Chapter Text
Five months earlier...
The claws...
It always started with the claws...
Gnashing, slashing claws that reached for her. Crushing, gouging claws tearing through the darkness as the beast snarled and searched. Claws that ripped and claws that cleaved, slamming ever closer as they sought to rend her limb from limb.
Claws that would inevitably find her, she knew. No matter how desperately she scuttled away. How heavy her heart pounded in her ears. How pathetically she cried for it all to stop.
It always ended the same...
A blast of light. A tumble from a ledge. A hand holding her aloft, dangling over the endless abyss, the tempest below whipping around her dizzyingly.
A clawed hand, clinging to her, keeping her from her fate as she cried for help. As she cried for mercy...
Bright, hollow, glowing eyes her only answer, the freezing grasp of the biting claws around her hand pressing into her skin, leeching the icy cold deep into her sinews. The beast, its face shifting and changing like the wind that howled from below. Now metallic doll. Now ferocious monster. Now painfully human. Yet always impassive. Equally dead and deadly, watching her, unresponsive, as she struggled for purchase.
“Dad!”
She would cry, her voice lost to the wind.
“Dad! It’s me!”
Yet the beast would never answer.
“Dad! I’m sorry!”
A slow rumble... a soft growl emanating from unmoving lips.
You were supposed to protect the family...
“I know that... I-I’m sorry!”
You were supposed to protect her...
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
Her plea would always fall on deaf ears.
You were supposed to protect... me...
As did her plea, she knew she too would fall... tumble into the incessant darkness.
Except that she wouldn’t.
The fall would never come. At least... it never came for her.
She would be safe, the heavy steel fingers of her gauntlets biting into the edge of the turbine's blade. She would watch from the safety of her perch, horrified as she gazed upon her sister falling in her place.
That was when the tears would come.
“I’m sorry!” she would cry. Helpless. Powerless.
She would desperately reach out. The cold, hard fingers of her gauntlet seeking... stretching... sharpening into grotesque claws, extending out from her fingertips. Pointed tips always just out of reach. Always out of reach of the soft, sad, blue eyes that bore into her.
She was always just out of reach...
Every. Single. Time.
Why did you let me go, Vi...
“Vi?”
A voice broke through the cloud in her mind.
“Vi? Are you alright? I know it’s a lot to take in...”
Why did you let me go!?
The screaming echoed in Vi’s mind, deafening in the peaceful quiet. Vivid in her thoughts, always, whether she were awake or asleep. A hand on her face, warm, soft... battled against the cold threading through her own fingers from the memory. She looked at her hands, now resting against Caitlyn’s bare skin, and blinked away the phantom of the claws.
It's not real...
She took a deep breath, exhaling slowly as she tried to piece together her resolve.
“What...” the words didn’t want to come.
She tried again, feeling small under the gaze of the familiar, comforting, beautiful blue and silver of eyes that she knew were watching her with concern.
It's just a dream...
“What do you mean... you think she’s alive?”
The weight of the words settled heavily in the stillness of the room, the last of the fire’s embers crackling away as they fought through their final throes of life. Vi focussed on keeping the grip of her hands light where they were perched on Caitlyn’s hips, her hyper-awareness of the soft skin beneath her fingertips helping to ground her racing mind. She was unsure whether it was the cooling air of the room or the implication of Caitlyn’s confession that had sent the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.
She watched as Caitlyn dropped her face, her gaze drawn back to Vi’s chest where she sat, still straddled across her lap after their feverish lovemaking to chase away the other woman’s own demons. Caitlyn’s brow pinched in that tell-tale way it always did when she was contemplating her next words carefully. She dropped her hand from Vi’s cheek to prod at a tiny drop of sweat lingering at the end of her collarbone instead, tracing it down along her skin. Vi shivered minutely at the contact. A small reminder that this, at least, was real.
“I know what it sounds like. I know you probably think it sounds crazy... but, I do think there’s a chance that Jinx might be alive, Violet.”
“And you got all that just from some broken piece of metal and some paint?” Vi asked, trying to keep the tremor from her voice.
“Well...” Caitlyn sighed, her brow furrowing further as she tilted her head, pressing her knuckles softly to her jaw in thought, “It’s not just that. The angle of the fall, the proximity of the ventilation shafts... you said so yourself that you and Ekko never found the bodies...”
