna look like. First, we’ll get the girl down to the bottom of the Pilt. After that, we go to the south-harbour where I’ll have a contact of mine arrange a solution for our two new friends here. You see we decided that none of us really want to see another dead body tonight. Now you’re probably interested in how we’re going to make sure that they won’t talk but I promise you that won’t be a problem. There won’t be people who’re willing to listen to them where they are going. Nobody will ever see them again.”
Vi wanted to shout at him that he should shut his fucking mouth and that they won’t be going anywhere but her anger quickly faded as she looked back at Powder who was still firmly in the hands of those murderers. Until that changed, she had to behave, no matter how much she dreaded what they had in store for them. Nothing could be worse seeing her baby sister being hurt.
A brown-haired Enforcer with a bland face, but weirdly piercing eyes cocked his head as he heard Lev speak. “What kind of place did you come up with?”
Once again, Lev's yellow teeth showed themselves as he parted his lips for his signature grin. “Stillwater of course! Where else would criminals like these belong?”
Notes:
So I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. When you have any feedback, noticed spelling/grammar mistakes or want to be my beta reader you know what to do.
Next time we'll see what the rest of the family is up to while waiting for the two girls to come back.
Chapter 2: Late-night-errands
Summary:
Vander and the rest of the family are at the Last Drop, waiting for Vi and Powder to come home. They don't know yet that they are in the hands of Enforcers with less then good intentions.
Notes:
So, this took longer to get out then I thought it would. I really wanted to include some exposition about some of the characters pasts but I feel like I kinda ended up info dumping a lot but I hope it's readable.
Also I feel like I didn't properly explain just wtf this is going to be. Like you can read in the tags, this is going to be a fusion-crossover situation. Basically the story will include places, people, events and magic from the works I tagged however that doesn't mean that I just adapt these things one-to-one. At first Vi will be pretty much the only character that interacts with this side of the story, or at least until I got to the point where I increase the scope of the story but that's still a good while in the future. Like I said, knowledge of these other stories is not required since I'm going to make this into my own thing anyway. Like I tagged, Vi is pretty much this story's protagonist but all the other characters from Arcane will have their own time to shine.
If you read the first chapter when I released it you might have noticed that I changed the title of this story. Originally it was called "Worlds apart", which is a fitting name but also pretty generic. Now the story is named after the giga-chad meme song (which is unironically an absolute banger) and I will probably continue to name chapters after songs I like because coming up with names is fucking hard.
And I should've probably gave out a content warning, since y'know there was like a dead kid at the start of the story. So the tags make it seem pretty dark but I promise, this isn't just misery porn and I do have a plan for an actual plot. That said, things are going to be pretty miserable for a while.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Vander opened the door of his bar and was immediately met with the sight of a dense, white fog wall that let him see barely more than five meters in front of him. He saw blurry shapes moving through the night, but it was impossible to tell how many people were out and about on a night like this. The noise coming from the fog however suggested that the neighbourhood was nearly as active as usual, Vander supposed that fissure folk just weren’t the kind of people that would miss out on a night of business just because of a little fog that didn’t even seem to be toxic.
Turning his gaze back to the interior of The Last Drop he saw as the last of the customers paid up their tabs, handing their hard-earned cogs to his son, Claggor, who quickly ushered them past Vander out the door. He gave them a half-hearted goodbye as he saw the regulars dive into the foggy night, but it came out more as a grunt. On a better night The Last Drop would’ve stayed open for three more hours at least but the people of the Undercity didn’t seem to have much taste for a drink on a night like this. The bartender closed the door behind him and made his way back towards the counter.
“Shouldn’t they be back by now?” asked Claggor, as he was counting tonight’s meagre revenue. “I mean Vi and I usually make the trip there and back in an hour at most and it’s been three hours now.” Vander nodded his head at that. Claggor was right and although Vander told himself that it was probably fine, he still couldn’t help but begin to worry.
“I’m glad that you care about your sisters but they’re probably just waiting out the fog at Benzo’s. Or maybe they went to the arcade,” hearing himself speak Vander realised just how unconvincing this sounded.
Here in the Underground, it wasn’t unusual for kids to be unsupervised for nearly the entire day, if they have parents to look after them at all that is, so it was mot out of the ordinary that he didn’t know exactly where his kids were. He knew that his kids could handle themselves, but Vander had to admit that it wasn’t like his daughters to go on side-quests in the middle of the night.
“Yeah, it’s probably alright.” Claggor scooped up the coins and let them fall into the big leather purse which Vander would later lock in the safe in his office upstairs.
“However, that doesn’t mean that I’m fine with them just disappearing off into the night and if they know what’s good for them, they’ll be here soon and they better have a good excuse ready,” Claggor let out a weak chuckle as he listened to his old man speak and began reaching for a well-used dishcloth and started cleaning the nearest beer mug.
Instead of simply watching, Vander joined his son in cleaning up the place and began to walk around the bar to collect all the mugs, glasses and bottles that were left standing where the customers left them. Over the next hour the bar came close to a state of cleanliness that Vander would almost call presentable.
At one point Mylo came from the basement where he was previously taking a nap, it was his day off after all. He too noticed that Vi and Powder have been gone for much longer than was normal but in stark contrast to his brother he did not seem to be worried in the least, and so he went back downstairs and back to his bed or more likely one of the couches.
A while after Mylo went away Vander turned towards Claggor. “Why don’t you join your brother downstairs? I can finish up the rest by myself.” In response Claggor gave Vander a frown. “How are you not worried about Vi and Powder? What if something happened?” Claggor’s voice began to rise as his frustration grew. “I mean shouldn’t we at least go over to Benzo’s and see if they’re still there? Just to be safe?”
“I agree and that’s exactly what I’m going to do once I’m done here, you however need rest,” Vander said with a stern voice that made it clear that he would hear no arguments about this.
“You’ll go? Alright but you sure I can’t- “, “Claggor!” Vander cut him off before he could finish. “It’s already well past your bedtime and I think I can handle myself just fine.” Claggor let out an indignant huff at the notion that he still had such a thing as a bedtime even though he was almost an adult now but, in the end, he went down the steps to the basement leaving Vander alone in the common room of his humble establishment.
It took Vander another fifteen minutes until he was satisfied with the state of the room and during each minute, he hoped that the door would open, and his girls would be back. Instead, the door at the head of the stairs opened and Vander’s closest friend stepped through it.
As Silco went down the steps he noticed that the bar was empty except for Vander. “Closed already?” He asked as he reached the floor. “Not every night can be as busy as yesterday y’know,” answered Vander. “True, but even if the bar lost money today I doubt that it’ll even put a dent into the Drop’s overall revenue.” Vander supposed that Silco was probably right about that, after all he did spend the last few hours locked in the office, reviewing the bars finances, which was his part of the business after all. Vander simply didn’t have the same head for numbers and money like his friend did.
Vander still couldn’t believe that Silco and him were standing in the same room without trying to murder each other. It was pure coincidence that let them to their reconciliation, one day Silco decided to visit his and Vander’s old hideout where they used to plan a revolution, before Silco’s reckless need for revenge on Topside orphaned countless of children.
That day Vander almost killed the man he called a brother, but in the end Silco escaped to lick his wounds, leaving the former Hound of the Underground to pick up the pieces, and that he did.
As it turned out Vander wasn’t the only one who was horrified at the violence that night. Among the Topsiders was an ambitious captain who took a squad of Enforcers to the bridge against her superior’s orders. Instead of joining the massacre, she spent the rest of the night dragging wounded Enforcers and civilians alike from the bridge. Nowadays Grayson wasn’t exactly a simple captain anymore, but she was still the same woman who tried to do the right thing on a night were even Vander himself didn’t know what that was anymore.
With Grayson as the Sheriff, she and Vander achieved a fragile peace that grew steadier as time went on. One of their accomplishments was that Enforcers could now be held accountable for their actions.
At first nobody among the police-force took this seriously until a captain and two officers were sentenced to ten years in Stillwater for extorting a Zaunite shop owner, something that was common practice under the previous Sheriff. Things are far from being perfect but for the first time that Vander could remember the Lanes had a friend in Piltover.
When Silco found the letter Vander left him, he made the difficult decision to try to forgive. Two years ago, Vander found Silco sitting at the bar in the middle of the night as if him breaking into his home was nothing out of the ordinary. Vander thought he was there to kill him, to get revenge for what Vander had done to him but all he wanted was to talk.
The next day Vander handed Silco the document that made him the official owner of precisely half of The Last Drop. The three of them, Silco, Grayson and Vander himself have made new strides for equality, the goal being a complete reform of the government in a way that wouldn’t ignore and perpetuate the Undercity’s suffering.
Silco’s next big step was the founding of Zaun’s very first political party, and although Vander didn’t have a clue what good a political party did if you didn’t have a parliament, Silco assured him that once they mobilized the people of the Lanes it won’t take long for their voices to be heard.
Either that and if the Council wouldn’t relent then Silco was always good to start a riot or two. Not that it would be the same as when Felicia and Connell died. Silco learned his lesson when it came to starting uncontrollable violence. This time it would be peaceful, at least that was the condition both men agreed to when they made amends.
“Hey bozo number two! You still there?” Hearing Silco’s voice Vander realised that he must have spaced out, he did that sometimes when he thought about the past. “Don’t worry about me. Are you going home soon or is it going to be the couch in the office again?”
Silco had his own apartment in upper Entresol but over the last two years he developed the habit of working deep into the night only to fall asleep on the coach. Vander didn’t understand why he hasn’t just moved back into the Lanes if he spent most of his time here anyway, but he guessed that it might have something to do with Silco needing a space away from Vander.
In particular, Vander remembered one instance when he woke Silco up after he must have dosed off while still sitting at the table. It resulted in a panicking Silco almost stabbing Vander in the throat and practically running out of the front door. Silco had stayed away from Vander for the next week. Vander had tried to talk with him about this once, but Silco had made it clear in no uncertain terms that if he ever wanted to talk about this then he would be the one to breach the topic.
“I think I’m going to get comfortable on the couch tonight. By the way, what did you get for this week’s haul? Did Benzo rip-off Vi? Is that why you’re in a mood tonight?” Ever the perceptive one Silco of course noticed that Vander was worried about something. “That’s exactly the thing, they’re not back yet. I’m going over to Benzo’s now and see if they’re there.”
Vander noticed an expression of worry slide over Silco’s face which was quickly hidden behind his cool and calculating gaze. Even though they have been friends again for two years, Silco still rarely showed weakness in front of him, or in front of anyone for that matter, Powder being a rare exception. Vander knew that Silco would have trouble admitting it, but he did grow fond of the kids over the years.
At first his kids had to get used to Silco’s constant presence, especially Vi did not trust him at first, his youngest however adored him. Powder and Silco shared a connection that went deeper than what Vander could say about his and Powder relationship.
He loved her of course but sometimes it was difficult to guess what was going on inside her head. Silco on the other hand didn’t seem to have trouble with this at all. He always knew what to do when Powder pushed everyone away and did nothing but stare into empty spaces.
Seeing how well they got along Vi had no choice but to accept that Silco would now be a part of the family, but she quickly came around on him too when Silco told her about his, Vanders and her parents exploits from the past. About how they cheated the Pilties every chance they got and how they made plans to overthrow the Council and establish a new government run by the workers of Zaun.
“I’m coming with you, three eyes see more than two, eh?” Vander smiled at that and replied, “I doubt our eyes will be doing us much good tonight. I have not seen a fog like this in years, but it least we don’t need masks, it’s harmless.”
Just like Claggor said, the trip over to Benzo’s shop took them less than 30 minutes. Both Vander and Silco knew these streets better than they knew their own faces, a little fog wouldn’t get them lost.
They did not run into Vi and Powder but standing in front of the door with the colourful stained-glass window in its middle that lead to his friends shop, he dared to hope that the situation would be over as soon as he knocked. So, he did and shortly after he heard quick footstep from inside the shop.
