In hindsight, it was probably a silly thing to think this wouldn't happen.
She and Connol had a pretty good thing going. He was pretty, she was prettier and there wasn't much to do in lieu of entertainment down in Zaun if you had to scrape by week to week so…home entertainment it was.
Still, she felt she deserved to feel the shakes and shivers when she found out the news.
A girl.
A child.
In her!
What a wild world.
There were…options, of course. There were always options if a parent-to-be didnt want to-be.
But she wouldn't go down there.
Unexpected as she was, this little thing in her belly was not going to be unwelcomed.
Felicia had felt unwelcomed. She knew that ugly little feeling inside and out.
To be poor was a crime in Piltover, or it may as well have been.
To be poor in Zaun was to be a victim.
So on either side of the bridge she had felt the nasty sting of being unwelcomed.
Not this little girl. As long as she was movin' and breathin', not this little girl.
Her little girl.
She and Connol didn't have much, not really. They always joked they had more than the rest because they had the prettiest faces in Zaun and while it was funny, it was a joke used to mask the very real fact that they were damn poor bastards even by Zaunite standards.
Apparently being labelled an agitator by those on high meant one didn't get much decent work, go figure.
And she wasn't going to go crimm. That black life was not hers or Connol's to go down on.
So she was going to have to cut back on her part of The Plan.
It saddened her, but it had to be done. Vander and Silco had the Brawn and the Brain to get the whole thing chugging along.
They could do without the Face for a while.
It was a silly thing to think, perhaps. She didn't even know the child yet and already she was making big decisions for it.
Her name.
Her future.
But as Felicia looked out at Zaun atop the Last Drop feeling the wind in her purple hair with her hand on her belly, she knew she couldn't do anything less.
Zaun had a goddamn future, even if it had to be pried open from the damn fissures themselves. This was a fundamental belief.
Her kid would grow up in this Zaun that would rival Piltover in opportunity and be a better place with better people. People that would help instead of hinder, that would care rather than exploit.
That too was a fundamental belief.
But it was a scary thing to try and make happen.
Felicia scanned the roofline of her home, seeing all the chem-lights come to life. Once just used on the mines and now used to keep the dark at bay on the surface. A few were swaying in the wind, hung as they were on lamp-posts and off buildings.
'I'll do everything I can for you, my love'. She said to the little one. 'As long as I live and breathe, everything that I can.'
In Zaun it was considered a good omen to feel the wind. A fresh breath in the fissures was a welcome thing to any miner.
So Felicia was happy that it seemed to be whipping up this night.
Vi's fist came down on her like a freight train.
If she wasnt swimming in shimmer, if she was just a normal gal, her face would have mushed up and exploded like a ripe tomato.
As it was it fucking hurt and she saw about a million stars but she was still alive.
That was really the moment she knew her sister wanted her dead.
She wasn't angry about it, not really. Or surprised. She couldn't be either because she was planning to…do the same.
But she was still upset by it.
She felt that, even for someone as fucked in the head as she was, she was justified in feeling upset when her older sister so clearly wanted to kill her.
It hurts Vi.
Maybe she was upset because she was supposed to do the same.
They rained blows on each other, a brutal brawl with no form or consideration or even hints of technique. Vi, as was her nature, had quickly abandoned any notion of defence and went all out on attack and she, not knowing any other way, did the same.
It hurts Vi. Please stop.
Shimmer surged in her veins giving her unnatural strength, enough to stand toe to toe with Vi the fucking wrecking ball. When Vi's hextech gauntlets started malfunctioning she had a chance to make it more than just even.
It hurts so much Vi. Please.
But Vi had been blocking with her face longer than Jinx had been alive and in a beatdown competition like that there was only ever gonna be one winner, hextech malfunction or no.
Plus, Kirabitch just had to get her nose in their business like she always did.
Jinx was slammed into the altar of a long forgotten wind goddess and was pressed down on the cold stone, Vi's heavy hextech gauntlets crushing her throat.
Looking up at her, Jinx could see well and clear the hate in Vi's eyes. Such familial greys.
