Chapter 36: Opening Old And New Wounds

Present. Just inside Zaun border. Traveling via Piltover Police patrol car.

Caitlyn looked back for the ump-tenth time to see XJ wrapped around VI's arm, and for some reason sucking her thumb. She mostly kept trying to figure out what VI was thinking about. Getting an official summons from the new Head of State to report to Zaun's Military Lab Compound, VI and XJ's birthplace, was an unusual and somewhat horrifying happenstance. Caitlyn knew it has been…well all of VI's life, since she has been back here. And her only memorable experience being there was having her face burned and being almost drowned.

Honestly VI had not given it much thought. She spent the whole car ride staring out the window as they passed the extent to which the war was waged inside of Zaun territory. She felt fright as she imagined how easily this could have happened to Piltover instead. Abandoned private and military objects were scattered across every field. Farmers up and left their farms; and soldiers up and left any vehicle that ran out of fuel. With her great vision she could see children, young children, playing on top of tanks and sorting through rubble. As paranoid as she normally is about kids, she had to look away to stop imagining kid after little kid playing in the desolate field and accidently tripping over a landmine. Zaun said they did a thorough sweep, but VI has never had much reason to trust them.

As far as her feelings towards the Zaun Military…she was content that they no longer wanted her dead or to try and control XJ. So she just decided to play it all by ear, but she had already made a plan to force an apology from that Travers guy. Just one and she'd be good.

Finally the oblivious, young, pink-haired girl noticed Caitlyn's rubbernecking. "What?" She smiled.

Caitlyn's face was filled with dread. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah, fuck this let's get outta here!" XJ sat up to add.

VI glanced back and forth between Caitlyn and XJ. They were really looking at her to make a decision about this. More or less they wanted a good reason either to keep going or to stop and refuse to follow the summons. VI just smiled as she grabbed a cheek from each girl. "Let's hear them out. If we don't like it I can just beat the shit out of all of them, okay?" She said it like she was serious, but the humor put them at ease. Caitlyn faced forward again, and XJ went back to cradling VI's arm; minus the thumb sucking.

VI decided she had enough of letting her imagination scare her, so she laid her head back to rest. In her thoughts she wondered, 'Maybe we can find out who that 'voice' is.'

After being quick-cleared at the entrance to the Zaun Military Lab Compound, they spotted General of the Military General Jason Travers awaiting them with a squad of unarmored soldiers; each had only their sidearm. When the vehicle stopped three of the six men came out to the vehicle to open each of the passenger doors and extend their arms to offer assistance. Caitlyn, the polite woman she is took her soldiers hand as she exited. VI followed suit, but felt silly. XJ looked at the soldier for a moment; he must have witnessed her insanity before because when XJ looked up at him he just held up his hands and backed away. She came out staring him down like a dog ready to bite.

Caitlyn noticed what was happening. "XJ!" She looked at the Sheriff. "Behave yourself."

XJ nodded. "Yes ma'am." Then she walked over to stand by her and VI.

Travers looked over the three of them. "Welcome VI, Caitlyn, and Jinx."

"I'm not Jinx anymore!" XJ shouted.

"XJ!" Caitlyn snapped.

XJ looked down. "Sorry. I want to be addressed as XJ for now on. If that is okay, sir?"

Travers smirked. "Of course. My mistake Ms. XJ." Then he turned his attention to Caitlyn. "Wow, just wow. We could have used you back when she was younger. What's your secret?"

Caitlyn's face remained solid. "The secret is not to treat her like a monster."

XJ liked that answer for some reason because she grabbed a hold of Caitlyn's hand. Just because she had no real reason not to, Caitlyn gripped back.

Travers' smirk disappeared. "I see. Well then we were doomed from the start. Point taken." Then he held up a hand to VI. "My you have turned into quite a beautiful young lady yourself."

VI looked at him like she wanted to puke. "Tell me, did you notice this just now, or back when you used to spy on me?"

Travers looked at XJ. "Yeah, I told her everything."

"Everything?" Travers retorted.

Like a well lit fuse, XJ sprang up the steps and got her hands around Travers throat. He stayed on his feet, surprisingly. All his men drew arms, but Travers waved them down. XJ sounded just as terrifying as Travers can remember her being under the influence of bloodlust. "I was hoping you would give me a reason to pop your head off your shoulders!"

"XJ!" Caitlyn bellowed.

Travers waved her down. He struggled to make words. "No, no, she's okay." He focused his gaze to lock with XJ's. "I am very sorry about what we did to you and her. I don't want to be forgiven; I just want you to know that I am sorry."

Now VI wanted answers. "XJ, what are you guys talking about?"

Travers knew it was his burden to bear. "She speaks of the reason we spied-."

XJ shook Travers violently. "No! Don't! Not right now! I don't want to talk about it!"

Travers nodded his understanding of XJ's feelings.