The door opened and a head with short-cropped white hair poked out. “Vander, Silco, are you here to see Benzo?” The boy yawned as he opened the door further to reveal the shops interior. “He’ll be down soon, but I’ll have to warn you he’s in a really bad mood because of the haul y’know.”
Vander took a step forward inside the shop as heard that. “No, I do not know? What are you talking about Ekko?” The boy opened his mouth again to speak but the door that lead to the back of the shop opened and a dishevelled and tiered looking Benzo came into the room.
“Vander!” he barked, the tone of his voice dripping with frustration. “You better have a good explanation for this! I had to write at least 40 letters, telling my customers that there won’t be anything for them this week. Didn’t you think that maybe I have better things to do than waiting for a delivery that isn’t coming?”
At first Vander didn’t understand what he was hearing but when the realisation hit, it hit like a sledgehammer. “They never made the delivery?” he whispered to himself.
“What was that? Listen Vander, I understand that maybe you didn’t get enough stuff across the river this week, I’d just like to know when there’s not going to be-“, “Benzo listen, we did have enough wares this week, I send Vi and Powder to make the delivery hours ago and they haven’t been back yet. And now you’re telling me they never showed up here?”
Benzo gawked at that, Ekko on the other hand understood the implications as his eyes darted between the two men. “That’s it! I’m going to wake up some buddies of mine and we’ll start looking for them,” Silco stepped up from behind Vander who was glad that his friend took the initiative.
They spent the next two hours retracing their steps to The Last Drop, trying to figure out the point of divergence where Vi and Powder must have gotten sidetracked. True to his promise, Silco managed to enlist Sevika and four others to help with the search. Forming teams of two, they managed to clear pretty much every backstreet between Benzo’s shop and the bar but there was no sign of where Vander’s daughters might be.
An hour after they set off, the fog dispersed just as quickly as it came, sending Vander a false sense of hope that perhaps now they would finally find something. They went to the arcade and when they found no one there they went to the junkyard where Powder and Ekko sometimes hang out to play and salvage parts only to be met by the same result.
They were back at the Last Drop now. Silco knew that Vander wouldn’t stop looking until he either found his kids or fell over from exhaustion, so he decided that they would stop for tonight and start again fresh in the morning when there’s more light.
Vander didn’t want to give up just yet, but he knew that Silco was right, but that didn’t mean that he had to like it. Vander was sitting at the bar; his hands were mindlessly fidgeting with his pipe when he heard the backdoor open.
Vanders head snapped up but the instead of his girls, it was Sevika who stepped into the room. When they returned to the Last Drop, Silco’s friends (or rather people who owed him favours) went home, all but Sevika.
“Find anything?” Even though he could guess the answer he still had to ask. Sevika gave Vander a defeated look and dropped next to. “There’s still no trace of them, but I found this lying around in a ditch a good while away from the shop.”
She put a shiny object on the counter. It took Vander a second, but he eventually identified the object to be a high quality Valdiani. He knew that because he held the very same Topside toy in his own hands this morning, when he prepared this week’s haul for Benzo. He was quite shocked when he learned how much these things cost on the black market and he questioned the sanity of whoever would be willing to pay such a price for an utterly useless item.
“Was there anything else?” asked Vander as he took the contraption from the countertop. Sevika took a cigarette out of seemingly nowhere, put it between her lips and lit it with a lighter that has definitely seen better day. She puffed out the smoke and shook her head slowly. “You think they got robbed? But then why wouldn’t they just come back to you?” Vander had already thought about the same questions, but he didn’t have a clue either.
The thing about Sevika was that she tried everything to make it seem that there was nothing more to her than what met the eye, but Vander knew that she wasn’t just a mindless thug. He still remembered how he met her the first time. Sevika’s dad was a gangster, and her mom was a prostitute, both died before she was 18. Back then Silco and Vander were frequent guests at Felicia’s and Connell’s small home, to plan strikes and protests or to simply drink, share stories and speak of their dreams for the revolution.
One of these days when Vander stepped into the small house, he found a 17-year-old Sevika still sleeping on the couch. Apparently, her father had gathered quite the amount of debt and now that he was dead the loan sharks send their goons after his daughter. On her way home from the mines, Felicia ran into the younger girl and, impulsive as she was, decided to let her crash at her family’s home until she could find a way to appease the loan sharks.
Sevika never really spoke much about this part of her life, but Vander knew that she was deeply thankful to Felicia and Connell, and that she regretted that she didn’t show it to them more before they died. Or at least that’s what she told Vander shortly after the massacre at the bridge, when they both were so drunk they started to speak about their feelings.
Vi was just five years old when Sevika temporarily moved in, and she immediately adopted Sevika as her big sister. And while Sevika always told the younger girl to stop annoying her, she did eventually grow on her. The tone of Sevika’s voice as she asked about what might have happened to the girls betrayed how much she still cared about the pink haired girl, even if most interactions between them these days were them fighting.
The sun would come up in just another couple of hours and with each moment Vanders anxiety grew. Mylo and Claggor missed the entire search, both of them were still fast asleep last time Vander checked on them but tomorrow they would want to help with looking for their sisters, although Vander still hoped that they would return before then. Until then, Vander still had something to do, something he probably should’ve done hours ago.
Having moved on from the common room to his office, Vander now sat behind the heavy desk. In front of him lay a piece of paper that he carefully rolled into a cylinder and then put into a blue and gold pneumatic tube. One way or another, tomorrow he would get his answers.
“Move, or I’ll make you move!” the Enforcer who the others called Satin earlier snapped at Vi and roughly shoved his baton into her back. Vi had no idea how almost making her fall would help her go any faster but she already learned what happened when she talked back so she kept her mouth shut. The fact that the sisters were even still alive was a miracle, Vi didn’t think they would have any more luck than that tonight.
She already made three escape attempts, or rather she tried to distract the Piltie-Pigs long enough for Powder to slip away. As it turned out, fighting Enforcers was a whole lot harder when you had both of your arms cuffed behind your back. So, each escape attempt ended in failure. After the third time the Enforcers threatened that if she pulled something like that again, they would break her sister’s legs. Vi had behaved since then.
They continued to walk along the ruins of some old factory that stood abandoned at the edges of Zaun’s old south harbour. Her pounding headache has since dulled but her forearms were happy to compensate. She didn’t think that she broke something but she was sure that there were nasty bruises forming there right now, but in the end she and Powder had been the lucky ones, at least they were still breathing.
A while back, the Enforcers took care of the poor kid’s body. They bound some heavy looking iron chains around the girl’s limb legs and rolled her up in a black plastic sheet, which was previously used to hold any potential rain of some wooden crates. Finally, they sat her down at the edge of the wooden walkway, before giving her a final kick that pushed the body over the edge.
Vi closed her eyes when she heard the body break the water’s surface. She tried to think of a prayer to Janna or maybe something from that Noxien religion that has been getting more popular in the Lanes in recent times, but she couldn’t think of anything. If she and the dead girl were in reversed roles, Vi thought she would’ve liked it if someone had a prayer for her. Not that she believed in all that delusional crap, she just thought that if someone could use a prayer then it was the nameless girl who was still sinking to the bottom of the river.
They continued on their way through the night. Occasionally Vi tried to get a look at Powder to see how her little sister was doing, but every time she twisted her neck to look behind her, she only got told to watch where she was going by the Enforcer holding onto her handcuffs from behind. Instead of worrying about her sister when she can’t help her anyway right now, Vi began to make a plan to help them down the line.
As much as Vi hated it, one way or another they were going to Stillwater Hold tonight and there was nothing Vi could do about that. She tried to ignore it, but the truth was that she was scared. She heard nothing good about Piltover’s most notorious prison, Vander always told her to never piss off the Pilties so bad that they would throw her in there, which is exactly what was happening.
So, they were going to Stillwater, but what then? They should probably try to lay low, Vi didn’t intend to immediately get on someone’s bad side to get shived to death in the showers. So, they’d keep their heads down for a while and look out for someone they knew from the Lanes, maybe someone who knew Vander or Benzo. Then they could try to get a message out to someone. If Vander learned that they are in Stillwater he would rip this place apart brick by brick if that’s what it took, at least that’s what Vi hoped.
Another sharp pain in her arms brought her back into the present. “Stop walking, we’re here,” muttered the Enforcer behind her, who had brought her to a painful stop when he almost broke Vi’s wrists when he pulled at her handcuffs.
While Vi had been lost in thought they had reached the southern military harbour. It looked completely abandoned to Vi but there was a single boat tethered to the concrete dock. Beside it was a small hut with a single bright window and a single door.
They continued to walk towards it until they stood in front of the door. The grey skinned Enforcer took a step forward and raised his fist and knocked.
“Filch you little weasel, we know you’re home so open up!” The Enforcer with the gas mask called out to the door. They could hear a noise come out from the other side of the door, after that there was a click, and the door opened.
Instead of being met with a friendly greeting, the group of Enforcers was now staring down the barrel of some kind of sawed-off gun. “Who the hell is knocking at doors at such an ungodly hour?” Hearing the voice call out, Vi got over the initial shock of having a gun pointed at her to look at the person that was threatening them.
Holding the gun was an old frail looking man. His face seemed to be completely made out of wrinkles, and he had his grey hear bound in a greasy looking braid. “Lev? Is that you? The fuck are you doing here?” Thankfully the old man lowered the weapon when he recognized the grey skinned Enforcer who quickly stepped in front of the group.
“We got work for you tonight,” he proclaimed in his high-pitched voice and gestured at his colleagues to bring their two prisoners to the front. “These two Trenchers have earned themselves a one-way ticket across the water.”
Filch frowned at Vi and Powder, seemingly not happy with having to deal with this. “Why didn’t you just throw them in the brig? I’m sure this can wait until tomorrow.” Lev shook his head at that. “I’m afraid it’s urgent and I’d appreciate it if we could skip the usual incarceration procedure. There’s really no need for any of that paperwork.”
Lev lowered the bag he had been carrying to the ground, the same bag that the Topsiders stole from Vi, and started pulling out some of the wares. “I’m sure you could sell some of this for quite the price, wouldn’t you agree?” Vi could see the greed shining in the old man’s eyes that he had fixed on the loot.
After a short argument the Enforcers and the old man agreed on what items to trade and Filch began to ready the small boat with which they would be sailing over the bay. Vi could see the relieve in the eyes of the Enforcers when they dragged the sisters onto the small vessel, they were clearly eager to finally be rid of them.
And so it was, that Vi and Powder found themselves on a boat in the middle of Piltover’s south harbour at night to be wrongfully imprisoned.
The old man named Filch was the only other person on the boat, however the sisters were handcuffed to some sort of metal pipe at the front of the boat while Filch mostly stayed at the opposite end, so attacking him to take control of the boat was sadly not an option.
Vi glanced over at Powder. The younger girl has been mostly silent ever since she got caught, even now she still held her eyes fixed on the floor and didn’t say a word. “Pow, are you alright?”
The older sister didn’t get a reaction, but she supposed that the question wasn’t worth answering in the first place. Of course she wasn’t alright, nothing that happened in the last hour or so was alright.
Vi wanted so badly to comfort her sister, to give her a hug and tell her that all this was just a bad dream. Instead, Vi leaned down until she was close to level with Powders height. “I know this is scary, and I’m scared too but we will get through this.” Vi desperately searched for the right words but she ended up rambling anyway.
“Just stay with me, if we stay together, we should be fine. Once we’re inside we’re going to look for someone who knows Vander and we’ll get a message out to him.” The more Vi thought about it the more confident she grew. She didn’t personally know anyone who was in Stillwater but there had to be a way to contact Vander. If there wasn’t, well Vi would deal with that when it came to that.
Listening to Vi speak, Powder finally looked up. Vi could still see the trails of dry tears on her sister’s face, that and her left cheek seemed to be a little red but otherwise she seemed to be fine.
“I’m sorry.” Vi should feel relieved to finally hear her sisters voice again but Powder’s meek apology did nothing to alleviate Vi’s mood. She knew that the ten-year-old had issues with her confidence, in particular Vi knew that Powder was all too ready to take the blame for something.