She wasn't surprised, she couldn't be. She wasn't angry either.
But she was upset.
It hurts Vi. Please stop making it hurt.
With the last of her strength she grabbed at Vi's arm granting herself a momentary reprieve, a brief half-second before Vi's grip hardened.
But she wasnt really trying to get the arm off.
She just wanted to see her nails again.
Blue, for her.
Pink, for Vi.
Vi's hair was doing that funny thing where her fringe covered one eye and she could see it was more red than pink.
Because it was Blue for Powder and Pink for Vi. One of her fleeting voices said. Remember?
It was a silly thing to remember at the edge of death, but she did.
When she was becoming Jinx and not Powder anymore she did her nails like how she always wanted to.
Blue, for her. When she was Powder turning to Jinx.
Pink, for the Vi that Powder knew but Jinx did not.
Young Vi. Then Vi. Not the now Vi.
Her arm dropped, all resistance ceased.
"Im glad it was you." She groaned out through broken teeth. "Had to be you…"
Jinx closed her eyes and prepared to meet the fate she deserved for fucking everything up.
Hextech crackled and sparked and whirred, tell-tale signs of activation.
As she felt something like wind brush across her face, Jinx never thought death would taste so…purple.
Vi was not so arrogant to claim she knew anything about how hextech worked. In fact, she knew exactly shit all and next to nothing about it.
Just that it was blue, crackled like electricity and made things like her gauntlets work where otherwise they were huge, intricately designed slabs of metal.
So when her gauntlets decided to stop working she knew fuck all how to fix it.
So, like with most issues, she decided to use brute force.
Slamming heavy slabs of metal against her too-skinny sister was not a good look.
It was not a good feeling either.
Vi knew she was a good fighter. Everyone knew Vi was a good fighter.
Part of being that was that you enjoyed a fight. She remembered Vander saying something that in a fight, a real scrap, people had to balance themselves, to watch how adrenaline wanted them to react.
'No one wants to be punched in the face,' he said, 'So that's fear. But they want to punch the other person, so that's aggression. Normally you have to balance the two and keep up the adrenaline at the same time. Because the fear part always keeps going up the longer a fight goes on.'
No one wants to get punched in the face was very sound advice.
Except, it turned out that Vi was one of the few who kinda didn't mind.
That made her a tough son of a bitch in a fight, because she didn't have to balance the fear so much and could focus more on the aggression part. The adrenaline came naturally from that. The result was a fighter who could shrug off the heaviest blows and come back swinging, again and again, because she didn't have it in her to be scared of being hit.
Left more room to be aggressive.
Part of that was letting the other person know no matter how hard they hit, there was nothing that would change that.
An opponent who enjoyed a fight was a scary thing. She felt good, being scary to people she fought.
Because normally they were the bad guys.
But this?
Beating down and getting beaten down by her sister?
There was no ounce of joy in this.
There was just pain. Just hurt.
A lot of hurt.
Her face was a collection of bruises and broken cheeks, her ribs ached like no one's business and she tasted the result of split lips and a cut tongue.
Jinx was a wildcat. Ferocious and overwhelming.
But she never did have as much gas in the tank as Vi did.
She hated it.
Vi hated it all.
How did it all end up like this?
How did she fuck up so bad that she lost her sister, the one reason in the world that had her keep going in the dark depths of Stillwell?
Rage had her screaming it was Silco's fault for kidnapping Vander. That it was Jinx's fault for killing Powder. It was everyone's fault.
But she knew that was wrong.
With each smash of metal on too-pale skin Vi remembered that time in the warehouse so many years ago when they were all half the size.
She remembered the fire and the screams and the death.
But with each hit she remembered a younger Vi slapping and punching a younger, smaller, defenceless Powder.
It hurt so fucking much.
Everything hurt.
There was no joy in this.
She needed to catch Jinx, to stop her from doing anymore damage, to get Caitlyn back to the woman she had been before the attack on the Council.
But deep down, deep in her guts, she knew the real reason.
To make it all stop hurting.