VI looked at Caitlyn. "Do you now what they are talking about?"

Caitlyn looked back and said nothing.

"C'mon, tell me!" VI snapped.

"It's not my place." Caitlyn replied, averting her eyes.

VI looked back to see XJ, still holding Travers by the throat, but looking at her with tears streaming down her face. She mouthed, "Please, no!"

VI felt crushed to be left out in the cold on this whole, thing, whatever it was, but she conceded to hear about it later. "Okay, but you have to promise that you'll tell me."

XJ nodded and released Travers.

As Travers rubbed his throat he decided that the steps to the compound were not the best place to discuss all of the truth he was going to lay before them. This included. "Please, let us discuss all matters in my conference room." He held out his arm to lead the way.

"Yes, let's" Caitlyn said as she started to climb the steps. As she passed XJ she grabbed the fiery psycho by the arm to mush her forward. VI followed and Travers came up the rear escorted by his squad.

Once they reached the conference room Travers instructed his men to stay out of the room and not to enter under any circumstance. They were not too happy to comply, but he insisted. When they finally listened he took a seat at the table on the opposite side of the three women. VI in the middle and XJ to her left with Caitlyn to her right. "Now, let us begin. First off, I am sure you want to know why you are here. I called this meeting to discuss and confess everything we have done to the two of you and answer all of your questions. I feel that we owe you that much. Second I would like to apologize for everything. I only ask that when we are done you do me the courtesy of allowing me to do so. Is that acceptable?"

Caitlyn nodded, VI paused and stared before nodding, but XJ was difficult, as usual. "You can apologize with the action of fucking yourself until you die if you want to so badly."

Caitlyn reached over and nudged XJ, making a serious face. So XJ looked at Travers and nodded her approval.

Travers just smiled. XJ became confused. "I'm so proud of you, XJ."

"What the fuck does that mean?" XJ demanded.

"Nothing." Travers paused. "But I can promise you that I will be dead before the day is done. Would that suffice?"

XJ tilted her head. "Uh, yeah, sure. You dying, I like it."

Impatience had been boiling over in VI. "I can't, I know I said I'd wait, but I can't. What the fuck were you all talking about earlier?!"

Travers looked at XJ as Caitlyn turned away from everyone. XJ just nodded and buried her head in her hands to sob. Caitlyn grabbed her before VI could. "Just listen to him, I have her."

VI gave her attention to Travers; she looked serious as she impatiently awaited information.

Travers began where he felt it best. "We spied on you for two reasons. One was Dr. Parson's own and the other was a collective reason by key personal in the Zaun power structure. Dr. Parson, as you know, was the main component of this entire program. Over time we had discovered that XJ had a deep affection for you. One so strong it was beyond a family feeling. She loves you, and we decided to use that to our advantage." VI grew less entertained by the second, but let him continue. "We found a prostitute who was down on her luck and after a series of surgeries and blood transfusions we were able to make her look like you and behave like you. Then we used her to gain trust into XJ's deeper thoughts and feelings to see if we can control her through our copy of you. In time, as their relationship grew, the whore-."

"STOP FUCKING CALLING HER A WHORE! HER NAME WAS BRITTNEY! SAY IT YOU FUCKING BASTARD! SAY IT!" XJ's burst of anger spooked Travers a bit.

"Yes, Brittney was her name." Travers looked back at VI. She looked scarier than XJ at this moment. Travers swallowed and cleared his throat instinctively. "Brittney started to develop actual feelings for XJ and started to try and hide things from us. It was futile, but we decided it was better than nothing to just let her continue.

"After one run-in with a man who we have since identified as Jayce of Piltover, Brittney became badly injured. XJ visited her in the hospital and when Brittney regained consciousness she-."

"No!" XJ blurted out. "I'll…I'll tell her." She faced VI and grabbed each of her hands with her own. "Please, I thought she was you, that is why I…but after sometime since I realized that I did love her too, and she loved me. I…when she woke up…she confessed to me what she had been doing, and I…I…I killed her. No! No! I ripped her face off, and snapped her neck…I…I…I hate myself!" XJ buried her head into both of their hands and sobbed.

VI was too angry to make an attempt to consul her. She glared at Travers. "What else did you do to her, to us?!"

Travers didn't know where to start so he just went by chronological order. "Well since I have been involved: I watched her kill off all her siblings in a brutal free-for-all; Sent her to kill an entire family of industrialists for military purposes and control; Sent her to fight for Noxus in a war with Ionia; Monitored her entire life and all her visible secrets; And genuinely tried over and over again to control her."

Caitlyn decided she needed a straight answer of her own. "And the attack on Piltover?!"

Travers sighed. "Let me start off by saying that our actions in training her were the cause of any misfortune she gave to anyone. But that was all her decision."

Caitlyn cursed herself. She had hoped, really hoped, that XJ did that on an actual order. Or at least she could make it look like that. Convincing a judge to lighten XJ's sentence seemed further and further out of reach.