Sure, she would be upset when Mylo called her a jinx and deny all and any accusations that were flung at her, but Vi knew that this nickname stuck in her sister’s mind more than she’d like to admit.
Vi always tried to include Powder for this very reason, to show Mylo and Powder herself that she wasn’t a jinx but, in the end, all Vi managed to accomplish was to drag her sister down with her.
“Powder, listen to me! None of this is your fault. I shouldn’t have taken my time back then. If I was faster, we wouldn’t have run into the Enforcers in the first place.” Vi tried her best to get Powder to shift the blame on her but her sister didn’t seem convinced. “If I didn’t get caught, I could’ve gotten help. But I jinxed it like I always do.” The last sentence came out as a half sob, as Powder turned her head back down.
Vi was at a loss for words. Powder was right, if she had gotten away, then they would be back at The Last Drop now. She obviously didn’t blame Powder for getting caught but she didn’t know what to say to make Powder feel better about herself.
“You didn’t jinx anything; I took you with me tonight because you’re ready. How about you think about this as a final test? Once we’re out not even Mylo can talk shit to you. I mean going to prison at ten, that’s a badass kid if I ever heard about one. I bet Ekko will tell everybody that tries to rip-off Benzo that if they don’t pay the fair price he’ll get his ex-con friend to beat them up.” Vi heard Powder let out a half-hearted chuckle at that, but it was probably more for Vi’s sake than real laughter.
Vi knew that it wouldn’t be like that. She still hoped that their stay will be a short one but very much doubted that this would be an adventure. The best she hoped for was that they wouldn’t get into any fights which could be difficult if Vi didn’t control her temperament.
Falling back into an uncomfortable silence, Vi watched the reflection of the night sky in the water. The south side harbour was one of the only places where even a citizen of the Undercity could enjoy an unobstructed view of the sky, but said sky was overcast with black and grey clouds tonight.
Vi was pulled from her thoughts when she saw a black mountain rise from the sea, or at least she assumed that this was what a mountain looked like. It seemed to grow by the second and the closer they got the more Vi could hear the unmistakable sound of waves crashing into a solid stone formation. They had arrived at Stillwater Hold.
Notes:
Ok so that was that. The sisters are finally going to prison and meanwhile Vander does not suspect a thing about their location, although that might change when he sends out word to Grayson. And I hope you people liked the stuff about Silco's, Grayson's and Sevika's pasts. I hope y'all aren't too bothered by the lack of dialogue in the last two chapters, I promise there will be more now that the story actually off the starting point.
Next time, the disappearance of the sisters is starting to make waves, both in the underground and in Piltover.
Chapter 3: Realisation
Summary:
Vander and Grayson talk and come to a conclusion.
Notes:
Has it really been an entire month since I uploaded chapter 2? Yes, yes it has and I have no excuse. Well I do have exams for my university (just one more now) but ngl it's not like I study a lot. To tell you the truth, this chapter has been 70% finished for the last three weeks and for some reason I had some problems with the last 2K words or so. Writing Vander and Silco really isn't easy and I don't think I've done these complex characters justice but whatever, it is what it is.
Also you might be disappointed with the absence of Vi and Powder. I did say that we would see them in Stillwater this chapter (already changed it in the notes) but with how long this chapter already is I would prefer to push it to chapter 4. I know the chapters haven't been that long but I'm aiming for a steady 5-6K words per chapter. I will try to make the long wait up to you but I can't promise anything. What I can promise is that if I should ever abandon this story I will definitely tell you guys. So even if the chapters take some time, as long as I didn't say anything there should be always another update at some point.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Grayson was the first to enter the precinct on this day, or rather the first person who’d be working here during the day. When she came into the building, she was greeted by the sleepy faces of the officers to whom she had assigned the nightshift. They gave her a quick but ultimately unnecessary status report as last night was pretty quiet. Sure, there was never a truly quite night in a metropolis like Piltover but the only thing apart from the usual bar fights was that apparently a patrol squad had returned an hour late, nothing the Sheriff personally had to concern herself with. She dismissed the officers and finally she was alone in the building.
She stepped inside the small breakroom and was satisfied to see that unlike yesterday, this nightshift actually managed to tidy the place up and even clean the coffee pot that was sitting on the stove. Grayson spent the next ten minutes like she did every day when she was the first in the precinct, by brewing the first pot of coffee while mentally preparing herself for what she suspected would be yet another stressful workday.
She had been thinking about retirement often these last weeks, but she knew she still had some good years left in her. Besides, there was no telling if the things she achieved would survive her retirement. No, first she needed a fitting replacement candidate, someone who wouldn’t tear everything down that Grayson has worked so hard for. Initially she had high hopes for Marcus, he was one of the officers that were with her at the day of the bridge massacre after all, proving beyond a doubt that he was dedicated to serve the citizens of both cities.
However, as it turned out Marcus simply wasn’t the right man for the job. He was an excellent second-in-command, but she knew that he would’ve never taken the initiative when it came to the reconciliation between the sister-cities. Not even because he was one of those who wished for the old days, when Enforcers were just as feared as the Chem-Barons, no Marcus knew that something had to be done, he simply lacked the imagination.
There was not a shadow of doubts in Grayson’s mind that if Marcus were to deal with Silco and Vander, they’d have him promise Zaun’s independence within a day. Not that Grayson had anything against the concept, but she knew that Marcus would get himself mercilessly ripped off if he was to be the one at the negotiations. No, he was not the right man, but who?
The truth was that among the police force, Grayson was one of the most unpopular Sheriffs is recent memory. She did have people who were loyal to her like Marcus, but none she would trust with the authority that came with being Piltover’s Sheriff. Most of the force would just love for her to step down, only for her replacement to destroy everything that Grayson had worked for these last five years.
As it turned out, most Enforcers were quite happy with the previous state of affairs, but they knew better than to disobey their boss, especially since said boss had deep ties to what many considered to be Piltover’s most prestigious noble house.
Without the support and friendship of the Kirammans Grayson would have never become Sheriff and things would likely still be the same as they were. It sometimes gnawed at her ego, to think that she reached this position through nepotism but fixing this city was more important than Grayson’s sense of self-righteousness.
Holding the freshly brewed mug of coffee in her hands, Grayson banished thoughts about hers and the Enforcers’ futures from her mind and went to her own office to start the day off with some paperwork that was left over from the day before. As she entered the room the first thing she looked at was the Pneumatic-Tube station that she had installed in her office. Normally the Sheriff would receive their letters through the central post-office of the precinct but considering some of her more unofficial dealings with the Hound and the Eye, she insisted on having a direct connection to the subterranean tube system.
Usually, the slots where the tubes would come to a rest were empty, but today she saw a blue and gold tube waiting for her. Walking over to the machine, she wondered who messaged her last night. Only the Council, Vander and Silco, Marcus and the Kirammans had access to the Sheriff’s personal tube system. She hoped that it was simply that Cassandra invited her to dinner at the Kiramman estate but the fact that this tube arrived at some point in the night suggested that it was something more urgent than that.
She put her mug on her desk and began to extract the piece of paper which was waiting for Grayson inside of the cylinder. She unfolded it and saw that the letter was from Vander. She wondered if this was about the recent increase in Enforcer activity near the Lanes.
For the most part the Lanes were run by Vander and Silco, who thankfully managed to keep violent businesses out of their territory, but other parts of the Undercity were still crawling with drug dealers, illegal weapons and even human trafficking wasn’t unheard of.
As much as Silco pushed for an Enforcer free Undercity, Grayson still had a duty to its citizens, a duty to protect them from Chem-Baron’s and their gangsters. She said as much when she came to Benzo’s shop last week to explain her position on the matter. Silco wasn’t pleased but he conceded when Grayson remined him that there has not been a violent incident involving her men for years.
She wondered if she has misjudged the situation, dreading that she might find that some officer had broken the fragile trust between Grayson and Silco, but instead Vander requested her to check if there were any children arrested last night.
She read further and found that apparently his two adoptive daughters went missing since yesterday evening. The details were sparse, from what Grayson could gather the girls just disappeared somewhere around the centre-district or the market-district. Additionally, Vander wanted her to come to The Last Drop as soon as she checked if his kids were in custody. According to the night shift there had only been three arrests this night, all of them were just drunkards, but Grayson would review the incarceration documents herself.
It seemed that these days one of her main tasks as Sheriff was to keep the Hound of the Underground happy and leashed but considering the alternative, Grayson was all too ready to do as Vander asked. In all honesty Grayson was displeased that she could be summoned to the Lanes like a recruit reporting to their drill-sergeant, but Vander was worried about his kids and Grayson couldn’t fault him for demanding to speak to her in person.
Sipping at her coffee, she began to look through the reports of last night but as expected she didn’t find anything related to the girls. Normally she would’ve opened up a missing persons case at that point, but she would first like to speak to Vander. She guessed that he would appreciate it if they kept this a private matter for now.
Grayson heard multiple footsteps just outside of her office. She glanced at the clock, knowing that in a matter of minutes this place would fill to the brim with officers. Grayson intended to be on her way to the Lanes by then to avoid any uncomfortable question concerning her absence, not that her subordinates would prod but she didn’t need any rumours going around.
She walked out of her office to see that Marcus was already at his desk. He noticed her and stood from his chair. “Morning Sheriff,” Marcus gave her a nod and made to sit down again to continue with his work, but he was halted by Grayson. “Good morning, Marcus. I know you’re probably busy with the investigation regarding this money laundering operation, but I still need you to do something for me.” Grayson suspected that this was probably the last thing Marcus wanted to hear at the start of his workday, but he would manage.
“Of course, Sheriff. What can I do for you?” Marcus asked as he glanced at her with a neutral expression. “I’ll be away from the precinct for a while, just to visit our friends downtown. I need you to fill in for me until I’m back.”
Marcus raised an eyebrow at her answer. As her Deputy, he was of course not only aware of her dealings with the Lanes, but an active participant. He might not have the same vision for Piltover as Grayson but over the years she learned that she could trust him with delicate information.
“Alright, but Loris isn’t arriving for another hour. You sure I shouldn’t come with you?” Marcus was right of course. Normally she’d be accompanied by her Deputy-Sheriff or whoever was available at the time, if they were trustworthy of course. Besides Marcus, the only other Enforcer in this precinct today who she’d consider taking with her to the Hound was Loris, one of the exceptionally rare Zaunite Enforcers.
“Don’t worry, I will be alright on my own. Actually, I also have a task for Loris. When he comes in, tell him to go to the Lanes and check any clinic and doctor near the centre of the Lanes and near the market-district for two Zaunite girls, a fifteen and a ten-year-old with pink and blue hair. I also want you to be on the lookout for these two girls. If they were arrested, I want you to make sure that they are treated well and kept from any harm until I return.”
With that Grayson ended their conversation and started on her way over the river. Marcus was probably thinking right now that she was foolish to just wander into what many still consider to be enemy territory completely alone and unarmed. Grayson herself would call any of her officers a fool if they did what she was doing right now, but her dealings with Vander weren’t just benefacting the Undercity.
As long as she kept the peace, her Enforcers could walk the Lanes unmolested, which was a privilege that obviously extended to herself. The catch was that Silco wanted a say in the patrol routes through the Fissures as well as the number of squads that would go there. This was a frequent point of contention between the Sheriff and the Eye of Zaun but Vander did an excellent job as an mediator between them.
It might have been against conduct, but she didn’t have the nerve to wait another hour just so that she could feel a little safer. Loris was more use to her looking for the missing girls anyway, and so Grayson crossed the bridge into the border-market. Sometimes when she was walking the bridge she could still smell the smoke of the fires and hear the screaming and sounds of violence. It was a daily reminder of what she had to do, of what she had to prevent.
She continued on her way until she reached one of the many elevators that would transport her down between the fissures and crevasses that the Zaunites have made their home hundreds of years ago. She pulled the lever, and the ground began to rise until it disappeared, taking the last of the daylight with it.
