Stillwater Sisters

Chapter 1: Still sisters

The streets of the undercity were dark, the air filled with dust and fumes. Thunder roared in the gray sky, echoing the scream of a pink haired girl kneeling on the street. Clutching the distorted body of her caretaker, who had just saved her from the burning factory. Of her mentor, who had just taken his last breath. Of her… father, who had just spoken his last words.

"Take care of Powder"

Vander's words echoing in her mind Vi gathered her strength and stood up on her feet, holding her left arm. It hurt, her head hurt, her whole body hurt. But compared to the pain screaming in her chest, her body might as well have been numb.

"Vi, it worked!" Powder's voice rang out from behind her.

"What?" Vi asked, her mind racing. What worked?... what was her sister doing here?... why was she happy? Couldn't she see what had happened here?

"Did you see me?" Powder exclaimed, her voice full of excitement "My monkey bomb finally worked!"

Vi's thoughts halted, her mind flashed back to the explosion. To Claggor, Mylo, their bodies buried under rubble, nothing but bloody broken limbs peaking out from underneath.

"You did this?" Vi let out. Only now did Powder take notice of Vanders body, her smile quickly dropping.

"Why?.. Why did you do this?" Vi couldn't make sense of it, nothing made sense. She looked towards the blue haired girl searching for answers but finding none.

"I… I didn't…" Powder whispered, sounding more and more unsure of herself "I was saving you."
Clutching her stuffed rabbit, her eyes began darting around the scene. Looking for some thing to fill in the blanks for herself, only to spot Claggor's goggles on the ground. Broken and bloody, and without Claggor in sight. Mylo was nowhere to be seen either.
Tears began welling up in Powder's eyes. It began to dawn on her, what the explosion had done, what she had done.

"I only wanted to help" She was quickly reduced to a sobbing mess, repeating the same words. Desperate to explain, to make Violet understand.
"I only wanted to help, I only wanted to help, I only wanted to"

"I told you to stay away" Vi interrupted, anger rising up in her voice.

"Please please please" Power tried to plead to the pink haired girl. But Vi's anger reached a peak.

"I told you to stay away!" And she lashed out, striking her sister's face, knocking her down.

"No. Why did you leave me." Powder wailed in between sobs.

Vi's wrath continued. She walked up, grabbing her sister's face, squeezing her cheeks.

"Because you're a Jinx. Do you hear me? Mylo was right" She spoke, anger and pain clear in her voice.

"No no no no… Violet please." Powder could barely speak. Blood began to run from her nose, joining with the steam of tears that flowed from her eyes, her sisters grip holding firm.

"Take care of Powder"

Vi gasped and quickly let go of her sister. Vander's words echoed in her ear and she found her anger slipping away. Looking over her bandaged hand she found it stained with new blood, her sisters blood. Guilt began taking the place of her anger. Not even five minutes had passed since Vander spoke those words and here she was, already breaking them. She felt conflicted, shouldn't she be blaming Powder. After all it was Powder who... The explosion flashed before her eyes again, thoughts of her newly lost family and fury began surging within her once more. But she didn't let that fury touch upon Powder. As she turned her gaze to her sister again, now looking more terrified and fragile then Vi could ever remember, she instead found a resolve fill her.

No! She thought to herself. Powder was not to blame! She could not allow herself to blame her, she mustn't! Powder was the last family she had left and now she needed her big sister more then ever.
Silco! Now there was someone to blame, to hate. A name she could only remember hearing in passing, from overhearing conversations not meant for her. Someone that never had any effect on her life. Now a man that had robbed her of almost everything, almost. Yes, he was to blame. Him and his band of thugs and traitors. She hated them all, but as much as she wanted to just gather her strength and exact revenge, she knew, that would have to wait.

"Violet... Please don't leave me..." Powder's voice sounded as hollow as she looked. Her tears had stopped falling but they were still gathered in her eyes. Bloodshot whites surrounded sky blue irises that darted all over Vi's form but not once daring to meet her own steel blue ones.
She looked as if one wrong word could shatter her forever and Vi only hoped she hadn't said that word already. Reaching out with her hand, ignoring the flinch that came as a result, she placed it softly on her sister's head. She gave the blue hair a caring stroke before leaning in and pulling the smaller girl closer to herself. Wrapping her arms around her sisters shaking form.
"I'm not leaving you." She hugged her tighter and she felt Powder begin to cry again against her shoulder. "I won't leave you, do you hear me?" Powder simply nodded her head not able to form any words in reply.

But the sister's brief moment of comfort was cut short by faint sounds and voices approaching from around the corner of the crumbling walls of the factory.
"...don't care just find them." Silco and whatever men he had left was closing in and as much as Vi wanted to smash that scarred peace of shit's face in, she recognized that she was in no condition to fight, let alone protect Powder. Especially if Silco had any more mutated freaks to throw at them.

