Deadlock
Vi felt her heart stop in her chest. Blood rushed to her ears and a furious ringing broke out, absorbing all outer sound in an instant. Beads of hot thick sweat glistened on her temple, cutting deep ravines into her blood and dirt-stained cheeks.
“What do you want me to do, Cait?” Vi couldn’t stifle the quiver of her voice.
There was silence on the other end of the line, broken intermittently by Caitlyn’s huffing and panting. “The Hueys,” she grunted exasperatedly, “have they still got those side-loaded ladders?”
Vi’s head snapped around as she looked back into the main passenger bay. Her eyes scanned the miscellaneous gear and tools left behind until they landed on their salvation: a tangled-up fabric ladder, frayed and faded from the sun. “There’s one here,” Vi said firmly, sliding out of the pilot’s seat and taking her helmet with her. She crouched down and grabbed the ladder, beginning to unreel it. Threads were peeling from the fabric strips running between each rung. “It’s looking worse for weather, though. What do you want me to do with it?”
“You’re going to get up in the air and I’m going to jump onto it.”
Vi’s mouth dropped. The ladder fell from her hands into a crumpled heap on the metal floor. “What the fuck, Caitlyn?” There was no attempt to hide the dissatisfaction in her voice.
What her captain was asking her to do wasn’t just stupid; it was a downright suicide mission.
Best case scenario, Caitlyn would land on the rope and Vi would have to drop her down quickly before the fabric snapped or Ambessa shot her dead. Extra care would need to be taken lowering the chopper, too, otherwise both of Cait’s legs would snap instantly under the impact.
Worst case scenario, Ambessa would pick them both off before the bird even left the ground. Alternatively, the ladder would get caught in the whirlwind of the helicopter’s blades and send the whole thing crashing down to earth in a blazing inferno.
But before Vi could argue their case, Caitlyn’s sharp aggressive tone cut into the speakers. “Do you trust me, Violet?”
A beat. “Of course I trust you, Caitlyn,” she managed to say.
“Then get the Huey in the air and lower the ladder.”
Vi wanted to protest. She wanted to scream at Caitlyn to think of something, anything other than what she’d told her to do. But her desperation was stark and she knew they were working with borrowed time, Ambessa growing closer and closer by the millisecond like a cat chasing a mouse.
With unsteady, shaking hands, Vi unravelled the rest of the ladder, throwing it down gently outside the chopper bay doors.
The next steps had to be perfect. Absolutely perfect, down to the tee. If Vi made wrong move, one wrong turn, even the slightest alteration with the Huey’s altitude speed, she’d go tumbling straight back to the ground and die on impact. Which was not the intended outcome.
With a begrudging sigh, the pilot trailed back to her cockpit, taking the control column between sweaty palms and raising the bird steadily up into the air.
The stifled, steady hum of the engine swiftly grew into a monstrous raw as the Huey climbed inch by inch up into the sky. The ladder stayed flaccid and loosely brushed against the concrete tarmac as Vi kept the chopper as straight and stable as her trembling arms would allow her.
There was only one name on her mind as she kept her cool. Caitlyn.
Caitlyn, Caitlyn, Caitlyn, Caitlyn.
The mantra that followed her through school. Haunted her during the first year of being in the army. The name of the only girl Vi had ever loved and ever wanted to love for the rest of her life, the name of the girl she had to save no matter if anyone got hurt in the process.
It wasn’t about Zaun or Piltover anymore. It wasn’t even about Ambessa. It was about keeping Caitlyn safe. That’s all Vi wanted anymore.
Even as the world caved in, she would always protect Caitlyn.
***
Thunderous unrelenting bootfall rippled just metres behind the captain as she scrabbled through the compound, retracing her invisible string as she fled from her personal Minotaur.
Ambessa wasn’t shooting at her anymore. Oh, no. She wanted Caitlyn alive for whatever she had planned. And the officer had no intention of finding out what that might be.
As she sprinted down the winding labyrinth-like corridors, slapping footsteps drowning out the murderous vanquishing cries from the warlord behind, Cait wondered what Medarda would do if she caught up to her prey. Would she show mercy on the child of a former colleague? Would she string her up and gut her like a fish, or squeeze state secrets out of her via every torture method possible, known and unknown?
Would she hold Caitlyn hostage and demand the surrender of the Army of Piltover in exchange for her release? The captain knew that approach wouldn’t work; Heimerdinger had made it clear that savings the two officers’ lives was nowhere on his agenda anymore.
Heimerdinger. She should have seen the backstab coming from a mile off. His shifty, darting eyes whenever the safety of a mission had been brought up. Giving Caitlyn “free will” to form her own evacuation plans, when he knew damn well it was so there was a lower chance of them getting out alive.