To the general dissatisfaction of the people of the Undercity, Vander decided to keep The Last Drop closed for today. It was still early in the morning so the bar wouldn’t be open anyway, but when he looked out the window Vander could see the grimaces of the people passing by when they read the sign he had hung up at the front door. He fully expected that some drunkard or another would try to get a drink anyway over the course of the day, Vander just hoped that he would keep his nerve long enough to send them away, instead of smashing their skulls in.
One could say that the Hound of the Underground was in a bit of a mood this morning. He had slept an hour or two after sending out the message to Grayson, but he somehow felt even more tired now than he did before. Shortly after the sun came up, he and Silco made their way back over to Benzo, once again traversing the Undercities streets. This time however, they went out of their way to visit each doctor and clinic that was near their path.
It had been Silco’s idea and Vander felt stupid for not thinking of this last night. Vander still didn’t feel comfortable with the idea that something might have happened to his girls that would require them to seek help from a doctor but in the end, they weren’t at any of the clinics they checked. Vander didn’t know how he should feel about that, but for now he took their absence as a sign that they weren’t injured. He knew that it didn’t make sense but for the time being he’d be satisfied that he didn’t find one of his girls lying in a dirty hospital bed, possibly hurt or even worse.
It wasn’t long until they went through all the clinics, there weren’t many places like this in Zaun after all and the state of most of these supposed places of healing did nothing to alleviate Vander’s and Silco’s moods.
From time to time some bleeding hearts among Piltover’s upper-class took it upon themselves to build a proper hospital down in Zaun. Such projects usually failed within the first few weeks on account of pilties knowing jack-shit about the Underground and its conditions. All they usually managed to do was to waste a bunch of money and resources when these half-finished construction sights were eventually looted for medical gear and drugs that were left behind when the pilties abandoned the project.
Creating a proper health-care infrastructure in Zaun was still one of the hardest challenges that he faced and from the look of the places they checked it would continue to be a thorn in his side for quite some time. Zaun simply didn’t have the resources that they needed while its people didn’t want the help from Piltover, not that it was offered very frequently.
Vander pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind when they left the last clinic they wanted to check on. Right now, he had his family to worry about. They continued on their way to Benzo but like last night his girls weren’t there and so he went back to The Last Drop while Silco continued the search with Benzo. By now Grayson must have read his letter, meaning that she would be at the bar soon and Vander wasn’t in the habit of letting his guests wait for him.
When he entered the bar, he saw that his sons were currently eating breakfast at one of the tables in the common room. When they saw him, Claggor immediately shot up. “Vander! Did you find Powder and Vi last night? Were they still with Benzo? They were still gone when we woke up, are they with you now?” Vander made to answer but Mylo was faster.
“Sorry Vander, he’s been acting like this all morning.” Even though Vi and Powder were still missing, Mylo still didn’t seem worried about it in the slightest. “How about you start acting a little bit more like me? They would never just leave and not come back in the middle of the night! Something must have happened!” Claggor’s tone wasn’t the usual calm and reasonable voice that Vander knew. He was pretty much yelling at his brother at this point who was just rolling his eyes at his brother’s outburst.
“See what I mean? He’s totally overreacting. I mean it’s Vi we’re talking about, what could have possibly happened?” Mylo has stopped paying attention to his brother and was now talking to Vander. “I mean if it was just Powder, then sure, I guess we’d have a very good reason to assume that she fucked up but- “, “Mylo, stop talking about your sister like that!” Vander’s voice came out louder then he intended but it did have the desired effect of shutting his son up.
Mylo was now staring at his father with a gaping mouth and wide eyes. His kids weren’t exactly used to him shouting at them but Vander’s tolerance for anymore bullshit today was already running thin, even though the day basically just started.
He loved Mylo just as much as his siblings but sometimes, his son’s attitude was even too much for Vander’s patience, especially when he talked about his younger sister like that.
Especially now when she could be lying in a ditch somewhere.
Vander took a deep breath before addressing both of his sons again. “Sorry, didn’t mean to get loud like that. Just please, for Janna’s sake Mylo! You have to grow out of this eventually! Powder is your sister and you should treat her like one.”
Hearing his father speak, Mylo made to reply but Claggor didn’t let him open his mouth again. “He’s right Mylo. And you care about Vi, right? If you continue to treat Powder badly all you’re going to achieve is that Vi will eventually punch you in the face! Again!”
Vander looked up at that. Obviously, his kids fought sometimes, but he wasn’t aware that it would go that far. He needed ask about this again later but for now he thought that it would be best to let it be. There’s no real use in giving a lecture when one of the participants wasn’t even present.
Again, Mylo made to shoot something back at his brother and again he was interrupted before he could even start, this time by Vander. “Thanks for the support, Clag. As for your sisters, there weren’t at Benzo’s last night.” As he spoke, he sat down at the table across from his two sons. “Actually, Benzo told me that they never came to his shop. I want you two to think hard, did Vi or Powder mention anything about going somewhere yesterday?” Vander questioned.
“What do you mean they never went to Benzo’s?” asked Mylo confused. “I mean exactly what I said. We searched for them but all we found was one of the items they were supposed to get over to Benzo. We also checked if they were brought to any doctor in the vicinity, but they weren’t there either.” As Vander further explained the situation, he began to think about all the things that could happen in the Undercity.
So far, he had mostly ignored the possibility that he might never see his girls again, but the reality was that there were a thousand different awful things that could happen to two young girls in a night in Zaun.
Fuck! They’re gone for less than a day and I’m already falling apart.
Vander couldn’t allow himself to despair, he promised himself that he wouldn’t let anything happen to them, that he’d protect Felicia’s children. Vander took a moment to gather himself, he couldn’t let his sons see how he truly felt, for now he had to believe that Vi and Powder were alright.
“I don’t think they told me anything about that, what about you Mylo? Did they say something to you?” Claggor asked his brother who shook his head at that. “Nah, I didn’t hear anything about that either, but I still don’t get it? Why are you two acting this worried?” Much to Vanders annoyance, Mylo still didn’t seem to get the implications.
“I want you two to listen carefully,” said Vander to his sons. “I know you two think that Vi is invincible, but this is serious. You both know Vi. She would never just take Powder into the night and disappear. Something must have happened that prevented them from getting to Benzo’s shop. So just think about it again for a minute. Did Vi or Powder piss anybody off the last couple of days? Or can you think of someone who might want to hurt them?”
“Hurt them?” Mylo let out, his carefree attitude becoming more unsure as he spoke. “What are you talking about Vander? Do you really think something happened to them?”
Vander should be happy to see that Mylo final started to use his brain but the way his son’s confidence melted away as he sought out answers Vander couldn’t provide just made the Hound feel even more tired.
“I don’t know Mylo. And that is exactly the thing that concerns me. I have no idea where your sisters are, all I know is that they wouldn’t pull something like this on their own without telling at least one of you.”
Hearing that, Mylo took an unsure glance at his brother, but Claggor was seemingly deep in thought. An energetic knocking sound came from the back of The Last Drop. Must be Grayson, Vander thought, his mind filling with relief at the possibility that she might have any answers.
“Alright then, I want you two to keep thinking, maybe one of you’ll remember something. I’m going to be in my office for a bit with the Sheriff.” Mylo frowned at that. “What’s this old bitch doing here?”
Vander really didn’t have the energy right now to point out that Grayson isn’t just any Enforcer, but he didn’t have to. “Obviously because Vander asked if she knew something! I mean, maybe Pow and Vi were arrested. And she’s not a bitch, she’s like the only good Piltie there is,” said Claggor to his brother.
Vander spoke before an argument between the brothers could break out. “You’re exactly right and maybe this whole situation will be over in a couple of minutes but until then I don’t want you arguing, I want you thinking about where your sisters might have gone.” Both of his sons nodded their heads at that. “Alright, I’ll be back with you soon,” and so he went to the backdoor of his bar.
When he opened the door, he saw a familiar Enforcer standing in the dingy alley behind the Drop. “Good morning, Vander,” Grayson greeted him with her raspy voice. She was wearing a standard-issue Enforcer uniform, only the badge pinned to her chest differentiating her from any other officer. More importantly however, Vander saw that she was alone.
The disappointment on his face must have been obvious, judging from the sympathetic expression the Sheriff gave him. “Morning Grayson, please come in,” instead of bombarding her with questions about his kids whereabouts like everything in him urged him to, he simply greeted her back and let her through the door.
They passed his sons as they made their way up the stairs, the Sheriff gave them a friendly nod but didn’t interact with them further. While Claggor returned her greeting, Mylo made it a point to completely ignore her. One of these days Vander really had to have a talk with Mylo about his immaturity.
As they entered the office, Vander expectantly turned towards the Enforcer standing next to him. Seeing his stare, Grayson let out a tired sounding sigh.
“I’m sorry Vander. I started looking for them as soon as I read your message, but they weren’t arrested last night. If they’re brought in today then I can guarantee you that they’ll be treated well,” explained Grayson. “I have also sent someone I trust to look for them in hospitals in the Lanes-”, “already did that,” interrupted Vander as he sat down on the couch.
“Good, but it can’t hurt if someone looks again. Is there anything else that you didn’t write in your letter?” asked Grayson as she sat down on one of the chairs that were standing in front of the office’s desk.
“No, I told you everything. They were supposed to bring some stuff over to Benzo, but they didn’t come back. We waited but when they still didn’t return, I went over to Benzo myself. According to him they never showed up at his shop. We went looking for them, but we only found this,” he pulled out the small shiny object from one of his jacket’s many hidden pockets and gave it to Grayson.
Vander could see the recognition on the Sheriff’s face when she took the object from his hand. “A Valdiani? How did you get your hands on something like this?” asked Grayson. “No don’t tell me, I can guess. So, this was part of the “stuff” they were transporting?”
Vander nodded his head in response. “We found it at the southern edge of the market-district. Doesn’t really make sense, they shouldn’t have come anywhere near there. Right now, I can only assume that they were robbed and that’s how this thing ended up there, but this still doesn’t explain where my girls are.” He was glad that she remained on the matter at hand and didn't push the issue of Topside commodities being smuggled and distributed by Vander. Technically, part of their deal was that the north-side was left out of the Lanes' criminal enterprises. But when the friends of a certain industrialist, who have their business further up in Entresol, periodically decided that they want to get their hands on some luxury items from Piltover, and when these wares make their way to the Lanes, well there really was little Vander could do about that. You had to be realistic about these things.
Vander watched Grayson who was still examining the Valdiani, expecting a response but the woman sitting in front of him remained silent. Vander was about to ask if she even listened to what he had said when Grayson spoke.
“Vander, how likely do you think that this was just an ordinary robbery? “asked Grayson, leading the conversation into a direction that so far Vander had tried his best to banish from his mind. While he suspected the Sheriffs meaning, he elected to play dumb for now and see what Grayson thought about it.
“It obviously wasn’t an ordinary robbery. They got robbed before, but they never just disappeared afterwards”, said Vander.
“Do you think that maybe someone took them? Perhaps to get to you?” With these words the possibility that his girls were kidnapped was finally out in the open. Up to this point Vander had desperately hoped that somebody would come up with a better explanation, but now that Grayson said it out loud, he couldn’t ignore it any longer. There simply was no other explanation for why the sisters are missing.
No, that’s not true Vander mused. There was another possibility but if he pursued this line of thought any longer, he’d be having a mental breakdown before the day even properly started. It was still far too early to give into those dark thoughts.
“I don’t know, maybe?” Vander’s voice sounded utterly defeated. “To tell you the truth, I don’t even want to think about it but it’s the only logical conclusion, right? I know that they didn’t just ran away. They weren’t arrested and they’re not at any clinic in the Lanes. That only leaves kidnapping.” The thought that his girls might be in the hands of Janna-knows -who while he was still standing in his office made his stomach twist.
“We don’t know that for sure. Maybe they did run away, not to get away from you but for another reason, maybe to hide. What I’m saying is that we shouldn’t rule out any possibility,” said the Sheriff. She looked Vander in his eyes with a determent expression. “I promise we will find them Vander. I will do everything in my power to make that happen.”
