Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Four children walk into a room filled with crates and go straight to the farthest wall. 

"I get my face bashed in, and she just gets a pass!" 

"Yep." 

A lever is pulled, and part of the room starts sinking; Gears shift, and the seemingly - albeit messy - room turns out to be a secret elevator that leads to the underground. The children bickering can still be heard from the top as they lower closer to the city of Zaun. 

Quietly, a young woman with pink hair emerges from her hiding spot in the now abandoned room. 

"Fuck," she mutters, looking at the now empty spot in the room. Where the fuck is she?

"Mylo."

"Powder." 

The preteen and the teenager glare at each other, both sitting on separate barstools that are on the far end of the bar. Nicely giving them both a good distance from each other. Claggor rolls his eyes at the two's antics and goes back to cleaning the tables. Someone has to clean after closing. And between the two stands their adoptive father, Vander. The boogeyman of the underground and a father that is very tired of his children fighting. 

Vander sighs, "Mylo and Powder." He gently puts down the glass he was cleaning and sends the two a look.

The two in question finally snap out of their angry staring contest and pout when they see the look he is sending them. 

"Where's Vi?" He pinches the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache form.

"She's in the room," Mylo answers grumpily, "says how we're not allowed back until bedtime cause she needs alone time." 

Powder scrunches her nose before she nods in agreement. As if it pains her to agree with Mylo. 

"Ok," Vander finally drops his hand from his face, "then can someone tell me why you're fi-"

A knock interrupts their conversation. 

They all go still. It has been an hour since they'd closed the bar down. And in Zaun - especially Vander's bar - knocking can mean two things, a friend or a foe is about to enter. And in Vander's case, when someone knocks after the bar closes, then it's probably the latter. 

"Children, hide, now," Vander cleans his hands with the nearest cloth, glaring at the door as he makes his way towards it. 

The knocking hasn't stopped at all. 

Claggor stops his cleaning and runs behind the bar. Mylo and Powder follow, putting their argument to the side.

And they wait with battered breath as the insistent knocking comes to an end. One second, Vander brings his fists up, ready to fight; two seconds, the children peak from where they hide behind the bar; three seconds the,

The door goes flying.

The kids' yelp in unison, ducking as the door goes flying their way.

Vander doesn't wait to see who broke his door and throws the first punch. Years of fighting take hold as he soon feels a punch also going his way. 

Block, punch, block, kick, rinse and repeat. 

Right, left, up, down-

"You're getting senile, old man," the person fighting him speaks. 

He falters. That voice. 

Pain blooms on his cheek as he slightly stumbles back from the hit. He drops his arms from their fighting position.

"V-vi?" Vander says instead of raising his arms back up, and finally takes a look at the person - no, woman, he had been fighting.

The woman in question grins and drops her hands from her fighting position. "Sup," she raises her hands towards her forehead and salutes mockingly.

"How?" Confusion laces his face, as he was sure his daughter was barely sixteen and not a young lady in her mid-twenties.

"Ah," Vi (?) rubs the back of her neck, "let's just say I'm not from this timeline, and I really don't have much time."

Vander gapes before tiredly getting the nearest chair, and sitting down, "ok. Let's say you are Vi." 

"Which I most definitely am, old man," Vi scoffs.

Vander sends the older Vi a glare with no heat in it, "then, please do tell - why would you kick the door down!" 

Older Vi finally looks sheepish as she answers. "Cause you weren't opening the door?" 

The kids watch in awe but a bit in hesitancy as they finally leave their hiding spot behind the bar. 

"That's Vi?" Mylo says in shock, looking at the weird scene in front of him, "but she's so… tall!"

"Like you're one to talk," Claggor adds as he was the taller of the bunch. Although this older version of Vi was a bit taller than him, he thought warily. Frightening.

Powder is stunned as she looks in amazement at this older version of her sister. She didn't think her sister could get any cooler.

"Mylo, Claggor," older Vi whispers as her eyes sweep over them before she reaches Powder. Powder gulps and stands taller to show this Vi that she is strong. "Powder." 

This seems to give the kids permission of some sort as all three start spouting questions like bullets. 

"If you're Vi, then what's my favorite food?!"

"If you're an older Vi, then can you tell me if I get big muscles in the future?!" 

"Will my inventions finally work?!" 

"Kids," Vander interrupts the flurry of questions, noticing how the older Vi pales, the more questions are yelled towards her. The kids quiet down, but they still look at the older Vi starstruck. 

Vander sighs, "Vi if I'm being honest, I'm still not sure if you are even from the fu-"

"Silco is back," Vi interrupts him and looks away at the alarmed look on Vander's face in shame. "He's- he's back, and he will destroy this family, and the undercity in a way that can't be fixed, Vander." 

