Chapter Text
Vi’s body burned with pain, each breath ripped from her throat, each movement tearing at the ligaments of her body and yet she couldn’t afford to rest. Each blink conjured visions of the battle she’d just fought, the battle she’d just lost. Powder, crushed under the weight of her own hot air balloon, Ekko, lifeless, by her side. They’d taken out Vander, or what twisted monstrosity he had been made into, but at what cost?
Vi had hardly any time to grieve. She’d dragged herself up those Piltover steps to find Caitlyn, bleeding out from a gunshot, executed on her knees. Vi had gathered in her arms, her palms pressed desperately against the back of her neck, Caitlyn’s blood seeped through her fingers.
“The hexgate, Vi. He’s going to the hexgate, he’s not here-” Caitlyn’s words came through choked gasps, blood bubbling through her teeth. Her body was limp, her spinal cord severed. The bullet hit her neck, the fucking neck, a slow death, a cruel death. “You have to go to the hexgate.”
“I won’t leave you,” VI said, her other hand caressing Caitlyn’s cheek. She felt cold, like her warmth was leeching from her. Dimly, Vi was aware that her cheeks were wet. “There has to be someone who can help, a- a medic or something.”
“Violet,” Caitlyn said, it was brusque, sharp, the commander in her breaking through. “The hexgates. Stop Viktor at the hexgates, please.” Her voice broke on that last word and Vi was frozen, torn. “I’m sorry, I wish we had more time,” Caitlyn continued, her breath shaky and slow, each word a painful wheeze. “But if he reaches that hexgate, it was all for nothing.”
Those are the words that rang through Vi’s head as the elevator carried her down to the hexgate. The further down she traveled, the cooler the air became, until Vi could see her breath mist in front of her. The cold was a welcome salve to the ache of her body though the sight that awaited her was a grisly one.
Jayce was on the ground, clutching at a hole burnt through his chest. Before him, Viktor, if that was even still him, standing incredibly tall, one spindly arm reaching out for the hexgate. His face was split open to reveal something eerie and inhuman.
“No!” Vi screamed. A new wave of adreneline welled up beneath her skin, she took a step, then another, then she was running at him, fists raised.
Viktor paused briefly, turning his head to stare at her blankly. There was no sign of that softspoken man who, not so long ago, had tried to save her father. No sign of humanity in that smooth impassive imitation of a face. “Violet,” he said and his voice echoes, reverbed around them. “You’re too late. You may not understand now, but you will, when your mind is open.” He touched the hexgate and the world became white light, washing out everything else.
Vi couldn’t see, she didn’t know where her body was and she crashed into something hard, metallic and when she did, she exploded into colors. Something grasped her, yanked her from her body and tore her apart, stretched those pieces, and forced each one into bodies and minds that were unfamiliar. The world was shimmering color, goops of strange memory dripped into her. She caught glimpses of Cait, Powder, Vander, people she knew but they were not her memories. She was herself but different, sometimes just slightly and sometimes nothing felt similar. Vi was Vi who was Vi who was Vi who was also Vi, and they were all different but somehow, she was all of them. She was everything, everywhere, all at once.
Finally, whatever force had grasped her let her go, threw her to the ground where she tumbled over herself and opened her eyes blearily to crumbled stone walls. Immediately, Vi was on her feet, fists raised and prepared to fight. That was a mistake, her head spun violently. She doubled over and spilled her guts across the floor. Vi stumbled forward, braced herself against the wall and squeezed her eyes shut until the floor stopped moving beneath her feet.
VI lifted her head again, expecting to see Viktor’s strange machine soldiers or maybe even Viktor himself but all was quiet, still. She was standing alone in what looked like a ruined study and it was strangely familiar, she took a moment to take in her surroundings until it clicked. It was Jayce’s workshop, but it looked older, there was no hextech lying around, and why was it destroyed?
Somebody must have ransacked Jayce’s workshop. They must still be at war, maybe it wasn’t too late for Vi to stop Viktor. Vi rushed through the doors, down the hallway, and out on to… a bustling Piltover street. It was a calm sunny day, people walked by idly, chatting and laughing, some even had dainty little parasols to hide from the sun.
