Don't Lose Your Way 6 At the End
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- Location
- Here
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Don't Lose Your Way At The End
Vander was scary now. He'd killed Sheriff Grayson. He'd turned into some big huge monster person. He barely even looked like Vander anymore.
But ... he was. I'd lost Mom, Dad, Mylo, Claggor... Vi. I couldn't lose Vander too. I just couldn't. I had to believe that underneath all the crazy monster muscles and everything, he was still the guy who'd taken care of me ever since Mom and Dad died. Even if I was wrong and he squished me or broke my neck like he had the Sheriff, it'd mean I'd get to see Mom, Dad, and Vi again.
I bolted after Vander as fast as my legs could carry me. Whatever happened next, it wouldn't be happening to him alone.
Sevika seemed so shocked by it that she was just staring at me while I got a head start. When she finally snapped out of it she tried talking. "Powder, don't run towards the killer monster and a bunch of trigger-happy Enforcers!"
I heard Silco growl at her from behind me. "Don't just stand there, go after her!"
I heard Sevika's boots start slapping the pavement behind me, already starting to get way too close. All I could do was try to run even faster. If we were back in the Lanes there were a dozen ways I could've given her the slip, by ducking into alleys she was too big to fit into, climbing up onto something she would weigh too much for, or just finding somewhere to hide. None of those were an option on the bridge. It was just a straight shot with no cover.
I heard something ahead of me that reminded me of a wolf howl. Or, well, what I think a wolf howl was supposed to sound like. I'd never actually seen a wolf or heard one howl, but I'd heard stray dogs howling and some of the gangers liked to say howl in a way that they said was supposed to sound like wolves. They usually just sounded stupid, but this time the sound made my stomach clench up, which made me think that the noise the Vander monster thing was making was probably a lot closer to how it was supposed to sound.
A second later I heard shouts coming from the Piltover sound of the bridge, and a crackling sound that reminded me of firecrackers. Something that sounded like a really angry bug whizzed past me and I heard Sevike shouting something at me, but I ignored both those things. They didn't matter. Sevika chasing after me didn't matter. Nothing mattered but getting to Vander.
I kept running as fast as I could, but it wasn't enough. My legs were burning, and I could hear Sevika gaining on me. She was bigger, stronger, and had longer legs than me, I could never beat her in a straight running contest like this.
I didn't need to beat her, though. I just needed to not get caught before I got to Vander. I tried to push through the pain in my legs and the burning in my lungs, forcing myself to keep moving forward no matter how much my body desperately wanted to stop. I threw everything I had into it, I could rest once I got to Vander.
Too bad everything I had still wasn't enough. I felt Sevika's fingers latch onto the back of my shirt and yank back. I managed to slip out of her grip, but that wasn't good enough. Getting pulled backward mid-run messed up my momentum, and I went tumbling down to the pavement. I felt burning pain in my knees and elbows that could only mean I'd skinned them on the way down, but compared to everything else it barely even registered. I tried to get back up, but my legs felt like jelly and all I could do was lie on the bridge gasping for breath.
Sevika loomed over me, glaring down at me as she panted and wiped her forehead. "Damn, you're slippery and fast..." I tried to force my body to move but one of her boots landed on my chest. Not stomping down or anything, but she pressed hard enough that I couldn't get away. "Look, we did what we had to do for Zaun. I get that it looks bad, but once we get back to Silco he'll explain how it's all—"
Another one of those angry buzzing sounds went over my head, and a moment later something hot and sticky hit my face. I reached up to touch it, and my hand came away covered in blood.
"Motherfucker!" Sevika staggered off of me, one of her hands dropping to her thigh to cover the bloody hole that had just appeared in it. She growled and shook her head. "Dammit, Powder, we gotta get out of here, bullets are flying all over the damn place. Figures the pigs aren't bothering to check their targets with Vander ripping them to bits."
She reached down to grab my shirt. I tried to fight her off, but she batted my arms aside like they were nothing. I still had one card left to play though, and when her hand got a bit too close I jerked my head up and bit down into the meat between her forefinger and thumb
Sevika pulled her hand back with a yelp, and I took the opening to force myself back up and get moving. No matter how much it hurt, I had to get to Vander. Sevika tried to chase after me, but as soon as she took a step on her wounded leg she staggered to the side with a scream. As slow as I was moving, she was even slower.
