Chapter Text
People had been saying there was a monster running around the Sump.
This was nothing new. There had always been monsters in the Sump, and people had always spread rumors about them. But people had started talking about Noxians in the Sump, and that was what made Jinx decide that this was worth looking into. Worth sneaking out on Isha in the middle of the night and not telling a soul where she was going.
Jinx found the Noxians first. It wasn't hard, because they were incredibly out of place in the toxic cesspools that stagnated in Zaun's depths. They were wandering around wearing gas masks and making a racket, disturbing the usually lonesome and silent residents of the Sump.
They were clearly looking for something, but whatever it was had been successfully hiding from them for at least a week now, because that was about as long as Jinx had been hearing rumors. Of course, they were looking in all the wrong places. There were tunnels and pits and caves and so many other nooks and crannies to get lost in down here. Native Zaunites got lost and died easily—foreigners didn't stand a chance.
Jinx watched a Noxian soldier poking around the edge of a chemswamp. His heavy metal boots were sticking in the sludge, making awful sucking and squelching sounds as he trudged around, searching fruitlessly for his quarry. His foot caught in a particularly grippy patch of toxic mud and he had to tug so hard that his foot popped out of his boot.
Jinx winced. Walking around the Sump without shoes was essentially a death sentence—at least, for one's feet. Not that she had any kind of sympathy for Noxians.
The soldiers were wandering around in the open like idiots, occasionally poking their heads into dark holes and almost immediately pulling them back out because the masks they were wearing couldn't handle the toxicity of the Sump's cave systems, endlessly regurgitating the foulest funk that Zaun had to offer as it cycled through its underground veins.
Jinx pulled a far sturdier and more efficient gas mask of her own design over her face and descended into the caves.
Jinx always had a sort of "sixth sense". She could feel danger coming before she saw it. Ironic, giving that she could never tell when the danger was coming from herself. She was always wary of external forces, but her own missteps and mistakes were invisible to her.
Shimmer had amplified it. Her body moved before her mind processed what it was reacting to. She could see further, smell more, and hear a pin drop from a mile away.
Okay, that last one was a bit of an exaggeration, but the point still stands. She was hypertuned to the world around her, and it had its advantages, even outside of combat. Like just now, when she had caught the scent of something distinctly strange on the wind and spotted unusual scratch marks around the entrance of the tunnel she was descending into.
The gas mask dulled her sense of smell, but it wasn't necessary anymore as she had a trail of scratches and gouges and massive prints to follow. They ran erratically around the cave, as if whatever had made them wasn't entirely aware of what it was doing. Just moving on instinct, tearing at the surrounding environment. Looking for something to hold onto, or ripping everything in its path apart?
Jinx hadn't brought much to defend herself with. Just Zapper, strapped to her hip as always. A constant companion. She doubted the pistol would be enough even with the hextech modifications she had made to it. But it didn't need to be.
The Sump was so far below the surface that it was impossible to tell what time of day it was. Jinx didn't carry a watch either, so there was no way to tell how long she had been down there, plunging deeper and deeper into the darkness. She hoped no one would miss her.
Besides, if this was what she thought it was, then she had sins to atone for. It was her fault—just like everything else.
Jinx felt it coming before she heard it. Vibrations rippled through the stones around her. Something big was coming. Fast. Heavy feet thudding against the ground. An irregular gait. Injured, perhaps?
She took off the gas mask, harsh, acrid air filling her lungs. It was unpleasant, but bearable. For now.
Now she could hear it. Thud. Th-thud. Thud. Th-thud. Galloping, almost, but also limping.
Then it stopped, and the tunnel went still. Jinx could only hear the sound of her own heartbeat. She realized she was holding her breath.
In the far distance, two bright blue dots cut through the darkness like stars shining in the night sky.
They moved forward, slowly, and Jinx could see the darker blue glow of chemtubes around them, highlighting the silhouette of a massive beast.
The monster lunged forward and Jinx's shimmer-fueled body reacted before she could even see the thing, flickering out of existence and popping back in just behind it. The creature whirled around, snarling, blue eyes piercing through Jinx like spikes of ice. Her blood ran cold but warmed quickly as an electric current ripped through her, guiding her movements as the beast swiped at her with a massive, metal-clawed hand.
Jinx bobbed and weaved, effortlessly dodging its wild attacks. She drew Zapper and fired a few shots blindly. Two missed, but one landed on the beast's shoulder, knocking it backwards just a bit. The light from the hex-infused blast illuminated the angry snarl on its face. Lips drawn back, rows of jagged teeth on display, metal jaw clamped shut.
It looked horrific. Jinx felt sick.
