Chap. 6: Piltover Hypocrisy
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
2 days prior to Stillwater visit
The Kiramman house is normally quite calm, there were never any fights or family arguments, or at least not that they would last, since everyone who lives and works in that mansion is always busy for some reason or another.
But of course, it is to be expected as one of the most influential families in the security of the Progress Nation. Since the least they do is rest too much, but sooner or later each and every one of the residents adapted.
The counselor with her job of being one of the leaders of Piltover.
Caitlyn being an officer in training.
Mr. Kiramman with his own businesses.
And the little adopted, not so little Powder, who was only dedicated to being an inventor and mechanic, who is always on the go with some other project. Well, normally it is like that, since in reality she is sleeping "peacefully" in her room. If staring at the ceiling of her room with a blank stare could be considered sleeping.
The reason for this? Well, what happens is that one of his most precious projects was rejected, in addition to being the one that took the longest to complete, since it was considered a "weapon" by the oldest councilor of all, Professor Heirmendinger.
This was just something that could be considered as the straw that broke the camel's back, since it is only 1 of his already many failures.
The light blue haired girl has already tried a wide variety of experiments which almost always ended in 1 of 2 situations, either it did not work as it should, or it exploded suddenly and without warning. Being that the 2nd the option that was presented the most.
But in spite of everything, she knew that for her, there were some people who helped her not to feel completely bad when something did not go well.
Their names? Vicktor and Caitlyn.
The first generated a Master-Apprentice link of being both from the same origins, the Suburban District. Without forgetting the clear obsession with machinery and inventions. They spent most of their time in the lab, and if someone didn't stop them, they could stay up until dawn experimenting.
Whereas with Caitlyn, despite her telling her that she had no intention of taking her sister's place, Powder was happy to have someone old enough to help her adjust. Being that the young Kiramman was the living proof that goodness exists even in a corrupt world like this.
They helped her in a way that she didn't feel like a failure, not like the voices in her head.
Exactly, she could hear the voices of her childhood friends and almost brothers Mylo and Claggor in her head, who always branded her a traitor or a hypocrite. Since, of her entire family from the suburban district, she is the only survivor for a simple mistake made on her mission when she was a minor.
There are nights when she came to ask herself, what would have happened to her life if she hadn't been captured at that time, would Vander congratulate them for a good job and take them on missions with him?
would she herself still be alive?
Would they still be alive?
...
...
Could it be that... Vi would be still alive?
This is the question for which Powder feels quite a lot of guilt. Well, even though Mylo and Claggor said horrible things to her, she never heard a word, much less a sound in her head from Vi, no matter how much she concentrated on quieting the other 2 voices in her head, she couldn't hear a thing from her. sister...and she hated that.
She cared, no, she loved her sister, she was her role model, what mattered most to her in the whole world, but never, at any time did she hear her voice, any insult or retaliation from Vi, as if she didn't even care nor would like to speak.
And that's why Powder hated herself every time she thought of her sister, because she wanted to hear her voice at least once, regardless of whether it was to comfort her or insult her, she didn't care, she just wanted to know if she was there. But this she was always received with pure silence from her sister.
After a while of hating herself, Powder decided to get up from her little "nap" and leave her room for a moment to freshen up, because she knew that sooner or later she will have to move on, for the people who are important to her in the world. now, in the present.
Although of course then she noticed how one of the maids from the Kiramman mansion was quickly approaching her.
This maid was called Luisa, one of the most recent to be hired, in addition to being the youngest daughter of Mathew, the butler who received little Powder, since he was already old enough to continue working in the mansion, having to retire a few years after his arrival.
He ended up leaving the position to his dedicated and somewhat clumsy daughter, who was close friends with both Powder and Caitlyn.
"Hey Lu, breathe a little. What's the matter that you're in such a hurry? It looks like you ran a marathon" Powder asked with a bit of laughter as she watched Luisa catch her breath after arriving with the light blue hair.
"It's...something...bad...very...bad" she said, gasping for breath.
"Something wrong? What happened?" she asked again, now in a more serious way, while helping Luisa to compose herself.
"It's... the... Young Kiramman"
Hearing this, the light blue haired girl was petrified in her place, being that she could look like a statue thanks to her pale skin.
"W-What happened to Cait?" He nervously asked Luisa.
Already after recovering a little, Luisa told her everything she knew, while taking Powder out of the mansion to be escorted to the hospital where Caitlyn is.