“That’s true but,” Vi reached up to rub at the back of her neck, “I dunno, Cupcake...”
Her sister. Alive? It couldn’t be possible. She had watched her fall. She watched on helplessly, losing what little was left of her family as they tumbled down into the core of the Hexgates that day. She had watched them die...
Well, no... That wasn’t entirely true.
She hadn’t watched that at all. While her dreams may insist otherwise, she knew somewhere in her mind that she had not actually seen that happen. She had rolled away, distraught and in agony and turning away like a coward, unable to look on as her sister and the monster that was once her father perished in the blast that rattled her surroundings.
She didn’t watch that.
She couldn’t.
Could it be possible, then, that she had missed something?
Was it possible that Caitlyn... could be right?
Vi knew the woman sitting in her lap wasn’t one to jump to conclusions lightly. She had seen Caitlyn’s investigative mind at work. She was logical, calculative, relying on facts to build and support her hunches. Her ability to connect the dots that no one else was looking at, evidenced in the early days of their tentative friendship by an impressive red-string board sprawled across her bedroom floor, was something Vi had always respected in her. So why was this so hard to believe now?
Caitlyn surely wouldn't suggest something so ludicrous unless she truly thought there was a chance she was right. She should be excited then, shouldn’t she? Shouldn’t she be relieved that there was a chance, however small, that she might see her sister again? The doubts, however, were insistent in their whispers, clouding her mind, confusing her thoughts. Her fingers itched, clawing with the desire to wrap around the hard, cold familiarity of a bottle...
Maybe it would help settle her mind...
She shoved the thought away, resting her hands once more along the crease of Caitlyn’s hips instead. She willed her mind to concentrate on the soft skin there, to find comfort in the safe familiarity of that instead.
“Okay,” Vi started slowly, “Let’s say you’re right. Let’s say by some crazy chance my sister made it out that day... Then why hasn’t she reached out?”
Vi dropped her head, pressing her face into Caitlyn’s chest as long, lean arms reached up to circle her back. She breathed out a long sigh, seeking solace in the warm skin against her face.
“Why hasn’t she told me she’s okay?”
She felt the soft kiss press into her hair, gentle fingers carding through the strands as Caitlyn’s murmur broke the silence.
“I suppose you’ll have to ask her that when we find her.”
Present day...
The first thing Vi felt as she started coming to was the weight of something heavy pressed against her stomach. Her bad shoulder ached from where it lay slightly twisted beneath her. The tips of her fingers tingling with the beginnings of numbness, trapped within the layers of metal where the gauntlet had been crushed around her hand.
Memories slowly crept in to her waking consciousness. The burn of her legs as she ran. Her pulse beating in her ears in time with each frantic step. Her throat scratchy and sore from screaming Caitlyn’s name. A blinding light refracted though the tears streaming from her eyes. One persistent thought burned through all the others.
Caitlyn.
Caitlyn on the ground, desperately trying to claw her way to her.
Caitlyn airborne, careening dangerously towards her.
Caitlyn crashing into her chest as she closed her gauntlets securely around her.
Caitlyn...
Groaning, Vi tightened her arm, feeling the warmth of Caitlyn’s body press against her chest.
“... Vi?”
Caitlyn...?
“Vi!”
Caitlyn... is alive?
"Vi! Thank goodness..."
Caitlyn's alive!
Vi had made it. Vi had caught her. Caitlyn was safe.
Her mind fought through the grogginess, cataloguing each small fact at a time.
Caitlyn was alive. Caitlyn was speaking. Caitlyn had escaped from...
Vi jolted, adrenaline fuelling her aching muscles as she shot upright, her eyes open yet unseeing. She could hear Caitlyn’s voice, but the words sounded fuzzy inside her brain. She tried to blink back the blinding haze from her eyes, the pain bouncing around inside her skull protesting the action. Slamming her eyes back shut, she tried her voice instead.
“C... Caitlyn?”
She felt the movement against her torso before her mind could register the cool hand that pressed to her face.
“Easy, Vi... easy...”
