No More Noxus Bombers
Cait’s car screeched to a halt outside their old university house. The front wheel clipped the kerb and the vehicle mounted the pavement, eliciting another howl of pain from Jayce in the rear seats.
Before Vi could get out, Caitlyn reached across the dash and flipped open the glovebox. She produced a small rectangular object from the compartment before snapping it shut and sliding out of the driver’s seat. It was a harddrive, just like the one they’d used at the Black Rose.
The street was eerily silent as the crew clambered out of the car. The entire stretch of road had once been a hugely popular student housing area, constantly bustling with life and music and laughs of joy.
Now it was a complete ghosttown.
Vi flung open the rear doors to help manoeuvre Jayce from the back seats. His leg was still heavily bleeding, staining the combat trousers of the men he’d been laid across, leaving a crimson trail behind them as they hobbled towards the front door.
The house seemed untouched from when they all left it last all those months ago. The paint was freshly coated and showed no signs of deterioration; even the bushes lining the window appeared well-kept and neatly trimmed.
Cait raised her fist and pounded hard against the front door. Seconds later, Mel’s face appeared in the doorway, her facial features morphing into an expression of shock and disbelief.
“What-“ the councillor began. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw Jayce’s limp body being carried bridal-style in Claggor’s huge meaty arms. “Oh my God.”
Cait pushed past Mel and ushered the rest of her troops inside. Nervous eyes flickered up and down the street one last time before she slammed the door shut behind them. “Explain later. Jayce needs help,” she said in a rushed voice to Mel.
Vi strode over to the dining table and cleared its contents of placemats and unlit candles in a swift motion. Walking over with her, Claggor laid the injured man in his arms gently atop the surface, before taking a step back to let Viktor work.
“I need to set the bone,” Viktor asserted firmly. “Then put it in a splint. I’ll need you to all hold him down. Jayce, I’m sorry, but this is really going to hurt.”
Every pair of hands grasped Jayce firmly against the table. He struggled weakly against their grip, the blood draining from his face. Thick beads of sweat dripped down his forehead and pooled against the mahogany tabletop.
“Vik,” Jayce scrabbled frantically. He propped his head up to look at the scientist, eyes blown wide. “If you touch my leg, I’m-“
Viktor didn’t let him finish his sentence. A nauseating wet crack sounded from Jayce’s ankle as Viktor popped the bone back under his skin, followed by an abrupt shriek and a thud as Jayce’s head hit the table and he lost consciousness.
Slowly, the hands peeled off of Jayce’s still body, chests heaving as everyone in the room fought to catch their breath. Caitlyn stared down at Jayce’s unmoving face, checking he was still breathing before turning to Mel. “I need to borrow your laptop.”
Mel folded her arms in protest and looked at Cait sternly. “Not until you tell me what’s going on.”
“Not right now, Mel,” Cait growled. Her temper was beginning to wear thin as the adrenaline rush from the day slowly wore off. “I need to-“
“Cait, you drop one of our best friends off with a bloody bone sticking out of his leg, and won’t answer a single question,” Mel snapped, cutting her off. “The news has been about as useful as a chocolate teapot. What the fuck’s happened?”
Caitlyn opened her mouth in shock. Mel never swore. Ever.
With one last defeated, tired sigh, she plopped down onto one of the sofa’s and told Mel everything.
***
Cait sat hunched over Mel’s laptop. Fingers tapped furiously against the keyboard, skating elegantly against the caps. A cable trailed out of one of the ports and led into the hard drive she’d pulled from her car earlier.
Claggor and Vi sat either side of Caitlyn, eyes flicking over to her computer screen every so often in morbid curiosity. After setting Jayce’s leg, Claggor had helped carry the injured man upstairs to his old room, where him and Viktor had stayed and not come down yet. Marcus had disappeared into the garden and sat on the back steps, staring out into the forestry.
Mel sat across from Caitlyn on the other sofa. She was still shaking her head in disbelief, eyebrows furrowed as her own thoughts raced through her mind. “So, you’re just on your own now? No Heimerdinger, no council, no nothing?”
Cait nodded firmly. She kept her eyes glued to the screen. “Every eight hours, there’s a manual code Heimerdinger enters into one of the programs on our secure network. If that is interrupted, the network locks down, and doesn’t let anyone in without an encrypted passkey.” She tapped the hard drive on the coffee table.
“Just like Lost,” Claggor mumbled airily.
