Work Text:
But if you send for me, you know I'll come
And if you call for me, you know I'll run
I'll run to you, I'll run to you
I'll run, run, run
Old Money - Lana Del Rey
***
Her sister was gone, and Vi couldn’t find air in the world worth breathing.
So instead she just screamed, a howl that tore from the gaping black hole that, just seconds ago, had housed her beating heart.
The image of her sister, slipping from her grasp, falling from sight like lead in dark water… Vi’s whole body lurched.
Her entire life, everything Vi had ever done had been for her. For Powder. All those years in Stillwater, the only thing that kept her from giving up completely was the thought of getting back to her. Finding Powder, who Vi knew was harboured somewhere within the cacophonous walls that was Jinx. Her heart only beat, her lungs only breathed, for that belief.
Until it morphed into something else. Something twisted and unfamiliar that left a bad taste in her mouth — hunting her. Ending Jinx, preserving the memory of Powder. And then more recently, everything had been to save her. Powder, Jinx – whoever she wanted to be. Save her from herself, from Piltover, from Zaun.
But she’d slipped away, and there was nothing that Vi could do. Jinx was dead.
Vi’s guttural sobs echoed throughout the chamber. She felt the ledge shake with them, but couldn’t bring herself to care.
For so long, she’d kept her emotions contained inside of her. She’d always been the strong one, the brave one, the one who kept everything in check. Even in Stillwater, even those months spent in that underground pit fighting ring. But now, her screams and cries poured out of her like a thunderstorm, rolling and persistent. There was no stopping them, not anymore.
She was weeping for every one of them : Vander, Jinx, Powder, Mylo, Claggor, Loris, Mom, Dad… their names a long litany spinning through her mind, as sobs ripped from her throat.
But then another name swum into Vi’s mind. Like a soft reminder, like her universe was centring – Caitlyn.
Yes, Caitlyn.
Caitlyn was everything. She was, and had been even before Vi truly realised it herself. She was the light at the end of all of this, she was what Vi had been fighting so hard for. She was a life.
A life — such a simple thing that so many took for granted, but something that seven months ago, trapped in the confines of Stillwater, Vi had not thought possible.
Caitlyn had to be okay. If she’d lost her too… Well, Vi couldn’t stomach the thought.
“Vi!”
She turned at the voice, recognising it instantly. Vi’s eyes searched her surroundings, before she caught onto a flash of green hurtling towards her and coming to a halt. Ekko was crouched down on his board, hovering in mid-air by the ledge. Vi looked up at him – Little Man – gasping and clutching her injured left arm. He stared right back at her, thick blood covering his nose and chin, a distressed look in his eye.
“Vi, we’ve gotta go. It’s not safe here, we…” He trailed off then, expression faltering, eyes darting left and right. Vi’s stomach churned. “Why are you on your own? Where’s…?”
Vi felt tears prick her eyes again, the resonant sound of the explosion ringing in her ears. She saw Jinx’s face, her voice, all falling away from her.
Always with you sis.
Vi gasped out a loud sob, and Ekko’s face crumbled, realisation dawning.
“No…” he breathed. His expression crumpled, and he shook his head. “How did–? Wha–?” Unintelligible noises, to which Vi just shook her head, shaking like a leaf.
“She fell,” Vi managed out. She gasped another sob, head hung, not daring to look at Ekko, knowing it would only break her that much more. “I couldn’t stop her. I’m sorry.”
She felt the weight of his gaze as more tears began to fall, before she could really understand what to do with them. A small, hiccuping sound escaped her. She would have dropped to her knees if she wasn’t already in a crumpled heap on the ground. Pain shot through her with every sob.
“You can’t help her,” Ekko said, defeatedly, voice wet with emotion. “Not by staying here.”
Vi glanced up, surprised by his practicality. His expression was skewed still, pulled down by the weight of a great sadness, but his eye was fixed on her, determined. He’d grown so much.
Perhaps it was that fondness, that realisation that he was one of the few people left who remembered Powder, who knew her sister and cared about her like she did, that willed Vi to rise to her feet.
Slowly, she reached out her hand and let him help her onto his hoverboard. She crouched down, letting her dead arm rest on her knee, the other clinging onto the side of his board for stability, and composed herself.
“I need to find Cait.” she said. Vi glanced up, and Ekko’s eye was already on hers, before he nodded and looked away, taking stock of the hexgate one final time – her resting place. Vi tried not to let this thought consume her, as Ekko’s board began to move, and they ascended quickly into the open air.
They emerged from the hexgate, and Vi took a breath, before looking down at the city below. The air turned to stone in her throat — it was a wreck.
Buildings decimated, hundreds if not thousands of people in red and blue, gathering in various clumps like ants around scraps. From this height, she couldn’t make them out.
