Chapter Text
Caitlyn feels something hard against her cheek and her mind slowly catches up. The next sensation is the near burning in her lungs and the pulsing pain in her head. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it), Caitlyn has become familiar with coming to after being knocked out – either from blunt force or from pain. Nearly two months ago she would haven’t been familiar with it but two explosions, being hit from behind – twice, and pistol whipped (is that what you call it when you get hit with a Gatling gun?) has made unconsciousness an acquaintance at this point.
Then her mind flashes back to the moments before darkness took her. Her squad trying to destroy the container that held Viktor. The bomb failing to go off. Fighting Noxians as Grey filled the area. Then lights out.
She raises from the ground and a cough escapes her from the remnant of the Grey that entered her lungs – her eyes water and she swears if she comes out of this that the ventilation plan her mother had will be updated. Along with seeking punishment from the Council for her use of the Grey against the citizens of Zaun. But that seems like an impossible future as her eyes and ears take in the scene.
Her enforcer team on their knees and being held at spear point by Noxian soldiers.
‘Where is Maddie?’ the death of someone who trusted Caitlyn will weigh heavily on her until her death – which as she hears more footsteps approaching her death seems more likely.
Ambessa.
An intimidating woman even before someone betrays her. A terrifying woman when Caitlyn recalls her lieutenant’s death following Caitlyn’s betrayal. The golden mask and hardened expression tells Caitlyn that her death will be a slow and painful one.
She catches a glimpse of a shadow behind her and turns to the source. Her eyes land on a familiar weapon – one she already tried to kill Ambessa with less than 20 minutes ago.
The red-hair already giving away the individual even before the mask is removed. The mask comes off and she recalls Ambessa reminding her of the dangers of a distracted mind, Maddie whispering hopes and dreams while they lay together, and finally Maddie being the last person to hold the bomb before the dash to use it.
If she could catch her breath – fuck it still burns- she would spit at the woman’s feet.
The traitor salutes Ambessa and now she recalls talks of warmasons from Noxus – those sent to prepare places for invasion and destruction if leaders refused to surrender.
‘Too caught up in your vengeance to see the noose tied and placed around your neck, Caitlyn.’
Ambessa places her hand on the Maddie’s shoulder before her rifle is handed over like some war trophy. Ambessa mocking tone is drowned out as the clatter of dissembled parts of her rifle hit the ground. The warrior takes off her mask and Caitlyn knows she has seconds to act – to land a shot at her uncovered face – before she is executed.
Hopefully her training alongside Maddie didn’t help Maddie’s reaction time.
She grabs the barrel of the rifle and dodges out of the way before Maddie can shoot . She jerks the weapon out of the traitor’s grasp and sends a quick jab of the buttstock into Maddie’s face that sends her to the ground and she can hear Grayson’s voice.
“Begs the question, young Kiramman. What are you shooting for?” The last true protector of Piltover – one who made peace with the undercity. Someone she hoped to emulate before the desire for vengeance filled her. She can only hope stopping Ambessa will be the beginning of her atonement.
Using the same reactions as those on the day she met Grayson, Caitlyn uses the lever action and starts to aim. But the weapon is wrenched from her hand before a solid punch takes the wind out of her.
A sharp pain in her abdomen flares and in what likely looks like a twisted version of a mother’s embrace Caitlyn chin drops to rest slightly on Ambessa’s shoulders. She can feel Ambessa’s barely increased breathing in her ear – the warlord’s cheek against hers.
“Desperation is the doorway to oblivion, child,” her tone similar to their sparring matches. The pain continues and Caitlyn’s hands press to the area – fingers touch cold steel. Her knees give way and pain shoots through her body – her still aching lungs trying to pull air into them but the pain pulses with each breath.
“Let’s get this over with,” the rifle in Ambessa’s hand is tossed and Caitlyn knows Maddie caught it even through her pulse pounding in her ears.
Her body folds in on itself and she looks to confirm what she already knows. A punch knife to the hilt with its new home in her liver and likely her large intestine. The blood she feels surrounding the wound is minimal and stemmed by the blade still jammed in her body. Gasping from the pain coursing through her she only just makes out the sounds of footsteps approaching her.
“You’re a Kiramman, Caitlyn. We hold our heads high even in defeat,” she recalls her mother’s voice after one of Caitlyn’s early shooting competitions where she took third. Cassandra placing a gentle hand under Caityln’s chin to raise it from its lowered position before wiping the tears on Caitlyn’s cheeks with a beautiful smile.