Vi didn’t think she’d ever heard her name spoken so sweetly. Caitlyn was alive. She had made it. She wasn’t too late. She tried her eyes again, Caitlyn’s blurry outline slowly coming into focus. Offering a weak smile, tending more toward a grimace, Vi looked her over slowly, grateful to at least find her in one piece. That was until her gaze settled on Caitlyn’s outstretched leg, the blood-streaked cloth wrapped tightly around her calf suddenly all that Vi could focus on.
“Cait..." she rasped, "your leg..?”
“Is just fine, Vi,” the gentle accent floated through Vi’s consciousness like a salve, “That’s not what’s important right now.”
Vi slowly lay back down, relief washing over her tired, beaten bones.
Not what’s important, huh?
She laughed, a painful, rattling sound squeezing from between clenched teeth.
Of course she’d say something like that...
Sweet unconsciousness beckoned once again, the siren song of the darkness calling her back to the void.
What the hell else could be more important...?
The sound of boots crunching on the dusty floor barely registered in her exhausted mind.
“Wow... he really did a number on you, huh?”
Vi’s face turned down into a frown. Now she was certain she was unconscious again, if the familiar snarky voice in her head was anything to go by. Confusingly, however, the pain still flowing through her body argued otherwise. Muscles crying objections with the effort, she rolled her arm back to rest beside her, freeing Caitlyn from her grasp as her gauntlet smacked heavily on the ground. With a hiss, she released the still working mitt, drawing her hand from inside it to scrub roughly at her face.
“Cait... I think I hit my head when I landed,” she grumbled, voice scratchy and raw, yet holding a hint of amusement, “I’m hearing shit...”
“No, Vi,” Caitlyn’s voice was tinged with something, an emotion she couldn’t place, “Violet, please, open your eyes.”
Begrudgingly, Vi complied, forcing her eyes open for a third time, squinting through the pain and the blurriness and the dust. She saw Caitlyn, still sitting beside her, barely able to make out the small relieved smile on her face. Vi pulled her aching shoulder back, dragging the ruined gauntlet along the ground to prop herself up on her elbow. When Caitlyn broke their eye-contact to look at something behind her, Vi followed her gaze. There, crouched down low behind her, elbows resting lazily on her knees... was Jinx.
“Hi... Sis?”
Vi could only stare, mouth falling agape, words completely forgotten in their use. She threw herself back down onto the ground with a flop, wiping at her face again with a dry, incredulous laugh.
“Yeah, Cait... I definitely hit my head,” she chuckled, stretching back and furrowing her brow at the now upside-down hallucination hovering above her. Painted fingernails on one of her dream-sister’s hands waggled a hello at her while amusement-tipped lips pulled into a smirk. Vi smirked back, “Uh huh, now I’m seeing shit, too.”
Feeling a hand press to her stomach, Vi glanced down to see Caitlyn leaning over her, her smile a little wider and her voice a little shaky, her hand squeezing reassuringly against Vi’s abdominals.
“You’re not seeing things, my love, I assure you.”
Vi pulled herself back up, as much as the damaged, unresponsive Hextech glove would allow her to. While the cogs ground haltingly in her mind, fighting to process the words Caitlyn was saying to her, a disgruntled scoff came from behind.
“Ugh... I know you guys almost died and all, but can we please hold off on the lovey-dovey crap?" Jinx's disgruntled voice came again, sounding disturbingly real, "C'mon, you’re gonna make me gag.”
At that, Vi’s head whipped back, pain forgotten as she finally took in the unbelievably familiar yet distinctly changed sight before her. Jinx’s hair had grown from the short crop of the war, falling now in a single braid just over her shoulder. Her clothes were different too, the style unfamiliar to anything a Zaunite might wear, yet somehow still suiting her sister despite its relative plainess. A long, white, dust-streaked cloak pooled on the floor around her boots, torn and ragged along one of the gold-trimmed edges. The glowing hue of her eyes were the same, though, as was her face twisted in that familiar smirk. A real smirk. From her real sister.
It was all too much, Vi brain shuddering to a halt. It wasn’t long before Jinx huffed again, clearly impatient with her reaction.
“Y’know, Fat Hands, I think this might be the first time I’ve ever seen you so- ooof!”