“Go lower.” Vi instructed Ekko. He obliged, and they soared downwards, skimming metres above the ground. Vi took stock of the faces that blurred past, searching for any familiar features in them — navy hair, blue eyes, a slender nose. Every unfamiliar corpse was, admittedly, a relief to Vi. But as they soared on, tunneling down various alleyways and unfamiliar streets, over just so many people — mourning, crying, dead — Vi began to panic.
“I can’t see her.” she said fearfully, dread churning in her stomach.
And so they just kept going, Vi’s heart pumping inside of her head, like it was trying to break through.
Images flashed into her mind, awful images — Caitlyn’s eyes wide and glassy, her limp body thrown across the ground like a doll, limbs blown to pieces. There had been so much violence these past twenty-fours hours, none of it was out of the question. Vi guessed that that was the worst part.
As they glided onwards, Vi remembered the words Caitlyn had spoken to her, moments before being forced to go their separate ways for the fight ahead — Vi with the other enforcers, Caitlyn with Maddie. She had looked at her so meaningfully then, so fully in the eye that it felt for an instant, as if just that look could protect them from all that was coming.
“I’ll see you after. Okay?” Caitlyn had whispered. Vi only nodded, sealing the promise with a brief kiss.
The memory replayed in her mind like a mantra, as if Caitlyn’s words meant any of it could be true. Because she had to be alive, she just had to.
Her mind reeling, Vi’s eyes searched the ground as they reached a large clearing. It was the front of one of the central council buildings. Stood there was a gathering of Noxian soldiers, a sea of red, assembled in an incomplete square.
Vi narrowed her eyes, noticing the multiple fallen bodies that lay, discarded around them : one, a Noxian – spear shot right through the heart, protruding from their back. Another, an enforcer with choppy red hair, limp on the ground, gun splayed out beside them. Then one more, dressed head to toe in Piltovian blue, slumped slack against none other than Mel Medarda, who was clumsily attempting to right them. Their head lolled to the side like a rag doll's that hadn't been sewn on properly, face obscured by the sheer amount of blood leaking from their… Vi’s stomach dropped.
Something cold and damp quickly spread through her chest like concrete. She recognised the feeling for what it was : dread.
The ponytail, the long legs, the two-fingered sniper gloves.
Vi made a strangled, shrill noise, something close to a yell or a wail. Whatever it was, it caused Ekko to stop in his tracks. He dipped them closer to the ground, but Vi was clambering off the board before he even landed, rushing toward her – to Caitlyn .
“Cait?” she choked out. With Mel’s help, Caitlyn was now on her feet, barely. Her head slumped off to one side, arm slung loosely around Mel’s shoulders, body limp and lifeless. Panic mounted in Vi’s chest. “Caitlyn!”
Like it was being weighed down by an anchor, Caitlyn slowly lifted her head. Vi ran forward, and as she approached, Caitlyn detangled herself from Mel and collapsed into Vi’s arms. Vi caught her sagging body, ignoring the way her own injury screamed out in protest. Caitlyn made a muffled, indistinguishable sound, as her head slumped into Vi’s shoulder.
“Shit!” Vi exclaimed.
Vi leant back, her hand coming up to Caitlyn’s face, lifting it slowly so she could inspect the damage.
There was so much blood.
It coated Vi’s hands, wet and warm and thick, spilling from Caitlyn’s closed eyelid and dribbling across Vi’s fingers, gathering in her nails. Caitlyn peered up at her with her good eye, vague relief and recognition swirling behind it. The entire weight of her head sat in Vi’s hands.
“Vi… ” she wheezed, chest heaving in short, choppy bursts.
Vi’s eyes worked their way down her injuries, noting her blood-splattered clothing, and then, Vi felt her heart plummet. A concentrated, deep red stain was spreading in Caitlyn’s abdomen, the enforcer’s hand pressed over it lamely. Vi peered closer, and gasped when she saw the fleshy hole pocketing deep into her side, oozing out thick red blood.
“What the–?” she exclaimed, rushing to place pressure on the wound, moving Caitlyn’s hand out of the way, and it’s lame attempt to hold off the injury. “Shit. No, no, no. I need — Help! I don’t know what to—?”
“Vi, it's alright.” eased Mel, suddenly. Vi spotted her over Caitlyn’s shoulder, approaching with her palms outstretched, easing.
Vi made a face. “How did this happen?” she demanded. Mel stepped back a little, expression faltering helplessly. Vi scoffed. She scanned the councillor up and down, only now noticing the woman's complete lack of injury. She didn’t have a single scratch on her, she was entirely unharmed. Vi then looked back to the bloody mess that was Caitlyn. She felt something close to rage, more similar to frustration, flare up inside of her. Where was Mel when all of this was happening? Why didn't she do more? Vi pushed the accusations back, for Caitlyn’s sake, and instead said, “She needs a doctor. Now.”
