Sooooo... Enter Warwick, Stage: OH, FUCK. Ultraviolence to follow. Get some The Devil and The Hunstman going in the background. The glaringly obvious choices ARE sometimes the best ones. I WROTE it with that as backing, if that helps.
I do not own Arcane or League of Legends. This is purely fan work. Please, feel free to comment, criticize, and above all, enjoy!
The Fractured Reunion - Chapter 4 The Bloody Stage of Unity
Caitlyn thought she had anticipated it all. Violence. Blood. Death. An absolute Aspects-damned mess. A quagmire of pain and combat and degeneracy.
She hadn't been able to even IMAGINE the truth of the monster that had unleashed itself upon Zaun.
"BLOOD. ON. YOUR. HANDS." The hateful, pained growl sounded again, lifetimes' worth of accusations and condemnations carried on it.
Caitlyn dove and scrambled as the claws swept again, tearing through plaster and wood and pavement. The whole square a few levels down was a nightmarish haze: forcibly, violently transformed into a twisted otherworld of fumes and blood and viscera and death, utterly unbound beyond any sense or morality. Even the aftermath of Jinx's rocket had not been so grossly-
"BLOOD. ON. YOUR! HANDS!"
Caitlyn fired, desperately. The shots tore great chunks out of the massive creature, like Zaunite chemtech had twisted and enhanced a monster from a book of childhood fairytales. But the chunks grew back as chems flowed, and the tubes were reinforced. Shooting them out had been the first thing she tried. Her rifle clicked empty. The claws descended.
Loris dove between them, shield held high! And the claws, the enormous, inhuman muscles and power of the monster, tore through it. Loris roared in pain as the claws scrapped against his arm, as they pulled it out of place, popping it out of the shoulder socket. As the monster kicked out, sending him smashing through a gore-soaked storefront. Caitlyn had scrambled and sprinted around as she reloaded, trying to gain the slightest bit of distance before the beast returned its attention to her.
Steb sprinted in, swinging his batons. Flesh tore and bone broke, and healed just as quickly. The beast caught one blow, then the other. And PULLED. Steb's arms didn't pop out. They TORE OFF.
"STEB! YOU DAMN MONSTER!"
Caitlyn heard Maddie scream, heard her load and fire round after round, scorching Hextech-enhanced phosphorous sticking to and burning the creature, to no true avail save to make it MADDER.
"Maddie! Maddie, ru-"
Instantly, it was upon her, and suddenly Maddie was on the ground clawing backwards, blood from a now-lost leg pooling and spurting behind her as she screamed and cried. The claws raised to stab down.
"MADDIE!"
Fire. Fire. Fire. Fire. Fire! Some shots again pointlessly blew away flesh, others pinged off the reinforced chemtank sticking out above its back. But she'd gotten it's attention. Oh, dear. She'd gotten it's attention.
"BLOOD! ON! YOUR! HANDS!"
It half-lumbered, half-SPED towards her, and for a brief moment, Caitlyn wondered if this was it, even as she readied to fire-
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
A series of bright blue Hextech rounds exploded against its back.
"Hey, Furball! You want bloody hands, well... honestly, she's on track to beat my record by volume, but she sure as shit won't beat me when it comes to emotional significance!"
Oh, FUCK NO.
"Besides," Jinx drawled as she stepped in view. "I'M the only one here who's allowed to kill Coat Bitch."
"FUCK YOU!"
Caitlyn startled as Jinx's next shot grazed her cheek and exploded against the street behind her. Then her next few shots went back to the monster and she was dodging and punching and snarling and laughing and a terrible realization came over Caitlyn as she rushed to apply what first aid she could to her team.
When she and Vi had found her in the vents, Jinx had been HOLDING BACK. Significantly so, if her being able to hold her own against this creature was any indication. Caitlyn wasn't sure if that only deepened her hate, or... or made her wonder why...
A massive volley of shots and thrown objects erupted through the death-haze on the far side of the square, where Jinx had come from. And Caitlyn did wonder as the blue bomber's face contorted with anger and... disappointment? FEAR? A crowd emerged through the haze, a crowd much like the one she'd read the report on. Many were obvious Jinx idolizers, others were simple Undercity folk, all armed to the teeth, with Sevika at the front of the mob and... the little girl...
"What the SHIT ARE YOU ALL DOING HERRRRREAAAAAGGHHHH!"
Jinx's furious distraction was all the monster needed to dig its claws into her gut and hurl her across the square. Caitlyn and the beast watched in frank disbelief as Jinx scrambled to cram lose bits of intestine back into herself as her flesh knit back together almost as fast as the monster's. The crowd screamed and charged as Jinx screamed back, fear and sorrow and protectiveness in her voice as Caitlyn did not believe she could produce, could even FEEL.