“I did appreciate your warmth,” Maddie’s mocking tone is followed by the lever action charging. Caitlyn holds a curse to the traitor for fear she may hear her mother’s disappointed tone again before she dies.
The gunshot rings out and – the sounds of it ricochets several times. Caitlyn doesn’t know why but that makes her flinch. Every shooter knows a ricochetting bullet knows neither friendly nor foe – only those that are in its way.
The sound of someone hitting their knees fills the air before a weight is pressed onto her back. The sudden weight sends another pulse of pain from her perforated side. Then Maddie is on the ground with a bullet wound to her head.
The sound of the massive doors to one of the Hexgate terminals opening draws Caitlyn’s eyes away from the dead body next to her. There standing like a mythic goddess is Mel. Pain coursing through her and dust in the air Caitlyn chalks the golden glow from her eyes as a trick of the mind.
Mel steps out and the enforcer thanks whoever is listening for the return of the closest thing to a sister she ever had. Someone she greatly missed these last few weeks.
“If you care for me at all, spare their lives. There is nothing to gain from this senseless bloodshed.”
“Still a fox,” Caitlyn can see the warlord shaking her head slightly – something her own mother did when she was disappointed in Caitlyn.
“Soldiers,” with a simple word the Noxian’s at the perimeter ready their spears and shields. Ambessa starts to open her mouth to give her next command before the sound of music fills the air. A crude looking airship comes into view as Firelights fly out.
The Noxians prepare for the incoming attackers from the air before numerous Zaunities come out of colored smoke and attack.
Caitlyn tries to stand when she sees her enforcers get free and gather their weapons but the sharp pain in her side is too much. The fight is brief and then one of the impromptu-cannons fires on the container that Viktor was supposed to be in.
As the dust clears Caitlyn just manages to get to her feet and can see Ambessa standing in front of the shattered and utterly empty orb. The warrior turns to her with a victorious smirk.
“Where’s Viktor,” is whispered from Mel before eerily screeching fills the air. The Noxian soldiers raise their red banners in a box around Mel, Ambessa, and Caitlyn. Caitlyn can see around her enforcers and the Zaunite reinforcements all being held by things just like what Jayce showed them in the Council chamber, but none cross the red banners.
“Mother, look at the price of your ambition. You’ve sacrificed everything,” Mel takes several steps towards Ambessa and Caitlyn takes a steadying step herself.
“Rictus. Kino. This city I built for our family,” Mel pleads with her mother.
“Vision”
Ciatlyn’s mind flashes to Ambessa’s training. Pressing the importance of a vision. Caitlyn sees Piltover and an elevated Zaun working side by side to recover. Her father – still mourning but offering to help at the medical areas around the Hexgate. Mel and Jayce - her siblings in their own rights. And Vi.
Vi – who she would do anything to make up for her own misgivings. Who held her and begged her to stay safe. With her loved ones in mind, she knows that she has to fight. Caitlyn starts to skirt around Ambessa to get closer to Mel.
“If it was for us, you wouldn’t have fought me,” Caitlyn can see Ambessa’s smirk as the warrior looks at her and then Mel.
“You are no Medarda,” Mel grounds out glaring at her mother. Caitlyn sees Ambessa’s stifled chuckle and knows Ambessa will say something to make Mel, herself, or the two of them act rash – it was what Ambessa drilled into her during numerous sparring sessions.
“You remember you-” Caitlyn cuts her off with a punch. She can feel the stab wound pulse with pain. She only hopes that the surprise attack will make Ambessa reckless to even out the odds – unlikely but one can hope.
“Shut up and fight,” she shouts to Ambessa before kicking a spear to the warrior. Ambessa easily catches it, and Caitlyn feels the knife in her side dig deeper as she leans over to grab the other spear on the ground. Her breathing harsh as the pain rips through her.
Ambessa takes a breath and in a second the spear that was in her hand flies towards Caitlyn. But before it can embed itself in her head a golden lined sphere appears in front of her and sends the spear into a Noxian soldier’s chest. And the golden sphere dissipates before her eyes Ambessa’s kicks snaps Caitlyn’s spear in two. The momentum carries the boot into her abdomen and pain flares from the stab wound. A brief touch to the area tells her the knife is still in – likely the only thing keeping her from bleeding out right now. But she knows Ambessa will continue targeting it – as she would any weakness.
Weaponless, Caitlyn tries to catch her breath and Ambessa puts on her mask. She clinches her fist, and Caitlyn sees the same runic pieces that Rictus used to deflect Jinx’s hex-powered pistol. Mel sends several golden strands to Ambessa which gets absorbed by the runic pieces on her wrapped arm.