To silence the voice in the back of her head that was telling her one thing on repeat:
It was her fault.
It was all on her.
She was the oldest. She remembered their mom and dad. She remembered holding little baby Powder and promising to protect her. Bleary memories yes, but they were there.
She failed so spectacularly that the world shifted and everything since the warehouse was just one giant reminder of how much she fucked up.
This was all her fault. This was all her responsibility.
She had to be the one to finish it.
So when she had Jinx by the throat, arm raised ready to pulverise her sister to dust on the altar of a long dead goddess, Vi…hesitated.
Jinx was looking at her with teary pink eyes and a broken face and pretty blue hair scattered all over.
"Had to be you…" Jinx groaned.
Vi felt sick.
She was afraid.
She felt angry for feeling at all.
In a fight, there was only fear and aggression. Whoever managed to balance the two had the better chance of coming out on top.
Vi was good in a fight.
Vi wished she wasn't.
Long honed instinct told her her opponent was vulnerable, that this was her opportunity to win.
She wanted to scream.
She felt so trapped.
Hextech whined, sparking and discharging arcs of electricity.
Wind picked up in a place that should not have had even the hint of a breeze.
Everything moved too slow. Too fast.
Vi felt the wind on her face.
It felt like hands.
Her gauntlet exploded in cracks of purple lightning.
Felicia was told that she was about a month in. No surprise, she had noticed the missing period, so the real change wouldnt come in just yet.
But to Connol, it seemed like she was just about ready to burst.
"Oh goddess! We need to get a crib! Baby clothes! Formula! Food!"
Felicia groaned, though she did so with a happy smile. "Calm down love, we have time."
"Time?!" Her man turned to her, hands on his head looking just about ready to tear his beautiful red hair away, "Time?! Who has time?! When has time?!"
She laughed. She laughed so much and so hard she fell back on their bed. A small thing, just about big enough for both of them with a thin but good enough mattress and thin but good enough pillows.
"Oh goddess! The laughing! I've heard the stories! No more laughing or your water will break!"
She laughed even harder.
"Felicia!"
Finally giving some mercy, she cut back the crying heaving to just intermittent snorting and pulled him onto the bed with her. Naturally, he wrapped his arms around her and they pulled each other close.
"You'll be a good dad." She said after they enjoyed their moment of silence and opportunity to get their (mostly his) heads straight.
She felt a kiss on her forehead. "I won't be anything but." He said like he was discussing the next meeting he would have to have.
She warmed, heart fluttering.
Connol was like that. So…casual, with his confidence.
When she said she wanted to change Zaun he just looked at her, nodded and got his little account booklet up.
'How much do you think we need?' He asked.
A lotta people say their partner is their rock, the one holding them up.
Or down, in some unfortunate cases.
This was very true for Connol.
The up bit not the down bit.
She was a girl with big dreams, always had been. Being born the daughter of hard-working fissure-folk may have been the reason for that, but she had been…content with her upbringing.
There had been issues, there always issues, but her parents got her to adulthood only a little underfed so points for them.
But she always dreamed of more.
She knew there was a way to get it.
Between them Connol was the one that was more an outward believer of this Wind Goddess, this saviour that helped trapped miners find their way back.
But she wasn't lacking in her own belief.
The idea of this…Spirit of Zaun, was…entrancing.
A strong community. A strong identity. People helping each other, being kind to one another.
People believed in all sorts of things, some real, some not so much.
She hoped that she was one of those that could make her belief into reality.
"You set on the name?" Connol asked after a while, idly rubbing her stomach.
She nodded. "Violet it is. It's a pretty name for a pretty girl."
He smiled. "You haven't seen her yet."
She grinned and kissed him, "It's our girl. You think she's going to not be pretty?"
Connol laughed, "Yeah yeah, I know. She'll be the prettiest girl in town."
"Fitting, coming from the prettiest man I've ever seen."
He smiled, trying for a roguish grin but managing something that was a cross between a dumb grin and a laughing smile.
She preferred the latter and gave him another kiss.
Sadly, before it could turn to anything more, there was a rather firm knock on their door.
