Chapter Text
“…and well, that’s why I rebuilt all of this!” Powder gestured to the device next to her, built out of a combination of memory and notes left behind. “Sure, I made a few adjustments, changed a few equations, and had to rewire everything to fit the new energy source, but I’m sure it will be fine!”
Her audience, as usual, was silent.
“I know, I know. The dimension hopper Ekko had the genius ex-councilman Heimerdinger and yours truly to rediscover everything and I did this by myself so something is bound to go wrong but it’s not like I could actually ask someone ‘hey, turns out multiverse theory is true and I wanna cross the streams, you in?’ And besides, changes had to be made! It’s not like I could do what Dimension Hopp-actually that’s too long, gonna call him D.H.E. instead, what D.H.E. did and possess another Powder’s body! That would be horrible for that dimension’s Powder and Vi! Plus, with the new power source, using that much power might cause everything to destabilize and…and…” Powder blinks back tears, forcing herself to take deep slow breaths. “Anyways, this device should open a viewing portal to the dimension D.H.E. came from, like some sort of video tube. It might run the risk of cross dimension contamination but it shouldn’t be that harmful! I just…I just need to see you with my own eyes Vi. That’s all. So please…” Powder felt the tears in her eyes swell again as she looked at the pink-haired doll again. “Please find it in your heart to forgive me for using what killed you.”
Vi, as usual, was as silent as the grave.
Powder sighed. She knew she should have involved Ekko, her Ekko, but she didn’t want to risk his safety. The poor boy flipped between happy that she was finally wanting to tinker something by herself to sad that he wasn’t included. He did agree to leave her alone and for that she was grateful. Powder made sure to spend some time with him and between working in the device and shifts in the bar (though Vander suspiciously seemed to constantly find someone else to cover her shift), but she planned to really make it up to him later. Ekko was too good for her honestly. He helped keep her stable and alive after the accident. He honestly deserved better than her…” No.” Powder shook herself hard. “Silco and Vander and Clagger and Mylo and Ekko are with me because they want to be. I’m not a burden.” Powder sighed again. The years of therapy helped, but that abyss was always so, so close. “Genius and madness, two sides of the same coin.” She looked at the device, hooked up to the hex crystal and nodded. “Alright, it’s showtime.”
Powder pulled a series of levers as the device began to receive power. Blue motes started to form everywhere. “Alright, everything’s good so far. No jinxes yet.” She then pulled another lever and looked towards the far platform. D.H.E. and Heimerdinger made an apparatus for dimension travel the last time and Powder did a lot of work to replicate it. The Wild Rune formed again, spinning its wonderfully chaotic pattern. This time however, it didn’t expand wide enough to fit a person, instead achieving something half its size.
“Ok, power levels are stable for now, all safety capacitors are working as intended.” She could hear her inner self scoff at that word. Nothing about this was anywhere in the realm of safe. Still, she doubled checked to make sure all cables were tightly secured and bolted to the floor. Then she pulled a lever she added to the design. The Wild Rune glowed with an intensity that Powder was forced to shield her eyes even with her goggles. When the light finally dimmed enough for her to look again, the Rune now projected a rectangular surface. Currently it was white, but an image began to take shape.
Powder gasped. She was once again grateful for the mural D.H.E. made. “Vi.” Her eyes began to water at the sight. That image of her breathing would be with her forever. Powder tried to catch every detail over her sister. Trying to see what D.H.E.’s mural didn’t get. The fact that Vi had dyed her hair black but the natural red was coming back. The armor and gauntlets she was wearing. Her eyes on the verge of tears.
“Vi! What are you…?”
So focused was Powder on her sister that she didn’t even see the person who just spoke to Vi until she spoke. She saw a girl with badly cut blue hair, her skin marked with Janna wind tattoos and graffiti. And despite her eyes being purple, Powder took a step back in shock at the sight. “That’s…me?” D.H.E. didn’t say anything about his own time, which made sense since we was keeping it a secret, but the difference was staggering. “What even happened…?” Powder takes note of the place the two are in. It appeared to be the interior of a large metal ball, almost like a clock tower without any internal machinery. Powder had never seen such a room in Piltover or Zaun.
Vi suddenly fell to her knees. “Vi?” The alternate Powder asked. “You can’t save him.” Tears fall from Vi’s face as she reaches a hand to touch something Powder can’t see. The tears begin to flow openly before suddenly something blocks her view and knocks Vi to the ground.
“VI!” Suddenly whatever has Vi pinned started attacking with its claws. Whatever type of wolf man monster it is, Powder doesn’t know but she knows her sister is in danger. Before she can do anything on her end suddenly the wolf man thing is knocked away in a flash of blue and purple. Powder adjusts the device so she can see what happened. The tube now faces downward, showing the flimsy platform Vi was on. With her gauntlet she grabs onto the alternate Powder. The wolf man grabs alt Powder’s leg. For one terrible second Powder watches as her alternative self says “Always with you, sis” before punching the gauntlet, freeing a blue orb. The gauntlet detaches and the Janna Tattoo Powder begins to fall.
