Archive of Our Own

When lost in an unknown environment bars weren’t the worst places in the world for information on the locals and how they managed to live in and breathe in such filth that made her nose wrinkle in disgust as the bar before stood out to her eye as the place for her as she picked up whatever currency they used in this mysterious place.

The Last Drop stood out with its enormous eye that ‘screamed’ inviting for someone like her that wanted some answers to whatever it was that brought her to Zaun and made it everyone else’s problem as she walked into the bar with nothing in mind except for finding some reason for her to be here.

It wasn’t hard to clock the woman that was so out of place with her clothes that made her look like she belonged in a ward instead of the streets but she simply said nothing and brought enough cogs to make it worthwhile for the rest of them to ignore her during her visit to the bar as she paid and drank her drink.

Thieram was the bartender on for tonight making it his problem when the girl walked in looking down on everyone in the room like she was some Piltie despite her clothes and manner screaming that was just slightly off in an unsettling way against what he thought was a rather odd outfit for a woman looking like she desired respect.

Was it wrong to hope she was just going to another nameless weirdo?

He hadn’t even noticed her make her way straight for him as if judging his worthiness for something only she could know.

Fuck.

Coin flowed out of her pocket as he prepared a drink worthy of the payment for someone with enough coin to waste on a place like this, more money for him in the end so he made the thing in silence as she sat down and observed the people around him and then the stairs that had the boss’s office with something like intrigue.

A bad idea with a glint in her eye that told him she was actually considering the thing when she was in the place where no one tolerated foolishness of that kind along with Jinx being in the office with Silco as they conversed about things above his pay grade.

All of the money in the world could never make him satisfied to willingly handle Jinx…

The bar became nothing more than a den of sin after Silco’s acquisition and that had not changed even as the boss was upstairs with the understanding of what might happen if they were to be disturbed, the music served to block out almost anything that might occur underneath their watch as they hid behind the door without a care for the world.

And the one time it actually mattered they were upstairs as the sounds of screaming started but not the kind that came with drink cheering and shouting as they quickly placed bets on the outcome, this was something much worse as everyone in the bar was able to hear the screams over the sounds of loud thumping music.

One of the customers was out cold as the pain shocked their body into shutting down to avoid the endless pain that was continuing to come if they managed to stay awake, with that smokescreen it was no wonder that she managed to get away with her actual reason for being in the bar.

Even as he ran out of the place once it was clear she was much more a force of nature than human with the way she took down men more than double her size with simple locks and she pulled out her pistols that she very clearly had no place to keep them on her and quickly ended a man’s life causing most to flee from the killing.

Thieram was not hired for his physical ability so he would rather take the chances of Silco’s retribution for running than dying in that moment as she was capable of ending life and looked to be on the war path as she smiled after committing the dead.

And still she seemed like a regular woman outside of the spontaneous murder. Jinx at least made it obvious she was unique, this one made it seem she was lost and looking for her parents instead of being fully capable of having a nice facade that hid her evil intentions.

It was only a matter of time until someone ended her for whatever madness infected her brain but the question seemed to be, what was she looking for in the first place? And who would be the one to end her insanity?

He managed to just stay out of reach of Sevika when she looked at him with disgust for running and not telling her but she had no idea what it was like to see her and compare her to the girl that was just sitting on his bar stool.

Whatever happened next he was already planning for his next job, and he had been pulling good hours in the first place…

It hurts…

Even her fucked up brain wasn’t offering any words of criticism as they realized the end was near as she bled out against the wood of Silco’s desk in the Last Drop. Her side was bleeding at an alarming rate that would thankfully make her pass out before the blood loss killed her, she couldn’t even use one of her bombs to take out their attacker.

She had failed her father before but never to this extent.

Silco…

He was slumped in the chair of his office with a bullet hole straight in and out through his head gone long before he might be made to watch as Jinx bled to death in his office with nothing but the company of his killer to keep her from falling asleep as she moved around the office casing the place for anything of value.

She looked at her like she was personally enjoying watching her grieve on the ground as she slowly bled out from the wound she had given her, that fucking face of hers was nothing like the person she had seen fucking up the bar with nothing but her fists for someone built like they had never thrown a punch in their life.

Who in their right mind would dare to interrupt their time together? She would accommodate their death wish.

Jinx ignored whatever Silco had been saying to make her way down the stairs to deal with the issue the muscle had failed to take out as she opened the door and heard a cry of pain louder than the music before quickly being silenced by a round from a gun that seemed to ring in her ears louder than even the voices.

She always got in one of her moods when certain sounds entered her ears and gunshots from uncertain sources always caused her to involuntarily reach for her gun at her side as she made her way down the stairs with a flair for the dramatic as the loud music continued to drown her thoughts about the murder on the dance floor.

Other than the thought that they were already ruining her father’s place with more blood for Chuck to fix when she took out the trash that thought it could dare to ruin either of their nights.

Coming down the stairs she was in one of her rare serious moods as she noticed her favorite bartender wasn’t manning the post as the customers got their shit rocked in by a woman that belonged in the retirement home. How in the world were her bones possibly still functioning enough to commit murder?

That was for the poor sap being gunned down as they spoke when she got a quick look at the arsenal of the woman ruining the bar, nothing flashy or broken down but some other kind of weapon never before seen by her.

She had to have that thing in her collection.

The blonde haired Piltie, even as she had never imagined a Piltie so murderous before, reacted to her stepping down the stairs by jumping off the corpse she had made and making enough room for the two of them to get a good look at one another for the last time.

Blood covered a side of her face and Jinx almost took a step back at the boldness to draw upon the blood of the recently deceased and smear it over the face with a giant ass smile and continue like nothing had ever happened.

She was crazy.

No wonder the voices were entirely absent from her confrontation with that monster, even they were aware of the danger she posed to do such an act without any qualms and looking like she simply needed directions to the bar.