Over the next thirty minutes they went over everything they knew once again and more. Vander wrote down a list of people and gangs who have/might have a grudge against him. He gave it to Grayson before she left, that and a year-old photographic picture he had of the sisters.
Janna, I’ve never felt so powerless thought Vander. One might say that Vander was a tad dissatisfied with how he left things with Grayson. She explained to him that she would make this an official missing-persons-case of the highest priority as soon as she arrived back at the precinct. The catch was that there was no way he could avoid this going public. It only made sense, the plan was to organize a search party made up of Enforcers and volunteers, which isn’t exactly possible if you want to sweep this under the rug.
He might be the peacekeeper of the Lanes and one of the unofficial leaders in the fight for justice, but there are people down here who have neither a taste for peace nor for justice. It was people like these who wouldn’t hesitate to strike the moment Vander was at his most vulnerable, but if his girls really were kidnapped then somebody already made their first move.
After Vander saw Grayson off, he stepped back into the common room to find that Silco had returned. He was talking to his sons when he noticed Vander coming from the back of the bar and excused himself from whatever conversation they were having.
“How did it go with our dear Sheriff? I already heard that she didn’t have the girls with her, so is it safe to assume that she’s just as clueless as us?” As usual, Silco’s guessed exactly right although it hardly took a genius to come to that conclusion. Vander nodded his head at Silco.
“They weren’t arrested but honestly, I wish they were. At least then we would know where they are and could try getting them off the hook.” Silco scowled at that. “I don’t see how them being in the hands of these animals would be any better.” Vander supposed that he was right. Grayson might have her men under control for the most part but still, the thought of Vi and Powder being manhandled into handcuffs by some brute Enforcer made Vander want to hit something.
“They don’t have them, so it doesn’t matter anyway,” said Vander as he was mentally preparing himself to tell his friend about Grayson’s suspicion. “So, talking to her was a waste of time then?” asked Silco. Vander shook his head. “No. For one she’ll help looking for them. She’s making this an official investigation. We’re going to organize search parties, hang up posters, there’s even going to be a reward for anyone who knows something. It’s the whole schtick.”
Nervously Vander waited for the other man’s reaction. Silco might tolerate Grayson as an integral part of the fight for justice, but he always did his best to keep her and her men out of the Lanes. Just last week there had been a particularly nasty argument between the chief of the police and the Eye of Zaun regarding the increased patrols in response to a gang-war at the edges of the Lanes.
Now that Vander has basically invited the Enforcers down into the Undercity, he fully expected Silco to explode at him. Instead, he remained silent for just long enough to make Vander think that he didn’t have anything to say to this.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect that Grayson would take it this seriously but if she ends up following through on this then I must admit that I underestimated her dedication. Did you two come up with any ideas of what might have happened to the girls?” To say that Vander was surprised at his friends calm words was the understatement of the century. Silco must be much more worried than he lets on if he’d accept the active help of Enforcers.
“We think that-,” Vander swallowed, his throat feeling suddenly very dry. “Kidnapping. Grayson thinks that they were probably kidnapped.” While Grayson insisted that this was just one of many possibilities, Vander was under no illusion that she was simply saying this for his sake. In her decades as an Enforcer she must have gathered quite the experience in how to deal with worried parents and trying to give them some hope seemed to be part of it.
Vander prayed that Silco would laugh at this suggestion and explain in great length how the Sheriff doesn’t know what she was talking about. Instead, Silco closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before sharing his thoughts on the matter.
“Vander, I think she’s right. They never made it to Benzo which only makes sense if somebody prevented them from reaching him,” said Silco. “Do you have suspects already?”
Fuck, if even Silco agrees with the Sheriff then there’s little chance that something else happened.
Taking a moment to try to get his thoughts in order, he gave Silco his answer. “I made a list for Grayson but I’m sure you could add to it. Shit, Silco I-,” Vander voice cracked. Talking about this with Grayson was already bad enough but now that Silco revealed that he too believed that they have been taken it became more real.
Silco reached out and placed a hand on the taller man’s shoulder. “We will get the girls back and whoever did this will pay for it. But you can’t give into despair. Somebody wants to mess with us, with you. I think it is time for the Hound of the Underground to show his fangs again!”
What the fuck did he just say? Vander couldn’t believe his ears as rage started to overtake his mind. Was his “best friend” using this situation, this opportunity to coax Vander into becoming something he vowed to never be again? Something that was responsible for nothing but death and destruction. Was Silco’s apparent worry just an act to get Vander to become his old, violent self again?
Seeing Vander’s expression twist into something dark, Silco quickly removed his hand from his shoulder and took a hectic step back. When the Hound saw the fear in Silco’s good eye the rage that clouded his mind went as quickly as it came.
“Sorry I just, fuck-,” stammered Vander. Now that he could think clearly again, he not only realized the irony in his reaction but also that Silco was right. Of course, he realised what showing weakness meant here in the Undercity. He also realised that the animosity towards him would only grow the moment the first Enforcer crossed the bridge with his permission, not to mention that the Chem-Barons and other community leaders would be less then thrilled to have Enforcers walking their territories. What he did not realise until now was that the only way to survive this was to do as Silco suggested.
Having gotten over his initial shock, Silco spoke again. “I know you’re not that man anymore, but you have to understand- “, “I get that” Vander cut him off. “I just wished there was another way.”
“We tried, and now we will try something else,” said Silco, turning away from Vander and making for the door. “I will call for an assembly this afternoon. This whole thing will cause us trouble but there are still many who remember what you have done for them.”
Silco crossed the room only to stop in front of the door and turned back to face Vander. “You say you understand what is coming, but if you truly do then you cannot bury what is clearly still inside you but use it. You have to be ready to do what is necessary.” With these final words Silco left The Last Drop.
Vander almost ran after Silco to apologize for his reaction. He nearly lost it when all Silco spoke was the truth. How could I doubt him? He would never use the kidnapping of Felicia’s children to manipulate me. I’m such a fucking idiot. He brought his hands to his head and began to message his temples. He was thinking about too many things at the same time. He needed a break, or a drink preferably but how could he relax without knowing if his girls were all right?
Sighing he looked in the direction of his sons who were still sitting at the same table, silently watching him. He didn’t know how much of the conversation they had heard but it was quite impossible that they haven’t heard the last part. Turning around he took an upwards glance at his old iron gauntlets that were hanging from the ceiling. He hung them up as a reminder to himself of what he was capable of when he lost control. To others it was a warning, a threat.
But will you back it up or has the Hound of the Underground become toothless?
Over the years he has forgotten the feeling of metal fists turning people into meat. He remembered the feeling now, and while he would never admit it, there was something inside him that couldn’t wait to put them back on.
Notes:
As you can see, while Silco and Vander did forgive each other there's still some tension between them. I have also written a paragraph about this which I will add into chapter 2 tomorrow (I would do it today but I really should go to bed). I really think that Vander's betrayal was really fucking traumatizing for Silco so even after they made up, it's not like the scars just go away. Also, will we see a dark Vander who's on a war-path with whoever he thinks took his girls? Idk but let's see.
Next time: The sisters don't have a good time and Vander continues to look in all the wrong places.
Chapter 4: Plans
Summary:
The sisters have an argument, and Vander finally takes action.
Notes:
So, it's been five months. Ngl, I never expected to have such a long wait between chapters, but here we are...
Originally, this and the fifth chapter were supposed to be one, but it got kinda long without a lot actually happening. Ig, that's why I got kinda frustrated with what is now chapter four and five. I rewrote a bunch of stuff, and honestly, I'm still not really happy with how they turned out. I feel like my narrative-heavy writing style has kinda inflated the word count so far, while we're still very much at the first 5% of the story. I really want to get to the good parts of this story so the longer it takes me the more I become frustrated with writing Ig, so I'm going to try to increase the pacing of story starting from chapter six. Chapter five will be uploaded sometime next week, and I'm trying to have chapter six ready by then to not have another long wait. That said, please enjoy chapter four.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Vi was tired. Her head still hurt, her bruised forearms were hurting worse, her prisoners’ uniform clung to her still damp skin, and the wall-mounted single bunk that she was sharing with her sister did not allow for any comfort. Neither did the rest of their cell, for that matter.
It was everything she expected a prison cell to be. Small, made entirely out of concrete, with no warmth, iron bars where the door should be, and a metal toilet bolted into the wall with some yellowish toilet paper stacked next to it.
What she wasn’t prepared for was the smell.
She had tried to block out the stench of filth by breathing through her mouth, but in the end, she almost emptied her stomach when the air left a putrid aftertaste on her tongue. It didn’t even come from the rusty toilet like Vi had initially thought; it just seeped through the cold walls until it was everywhere around her.
The only saving grace was that their cell was dimly illuminated by the weak chem-lights hanging from the corridor’s walls.
Not every cell can smell this bad, right?
Perhaps only the cells on the 30th subfloor had this smell. Maybe it was a sort of punishment. Vi did find it odd that all the cells they passed had been empty, so maybe no other inmate deserved the stinky cells today.
Vi was thirsty, cold, hurt, and angry, but for the most part, she was just tired.
She wished she could’ve passed out from exhaustion like her sister did hours ago, and yet, despite her exhaustion, she was still lying awake; Powder curled around her in the same position in which the younger girl had cried herself to sleep while Vi had whispered soothing words into the girl’s ear.
No matter how hard she tried to let her mind drift until she fell asleep, she always ended up thinking back to what had happened, all the way back from the foggy streets of Zaun up to what had just happened a couple of hours ago, right before they were locked into this cell.
When they first entered the prison, Vi had made one last desperate attempt to convince the warden, sitting behind a desk in the entrance hall, that they weren’t supposed to be here, that all this was one giant mistake. The Ogre had just laughed at her words and told Vi that if he got a cog for every time he heard those exact words, he’d be richer than Councillor Medarda herself.
When she tried to tell him about the dead kid, he just sneered at her and said that he would let it slide one time; after that, there would be consequences for spreading lies like this.
Vi didn’t know why she even bothered. Nobody in this place gave a shit. They didn’t care that their colleagues were murderers, nor that Powder was still too young to be locked up here.
They weren’t brought into their cell after arriving, at least not at first. First, they were led into a tiled room by three guards who, as far as Vi could tell, were no different from any ordinary Enforcers. A small section of the room was separated by metal bars, resembling a small rectangular cell. Through the bars, Vi had seen that one side was empty, while the other was decorated with multiple rolled-up water hoses that were hanging from hooks and shelves filled with coarse-looking towels and colourless clothing.
The guards shoved them through the opening in the bars, locked the door and told them to strip. At first, Vi had thought she didn’t hear them right, but the guards made it clear that if they didn’t undress themselves, they would do it for them.
Taking the room's décor into account, as well as the water drains that were let into the floor, Vi logically knew that they were about to be hosed down and that this was just standard procedure that all new inmates had to go through.
The memory of how the guards had leered at them through their brass-coloured lenses made her skin crawl. She should have fought them; she should have defended Powder. Instead, she did what they had asked, knowing that she couldn’t do anything to protect her sister. All it would take was one good swing with these batons to the blue-haired girl's head, and Vi would be left with only two brothers.
To the amusement of the guards, Powder had been trembling so hard that Vi had to help her out of her clothes, doing her best to shield her sister’s body from the pigs’ eyes. She also had to undo her sister’s braid and pull out the hairclips that Powder spent so much time collecting.
Then came the water spraying through the bars.
The icy liquid hit with the force of a bullet. Vi had never thought that water could be used to hurt someone in this way, but now that she had been on the receiving end of it, she had to say that she did not appreciate the experience. Her skin still felt raw from the pressurised water beam.
Once the guards judged that they had washed away most of their “gutter smell”, as they had said, they handed them two towels and two sets of clothing through the gaps in the bars, but as it turned out, these guys were quite the jokesters. Just giving them their new clothes would’ve been too easy after all, so they let them drop to the now-swimming floor just when Vi was about to take it from them. So, they were forced to dry themselves off with partially wet towels just to put on equally soaked clothes. Vi’s
This whole experience had been humiliating enough, but it didn’t stop there. There were numbers stitched into the front and the back of her new tank top, her new name. They couldn’t even keep their identity. The guards had said that from now on, Vi was inmate 516, and Powder would be inmate 621.
