Chapter Text
***
Beyond these walls, the storm's fury grows
But I have nothing to fear
***
"Always with you, sis," Jinx whispered, her voice breaking as tears welled in her eyes. Her fingers closed desperately around the Hex Crystal, tugging it free from Violet’s gauntlet with a sudden surge of strength.
The gauntlets were still humming, the metal hot against her skin, when Jinx’s grip slipped free. For a heartbeat Violet thought she could reach her, that somehow she could drag her sister back onto solid ground. But the explosion swallowed the platform in light and sound, and then there was nothing — just smoke and a hollow ringing in her ears.
She staggered back, lungs burning, the taste of dust and shimmer-thick ash in her mouth. The tower shook around her, steel screaming as it tore itself apart.
"No… NO!" Violet's scream tore through the chaos, raw and jagged, almost unrecognizable to her own ears. Through the smoke, the last thing she saw were those swirling colors — pink and blue, colliding in a haze — and then nothing.
She dropped hard onto the platform, knees buckling. Tears blurred her vision as she doubled over, clutching her head in her hands. Her chest heaved with sobs so violent it felt as if her ribs might crack under the weight.
"Why did you do this?!" she choked out, voice splintering, rising into a howl. "WHY?!" Her palms pressed against her face, as though she could block out the sight, block out the truth. But it was seared into her mind. Powder. Jinx. Her little sister — torn from her again.
Every memory, every scrap of childhood they’d clung to, was buried in that explosion. The laughter, the warmth, the fragile thread of hope that maybe, somehow, they could rebuild — gone. Shattered into smoke and silence.
Violet’s cries racked her until her body convulsed. Her skull throbbed, her vision tunneled, and still the tears wouldn’t stop. She couldn’t bear to look down into the abyss. Couldn’t face what she already knew she’d lost.
Time blurred. Minutes, hours — she didn’t know. Only the ache remained. Her sobs withered into shallow gasps, her breathing ragged and broken. Her strength leeched away until she collapsed forward on trembling arms, forehead pressed against the scorched steel.
"I have to…" Her voice cracked to nothing. She dragged in a shuddering breath. "I have to find Cait…" The words were a vow whispered into ruins.
Dizzy, staggering, she forced herself upright. The world tilted, every step an effort of will. Her legs felt like they might buckle again, but she pushed forward, stumbling toward the upper levels of the Hexgate Tower, desperate for something — anything — that hadn’t been obliterated.
The stairwells of the Hexgate Tower were a graveyard. Noxian armor lay scattered in twisted heaps, black and crimson plates cracked open like discarded shells. The Enforcers hadn’t fared better — blue uniforms crumpled in the shadows, rifles kicked aside, a handful still groaning under the rubble but too weak to rise. The great battle was already over; what remained was only the ruin.
Vi shoved past the bodies, bootsteps echoing as she took the corridor at a run. Fires guttered in the shattered lamps overhead, throwing jagged light across the walls. Somewhere deeper in the tower, the Hexcore’s pulse was still alive, a low thrum that rattled the air like a heartbeat too strong to belong to anything human.
Violet tore through the corridors, her gaze snapping to every fallen body she passed — soldiers in blue uniforms trimmed with gold, their faces slack, limbs twisted unnaturally. Each one made her chest seize. She scanned them frantically, praying, bargaining with herself, not her, please not Cait, anyone but her.
She turned a corner and nearly skidded to a stop.
Caitlyn was there — on the ground next to Ambessa Medarda’s body. The Noxian general lay still, her massive axe dropped from her gauntleted fist, crimson pooling beneath her.
But Violet’s eyes barely registered the general. They locked onto Caitlyn.
Blood masked half her face, streaming from her left eye in a jagged line that disappeared into her collar. Her uniform — that proud blue, Piltover pride — was soaked through, torn and dark with stains. A knife jutted grotesquely from her side, the hilt rising and falling faintly with each shallow breath.