This was her monster that was trying to chase her away from her father, she needed to prove that no one in the world would ever scare her again like the factory.

Circling the prey was like a ceremonial dance between the two of them as they went around in a circle to find that one time when she might make an opening for Jinx to exploit and end the monster in front of her, for Chuck at the very least because she wanted her favorite bartender to come back.

He couldn’t do that if she was still on the loose!

The benefit with being the fucking craziest person in the room was that being crazy was a good distraction keeping them from thinking straight to try and find a pattern in her attacks, but why would they when she was crazy after all? There was no way she had moves she might rely on when without her gun and bombs.

Unlikely as such a scenario was.

She moved with speed as she rushed the crazy woman that had even caused Jinx’s brain to fix itself for the first time in forever, Jinx never found much of a need for something that might be considered actual training in that thing when her only memories of that were her sister and she had an actual gun at her waist.

It was like Powder came back from that well when she sidestepped the rookie attack and gripped her in a lock so painful it was a godmand miracle she was even able to avoid screaming out when everyone of her nerves was on fire.

Jinx could never willingly allow herself to be constrained, painful or not she would never be held captive in someone else’s grasp like Powder was.

Her gun was taken from her and tossed somewhere far away from her as she continued to ignore the pain that was really helping her by telling her that she should fucking move from the grasp of the woman like she didn’t already know this shit herself, a useless fucking reaction when there was no hope of escape within her grasp.

There was only one place that she might want to go with her struggling prisoner as she dragged Jinx like she was nothing to the woman pissing her off more than anything else might’ve been able to.

With a hand covering her mouth she tried the obvious motion of biting at her fingers to cause a reaction but she underestimated whatever kind of shimmer the girl must be taking as her mouth was being forced closed like nothing even as she tried her hardest to scream, shout, or do anything that would warn Silco.

‘Oh, that’s just Jinx getting into another fight, no reason to worry’ Of course the one time she needs him to be obnoxious is the one time he wasn’t!

A silence descended upon the both of them as she dragged Jinx up the stairs with no struggle as the music continued to blast. Hiding the death that was slowly approaching the both of them as she for once felt like that little girl begging for someone to save her from the monster that was an unstoppable force.

Jinx blamed Powder for the events that led to Silco’s death.

Powder had been unprepared when the door was forced open by the monster throwing her straight through that thing with enough force to slam that thing like it was made of paper against her body.

Jinx had to watch as she looked towards Silco and decided something in the moment before without even a single thought she shot the man who had just seen his daughter be thrown through the doors as his final sight before he slumped over in the chair dead to the world as Vander hoped all those years ago.

Like a beast unleashed she attacked with all the anger she had ever felt for her sister paling in comparison to the monster that had already proven herself the stronger predator against the girl playing at something greater than herself with the real monsters of the world out there, nowhere near the tiny pond she called home.

Still she played with those out of her league as she deftly avoided each and every strike, something that at her age was surprising, and grabbed ahold of her braids and deftly used that to slam her against the desk face first into the front facing area instead of the counter that might provide her some relief as she felt a knee come to settle on her back.

With her already being in immense pain she hadn’t even felt the bullet to the side as she screamed for the restricted movement as the lock continued to cause her nerves to be on fire with the bullet causing her some relief with the skin she no longer had. That could’ve been enough for the woman but she was thorough as Jinx felt the fight leave her as she grew cold.

Cold enough for her to figure Jinx no longer a threat as she was halfway to accelerating her own death with her attempts at continued struggle.

There was nothing Jinx could do for Silco the same way there was nothing she could do to save herself from the clutches of the insane woman snooping through each and every plan of Silco’s.

To the victors go the spoils after all.

Now that the curtains were closing on the cosmic fuck up that Jinx proved herself to be in the end what had been the point of everything she had done for Silco? Everything she had gone through couldn’t have been for nothing in the end… there had to be more than just being a Jinx that got everyone who ever loved her killed.

“Vi…” A mournful cry for the sister that she had killed, guess it was all coming back to bite her.

That was the moment when the snooping stopped and within a flash she was grabbed by the face and observed for something of her liking and dropped once more to slump against the desk face first with something that she couldn’t make out being said in some kind of language she had never heard before.

No amount of extra blood was going to fix that trainwreck of a thought as the end continued to prance around the room like she had no idea of the weight that came with being the one to kill Silco and unleash madness upon Zaun with the chembarons being the only ones to have any more power.

She was happy to sit that power struggle out.

Turning over with all her remaining might she watched as the monster hummed something before she was face to face with the weapon of choice for a mass murder that was about to unleash something that could never be contained once more.

Lying in what was going to be a pool of her own blood soon enough she only had one thought.

That’s a beautiful design.

Had she designed it herself? It looked oddly different from even what the enforcers carried from her shitty memories from that day and they had yet to change any of their designs, much sleeker than her own pistol but it had no uniqueness in that thing beyond the blood red color as it was just a boring weapon.

Figures something so boring would take out the colorful Jinx and her sunny personality… what a fucking joke of a death for someone like her. Going out in a grand manner was her desire and instead she bled out like she had left so many to do before her.

Did she regret any of that? Hell no.

But now she could sympathise with those people that sometimes managed to survive their first encounter with her bleeding out as her mind dragged her away from the scene of the crime without a care in the world.

She should’ve known all her hair was going to cost her one day.

It was like a giant neon sign that they should grab with all their force and then force her to the ground like the paperweight that she was, they never had when she was the craziest in the room. But, her? She was fucking crazy on a scale unknown even to her fucked up brain as she hit the floor like she had been thrown with the strength of multiple men.

Fucking figures Piltie sceince would’ve invented something better than shimmer.

Like it was in slow motion she saw her pulling the trigger to end her life when they both heard the doors of the last drop be thrown open as Silco’s favorite stooge called out for him, having heard the of the chaos at the last drop while gambling and cursing herself as she was needed while she was on her ass.