Vi had scoffed at their words and told them that they could shove their numbers where the sun don’t shine. In retrospect, it hadn’t been the wisest of things to say; likely, saying anything at all would’ve been a mistake, but Vi’s anger finally boiled over after the humiliation they had just endured.
All it gained her was a punch to the gut.
At the moment, she had been ready to start an all-out brawl with the three men, one she would have more than likely lost. She did come back to her senses when she heard Powder’s shriek, the little girl clinging to her while she was still doubled over from the hit to her stomach, begging the Enforcers not to hurt Vi.
Lying next to her sister, she wondered if this pattern would emboss their entire stay in this place. Vi was a fighter and has always been one. Vander gave her his first boxing lesson when she was just seven. A year later, she came home with bloody knuckles for the first time, her mother giving her quite an earful for getting into scraps with other kids.
How can I stand up for myself when it would put Powder in danger?
It was a frustrating dilemma. Back in the Lanes, she didn’t have to think about the consequences when she got into fistfights, usually with older teens who couldn’t stand that she was stronger than them. Or that she had a family, a place to sleep, multiple meals each day, or a million other things they were jealous of.
Vi was pretty well off compared to most Undercity orphans, but if she had any sympathy for them, it died when they decided that they had to take their frustration out on her and her sibling. Even then, those scraps were seldom about life or death, so Vi didn’t have to worry about her sister’s safety all that much while fighting. Every now and then, some fucker would pull out a knife. It never ended well for them, and so far, she and her siblings had never been in any real danger, at least, she couldn’t see it.
Now that she thought about it, Powder being here with her probably saved her life. The guards might very well have beaten her to death if she had actually started to fight back.
Vi ground her teeth, silently simmering in her fury. So far, thinking about her safety has been an utterly foreign concept to her. Now she had to consider any and all confrontations to be potentially lethal. People in here were either armed and armoured Enforcers or hardened criminals. Vi, on the other hand, was a 15-year-old boxing enthusiast with a 10-year-old sister as her only support.
I don’t even stand a chance, do I?
She could perhaps fight one or two at a time, but if more came at her, she would be done for.
Next to her, Powder began to shiver slightly in her sleep. Vi felt a new wave of anger beginning to boil in her gut. If Powder got sick because of the wet clothes, she would…. What was she going to do? The hate she felt for her weakness was nearly as strong as for the Enforcers.
They could’ve at least given us a blanket, Vi thought to herself. Giving them a cell with only one bed was already needlessly cruel, but needless cruelty seemed to be this place’s speciality, although Vi feared that she didn’t even see half of it yet.
By now, she had been lying awake for what felt like hours, each minute ticking by with agonising slowness while her body refused to grant her the release that sleep would bring with it. She didn’t know when the guards usually woke up the inmates; no one had bothered to tell her, but if she took an educated guess, it couldn’t be much longer.
Vi carefully untangled herself from Powder’s clinging arms and stood up from the paper-thin mattress. She stood there for a moment and watched her sister sleep, admiring the electric blue waves of hair that were now freely falling onto the young girl’s shoulders. She wished she could grant her a little more time spent in the oblivion of sleep, but letting the guards wake her up wouldn’t be a good idea.
Her sister was prone to emotional outbursts, or “losing her shit” as Mylo liked to put it, and Vi was sure that Powder wouldn’t take it well if she were to be confronted by the Enforcers’ cruelty right after waking up. It was Vi’s job now to carefully guide her into their current situation.
Vi reached out a hand and began to gently stroke her sister’s cheek. The girl stirred and then groggily opened her eyes.
“Hey there, sleepy head,” Vi did her best to keep her tone light. Powder’s eyes met hers, and a heartwarming smile began to form on her sister’s face, which turned into a frown when her gaze shifted to scan their environment. She sat up abruptly, her gaze darting around the cell while her breathing quickened.
“Powder, please calm down. Just look at me,” Vi put her hands on the younger girl’s shoulder to catch her attention. “Take a deep breath, good, just like that. Now slowly breathe out.” Luckily, this wasn’t one of Powder's worse episodes; her breathing was already steadying, and her eyes were now focused on Vi.
“You remember what happened?” Powder timidly nodded at the question.
“I thought it was a dream at first, but we really are in Stillwater.” The young girl brought her knees to her chest and hugged them tightly with her arms.
“Yeah, I know it sucks, but we won’t be staying for long.”
Maybe it will be true if I repeat it a couple more times.
“We just have to stay out of trouble and find out how to message Vander.”
“You think there really is a way out of here?” The hope in her sister’s voice should have made Vi feel better, but instead, the feeling of guilt crept its way into her mind, as if she subconsciously already decided that her promise was a lie.
“Of course there is,” said Vi with as much hope in her voice as she could muster up. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe it; she really did, but how can one stay optimistic in a place like this?
“And about last night,” she started. “I’m so sorry that I couldn’t protect you, fuck, I couldn’t even protect myself. But things are different here than they are back home, different rules and such. I know you’re not used to me following orders but here we have to keep our heads down.”
Might as well tell her to kiss the Enforcers' boots, an angry voice inside Vi spat, a voice that she usually listened to.
“It’s fine. I just wished I wasn’t so,” Powder gestured with her arms as if she could pluck the right words out of thin air. “So helpless.”
“Pow-Pow, that’s not true, you-,”
“STOP LYING TO ME!” Vi flinched, her sister’s sudden outburst taking her by surprise. Powder has never before yelled at her like that. Taking a shaky breath, she continued.
“I know I’m holding you back. You wouldn’t have just-, you would have fought! But you didn’t because of me! You just let them-”
As she went on, she averted her eyes from Vi and curled further in on herself. “Powder, please just listen,” she begged. “What do you think I would have done? Punch my way out of here?” Her sister’s whining was getting frustrating, as was Vi’s own failure to do anything about their circumstances.
“Yes!” Powder’s insistent answer took Vi by surprise.
Does she really think that much of me?
“Just…Next time, don’t hold back just because I might get hurt.”
Powder’s voice was starting to sting in Vi’s ears. She was running on no sleep at all, no food, and the last time she drank anything was when the guards directed the water beam to hit her face. For a second, her sister’s head became a blue smudge while her headache increased its intensity from a dull throb to an unbearable pounding.
Vi turned away from Powder and steadied herself against the nearest wall. She heard her sister continue with her self-loathing, but she couldn’t grasp the meaning of the words. The world around Vi became blurry, as if she were watching everything through an opaque window.
“Vi?” Finally, Powder’s words registered in her mind, and the relentless hammering inside her skull dulled, her vision clearing. Turning towards the bed, she mumbled out a response to her sister’s rant without looking at her.
“Y’know, Powder, maybe I’m not as tough as you think.” She let her back hit the wall and slid down until she sat on the freezing floor, letting one leg sprawl out in front of her while hugging the other close to her body.
She still wasn’t looking at her sister, but she heard the sound of soft footsteps approaching and then stopping in front of her.
“Is…uh. Are you alright?” Powder asked, not sure what to make of Vi’s lifeless voice.
In response, the older sister let out a sharp laugh. For some reason, Powder’s concern just irritated her even more.
“So now you admit that I’m not invincible? What is it, Pow-Pow? Can I just fight my way to freedom or not? Make up your mind before acting all worried!”
Vi wasn’t entirely sure where her mean-spirited words were coming from, but it felt good to let them out. Her frustration has been building up inside her ever since she failed to stop the Enforcers from arresting them, and unfortunately, her sister was the only person she could vent to.
“You want me to stop giving a damn about you? To just not care if you get hurt, so I can stir up shit? Fine, how would you reckon that will play out for me? For both of us?” She snapped her head back up and met her sister’s nervous stare.
Getting up from her seat on the floor, she started to pace around the tiny room while Powder’s wide eyes were following her every step.
“In case you missed it, but I tried to fight! You weren’t even there when I got knocked out, so how do you think it would go in here, huh? With dozens, maybe hundreds of these masked assholes just itching to put a Trencher out of their misery?” She stopped pacing and angrily turned back towards the younger sister.
“Y’know, most kids would be grateful for having an older sibling trying to protect them! Instead, you’re giving me shit for worrying about your well-being! Because I don’t want to see you get killed because of me! What the fuck even is that logic? Are you-,” Vi stopped abruptly. While she was ranting, Powder had retreated into the opposite corner of the cell, seemingly close to tears.
Vi realised that she had been yelling. Her first instinct was to hurry towards Powder, apologise for scaring her and wrap her arms around her small frame, but those feelings competed with the fury that was still flowing through her veins like lava.
She turned away, not being able to stand the guilt of looking at what she had done. Instead of directing her anger towards Powder, she used the only coping mechanism she knew.
Facing the wall, Vi balled her fists and swung at it. She didn’t use all her strength, but enough that she felt the impact all the way up to her shoulder, although this pain barely compared to the burning in her knuckles. With a grunt, she pulled her arm back and hit the wall a second time, then a third time.
By the fourth time, the pain drowned out the anger, and she let herself fall lifelessly onto her knees. Tears were flowing down her cheeks. To her surprise, she also felt small arms embracing her.
When did I start crying? When did Powder start hugging me?
She really was out of it; she hadn’t let anyone see her cry for…she couldn’t even remember the last time, except for the day of their parents’ deaths, of course.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Powder mumbled into her shoulder over and over again.
“No, you have nothing to be sorry for,” Vi steadied her breath. She might not be able to protect her sister, but she still can’t act like this; she had to be strong for her.
“I shouldn’t have talked to you like this, it’s just…I don’t know what came over me.” Wiping away the wetness from her face, she gently pulled away from her sister’s embrace.
“I wish I were as strong as you think I am, but…shit, it’s not easy for me either, ok? I always stood up for myself, for all of us, but here we are at the bottom of the food chain. This has nothing to do with you; that’s just how it is. You have to be realistic about these things.”
A chuckle escaped Powder lips in between quivering breaths. Now it was Vi’s turn to be confused by her sister’s reaction.
“What’s so funny?” she asked, trying to keep her tone playful.
“You sound just like Vander. He always tells us to be realistic, too. And about keeping out of trouble.”
Now that Powder said it, she also realised it, and a soft smile crept onto her face. She asked him once why he kept saying that, and he told her that he must have picked it up from a Northman who was passing through the Undercity about 20 years ago. Now that she had picked it up, too, she wondered if eventually someone would first hear it from her and decide that it was a saying worth repeating.
“I really do sound like him, huh?” said Vi, shaking her head. “Well, we never really listened to Vander before, so now is the time to actually try it for once and uh…be realistic, I guess?”
She paused to think about what she was going to say next. She hated arguing with Powder, hated how she lost her temper. They were very similar in a sense, both easily lost control over their emotions, but in Vi’s case, the emotion was red-hot fury most of the time.
“I hate it, but right now being realistic means doing as we’re told and not giving anyone a reason to attack us. And you, thinking that I could waltz right out of here if I stopped protecting you, is certainly not realistic,” Vi clarified.
Please, Pow, please understand.
Vi prayed that Powder finally got the message because she doubted that her head could take another round of back and forth. She should probably be worried about the pain and how she nearly blacked out earlier, but she assumed that this was nothing a good night’s sleep couldn’t fix.
Just a couple hours more. The guards will come soon, take us to the mess hall for breakfast, and when we’re back in our cell, I’ll try to fetch some sleep, but I have to power through until then.
“I know,” answered Powder in a small but steady voice. “I don’t know why I said that earlier. I mean, you’re… well, you, but it was stupid of me to say…to think that you could just…unrealistic, that’s what it was. I just don’t want to be the reason why you let them treat you this way.”
Vi was happy to hear that her sister had calmed down enough to talk about this reasonably, but she was also a little annoyed that she still couldn’t get this idea out of her head, that she somehow was responsible for Vi’s weakness.
“I already told you; it’s not like that, but I guess I kinda get why you would think that. I was never good at just taking shit from anyone, so seeing me this… this docile is probably pretty weird.” Vi felt like she had given more introspection to her and her sister’s behaviour in the last ten minutes than she had her entire life.