Vi stumbled through the crowd, as if moving through a dream. Was this real? Was she hallucinating on the edge of death? She stopped promptly and slapped herself, earning quiet a few strange stares. It was then she realized that she didn’t have her gauntlets on, nor did her body hurt at all. Vi glanced down at her hands, expecting to see Caitlyn’s blood still stained on her palm, red under her fingernails, but they were clean. Vi followed the crowd like a zombie, her thoughts tripping over each other into a jumbled mess, what was going on? Vi stepped out on to main street and froze, there was that white staircase leading up to the Council Chamber. Despite everything, she still expected to see Ambessa’s soldiers up there. She blinked and saw Caitlyn, lying a pool of her own blood on those steps.
Was she in the past? Was that even possible? Something had happened when she’d touched the hexgate and with all hextech had done surely timetravel must be possible? Her heart leapt to her throat, she had another chance, a chance to stop everything before it happened. But how far back did she go? Did she have time to save Vander the first time? Did she have time to stop Powder from going with Silco?
Vi turned away from Piltover and took off at a run towards the bridge connecting Piltover to Zaun. She had another chance. She could save everyone. She could save Powder. She could- Vi crashed into someone; the wind knocked from her lungs violently. Vi had just enough foresight to brace herself over the other person so that she did not crush them and then rolled to the side with a wheeze.
“I’m so sorry,” Vi managed to say between painful wheezes.
“Violet?” That voice. Powder.
Vi had never stood up faster in her life. She surged forward, crushing Powder in a hug. She cupped the back of her sisters head, enveloping her so fully, scared that if she let go Powder may leave her again.
“You’re so tall, what the hell?” Vi had finally pulled back enough to really see Powder. She was taller, warmer, her eyes still blue, and she was older than Vi’s Powder had ever gotten to be. There was a pink strand in her hair that Vi absentmindedly reached for.
Powder was examining her too, her hands touching Vi’s cheek as if she couldn’t believe that Vi was really real. “You look exactly like he said you would,” she murmured, then she glanced over Vi’s shoulder. “Ekko, it worked. It really worked.”
Vi realized that the person she’d bowled over had been Ekko, who was still sitting on the ground. He looked strangely posh, in a little suit, and with a different hair cut.
“What worked?” Vi asked. “I’m so confused right now.”
Ekko and Powder shared a look.
“Let me show you,” Powder said.
Vi was standing in front of a memorial made for her. There was incense burning, a cute little doll imitation of her, and a beautifully painted portrait of her at the age of fifteen.
“You’re telling me I died that day?” she asked. “In that workshop?”
“It was an accident,” Powder said. Her shoulder brushed against Vi’s as she joined her in front of the memorial. Powder picked up the little stuffed doll of Vi, stroking its head fondly. “We were kids and we didn’t know what we were stealing. Something exploded. You died.” A tear escaped the corner of Powder’s eye and she sniffled and wiped at it. Vi pulled her into a side hug, rubbing her shoulder.
Vi remembered exactly what moment Powder was talking about, it had happened in her universe too.
A thought came to her. “Earlier, you said that it worked? Did you bring me here?”
Powder’s eyes lit up; she left Vi’s side to pull a tarp of some contraption. The machine underneath made Vi’s blood run cold. Hextech, trapped in a glass container.
“Ekko, the other Ekko, called it hextech,” Powder explained. “I tried to replicate what he did, to bring you back. I had no idea if it would work but, here you are! Ekko and I were thinking of showing it off at the next showcase-”
“No!” Vi protested so sharply she surprised even herself. Powder flinched from her and immediately guilt flooded through Vi. “I’m sorry. It’s a lot to explain. But… In my world, hextech kills all of us. It’s better if that technology stays buried.”
Powder was quiet for a long moment and Vi was not quite sure what she was thinking of. “Killed?” she asked finally.