It happened during the night watch of the day of Progreso. Long after Powder went home.
flash back
A fire broke out in a nearby area and while some of the officers who were there went looking for firefighters and ambulances, another part went into the burning building to look for survivors.
Meanwhile, the youngest of the Kiramman was trying to put out part of the flames with a fire extinguisher to prevent the fire from spreading to other buildings, but she belatedly noticed that the building itself was collapsing due to the consumption of the flames in the room. most of the infrastructure, and when she tried to call his co-workers inside, it collapsed, burying the officers who entered underneath.
Fortunately, if one could say so, Caitlyn was not affected by the collapse, at least not in the same way as her colleagues, as there was debris which reached her, hurting her so that she was unconscious.
end of flashback
With this in mind, Powder could not help but go into a slight panic attack, as she felt an emptiness in her stomach when she realized that Caitlyn could have seriously hurt herself, this was the last thing she wanted to happen.
Sure, Powder knew the job of a Watcher was dangerous, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the young Kiramman ended up hospitalized and Powder was worried.
At the hospital
Powder was taken quickly but quietly through the hospital corridors by the Kiramman's private nurse, who informed them that the young woman had permission to enter and see the patient.
After a while they got to the room where Cait was, Powder could see that Mr. Kiramman was sitting outside waiting. Powder thanked the nurse and politely greeted Cait's father.
"Good evening Mr. Kiramman, is Caitlyn alright?" She ask quite nervous after her greeting to the father of the aforementioned.
"Ah, good evening Young Powder, I am glad to see that you are safe." she cordially greet the father of the hospitalized blue hair. "If I'm honest, the reason why you're here is more than just visiting my daughter"
"What happened? Is it serious?" She said an even more nervous Powder, which she was afraid that the situation would get worse.
"Fortunately not, the doctors said that she will only have to rest and take some medications and painkillers to be as good as new, I only ask that you could stay with her tonight, otherwise it is too much trouble. Well, unfortunately my work does not give me enough free time like to be here, of course if you can't it's totally understandable and I'll ask some butler of the mansion." Mr. Kiramman explained calmly, despite the fact that he was also nervous about the situation of his daughter.
"Well, the truth is I can and it doesn't bother me at all, but it doesn't bother you that I asked, why was I the first choice?" She asked pointing to herself. Being that she was curious with her father figure's decision.
"Well, I have noticed that my daughter appreciates you quite a lot, and I feel that it would be the right and reasonable thing to give you the opportunity to be with her in these times of adversity" Mr. Kiramman explained in an almost poetic way.
"Wow, um, thanks?" Powder said, feeling flattered? If she could say that.
"Well I have to go, I know I can count on you" Mr. Kiramman said before getting up and walking through the corridors towards the exit.
Being alone, Powder entered the room where the young Kiramman was hospitalized, and of course she couldn't deny feeling bad when she found Cait, lying down, unconscious and with a variety of bandages on her body.
The knowledge that she could almost have died just doing her job made her stomach churn.
A few minutes later, Powder decided it was better to sit next to her than stand in the doorway like a weirdo.
She look for a seat near the stretcher, to avoid losing sight of the blue-haired girl.
After a while Powder began to feel somewhat... no, very exhausted, since she hadn't really slept all day.
She decided to accommodate himself so that he would wake up if she noticed any movement on the part of the internee.
But before she could close her eyes she heard the voices once more.
"Look at her, it seems that she is comfortable sleeping near the dead officer"
"She's not, dead. I doubt something like that could kill her. Cait is strong. This is nothing... it shouldn't be anything" Powder replied to Mylo's voice, who insisted all the time that Caitlyn should die .
"Sooner or later the time will come and you know it better than anyone, especially with a job like this" Claggor said that despite not being as heavy as Mylo, he always said what was most logical, but horrendous in reality.
"...Fuck you" said the light blue Peli as she stuck her middle finger in the air.
After her answer she decided to finally close her eyes, ignoring as best she could the words of the voices. To give herself a break from one of the heaviest days she's ever had.
The next morning
Sunlight came through the window of the hospital room, and it happened to fall on the face of a certain dark-haired young woman. She is having the sun hitting her all over her face and decided that it was better to get up and look the other way, to avoid going blind when she opened her eyes.
"*Yawn* What time is it?" She wondered after going from lying down to sitting up in bed. To then lightly rub her eyes and notice something that she did not remember having wrapped in her hand, when she was able to open her eyes, she noticed 3 very important things in the room.
The first, this was not his room in the mansion, but the one in a hospital.