How long had he been planning this? To take Shimmer for himself, to throw Caitlyn and her officers to the dogs? Was Ekko collateral that was taken too early? How many other strike teams had followed Heimerdinger’s orders, sworn loyal to him, just for the gutless bastard to turn around and whip the rug out from beneath them? Had he ever cared about the safety of his people, or were they all just pawns in whatever greater game he was playing?
A sudden rush of cold northern wind, accompanied by the low growl of a mechanical engine, halted the hatetrain in Cait’s head. She was out onto the vehicle bay; a vast expanse of dismal grey tarmac devoid of anything but a few loose Jerry cans, technical equipment and a single ladder dangling from the air above.
Cait’s legs pumped frantically as she bolted across the concrete. Ambessa was still behind her – she could hear the angered commander screaming profanities that would make a sailor shy away. But she wasn’t focused on that anymore. Her eyes followed the ladder from the floor up to the Huey’s loading bay, and across its body into the glass canopy of the cockpit.
For a split second, through the dirty, dust-smeared bubble at the front of the chopper, Caitlyn could just about see her pilot watching down on the scene below, eyes blown wide with fear and worry.
Ocean met storm.
“Kiramman!” A single, bellowing voice sounded just metres behind Caitlyn, followed by a loud cracking which echoed and reverberated across the barren vehicle dock.
At first, the captain felt as if she’d been punched from behind. A steady aching pain began to emit from her left shoulder, growing into a stinging burning sensation as the seconds passed. Suddenly, she felt warm thick liquid seeping from her injury, running hot down her back and left arm as it wept and seeped into her dark clothing.
It dawned on Cait like a flash of lightning.
Ambessa hadn’t punched her. The captain had been shot.
Adrenaline fought valiantly to stifle the arcing, white-hot pain stemming from her wound, but it was a losing battle. Searing streams of agony throbbed from where the bullet had pierced through her muscles and arteries. With a cry of exasperation, Cait reached her right hand over and pressed it over the churned and jagged flesh, a feeble attempt to stop the steady bloodflow.
Despite the relentless burn in her shoulder, despite Vi’s shouts and screams down the microphone into her earpiece, despite Ambessa refusing to give up chase, Caitlyn continued towards the ladder, every fibre in her body crying out for respite as she finally got within reaching distance of the fabric rungs.
Caitlyn went airborne for a moment as she leapt onto the ladder. Her arms slotted through the gaps and the whole thing spun on itself, tangling up at the top. She took precious seconds to recover, chest heaving unsteadily as she sucked air back into her gasping lungs.
“Fuck yeah!” Vi called out over the intercom. The chopper began to rise steadily into the air, the last few rungs still dragging along the concrete below lifting up as Cait began to climb up.
The captain thought she’d been fast enough. She prayed she’d been fast enough to beat her pursuer, to get out unscathed, to finally put an end to the objective they’d fought so hard for over the past year.
Caitlyn didn’t realise her pleas had fallen onto deaf ears until she felt the weight shift on the rungs below.
***
Vi had anticipated the first light jolt of weight disparity from Caitlyn mounting the ladder. She’d adjusted the Huey accordingly, pulling back and up in order to not tip them both over and send them straight back to square one.
The shudder of a second weightload bearing on the ladder hadn’t been a part of the plan. The cabin shook and the chopper’s engine wheezed as it worked against a second body now on the rungs. A deep heavy feeling of dread crept into Vi’s stomach as she spoke into the radio, steering the bird away from the facility and back over the ocean they’d come in from. “What was that, Cap?”
“Ambessa’s on the rungs,” Cait responded tightly, her voice laced with agony and defeat.
Vi kept the steering column straight as she peeked over her shoulder to the loading bay, eyes following down to where Caitlyn and Ambessa were now both fighting to crawl up the ladder. The wind whipped at them relentlessly, their hair rippling along with the weakened fabric connecting the rungs together. The helicopter began to struggle against the mass of two people now on the ladder, its engine chugging and shuddering under the strain.
“That rope isn’t going to hold, Cait,” Vi panted, whipping her head back around to focus on where she was steering. The black mass of water beneath them sprawled out endlessly, inky waves crashing and spraying water like great fingers reaching up to drag the pair below.
“I know!” Caitlyn shouted back across the line, still grunting with effort as she clambered up the rope. The pilot could see it all from her window now: one of the side rails was already beginning to splinter and fray, its threads coming loose from the fabric by the second.