Jinx suddenly found herself frozen, awkwardly bent over her sister where she lay still half-sprawled on the floor. Vi had spun back around, grabbing a fistful of Jinx’s shirt and yanking her forwards, dragging her into a bone-crushing, one-armed hug. The tension slowly slipped from Jinx’s shoulders as she relaxed into the embrace, her arms lifting slowly, tentatively cradling them around Vi’s back, fingers curling around the collar of the scuffed leather jacket.
“You’re real...” Vi’s voice croaked out from where her face was buried in Jinx’s neck, “Tell me you’re real.”
Jinx paused, glancing briefly to Caitlyn before dropping her own face into Vi’s shoulder with a deep sigh. Any trace of teasing was gone from her voice as she nestled further into her sister.
“I’m real, Vi,” Jinx breathed out, squeezing her eyes tightly to fight the prickle of tears, “I’m real.”
Vi’s shoulders hitched, a single sob escaping her as she clutched desperately to Jinx's lean frame.
“I saw you fall...” she murmured, loosening her grip to pull back. Cupping Jinx’s face, Vi wiped her thumb over the single, shimmer-tinged tear that had fallen there, the words fighting their way from her lips, “I saw... I saw you... and then you-“
“I know, Vi,” Jinx said, bringing her hand to rest on Vi’s as she nuzzled further into her palm, “I know.”
“I didn’t know, I swear,” Vi continued rambling, pressing their foreheads together, unable to stop the words pouring forth like a deluge released from a dam, “I-I didn’t know. We looked, we searched for you after but... you... you were gone. But we didn’t think that you were just... gone. We didn’t know! I didn’t... know.”
Vi dragged a shaky, shuddering breath into her lungs, the words still falling from her in an increasingly incoherent jumble, “Cait knew... Cait worked it out. I-I didn’t believe it at first but... she was right! I wasn’t sure but she was right and now you’re here and you’re-“
“Woah, woah, easy there sport,” Jinx chuckled, gently pulling Vi’s hand from her face to hold it in both of hers, hovering in the space between them. She leaned in to look into Vi’s bewildered face, whispering with a conspiratorial smile, “Take a breath, Sis, you’re starting to sound a little crazy.”
Vi sat back with a deep sigh, a disbelieving laugh falling from her as she drew her hand from Jinx’s to run it over her hair, trying to collect herself. She gazed back at her sister, grasping at her forearm as if afraid to let her go for too long.
“I just can’t believe you’re here,” she huffed another laugh, the tears welling in her eyes again, “I can’t believe you’re okay.”
Vi’s brows pinched up in concern, a thought striking her suddenly, “You are... okay, right?”
Jinx let out a full, proper laugh at the sheer earnestness in Vi's expression.
“I’m more than okay, Vi,” Jinx’s laugh settled into a teasing smirk, pulling away from Vi as she rocked back onto her heels to stand, “Better than you two, anyway.”
She stepped to Vi’s front, reaching down to hoist her up easily despite her lean frame. The broken gauntlet screeched as it dragged up and off the ground, Vi grunting as she hefted the full weight of it to dangle at her side. Jinx stood back, folding her arms and raising a snide brow to the tower of rubble behind her, “So, what’s the deal with him? You guys would have been toast if I hadn’t come around when I did.”
The reminder of their current situation helped drain some of the shock from Vi’s mind. Still reeling, Vi tried to piece together a somewhat sensible answer, “Him? He’s... he’s a...”
“A deranged criminal from the undercity,” Caitlyn’s smooth voice supplied. Vi belatedly realised that Caitlyn had moved away, allowing them a moment of privacy. Now, stubbornly ignoring the obvious hitch in her step, Caitlyn was striding back to them from where she had been inspecting what was left of Urgot’s exposed body beneath the debris. The rifle in her hands snapped and clicked as she reassembled it, thudding softly on the ground as she stood it on its butt to support her weight as she walked, “Apparently he wanted revenge after our last encounter.”
“Still ticking off deranged criminals, huh?” Jinx’s smirk grew as Caitlyn approached, “Nice to see you haven’t changed one bit.”
Caitlyn paused in her step, her grip tightening minutely where it rested on the rifle barrel.
“Likewise, I see you still have a propensity for mass destruction wherever you go?” Caitlyn retorted, her own brow raising challengingly. They stared at one another, the air suddenly thick with more than the dust which clouded it. Vi watched on, a creeping anxiety building at the sudden tenseness sparking between the two.