The monster roared and charged forward, and Jinx forced down the shimmer in her veins, fighting the impulse to dodge the incoming attack. Instead, she let the beast pin her to the wall, one giant hand pressed over her chest, metal claws digging into the rock behind her. It pressed down so hard Jinx could barely breathe and leaned in, the stink of its hot breath flooding her senses and blocking out the acrid Sump fumes permeating the air.
It opened its maw, intent on ripping off Jinx's head and mashing it into a bloody pulp. And Jinx was willing to let it happen, because this was all her fault. It’s always her fault.
She closed her eyes and braced herself, hoping it would be quick.
But nothing happened.
"NO... CAN'T... MON-STER... NOT... NO!"
The beast withdrew its hand and Jinx fell to the floor. It stumbled backwards, gripping its head and howling in pain. It, too, fell, and Jinx watched as the creature began to shrink. The sound of cracking bones and grinding metal and the hissing of chemtech machinery filled the cavern, almost drowning out the sound of pained whines and whimpers that slowly morphed into weak, human sobs.
Across the tunnel from Jinx, Caitlyn Kiramman curled in on herself, hands threaded through her hair. Her skin was covered in scars, burns, and bruises, and she looked vastly worse than the last time Jinx saw her—which was saying something, because she was nearly dead at the time. She was naked, and Jinx could see her bones straining against her skin, could count each individual rib, each ridge of her spine.
“Janna,” Jinx whispered, disturbed by the state of the woman before her. “What did they do to you?”
Caitlyn didn’t answer. She didn’t seem capable of speech. As Jinx slowly approached, she pressed herself back against the wall, trying and failing to put more distance between them. Jinx raised her hands above her head to signal that she had no weapons and meant no harm, but Caitlyn wasn’t in a state where she could understand her intentions. Her eyes were wild. At least, one of them was. The other, Jinx remembered, had been replaced with a chemtech prosthetic that was glowing a vibrant blue. It zipped back and forth in sync with her remaining eye, a perfect imitation. Jinx wondered if Caitlyn even realized she had lost an eye.
How long had it been? Jinx tried to think back, but the past few weeks had all blurred together for her. It had to be at least a month and a half, maybe two. She had stopped keeping track outside of knowing when she needed to be at the Pit.
Two months. Two months since everything went wrong. Since Jinx had jinxed it all again. Two months since something that wasn’t supposed to explode exploded and killed Silco and nearly killed Caitlyn Kiramman.
Two months since Vi made Jinx haul her Piltie girlfriend’s mangled corpse to the same man that had flooded her body with shimmer.
Two months since she watched Singed turn Caitlyn into a monster.
Caitlyn was still trying to get away from her, clawing the rock wall and trying to drag herself away from Jinx. Part of what was giving her trouble was her left leg. The machinery that was supposed to assist in her shifting between forms was broken, and the prosthetic half was stuck between plantigrade and digitigrade. It was why she had been limping earlier. With the way it was jutting out and straining against the upper part of her leg that was still flesh and blood, Jinx knew it had to hurt.
“Look, Caitlyn, I—your leg is fucked up. I can fix it.” Jinx mimed tinkering motions, turning a wrench, twisting a screwdriver. “It hurts, right? I can fix it. I promise.”
Caitlyn froze and stared at her with wide, scared eyes. She remained pressed flush against the tunnel wall, twisted at an awkward angle, trying to make herself small and disappear into the stone at the same time.
Jinx sighed. She tugged off the cloak she had been wearing and whipped it through the air so that it landed gently over the naked woman. An offering. One that Caitlyn readily accepted, wrapping the tarp around herself to preserve any shreds of modesty she had left. She stayed huddled against the wall, but she seemed the slightest bit calmer.
“I can’t fix it here. Got no tools. They’re all back up in the Lanes. If you come with me, I can fix it.”
Caitlyn quivered, her eyes darting up and down Jinx’s body. She shook harder as her good eye unfocused. She went somewhere else for a moment and then snapped back to the present. The chemtube plungers on her shoulders started to descend, but she shook her head violently and screamed. Her voice was hoarse and raw. Startled, Jinx jumped back.
She never should have come down here. What did she think was going to happen? That she was going to swoop in and save Caitlyn, like a knight in leather pants and grease paint? Jinx sighed and threw her hands down. Caitlyn was never going to trust her enough for this. It was a dumb idea, just like everything else she had ever done in her life.
Jinx turned to leave, but she only got a few steps away before she heard the sound of metal scraping against stone and felt a hand wrap around her wrist. Caitlyn had crawled forward and grabbed her, pulling her back.
“Please. Help,” she rasped. “It… hurts.”