Vi’s mind went into overdrive as she desperately scrabbled for a solution. If she managed to get the Huey over land, Cait would be left on her own to fight Ambessa with only one working shoulder while Vi tried to find a suitable place to land. She could bring them both up into the passenger bay, but that would rely on the ladder not disintegrating first and would also mean trying to take down Ambessa thousands of feet up in the air.
They were running out of options – and fast. The warlord was already gaining distance on Caitlyn, huge muscular arms propelling her up the rungs at lightning speed, while the other officer struggled with each miniscule movement. If any of Vi’s ideas were to come into fruition, Ambessa would undoubtedly reach Caitlyn before she could execute any diversion to the plan, and Vi would have no choice but to watch.
She took a quick glance over her shoulder again at Caitlyn and Ambessa on the ropes. Caitlyn, her teeth gritted with a mix of determination and agony, reached to her thigh and produced a small metal object. Its surface glinted beneath the evening sun.
It took Vi far too long to realise that Caitlyn was holding a ballistic knife.
The pilot ground her molars together as she watched helplessly. “Caitlyn, what are you doing?” she rushed, eyebrows raised in panic as her heart jumped into her mouth.
Caitlyn’s head turned up to Vi for a brief moment. She paused climbing, and a deep breath rattled over the intercom. She placed the blade to the left rail first. “What I need to do,” she said coolly.
There was no hesitation. Cait ran the blade through the first strip of fabric, slicing clean, before cutting through the second.
Vi could only watch in horror as the ladder severed entirely and the two plummeted into the murky depths below, submerging beneath the surface within seconds.
***
Caitlyn knew she only had ten minutes.
It was one of the only survival lessons that had ever stuck out to her during her initial officer training: resilience in extreme weather scenarios and conditions. She remembered it vividly, how the instructors had forced them all in a line in nothing but shorts and T-shirts in the blitz Piltovian winter, having to keep themselves warm while waiting to be dunked into sub-zero water, all whilst being shouted at and degraded using every flavour of colourful language under the sun. The numbing feeling as they all dropped into a small manhole atop a frozen lake, being forced to recite military law and sing army marching songs as their bodies went numb and ice ran through their veins.
If you weren’t prepared, cold water shock would take its toll within the first minute. After ten minutes, your muscles would seize up, and another ten to twenty after that you’ll go into hypothermia. And at that point, you better hope that you’ve got your funeral arrangements in line.
Caitlyn had just under ten minutes to get herself the hell out of the water while fighting a gunshot wound and a bloodthirsty warlord of her enemy nation.
The freezing waves hit Cait like a brick wall as she plunged beneath the depths. Water spilled over her head as she sunk under the surface, the sun’s rays dissipating around her as she regained her strength and began to kick up towards the light.
She couldn’t see Ambessa in the murky depths with her. She had no idea where the other lady landed, or if she was anywhere near. There was no way Caitlyn could take her in the water, anyway.
The sweet relief of fresh air hit the captain’s lungs as she breached the surface, sucking in oxygen with desperate gasps. Saltwater began to lap at her shoulder, smoothly silking over the wound, each strike stinging the gaping flesh with even more bite than the last. With strained effort, she began swimming towards the shore, her injured arm flailing behind her as she cut through the waves delicately.
Soft sodden sand met her fingertips. Grabbing fistfuls as she went, Cait dragged herself out of the riptide, clawing out of the debilitating water. The Noxian sun beat down on her relentlessly as she flipped onto her back, wasting desperate seconds catching her breath yet again. She stared up at the blazing ball above her, its rays crisping her face as droplets of seawater dried up across her cheeks.
She had just a split second to react when a huge boot blocked her light and filled her vision.
Cait rolled over and ducked just in time to avoid Ambessa’s second strike, a clenched fist gliding mere millimetres away from her face. The captain sprung up to her feet, fists raised, as she stared straight into the ablaze eyes of Ambessa Medarda.
Medarda stared straight back, eyebrows furrowed in deep guttural rage, nostrils flaring as she circled Caitlyn. “You stupid girl,” the warlord snarled. Her huge shoulders tensed again as she raised her guard. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
The captain bared her teeth. Her left arm hung limp against her side as the adrenaline wore off; raising it was proving to be more painful than it was worth. “You’ve lost, Ambessa,” Cait snarled. “It’s over. Give up.”
Medarda took a step forward and Caitlyn retreated back, still maintaining a safe distance. “Your people take my land, kill my men, blow up my assets, and think it’s over because you hit one target?” She barked a menacing cackle, throwing her head back before snapping straight back down to hone in on her prey. “You know nothing, Kiramman. You’re just like your mother. You think we can just shake hands and walk away like-“
Ambessa didn’t finish her sentence. Caitlyn had heard enough monologues for one day. She raised her right leg and landed a clean roundkick straight into the warlord’s kidney, eliciting a grunt of pain from the other lady.
