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Always with you, sis.
That was the last thing she told her, before she took the hextech crystal out of her remaining gauntlet. She didn’t even had time to reach out to her with her real hand before she began to fall, taking Vander, or whatever was left of him in that monster with her.
She had lost track of how much time she had been there, her vocal cords were a mess to say the least, but her mind couldn’t accept it yet. For so long she had tried to find her, to find that little girl with blue hair that deserved the enormous apology from her.
It didn’t turn out to be that way for a while, matter of fact, she didn’t know if there was anything left of Powder in Jinx, but she still believed. And she found her after so many years, even if it was a different name, or a different personality, or even a different person, she was still there.
Powder was there.
She would give anything to have her in her arms again, to tell her how much she was sorry for not being there for her. Of how much she loved her, even if she never said it out loud.
Of how—
“Vi!”
A familiar voice and a sound of a hoverboard sounding closer and closer to where she was snap her out of her thoughts.
She opened her eyes to see Ekko with a worried gaze on top of her as he moved his mouth but Vi couldn’t comprehend what he was saying.
“—re you okay? What happened? Where’s Jinx?” Her mind cleared for those sentences for her to hear, but the moment he said it the tears returned as a sob tore out of her throat.
Her eyes closed at the thought of her little sister or what was going to be left of her.
What sounded like a gasp came out of Ekko’s voice as she opened her eyes once more, looking at his brown eyes filling up with tears as well. He peeked to where Jinx and Vander fell, the smoke was thick and from where he stood he couldn’t really see what he wanted…
To see her. Even if it wasn’t the same person that he saved numerous times, the same girl that he dance and made him forget to worry about everything else.
The same girl that he never thought he would become so close, and now, no matter in what state she was, there was nothing that it can take away her beauty and her spirit.
Even with so much blood in her hands, he did not care.
They stayed there for a moment until the shock wear out for Ekko extended a hand to her.
“Come on, there’s still… there’s got to be a chance…” he said, although there some uncertainty in his voice, a part of him looked like he thought it was true.
It had to be.
Vi looked at him for a few seconds, eyes dimmed and red from crying but a part of her still believed in a miracle.
Hope was the word.
She then took his hand with her good arm and hopped on the hoverboard, holding onto his shoulder as they went deeper down the tower.
As they got closer, the smell of burned flesh and blood got into her nostrils, nearly making her gag and vomit, but the thought of her little sister surviving the explosion still lingered in her brain, her eyes hoping to see any sign of blue hair. That thought got bigger as soon as she saw the air ducts that were on each side. The wheels on her brain started to turn quickly, telling her of the possibility of Jinx using shimmer to avoid the explosion.
It seemed like Ekko was looking at them, hoping as well to see any sign of her sister.
“I-Is there a chance she…” Vi rasped, her voice hoarse as her gaze look into the small tunnels.
“I don’t know...” Ekko answered, looking to side to side and waiting to see a flash of blue.
The hope that Vi had been holding to for what felt like an eternity was only for a few minutes until it vanished away as soon as Ekko started to go further down.
‘It’s fine…’ her mind thought, gripping the shoulder of the little man tightly, ‘She’s fine… she has to be…’
After what felt like an endless ride, they made it to the base of the Hexgates, the dust of the explosion entering her throat as she coughed it out. After a few moments, she heard what it looked like a sob came out from the person in front of her.
“No…”
Vi peeked from behind him to see a familiar big and hairy body on the ground. A hole can be seen on his back as burns covered his whole body, dried blood covering every other part around him. For a moment, the tears came to her eyes once again as memories flooded her mind, but she kept them at bay, realizing that that was a long time ago and this was not the same man she knew.
It was then that the tears began to fall when she saw a familiar blue hair underneath him, an arm barely peeking out.
She jumped off before Ekko could say a word, her body quickly jointed in pain as she ran towards her sister, black spots appeared on her eyes as she got closer to where she was.
Never in her life she ran this fast, even with every bone in her body protesting against every move she took until she came to a halt. She tried to move with what strength she had left with her good arm, failing miserably with every attempt she did, a desperate scream was let out as she looked back to where Ekko stood.
“Ekko help me!”
Ekko seemed to snap out of his trance when he heard her voice, running to put as much force he could to move Warwick’s body off. After a minute that felt infinite of trying to move him, they finally succeeded, revealing what was under him.
“J-Jinx…” she said while cradling her unmoving body in her arms as best she could, her voice almost not existent from all of the screaming that she made earlier before, she was surprised she still had something left in her. “Jinx, hey…”
She looked… bad , to say the least.
Her whole left side was burned, the fabric of her clothes was almost completely melted. Her left arm was… gone, from her elbow down, blood leaked out of her mouth and nose as well as some cuts in every other side.