"Shh, Powder, we need to go." They needed to get out of there and fast. "But what about...?" came a whispered reply. Vi didn't need to see it to know that her sisters eyes were locked on Vander's body. "There's no time, we need to go now." She was already pulling them both up of the ground and towards the nearest alleyway. Just in time they entered the shadow created by the narrow path, as the next second Silco appeared from behind the corner, his entourage following behind. As their group spotted Vander and began to approach, Vi was quietly guiding Powder further into the ally. They didn't seem to have been spotted but Vi kept a close eye behind them in case they needed to bolt.

Unfortunately, a few too many looks to from where they came left them exposed from where they were going. Vi took one last glance behind while softly pushing Powder around the corner of the building. A single moment was all it took. She first heard Powder's gasp, quickly followed by being pulled out of Vi's reach. Before she even had time to fully turn around she felt a sharp pain of something hitting the top of her head.

Falling to the ground, and feeling her head take a second blow as it hit the bottom, she was served a fussy image of the scene taking place. An enforcer stood above her, extended baton in one hand, the other held a cloth tightly pressed to her sisters face. Powders eyes were pleading at her, her voice muffled and her struggles loosing strength by the second. Vi tried to extend an arm towards her, to reach her, protect her. But she felt her own consciousness fading. She thought she could hear the enforcer muttering some words but she couldn't make them out.

Instead, there were other words echoing in her head, accompanying the pulsing pain.

"Take care of Powder"

One last thought escaped her mind before everything faded to black.

Had she already failed?

Not far from that scene a different one was taking place.

Silco was looking down at Vander. Someone he once considered a brother was now laying unmoving on the cold street. Several emotions was running through him as he turned to look at the destroyed wall of the burning factory. Anger and frustration was a given with how this night had ended up going, but he was surprised at the amount of bitter sadness that accompanied it. Turning his eyes to look at Vander again Silco couldn't help but release a deep sigh.

"A pity, brother. Even at the end you made the wrong choice." Another sigh escaped him before his eyes hardened with focus. "But no matter. I will unite the underground and make it stronger then you ever could. The Nation of Zaun will be something to be feared. A shame you won't be here to see it."

A cough sounded from behind him, ending the crime lords reminiscing.

One of his men spoke up. "Um... boss. What do we do now?"

Silco looked at the burning factory, what had been his base of operation for many months, now it laid in ruins. And several of his employees, experiments, tools of production and plans was burning along side it.
Salvage and reorganize then. Silco mind worked quickly, prioritizing everything that needed doing, several of which needed to happen immediately.

"Raja, Mitch, call in everyone you can. We need to get the fire put out and salvage all we can. Find the doctor and make sure he's fine, or at least doesn't die on us." Silco paused. That would be bad, the doctor was still vital to the production processes of shimmer. "If he is dead search through the lab, gather any equipment, research, notes and samples you can find. Move that along with everything else that can be salvaged to the eastern warehouse. The same goes for for any body you find, alive or dead. Now go." Two of his men ran of to do as he commanded while Silco turned to the next.

"Hector, gather your crew, clear the area of anyone trying to snoop around, and find the girl. She's likely injured and hopefully won't have gone to far." Receiving a nod he then turned to the last two. Sevika wasn't of much use at the moment, being unconscious and one arm short. Instead Silco addressed the large tattooed brute of the group.

"Jak, take her to the eastern warehouse and make sure she gets treatment. After that go to The Last Drop, you need to find the last of Vander's kids, the younger blue haired girl."

"Right boss. Um... why the girl?"

Silco's eyes hardened. "Because, tomorrow some rumors are going to start to circulate. That the leader of the Lanes cracked under the pressure from the topsiders. That "The Hound of the underground" took his pups and ran away"

Jak frowned, "Will everyone believe that?"

Silco gave a humorless chuckle, "Hardly. But enough people will have enough doubt that a rift will begin to form, and in that rift lies opportunity. Now, get going." Jak nodded and left him alone with his thoughts again.

No, the night had certainly hadn't gone as expected. Silco had underestimated both Vander and the children he had take under his wing. A mistake that proved to be near fatal.
And speaking of near fatal, Silco turn towards the crumbling factory wall. From between the cracks he could already see some of his men starting to put out the fire. He would need to wait for them to finish before he could begin to work on his own task. Answering the question that burn in his mind.

What the hell had caused the explosion.

.

Author's Note:

Right, so this will hopefully be start of something. But this is the first time I've really written anything (let alone posted it) so I will have to see how it goes.
Any criticism is very welcome. Hopefully I can improve.