"S-silco?" Vander stutters, shocked by the new information. "Are you sure it was Silco?!" 

Vi wears a pained look, "Van-"

A yelp cuts her off, which is then followed by several crashes. 

Vander stills before he quickly stands up from his chair, "Vi!" 

He takes off and puts the threat of Silco and the older Vi behind him - his daughter is in danger. 

He practically jumps down the whole staircase to reach the children's room. And nearly rips the door open in his flurry.

The scene in front of him stuns him momentarily. He snaps out of it quickly, and grabs the blue hair teen, and throws her off his daughter. 

"Are you ok?" He helps his Vi up, from where she had been choked by the girl. She takes in gulps of air and coughs as she does so.

"Pow- Jinx!" Older Vi yells, frantically looking at the scene they had run into. 

Vander sends her a look of confusion and a bit of anger - why is she yelling for Powder (Jinx? A nickname?). 

Then he stills when he hears giggling coming from behind him. 

"This- this is just a dream? Right?" More giggling.

killherkillherkillthem

"Well, no," the blue-haired girl stands up shakingly. "More of a nightmare, really," more giggling follows.

"Right, Vi." 

Vander finally looks at the teen he had thrown and blanches at the scene he sees. Standing, no more than a meter away, stood his youngest (?) daughter. His youngest daughter, who giggles as she holds a gun up to the older Vi. 

"Jinx, please. Put the gun down." The older Vi looks stressed as she tries to plead for this older Powder to stop this madness. 

Madness , maybe Vander is going senile. 

Older Powder just scrunches her nose before she says in a sing-song voice, "do you know how one can get out of a dream, sis? Just kill everyone around you!" She moves the gun from older Vi and aims it towards him. 

"The old man is within his days anyway~." 

She pulls the trigger, and Vi feels like everything slows down. Her mission was simple, really. And yet here she is, fucking up. 

The others are yelling, but she doesn't turn around to confront them. No, she runs towards her sister, aiming to stop her before she does something irreversible. (But she already has, hasn't she?) 

Blinding white light fills her vision before she can reach her sister.

But, just as quickly as they arrived - they disappeared; A bright light fills the room, blinding them all temporarily. And when the light dims out, where the two future counterparts stood were now empty. Leaving nothing to even say that older versions of older Vi and Powder were once there.

Current Powder sprints from where she stood, at the door and towards her older sister. And when she does reach her, she practically throws herself on Vi.   

"No- I wouldn't- I'm sorry," Powder sobs on her sister's clothes. Still reeling in the fact of what this older counterpart had done.

Vi, for her part, just flinches slightly to the new weight on top of her. She brings her sister closer, "it's ok, Powder. I'm ok, Powder," she whispers, and Powder just sobs louder. 

Like falling dominos, the others soon follow after and hug Vi to the best of their ability. Although they don't sob, Mylo and Claggor shake, while Vander just wears a mixture of determination and fear on his face as he hugs them all with his long arms and big figure. 

For a moment, they fall into a silence, only with occasional sniffing from Powder as she recovers from her fit. But, it being the underside, most things don't last as Vi finally speaks up. 

"Not that I don't mind being squished," Vi says sarcastically, although her words come out a bit muffled from where her mouth is resting on top of Powder's head (Powder giggles at that). "Can someone explain what the fuck just happened?!" 

"That," Vander chuckles, "is a long story, kiddo." 

Chapter Text

'Kill her!' 'Stab her!' 'Follow her!'

Jinx hummed in agreement to the last statement as she swung her legs off an edge. Back and forth, and she bobs her head to an imaginary song. Back and forth, she follows her sister as she walks into an alley as a shortcut.

Jinx giggles at where her sister had decided to go in her dream. Of course, she'll go there. 

She jumps off the roof she had been perched in hiding. Even in her dream, her sister is just so  predictable.

As she falls, she watches as Vi knocks on the pub's door, and not even a moment, later she is kicking the door in her impatience. 

Once Jinx lands - much to the rats in the alleyways displeasure - she quickly makes her way to the back of the bar. And if she remembers right, 

She squints her eyes, trying to make out a window opening. 

A flash catches her eyes. 

"There it is," she mumbles as she bends down to the dirty window. Now, how would she get in? 

'Shoot it!'  

She tilts her head and takes the voice's idea into consideration. 

She hums and then pulls out her gun. She shoots twice; the glass easily breaks. She puts her gun away and then jumps into her old room. The glass that hadn't broken had scratched her just a bit but nothing compared to what she does to herself.

Before she can look around, a punch goes her way. She catches a glimpse of pink. 