Between the both of them Jinx couldn’t care less if she got her brain blown out like Silco as she coughed some blood. She looked at her with some hope that she would do the right thing and make sure to take her out first before finishing the job upstairs. A nod, if she wasn’t the reason her father died the two of them could’ve had some fun, and then she was off down the stairs with a jump.

Even with her slumped over half way to death she still jumped when she heard the ‘oh so’ cool Sevika give a scream of actual pain as she did something to her that she would’ve loved to get up and see her brought down to her level, and she didn’t even scream like a little girl when she was on the verge of dying!

But, no, screaming was apparently something cool as she heard the gunshot that brought her life to an end like she deserved for the culmination of her own actions and vices like hers were about to.

Still there was reason enough to smile as she came back up the stairs and looked at her with a smile at the events downstairs and aimed that thing back at her with no more distractions to keep her alive for even a few more seconds.

It was fun at least in the end.

Zaun was moments away from a collapse and the living corpses of Piltover were there to make all of their jobs even harder as the monster worked her magic upon the unexpecting citizens of Piltover that were finally getting to understand what it was like to fight against a force of overwhelming firepower.

Not so fucking nice now that they were on the other foot.

But that didn’t stop them from continuing to be the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet as their posh hands came to play in the dirt of the undercity.

Maybe Zaun could’ve hosted them all with some struggle if it was just as nice as the city above but with a starving city already on the brink their bodies would only bring them even more trouble as they settled into the land across the bridge watching as the city they knew and loved burned in the background every day and every night.

The monster of Piltover had liberated them all underneath as they stood on the precipice of something greater than all of them with Silco dead and the council a shell of itself with whatever nobles of their houses might’ve survived the initial attack on everything they had ever known without so much as a warning.

She had come out of nowhere for them and they had all panicked as their city burned leaving them with the option to try and establish an authority within a nation that hated their guts and wanted nothing more than to push them all back across the bridge into the arms of their liberator with nothing but the biggest smiles on their faces.

The council was a joke with a bunch of names no one had ever even known about from a bunch of families no one had ever even known about after removing the last of the old names that had been scarred from whatever happened up there that removing them from that seat was only a mercy killing in the world of politics.

Enforcers barely made a difference to the Zaunites with them outnumbered so much that it was only right they be disarmed and their guns given to the people who actually knew how to use those things and weren’t being taught how to be bad at their jobs like the academies were teaching future enforcers.

It was no wonder they had instantly broken from someone who wasn’t afraid of what they represented to the people of the undercity. If it was so goddamn easy to the point enforcers were almost insultingly corrupt then so much of their pain and suffering could’ve been avoided.

Silco really chose the worst fucking enforcers possible for that job of his, Ekko found out as he read whatever notes that bastard still had in his office stained with his blood and the blood of Jinx who was laid out on the desk for him to observe in all her glory as her eyes were closed from the blood loss.

Powder truly was dead now…

Her body was his responsibility as while he would toss Silco into one of the ponds for the animals to dispose of what to do with Jinx had been saved for him to decide on as the leader of their little alliance that was forming to rule the fissures and what little of Piltover was still safe because it was across the bridge.

The popular thing to do would be to toss her to the wolves but she was the last thing of the family he had lost after that day even if he would never accept Jinx as part of the past it was like Powder had returned to them all in the way she laid peacefully after whoever it was that killed her got away.

With her death it was like a wave of happiness was released upon the surviving anti Silco forces and those low level goons as they all came together to celebrate the ending of Silco’s tyranny and that fucked up thing that was pretendning to be a human well enough for Silco to think he could possibly control.

The only surprise was that there was even someone scary enough to get rid of the undercities problem in the first place without so much as a fight as Ekko explored the remains of the last drop without seeing so much as any amount of paint and explosives going off as he stepped around the corpses in need of removal.

She was coming with him as he prepared himself for what came next with her body and what he was going to do with her corpse as burials were a Piltie thing yet he was coming around to that line of thinking when the thought of giving her a proper Zaunite funeral ate at the part of his mind that was thinking of the past.

Just one more thing to weigh on his soul as heavy as the results of freedom.

Freedom was not without its own problems as they found out when it came to actually trying to run a state with a economy without the gates that were currently rubble somewhere across the bridge but they still had the resources of their land that would be in need for someone else across Runeterra except for the Noxians that were much too dangerous to deal with.

None of them would trade metaphorical shackles for physical ones anytime soon.

If they ever wanted to avoid such a process they could just cross the bridge into former Piltover.

Crossing the bridge for something as simple as looting or valuables was as dangerous as the people looking for revenge as their ‘liberator’ had not been kind or exact in dealing with the chem barons leaving a lot of people with something missing from their lives now that they were no longer in the picture.

Ekko, having long since abandoned any hopes of getting involved in the upper fissures, had thankfully avoided any casualties in her rampage.

He only had the stories of the witch that had broken everything that Silco had built with a smile on her face as the shimmer factories burned to the ground but he was glad to have been pushed so deep underground as Piltover and Zaun had figured out not to fuck with the woman that could kill them easily.

Even with all this there were still those willing to brave the fires above for the prize of revenge, against the woman that had robbed many of people important to them only to never return when it was damn well clear exactly why they always put it into their minds to not cross that fucking bridge when it still remaind open like a taunt.

‘Come and get me.’ And they all still kept trying.

The control of such a thing was on the Piltover side and was kept open with there not being much they could do on the other side of the bridge when it would be so easy to slip by anyone they could put on to patrol their side, anyone leaving was written off and they only had so many ‘healthy’ Zaunites before the consequences of the air in the fissures would lead to health issues all the way down the remaining generations.

A generation that would have to be made of them and the Pilties as whatever promise topside still had came down with the hexgates that anyone from across the bridge could hear the massive thud that came with them collapsing in a moment that he wished he could capture with one of those inventions.

There went progress…

Fitting that they would be the ones to survive when they made themselves such a juicy target in the face of danger.