Second, she had light but noticeable bandages on both of her arms and some small medical bandages on the left side of his face.
And third, but not least, a young girl with light blue hair sleeping peacefully in a chair near her, with her arms and head resting on the stretcher.
The young Kiramman began to connect dots to later remember and understand why she is in that place to begin with, in addition to understanding the presence of the Celestial Movie.
After understanding the situation, she decided to look for the clock in the room, to check what time she got up, and more importantly, if she didn't oversleep. Fortunately for her, she managed to find the clock next to a calendar near the door.
She noted that the hands pointed to 9:00 pm and that the calendar was marked until the day of progress, to which Cait was relieved that she hadn't been left in something of a coma.
After that, she decided that it was time to wake up her little visitor as well, who seemed to be in a deep sleep, but unfortunately had to end.
"Powder? Wake up" Caitlyn said gently, as she gently moved the girl.
"Hnn, five more minutes" she said half asleep half awake. "...Wait a minute"
But not long after that, Cait noticed that Powder's eyes snapped open and she stood up almost as if there was an intruder in the room. Only for her to notice Cait awake and start bombarding her with questions.
"Fuck Cait, you're awake! Are you okay? Does anything hurt? How long ago did you wake up?" The blue-haired girl asked very often, almost running out of air.
"Calm down, calm down, I'm fine. Relax a little Powder" She said trying to calm the girl's ball of nerves. "Let's go slowly, okay?"
Powder couldn't help but sit and nod nervously.
"First of all, yes, I feel fine, second, my right arm only hurts a little, but from now on, nothing, and lastly, I got up recently, it didn't take too long, so breathe and calm down, okay?" she responded slowly but effectively to each of the questions her visitor put to her.
Hearing this, Powder decided to follow Cait's instructions at the end to relax a bit and think better. Her fear and concern were diminishing, not completely, but enough that she could speak quietly.
After that Cait noticed that Powder's hand was also bandaged and had some blood stains on it, on the knuckles to be more specific.
"Powder, what happened to your hand?"
"Oh this?" She said pointing to her bandaged hand "this is nothing, you know making things up and that's how one thing after another happened aaand..." she was trying to create an excuse, but when she noticed that Cait was looking at her with a look of doubt, with a raised eyebrow and all, she knew she couldn't lie to her "... maybe I hit the mirror in my room too hard"
"YOU WHAT!?"
"Don't worry I cleaned it up and took care of the wound myself, but that's not important right now, you're the one who ended up in the hospital"
"*sigh* I was doing my duty preventing the fire from spreading"
"And you almost died!" The light blue skinny screamed in frustration.
"You know that it is a dangerous job and that it is normal that things like this can happen. 6 of my colleagues have possibly died there, it is sad, but it is the reality" explained Caitlyn seriously.
"..."
"Look, I understand that you worry about me but-"
"Can not..."
"What?" Cait asked hearing a murmur from the girl.
"I can't... I don't want to..."
"Powder, what are you talking about-"
"I don't want to lose you okay!" Finally she said out loud with tears in her eyes causing Cait to be shocked "I can't lose you, I just can't! here!... I felt... for a moment... that it would happen again"
Caitlyn immediately realized what was happening with Powder, since she knew that the light blue haired girl lost her family a long time ago, and it could be considered that Powder was still dealing with the guilt of not having been able to do anything. Even after all these years.
"Powder I-" she tried to speak to the light blue haired girl, but suddenly they heard the door open to reveal the day nurse.
"Oh what a relief that Miss Kiramman woke up" the nurse said in a relieved manner "Now that you are awake I will run some tests on you and see if we can discharge you as soon as possible" she explained effectively to the girls present.
"Now first of all I need the young lady to return to the mansion first so I can make sure that all the members belonging to the Kiramman mansion are safe"
"Wait a minute, do you really have to-" Caitlyn wanted to question the nurse's decision, but Powder just got up to leave, but not before giving Cait a light hug.
"I'm glad you're alive, see you later, I promise" she told her before breaking away from the hug and being escorted out by another nurse.
Caitlyn understood that Powder didn't really want to pursue the topic, and to be honest, it makes sense. So she decided to let her go.
After this the nurse who entered the room began with the test.
A few hours later
knock knock knock*
The sound of a knocking was heard in Caitlyn's room, fortunately her exams went well and she was discharged to return to the mansion, being that the first thing she did was continue her investigation, in addition to trying to understand what was wrong. What happened in that building?
After not answering the knock on her door, the person who was knocking decided to go through.