"Wow! You punch well for a kid, Vi!" She grins and dodges another punch that flies towards her face. A grunt is her only answer before a kick aims for her stomach. Again, she dodges. But now that she thinks about it, you can't really feel pain in a dream? So, why was she dodging, again? 

'Fun!' 'True.' 'Cause we can?' 

She hums in agreement, 'it is quite fun watching a younger Vi squirm.' Even if it is a dream…

The punching stops, and the younger Vi finally realizes whom she had been punching. 

"Powder?" The young girl whispers, dumbstruck. She finally comes to a stop and drops her arms from her defensive position.

"Sup, Tiny Vi!" Jinx chirps, sending the teenager a wide grin and a wave. She also drops from her fighting position, just to be fair, y'know.

"How- but you were just a kid! How did that even happen?!" Tiny Vi stutters out.

"Great question," she thought for a bit (yelling; fighting; arguing; and then a light) before shrugging. "Don't remember, although that's a dream for ya."

The girl gapes, "dream? But I'm not a dream!" 

"Well sure you are!" She tilts her head, trying to make herself look more innocent than she is.

The dream Vi just sends her a look of skepticism. 

‘How annoying’ ‘kill her?’

She ignores the voices for now; is there really a point in killing her  now . She'll kill her once-tiny Vi starts talking about her future girlfriend and slowly morphs into her older self. Usually, that's how her dreams end when she's with tiny Vi. 

Hmm, now that she thinks about it, where is older Vi?

"Powder!" A voice yells next to her ear, waking her up from her reminiscing.

Before Vi can even blink, she's on the floor. Hands wrapped around her throat, but no pressure.

"Oops," Jinx says as she realizes that she instinctively started choking younger Vi when she flipped her over. She lets go of her neck, and Vi takes a deep breath.

Vi looks up in fear towards the older version of her sister, where she now stands atop of her. "Fuck." 

Jinx tilts her head before grinning once again. 

"Hey Vi, you should really stop sneaking up on people you can get seriously hurt!" 

They both sit in silence for a moment as they both process the quick change of events.  

"Um," Vi starts, "can you get off me?" 

She tilts her head, and considers for a bit. On one hand, she could get off. On the other, 

'Boo!' 'Murder!' 'Boring!' 'More choking!'

She gets off. 

She watches in boredom as Vi gets up and immediately puts distance between them. It would hurt her feelings if she wasn't used to it, honestly.

"Boring!" She says and drops herself onto the floor into a sitting position. 

Vi cocks her head but does not speak - still looking at her uneasily.

"Even after I tried to murder you, you still look at me like that," she spits out with a tint of whining. "Truly, you never change." 

"I am so confused?" Vi finally says, furrowing her eyebrows.

"You and I both." 

They look at each other. 

A moment passes before she decides to start laughing. Tiny Vi hesitantly follows.

But as quickly as they start, the quicker it ends as they hear arguing above them. They quiet down but can only catch one word that makes her heart stop momentarily. 

"Silco… "

Oh, it's gonna be one of these dreams. Jinx frowns. She doesn't like how these dreams end. Well, there is one way to escape, she thinks as she turns her eyes back to the younger Vi.

"Silco?" Vi wonders out loud, but is cut off before she can ask more by being thrown to the ground again. 

She yelps in pain this time, but once again is being choked. 

"Sorry Vi," Jinx whispers without remorse, putting more pressure on her airways. But if Silco is in her dream, then she definitely doesn't want to be here when he comes in. And not if, but when. And there is only one way to get out of a dream.

Before she can even try to break the neck, someone grabs her. And then throws her right across the room. 

She hisses as her back hits a particularly sharp object.

"Pow- Jinx!" Someone shouts.

Ah,  she looks dazedly at the people who stand at the door. She tilts her head, watching as the faces warp except her sister's. That's where older Vi has been.

'Shoot them!' 'dead' 'lies' 'this is just a dream.'

"A dream?" she mumbles and then burst out into giggling 

Of course! This is just a dream! 

"Pow- Jinx!" Vi yells at her. 

Definitely a dream, she thinks as she watches Vander send a glare towards the Vi in the door. Vander would never glare at any version of Vi, she is sure of it. 

"This- this is just a dream? Right?" She giggles out. Well, this dream has run its course." 

'killherkillherkillthem'

She slowly pulls herself up, "Well, no. More of a nightmare, really." 

"Jinx, please. Put the gun down," Dream Vi pleads. 

How annoying, "do you know how one can get out of a dream,  sis ?" One, "just kill everyone around you!" She pulls out her gun again. 

Two,

"The old man is within his days anyway~." She aims her gun towards the old man and grins. It's been a while since she had killed Vander in a dream. Three.

She hears yelling as she pulls the trigger.

The voices cheer. 

And a bright light fills her vision.