Maybe if we don’t get out, I could become the prison’s shrink?
Thinking this, Vi held back a laugh that threatened to escape her lips. She had no idea where this ridiculous notion had come from. She really needed to sleep.
So why didn’t my brain let me? Stupid fucking brain!
Sighing, she rubbed at her eyes. Her thoughts were getting messy, and the throbbing in her skull became a little worse, but luckily not as bad as before.
“Violet? Woah, you got hella dark circles under your eyes, did you even sleep at all?”
“A little,” Vi lied. “Probably why I snapped at you like that, not that that’s an excuse. Y’know, we won’t be punching our way outta here, but there’s a way you can help.”
Mentioning this, Powder’s head perked up in interest.
“When we’re together with the other inmates, we gotta start to build some connections. Nobody's just going to risk their necks for us for free. I don’t know how far we’ll get today; it’s probably for the best if we watch and listen for now, but once we get a feel for the dynamics in here, we can start to see who’s the man to speak to if you want to communicate with the Lanes.”
Thinking about their plan again, Vi added: “Although, if we see someone we know from the Lanes, I guess we could just approach them, but we definitely gotta be careful about our identity.”
Powder frowned at that. “Why? Won’t people try to help us if we tell them that we’re Vander’s kids?”
Shaking her head, Vi replied. “There’s bound to be a lotta folks in here who’re not exactly friendly towards Vander. We can’t just announce that we’re with him, at least not until we can be sure that it won’t backfire.”
“Hmm,” hummed Powder, biting her bottom lip the way she did sometimes when she was deep in thought or anticipating something. “What about Silco?”
“Yeah, sure. Doesn’t really matter to whom we send a message as long as it reaches someone who can help.” So far, Vi has only considered getting a message out to Vander, but she reckoned that letting Silco or Benzo know was as good as directly contacting their father.
“No, that’s not what I meant. Wasn’t he super close to a lot of Chem-Barons before he and Vander became friends again? Maybe someone here knows him from back then and is willing to help us?” Vi raised an eyebrow at the information her sister just shared. Everyone knew that Silco had a shady past, but she wasn’t aware that he had connections to actual Chem-Barons.
“How do you know that stuff about Silco?”
Powder shrugged sheepishly. “I uh…I overheard Vander and him talk about this once.”
“Meaning you listened in on a private conversation. Did you at least get caught?” Vi teased. Powder had the decency to blush at being called out like that and shook her head.
Vi grinned, “Good, always knew you were sneaky. But I dare you, if I ever catch you spying on me, I can promise that you’ll regret it.”
Powder let out a snort. “As if I’d ever let you see me if I didn’t want it.”
“Since when did you get so cocky?” Vi laughed. Powder gave her a cheeky grin in response. “Who do you think I learned it from?”
Vi preferred this version of her sister. She could never imagine not loving Powder, no matter how she acted, but sharing sisterly banter was much better than arguing about the girl’s self-worth.
For a single moment, Vi could almost forget where they were, although her sleep-deprived brain might be more responsible for this than the shift in mood.
How long until we have nothing more to smile about?
Her sour thoughts betrayed her, and this moment of levity went as quickly as it came, the oppressive weight of the stone walls suffocating the sister’s humour.
Better get back to the important business.
“Anyway, about Silco. Did you get any specifics?” If they ran into an old friend of his, it might very well be their ticket out of this place.
The smile vanished from Powder’s face, and she answered the Vi’s question with a shrug. “Don’t really remember much, something about the Hush-Company, I think? I don’t know, I mostly remember that Vander was pretty mad, and that they ended up arguing, sorry.”
The Hush-Company?
Vi didn’t know much about them, but the things she heard were the stuff of nightmares. It ranged from relatively harmless stuff, such as the trade of sensitive information and smuggling, all the way to children being hunted down and murdered on the open street just to send a message. There were rumours about their boss being a Topsider, but you had to be careful when speaking of such things. People have lost their tongues or lives for far less.
“Okay, that settles it. Even if we find someone who used to work with Silco, there’s absolutely no way we’re going to approach people like this. We hold onto the original plan and keep quiet about Vander and Silco until-”
Vi got cut off by a mechanical groaning that was suddenly echoing down the corridor, followed by a metallic screeching that would have made Vi’s blood run cold if she weren’t already aware of the sound’s origin.
She had heard the elevator passing by their floor a bunch of times while she was lying awake, but only when they were brought to their cell did she hear the unsettling pitch of the elevator’s brakes engaging.
Realising that the Enforcers would soon be at their cell, she hurried to repeat the essentials to her sister once more.
“The guards will be here soon, so just keep to the plan. We stay together, keep quiet and listen, don’t tell anyone who we are and just follow orders,” listing their agenda for the day, Vi had to admit that it wasn’t much of a plan, but it had to be enough for now.
The other inmates won’t attack kids, right? That’d be really messed up.
The creaking door of the elevator, followed by heavy footsteps, announced the guards’ approach. Vi felt like the protagonist in one of those horror novels she sometimes borrowed from Mylo, backed into a corner with no way out, while the monster had long since figured out her hiding spot and was now only delaying the inevitable for the sport of the kill.
She felt a small hand grab hers. Looking down at her sister, she looked as nervous as Vi felt. Vi slightly tightened her grip around the girl’s hand, hoping that Powder would take it as a gesture of reassurance.
As the seconds stretched on, Vi’s mind was flooded with doubts. Their “plan” suddenly seemed to be full of holes, but Vi couldn’t really pinpoint in which ways it could be improved.
We survived the massacre at the bridge; surely we’re going to survive our first full day in prison, right?
True to his word, Silco managed to spread the message that Vander was holding an unscheduled assembly at The Last Drop. The meeting was supposed to start at 14 o’clock, which normally was much too early since most fissure folk were still working one thankless job or another, but Vander couldn’t just let valuable hours pass by while Vi and Powder were still somewhere out there.
Holding to this sentiment, he spent the hours further searching the Lanes, although this time, both of his sons accompanied him.
After Silco had left, he had another conversation with Claggor and Mylo; the latter, finally understanding the seriousness of the situation, had practically begged him to help search for the girls. Letting his remaining children out of his sight was the last thing Vander wanted right now, so he agreed to take them with him.
They had walked the streets of the Lanes, knocking on doors and asking if anyone had seen the two girls, but they were met with disappointment. So, they left the confines of the Lanes to continue their search in Entresol, only to be met with similar results.
Back at The Last Drop, Vander took a long drag of his pipe while leaning at the counter, the sweet taste of the tobacco lingering on his tongue. Usually, smoking helped to calm his nerves somewhat, but today he couldn’t feel any such effect. With a sigh, he exhaled the smoke and emptied the pipe into the nearest ashtray.
It really was a waste. After months of trying, Vander was finally able to get his hands on some Two-Rivers leaf again, and now he couldn’t even enjoy it.
As if I don’t have more important things to worry about, Vander thought guiltily.
Over the last ten minutes, people started to trickle into the bar. As expected, the growing crowd was smaller than usual, making the room seem empty even though there were already more than two dozen people here. Most of them were business owners who could afford to leave their shops to their employees for a bit, but most ordinary workers were absent, although Vander was sure that the entirety of Zaun would know about this by tomorrow at the latest.
The front door opened again, and Benzo came into the bar with Ekko and a couple of Vander’s guys in tow. Other than a proper Chem-Baron, Vander didn’t keep a strict hierarchy in his enterprise; in Vander’s mind, this only cultivated resentment and hidden ambitions. His smuggling operation ran on mutual respect and loyalty. Most of the guys working for him were those who came to him when they didn’t have anyone to turn to.
He had helped each and every one of them back onto their feet, whether by providing a place to stay and a hot meal, settling disputes, offering a job and protection, or helping them sever ties with their previous gang affiliation. He never asked anything from them in return, which ironically resulted in Vander getting a much better reward than money or debt. It got him the most loyal crew in all of the Underground, and even those who parted ways with Vander had assured him that if he should ever need them, he just had to say the word.
Benzo saw Vander standing at the bar and came stomping over to him, Ekko tagging shyly along with him.
“Oi, Vander! Brought a couple of the boys and gals over. Thought you might appreciate some extra hands-on deck, y’know, given everything,” as he spoke, Benzo took a glance past him to where Mylo and Claggor were standing, in the doorframe leading to the back of the bar.
“I take it Grayson didn’t know anything either?” he asked in a tone more subdued than usual.
“No, she did not, but she’s willing to help. You’ll hear all about it once the meeting starts,” answered Vander.
The door opened once again, and a bald and tattooed bull of a man, nearly as big as Vander himself, entered the bar. Full body tattoos were a common sight in the Undercity, but replacing your lower jaw with a metal prosthetic? Not exactly something Vander would call normal.
Having turned around at the squeaking door, Benzo spat at the sight of the thug who was settling down at an empty table near the entrance.
“Fucking Slick-Jaw animal! How can you tolerate these people in here?” Benzo nodded in the direction of the bar’s corner tables. Each was occupied with similar unsavoury characters who were staring daggers across the room at each other and at everyone who came near them.
While Vander shared Benzo’s sentiment, as the unofficial leader of the Lanes, he couldn’t just ignore the existence of the other Chem-Barons; no, he had to be diplomatic about these things. So, each time he held an assembly, they sent their people to listen, and so long as they didn’t cause any trouble, Vander kept to this arrangement.
“You know I don’t like them any more than you do, but that’s just how it is. Can’t really deal with them without even talking to them. Just tell Gunner and the others to keep an eye on them.”
Benzo grumbled something unintelligible back at Vander and made his way back to the others; meanwhile, Ekko had slipped away and was now talking with Mylo and Claggor.
Right when Vander was about to officially begin the assembly, Silco came up from behind, startling him enough that he flinched. He wasn’t sure if he was glad to see Silco; he still hadn’t thought of a proper way to apologise to him.
“Didn’t expect to see me again today?” Silco asked in that teasing voice, which suggested he had Vander all figured out.
“I didn’t, but I’m glad to see you here,” Vander decided that he’d probably feel worse if Silco stayed away. “And I just wanted to apologise for earlier. I- “
“For what?” Silco cut him off. “You didn’t even do anything.”
So why were you afraid?
“And did you really think I would abandon you now? But enough about me, your audience is waiting,” said Silco with a smirk. He was right, the room had grown quiet as they patiently waited for Vander to explain just what the hell he wanted from them.
Turning towards the expectant faces, he cleared his throat.
“First of all, I want to thank all of you for coming here on such short notice,” began Vander, his deep voice filling the room with only a hint of the exhaustion the man felt. “Second, I have to apologise for dragging all of you from your work and families for what is ultimately a personal matter. See, I have called this meeting because since yesterday evening, both of my daughters have been missing, and I have reason to believe that someone took them against their will.”
Vander was surprised at how easily the words came out. The discomfort he had previously felt at the thought of making this announcement melted away in the face of the furnace burning inside him. His gaze swept over the now murmuring crowd, scanning each and every face for their reactions. His eyes lingered on the Chem-Barons’ thugs, gleefully waiting for their expressions to betray their guilt, but none showed. There was no nervous twitching, no breaking out in sweat, no gulping throats.
If any of those fuckers had something to do with this….
He didn’t finish this thought; there would always be time for retribution after his girls were safe.
The whispering died down, and Vander continued.
“So far, we do not have any specific suspects in mind, and I don’t intend to make any hasty accusations. For now, I’m just asking for your help and cooperation. Many of you know Violet and Powder; you know that they are good kids. If any of you have seen them since yesterday, or if you have noticed anything suspicious around the smuggling district, now is the time to speak up!”
His question was answered with the shaking of heads and apologetic mumbling. Vander leaned back against the counter, his hands gripping the edge hard enough that his knuckles turned white. If inner turmoil translated into physical strength, Vander was sure there’d be nothing but splinters in his fists right now.
“Alright, if any of you do remember something, you know where to find me. I’d also ask you to spread the word, tell your friends and family, maybe they saw something.”