The council that existed in the last slice of Piltover was apoplectic as the destruction reached even their ears as they suddenly had to deal with a fraction of what it was like to live in Zaun, any true blooded Trencher had very little sympathy for their cries and wails of injustice as they lived in the fissures.

It was becoming harder and harder for them to consider keeping them around when they had the only guns in the place while the council continued to piss everyone off that wasn’t formerly from Piltover with their decrease and alike, stupid fucking nobles and their inability to see the forest for the trees.

Just like a pair he knew well enough to be making their own suicidal plan to fix everything and end the threat across the bridge.

Piltie and Trencher.

United by grief and rage to cross the bridge and have their revenge against the woman that had ruined both of their lives by attacking those close to them, crossing the unguarded bridge was nothing simpler than walking across the thing into the land that continued to burn from whatever mystical actions had been done to the city.

This place was nothing more than a no man’s land masquerading as something worth reunifying with Zaun as if they would ever have the money needed for reconstruction now that their money supplies had been cut off and no one had heard from the richest since the day she began her assault on the city with lightning speed.

Seeing the city burn had been everything Vi had wanted when she was growing up in the lanes as any good citizen of the undercity did as they were held back from causing an uprising that would end with them all losing even in the miraculous case they managed to pull off the impossible and win.

They didn’t have mystical power that was enough to set an entire city on fire as the events of that day played out leaving her in jail while Silco caused her sister to get mixed up in all this shit that led to Powder’s death and her charge across the bridge for answers to the crime that had caused her life to spiral.

If she had any time to grieve there was high chance she would’ve spent her days getting wasted but as they were finding out even getting their alcohol was impossible with most of it coming from across the bridge and the rest of it a casualty in the wars to remove the chembarons from power because of the monster.

Vi had to do the thing she never wanted to do in her lifetime, process her emotions about everything that had happened to her since birth.

Silco needed to die but if only she hadn’t been there that day when he finally got what he deserved.

They all celebrated the death of a terrorist while the passing of ‘industrialist’ Silco was seen as nothing more than a tragedy even as the evidence piled up that he might not have been who he said he was. Image was much more important to these fucking pilties being short changed by Ekko long after the first time he got that tip from that rich Piltie.

“Don’t go.” It was a plea from him to her, to have Vi realize life was worth living even without her sister.

“I have to.” It hurt him to watch her go and march to her death because of the memory of a long dead girl that was nothing more than memories that he didn’t want anymore.

Vi lit the match that burned down the relationship when he could’ve used her support in leading Zaun now that they were moments away from someone lighting the cocktail that would explode their illusion of peace, he didn’t understand the depths to her guilt now that she had gotten out of prison and Powder had died while she was in the clink holding on to hope that was foolish.

Ekko had to keep up a brave facade in the face of the last of his old friends going off to die with nothing but rage in her heart instead of staying and building something new even with the reprieve they had been given, this was everything she had wanted as a teen and now that they had it she was willing to throw it all away.

That fucking speech of his was proving to be more and more true as she had lost her family in the course of events that led to a free Zaun, she would easily trade it all just for her to have Powder back.

Whoever this ‘Jinx’ was notwithstanding.

Tears ran down both of their faces as Vi would not lie to the oldest family she had left with promises of her return, she knew how that slippery slope played out, it was to be the last time they would ever see each other as she followed him down to his tree and sat there as with a false bravado he painted her on that canvas of lost faces.

Life wasn’t fair and she had a schedule to keep so their last moments were cut short before she ever would’ve wanted to let go.

Walking with her was that crackshot enforcer, not that it meant much of anything below, former now in actuality. She came with her for reasons unknown to her but having support on her mission was always going to be rare and even if she was nothing more than a thug with a gun it was much better than going without backup.

Anger was useful for their mission and she was the angriest Piltie she had seen as one of those pigs that had gotten off on oppressing their city, she always fucking knew they were nothing more than a joke to Piltover and now she didn’t even have the chance to crack some enforcer heads as justice for years of oppression.

All she had now was the Kiramman heir with a rifle.

It wasn’t hard to put two and two together as the only council of note to the Trencher trash was the story of the Piltie that had thrown it all in their faces from their oppression to the deserved destruction of their city with Zaun existing as a hell hole to the desire to make her nothing more than a symbol.

She was perfect.

But they had a secondary mission while they chased the terror across the bridge as they needed to find her parents somewhere in the city that burned eternally, planning the assault on the city with what little remained which included the mansion of her family as they both stood dumbfounded at the reveal.

Could it be as simple as the mansion?

Her partner looked to be weighing the cost of running to that place before finding her and ending the madness that had already cost her people she cared about, if anymore of her friends and family were lost she doubted there would be a nice ending for the Piltie when she had spoken of her dreams before all of these events.

“It will be justice for all the lives lost.” She stared Vi down with her shoulders squared, convinced that it would be acceptable to break with normal morals in a case such as this.

It would be hard for even Vander to argue against the extrajudicial killing in a case like this one that was running the very peace he had died for even if it was a fool’s peace. The Piltie breaking her fake morals was nothing out of the ordinary but this would be the first time she was actually fighting to kill someone instead of protecting the family.

She might not care about killing but the weight of life was something she had to consider even in a case like this one… why was Vander continuing to haunt her so often?

Despite it all Vi tried not to kill anybody that made the mistake of getting into a fight with the hound’s pup; it wasn't worth bringing heat down upon herself when she had people to take care of and a sister to return to.

And sure, sometimes she would lose her mind when Powder was in trouble, there would be times when she hit harder than expected and they then never see that perpetrator again by coincidence but she wasn’t looking for death matches.

First time for everything.

Vander made it seem like a decision that drew men into the depths of their souls to find out who they really were but Vi already knew exactly the kind of person she was deep down. Failure already picked at her wounds during prison and now she had the chance to avenge her mistake in going to prison.