Every set of eyes glared at him. He muttered an apology.
Regardless of the interruption, the captain continued. “Once the lockdown is initiated, every single army file on record is uploaded to a secure cloud storage platform, including the contingency plans Heimerdinger has drawn up for us to follow. There’s only two people who have access to this data: him and I. Whatever our next move is, it’ll be in here.”
“And that’s what Doomsday is?” Vi asked.
Cait nodded in confirmation. “I’ll know the actual plan within the next few minutes. The first step is for us to review the imprisonment logs, see who we still have tabs on and who we don’t.”
Another silence fell between them as Caitlyn navigated over to the prison management page.
A long list of names sprung onto screen, each row highlighting the detainee’s full details and status.
Cait clicked through to find the prisoners who were operating under Noxus. Her heart sank.
Every single one’s status read UNKNOWN.
Including none other than Maddie Nolen’s.
“Great,” Vi huffed when she saw the results. She folded her arms over her chest and sunk back against the scratchy fabric of the sofa. “What now?”
In the top right corner of the screen, a download bar appeared, spinning for a few seconds before fully completing. Cait tapped at the file. One word appeared in all capitals on the cover page of the document.
DOOMSDAY.
“This is it,” Cait murmured. She stared blankly down at the file, fingertips shaking as she flicked onto the next page. There was a navigation page, although it only displayed three separate actions, as well as an index and a last final emergency plan right at the end.
“Action One,” Caitlyn read out. Everyone gathered around her leant in to hear better. “Check status of Arm of Piltover Prisoners of War. Done.”
“Action Two,” Caitlyn continued at her own discretion. Moving onto the next page, more details appeared. An image of a satellite scan and accompanying blueprints appeared on-screen, with hand-drawn notes and arrows pointing in and out of the pictures. It was a military complex of sorts; even with the distorted grain of the image, presumably taken by a passing drone or on a separate scouting detachment, she could still make out barbed-wire fences, sniper posts, checkpoints at all entrances. Wherever it was, they were armed to the teeth. Each feature of the scan had been marked up separately. “Dismantle the Shimmer bomb and all prototypes.”
Vi couldn’t take her eyes away from the pictures on the laptop. They were familiar. All too familiar. A sense of dread settled deep in her stomach.
It was the same complex her and Ekko had been sent to scout on that fateful day.
“Action Plan: captain’s discretion.” Cait read the words out civilly, feeling Vi’s eyes boring into the screen behind her. She reached across and squeezed her pilot’s hand reassuringly before going onto the final action.
“Action Three: neutralise-“ The captain caught herself on her words, pausing before she could finish her sentence. She found herself gazing over at Mel.
The councillor stared right back. There was an understanding, half-defeated look in her eyes. She knew what was coming next. Caitlyn inhaled a shaky breath.
“Neutralise Ambessa and all parties still loyal to her.”
Now every pair of eyes in the room were on Mel.
She didn’t say anything. She didn’t look at any of them. She just kept staring at Cait before nodding. Mel knew what had to happen. She’d known from the beginning of the war.
She just wished it didn’t have to be at the hands of her best friend.
Vi’s voice cut through the awkward silence. “Any Action Plan on that?”
“No,” Cait replied. She breathed out through her nose. “Captain’s discretion again. We’ll need to draw up our own brief for it.”
Without another word, Mel got up from the sofa and hurried off to her room, leaving the three to relish in the reality of what would come in the next few days.
***
Caitlyn’s crew was in shambles.
She didn’t need to say it. They didn’t need to say it either. She could see it and feel it. The way they were carrying themselves about, shoulders hunched like they were carrying the weight of the world on their backs, hollow eyes sunken and unreadable. Empty vessels of their former selves.
This had to be the final push. They were all running on fumes, barely any gas left in the tank.
Jayce was out of commission entirely. His leg was shot; bringing him on any missions wouldn’t just be a death wish for him, but a sentence for all of them. One name off the list.
Claggor was a whole different kettle of fish. He wasn’t just difficult to read, he was near impossible to gauge emotions from. Caitlyn knew it was no longer her place to try to persuade him to march back out there again; that could be a sibling-to-sibling conversation.
Marcus was old. And he was tired. If they were out of wartime, he probably would’ve been retired by now, or handed a cosy office job with a fancy title somewhere far from the front lines. This wasn’t the life for him anymore, running around trying to keep up with the younger fresher sets of legs.