Vi hadn’t meant to reveal that, she didn’t want Powder to know what happened to her in Vi’s universe. “Hextech gets out of control, there’s a lot of consequences from it,” she said simply. Her hands were trembling a little and she clenched them. Vi looked back towards Powder, who watched her worriedly but did not seem shocked. “You don’t look surprised.”
“When the other Ekko came to our universe, he was immediately trying to go back. I don’t know the whole story but, there was surely somebody or something in his universe that was important to him,” Powder said, she leaned back against the railings along the sides of her base, lost in thought. “I figured, you seemed happy enough to follow me around and even learning that I brought you here you haven’t asked me to send you back. I figured, at the very least, I must be dead in your universe.”
Going back had not even been an option in Vi’s mind. But, even if she did, would she be able to change anything? Viktor had already reached the hexgates and Vi alone did not have the power to defeat him. Some part of her felt guilt for wanting to stay, selfish for not at least trying to go back and save her own universe.
“Could you send me back?” Vi wondered.
Powder paused and thought on it. “Maybe? It’s still new tech but… I know it’s selfish but I wanted a version of you that would stay here, with me. So, Ekko and I looked for universes where you died, to transport you to here before your death. But I could probably still find a way to send you back. Do you really want to?”
“No,” Vi answered. Maybe she could go back, maybe she could try and fight Viktor, but he was already stronger than her even before he reached the hexgates. Now, without Jayce, without Caitlyn, without Powder or Ekko. She had no chance. She would go back just to die. Maybe it was cowardly to want to stay, maybe she should die alongside the others, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave so soon, not with everything she’d ever wanted in her grasp. “I think I’ll stay.”
Vi didn’t miss the way Powder’s face split into a grin. “Come on,” Powder said, reaching for Vi and twining their arms together. “We should go meet the others.”
Powder led her through the streets of Zaun which were wildly different from what Vi was used to. The streets were cleaner, brighter, and the people seemed happier, most importantly, Vi couldn’t see a hint of shimmer. As Vi marveled at the Zaun around her, she realized that she recognized the path they were taking. The entrance to The Last Drop loomed over them. Was Vander still alive here? Vi’s heartrate spiked, she rushed ahead of Powder, pushing past the doors.
There he was at the bar, polishing a whiskey glass. He looked the same as the day Vi lost him, the first time, at least.
“Welcome in,” Vander said. He lifted his eyes and the glass shattered on the ground. Vander made it to the doorway in three strides, lifting Vi off the ground in a bear hug.
“Oof,” Vi’s greeting came out in a pained wheeze as Vander squeezed her. She clung to him, feeling much like a little kid again. “You might be the only person who can still lift me like this,” she joked, her voice cracked at the end and tears she hadn’t known had been brimming broke.
“Is that really you, Vi?” Vander’s voice was a soft rumble against Vi.
“I mean, she has her name written on her face,” Powder said. Vi felt her arms around her as Powder joined the hug.
“I never thought I’d get to see you like this,” Vander said. And Vi thought to herself that she felt the same way.
Vi wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that, clinging to each other. Long enough to make all the other patrons of the bar curious. Eventually, Vander pulled away to reman the bar. He tapped her on the bicep.
“Been working out?” he asked.
“Just- here and there,” Vi replied, oddly bashful.
“Keep at it at and maybe you’ll get as big as me,” he said with a chuckle. Vander returned to the bar and Powder and Vi sat and chatted until Mylo and Claggor arrived. They sat at a table together, where Powder explained everything. They had already been aware of what Powder had been trying to do but unaware of how much progress she’d made in so little time.
“Soooo…. We’re all older than you now, except Powder, that’s kinda weird,” Mylo said. He hadn’t changed much at all, the same smarmy intonation of voice, the same mannerisms, hell his face didn’t even change, he still looked like that irritating kid Vi knew and Vi wouldn’t change him for the world.
“What’s really weird is that fuckass mustache you have,” Vi replied. Powder choked on her drink next to them.