Vi didn’t want to know who she was without the family.

Her mind was haunted as like a visage they appeared in her view, judging her as she walked the path towards certain doom. They said nothing but she knew they would have a lot to say when they met again in the afterlife where she would be in for the biggest reaming of her life as she threw her life away on this crusade.

What was she going to say to Vander when she saw him again?

Caitlyn Kirammann was nothing more than the last scion of a line to the council that was a joke of an institution, asking her to join the rest of them in their delusions in the name of ‘legitimacy’ was the line in the sand when it was clear why they were asking her to give the legitimacy as a Kiramman.

They thought her parents were dead and were only seeing her as her name instead of the woman that she was. She told them exactly where they could shove that suggestion as she gathered the attention of the room and the few Zaunite leaders willing to play ball with these sycophants.

The suggestion to just accept that her parents had been murdered and nothing could be done was what caused her to radicalize against the remaining council and find somewhere for her where she might find a home instead of with the council and their taking over of the largest building above the fissures.

Such passion for a mission across the bridge had captured the attention of that Pink haired brawler which led to the two of them engaging in conversation about the shared desire to cross that bridge.

“Come with me.” It was never in doubt that someone like her could use some ranged support which she realized as they talked over the plans for what they might find. Boiling it down to their own plans for what they might do if they were to be the ones to find her and try to take down the woman that had destroyed so many years of progress.

What was progress when they all had to share the consequences of their actions with them forced to be in the fissures where all of their ‘sacrifices’ in the name of progress were done by the people of Zaun using the chaos to proclaim independence from their overlords?

Any one with half a brain would see this as the correct move to make while Piltover burned and Caitlyn was not made to play these backroom games especially when there was no reason to worry about having burned any bridges with these jokers.

Vi was a mystery wrapped in many layers, a trencher wanting revenge on their liberator, someone willing to endanger the entirety of the undercity for her cause, and someone with a deathwish as large as Caitlyn’s.

They were perfect for one another even if they would never admit such a thing, not many sane individuals would sign up to cross the bridge and yet there they were with the one for them.

The heat was still overwhelming but not the expected temperature from what her studies and told her should've happened by normally and these fires seemed to never die out as the skyline for the past few days proved.

As expected everything was on fire but she could still make out the paths for somewhat fast travel when forced to the streets as Vi itched to climb and parkour on top of the roofs as she had before.

Where to go next came to rest upon how much they knew about the woman that frustratingly very little was known about.

She was an unknown actor on the stage and she couldn't find out anything about the woman that had freed Zaun without so much as firing a single shot on their side of the bridge. Despite their complicity it was clear the Zaunites didn't know anything either.

Killing Jinx and all but exposing Silco as a madman with plans for a free and independent Zaun with himself at the head while actually delivering them independence on a silver platter made them at the very least unwilling to go against the reality of the new status quo just as the council was for the old.

If anyone had known anything it was easy to say none of them would have given her up.

Without a name and face it was almost the easiest thing to dehumanize the monster that was rampaging and she would forever take the shot if she ever got more than one chance there was something that seemed missing from the woman that had ended everything that had been built for generations.

Motive.

Silco was the topical case and it was clear he was on the side of evil for his nation of Zaun that had been established only after his death. Independence was a tangible goal that one could grasp physically.

The desire to burn down Piltover was one that she could not accept as the main reason why her parents were missing for the moment, with the speed of her campaign and the assumption of insider knowledge to know when exactly to attack for maximum damage it made no sense for there to be no form of thesis, demands, or explanation for their conquest.

Getting this far was something not even Silco may have dreamed of with his plan to scare topside and still the nation of Zaun stood in the face of whatever she was in Piltover for that Zaun could not provide her.

Fire dances across the buildings like in a solo performance she might find in one of the theatres, moving like they had an invisible partner as they continued their assault on the city that was quickly becoming nothing more than a smoke producing factory like the undercity used to be.

It unnerved her. They moved like they were alive and receptive to their movements as they acted as if they had senses as fire continued to waltz like nothing was wrong with their ability to do any of this stuff.

“You see it?” Vi asked as she was mesmerized by the terror that was the almost sentient fire, Caitlyn nodded as they moved from one street to another somehow continuing to stay alive despite the smoke choking their lungs and the heat continuing to hound the both of them as they made their way to the mansion.

It was like an oasis in the desert as just standing outside of the place was a lot cooler than everywhere else even as the fire was continuing to act weirdly around the both of them, Caitlyn took point on their advance inside of the building as she held her gun in front of her with trepidation as her finger was close to the trigger every second as the tension continued to build and build inside the mansion.

The mansion was never supposed to be filled with this death defying terror.

She peeked the hallway and let Vi know that the place was clear as she looked at everything that they had in the house with an eye as if she was almost appreciating the place with designs for something else if they weren’t in the lair of the enemy potentially. With how destitute things were down below she might’ve had that same eye if the roles were reversed.

With all this empty space it was the perfect place for their horror to begin as the lights went out on their own and they were plunged into darkness with the only source of comfort being the knowledge that it was literally impossible for them to get lost from one another with them covering one another.

If they keep the course everything would be fine on its own, there still existed light from the sun and the fires that acted as something akin to guide posts as she recognized which room had which view on the outside that existed on the property. Vi followed behind her dutifully, maybe even slightly impressed, as they slowed down the pace of their reconnaissance of the mansion for her parents.

Vi had been mum on the on the nature of her desire for revenge, only that it informed her desire to leave whatever family she still had with the boy and join her, still keeping such a thing close to her chest and clenching her fists so often that Cailtyn was growing concerned it was more than just an unknown response to her.

One of her textbooks might have the answer but they were not here for that and it was doubtful they would ever see each other again if they did succeed. A Trencher might get to play hero but she knew who would get the credit in the mythical takedown of the horror come to bring retribution for their hubris.