“What can I say? I like to stick to what I’m good at,” Jinx shrugged, unperturbed as she smiled broadly. Vi hoped she was imagining the maniacal edge to that grin, the thinly veiled threat clenched between Jinx’s teeth, barely concealed beneath the light-hearted tone. Jinx’s expression shifted, suddenly looking bored as she unfolded her arms to perch one on a cocked hip, holding the other out to gesture lazily at Caitlyn.
“You’re welcome, by the way...”
Caitlyn’s face remained stern, Vi hovering uncomfortably as she watched her partner stare down her sister. Releasing a long breath through her nose, Caitlyn hobbled forward, reaching out to clasp Jinx’s still outstretched hand, much to the smaller woman’s surprise.
“You’re right. It seems I am in your debt, once again,” she sighed, the coldness in her face giving way to a mask of... disappointment? Scrutiny? Vi wasn't really sure. Jinx smiled cautiously, the expression dropping slightly when Caitlyn’s hand shot forward to grip her forearm, “I might just forego arrest this time to even the score.”
A pause. A stalemate. Eventually, a fracture.
“Ha! That’s funny, Sheriff,” Jinx cackled, turning back to Vi and pointing a thumb at Caitlyn, “Well, look who finally got a sense of humour!”
Jinx tried to draw her arm away then, her gaze wheeling back when Caitlyn held firm. Faces dropping back into mutual scowls, they teetered together on a precipice, the air still charged around them, the stand-off apparently far from over. Vi shuffled forward, one hand outstretched as the other lugged the broken gauntlet behind her.
“Cait, c’mon... What’re you...?”
“Yeah... Cait,” Jinx sneered, glaring up at the taller woman, unintimidated, “Ya got something else to say to your big, fat hero?”
Leaning back, Jinx pointedly flicked her eyes down and up Caitlyn's body before leering back in with a growl, “Or are you gonna make me regret ruining my favourite cloak?”
Vi blanched, focus continuously switching between the two, worriedly. Her gaze dropped to the shredded cloak in question, then to Caitlyn’s hastily wrapped calf, the pieces falling into place in her mind.
What the... how long was I out?
She shook the thought away, unimportant as her tired brain hunted for a way to diffuse the situation.
“There is only one thing I have to say to you,” Caitlyn said slowly, standing as tall as her injuries would allow. Ever the stoic Kiramman, Caitlyn held her long-time enemy's gaze unrelentingly, Vi's nervousness building all the while. After a beat, then two, Caitlyn’s face softened, as did her grip on Jinx’s arm.
“Thank you... Jinx. I really don’t know what might have happened if you hadn’t intervened.”
Face still hardened with suspicion, Jinx slowly withdrew her hand, rubbing at her arm as she eyed Caitlyn warily. Vi slowly released the breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding.
“Heh, sheesh... had me worried there for a second...” Jinx laughed awkwardly, shaking her hand out before flipping it around to inspect her nails nonchalantly, “Besides, last I checked, you can’t arrest a ghost. So how about we get you two back topside and then I’ll be on my merry way?”
“W-wait a minute...” Vi stammered, “You’re not staying?”
Jinx shrugged, casually adjusting her cloak as she turned her back to her sister.
“As nice as it is, this whole reunion thing wasn’t exactly in my plans,” she dusted at the cloak, brow furrowing in annoyance at the more stubborn marks now decorating it, “If you two can keep yourselves alive for a minute, we can all just get on with our lives and pretend this never happened.”
Vi and Caitlyn looked to one another in confusion, Jinx continuing to ignore them as she straightened out her clothing. Tearing her gaze away, Vi moved to her discarded gauntlet still laying on the floor, dropping to one knee to slide her hand inside. Hissing to life with a rattle, she wrapped the clunky metallic fingers of the glove around the lifeless one still cinched to her right arm, her shoulder tingling with relief as the working gauntlet took the weight of it off her aching joint. Vi stood and, with a frustrated huff, turned back to her sister.
“You really weren’t planning on coming back at all, were you? Just like your letter said...” Vi stepped forward, keeping her voice level despite the small flare of anger that bristled its way through her fatigue, “Why bother saving us at all, then? If you were just going to disappear again, why bother coming back now?”