Sevika watched me slowly getting ahead of her, making one last effort to come after me before letting out a frustrated scream. "Fine! Get your ass killed by Enforcers or ripped apart by Vander while he's hopped up on Shimmer! See if I give a damn!"
I ignored her and kept staggering forward. I'd come so far, I couldn't stop now. Especially once I could finally see Vander again.
Things on the other end of the bridge were ... bad. There was blood all over the place, and I could see a lot of Enforcer bodies. Or ... well, parts of Enforcer bodies. Arms had been ripped out of sockets, legs twisted apart, or Enforcers had just outright torn in half with their guts spread all over the pavement.
Vander was closing in on that one rat-faced Enforcer, Marcus. The man pulled a revolver and pointed it at him, but his grip on the gun was shaking so much that he missed his shots even though Vander was practically on top of him. With a roar Vander closed the gap, smacking the gun out of his hand so hard that it made his arm bend the opposite way from how it was supposed to. Marcus started screaming, and Vander wrapped one of his massive fists around his head, starting to squeeze.
"Vander?" I gasped out, trying to think of anything more I could say. I'd come all this way and escaped from Sevika just to get back to him, and now that I was here my brain just couldn't come up with anything.
Maybe just saying his name had been enough. Vander dropped Marcus to the ground, leaving the wounded Enforcer cradling his wrecked arm and stumbling away as Vander turned to face me. His lips peeled back in a snarl, and there was nothing in his eyes but rage as he slowly stalked towards me.
Did he even see me at all? Or was I just another thing to be killed, like all the Enforcers? Like the Sheriff? I didn't recognize the guy who'd taken care of me ever since we lost Mom and Dad. The guy who'd give me a cup of my favorite orange soda whenever I was feeling down. But still ... I had to believe it was him. "It's me, Vander. It's Powder."
Vander blinked, shook his head, and for a second his eyes seemed to shift away from the weird purple they'd turned into with his transformation back to their old grey-blue. "Pow... der...?" He took a hesitant step towards me, slowly stretching out one of his massive, deformed hands. I reached back out to him, resting one of my small hands on his huge, bloodstained ones. Even after all of this, with everything that had changed, he was still my dad.
There was a loud pop and something buzzed past my ear, accompanied by a sudden flash of heat and pain across my cheek. Vander snarled and spun back around, letting out a feral roar when he spotted Marcus holding his revolver in a trembling hand, his other, ruined arm clutched to his chest. More Enforcers were forming up behind him, pointing rifles at Vander. "Shoot it!" Marcus screamed, firing off another wild shot from his pistol.
Vander snarled and took a step towards the Enforcers, one of his eyes flicking back to look at me. I flinched and closed my eyes so I wouldn't see what was gonna happen next. Everything I'd seen already was bad enough, I knew Vander wouldn't want me to watch him kill a bunch of Enforcers. He always tried to protect me from all the ugly stuff that went down in Zaun, and this was worse than anything I'd ever heard about. I'd never seen so much blood and guts and brains and everything else before.
So I kept my eyes shut as I felt the rush of air when Vander moved, the shouts of the Enforcers, and the roar of gunfire as they tried to shoot him. I just waited for it all to be over.
Except ... something was wrong. I didn't hear Vander roaring, the sounds of battle, or Enforces shouting as he tore into them. Then I felt an arm that was thicker than a lamp post wrap around me.
I opened my eyes and saw that Vander was still right in front of me. He'd put himself in between me and all the Enforcers shooting at him, letting out pained grunts whenever one of the bullets hit him. Why would he be doing that when he could've charged and killed them?
"Powder..." Vander groaned, dropping to one knee and pulling me a bit closer to make sure he could keep covering me.
Me. He was letting himself get shot to protect me. It was like Sevika said, the Enforcers were all freaking out and just shooting all over the place. Vander could've taken them out, but one of them might accidentally hit me while he was doing that. I was pretty sure Marcus had already grazed my cheek with one of his shots. The only way he could be sure I'd be okay was to block all those bullets himself. He was letting himself get shot to protect me.
"No!" I weakly tried to push him away. "Fight back!"
"Protect ... Powder..."
He was gonna die, and it was all my fault. Just like it was my fault Mylo, Claggor, Vi...
"Mom, why do you have to go?"