Caitlyn fucking hated that turn of events but it was damn well clear to Vi why it was necessary for them both.

God knows needs more attention than the amount she has from prison…

Yes, prison was the only topic she might even mention when talking about herself and why she was so angry that this desire consumed her. Failing whoever it was that caused her to take upon this journey was the reason she was willing to work with the enemy. It was utter madness when she still had the leader of Zaun itself as her family and an actual old friend from the hug she gave him before leaving.

At least she still had a family…

There was a clawing at her mind to get angrier over the disappearance of her family that she held out hope for their capture which she pushed down into keeping a tighter than usual grip of her rifle, always ready for the moment she would see the eyes of the monster and finish the job that went against what the city stood for.

No wonder the undercity had no desire to save them from themselves.

There was only one room that might still have her parents, the center of the house with all those stairs that would serve to hinder them both during an actual fight. She was in no mood to care about preserving the decor of this trapped house yet she could not help but have some sympathy for the halls they were about to destroy.

One last room.

When the empire he had been fighting against for years collapsed Ekko found himself without much of an idea about how to respond to getting everything he wanted before anything was close to being ready. Anyone who still had hope for things to change in Zaun without decades of work was a fool that he was ready to sell some nice Piltovan property to, if only he did not have need for those low level goons that might be able to tell them where the logistics were.

They had to be secured before anyone made any foolish moves on their warehouses.

Zaun never was rich with abundance for anyone not in the arms of Silco’s empire with his firelight being worn down with each loss and fight that happened when they tried to raid Silco’s shipments and warehouses with desperately needed supplies. The collapse of such an empire leaving the firelights as the last ones with any organization screwed them all over as there were no plans to make any supply lines for all of Zaun much less themselves.

With the chembaron issue politely solved with tons of violence it left only those of questionable loyalty and the few that had attempted a kind of resistance to Silco’s empire with Ekko having to come out of hiding as the last real link to the legacy of Vander through Benzo and the family Vander had that he was friends with.

Jinx was buried somewhere that no one would be able to reach and fuck with as she might’ve deserved but he could not do that to the memory of the family that they used to share when they could never have gotten something so nice as a hole in the ground.

All in service to her sister that would not have treated her body in typical Zaunite fashion.

Vi would never allow her to be thrown to the wolves like the people wanted, her memory was why Powder got to be buried down there with the tree causing friction within the firelights meaning he had to get serious when it came to her corpse.

“She’s staying.” It was an unexpected act of control from their leader as he dared anyone to oppose the measure.

Vi had better appreciate this thing from the afterlife.

She was the ghost he could not exercise now the life had taken care to exercise Jinx from the realm of the living but he was not quick to get rid of that one now that he had some idea of the struggle that came with leading and trying to keep people alive and even thrive in the undercity, he missed her all the time.

When Vi came back from the dead it felt like the skies were clearing up above him as she took in the free Zaun that she had come back to in the face of the burning city behind her over the bridge.

Finally there was some hope.

Her little enforcer friend was blind to the realities of what was going on between them all and the lack of surviving enforcers that it would be almost comical when comparing the enforcers to whatever she had in her mind and the decimation they faced.

It was shocking to him and Vi when compared to their memories, how could seven years do so much to the organization to the point they had been routed so easily?

As was becoming a trend it was all the work of their mysterious ‘liberator’ that had broken the back of their power as the fires consumed their homes. He didn’t trust the intention of her actions but he could accept the results of her action as they were the ones on top over the refugees that tried to set another council.

Thankfully no one had let that get anywhere beyond allowing them to have their daily measuring contents.

Each and every doomed soul that stepped foot on that bridge was another soul that was throwing their lives away for no particular reason, when that topsider made a show of herself at the council he was impressed at her resolve to get herself killed. It was still impressive to choose such a thing when the odds were very much against them.

He had no problem with Caitlyn looking for her parents topside when she knew the risks of no return, what he did have a problem with was Vi’s burning desire to get revenge on the woman that killed Jinx.

There was supposed to be more time when he might be able to convince her that Jinx had long killed the girl in both of their memories even as her death would not slide down her gullet any easier but he had found that after all this time she still considered her Powder.

And with her story about staying alive for Powder there was nothing he could do to convince her any more than if she was still alive.

Vi always seemed to dote on her more often than any of the others and that was coming to play in a way that made him want to break something. It was a time of joy that Silco and Jinx were out of the picture and while he made his reservations privately she was open in her insanity over that mass murderer still being her sister.

It was a shock in the first when Vander’s legacy came back to life but for her to be spouting her insanity out in the open? Spending that capital of his to keep things from toppling back with the alliance was a pain in the ass especially when it was clear to them all she would not be joining them in leading Zaun in reconstruction.

“It’s her sister.” He knew, like they didn’t, the depths to which she might go on this little trip of theirs as the two conflicting pieces of information ran through their brains.

Jinx was that monster that had been put down for the betterment of everyone else and now she couldn’t stay dead as she dragged their last hope into the abyss with after her own death, it was even hard for him to try and understand why she would do this but he had never had those meetings with a dead man.

There was one thing he could do for her after she chose to walk away from all the hard work that was ahead of them all in molding Zaun into something worthy of respect on the world's stage.

Fixing the Last Drop into something better.

It was obvious as hell once he could actually see the Last Drop for what it was under Silco’s ownership, dilapidated to all hell with him papering of a bunch of cracks but sucking the soul out of such a place when it deserved to place of rest and not whatever party hell hole he had transformed the place into.

Tearing it all down would provide them both a great sense of comfort even as the scars of his ownership might never go away from his and her memory. It may never come to be what she would fix the place to as if she took on the job of running the bar instead of leaving that back with Ekko and the community but he might be able to come close.

He had to hollow out so much of the place as every little thing of Silco’s that he kept was like capitulation to the monster that Silco was when he took over the lanes, even Benzo’s shop had a stench to it he might never be able to get out even if he used some of those Pitlie inventions about the science of improving air quality.