"Cait!" Violet’s voice ripped out of her throat, hoarse, desperate. She stumbled forward, nearly tripping over her own boots, dropping to her knees so hard the impact jolted her bones.
"What happened, are you—?!" The words tumbled, incoherent, drowned in the fresh rush of tears burning her eyes. Her hands shook violently as she cupped Caitlyn’s face, thumbs streaking across skin slick with blood. She searched her gaze, begging for clarity, for recognition.
Caitlyn’s pupils swam unfocused, her expression dazed. "Vi…" The sound was barely a breath, lips trembling. Her hand pressed tight against the knife buried in her side, her knuckles bone-white.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck..." Violet’s voice cracked into sobs. Panic surged, hot and merciless, constricting her chest. She pulled Caitlyn upright against her, clutching her as if she could hold her together by sheer will. "We need a medic!" she screamed into the chaos, throat tearing with the force. "Somebody—!"
“The council maintained an infirmary two levels below the gate platform. Follow the western stairwell.” Mel’s voice was hoarse but steady, carrying across the ruin. She looked up at them, her fine clothes torn and darkened, arms wrapped tightly around Ambessa's lifeless body. Her face was pale, streaked with ash and sweat, yet her composure held, “Go. Quickly.”
The weight of Caitlyn’s body was nothing compared to the weight pressing on Vi’s chest. Blood slicked Vi’s forearm as she slid her arms beneath Caitlyn — one behind her shoulders, the other under her knees — and lifted her clean off the ground. Caitlyn’s head lolled weakly against her chest, her blood soaking through Vi’s shirt as she held her close.
“Stay with me, Cait,” Vi muttered, forcing her voice to stay rough and steady. “Don’t you dare die on me now.”
Caitlyn tried to speak but only a wet cough came out, crimson flecking her lips.
Vi gritted her teeth, eyes blazing through the haze. Mel’s voice echoed behind her: “Western stairwell—two levels down!”
The hallways of the Hexgate Tower were a furnace. Walls split open by the explosion bled sparks and smoke, steel beams sagging under the strain. Violet’s boots pounded across tiles slick with blood and oil. Every few steps, the tower groaned, threatening to collapse in on itself.
Dead Noxians littered the path, crimson armor scattered like broken toys. Enforcers in blue lay beside them, rifles shattered, faces pale in death. The silence of the battlefield pressed in — punctuated only by Caitlyn’s shallow, hitching breaths and the thunder of Vi’s heartbeat.
“Vi…” Caitlyn’s voice was barely a thread. Her hand twitched against Vi’s arm.
“Don’t talk,” Vi snapped, more to keep herself from breaking than out of anger. “Save your strength. Just a little further.”
The stairwell loomed ahead — or what was left of it. The western steps had cracked down the middle, but they still led deeper into the tower. Vi braced Caitlyn tighter and took them two at a time, hands tearing into the railing for balance.
At the base of the stairwell, flickering lanterns glowed faintly against the smoke. Vi kicked through the half-collapsed doorway — and froze.
A handful of surviving Enforcers were holed up inside, uniforms torn and faces blackened with soot. One knelt over a wounded comrade, bandaging with strips of cloth; another clutched a broken rifle like a club.
When they saw Caitlyn, gasps tore through the room.
“Commander Kiramman—!” one cried. They scrambled to their feet, rushing to clear a space on a cot salvaged from the infirmary.
Vi eased Caitlyn down onto the cot, her arms trembling as she finally let go. For the first time since Jinx slipped from her grasp, her arms felt heavy, useless.
“Get her a doctor!” Vi barked, her voice cracking with the force of it. “Now!”
One Enforcer was already digging through a battered med-kit, hands moving with frantic purpose. Another sprinted to the back wall, banging on a heavy steel hatch that led deeper into the lower barracks. “Medic! We need a medic here!”
Caitlyn’s eyes fluttered open, glassy and unfocused. Vi caught her hand and squeezed hard.
“You’re okay, Cait. I’ve got you.”