Chapter Text
“I thought maybe you could love me like I used to. Even though I’m different.”
Before Cait even opened her eyes, she already sensed it in Jinx’s tone.
“But you changed too… So here’s to the new us.”
Something was wrong. In fact, a lot of things had already gone wrong but there was something very very wrong about how Jinx was moving. The way held the cannon with an air of resolve with little regard for anything around her, already had alarm bells ringing inside Cait.
That blue haired bitch was crazy, batshit crazy and when her hands were on such a weapon and on one powerful hex crystal, there were only so many things she could have been doing.
“What the hell are you doing!” Cait was taken aback by the energy in her own scream. Her throat burned and her eyes behind her.
Vi looked towards Cait and shot her a warning glance.
Just a warning glance. No, not just a warning. Are you terrified? There were only so many ways to describe the look that melted at a moment’s eye contact, revealing a panicked look underneath.
Cait opted to ignore it. “Stop! Whatever you’re doing it’s a stupid...” Her mouth was running. She had the energy to scream, orders, vulgarities and everything under the sun. Although she was attempting to get some movement out of it, something a little more productive, her attempts were coming up sporadically, one second, her right hand was pushing her up, the next second, her left hand was catching her as she fell back to the ground. “No!” Cait was doing what she could, in words, in actions.
Eventually, she made it on two feet, when the cannon had already been aimed towards the sky.
Would she make it in time? A split second could be a long time.
“Powder, stop!” Vi’s voice rang from next to her, a loud croak which sent a prickle down the back of Cait’s neck.
Suddenly, Vi was moving much faster than she was.
A split second could be a long time. A few seconds could fit an eternity. Then and there, Vi had time on her side. In those seconds, she had successfully taken apart the ropes and had sped up towards the edge of the cliff,
All in the few seconds Cait had to allowed herself to get her bearings
Jinx was just a second or two too slow. How pulling the trigger could have taken sweet sweet time, Cait couldn’t be too sure how, but that had been more than enough time for Vi, to pull her sister from behind, sending the two sisters tumbling back down onto the ruins of the play party.
Vi let out a pained cry which lasted a mere second, drowned out by the tumbling sounds, limbs hitting the dirt floor and a loud crash that sent the table toppling over.
“Powder….get yourself together…Are you fucking crazy… are you planning on doing?” Behind the chaos of a tussle, Vi’s attempts at any manner of subduing a crazed Jinx were almost intelligible,
Vi seemed to be struggling, her movements awkward and stilted as she held Jinx down on the floor, in some restraining hold. Jinx’s grip on Vi was hard, it shook and Vi’s groans were getting more and more audible by the minute.
“Let me go!” Jinx cried. “They’re fucking dead! Everyone in that building! They’re all fucking dead.” A snarl escaped her throat, each word a product of what could have been pent up and thinly veiled by silence and stoicism just a second ago.
Vi was managing at the least. If she had been hiding something herself, she didn’t show it. “I told you right, everything will be alright.”
“It won’t! They’ll take me away—”
“I won’t let them.” Four simple words that Vi had said firmly, her tone unwavering. In the grand scheme of things, it was a simple gesture but when every other lecture before that had been strangled, pained, seemingly produced in a desperate attempt to get Jinx to calm down, Vi had said that last sentence in complete and utter certainty.
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Jinx’s movement’s were only getting more and more unpredictable by the minute.
Cait was suddenly aware that she had been standing idly by in shock for a few seconds too long. She reached for the gun Jinx had left by the table. Should she be shooting? She had the marksman ability to know, she could easily aim at Jinx and shoot, even when the two were close together, right on top of the other.
Three seconds. She only had three seconds. Yet, it had taken five seconds to bend down and get it. A few seconds more to ponder a decision to shoot if necessary.
Five seconds was a long time, a very long time. Jinx was quick and it looked like Vi’s movement had slowed to something almost sluggish.
Soon Jinx was on top of VI. Her left hand was pushing Vi’s up on top of her with a vice grip. “What now? Sister? What now? Are you gonna sell me? Abandon me? LIke you did before? What other option do I have?”
Vi didn’t respond immediately. That few seconds of talking was an opening. Vi turned to her side, glancing at something...
To make eye contact with Cait? Possibly. If that had been her goal, she had been successful. But it wasn’t at all a pained look that pleaded for help. It was one look that pleaded something else, one shake of the head that had Cait pulling the gun away.
Don’t shoot. I beg—fucking please—don’t shoot. That’s my sister.
Your sister’s bat shit crazy. She’s gonna kill you. But before Cait could send that with glares, Vi was already looking up at her sister. “Powder, what do you want me to do, to prove to you I won’t sell you or abandon you?” It was a calm and collected question, a juxtaposition to whatever mixture of babble and clear venom was injected into each of Powder’s own.
The calm yet collected tension of the air between the two was contagious. “You can’t.” The emotion from just a second ago, had dissipated to thin air. No, not to thin air, but into a loud and bone rattling punch that connected at point blank range. The sound of her head hitting the stone underneath her, and a hushed yet painful breath. “You abandoned me once and you’ll do it again and again.”
“You believe that?” Vi drawled weakly
“You haven’t proven you can do anything else.”
VI let out a strangled breath. “I’m sorry.” Two words that only merited another bone crunching punch.
“Sorry is a cheap word.” Jinx punched again. “If you really meant it…” She held Vi’s head a few inches above ground by the chin. “Why abandon me in the first place?”
“I”m sorry… I won’t do it again.”
“There won’t be an ‘again.’” Jinx used that moment, or whatever frustration at the moment, to press her knee onto VI’s chest as she dropped her head back on the ground. She was a scrawny girl but surprisingly, even just simple pushing movements held a little too much power.