Pink would be the choice of color for the inside.

Something unusual for the boy savior but not for the hound’s legacy in the family he had raised in this world, gathering some the firelight for his personal project it was no surprise when they all showed up for the multiple day project that it would be to reclaim some place so personal to their leader.

Nervous energy fills him as he and some of the firelights work on repairing what had happened to Vi’s home after everything, it may never come close to the warmth missing without Vander and Vi’s family but it’ll serve as a testament to the lost potential of a family torn apart by the circumstances of a world primed for tragedy.

He just wished Vi chose to keep living instead of running straight into danger’s arms, when would he find someone who wasn’t going to leave him?

When the council had been in meeting that day they never could’ve expected the danger that was occuring on their streets as that witch had appeared out of nowhere and led the assault on the council in a move that was sure to go down in the legend around their fair city that used to exist before that day.

Cassandra Kiramman had been sitting on the opposite side of the glass that came crashing down through her kicking straight through at high speed to shower the council in glass before they had the wherewithal to call for security that might be nearby as they dealt with the cuts to their bodies.

With a wave of her wand the lot of them were sent into a deep sleep as the cries of the citizens went unheeded by the council as they were all asleep yet she was sure she might’ve imagined a kind of glow on councilor Medarda before that even went away in the face of the woman and her magic.

She awoke in her manner tied to the couch along with her husband as she saw the windows tainted with an orange glow and the scream of the people echoed into their ears as she tried to move for any kind of slack the rope had which only seemed to grow tighter somehow the more she tried to move from the spot.

Gags were on both of their mouths as they both sat in the room without their kidnapper that she barely got an image of before she put them all to sleep as her husband presumably was overwhelmed by the random attacker that had his wife captive, there was a reason he wasn’t built for the cutthroat world of politics.

She first noticed the blood on her face that had no doubt played a part in her husband’s surrender seeing as that was even a sight too far for Cassandra, the witch paid it no attention as she noticed their being awake and smiled before coming into the room with something special that she had no clue about even as a councilor.

But that thing could only be the work of Heimerdinger’s assistant and Caitlyn’s only friend.

What in the world was Jayce doing behind the scenes?

It was a sad and pathetic thing that looked like it finally understood some fundamental force from her waving of her wand and the red color that had taken it over after her work as she left it alone on the table of their center room while she and her husband were bound in ropes that had absolutely no chance of allowing them to move their arms.

No wonder magic was so taboo when it allowed the rampage outside to continue while her kidnapper took a seat on the seat opposite them like she owned the place.

Cassandra Kiramman never thought death would come for her so soon in such a weird package that belonged in a kind of painting instead of with them as they sat like a noble in the chair as they made no moves to do anything beyond stare down the Kirammans with something in her eye that told her not to look away from the bloody woman even as she wanted to avoid her for the sake of her stomach.

Was that blood fresh?

Like a dramatic reveal she stood up and did a curtsy in front of Cassandra like she was acknowledging her leadership of her house as if she was part of such a thing yet she was well aware they had not born bastards out of wedlock in their line and they had not yet solved what might allow for hair to be such a vibrant yellow and still allow her to claim Kiramman heritage.

In what world were they supposed to be related to one another when such a murderous soul was hiding in the smile of this unknown woman?

Sitting back down across from them both she had her legs crossed as they all stared one another down with her smiling at the glare from Cassandra as she waved that thing around and smiled politely as the teacups walked their own way out of the kitchen filled with tea the exact way she liked to have it.

Their gags even went away somehow as the cups arrived to the table with the expectation that they would drink up, her unnerving stare was enough for the both of them to wisely keep quiet and decide to drink.

Enough rope became loose for her to pick up the tea cup and lift it in her infinite mercy, but she was thinking ahead of her as the moment she attached her fingers through the handle they came back like they never left controlling her hand to where her only option was to open up and drink or face the piping hot tea running down her skin.

It reminded her of home.

Why in the world did she know this secret of theirs? The after taste was exactly like she wanted and they might even be able to pretend against the fires raging outside that should have been extinguished by now.

The tea was emptied by the both of them and they left their hands as she clapped and they moved as if coming to life under her command back to the kitchen while plates with snacks came to the table replacing the tea as she took a bite and tasted food that was as if the servants had been the ones to produce such a thing.

Unlikely that it was as even though she had captured her husband she doubted there would be much use for the servants in her world, yet that fresh blood along with the refreshments and snacks only caused her to grow a concern in the back of her mind as the monster only smiled as she tried to form words.

How was it possible to love a mass murderer?

Insanity must’ve plagued whoever allowed a woman with enough power to level the council and destroy Piltover without so much as a peep to anyone about her magical abilities.

And still she smiled at the both of them like nothing about this scene was wrong, just what in the world had broken her brain to allow such a rampage to come across as a good idea in the mind of the sick and twisted?

She would not get to find out as the lights turned off from the fires and the three of them were plunged into darkness as the fires had finally consumed their power source and she and her husband sat with the sensory deprivation.

Not for long as with another movement of her wand the lights came back for them all to once more see as the world burned around them and soon enough the mansion that had what little remind of the kiramman line.

Like a scene out of a movie they heard what sounded like footsteps outside of their room like they were specifically reverberating in their room, outsiders had managed to make it all the way into the mansion and while she would normally be outraged at the invasion of privacy there were only a few faces she might expect to make it all the way to the mansion with the fires.

Please don’t be who she was thinking of…

But that was much too optimistic for either of the two women.

It was like slow motion when she saw her pull out her pistol and simply sit in her lap as the doors were slowly pulled open so as to not alert any hostage takers of the new variable about to be introduced into the madness as the both of them prayed for the intruders to not include their daughter.

She waited to strike like a predator would as the door was being pulled to peek at the scene before opening to get the drop on the only woman that was not recognized by anyone in the room.