"NO!"
But it was already too late: they were upon the creature, and the ground grew drenched in fresh death and viscera. She ought to run; Caitlyn realized as she jammed Loris' arm back into place, double-checked the tourniquets on Maddie and Steb. She ought to take her people and leave Zaun and it's own homegrown horrors to kill and eat themselves alive. But she heard Jinx's, JINX'S cry of sorrow, heard more and more of the mob die every second, heard the-the terrified wail of the child she had almost murdered...
'We're PROTECTORS, officer. Not BUTCHERS.'
Her soul demanded, and Caitlyn obeyed. Her rifle rose, she sighted down, and-
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Five shots struck the massive chemtank, all true. All well within the bounds of a theoretical standard bullseye, impact points stacked atop each other. The barest crack visible through the scope from the repeated, concentrated ballistic force. She hadn't shot so perfectly in months.
Then the monster was barreling towards her and she ran. Suddenly Jinx had leapt atop its back, firing into its head, tears running down her face as she watched a... follower? Fan? Slough off its claws.
"WHAT DID I SAY, FURBALL?!" She screamed in delirious fury.
"Oh, SHUT UP!" Caitlyn roared back at her. Then the beast threw an elbow at an downright impossible angle and knocked Jinx off. It raised its claws and Caitlyn knew; it would take both of them in one fell swing. She almost choked on the irony. The sound of pounding boots and charging pistons cut across all other noise, and suddenly-
BOOM! BAM!
Vi FLEW through the air like she'd been fired from a gun, her gauntlets SMASHING into the monster and blasting it off its feet, launching it through an entire building. Caitlyn briefly thought: had Vi used her gauntlet's force to propel herself? Then reality caught up.
"Vi?!"
"Vi?!"
She and Jinx glared at each other before Vi's own glare and slightly inarticulate yell to get their attention as she landed broke... whatever it was that just happened between the two of them. Caitlyn could feel the HATE, the NEED for the woman across from her to DIE, build in the depths of her heart and mind. And she could see the same in Jinx's scowl. Their fingers twitched against their guns-
And Vi's guantlets snapped shut over them, yanking the two to their feet and hurling them away.
"What are you two still DOING HERE?! Get your people the FUCK OUT OF-"
Vi saw the haze explode; she scrambled and lifted one guantlet, a Hextech energy shield projecting out of it, finally stopping the monster's claws dead. Both Vi and the creature seemed surprised that worked, but Vi was quick to capitalize, punching and blocking and just barely grappling, and...
Vi was FIGHTING it. Caitlyn and the Squad had barely survived, Jinx had held her own, but Vi - Vi was FIGHTING. Letting out roars of effort and pain and triumph with every blow landed or blocked, she forced the beast back farther and farther. She was... winning.
And then - then it blocked once. Twice. Three, four, five times, as if it knew just what she would do. It dodged, and clawed, catching against the gauntlets before Vi could trigger the shield, the metal shredding and flaking. It grinned and growled down at her.
"FINALLY. GOT. YOUR. GUARD. UP..."
It sounded almost... proud? And Vi could only gape at it in horrified recognition.
"V- Vand-"
Vi couldn't finish whatever revelation fell upon her as the beast SNARLED in defiance and FURY and SORROW. As it SWEPT the backs of its claws across her face, then kicked her so hard she flew through the fountain in the middle of the square. Caitlyn didn't recall moving, but suddenly she had reached Vi's side, Jinx right next to her. And the most mercenary, desperate, impossible but undeniable understanding passed between the two of them. Keep it away from Vi. No matter what.
It SICKENED Caitlyn just how WELL they worked together. Circling at opposite sides, but not so far they couldn't help each other. Staggering their shots just so, that the pressure never let up. A quick glance from Caitlyn was all Jinx needed to know to concentrate fire on the central chemtank, chips and cracks starting to grow across its surface.
Then Sevika joined, fighting with her... her SLOT MACHINE ARM, Caitlyn still couldn't quite believe that, and-
"TRAITORRRRR." The monster growled as it looked at bloody rage in the single word made Caitlyn's own blood run cold and as suddenly as they'd been winning, they'd been beaten and carved apart almost literally. Caitlyn felt her arm break as she was flung against a building. Jinx was again impaled and thrown the whole length of the square, her people clustering around her, the child at the front of it. The beast seemed intent to take its time with Sevika, carving and digging and crushing. The girl ran forward and fell back just as a quickly, blood flowing from a slit gash in her leg-
"VANDER!"