Powder runs to the collections of wires and buttons and begins to make impromptu calculations and adjustments. The Rune starts expanding even larger and shuddering in instability but there’s no time to care. Powder knows the pain of losing a sister and she won’t let that happen here. With far less certainty that this will even work, she adjusts the power supply to full and turns off all safety. And then she reaches out…
********
“And welcome to Piltover, the City of Progress! We hope you enjoy your stay!” the pilot cheerfully stated as the dirigible opened up its doors to let the passengers out. Amongst the bustle of passengers eager to be on solid ground once again walked a young lady. The girl quickly tightened the cowl around her face as she rushed forward, hoping to leave this crowd before anyone recognized her unfortunately famous face, especially if news managed to reach Piltover before she did.
The lady focused all of her attention inward, to make sure her magic didn’t show. While Piltover was infinitely better to mages than her home nation, it still looked down on them. Piltites far preferred relying on innovation and technology, always racing toward the next new thing. Still, it beat the imprisonment and execution that would have awaited her back in Demacia, even with her prestigious family name. As she walked out from the station and onto the streets, she suddenly heard a shout.
“Extra! Extra! Brutal mage criminal escapes execution in Demacia!” The young lady freezes, before taking deep breaths and realizing the voice is coming from a young town crier. “Traitor Sylas slated to be executed before using a magic spell to kill all in vicinity! Believed to have kidnapped one of the young scions of House Crownguard!” The crier seemed to notice the young lady staring. “For more information, please buy our evening paper! Only 1 silver cog!” The girl pulled out a large bundle of paper and held it in front of her in one hand and an empty palm in the other.
The young lady blinked before reaching for her pouch. She quietly came close to the girl and placed a large gold coin in the kid’s palm before closing it, making sure no one else saw it. “Keep it,” she said with a wink. The girl nodded, pocketing it and giving the paper to her.
The lady sat down on a nearby bench and read the paper. On the front page, in large font, was “Ally Demacia marred by Terrorist Mage!!! Lady Lux of House Crownguard assumed alive but kidnapped!!!” So that’s how they are playing that. Makes sense. Can’t have any truth that could harm reputation to come out. The lady read on. “Sylas of Dregbourne, mage and criminal of Demacia, was slated to be executed publicly last week. The vile fiend instead had found a way to break his bonds and cast a spell that left the entire crowd dead. However, Lady Lux of House Crownguard was missing amongst the dead and is assumed to be alive. Prince Jarvan IV vows to rescue the young scion and capture the malicious mage. Anyone with any information about either the vile criminal or the missing scion is to contact the Enforcers. (full story page 7)” The young lady eyes stayed on the page, unable to process what she read. Vaguely she heard a conversation happening near her.
“Terrible, just terrible. Just shows what happens when you let mages run rampant like dat.”
“Doesn’t Demacia preemptively imprison mages for existing? Don’t know about you, but that just seems like a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off.”
“Yeah, but that don’t make killing an entire crowd justifiable. If dis Sylas bloke just wanted to escape, why did he do dat?”
“I’m just saying that if I was imprisoned for something out of my control, I’d have resentful feelings too. Janna’s sails, I still have problems with topside even with the last few years. My uncle was fully pardoned for a false arrest and he still spits whenever he sees a cop. Besides, the real answer isn’t to enslave mages, but to make us non-magic folk on their level.”
“Still, I can’t imagine the prince taking this well. Wasn’t the young Lux supposed to be his betrothed?”
“What!?” The lady couldn’t stop herself from loudly yelling that out. The two men looked at her with surprise. “Oh…er…sorry, I…used to live there. This is the first time I’m hearing of this.”
“Ah, yeah, it was in last week’s paper. Surprised you didn’t hear about it. Apparently, the union was to help strengthen the bond between House Crownguard and the Royal House.”
The other man spoke up. “If you ask me, given the timing, this is all highly suspect. What is the apparent prince consort even doing watching some random bloke die?”
“Who knows what goes through the minds of the nobility? If you ask me, they keep their heads in the clouds too often. So long as it doesn’t concern the regular folk, I don’t give it much mind.” The two turned to the lady. “Well, hope that helped Miss…?”
“…Lu…cille. My name is Lucille.” The lady replied. “Thank you for your information.” She quickly got up and tried to walk away before…
“MAGIC!”
The lady froze before she realized that people were pointing behind her. She turned around to see a bright blue light shot out in the sky. It came from across the river, where the other half of the city lay. All around the light, magic sigils rapidly flashed and multiplied.
“Blimey! Dat’s coming from da Undercity!”
“Uncle!”
The two man she saw dashed away. The lady just stared in shock. It was so similar and so different to what she saw at the execution. Though she supposed it helped that she wasn’t the cause this time. She only prayed that there were less dead this time.
The lady turned away, planning to use the paper to find a place to stay before stopping. No, sticking your nose where it didn’t belong got you into this in the first place. But, heart realized that she should investigate. Not only to help anyone who might be hurt, like she did amongst the Illuminators, but because that magic felt of a similar scale as what Sylas made her do. And if she could learn more, maybe she could control this curse.
So, Lux of House Crownguard made her way to the Undercity.
********
Powder was breathing heavily, thankful she was still alive. She was blown backwards into the wall. She looked around. It seemed like the damage only happened to the device itself, and even then, the magical crystal was still intact and currently inert. So much for secrecy. The rune did what she wanted to do, before expanding and loosing its energy as a from of light, which Powder was sure could be seen for miles. She then turned to what lay over the wreckage of the apparatus that contained the wild rune. Powder, or rather, the Powder from D.H.E.’s dimension. Unconscious, but breathing. As she lay there, one thought was running in her head.
What have I done…