“Might.”
The warlord’s voice echoes in her ears and Caitlyn grabs the shattered upper section of her spear and charges at Ambessa. The warlord catches her arm before absorbing another attack from Mel.
‘Maybe don’t piss off the warmonger three times you size, cupcake’ Caitlyn can hear Vi’s teasing tone as Ambessa’s right leg goes over her head. The left leg smashes against her cheek which sends Caitlyn to the ground. Her likely fractured cheekbone hits the ground at the same time the knife in her side does. The pain that was pulsing is now explodes from the stab wound in excruciating waves. But thankfully she didn’t land on the broken spear in her hands. She doesn’t need another stab wound.
She hears Mel send more attacks at her mother and Caitlyn scrambles to her feet and ducks under one of the golden attacks. She slashes Ambessa’s thigh – blood trickling from the wound. She takes another swipe but Ambessa’s battle tested reflexes dodges out the way before sending another kick to her abdomen.
She is knocked back a little but keeps her footing and charges at Ambessa after Mel takes a knee to the chest. The warrior sidesteps her and sends a heavy kick to the back of her leg before backhanding her then slamming the golden mask into her forehead. Caitlyn feels blood flowing down her face from the fresh cuts and her bleeding nose.
Again, she charges at Ambessa, but a dodge is followed up by another kick – this one aiming for the knife in her side. She goes to the ground in a heap – able to catch herself before landing on the knife again. Her breaths come in ragged gasps and black spots flicker in her vision. She can hear a pained noise from Mel not too far behind her.
Blood and sweat drop to the ground and heavy footfalls approach. Caitlyn grabs the spear head and pushes herself to her feet. She charges at Ambessa again. Instead of dodging, Ambessa grabs her hand with the spear head before elbowing her in her outstretched arm. The arm folds in on itself like a blade of grass in heavy winds. Ambessa’s uses her trained muscles to press the spear closer to Caitlyn’s face – particularly her eye.
‘You won’t be able to overpower her, cupcake. But you’re crafty when you need to be.’ She recalls Vi’s words before they split up. Then Ambessa’s voice comes in again.
“Guile.”
A golden shield from Mel appears but the runic pieces around her arm wrap glows as Ambessa presses the blade ever closer to Caitlyn’s eye.
The runic pieces!
‘Wait for the right moment, Caitlyn,’ her mother whispered to her during one of their marksmanship training outings, ‘when the moment is right – take your shot.’
With a marksman’s quick-thinking Caitlyn takes in her situation. Her right hand and the spear are out of commission as Ambessa currently has them in her grasp. Her left hand is trying to hold off Ambessa’s attempt to stab her and even if it wasn’t she won’t be able to remove the runic pieces without-
Without a knife.
Like the one keeping her from bleeding out.
‘Sacrifice.’
Her mind flashes to her mother the first time Caitlyn shot a bullseye. Her look of pride when Caitlyn came in first in a competition. The carefully hidden joy when Caitlyn beat Sherriff Grayson – someone the Kiramman family deeply respected.
“What are you shooting for?”
Vi’s face flashes in her eyes again and Caitlyn only hopes the woman will find happiness.
Caitlyn drops her left hand, and grabs hold of the knife in her side as the spear stabs into her eye. But a quick turn to the slide means the blade slices deep in the eye before exiting. Her vision falters and Caitlyn can only hope it lasts long enough to do what she needs to. She quickly pulls the knife from her side and the instantaneous flow of blood from the wound lets her know that she won’t have long. Quickly she reaches out with the knife and cuts the arm wrap before grabbing it.
Blood and another viscous fluid pour down her cheek before falling into a pool on the ground. Her eyes – well unharmed eye - catch sight of the runic pieces and the arm wrap next to the blood covered punch knife.
“You fought well, child” Ambessa voice sounds almost proud, but Caitlyn doesn’t care. Even if she bleeds out, she knows Mel can beat Ambessa now that the field has been evened out.
“Now!”
“A wolf has no mercy,” red – not the familiar gold Mel has been wielding- floods the area and Caitlyn watches as Mel starts floating in the air for an instant before she gently lands. Ambessa lets out a gasp before collapsing into Mel’s arms. Caitlyn watches the closest thing to a sister hold onto her mother until Ambessa’s form goes lifeless.
Caitlyn collapses to the ground and the sounds of several spears slam into the ground.
Then everything goes dark and the pain ebbs away.