"Dammit…" Connol groaned as he got up and checked it out.
Theirs was a small home, really not much more than an enlarged bedroom with a small kitchen and an outhouse.
So when the door opened, she could see Silco on the other side too.
"Oh, Silco. Come in, come in." Connol gestured for the man.
He shook his head. "Somethings gone down in the New Fissure. Reports of…tremors."
All of them felt their hearts tighten.
The T word was never good news this side of the river. A bad omen to even say.
She already had her coat on and was stepping into her boots by the time Silco said his next words.
"Vander's gone down to check it out. Im…worried."
"There weren't any tremors." Felicia said, repeating Silco's words from a while ago.
The man's hands balled and he looked away, guilt in his eyes and immediately she regretted opening her mouth. "There weren't supposed to be." He said quietly.
Connol put his hands on both their shoulders, "But there is now, and it needs to be dealt with. Lotta new expensive equipment down there, some people too last I checked."
Silco nodded, teeth grit. "Yeah, Tash's survey crew, making sure everything was the same as it had been the week before." He wiped his face and groaned into his palm, "We're meant to be starting work tomorrow…"
"Then we get her crew back, survey the damage and make sure it's all safe." Connol patted their shoulders again. "You two know the place better and Vander might need your help."
Silco looked alarmed, eyes going to Felicia, then down to her stomach. "She cant-"
Felicia took Silco by the arm, "Vander's gone gung ho and didn't bring crew, did he?"
Silco bit his lip, then shook his head.
"Then let's rassle a few boys and get our butts down there. Connol?" She looked over her shoulder as she all but dragged Silco down the street.
Her beautiful partner nodded. "I'll get a smokescreen going, make sure Piltover doesn't come sniffing around."
"I'm sorry." Silco said as they made their way to the Last Drop. "And thank you."
She slugged him on the arm, perhaps a little harder than warranted but still all friendly, "None of that now. Chin up and head on the game."
The man closed his eyes and sighed.
When he opened them again, there was a look of determination accompanied by a small smile. "Your word, boss."
Vander was not a man who was easily scared, that was a fact. Having grown up and worked in the First Fissures, he had had his fair share of scary moments. Mine collapses, natural gas leaks, the choking dark. It was all part of being a Zaunite in those times.
Now don't get him wrong that didnt mean he wasn't stupid. It just meant that, when scary shit went down, he didn't soil his breeches and high-tail it outta there as quick as can be.
No, he could take a moment to examine, collect himself, and then soil his breeches and high-tail it as quick as can be.
Because when the fucking ground starts to shake there really wasnt much you can do aside from run.
"Go go go!"
He had managed to catch up with Tash and her crew, helping them rescue one of their own but three of them plus a non-walking wounded made for a very non-mobile group in the recently dug tunnels.
Small blessings, they had invested in strong supports, so there was no danger of catastrophic collapse.
Just the regular kind instead.
You know, just the casual tunnel collapse.
"The ground's falling too quick!" Thil, the rearman, shouted in panic.
Hard ground! Hard ground!
When a tunnel collapse happened there was really not much to be done. When nature decided it wanted you, there wasn't much in the way of saying no.
But he and Silco and Felicia were fissure folk. They owed it to the rest of them to try.
So Silco came up with another nifty trick, aided by newfangled tech, something about pushing sound into the ground and listening and somehow that told you about how hard the rock was.
He didnt question the technicalities of the thing, trusting Silco had it all in hand.
Point was, there were places of hard ground that wouldn't follow normal collapse patterns that would hold where softer ground fell apart. They used some as storerooms for the more valuable mining equipment, the stuff they had to smuggle in piece by piece past Piltover's customs.
Most were converted to break rooms, so that when the worst happened, the hope was at least some people would be safe.
He hoped they could reach the closest one he remembered.
"Keep up! Keep up!" Tash, the sturdy, dark-skinned woman shouted. Over her shoulder was Lilly, a woman whose lack of size made her a perfect fit to squeeze through tight gaps.
