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“If anything ever happens to me, remember that I’ll always love you.”
A promise. A whisper. Floating on the breeze. Carried in the shadows. Always there. A heartbeat. Constant. Pounding. Shouting. Repeated. Always repeated. Always there.
Those words were said a thousand times. Over and over and over. A vow. A promise. An oath. There wasn’t a day that went by when they weren’t said. When they weren’t meant.
“Why did you leave me?”
“Because you’re a jinx! Do you hear me? Mylo was right!”
“Vi! Please come back. Please! I need you! Violet! Please!”
Until the promise was shattered. Broken. Smashed into a thousand pieces. Smashed by fire and explosions and dead bodies. By grief. By rage.
Vi rolled over onto her side. She curled up as she stared at the wall in front of her. The blank, concrete wall. No sister to share a bed with; no sister to laugh and giggle at. Just the wall. A blank, hard, unforgiving wall.
“If anything ever happens to me, remember that I’ll always love you,” she whispered. “No matter what, Pow-Pow.” She blinked away tears. “Even if we get separated. Even if things go bad. Even if—even if—I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She curled up on the cot.
She spent her days pacing her cell, pacing the lines. The routines, the checks, the guards, the other inmates. She punched the air. One, two. One, two. Dodge. Swerve. Again. One, two. One, two. Dodge. Get better. Faster. Faster.
“Powder!” She bolted upright from her sleep, cold sweat dripping down her face. Vi could still see it. The monster. The face, the inhuman creature. The creation Silco had made with his drugs.
Vi punched the air. Again. Again. She saw Silco’s goons. His minions. Silco himself. She beat them all. Then beat them again.
The guards liked to punch her around; liked to rough her up a bit. She was younger than most of the other inmates. Vi punched back. She fought back. She refused to go down without a fight; without getting in a few hits. Sometimes she bruised them up as much as they did her. Sometimes less. Sometimes more.
Back to the cell she’d get tossed. Locked in the tiny concrete box. Left to practice. Left to fight the air again. Fix her mistakes. Make things right. Make it go the way it should’ve gone.
“Those kids look up to you, you know,” Vander pointed out. His voice always echoed in her mind. A ghost; a constant presence. Her mentor. “You say ‘run’, they run. You say ‘swim’, they dive in. You say ‘light a fire’ and they show up with oil. But whatever happens: it’s on you.”
“I know,” she whispered. Vi pressed her forehead against the wall. “I know. I tried. I really tried. I really thought we had it.” She paced around the cell. “I keep going over and over it. Again and again and again.” She faced the empty cot. “Vander—I tried.”
“And you lost them. Just like I lost your parents when I led them across the bridge. When I led our people across the bridge. War takes lives, Vi. No one wins in the end. No one. But you didn’t lose Powder.”
“Silco—”
“You saw Mylo’s body under the rubble. You saw Claggor’s blood. You saw me dead in the street. You didn’t see Powder dead.”
“I saw him though. He had a knife. He was there. So was Powder. She couldn’t defend herself!”
“What was it that you used to say to each other?”
“If anything ever happens to me, remember that I’ll always love you.” Vi let out a sigh. “Powder—I’ll always love you. No matter what.” She closed her eyes. “And you’re not dead. You’re a fighter. You always have been. I’ll find you. Even if I have to search all over the Lanes—all over every rock and crevice that exists, I’ll find you. Even if I have to beat the answer out of Silco, I’ll find you. I’ll get out of here. I’ll find you. I promise.”
XXXXXXXXXX
“If anything ever happens to me, remember that I’ll always love you.”
She turned the flare over in her hands. She was tempted to light it. To see if it would work. If it could work.
Missing someone? Missing sister? Dead sister. Dead Mylo. Dead Claggor. Dead Vander. Dead sister. Dead. Dead. Dead.
“You don’t know that,” she snapped. “I searched. You didn’t. You were stuck under there. She wasn’t.”
Silco said—
“He says a lot of things.” She sighed. “Always says lots of things.”
She doesn’t love you. Doesn’t care about you. All lies. Always lies. Liar. Liar. Lies.
“Shut up!” she threw the flare at him. “You don’t know Vi. She’s out there. She has to be.”
She left you. She left. Left you behind. Dead sister. Dead.
“She’s not—”
She left the jinx. Left the jinx behind. Couldn’t stay with the jinx. Didn’t want the jinx. Never loved the jinx. Never wanted the jinx. Always jinx everything. Always jinx. Always jinx.
“Stop it.” She held her head in her hands. “Stop it. Don’t you ever stop? Don’t you ever leave me alone?”