"Hello Caitlyn, are you okay?" asked a fairly tall and well-built young man, also known as Jayce Talis.
Not only did she not return his greeting, but she also ignored his question and then dragged him into her investigation.
Of course, she did not forget to grab the bouquet of flowers that Talis had in his hands to throw it with the rest that came to her.
"Shouldn't you be resting?"
"With everything that's going on?!" The young Kiramman asked almost offended.
She was still connecting the threads on her map when Jayce decided to explain what more or less happened after the fire and collapse o the building.
It seems that the night of the collapse there was a planned assault on the building where the renewed hextech stone was located, since this could, in the wrong hands, be a catastrophe.
"The proofs of all that must be here, I'm sure, I must know why. Why was the robbery done?"
"You know you're not going to convince the council with just theories, right?"
"Heh, funny. Since when do you care so much about the council's opinion?" Caitlyn asked curiously as she continued to analyze the map.
"...Since...I became a part of it"
"... What?"
A third voice came from the door, as the two of them turned to see Powder standing there, not looking very happy at all.
"Powder, since when are you there?" Jayce said upon noticing the presence of the young blue-haired girl at the door. Only to notice how it was slowly approaching him.
"They made you a counselor?" She asked even more annoyed than before.
"Well, yes, it is, if you let me explain-" He couldn't finish his sentence before Powder cut him off almost instantly.
"So my most precious project is canceled for being considered a 'weapon', but you get the fucking Hextech gem stolen, which is a thousand times more dangerous. And they make you a fucking counselor!?" The youngest of the three asked furiously.
But it didn't stop there. But she followed up with something worse.
"It's because I'm from the Suburban District, right? No matter what I try, it's always going to be my fucking background that defines my future, right?"
"Powder you know that's not true-"
"I'm not done yet Bitch, you don't mind if I remember you that without the Suburban District, you wouldn't be where you are now" she explained quickly and angrily to Young Talis "Where did you get the materials to experiment with the crystals? From down there".
One step closer.
"If I hadn't blown up your fucking lab, how long would it have taken you to crack the crystals on your own?"
Another step closer.
"Where does your co-worker come from? The one who gave you a second chance, the one who helped you bring Hextech to Piltover, huh? TELL ME JAYCE!"
She was already in front of the aforementioned, he was somewhat scared to never know this side of Powder. In addition to not being able to give her an answer, since this one she answered herself instantly.
"FUCKING. SUBURBAN. DISTRICT!" She yelled in his face, feeling how the fury fell on him "And it's always been like that, no matter what we do, it's always you Piltovians who take all the credit and leaving us as if we weren't shit ".
After throwing all her anger against the now named Councilor Talis, she left the room, but not forgetting to tell him one phrase that could leave not only the young man perplexed, but Caitlyn scared.
"You're really Piltover Hypocrisy" Then, she left.
Caitlyn had never seen that Powder could get angry to such an extent, she can't deny that she has seen her angry before, but compared to what happened at that time.
Jayce was about to follow Powder to make sure she was okay, but was stopped by Kiramman's hand.
"You know, I understand that you don't have bad intentions, and the truth is I don't know what happened between you that she ended up reacting like that, but as a recommendation, you better not approach her for now, it will only make what is happening worse" she explained with some pity , but she was glad that Jayce understood the situation.
"Yeah you're right, I promise I'll make this up as soon as I can."
"I'm glad to hear that, but the best thing you can do right now is help me out with a slight councillor's favor."
"Look, I can't abuse like that, why yes I could-" he try to refuse at first, but after the "talk" he had with Powder, he feels that it would be best to support what he can "*Sigh* What do you need?"
With a slight smile, Caitlyn began "there are 2 things the first I will ask you now and the second later, okay?"
"Okay, but nothing that puts you in more danger than you were before, ok?"
"I need you to give me access to Stillwater Prison to interrogate a prisoner."
"Did you even heard me?"
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
A/N: Thank you so much for the high patience you had for this chapter, the reason behind the late release is 2 things:
University and Family.
The first, for the most part, since it is my last year of university, being in my penultimate semester and I have to do something called TCU or University Community Work, since it is a requirement to graduate.
A/N 2: I was thinking of splitting this Chap. in 2 parts, but I feel like I owed them one more so I decided to make it almost 4000 words long. I hope and you enjoyed it
A/N 3: I should be sleeping, it's 3:00 AM and I have an exam tomorrow XD.
And as always
I read ya later!
(I missed writing that)
Title of the next Chap.: Returning to the playground.