Unfortunate, that she had been in the middle of doing so when the first tremors happened.
Thankfully between him and Tash they were able to smash her out.
"Just right ahead! Right around the corner!" He added his voice to the mix.
'Just right ahead' was miner speak for a lotta things. Usually, it was a lie or a joke or a warning.
'There's gems just right ahead, keep going!'
'There's break time just right ahead, a few more minutes!'
'Theres a huge fucking gap just right ahead!'
The last one, it turned out, was all three.
There was hard ground.
It was just right ahead of a god's damned gap that wasn't there when he last checked.
Vander skidded to a stop and with no warning Tash slammed into him, then Thil into her.
He barely managed to hold them all back, gripping a solid support for all his life.
Unfortunately it was a support that was rapidly transferring its load onto him as each person slammed full-tilt onto his back, wood cracking with each hit.
"JUMP!" He ordered as he anchored himself to hold up the strut, dust and dirt falling onto his face.
Thil wasted no time in following the order, launching himself over the gap to burst through the door on the other side. It was impressive for a man so wiry, a testament to the desperate energy that was running through all their veins.
"Catch!" Tash yelled as she hurled Lilly who slammed into Thil sending both sprawling. Then she followed after, managing a rolling landing before getting up and reaching an arm out.
Another tremor shook the ground and there was thunder in his ears and a load of dirt on his face.
"Vander!"
He spat out once and opened his eyes just a squint, just enough to see the edge on the other side and Tash's boots.
He went for it.
The support he was holding up crumbled.
His boots found ground.
It was vertical.
"No you don't!"
Strong hands pulled him up and he heard the strain of voices as they hauled his ass onto solid ground.
Behind him there was a great calamity of sound and movement, of grinding rock and falling dirt.
It was all behind him though, not on him.
Now on good -horizontal- earth, he could fully wipe his face and see again.
"Roll call!" He called out.
"Thil!"
"...Lil…ly!.."
"Tash!"
It was always good practice to make sure you had everyone you started with.
Far too easy to get left behind in a blind rush.
"Fuuuuuckkk…" Thil collapsed on the floor, sucking in heaving gasps of stale air and probably thanking the fact that he could. "Lilly…How bad?"
"Breathing…Hurts…" Lilly gasped out. "But…nothing…pierced?"
After shaking the dirt off and wiping as much as he could off his face, Vander looked around the room and began searching the cupboards. It was a small-ish break room, probably could fit ten or so people if they wanted to be cosy around the couple of tables and chairs. Along one wall was a counter along with the cupboards he was searching through.
Someone lit the chem-lamp.
"Thanks." He said, feeling mildly embarrassed. "Should be…Ah ha!"
He brought out a wooden box with a big red cross painted on top.
"Damn, you guys pulled out all the stops." Tash said to him as she was inspecting Lilly's chest. "It's…not a good look Lil, but you feeling good yeah?"
"...Good…? Fuck….you…."
Tash chuckled, "Right, poor choice of words. What ya got in the box Vander?"
"Hmm…" He carefully rummaged through, "No real painkillers I know that."
"...Shame.." Lilly breathed out, managing to convey frustration, annoyance and exasperation in one word.
"It would just be…" He grunted in frustration, closing the lid. "...bandages, antiseptics aaaaand…scissors." He held the pair up, snapping them.
"I mean…Still good, we got those at least…" Thil groaned. "I think…Im ready to get going. Get Lilly up topside as quick as."
"He's right." Tash re-buttoned Lilly's top. "Ready for another ride on the Tash Train?"
"No…tip…"
They all laughed.
If it was strained, if it was a little bit forced, none of them commented on it.
Humour was a medicine all of its own, after all.
Each break room, storeroom or room of any kind underground always had to have two or more exits, precisely because of the danger of one of them suddenly becoming…unusable.
Fortunately, the one they had left to use wasn't so badly damaged by the tremors and they could actually start making their way out.
Unfortunately, the most direct path to topside turned out to be blocked by rubble.
Because of course it was.
"Shit."
"Shit."
"Shit."
"...Shit…"
Vander sucked in a deep breath.