“H-Hey, it’s me… Vi…”
Her chest didn’t moved as well as no breaths came out of her mouth, even if was ragged, nothing came. She saw Ekko falling to his knees on the other side, grabbing her hand and slowly stroking it, tears falling down his eyes as he took a shaky breath.
“Jinx, w-wake up…” her eye’s watered as she put her hand on her cheek, slowly rubbing her thumb on her cheekbone as her breath itched. “O-Open your eyes, Jinx… please …”
Please, please… open your eyes. I’ll listen to everything you say, even if I don’t like it, just please stay here… stay with me, please…
Her body started to shake as she waited for her baby sister to move, to groan, or anything for her to believe that she was still here.
“… Powder .”
Nothing. Not even a response to her calling the name she never thought she would say it again.
“Powder, please wake up…”
Her body still did not move as her tears started to fall on her sister’s face. The small cries were soon turned to full blown sobs as she squeezed her sister against her chest, pressing her head against her messy hair. “No, no, no, no…”
Why did you leave me?!.
“Powder, please…”
Because you’re a JINX!
“Powder, please wake up! Wake up!”
My sister is gone, there’s only Jinx now.
“Powder! Powder, please…!”
No matter how much she cried or beg, she didn’t stir. Her body shook while she let out her cries, not caring about the parts of the building that kept falling to them.
She pressed her forehead against hers, her cries turning into whimpering as droplets fell from her face, not caring if the blood smeared her face or her clothes. She didn’t care, because nothing was going to bring her back, no one was going to bring her baby sister, the girl she fought for so long to get back.
“ P-Powder, please …”
Still, nothing.
She stayed there, just her holding what was left of the one person that she had to care about, that she had to protect and yet, like everyone that she cared about, they left her, all because she never did enough.
Take care of Powder.
What a good fucking job she did.
“Vi, we have to go…” suddenly said Ekko, his chin quivering as he tried to control the sobs that were trying to come out. No move came from the older woman as she stayed with Jinx’s body, holding it close against her chest as if her life depended on it.
“Vi, there’s debris falling on our heads, we got to go.” repeated Ekko, rubbing his arm against his eyes as he stood up, hoping that the tears would stop as he let go Jinx’s limp hand. “Vi, we need to—”
“I-I can’t…”
“Vi—”
“I c-can’t… I can’t leave her…”
“Vi.”
The older woman looked at Ekko with red eyes, tears still dripping down her face as her grip on Jinx did not faltered. Ekko kneeled in front of her, his gaze only focusing on her pink on her pink haired friend, trying his hardest to not look at all at Jinx, mainly for the reason that he wouldn’t be able to hold it together this time.
“I know… I know you do,” said Ekko, “I want to stay too, but she wouldn’t want us to die here, you know what she would’ve wanted for us to do, even if hurts, and trust me, I know that it hurts like hell...”
It seemed that his barrier would come down at any second and he would break down, his chin quivering as his voice shook.
It seemed that the thought lingered in her mind for a few seconds, but then came to the realization, she had to fight, she had to keep living, for herself, for Caitlyn… for Powder.
Even if it meant to let her go, she had to do it.
It was then when she nodded, slowly standing up while handling her sister’s weight, and her—broken? dislocated?—arm wasn’t helping at all. Ekko went to retrieve his hoverboard and came back in instant to the sisters, helping Vi with Jinx as the older woman managed herself with her sister’s body in the back of the hoverboard while Ekko took the front, with Vi holding tightly her baby sister in her arms as the took off.
Vi looked back at the mangled corpse of the man who took her under his wing and raised her with tears in her eyes before they started to go further and further away until he disappeared from her sight.
The ride was silent, even if it was difficult to deal with the weight in Ekko’s hoverboard, none of them cared. The air brushed lightly against her battered face as she pressed Jin— Powder’s body against her, her cheek pressed against her head as they flew, from what Vi could see, there where bodies all around of where Ambessa or whatever the fuck it was her name and her soldiers attacked, the sight of it sending shivers down her spine.
Her mind almost immediately went to Caitlyn, who was in the middle of the battlefield, she hoped to Janna or any god that existed for her to be okay, because her heart couldn’t contain losing another person she cared, if losing Powder was bad, if she lost Caitlyn…
She wouldn’t had anything left to live.
It was then when they landed, the majority of guards and soldiers were tending the injured while others carried stretchers that contained of the fallen. It was then when Vi realized of how much people, in general, risked their life’s for what was right for them and in the end died fighting for it.
As she hopped down the hoverboard slowly, her body jolted in pain as she went down to her knees, Powder’s body still in her hold but she knew that her arms had started to ache, and the pain was unbearable at this point.
But she couldn’t let go, it would only make it official, and even though she knew that her sister wasn’t here anymore, her mind still waited for Jinx to suddenly wake up and joke about the long faces both she and Ekko had.
But no matter how much she waited, she knew it was never going to happen.