Vi opened her mouth to breathe but Cait could have sworn it was merely a feeble attempt to take in what air she could in gasps. There was a bone shattering sound, a strangled and painful cry. And coughing, lots of coughing.
At that point, blood was dripping by the side of Vi’s mouth, spilling onto the ground just in front of her. Weak and bloodied, lips turning a sickly shade of blue, even under the dim light, her eyes still glowed with life. With desperation? Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot.
Then what do I do? “Stop it! You’re killing your sister!” Cait yelled with pathetically pleading tone. She couldn’t have mustered anything better when her mind was swimming with a million ways to kill.
Jinx continued to aggravate wounds, fists thumping on Vi’s chest, blows connecting towards her head and Cait couldn’t help but notice a very slight detail.
Vi’s hands were balled into fists by her side and they have been since a while ago, some attempt at least to take each blow, each sharp pain that followed. With time, they were slowly loosening.
Falling limp? Was she dying?
Cait didn’t want to take any risks.“I’m sorry…” she whispered, only loud enough for herself but she had made sure to say it as she avoided that one last look from Vi.
Don’t shoot. For god’s sake, don’t shoot. She didn’t have to see those eyes a third time to know what they’d say.
If I don’t shoot, you die Vi. And I can’t have that. Cait held the gun in front of her, keeping it trained on JInx who was just a little too concentrated on Vi. Just pull the trigger. Cait told herself.
Hands trembling, she wrapped her fingers around the trigger.
Three seconds. Hesitation had her doing it in a long painful three seconds, instead of a split second. That was how hesitation killed the shot of one of the best marksmen in piltover at a moment when it was most crucial.
Vi had always been fast. Even under her own sister’s vice grip, she was quick. In those three seconds of comprehension, she pulled herself up, and jumped in front of her sister. At that point, the bullet was long gone from the spout of the gun.
Cait threw the gun aside, a last minute but futile attempt to throw the bullet off course.
All she could do was watch. But still, Cait’s mind was racing with a hundred other hypotheticals. She put one foot in front of her, ready to run ahead. For what?
Two bullets hit flesh right after the other before Cait could think of anything else. Jinx fell back on the ground, seemingly unharmed. Cait had been a little too nervous to check the trajectory then, so she searched for any signs of injury in Jinx, for a few long seconds.
Jinx leaned back on the leg of the table, seeming shell shocked, but each movement seemed a little less painful. She was shocked but very much unharmed.
Bullets hitting flesh was a familiar sound to anyone who trained with guns and Cait recognized them.
Two bullets had hit flesh and there was only one other person between them. By god, Cait wished there were twenty other people to take stock off. She ran towards Vi’s already prone figure.
“What the hell were you doing?” Cait managed to let out.” What...” What do you think this could have accomplished?
Would it have accomplished anything? At all? How Cait wished she had the luxury to ponder that for a second longer, if she just had a little more time. Vi’s face was bloodied, but still very much recognizable.
An expression of surprise manifested in minute movements, the twitch in her mouth, her eyes widening then a painful wince. She turned to the side and coughed some more.
Stop. Stop coughing blood. Vi was very much in danger of choking on her own blood. She needed to get Vi to a doctor quickly.
But Vi seemed distracted, completely occupied by something else, not by her dire state but by her sister who had leaned back on the wall, hands pressed to her head, in very apparent distress.
Vi was whispering something.
“Vi, don’t talk. You’ll make things worse. You’ll bleed out faster,” Cait whispered.
Self preservation must have been the last thing on VI’s mind. She was mouthing something else at her sister, then she was coughing again, more weakly that time.
Vi, what the--- Cait decided not to nag anymore. Vi was stubborn, headstrong and Cait couldn’t help but think, Vi could have been speaking just to disobey. Caitlin focused on surveying damage on ribs.
One broken rib. Two. Around four, Cait stopped counting. Instead, making the unanimous decision with herself that yes, regardless of how strong Vi was, how all powerful, without medical attention, she’d die.
“I won’t… let them take you.”
Cait made out that much of a sentence between coughs, ragged breaths and the panic that reverberated through her ears.
Don’t die. Don’t die. Don’t die. Cait held Vi’s already limp body close to her.
Cait couldn’t read lips but she read enough at least, that the slightest movement, meant that Vi was still very much alive, fighting.
“Hey, make sure not to go to sleep okay?” Cait was slapping her hand against Vi’s cheek, just hard enough to get her attention. Even the slightest movement was enough to have her wincing.
“Hey… Cupcake… Sorry about this….”
“About what? Why are you calling me cupcake?” Call me cupcake when you’re strong enough to push me to a wall bitch.
“Wish I could have spent more time…”
“More time doing what?” Do you think you’re dying? Do you really think you’re dying?
“If you find Powder again…”
If I find Powder again… Wait what? There were too many hints, but Cait only understood it then. The room had been silent, Vi had changed her tone just a bit as she said those last few words.
Jinx had gotten away.
“Please try. She’s a good sister.”
“Stop talking like you’re dying…” Cait scolded as she ran her own hands through Vi’s clammy skin, figuring out the best way to carry her up.
At that point, Vi had stopped talking, her own words shrunk to inaudible growns, to weak coughs and just an attempt to grip for Cait’s hand as Cait held one of Vi’s arm over her shoulder, an attempt to pull her up. “This is gonna hurt.”
Vi narrowed her eyes weakly at Cait, a very readable expression. Let me rest. Alarmingly, the rough movement of hefting Vi up, didn’t do much at all to disturb Vi.
“No Vi, if you wanna take care of your sister you do it yourself.” Cold harsh words, but Cait had no remorse left in her, no empathy at all. If Vi wanted to defend that crazed son of a bitch, she had better stay alive to do it herself.