Mel nodded, and told her, “There are medical tents not far from here. They’re by the trade hall.”
“Okay,” Vi accepted, attempting to slow her own breathing. She looked at Caitlyn, at how she could barely stand, how the blood from her side was pumping out of her, thick and fast.
Caitlyn moaned as Vi began to move her. “Hurts.” she whined, her body growing heavier. Vi struggled to keep her up.
“I know it does. But you’re okay. We’re gonna find you help.”
Vi slipped her free arm around Caitlyn’s waist, encouraging her to place her own arm around her shoulders. All the while, Vi maintained her hand on Caitlyn’s wound, ignoring the terrifying sensation of hot liquid pooling into her palm. Caitlyn clung onto Vi, head lolling in front, the blood from her eye dripping to the ground.
Now they were standing, Vi quickly scoured the area. The un-dismissed Noxian soldiers still upright in their ranks, and Vi's eyes widened at the sight of what lay in front of them. There had, in fact, been another body which she had not noticed earlier, or perhaps she would have if she hadn’t become so distracted upon realising that one of the fallen was Caitlyn. It was her — Ambessa, slumped lamely against the ground, her large body in a fallen heap. There was no sign of outward injury, but it was clear what had happened. She was dead. It was truly over.
Vi remembered what Caitlyn had said to her before the battle, words that had planted the fear of Janna in Vi like a seed, fear that was still growing : "Ambessa wants me dead, Vi. She's coming to kill me. I can't promise I'll be able to hold her off."
Vi refocused her attention on Caitlyn, taking in the blood and injury once more. She felt pride swell in her chest. Caitlyn had done so good.
“I’m gonna carry you, okay? You have to keep pressure on that wound.”
Caitlyn nodded, rasping out a quiet, “Yeah.”
“Okay. Ready?” In one quick movement, Vi bundled Caitlyn into her arms. Her injury cried out, screeched at her to stop, Caitlyn’s weight jouncing painfully against it. She ignored it. “Just hold on, Cait.” Vi gasped out. Caitlyn’s head fell back, as they began to walk. “Focus on staying awake. Open your eyes, Cait. You're doing so well.”
In an awkward kind of half-jog, Vi set off, Caitlyn bouncing in her arms, weaving a path through the scattered dead. Vi tried not to look, her gaze instead constantly flitting between the sky and Caitlyn, who was growing wearier with every step. Ekko took it upon himself to guide them on his board from above, pointing his bat this way and that.
As they limped on, Caitlyn’s harsh breathing and sharp, painful moans grew more frequent. Thankfully, Vi noticed more of the injured who seemed to be moving in the same direction. Some on stretchers, some being carried bridal style, as Vi was doing, through the streets.
Finally, from his spot in the sky, Ekko cried out, “Over here!”
Vi looked to where he was pointing his bat, and gasped in relief at the sight of, as Mel had promised, blue tents set up in a hasty semi-circle, where medics hurried around fretfully, crowing orders at one another. Vi rushed forward, her arms giving out now, aching terribly.
“I need help! Somebody help!” she cried, eyes searching desperately. Nobody seemed to pay her any heed, however, the medics all too wrapped up in whatever they were tending to. Vi began to panic again. She glanced down at Caitlyn, the way she seemed on the verge of passing out. Then something struck Vi, and she shouted as loud as she could, “This is Commander Kiramman! She needs help! She’s losing blood!”
Suddenly, it was like a lever had been pulled.
All at once, three medics rushed forward, directing Vi towards the nearest blue tent. They pulled the flap back, and Vi struggled to hear herself think over the noise of groaning and wailing. The place was crowded, the metallic stench of blood hanging in the air. The medic directed her through the crowd, and towards a bed in the corner.
“Over here,” he instructed. Vi placed Caitlyn down, and Caitlyn groaned, blinking.
“Vi,” she heaved. Vi leant forward, concern building behind her eyes. With her hand still soaked in Caitlyn's blood, she stroked a stray hair away from her face that had been stuck to the sweat clinging to her forehead, as two medics began to get to work on her stab wound, and another inspected her eye.
Caitlyn peered up at Vi, wincing. “Everything’s spinning,” she said, then her face crumpled. “I don’t wanna die.”
Vi’s heart twinged. “You’re not going to. Cait, you’re alive.” Vi said. She looked toward the medics swarming Caitlyn, at the way they moved so efficiently, so routinely. Vi allowed herself to breathe, disbelieving. For the first time in a while, she let relief in, let it consume her entirely. She sensed a rustle of hope, and smiled. “You’re alive.” she repeated, beaming tearfully down at Caitlyn.
Caitlyn’s good eye gleamed. Ever so slightly, her lips turned upward. “We are.” she corrected. To that, Vi laughed, mainly out of the shock of it all, as everything began to slow down. She gripped onto Caitlyn’s hand and squeezed it hard.
They were going to be okay.