What seemed like a sob tore out of her throat as she hugged Jinx closer, rocking side to side while she let the time pass, because that was the only thing she could do. The war was over, true, but a part of her died a long time ago, and what was left of her family died right in front of her, and she did nothing to protect it.
She then felt a warm hand on her shoulder as she looked up to Ekko, who’s eyes were bright with tears, his lips curving to a small smile.
“Someone wants to see you.” he said, giving her not injured shoulder a small squeeze, Vi then changed her gaze from Ekko to see a familiar dark blue haired woman being helped by a bushy haired woman with gold lines and a dark dress, having an arm around her waist while she gently guided her.
Caitlyn.
Oh, Caitlyn is okay.
She is okay.
“Go,” said Ekko, kneeling besides her, his small smile had not faltered, but the sadness in his eyes was very much seen. “I’ll take care of her, you have someone to see…”
Vi looked down to the shell of what was Powder, tears fell from her face for what felt like the twentieth time, but now she knew…
She had to let go.
She leaned in, pressing her forehead against hers, memories flooded her mind of the little girl that almost every time, she asked her to sleep with her, the little girl that she swore to protect, the same one who always showed her new inventions…
Weather it was good or bad, she didn’t care.
“I-I love you, okay? I love you so much, Pow-Pow…” she whispered, pressing her lips against her forehead before slowly loosening her hold, gently letting her head on the floor.
Ekko helped her up to her feet, her left arm cradled against her chest as the pain was undoubtedly worse, and not just in her limb, but in her entire body. She wobbled at the first steps but pushed away the pain as she got closer.
“C-Cait…!”
The commander looked up, what looked like relief swooped her face as she started to walk towards her, with Mel helping her walk. The distance between them shortened almost instantly as Caitlyn wrapped her arms around her neck, Vi doing the same as best she could, big sigh of relief was let out as she buried her face against her shoulder.
Mel stepped away respectfully, a small smile forming on her face as she saw that Caitlyn was in good arms.
“I-I thought I lost you…” Vi murmured, gripping the back of her armor tightly as she pulled away, cupping her face as she took a look. Even with all the bruises and hits her body had contained, she still saw her beauty, no matter how bad it looked.
“Your…” she said, rubbing her thumb across her cheek, just underneath the injured eye that had dried blood coming out of it. “Is it… are you going to—”
“It doesn’t matter….” she interrupted softly. “I’m just… I’m so glad that you’re safe…”
Her good eye seemed to look for another person but couldn’t quite catch it as her gaze returned to her. “Wait, where’s Jinx—”
She looked towards something happening on her back, her gaze locking onto something going on away from the both of them. Vi followed her gaze to see Mel, kneeling down to her sister’s body, putting what looked like a white sheet in top of her, with Ekko having his head down with tears streaming down his face, the emotions finally taking him over as he never let her sister’s hand go.
The sight made the tears come again as Vi took a deep breath, Caitlyn noticed this and gently guided her head towards her shoulder, almost as if she didn’t wanted her to see it anymore.
“I’m so sorry, love…” Caitlyn said, looking towards the still body of the person she wanted dead for months.
For a long time, she ought to kill Jinx, merely for pure vengeance, for all the people she and Silco as well as his goons killed, for the death of her mother, and god knows how much more blood she had in her hands. But, she lost herself in the way, the way she saw some things changed, the only thing that kept repeating in her mind was to take revenge and use all of the hate and anger she developed to kill her.
But now, after all that happened, she didn’t see the point of hating her anymore.
She will never forgive her, that maybe true… but she can’t spend the rest of her life hating her.
“I lost her… I lost her…” Vi cried, her sobs muffled against her shoulder while the blue haired woman could only hold her, her heart breaking with every cry that the pink haired woman let out.
Vi felt her legs were about to give up on her, but Caitlyn was expecting this as both of them fell to their knees, their hold on one another never faltered.
Suddenly, heavy steps could be heard from across from where they were, Vi lifted her tear strained face and saw Sevika coming towards them. Her gaze soon found Ekko kneeling in Jinx’s side, her eyes widen at the realization of who it was, mainly for a stray of her sister’s blue hair peeking out, which was enough for the taller woman.
She walked until she was in front of her body, what looked like shock ran across Sevika’s face, there was no emotion or any other reaction at all, it seemed as if she wouldn’t believe it as she knew the real Jinx, and this was just a shell of who she was.
She stood there for a few minutes until she closed her eyes, letting out a long sigh she seemed to hold for quite a while, her gaze then locked to her’s, and instead of seeing the rude and intense look on her eyes, it was replaced with a softer one, not carrying any type of hate or any sort of fight.
Without a word, she walked away with her head down. Vi didn’t not know where she could go, and she’ll probably never know. The only thing she could do was to hold on to Caitlyn, and hope that something better could come.
But in all honestly, she was never going to fill the hole that her heart had, and it’ll never be refilled again.
I’m always with you…
Even when we’re worlds apart.