Jinx paused, releasing her cloak with a sigh in lieu of an answer. When she finally spoke, her voice was hushed in the heavy atmosphere, a hint of sadness threading through the words.
“Sometimes... people just need to stay dead, Vi.”
Silence fell over them once more, Vi’s gaze fixed firmly on Jinx’s back, Caitlyn’s darting from one to the other, until finally settling on the pile of rubble beside them.
“Be that as it may, we can’t go anywhere until we bring the enforcers down here to deal with him,” she stated, ever the voice of reason. She turned to Vi, “I’m not going to be able to move very quickly and someone needs to stay here with him. Perhaps it’s best if you go and fetch someone?”
“No way!” Vi argued, “I’m not leaving you alone down here, especially with you injured and completely unarmed. What if he wakes up?”
“I’m sure Jinx wouldn’t protest to staying with me until then?” Caitlyn suggested.
“What!?” Jinx scoffed, “You want me to just hang around when this place starts crawling with enforcers?”
She spun around, folding her arms defiantly, “Not a chance, lady!”
“I’m sure you could find a way to disappear before they arrive?” Caitlyn insisted. Jinx looked at her plainly.
“Nice try, but the tunnels around here are pretty much screwed now, there’s only one way in and out,” she said, waving a hand dismissively, “How about you guys just relax here and let me take care of it. I’ll go drop in an anonymous tip or something.”
Jinx shrugged, turning on her heel as if to leave, “Give me an hour and you and your enforcer buddies can shuttle Urgot off back to Stillwater and we can all call it a day.”
Vi sagged, the weight of the truth behind Jinx’s words feeling heavier than the broken gauntlet she carried. She couldn’t argue the fact that sticking around would certainly put Jinx in a dangerous position. Yet the thought of her sister disappearing again so quickly, so soon after finding her and with no promise of when she might see her next sat uneasily in her gut. Not that she could stop her... but if only she could convince her otherwise. There had to be some way to convince her sister to stay.
Vi mulled tiredly over her sister’s words, trying to find a hole in her logic, a chink in her armour, when another thought probed unbidden at her mind. Something Jinx had said that sat at odds with everything else. A something that Vi was just about to put her finger on... when Caitlyn beat her to it.
“We never told you his name was Urgot...”
Vi froze, words forgotten on her tongue. She saw the slight flinch in Jinx’s shoulders at Caitlyn’s observation, clocked the minute tenseness in her tiny body, heard the tremor in her flippant reply.
“Sure, you did...” Jinx turned back to Caitlyn, her arms folding again tightly, defensively, “Where else would I have gotten that?”
Snapping her gaze back to Caitlyn, Vi watched the woman she had come to know like the back of her hand, watched as the connections snapped into place one by one. Connections Vi couldn’t help making, as well.
“No, we didn’t,” Caitlyn pressed, face turning down into a scowl, her eye locked on Jinx as she took a shaky, determined step towards her, “We also didn’t tell you that he was supposedly locked up in Stillwater...”
“Well... I mean, it wouldn’t be hard to figure that one out,” Jinx insisted, “C’mon, it’s you two. ‘Piltover’s Finest’ always gets their man, am I right?”
“You’re lying,” Vi’s voice was deadly calm, frighteningly so. She let the dawning horror of realisation trickle over her. Like a freezing mist, it stole into the recesses of her denial, fortifying what her instincts told her to be true. She wanted to believe what Caitlyn was insinuating was insane. What her own mind was telling her was wrong. It had to be. And yet...
“Jinx...” Vi’s voice shook more than she wanted it to, her mind still warring with her but knowing she had to ask the question. She took a deep breath, steadying herself, and looked at her sister.
“Jinx... what did you do?”
Vi watched as Jinx took an unsteady step backwards, eyes wide as she looked between Caitlyn’s steely scrutiny and her own increasing suspicion. If she searched for it, really searched, she could almost envision a young Powder in the way Jinx’s lip quivered for a moment, the way her hands clenched and released at her sides.
“Alright... let’s just all just calm down a little here,” Jinx waved both arms in a placating gesture, retreating another step as Vi and Caitlyn slowly advanced towards her.
