"Fuck off," Katarina moaned as Garen rapped on the door to her cell, waking her. He smiled despite himself and took the cell key off of its ring. Katarina leapt to her feet, suspicious and slightly concerned as Garen inserted the key; the last two times she'd had visitors they had tortured her half to death.
"You have visitors," Garen stated as he turned the key. The door swung open and Katarina briefly considered running before coming to the conclusion that Garen's presence would make it nearly impossible disarmed as she was. She settled for narrowing her eyes and waiting.
Shock flooded her eyes and emotions as the last two people Katarina had expected to see entered her cell. Riven and Vi stood there, both unarmed to the further shock of the assassin. "…We thought you dead," Katarina whispered breathlessly. Riven smiled sadly and Vi took a step back: She wanted to let Riven talk. Katarina didn't.
"You never even stopped in fleetingly to let me know you were alive…do you know how long it took me to stop crying on a daily basis over you?" Katarina said, her face a mask of betrayal and rage. "You thought me unimportant enough to just cast behind you like common trash," She accused.
"Katie, it isn't like that," Riven argued. "Singed brought a dishonor of massive proportions to my pride and to Noxus. I would not be affiliated with such filth and as such I left it. Had I returned, I would have risked being captured by the forces that once served me to kill me," She said.
"We were fucking sisters. Just like her and Jinx. Maybe not by blood, but we were still just as close, Riv. I wasn't worth the risk? She would lay her life down in a god damn instant for her sister. Why couldn't you?" Katarina shot back, pointing at the other woman in the room. Vi felt extremely awkward being dragged into the conversation but did her best not to show it.
"Kat… what has become of you, child?" Riven asked as she approached Katarina. "When we last parted you were a young woman full of skill and potential. Why has it wasted away on such fruitless work as assassinations? This is not the Katarina I left behind. This is not the Katarina I entrusted my legacy to," She said as though chiding a small child.
Katarina's head swam with emotions. Shame, anger, sadness and self-loathing suddenly burst forth, sending her into a world of mental anguish as she put the gold-encrusted emerald hanging from her neck into her hand. The sight of the gem combined with the sight of her former mentor triggered memories that had been buried in the back of her mind.
"I'm sorry, Katie. Noxus has need of my strength now. I have no option," Riven said, crouching down to the 15-year old redhead before her to meet her eye-to-eye.
"…Promise you'll be back. You have to come back. You… you're the only one that's believed in me. My only true friend," Katarina lamented as tears began to stream down her face. Riven smiled winningly and rummaged around in her pocket for a moment.
"Katie… this has been in my family for over 100 years. I won't lie to you. I may not come back. You're more intelligent than to think I can promise otherwise. But if I do fall," Katarina began to cry in earnest at those words, "I want you to have this," Riven took Katarina's hand and opened it, placing the heirloom and matching chain in Katarina's tiny hand before curving the girl's fingers around it.
Katarina stared at the jewel, looked to Riven and ran forward, embracing her best friend fiercely as though it was the last time she would ever see Riven. And Riven was right; it actually might be. Riven patted her young charge on the back and smiled over Katarina's shoulder before gently setting Katarina back down. "Katie… It's time. Make me proud and stay worthy of that," Riven said. And with that, she turned around and disappeared into the Noxian ranks.
"You… never came back. Never came back for me. You survived the war… and left me behind to think you dead. You even severed your own weapon to leave Noxus, to leave me, behind. YOU LEFT ME!" Katarina raged, suddenly leaping at Riven. Vi started to leap forward but checked the action. To Vi's shock, Riven didn't even go to her weapon. She allowed Katarina to tackle her to the ground. Garen saw this and began to enter the cell, but Vi held a hand up.
"I think… I think this needs to happen," Vi told him even as Katarina began to swing at any part of Riven she could find. Garen looked on between Vi and Riven, the latter of whom wasn't even attempting to defend herself. "Katarina… she's more like me than I could have guessed," Vi said both to herself and Garen, thinking out loud. "So much anger from early on. I took it out on criminals. She's taking it out on the person who caused it," She said.
"I WAITED FOR YOU! EVERY DAY! EVERY FUCKING DAY!" Vi was becoming slightly disturbed now at the sight of Katarina showing emotions besides cruelty and sick pleasure. But even as she continued her assault, Vi noticed the blows becoming weaker. Weaker until finally Katarina broke, falling to her knees with her face buried in her arms. Her back heaved in rhythm to the muffled sobs coming from the girl.
