Chapter I - Always with you sis!

The impact was more violent than she had expected, hard enough to knock her out.

Four seconds. Four seconds was the time she had left before her homemade monkey grenade exploded. She thought she was ready to die—the ultimate sacrifice to break the cycle of violence. Too many people had died because of her. Most of them, she didn't care about. But the ones she did? Those hurt the most.

At that moment, she thought of Isha—the little girl who had sacrificed herself to save everyone else, to save her. No one had ever done anything like that for her before. Ever since Vi abandoned her, she had been nothing more than a tool in the hands of others, used and discarded as they saw fit. But Isha was different. She was her hero. And she died because of her. She couldn't just give up—not now. She owed it to Isha to make her sacrifice matter.

With the little energy she had left, she tapped into whatever remained of her strength and managed to break free from the beast's claws. She was nearly at the entrance of the air duct when the grenade exploded. The force of the blast sent her straight into the massive propeller, which, thankfully, wasn't running.

The first thing she felt was her ears ringing. It didn't really bother her; she was used to hearing things, and honestly, it was better than hearing the voices. Then, she started to feel the cold metal against her skin, sending shivers through her. But more than the metal, she felt a deep cold inside her belly.

She opened her eyes, her head pounding. She was so thankful it was night. She could only imagine how much worse her headache would have been if she'd opened her eyes to bright sunlight. She wanted to get back to the entrance of the air duct, where she could see the lunar shaft of light pouring into the Hexgate. But as she tried to move, her body reminded her that she wasn't going anywhere.

Determined to get closer to the light, she tried to push herself up on her arms, only to slide on a cold, viscous substance. She redoubled her efforts and managed to crawl closer to the light. The pain was unbearable; electric shocks coursed through every single nerve. Her whole body felt like it was on fire—nearly as painful as the day the doctor had operated on her after the bridge explosion.

As she moved, her vision began to clear. She felt like something was following her—the substance advancing toward her as she retreated. She began to hear it growl and whistle, and a wave of panic surged inside her. The brightness of the light increased, and she swore she saw the thing moving. She was pretty sure it wanted to kill her.

She reached for her hips, searching for her gun, but it was nowhere to be found. Her heart raced as the monster leapt at her. With the little strength she had left, she managed to escape.

She barely fell into the Hexgate shaft when she realized she was at the entrance of the air duct. The blinding light dazzled her, but finally, she could see clearly. The viscous substance wasn't a strange monster—it was blood, pouring from deep gashes on her thighs and belly. The sight of so much blood—her blood—made her feel sick.

Then, everything went dark. No more pain. No more cold. Just nothing. Her eyes closed, and her body surrendered.

Vi lay on the cold metal platform, her body aching—but this pain wasn't the kind she was used to after a fight. This time, instead of being sharp and intense, it was dull and lingering. Yet the void growing inside her was far more agonizing. Even if her mind hadn't fully processed what had just happened, her body already knew: Jinx was dead, and with her, the hope of bringing Powder back had died too.

Vi was caught in a whirlwind of emotions. At first, she was furious. It felt like Jinx had stolen every last chance of reclaiming Powder. She had let herself believe, just for a moment, that her little sister could come back. Vander's return had reignited that fragile hope. And recently, Jinx's behavior—less chaotic, and at times almost familiar—had made her certain that Powder was still in there, buried under all the chaos.

When she pieced together the events of the past few days, the truth hit her.

"You're never gonna give up on me, are you? … You don't have to worry about me anymore. You don't need to feel guilty about being happy. You deserve to be with her."

"Wait!"

"There is no good version of me."

"What are you gonna do?"

"Break the circle."

Jinx had saved her.

The anger melted into sadness and guilt. The void inside her grew even larger as her chest tightened. She was supposed to protect her, but she had hurt her, abandoned her. It was her fault.

The realization crushed her: after everything Vi had done to her, Jinx had still saved her. The pain was unbearable now that she knows. Inside the psycho killer Jinx was, there was still a trace of humanity—Powder's humanity.

She didn't know what to do next. Jinx was dead. Powder was dead. Vander was dead. Maybe, after all, she had been wrong. Maybe she was the jinx. Everyone she cared about was gone, or so she thought—until she realized that wasn't true. Someone she truly cared about wasn't dead... or at least, she better not be.

Caitlyn! She needed to find Caitlyn. She looked around. Getting out of here would be difficult, especially with only one gauntlet, but she had to. Her left shoulder was now killing her. She let out a scream of pain when she tried to climb onto the metal pipe. The sound echoed inside the Hexgate, but as it faded away, she heard another sound. It was like an electric buzzing, and it was getting closer. All her senses were on high alert. She thought the war had ended; she knew she wasn't ready for another fight. A major wave of relief washed over her when she saw the green glimmer coming from the top of the Hexgate.