And Violet. Her poor, poor Violet. It had only been a few weeks since Ekko’s funeral, yet Caitlyn was about to ask her to risk it all and march straight back to where it began.
For once in her life, the captain didn’t know what she was doing. And that terrified her.
Caitlyn found Vi in her old room, making the bed with some sheets and covers she’d pulled from Caitlyn’s wardrobe. She was shoving the cover over the duvet when Cait burst in, shutting the door quickly behind her and locking it with a faint click.
“I need you to talk to Jayce. And Claggor.”
Vi dropped the sheets from her hands. Her face dropped. “Okay,” she replied simply.
“I’m going to talk to Marcus,” Caitlyn continued. She began pacing up and down in her room, avoiding Vi’s eyes as she rubbed her index finger and thumb together. “I need to know who we’re taking.”
“Okay,” Vi repeated. She still hadn’t moved.
“We need to be prepared. We can’t fail now, or we’ll end up-“
“Like Ekko?” Vi cut her off, the tone of her voice raising an octave. “Or Leonard? Or Morgan? Or anyone else who’s died since this war started?” The pilot scoffed a laugh. “Tell me about it, Cupcake. Burning a hole in the carpet with your feet won’t make us any less dead, though. Just calm down.”
“Calm down?” Caitlyn’s pitch matched Vi’s and she finally met her eyes. “We’re at the forefront of one of the most pivotal moments in this conflict, and you want me to calm down? Are you even still in this fight, Violet?”
“Cait.” Vi dropped her hands in defeat. “Where you go, I go. I’d follow you to Hell and back.” The pilot hesitated for a moment before adding, “I really wish you’d stop taking us there, though,” with a small smirk.
Cait smiled weakly for a split second before her expression dropped. “Vi, you know there’s a chance we don’t walk away from this…” she trailed off.
Vi stayed silent for a beat. She tilted her head to the side. Licked her lips. “Yeah. But I made peace with that a long time ago. And if it’ll be by anyone’s side, I really hope it’s yours.”
Caitlyn didn’t respond with words. Instead, she swept around to the other side of the bed, cradling the skin of Vi’s soft cheeks in her hands and pressing their foreheads together.
Vi snaked her powerful arms across Cait’s lower back, exhaling in the warmth of their embrace. She wanted to stay like this forever, glued in the moment, nothing but the two of them against the world.
Cait opened her mouth to speak. “Violet, I lo-“
The pilot cut her off by pressing their lips together. It was a small feverish peck, nothing more, but it sent sparks flying through Caitlyn’s body just like the first time they’d kissed. She pulled Vi closer to her.
For a moment they stood their in a silent embrace, their quiet saying all the words they needed.
“Don’t,” Vi whispered after pulling away. “Tell me when we get out of this, okay?”
Cait swallowed the hard choking lump forming in her throat. “Okay,” she managed.
***
When Caitlyn left to speak to Marcus, Vi circled her lover’s empty room last time.
It was devoid of anything interesting. Anything to indicate someone had lived here once. Anything Caitlyn.
God, it didn’t even smell like her anymore.
Her thoughts travelled back to the night of the party, when Cait had led Vi up the stairs to her quarters with such confidence. Such need. Such want.
And just as Vi had started to picture a real future with the girl she’d been yearning for for the better part of a year, it all came crashing down on her. On both of them.
This room had seen the start of a brutal and unforgiving conflict they’d both been thrown into the deep end of and told to swim.
And in some sick cycle, it may see the end of it, too.
Depending how the next few days went.
After feeling sorry for herself for a couple more minutes, Vi gathered herself and exited, going down the hallway to poke her head into Jayce’s room.
Vi had never seen the inside of Jayce’s room. She’d always pictured him to be the type of guy to plaster empty beer boxes to the wall, to have various sports trophies collecting dust on dirty shelves, maybe even an obnoxious “Saturdays Are For The Boys” flag posted up somewhere.
But as she entered, her disappointment was immeasurable as she realised his room was just as barren as Caitlyn’s, and presumably Viktor’s too.
Jayce lay back on a small double bed atop fresh navy-coloured sheets. His injured leg was propped up on a single pillow, a makeshift splint made from duct tape and rolled-up newspaper secured tightly across his ankle. His eyes were shut and his chest rose and deflated steadily in a deep slumber.
Vi realised she’d never seen him so relaxed, so at peace.