At this time, VI finally gave to notice to XJ. She realized that if one story from the past could hurt her, this much, than getting more out of Travers was not going to help. In time she was sure XJ would tell her everything, but for now she just wanted to leave as soon as possible. "Look you fucking waste of life, just do your apology and let us leave! I don't need to know the rest of the shit you did to her; I hate you plenty right now!"

Travers nodded. "My apology is best given by the real reason I had you come out here, beyond the ones I gave to the Piltover Head of State." That got everyone's attention. "The real reason you are here is to meet your maker."

The bomb fell hard and wiped clean the faces of all three of the women.

Travers stood up and exclaimed, "Please follow me and I will show and explain everything to you about Project Erebus or as it is rightly named, The Runic-Life-form Creation program, or RLC for short."

Following Travers, without his escorting squad, the three women each made their own internal guesses as to what RLC is. Collectively, but individually, they each speculated it to involve the 'voice' VI had known about.

Before entering the room Travers turned around and held out his hand in front of Caitlyn. "I have to apologize for this, but Caitlyn can not enter."

Caitlyn replied, "Why not? I need to be there with them."

"I know you do, but if you come in you will meet the same fate as me. I am sorry but-." Travers stopped and looked like he was listening to something. Then he looked back at Caitlyn before glancing at VI and XJ. "You both heard that, right?"

XJ and VI nodded.

Caitlyn looked dumbstruck. "Heard what?"

Travers took the helm on this. "Listen carefully Caitlyn. What we are about to do will decide the fate of VI and XJ. I need you to understand that if you enter, you are only to be a witness. You cannot interfere with what may or may not happen."

"Why?" Caitlyn sounded worried. "What will happen?"

Travers cleared his throat. "If you interfere then you may die. Can you promise to be only a witness?"

Caitlyn was so confused. She looked at XJ, who nodded, then at VI. VI looked at her with worry of her own. "Is this what you want?" Caitlyn asked.

"Yes." VI replied. "You have to stay out of it."

Caitlyn looked at Travers. "I promise."

A moment passed. Then VI walked over and grabbed Caitlyn by the shoulders. "Caitlyn, don't bother asking me how, but we all know you're lying. Please, you have to promise from deep in your heart that you will not interfere."

Caitlyn was now a pool of both worry and confusion. She wanted to stop something bad if it came to it, but she wanted so much more to be apart of whatever was happening. "Okay, I promise I will not interfere."

"YOUR HEART SPEAKS THIS AS A TRUTH, BUT THERE IS DOUBT THAT IT MAY BE CHANGED." A voice of indistinguishable nature, gender, or reality spoke within her head.

"Who are you?" Caitlyn said aloud.

"MY EXISTENCE IS TO ALLOW FOR MY EXITENCE IN THIS REALM."

"And you know I was lying?"

"ALL TRUTH CAN BE FOUND FROM WITHIN."

Caitlyn looked down at Travers. "Why does he speak like that?"

VI and XJ were both interested in that as well. Travers tried to explain it as best he could. "He or it, can't completely translate his, well language I guess you would call it, into a form of language we can precisely understand. It isn't from our existence, so nothing really crosses over too well."

Caitlyn nodded to accept this as the best answer.

With that Travers opened the final door and led the group into the underground facility. Travers stopped halfway across the room to motion the three women to go ahead of him. When they were around him, they saw it. The stone.

VI spoke first. "This, this is our creator?"

"MY EXISTENCE ALLOWED FOR YOUR EXISTENCE."

While the other two were still in awe, VI had sort of planned what she had always wanted to talk about. "Why did you create us?"

"SO THAT MY EXISTENCE CAN BE OF THIS REALM."

"You were always watching us, from birth?"

"CORRECT."

"How?"

"THIS REALM IS UNLIKE THE ONE OF MY ORIGIN. THOSE WHO INHABIT IT CANNOT CONNECT TO ALL OF IT AT ONCE. MY EXISTENCE CAN."

"So you were in, like, everything and everyone or what?"

"NOT CORRECT. NOT COMPLETELY CORRECT."

VI looked at Travers. "You wanna step in here?"

Travers was only slightly more aware of the reality behind the stone than VI was. "I spoke with the stone often, but I only kind of understand it. Let me try it like this. Where it comes from everything is connected, but still individual. It doesn't have land or air or water or any form of distinguishable matter, really. There isn't anything visible, but it can all be seen. Existence for where it is from is of a completely different nature. Because of this, the way it connects to our realm is by means that it would in its own. Life and death have no meaning for them. They exist as one being and sometimes they split and create many other beings, while other times they'd merge with other beings and create a singular entity. At a time in its existence our Dr. Parson and many other Zaun scientists, summoned it here, as is."

VI was still lost, but more importantly she had a feeling that something terrible was going to happen soon.