Calm.
You always had to stay calm in these situations.
"...Anybody…bring…dynamite?"
Tash snorted, "Not everyone brings dynamite to every job Lil."
"...Sucks…to…be…us….then."
Vander tapped at the pile, feeling a few loose stones.
But he also felt how deep the pile was.
He sighed. "Well, I reckon us three can try to shove it all out."
Thil walked up, shook a heavy stone and made a fart sound. "Pass. Hard pass."
That got a small chuckle out of him. "Whats the matter, Riverman, ground not wet enough for you? Need me to spit on it?"
He got a playful shove as the man tested out the stones in much the same way Vander was. "I like my digging well lubricated thank you very much, this here's dry as jerky-leather."
"...Boys…"
They shared another laugh.
A little sweet medicine to make the truth go down better.
Rocks too big, too many and we don't have shovels because who needs shovels when you're just supposed to be making the rounds?
And all the shovels, pickaxes, helmets and all other sundry gear were near the top, ready to be handed to the wider workforce that was supposed to come in tomorrow.
They, on the other hand, were at the lowest levels of the New Fissure
It was a rather shit situation to be in.
But, at least, they could still breathe.
Vander's eyes flew open, head jerking back the way they came.
"Vander?" Tash questioned.
Saying nothing, he licked a dirt finger and raised it in the air.
Seeing this, the others did the same.
"Oh shit…" Thil let out a hopeful, shaking breath. "That's…wind. Down here. Wind."
There were a lot of beliefs on Runeterra, it was a big place and magic made things…interesting in terms of worshipping a particular deity or set of deities. Piltover, claiming it was 'banishing the yoke of superstition', was a rare self-declared atheist state.
Zaun, naturally, took the opposite course and had believers from what seemed like all corners. Granted, most of that exotic variety were foreign merchants who came by seasonally to stay in Zaun but trade mainly in Piltover, but each year a few of them stayed behind and added to Zaun's colourful religious fabric.
For the native Zaunites, there were a bevy of native faiths from the old River Gods, prominent before the fissures opened up and drained the river Pilt, to semi-mythical heroes of legends and tales, faces of whom had long been drawn and graffiti and carved into whatever surface a Zaunite artist chose over and over again, amended with each retelling or forgotten to a new face.
There was, also, the Lady in the Tunnel.
A relatively new deity that seemed to have come around from the time of their grandparent or perhaps great grandparents, around the time when the first fissures were being explored and the amazing wealth that fueled Piltover's construction were discovered.
Being good friends with Connol, Vander knew quite a lot about this supposed Lady in the Tunnel. She was tall, graceful, thin, a beauty that rivalled any jewel in the earth.
More importantly to him, it was said that she was a kind goddess that would lead trapped miners to safety with gusts of wind.
Vander wasn't really a believer of any kind of being or beings, or rather, perhaps it was more accurate to say he was a believer of all kinds.
He thought the Piltie's were quite arrogant in their assertions that religion was simple superstition, no surprises there, but faced with a whole slew of options, it was hard to make a choice.
So instead, he chose to believe in whichever higher power would come and help in a particular moment of need.
With an absolutely unnatural wind (fresh air too!) blowing in their tunnel, it seemed that he may have found his deity of the day.
"This is crazy." Tash shook her head in disbelief, "I cant believe it's…She's…"
Vander took in a gulp of cool, refreshing air. "Well, whoever or whatever they may be, we have a trail we can follow."
So they did, making their way carefully back down the tunnel they had come up from until they reached a point somewhere in between the blockage and the rest room.
Thil put his hand on the earth where they felt the small wisps of wind filter through the cracks.
"It's…thin. It…it shouldn't be thin here. Someone would have noticed. We should have fucking noticed!" The man said, voice near hysterics.
Vander shook his head, placed his hand on the wall and slowly pushed.
With no effort needed, the wall came down like it was paper to reveal a tunnel that he damn well knew neither he, nor Silco or any of the first diggers they hired had made.
"...Fuck…" Lilly gasped.