“I see no reason for us to be calm right now,” Caitlyn said icily, her ire thick in the dusty air.
“What happened... i-it wasn’t my fault,” Jinx’s voice was small, a slight shake in her words. Vi felt the familiar tendrils of rage building in her chest. She stepped closer, feeling rather than seeing Caitlyn by her side, bolstered by her presence.
“Jinx? What... the fuck... did you do!?”
Jinx baulked, the tension clear in her features as her gaze flicked from one angry visage to the other. She held her arms slightly aloft, looking ready to bolt, yet holding her ground as if she were prey staring down her predators. In a flash, her face hardened, defiance dancing in her eyes, fists clenching as she stamped her foot to the ground, the glowing fungi covering the walls of the mine bursting to life, emphasising the action with an eerie glow.
“You don’t understand!” Jinx railed as the glow of the fungus dwindled around her, “I know it probably wasn’t the best plan, but I had to do it!”
“You can’t just go waltzing around breaking dangerous criminals out of prison!” Caitlyn snapped, anger seething from between her teeth.
“Oh, please,” Jinx spat derisively, “Like you’re one to talk?”
“That was an entirely different situation and you know it!” Caitlyn warned lowly, jaw clenching tight.
“Was it?” Jinx glowered, sarcasm dripping thickly from her words, pink eyes narrowed as she stepped right up into Caitlyn’s space, “Was it really?”
“Enough!” Vi barked, drawing both of their attention, “You say we don’t understand? Well here’s your chance. What the fuck would you need someone like Urgot for!?”
“I... I can’t tell you,” Jinx faltered, before her face hardened again, teeth bared angrily, “I know you think I’m crazy, Vi, but I’m not freakin’ stupid! I would’ve put him back before you even noticed! But no-o... you two just had to go and mess it all up!”
“We messed it up!?” Vi thundered, her fury finally bubbling over. She lunged clumsily at her sister, her movements slowed by the weight of the gauntlet now dangling uselessly at her side. Jinx leapt deftly away, springing backwards as the clanking gauntlet reached for her a second time.
“No, wait!” she stammered, dodging yet another strike from Vi’s onslaught, “...waitwaitwaitwaitWAIT!”
“For what!? For you to finish the job!?” Vi swung again, her tired muscles stretched to their limit, fueled purely by rage, memories barraging through her mind at hyper speed. Memories of Caitlyn running. Falling. Of being bloody and bruised and broken and...
Vi bellowed as she swung her broken gauntlet in a wild arc, “You nearly got her killed!”
“But I didn’t!” Jinx shrilled as she ducked, the force of the blow whipping her hair up with the momentum. She rolled to the side as Vi’s other fist crashed down into the space she had just been occupying, the cavern walls blazing with light once more, “I fixed it, didn’t I!?”
“You wouldn’t have had to fix it if you didn’t screw it up in the first place!” Vi bellowed, unconvinced. She spun, grunting with frustration as Jinx slipped through her attempt at a grapple, “Argh! Will you just keep still!?”
“I will as soon as you stop and listen to me- ACK!” Jinx cried out as she stumbled backwards, tripped by something hard that crashed into her heels. In the corner of her eye, she caught the briefest flash of a self-satisfied smirk, Caitlyn standing some distance away, hunched over and holding her side from where she had skidded the Hextech rifle into the back of Jinx’s legs. The distraction was sufficient, though, Jinx barely turning back in time to register the metallic fingers that locked around her shoulder, throwing her to the ground with an echoing thud. She desperately threw up her hands, pushing haphazardly at Vi’s scowling face in a last-ditch effort for freedom.
“I don’t wanna fight you!” she pleaded, eyes panicked as she watched Vi’s frustrated, wobbly attempt to hoist her broken gauntlet, “I’m sorry! Okay!? I didn’t know he was gonna blow a gasket when he saw you guys. But I needed him, Vi! I needed him!”
“What the fuck for!? What could be so bad that you needed someone like him?” Vi roared, yet she stayed her hand, sheer physical and emotion exhaustion finally taking its toll, the fire falling out of her just as the broken weapon fell to her side. She kept her grip firm where she had pinned her sister, her breathing heavy, her heart even more so, her voice unsteady as she uttered, “What could be so bad... that you couldn’t come to me?”