Jinx. You’re a jinx. You’re a jinx. Always jinxing things. Always messing up. Should’ve stayed behind. Should’ve stayed at home. Always a jinx. Jinxes every job. Never trust a jinx.
“I’m not a jinx!” she screamed. “I’m not a—I’m Powder. Powder. I’m not a jinx. I’m not—I’m not a—” She wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “Just go away. I just wanted to help. I was just trying to help.”
“You’re a jinx!” Vi shouted at her. “You’re a jinx! Do you hear me? Mylo was right!”
“You don’t mean that. Vi—you don’t—it isn’t true. You said you’ll love me. Always. No matter what happens. If anything ever happens to me, remember that I’ll always love you. That’s what you said.”
“You’re a jinx!”
Jinx.
Jinx.
Jinx.
“Stop it. Please. I’m not—you’re wrong. You’re lying. Stop it. Go away. Just go away.”
XXXXXXXXXX
“If anything ever happens to me, remember that I’ll always love you.”
Vi ran toward the smoke. The bright blue smoke from the flare. Her lungs ached for oxygen, her muscles screamed at her, her heart pounded so loud she could hear the blood in her ears.
None of it mattered.
Wherever you are: light it up and I’ll find you.
Powder. Pow-Pow. I’m coming. I’m coming. Hang on. I’m coming.
She skidded to a halt on the roof. She had always seen her little sister; the scared kid she had last seen. She hesitated. Vi swallowed. She knew years had passed while she had been in Stillwater, but not like this. Not enough to realize that the little sister she had left behind had grown; had changed.
“Powder?”
She turned to face her. “Vi?”
And she knew. She saw it. Something years couldn’t erase; something time couldn’t change. Vi ran over and wrapped her arms around her.
“Powder,” she breathed. “Pow-Pow. You’re alive. You’re okay.”
“Are you—are you real?”
“Yes.” She stepped back. “Yes. It’s me. I’m real. I’m here. I promise. It’s really me.”
Tears fell from her eyes. “Vi. You’re—I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Things changed when you left—I changed.”
“I know. You had to survive. We both did. But remember what we used to say? What we always told each other?”
“If anything ever happens to me—”
“—remember that I’ll always love you.” Vi smiled. “And I do. That’s never changed. It never will. We’re together now. That’s all that matters.”
XXXXXXXXXX
“If anything ever happens to me, remember that I’ll always love you.” Jinx scoffed. “That’s what you always said. That’s what you made me believe. That no matter what happened—to you—to me—that you’d always love me. And I thought that maybe you could love me. The way you used to. The way it used to be. Even though I’ve changed. Even though things are different.”
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the people around them. Caitlyn on the floor, unconscious. Silco in the chair, dead. Blood still dripping to the floor. Vi, tied to the chair, eyes fixed on her. On Jinx.
“But you changed too,” she realized. “Maybe a little. Maybe enough. But you’ve changed. What we said—what I heard—it doesn’t matter now. Things happened to you; things happened to me.” She felt tears escape her eyes. “But you’ll never love me again, will you?” She stood. “So, here’s to the new us. To things changing.”
XXXXXXXXXX
Vi stared in horror at the ruins. At the smoke, the fire. Piltover. Gone. Destroyed by the rocket. Destroyed by Jinx.
“It’s gone,” Caitlyn whispered. “She’s destroyed it. Piltover. The council—they’re all—no.” She fell to her knees. “No. No. No.”
Vi turned. She saw the figure atop the roof. The lone figure as the light from her machine faded.
If anything ever happens to me, remember that I’ll always love you.
Jinx didn’t just destroy Piltover.
She destroyed the girl who had loved Vi. The girl who had spent hours working away at contraptions and machines and ideas. The girl who had tried to help—who had only wanted to help. The girl Vi had spent years and years waiting to get back to. Hoping and praying and wishing and begging to still be alive. To somehow survive; just survive until Vi could get out. Survive until Vi could find her again.
Jinx destroyed Powder.
She destroyed Vi’s sister.
She destroyed the person Vi loved; the person Vi had always loved. No matter what happened to her.
Now there was only Jinx.
XXXXXXXXXX
She stared at Vi. Even from here, she could tell what Vi was thinking. She always knew what Vi was thinking.
If anything ever happens to me, remember that I’ll always love you.
“Liar,” she whispered. “You never loved Jinx; only Powder.” She turned to leave. “No more Powder for you to love. You made your choice. You lied. You never loved me. Never. Now we both know the truth.”
She left the building. Left the tea party. Left Vi. Left Caitlyn. Left everything.
Goodbye, Vi. Goodbye, Powder.
Only Jinx now.