It was going to haunt her that she finally recognized the woman in front of her as the doors were opened and her daughter and whatever stray she found had jumped straight into action against the woman who had prepared for them both as she fired of a shot that was almost an act of mercy in her book as if to draw them away while picking up the sphere thing.

An unknown enemy using magic for something else was something neither of them were ever going to allow to happen as they the stray rushed in first while her daughter trained her rifle on the witch, she felt dread pass through her as she saw where exactly she was planning to shoot at as the stray found herself being lead in a dance for their lives.

The whole fight between the stray and that monster was nothing more than a game to her as she heard the grunts of the pink haired fighter as nothing seemed to be working while she deftly led her on like what was going on between them wasn’t one woman trying to kill the other as she took hold of her dance partner and locked her in place.

That was when things took a turn for the… weird as an odd atmosphere settled in between them all her daughter was still on the stairs trying to find a shot as she danced with the imobile piece of wood that was her stray.

Not that she wasn’t using her mouth to make herself known about how she felt about such a turn of events?

Why shouldn't she when by all logical means it was obvious she should be the one overpowering the woman who lacked any sort of muscle to her eye but she was holding on to her like she was in a death grip simply by locking their arms together.

Up on the stairs Caitlyn aimed down at the both of them as she prepared to pull the trigger and end the madness while Vi continued to be played with like a ragdoll as she screamed for the first time since since prison in immense pain that looked like it might even reach her all the way upon the stairs.

Everytime she thought there might be a chance to pull off the shot Vi would be dragged in front of her body protecting the majority of her body except for the face, yet she didn’t look at all worried over that fact… what was Caitlyn possibly not understanding?

A simple shot would finish this… right?

Cassandra watched as the stray was pushed to the ground as she gave up the protection she had from her daughter in a move she a bad feeling about as her daughter pulled the trigger and expected for the shot to ring out in the room requiring them all to become a part of the study of hearing loss and the effects of their rifles.

Instead they all heard the click of her gun as like out of some kind of horror scene gunpowder flowed out of the barrel of her gun to the ground, the amount of gunpowder was enough to fill multiple bullets as she reached for one of them in a pouch. Digging into that thing brought her another horror.

Her bullets had come apart as powder lined the entire thing with both ends being conveniently separated in separate piles on other ends of the pouch.

She felt the bullet rip through her shoulder before the sound reached her as she was thrown to the floor from the pressure as she stared at the ceiling while the pain from the bullet hit her as the sound of her mother crying out for her filled her ears as footsteps made their way across the room now that their foolish attempt was over.

Vi was strewn out on the ground, all fight sapped out of her with that magic fucking arm lock of hers, waiting for the end having heard of the bullet that ripped through the Kiramman girl but she was tough and would live through that first one even if it might be better that she hadn’t.

Her jacket was roughly grabbed as she was hoisted into a standing position barely able to stay upright as she looked into the eyes of the murder of her sister, it was real easy to put two and two together as the only monster bigger than even Silco as she ran through his empire like a breeze with the fires being her only indiciation.

She had murdered her sister in the chaos and she didn’t seem to care about how many casualties she caused with her giant smile as she shot down that noble enforcer, any true citizen of their city would be shitting themselves if they allowed such a thing and yet here she was being held by her strength alone.

Piltie science was bullshit.

What did one see when looking into the eyes of a murder?

Vi had seen tons of that in Stillwater.

Some of them were regular people other than the fact they had murdered people, often unable to tell they had some sin on their backs, others were the fucked up kind fo murder, unable to think about the traumatic act that they had done, and finally they had the ones that seemed to revel in the chaos.

The monster in front of her was certainly a category three while having something else in her eyes as she kept staring into the eyes of the monster that had won in the end against their shitty plan that was doomed to failure like Ekko warned her against.

Oh, Ekko.

Always burned with too much from the moment he was born in this world, she really should’ve spent the night with the firelights. How much more could one more day have hurt Caitlyn’s parents in the first place?

A hand reached for her face and she only had the slightest bit of strength to turn away from the hand coming for her that only slightly gripped her face and turned her back to the monster in front of her… sporting a small smile?

Fuck this shit.

The more she struggled in her last breaths the wider her smile grew as the fight and light in her eyes began to dim even before the gun was aimed at her head, Vi would not allow her to have the satisfaction of seeing her plead or any type of crap like that as the gun was being pointed at the middle of her head with nothing beyond an almost wistful smile upon her looking at her with anger before she died.

Staring into her eyes it was almost familiar despite the blonde hair that had her for a loop from the second she had seen the woman and chased her into that fucking dance of theirs that she might’ve enjoyed in any other circumstances.

It is only right before the bullet is fired that she hears the shout of ‘Caitlyn!’ that she realizes just who is about to end her life.

The one time she tries to trust a Piltie.

Figures.

Vi was dead.

It wasn’t hard to draw that conclusion as she heard the bullet and the discharge from her position on the ground, bleeding from the bullet wound and going into shock as her parents shouted out her name…?

Caitlyn was all the way on the stairs without any chance of getting up once more yet they still shouted her name like she had done some kind of unthinkable act, but she was on the way out of this mortal coil as everything began to feel heavy on her.

This was all her life was worth in the end?

How sad.

Footsteps were heard as just like Vi she was picked up and made to stare into the eyes of a murderer with no remorse for her action as she blanked upon looking to her eyes as everything suddenly became much harder to see because of the blood on the ground and she might’ve heard her parents pleading for her life?

They kept using her name like it was a cursed name and something not worth repeating in polite company as they mixed her name in with the pleading of a parent to let their child live and perhaps take them instead of her.

What a time to find her parents actually cared.

She was barely conscious enough to make out the barrel of the gun being pointed at her head when the light behind her eyes was about to be extinguished before she could get the chance to, only then was the universe polite enough to allow her brain to make the connection between her parents words and the killer.

She should’ve known she was always going to be the instrument of her destruction.