Vi's own accusatory roar might as well have been a magic spell. Everything stopped. The beast, the cries of pain, the movement of people preparing to fight or flee. All stunned by absolute disbelief at Vi's declaration. Vi and Jinx's - Powder's - adopted second father. The great peacemaker and collaborator. Now... THIS?
A whine of pain more desperate and profound than anything Caitlyn had ever heard tore it's way out of the creature's throat. It started rubbing and smacking its hands against its head, as if it could beat whatever thoughts it was having out of its mind. Then it started dragging its claws against itself, flesh and bone and fur and brain tearing and slicing away and growing back.
"no. NononononononononoNoNoNoNONONONO!"
The beast's whine became a roar, became a mantra of defiance and agony. Because if that was the truth, how could it BE what it WAS? It leapt forward, fangs and claws bared, and Caitlyn saw Vi, tears and blood running down her face, say in a way Caitlyn couldn't hear over the monster's cries:
'Go.'
No. No, she couldn't just leave again, she had to... what? Caitlyn gasped in pain as her broken bones shifted and crackled inside the meat of her. She couldn't shoot, not with her rifle, certainly, and she didn't have anything else of comparable-
"Fucking MOVE, COAT BITCH!"
The little girl crashed into her arms, almost knocking the rifle away completely, an dirty shirt tied above the massive gash in her leg as a makeshift tourniquet. Jinx was beside her, hauling Sevika with one arm, another injured Zaunite carried in the other. Her people were swarming around Caitlyn's team... getting them up, getting them moving, one of them carrying Maddie outright.
"Wh-wha-wh-"
"Vi wants you ALL alive, Janna-knows-why, so you're gonna fucking live! Now, move! It's your arm that's broken, not your legs!"
After one last look back, as Vi blocked and whirled and launched herself up at the chemtank and at the beast, as it clawed and snarled at her flesh and the gauntlets while she screamed her own violent defiance into its bloody maw, Caitlyn listened and ran. She wasn't quite sure how far they'd gotten when-
That smell. That FEELING. Like all the lightning that would ever be was about to strike. Like reality had decided to hold its breath. Caitlyn saw a few tiny blue sparks flick into her vision. She could see Jinx stop, see her eyes widen, see her whirl around to the square where roars and screams still echoed. She knew, too, just what was about to happen.
"NO!"
"DOWN, NOW, EVERYONE!"
Caitlyn honestly didn't know which of them said what, but the strange mix of Jinx fans, Zaunites, and Enforcer Elites dropped as one. As-
RRRRRAAAAABOOOOOOOOMM!
The girl in her arm, the one she'd been willing to shoot to pieces a scant few months ago, screamed in fear, and Caitlyn covered her as best she could as a small, bright blue technomagical sun, streaked through with arcing, chaotic technicolor lightning, blossomed in the neighborhood behind them. Caitlyn could feel the ends of her hair begin to catch fire as the explosion died out.
Caitlyn turned, as the drifting, blue-burning ash and Arcane sparks began to fall. Her ears were ringing. She was... somewhat aware that her mouth was open. Her throat was vibrating.
Oh.
She was screaming. She couldn't hear it yet, but she felt it in her body, in her heart. In her soul. Not even watching Jinx's rocket streak toward the Council Tower had torn such grief from her, because even then, she knew she still had... still had... And now, Vi was...
Another sound slowly began to reach her ringing ears. Another scream. Jinx, knelt beside her, pink tears streaming down her face. Her mouth stretched so wide by her endless, gaping cry Caitlyn feared it might tear open.
It was, perhaps, the bitterest irony. One so twisted but poetic, Caitlyn could never have begun to conceive of it. They'd traded hate for hate. Hurt for hurt. Atrocity for atrocity. And now, they knelt in ash and sorrow and failure, united at last in a grief neither could believe the other would ever share.
So, two versions of this chapter technically kinda exist. One with the explosion, one without. And I AGONIZED over which I wanted to go with, cause whether or not the explosion happens dictates so much of what else will follow. I ultimately settled on the Explosion Variant, for reasons that will become clear.
In other thoughts, I am WAY too proud of and pleased with myself for Coat Bitch. The Hat is no longer exactly Caitlyn's signature look, and she's done MUCH worse than just steal Jinx's sister from her while being an Enforcer (in Jinx's mind, anyway), so she gets a NASTIER nickname.
I also hope I was able to do what I wanted to with Jinx and Caitlyn here: these two who hate and hurt each other, forced by sheer necessity to work together to survive something that wants them, wants EVERYONE, dead, and then finding a surprise deeper unity in protecting the person both assumed the other didn't actually care about in Vi. And the explosion of course furthering that thread of unity, because they BOTH know what a Hexgem exploding looks and sounds and FEELS like, and now they've BOTH LOST VI...