"...Me…" Tash finished.
All of them were wide-eyed, frozen for a long moment.
Then a gust of wind hit their faces.
"I…guess we go in?" Vander questioned, tentatively leading with chem-lamp in hand.
The lamp cast the surrounding earth in a greenish tinge, good enough at least to see that the tunnel was not a new construction, lacking any of the dig marks, hardwood supports and signs such a thing would have. Instead it seemed almost natural, like a channel made by running water.
Thankfully it wasn't wet at all, there was no blessing swapping asphyxiation with drowning.
They walked perhaps fifteen minutes before they saw the end of the tunnel. With a glance at his companions, Vander continued on the last few steps as lone pointman. When he reached the opening, he lifted his lantern.
To find that he did not need it.
"It's…a chamber. It's a whole…chamber."
He had meant to speak loudly and clearly, the way a pointman should when conveying what was ahead.
He whispered instead, struck with awe.
His comrades heard him regardless.
"Holy…Shit…" Thil sank to his knees.
The two women didn't, or couldn't, say anything.
In front of them was a whole, definitely artificial, chamber with a tiled roof held up by tall stone columns. The space was lit up by a low blue light that seemed to come from nowhere and it was large enough that the Last Drop would fit comfortably in and you could probably have stacked another on top and have one more on all four sides.
It was a huge place, awe inspiring by virtue of size alone for to make this work without collapsing was a marvel of engineering.
But more impressive, far more, was the huge statue of a woman with tremendously long hair holding aloft a staff or sceptre, carved from what looked like one piece of solid granite.
The strange blue light danced around parts of her illuminating her beautiful face, a face that seemed set in a small, kind, smile as she looked down on them.
"...Look!..."
Lily's breathy gasp was loud enough, unexpected enough, to take their attention and they followed her pointing finger to the foot of the statue.
Where, at the Lady's feet, were two young women, one with short red hair and the other with blue hair in very long tails, covered in dust and dirt and who looked like they were minutes away from death.
"Shit!"
Vander reacted on instinct, bolting forward, chem-light discarded in favour of the first aid box.
Even under the less than full light his experienced eye could make out the severe surface injuries on the two.
Lots of deep bruises. Lots of cuts. Lots of burns.
And the dreadful feel of static in the air.
"Get their chests pumping! Careful of any metal or live wires!"
He veered to the blue-haired one and left the redhead to Thil, both of them starting to feel for a pulse.
"Faint!"
"Faint!"
After a quick but careful-as-they-could-be inspection, each man started chest compressions.
It was all instinct. Learned muscle memory drilled into them by their time as miners, after having seen far too many of their own suffer for lack of aid.
"One. Two. Three. Four. Five."
Each count came with a heavy press. At the end of the count came the breath of life.
"One. Two. Three. Four. Five."
Press. Press. Press. Press. Press.
Breath.
Breath.
"One! Two! Three! Four! Five!"
Press.
Press.
Press.
Press.
Press.
Breath.
Breath.
Come on! Come on! Whoever you are girl you can do it!
Press. Press. Press-
-Breath.
Not from him.
From her.
The young woman gasped awake, coughing and spitting and for a moment, so quick he thought it may have been a trick of the light, Vander saw startling pink eyes turn to deep blue.
AN:
Thank you for reading this far! I hope you enjoyed it and if you did, please drop a comment! Let me know what you like!
This came out of watching Season 2 Episodes 4 and 5 which was, as usual, host to many breath-taking moments.
One of them, to me at least, was the reveal of Vi and Jinx's mother and the whole flashback scene with her.
I had so many questions!
And I also loved the family reunion and the horrendous pain both sisters went through!
Seriously though I was screaming when they all hugged.
And fucking Janna! My main for a whole ass season of League who carried my dumb support butt outta Gold.
So, I thought I would try to soothe my myriad of emotions by writing this piece. Just as a warning, it won't be a long work, I just am simply not capable of such things or at least finishing such projects with any degree of satisfaction.
So this will be a two shot story. Maybe a 3 shot.
In any case, thank you all for reading!