Viktor had pulled up a desk chair to sit by his side, clutching the other boy’s hand in his. Jayce’s giant paws dwarfed Viktor’s skeletal fingers ridiculously. He didn’t look over as Vi entered, keeping his eyes on the man before him.
“Still alive?” Vi joked, leaning into the doorway and folding her arms across her chest.
“Unfortunately,” Viktor replied, casting a half-smile in her direction before turning back.
Vi was thankful that the scientist responded with humour and didn’t make her look like an asshole. “He’s not coming with us, is he?” she said sharply.
“No, he isn’t.” Viktor’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Not like this. I’m sorry, Violet.”
“’S okay.” Vi cleared her throat as her eyes flickered around the empty bedroom. A few drawers in his dresser had been chucked open and remained there, presumably from Viktor trying to find bedding or anything for them to change into.
“But I still have a job to do,” Viktor retorted suddenly. His amber eyes met Vi’s as she cocked an eyebrow in confusion.
“Are we saying we take you instead?” Vi said sarcastically.
The scientist chuckled and shook his head. Strands of brown hair fell into his eyes. “Definitely not, Lieutenant. But I can still be of use. The ‘man in the chair’, one could say.” He spoke the last sentence with air-quotes.
“You’d do that? For us?” Vi’s attention had been piqued. She stood up straight in the doorframe, eager eyes scanning Viktor.
“Of course,” he said gently. “With a laptop and a strong enough radio, I can help you from here, while still looking after Jayce.” He glanced affectionately over to the boy before him. “Zaun is my home country too, Violet. I would much like to return there one day. And if my aid helps achieve that outcome, sign me up.”
“Thanks, Viktor.” Vi shot him a smile, hesitating before strolling over and giving him a light squeeze on the shoulder. He placed his hand over hers.
Vi turned to leave the room, spinning on her heels and making a break for the exit. Just as she got to the door, a weak voice called out to her.
“Vi?”
She spun around again.
Jayce was sat up in his bed, a concerned expression plastered all over his face. The colour had slowly began draining back into his cheeks.
Vi gave him a small smile. “Hey, Pretty Boy,” she said teasingly.
“No more Noxus bombers, right?” He tried to play the expression off as playful, but there was worry laced in his tone.
The pilot chuckled dryly and nodded. “Yeah, Jayce. No more Noxus bombers.”
***
Caitlyn found Marcus in the exact same spot he’d perched himself in as soon as they arrived at the house. He hadn’t budged an inch.
The captain hesitantly tip-toed down the steps of the patio and sat down next to him in silence. It felt weird. It felt off. This patio had seen so many parties, so many laughs and chuckles and cries of joy, and now it was dead quiet.
Cait didn’t realise it until she sat down next to him, but Marcus was holding a picture in his hand. From the distance, she could see a young girl, puffs of ginger hair sticking out of her head. She was grinning wildly into the camera, flashing a gap-toothed smile.
“I didn’t know you had a daughter,” Cait said solemnly. It was at that moment she realised she barely knew anything about Marcus at all.
The other officer nodded and handed her over the picture. “She lives with her mother,” he commented, still looking longingly into the image as Caitlyn held it between her fingers.
The captain hummed before handing the photo back. “She’s got your nose,” she observed.
Marcus chuckled lightly. “I sure hope that’s all she inherits from me.” He took one last glance at the picture before stuffing it back into his pocket, wiping at his red puffy eyes. His chest heaved as he exhaled a defeated sigh. “So, what’s the next move, Cap?”
“The next move is that you’re staying here,” Cait asserted firmly.
Marcus turned to face her, eyebrows drawn together in confusion. “What?” he exclaimed.
“You’re staying here, Marcus,” she repeated, more bite to her tone this time. “That’s an order. If you want to see your little girl again, you’re staying here.”
The mention of Marcus’s daughter made his shoulders slink back down. Cait knew just where to strike; of course she did.
She knew what loss did to people, and more importantly, how to use it.
“Am I done?” Marcus said; his voice was barely an octave above a whisper.
“That’s up to you when the war is over,” the captain replied. “You’ve been an excellent officer, Marcus. It’s been a pleasure to command you. If you choose to continue your career with the army, I trust you will go far.”
Caitlyn stood up to go back inside. Marcus didn’t respond at first. His face screwed up into an unreadable expression, close to anger or betrayal.
The captain thought he might raise a hand to her in rage.
Instead, he did something just as surprising.