So far, the announcement had gone better than Vander thought it would. He had expected at least a few mocking comments about him overreacting and wasting their time, but so far, everyone had seemingly accepted that Vander’s assumptions had solid ground to stand on.
Let’s see if they stay this calm after I told them about the Enforcer’s involvement, thought Vander bitterly.
“This isn’t the first time we've had to discuss something like this. Those of you who helped look for Mathilda’s nephew two years ago already know the drill; if you want to help, come here again in five hours. We will form search parties and again, make sure to tell everyone you know, or if you have nothing better to do, you can stay here after we’re finished and just come to me and I’ll tell you how you can help in the meantime!”
It was rather disturbing how often people went missing in Zaun. Now that the Chem-Barons respected Vander and Silco’s territory, it became a rather rare occurrence in the Lanes, and organised crime wasn’t a factor to consider anymore in such cases. Except, of course, if you were an active hindrance to the Chem-Baron’s businesses, as was the case with a certain bartender who kept pushing against their violence.
“As for compensating your time and effort, I can’t promise you much, just a dozen cogs each week you decide to join us, although there will be more for anyone who has information that leads to results.”
Vander was rich in comparison to most Zaunites, even if the majority of his earnings flowed straight into his businesses or were used to improve the Undercity in one way or another. He still counted on most people refusing his money; otherwise, he’d be broke within the year if they failed to find the girls in time. He tightened his grip at this thought. Maybe he could ask Grayson if the Enforcers had a budget to pull from for something like this. He’d need it if the search stretched on.
Banishing thoughts of potentially not finding the sisters for months, he finally prepared to speak of what he expected to be the most divisive topic of the day, something that might very well cost him his head in the long run.
“There’s something I need to admit to you. You lot aren’t the first I have asked for help today. Earlier, I informed the Sheriff about this. Yes, that means there will be Enforcers joining us down here. They’re not here on patrol or to make our lives harder, Sheriff Grayson assured me that her men will only be here to help.”
The muttering among the crowd was becoming agitated at his admission. There was a scraping sound of a chair being slid back, cutting through the murmur as the first defined soul stood up to challenge Vander’s decision.
“I think everyone here would agree with me when I say that I feel much sorrow at the thought of young Violet and Powder being abducted,” dramatically proclaimed the dark-skinned man with only a hint of a Shuriman accent. “Only my rage at the ones who have done this compares to it, but this? This should have been discussed with the people!”
“If you truly feel this way about Vi and Powder, then you surely understand that there’s no time to be wasted, do you, Szorek?” Silco stepped up next to Vander, who was infinitely thankful for his friend’s support.
“Besides, this isn’t much different from the arrangement we already have. Enforcers have been welcome in the Lanes for years now, so why do you care now?”
“This isn’t the same!” A woman spoke up, her voice raised. Her statement was followed by nodding heads and approving muttering. “We control how many pigs come down here and where they patrol. We all agreed to this because you have convinced us that the Sheriff is on our side. Inviting Enforcers down here on a whim wasn’t part of the deal!”
“Whim?” A man still dressed in his miner’s work clothes nearly shouted. “Janna’s fucking mercy, the man’s kids have been kidnapped! Y’all are acting as if he gave the Enforcers the keys to your homes! Have you all forgotten how the Sheriff has thrown her own men into Stillwater for fucking with us? How hasn’t there been anyone killed or fucked up by them in years? If there’s a time to give her the benefit of the doubt, it is now! Vander’s girls need all the help they can get, and I bet if it were your kids, y’all would have done the same!”
Judging from how many of those who nodded along with the previous two speakers were now looking down in shame, the last words seemed to have rung true for the majority of the crowd.
Vander decided to speak up again before any more arguments could break out.
“I understand why many of you are upset with this decision, but have I not earned your trust? Hasn’t the Sheriff earned your trust? There have been many doubters over the years, and, time and again, they have been proven wrong. Working with the Sheriff has not turned me into Piltover’s lapdog, as many predicted it would. Having someone from the other side of the river working with us has brought more progress in the last five years than we have ever seen! And isn’t this exactly what a police force is for? They should serve the citizens of our city, and helping with something like this seems to fit the job description!”
Vander was sick of having to argue his case, so it came as a great relief to him that most people nodded along with his speech. In truth, thoughts of Enforcers getting into conflicts with fissure folk were already plaguing his mind. The more Enforcers were down here, the greater the chance there would be for something to go terribly wrong, but he had to seem decisive. If he let doubt show, people might start to question everything he had worked for.
There was some more arguing, but more and more people spoke up for Vander. Ultimately, the assembly concluded on relatively peaceful terms. The biggest gripe people had so far was that Vander had brought in the Enforcers on his own. Still, most people were understanding enough to realise that he simply wanted to pursue every avenue possible.
Most people assured him that they would come back later, and some of them even stayed to see how they could help him now. However, not everybody who approached him after the meeting did so just to announce their support and sympathies.
One by one, most of the Chem-Barons’ thugs came up to him, not quite brave enough to make open threats while standing in his bar, surrounded by his people, but Vander read well enough between the lines. There was a lot of talk about how their bosses wouldn’t be happy to see Enforcers encroaching on their territories and how this should’ve been discussed with them, although some of them had the decency to precede their veiled threats with hollow words of sympathy.
These conversations took somewhat of a surprising turn when the last of them, Chross’s man, not only didn’t make any threats but offered the Hush-Company’s full support without demanding anything in return.
“How did you know?” Vander had asked a sleazy-looking fellow, dressed in the gang’s signature black suit.
“Pardon?”
Vander took a step towards the man and placed a firm hand on his shoulder. Now that he was towering over the thug, he had to crane his neck to look Vander in the eyes.
“I asked: How did you know about Vi and Powder?” Vander’s voice remained calm, but his grip on the thug's shoulder tightened.
“I have no idea- “
“Bullshit! Since when do the likes of you get to decide these things? Your boss sent you here to offer me his support? Great, but how did he know that I might need it?”
Vander did not truly believe that Chross would be stupid enough to let his involvement slip this easily, but Silco had said that it was time for the Hound of the Underground to show his fangs again, and besides, a little show of force was exactly what his reputation needed right now.
The nameless gangster tried and failed to shake Vander’s hand off his shoulder, ending up sort of wobbling his upper body around while still being firmly in the bigger man's grasp.
“What happened to making accusations?” The thug asked in a surprisingly even tone, although the beads of sweat running down his forehead betrayed his nervousness. “As you might recall, Mr. Chross started as an information broker. The Hound of the Lanes can’t just walk around Entresol, asking about missing children and not expect this to reach my employer's ears. This offer was made in good faith; he will not appreciate that it was met with suspicion and disrespect!”
Vander let out a loud belly laugh that would’ve made the gangster jump in surprise if Vander’s hand wasn’t holding him down.
“The old fuck still got eyes and ears everywhere, doesn’t he?” Vander pulled the thug towards him, barely feeling his attempts to resist the Hound's strength. Instead of finding an untimely demise at Vander’s hands, the thug found himself next to the huge man with Vander’s arm around his shoulders as if they were old drinking buddies.
“I apologise if I seemed rude. Sometimes men like me just seem threatening no matter what they do. Thought that becoming a family man would change that, but I guess it didn’t work out for me. Didn’t mean to scare ya,” said Vander in a humorous tone. “I’ll gladly accept Chross’s help, and you can deliver him my gratitude. You guys have printing presses, right? Not these little machines you can find in each bookshop or accountant's home, I mean the big industrial ones!”
The expression on the thug’s face spoke of his utter confusion at Vander’s change in demeanour.
“Printing presses? Yeah, sure we got those, but what- “
“Perfect! Tell your boss to get them ready to print posters. I’ll give you a picture to copy from later when we start with the search. And make sure to bring your buddies!”
Vander leaned down to the smaller man.
“And tell Chross that I don’t like being lied to! I know he wants something, and you better tell me what it is later!” He whispers in a low growl into the thug's ear.
If the man had anything to say in response to this accusation, he never got the chance to voice it out loud. Straightening himself, Vander clapped him forcefully on the back, making him stumble in the direction of the exit.
“Thieram, get this man a beer for his troubles! Don’t worry, it’s on the house.”
Responding to Vander’s request, the young bartender came up from behind the counter, grabbed a bottle out of the icebox on his way and pressed it into the hands of the baffled man.
“Out with you now! You need to return to your master, and I need to prepare for later!”
A second later, the thug was out the door, spurred on by the snickering onlookers. Self-evidently, they had quite enjoyed the show of Vander manhandling a member of one of the most hated gangs throughout the Lanes. Yet, the Hound still wondered if he had made a mistake in antagonising the very same person who offered him help. He was sure that he didn’t just offer his help out of the goodness of his non-existent heart, but perhaps he should have tried a more subtle approach.
What’s the old Topsider’s game? Is he just trying to prove his innocence? He sure as fuck isn’t just trying to be nice!
He might have pondered this for a while longer, but the people still left in the bar brought him back to reality. By now, everyone who had work or a family to get back to had left the bar, leaving Vander with half a dozen volunteers, not counting his sons, Silco, Benzo, Ekko and his crew.
He quickly figured out what use to make of them.
A young tattoo artist got the job of sketching Vi’s and Powder’s faces for the missing-persons posters. Vander guessed that Grayson probably had professionals for that sort of thing, but the picture he gave her was over a year old. Although the vastayan woman used a similar picture, they could personally provide her advice on how to make it more accurate for their current age and look.
Vander hoped it wouldn’t take too much time to print the copies. He hoped the first batch would be completed within a couple of days, but that might be a bit optimistic. Someone really had to invent a faster way of printing.
He pressed purses full of coins into the hands of two others and sent them to fetch some detailed maps of each of the Undercity’s regions, and luckily, this was the only time he gave someone money as of now, since all had refused his offer of compensation. He wasn’t worried that they would run off with the money. He knew both of them by name, and stealing from Vander in a situation like this would be social suicide.
The remaining three were all miners and knew the fissures like the backs of their hands. Vander and they were gathered around the one map of the Lanes he possessed and planned the routes each search party would take, while Mylo, Claggor and Ekko gave advice to the tattoo artist.
It was therapeutic for Vander to finally take coordinated action instead of running around the streets like a headless chicken. Pouring over the map, he could almost delude himself into pretending as if this were just like any other work. Almost.
Thoughts of doubt and failure never left him, no matter how much he tried to let his mind sink into the planning, no matter how much he convinced himself that he was doing everything he could.
As for Silco and Benzo, they had left the bar, taking some of Vander’s men with them. Like Vander himself, they had not believed a single word out of Chross’s man’s mouth, and so they went to figure out what Chross’s aim was, although he wasn’t the only Chem-Baron they had planned to investigate.
Apparently, Silco had started his own little side project in between their last conversation and the assembly. There should be people gathering evidence of the Chem-Baron’s guilt, or the lack thereof, if they were truly innocent. Chross wasn’t the only man in the Undercity with a spy network, and even though Silco parted ways with the Chem-Barons, he still maintained a subtle but significant influence throughout all of their crime syndicates.
As the hours ticked by, Vander’s anticipation grew. He longed to get out on the streets again, even though he was afraid of what he might find there.
Notes:
We finally see the sisters in Stillwater, even if it's just them arguing in their cell. Next chapter will only be about the sisters in Stillwater, even if not a lot is happening. And Vander is finally getting things going, and I'm really excited to continue this part of the story, especially since we'll see Caitlyn for the first time (although her first POV probably won't be before chapter seven or eight). Btw, Powder's prisoner number is an easter-egg for a game I've been playing last year, so leave a comment if you think you know where it came from.
If you're enjoying this story so far and are still interested in where this is going, I very much appreciate Kudos and Bookmarks.
Next time: The sisters learn what it means to mess up in Stillwater.
uchachau on Chapter 2 Wed 29 Jan 2025 05:02PM UTC
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ZeMajor on Chapter 3 Mon 03 Mar 2025 02:15PM UTC
Last Edited Mon 03 Mar 2025 02:16PM UTC
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