Mom smiled down at me. "Because we have to fight for the future. For you."
Mom and Dad too. Everybody dies, and it's always my fault. Mylo had always known the truth. He'd tried to warn everybody about me before it was too late, but none of us had listened.
She Jinxes every job we bring her on.
You know Powder's a Jinx.
You're a Jinx
You're Jinx
Jinx
JINX!
They found me underneath Vander's body. I probably should've crawled out from under it or called out for help or something, but what would've been the point? So I could survive? Live again while everyone else around me died? What was the point of that? It was all some kind of sick joke.
I didn't care. Leave me here, stuck under Vander's body. Let me die with him. I wanted to be with my family.
Instead, they dug me out from under him and took me somewhere else. I wasn't really paying attention to where. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Not anymore.
Everything passed by in a blur. A doctor or someone patched up my knees, elbows, and face from where I'd gotten hurt. Someone else put a blanket over me and put a cup of hot chocolate in my hands. 'Cause a soft blanket and a hot drink would totally help me forget that I'd killed my family.
Eventually someone came for me. A lot of someones, actually. Jayce, Victor, and Caitlyn's mom were all here. I wasn't paying too much attention to most of what they were saying or doing. None of it mattered, not when my family was dead. I knew what it was anyway. The exact same sort of 'oh, we're so sorry,' crap everyone said to me after Mom and Dad died. As if them telling me how sorry they were that my family was dead made a difference. I guess it was nice and all, but it didn't change anything. It was like Vander said before I'd killed him too: 'Sorry' wouldn't bring the dead back.
One of them said something that finally managed to cut through the fog in my head. "I'll take Powder home. Some sleep will ... it couldn't hurt."
I had to tell them the truth about that. "Powder died on the bridge." Mylo'd known the truth all along, hadn't he? All this time Vi and me and everyone else thought he was a stupid jerk when really he'd been the only one who ever saw the truth. Maybe if we'd figured that out sooner they'd all still be alive. I tried to laugh, but it came out sounding more like sobs.
"Powder, what're you—"
"Not Powder." I shook my head. "I told you, Powder's dead. My name is Jinx."
Current Stability: -20
Willpower: 0
Name Change: Powder -> Jinx
Issue Updates
Positive Trait Forming:
??? ??? ????
Strength: 0.5
Self-Worth
Severity: -2 -> -1
"Finally cracking Hextech is huge. I have that even if nothing else ever goes right in my life."
Mutated Issue!
Jinx -> Powder
Severity: -5
"Stop calling me that. It's Jinx now. Powder fell down a well."
Violet
Severity: -3 -> -5
"My sister is dead. I know they never found a body, but if she was still alive she would've come to find me."
Abandonment
Severity: -2 -> -4
"Everyone who gets too close to me dies."
Trauma
Severity: -2 -> -4
"This world is a wasteland. Please let me go."
Contacts Updates:
Claggor
Relationship with Jinx: Unofficial adoptive brother
Jinx's Opinion: He's alright, I guess. Kinda quiet, though.
Mylo
Relationship with Jinx: Unofficial adoptive brother
Jinx's Opinion: He can be a jerk sometimes, but he's not all bad.
Vander
Relationship with Jinx: Adoptive Father
Jinx's Opinion: Vander's my dad now. He looks out for and takes care of me, and does all the usual dad stuff
Violet
Jinx's Definitely-Dead Big Sister
Relationship with Jinx: Big Sister
Jinx's Opinion: I know she's dead, but ... they never found a body.
Silco
Ruthless Would-be Revolutionary, Drug Kingpin
Relationship with Jinx: Hated Enemy
Jinx's Opinion: He killed Vander. He's going down.
Sevika
Lanes Ganger, Heavy Hitter
Relationship with Jinx: Hated Enemy
Jinx's Opinion: She helped Silco kill Vander. She's gonna die for that.
Mel Medarda
Daughter of the Medarda Clan, Noxian member of the Council
Relationship with Jinx: Undetermined
Jinx's Opinion: She seems really smart. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
Who Takes Powder in?
[ ] The Kirammans
[ ] Jayce and Viktor
Evil QM laughter. On the bright side, at least nothing bad will ever happen to Powder again. Also, we'll have one last chapter before we jump forward in time a bit to let things play out as characters age up.
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