He stood up in front of her and drew his hand up into a solid salute.
“Godspeed, Captain,” he said in a tone bordering pride.
Cait returned the salute. Her chest swelled as she took one last look at him before striding back through the patio doors.
***
“Do you know how to dive?”
It was the first question Caitlyn bombarded Vi with as soon as she stepped back into her room, still processing her conversation with her brother.
She’d found Claggor downstairs watching an old western movie on the television. He’d looked up at her with a cheery grin. Asked if she’d like to join.
Vi sat down in front of her brother. Switched the TV off. Licked her lips and just gave him the look.
She didn’t even need to say anything before he broke down into loud, raggedy sobs.
Vi had never seen Claggor cry their entire life. Not when he broke his arm playing football when he was 11. Not when he’d got an F on the test he said he was going to “smash the shit out of”. Not even at Ekko’s funeral, and he’d been one of the pallbearers.
They were the weeps of a finished man. A soldier who knew he couldn’t carry on any longer.
And Vi understood; he didn’t need to explain himself once.
With a message to Vander with their address, and a long overdue hug between the two siblings, Vi had left her brother to watch his film, and scuttled back up the stairs to reconvene with Caitlyn.
“Sorry?” Vi replied with confusion. She began peeling back her layers of clothes, sore muscles rippling with pain as she removed her tattered and dirty combat shirt and discarded it onto the floor.
“Do you know how to dive?” Caitlyn asked the question again. “I think I’ve found a way into Ambessa’s compound, but it’s a rather… aquatic route.”
“Right.” Vi sighed, dropping back onto the bed as Caitlyn swung her laptop around to show Vi what she was talking about.
The blueprints of the Noxian compound were on the screen, zoomed into what appeared to be transport or service tunnels.
After reading the labelling, Vi realised they were sewage pipes.
“Gross.”
“Not the point,” Caitlyn fussed. She tapped a few sentences onto her keyboard furiously before repeating what she’d written to Vi. “We’ll take a boat two clicks north of the entry point, gear up and-“
“Don’t take a boat,” Vi interrupted.
“Why not?”
“Too noisy. Noxus has one of the most powerful naval fleets on Runeterra; they’d pick up on the vibrations instantly. We’d be safer rocking up to their front gate and begging for entrance with a pretty please. We’ll take a RHIB.”
“Right.” More flustered tapping against the keys. “Once we’re inside, we’ll split up, and-“
“We’re not splitting up.” Vi cut her off again. “Have you not seen a single horror movie? We’ll be safer sticking together.”
“I’m glad you feel like you can make jokes at this time,” Caitlyn huffed angrily.
Vi shot her a boyish grin. “Please, I know you’re not just with me for my rugged handsome looks.”
The captain frowned. She scowled at Vi for a moment before cracking into a grin, a brief moment of the old Caitlyn before snapping straight back to the work at hand. “So we go in together. The sewage maintenance room leads to the research laboratories via this route.” She ran her fingers over the screen, where she’d already drawn a red line to mimic the path they’d take. “There’s guards posted every twenty metres, so stealth will need to be on our side. We’re sending the whole lab sky-high. The explosives will be rigged to blow in half an hour exactly.”
“And where will we be getting explosives from, Captain?” Vi drawled. She laid back on her bed, propping herself up on one elbow.
“Will you please let me finish?” Cait pleaded.
Vi didn’t say anything. Her lips curled into a smirk and she opened her mouth undoubtedly to drop an innuendo.
“Get your head out of the gutter,” Caitlyn scolded. “Jayce and Viktor are sorting that for us. After that, we find Ambessa, and anyone else who we deem as a high-value target.”
Vi stared down at the screen for a few beats. She slowly looked up at Cait. “That’s your plan?”
“That’s my plan.” The captain nodded firmly.
“And how are we getting out?”
Caitlyn paused. Shit. She hadn’t thought of that yet. “We’ll find a helo, or a truck, or something.”
“’Or something’,” Vi repeated.
Caitlyn reached out and grabbed the laptop. She snapped it shut with a hard crack, angrily glaring at Vi. “Have you got any better suggestions?” she snarled.
“None at all, Cap,” Vi teased. “Just pulling your leg.”
“Oh.” The other officer’s face dropped, and a steady tinge of blush crept up her neck. “Okay. Sorry.”
“Sure hope you don’t get seasick, though,” Vi said in a final closing comment.