Vi was shocked. This wasn't the assassin she'd fought and captured in Piltover and Demacia. This was a broken down little girl in a woman's body. Vi looked at Riven, who smiled and took Katarina by the hands, pulling her gently to her feet. The redhead's bottom lip was quivering and her cheeks were tear-stained. As Riven pulled her friend into an embrace, Katarina was forced to stare into the eyes of the Piltover Enforcer.
Vi did not blink. She did not break the connection. She was staring into the same eyes she'd stared into all those years ago, whether she remembered it or not. She was looking dead in the eye at the woman who had cost her a childhood, a family and her very memory.
And yet… Somehow, looking at Noxian's top assassin, Katarina seemed to transform before Vi's very eyes. The hardened features of an assassin melted, the eyes warmed like a furnace fighting a wintery night and for the first time in a long time Katarina's usual spine-tingling smirk of a smile became a true expression of happiness.
Garen, standing in the doorway of the cell, was also entranced. For his entire adult life, ever since their first meeting Katarina had wanted nothing less than Garen's head from Demacia. To see that same woman who'd tried to take his life on so many occasions, not to mention attempting to harm his sister, in Riven's arms crying like a child was confounding to the Might of Demacia.
Vi's communicator interrupted the moment between them. Vi looked down at the device oddly and pushed the "accept" button. "Something wrong? We're kind of in the middle of-" Vi held the communicator at arm's length as loud yell rang through it. "What the hell is going on?!" She cried.
"Vi, it's Lux. They're here and they're not happy. We need you," Vi's eyes wondered. Two questions quickly ran through her mind. One, whose communicator did Lux have? And two, WHY did Lux have that communicator? The sound of clanging metal jerked her out of her thoughts.
"Who is where? What the hell're you talking about?" Vi snapped even as she left the cell, grabbing her gauntlets. Garen quickly followed suit, sword in hand. Riven turned to Katarina and held her chin up, deathly serious.
"Katie. You've committed a lot of murders. You have so much to atone for thanks to Noxus. You've got a chance to start here. If you are not with us, you are as you currently stand with Noxus. That means you're against us. Against me. What say you?" Riven asked solemnly. Katarina stared down at the charm around her neck.
"…I made a promise. I will keep that promise," She said finally before rushing out the door. Riven bit her lip; Katarina had made promises to both savory and unsavory people. Her agreements were of pride and violence, life and death. Which contract was Katarina keeping? She shook her head and grabbed her broken blade, hanging it from her waist and rushing from the castle.
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"WAIT!" Vi and Riven were inches from Vi's cruiser en route to Piltover when Katarina's voice rang out. Three heads turned. Three sets of weapons readied. Six ears listened. Tenseness bloomed in the air like a thundercloud. Katarina had managed to break into Demacia's weaponry and retrieve her knives, holding one in each hand. Her focus turned to Garen. Garen's hand tightened on the hilt of his sword, as did Riven's.
Vi's gauntlets flared to life, ready to deliver a hex-packed blow to the assassin's mug. All eyes followed the redhead as she walked not to Garen, but to Vi. "If anyone deserves this, it's you," Katarina said, devoid of emotion. Vi cocked an arm back, and then let it hang as Katarina fell to her knees, the knives in her hands offered to the brawler by the handles.
Vi looked to Riven. The Noxian Exile was smiling on her lips and in her eyes. Vi took the handles and gently pulled as to not cut the girl's hands. There was no time to lose; yet Vi still struggled with herself. Vengeance was so close. She could easily destroy her parent's' murderer. She could have revenge. Or, a part of Vi's mind argued, you could do right by that badge.
Katarina swallowed hard in anticipation. She was thinking similar thoughts. Was she breathing her last? She would surely deserve it. She'd taken Riven's legacy, the gift of honor, knowledge and strength that her mentor had trusted her with and wasted it away on murdering those who were often innocent. She'd allowed herself to be molded, sculpted and twisted. She became so lost in thought that it took Vi tapping her on the shoulder to catch her attention.
Looking down, she saw the two knives back in their homes on the bandolier that wrapped around her body. Her eyes widened. "…I… can't believe…" Katarina stuttered. She had not been shown such empathy since she was… well, since she was fifteen. Vi gave a smile that bordered on a smirk and pulled the Noxian to her feet.
"Get over it on the way. I need the Katarina that can kill five people in as many seconds for… whatever we're going into. Garen, you stay here. If Noxus is making their move, you're needed her in case they split invade," She said as she sat down at the wheel. Katarina barely had time to shut her door before Vi floored it , chewing up the ground and raising startled cries from all present.