“Hey, I worked really hard on this,” Mylo sulked, his cheeks pink. Claggor clapped him on the back.
“Don’t worry, Mylo. I like your mustache,” he said. Claggor’s voice was deeper, he’d grown much taller too and broader in the shoulders. He looked so much like Vander despite no blood shared between them, it made Vi’s chest ache. She’d spent so much time just trying to stay alive after their deaths that she never really got to sit with the empty space in her heart their deaths had left.
“Well, if I don’t have this mustache in your universe, what do I look like instead?” Mylo asked.
Vi paused. What exactly was Vi supposed to say to him? That they all died young and she never got to see the man he would grow into? The inside of her mouth felt like sandpaper and she disguised her discomfort by taking another swig of her drink.
“Come on, Mylo. Vi just jumped dimensions, let her rest,” Powder said, she leaned forward to flick him on the forehead affectionately. “Don’t ask her stupid questions.”
Mylo made a face. “Well, I don’t think it’s stupid. I am always striving to be the most handsome that I can be but… if you insist.” The door creaked open behind their table and Mylo perked up. “I’ll be right back.”
Vi watched as he tripped over himself getting out of his seat. He sidled up to the group who had just entered, speaking bashfully to one woman whose face was strangely familiar to Vi. A memory resurfaced, a soldier she’d carried, a woman she’d watched die.
“That’s Gert,” Claggor said, he leaned in to whisper. “Mylo’s taken a fancy to her.”
Mylo came stumbling back to their table, a drunken smile plastered on his face. “Gert’s havin’ a concert in a couple days. We gotta go. You ever seen Gert play in your universe?” he asked Vi.
“No,” she answered. Vi hadn’t even been aware that Gert was a musician.
“It’s a once in a lifetime experience, you’re definitely coming,” Mylo said.
“Alright,” Vi said. It wasn’t like she had anything better to do and she was curious to see where Mylo’s little crush went.
They spent the majority of the night at that table, talking over drinks.
“You and Ekko are a thing?” Vi asked, an eyebrow raised. She always thought Ekko had a bit of crush on Powder but they had never really got the chance to explore that in her universe.
“You’re a couple years too late to give the protective older sister lecture to him,” Powder said.
“I can still try.”
An hour in, Vander closed up the bar and it was just the five of them together, just like it used to be. When the time came to head home for the night, it was already past midnight.
“I can free up a room for you at the Last Drop,” Vander offered to Vi. “Or I’m sure I can find a place for you, you’re old enough.”
“You can stay at my place tonight,” Powder said excitedly. “Or as long as you want. There’s so much more I want to show you.”
“The place you share with Ekko? Not sure I want to be third wheel for longer than a night,” Vi quipped, it earned her a jab in the ribs. She grinned. “I’ll sleep over tonight though.”
They walked back together and Vi felt warm, at peace. She had her family back, a better Zaun, and no real threat of hextech to take it all away again. What more could she ask for? She thought of blue eyes and bit the inside of her cheek. Where was Caitlyn in this universe? Could she ask Powder about her? Would Powder really even know Caitlyn they had no reason to know each other.
“Enforcer patrol, they’re later than usual,” Powder mumbled next to her. Vi lifted her head.
She saw her then, flanked by enforcers and walking toward her. Dark blue hair, cheeks that Vi had caressed not so long ago, eyes she’d watched close for the last time, Caitlyn Kiramman. She felt herself stumble forward, as if drawn by a magnet. Gritting her teeth, she held herself back. This Caitlyn never knew her, did she? Vi would look like a drunken creep if she tried to reach out to her when she was on the job. Vi pulled back and tried to stare a normal amount as the group of enforcers walked towards them.
Just as Caitlyn was about to pass her, their eyes met. It felt as though time itself stopped. The moment was charged, like the second before a lightning strike. Caitlyn’s eyes widened just slightly, as though she may recognize VI. But as soon as that moment started, it ended. Caitlyn turned her head and something inside Vi deflated. Vi watched as she walked away. She looked down at her hands, they were trembling and she half expected to find blood under her nails.