Jinx clutched at the metal fingers that still gripped her tightly, her breathing equally strained, her eyes filled with uncertainty, her voice a whisper in the sudden quiet of the mines.
“I never meant for you to get hurt, Vi,” she rasped, shaking her head, “I was supposed to do this by myself. I... I have to fix it.”
“Have to fix what?” Vi growled, her grip tightening ever-so-slightly. Jinx hesitated, her panting breaths strained under Vi’s hold. Vi shook her once, firmly, demanding her answer.
“Have to fix what, Jinx!?”
Jinx inhaled a deep breath, releasing it slowly as she blinked up at her sister.
“I have to find him. I have to get him out...” Jinx finally relented, her eyes shining, “They... they’ve got him, Vi.”
“What?” Vi’s face twisted up in confusion, “Got who?”
Vi never got her answer as a blinding beam of light suddenly erupted in her periphery. With barely enough time to react, Vi released her hold on Jinx, raising her gauntlet as a blaze of brilliant heat collided with it, throwing her off her sister to send her cascading to the ground.
“Vi!”
The panicked cry cut through the ringing in her ears, steadying hands reaching her shoulders as Caitlyn tumbled to the ground beside her, “Vi! Vi, are you alright!?”
Sitting up with a grunt, Vi tried to hide the wince as her already bruised ribs ached in retaliation, Caitlyn’s hand supporting at her back. She shook the dazzling afterimage from her eyes.
“Just peachy, Cupcake,” she groaned, shuffling her legs under her in an unsuccessful attempt to stand. She was absolutely done with being thrown around today, “What the hell was that, anyway?”
“That was a warning,” an unfamiliar voice drifted to them across the open space, light and unsettlingly amiable despite the circumstances. Vi and Caitlyn whipped their heads to the strange voice, sitting in stunned, wary silence as they watched its owner extend their hand to Jinx, still sitting somewhat sprawled on the ground.
“You okay?” he asked, his voice gentle as Jinx raised an eyebrow to the proffered hand, rolling her eyes as she let the stranger hoist her up to stand at his side.
“Never better,” she scoffed, brushing the dust off of her clothes with a frown, “Took you long enough.”
“I was... delayed,” the stranger replied with a casual flourish of his hand, his gaze travelling over to the giant pile of rubble sitting forgotten across the tunnel, one cybernetic leg still laying motionless in the debris. Raising a questioning brow, he turned back to Jinx, “No good?”
“Nah...” Jinx huffed, shrugging, “It was a bad plan anyway... we’ll think of something else.”
“Hey!” Vi called out, annoyed at the casual exchange taking place as if she and Caitlyn were completely invisible where they sat, “Who the hell are you?”
She tightened her fist, the segmented components of the Hextech glove hissing and rattling threateningly in preparation. The stranger looked over, an unbothered smirk stretching across his face as he turned his full attention back to them.
“Nice gauntlet,” he chuckled, the blue of his eyes suddenly darkening menacingly, “But mine is better.”
He raised his closed fist, pointing it directly at Vi as the sleek, golden gauntlet that adorned it hummed to life. With a crackle, tendrils of static suddenly burst forth from within the shining stone set into the glove, bathing the walls with a soft, sapphire hue, the streamers of light slowly coalescing into a long, smooth arc either side of his forearm.
“Is that...?” Vi uttered, unable to take her eyes off the brilliant display.
“... some kind of Hextech?” Caitlyn finished for her, brows hardening into a frown as her hand drifted apprehensively across Vi’s front.
“It’s even better,” the stranger beamed, his eyes sparkling with pride, reflecting the light emanating from the peculiar weapon. He raised his other hand to meet the first, drawing a line back along his forearm as a glowing arrow of light materialised out of nowhere, flickering and pulsating beneath his fingertips. Vi pushed herself to her knees, dislodging Caitlyn’s hand as she brought her own gauntlet up in front of them protectively.
“Now,” the stranger’s jovial tone had dropped, laced with the smallest hint of malice, “Touch my girlfriend again and even those poor imitations of yours won’t be enough to save you.”
Vi buckled, her guard dropping for a brief moment, barely registering the surprised scoff from a similarly affected Caitlyn beside her as they both stammered in complete unison.
“G... Girlfriend!?”