The warlord roared with anguish. Raising a fist, she struck Cait straight across the cheek, her head snapping to the side violently as a second strike was sent square into Caitlyn’s gut.
Cait staggered backwards, clutching her stomach, before regaining herself and bringing her left knee up to attempt a frontkick.
Seeing the strike coming, Ambessa caught her leg mid-air, wrapping a powerful arm around Caitlyn’s knee and trapping her there. The commander reared her head back and crashed her forehead against the captain’s, both parties staggering back in shock.
Stars danced across Caitlyn’s vision. Her head swam, senses disoriented, and a dull ache began to throb in her temples. She stumbled around for a few moments, arm outstretched as she tried to ground herself back to reality, aiming another fist at Ambessa’s face.
But Medarda was the bigger and better fighter. She dodged the blow, grabbing Cait by the wrist and pulling her into her body, arm snaking around her neck and pulling her across and up into a tight headlock. Fingernails clawed and scratched at the warlord’s meaty forearms, but her vice-like grip was unmoving.
Cait’s body thrashed as her brain plunged into survival mode. She could feel her windpipe being compressed, the life slowly being choked out of her, the feeling in her arms and legs draining and going slack as all the blood rushed up to her head.
Something cold and hard pressed against her temple. In her peripheral, she could just about see a sleek metal surface glinting in the Noxian sun.
“Goodbye, Caitlyn Kiramman,” Ambessa Medarda growled into her ear.
***
Vi had practically thrown the helicopter into the ground when she’d finally landed.
She’d watched Caitlyn and Ambessa tumble into the ocean. She’d watched Caitlyn wash up on shore, only to moments later engage in unarmed hand-to-hand combat with the much larger, much stronger warlord, only for them to disappear from sight completely when Vi found a spot to set the Huey down in.
For all she knew, Caitlyn could be face down dead in the sand right now, with Ambessa posted up ready to shoot Vi as soon as she made her way to them.
Violet Vanderson was not a religious person by any means, but she found herself praying to anyone and everyone up there as she raced across the dunes to get to her captain.
The soggy wet sand weighed her boots down as she ripped across the shore, fighting against her own feet, rifle raised and trigger finger ready.
She dove over the first sand bank and nearly tripped over herself when she finally caught them both in her sight.
Ambessa had Caitlyn in a tight chokehold, the captain struggling against the bigger woman’s grip. A single pistol was jammed into her temple.
Vi raised her gun and fired a warning shot at the warlord’s feet. She snapped her head up as Vi rounded her ironsight onto her. Medarda did the same, removing the pistol aim away from Caitlyn’s head and onto Vi.
“Ambessa!” Vi roared, sprinting over to the pair, keeping her rifle perfectly poised and aimed at the other lady’s head. She gritted her teeth together in a snarl.
“Was it worth it, Vanderson?” the commander howled, waving the barrel of her gun around. Her voice became more high-pitched, more strung out, more erratic. She was losing it. “All your efforts, just to die a coward’s death?”
“Drop the fucking gun!” commanded Vi at the top of her lungs. She gripped her rifle tighter, index finger hovering dangerously over the trigger.
Both ladies refused to lower their weapons. Deadlock.
Ambessa didn’t respond. She glared at Vi angrily, eyebrows furrowed, before turning the barrel to point back at Cait’s temple. “All I wanted was a better life for my people. For your people,” she snapped. Was that longing in her voice? “Why couldn’t you all see that?”
“Hundreds of innocents have died because of you, Ambessa.” Vi took another step forward. She wasn’t paying attention to what the warlord was saying, though, and even less attention to what she was saying herself.
“You’re a fucking animal.”
Her eyes were on Caitlyn. Moreso, Caitlyn’s good hand, which was wrapped around the joint between Ambessa’s wrist and the hand which she held her pistol. The captain’s thumb was lightly tapping her skin – a signal. For Vi.
“And you know what we do to wild animals.”
Vi knew what Caitlyn was asking. She knew what was coming next.
“And what’s that, Vanderson?” Ambessa’s shoulders slouched ever so slightly. Her attention diverted from Cait. Rookie mistake.
“They get put down.”
Violet fired first. Ambessa pulled the trigger just as Cait shoved the pistol out of the way, the bullet from Vi’s gun missing her by inches and sinking straight into the warlord’s chest.
Vi didn’t wait to be told what to do next. Dropping her shoulders and letting her gun fall by her side, she screamed out into the air and barrelled straight into Medarda, knocking them both back into the ocean waves.
The light blue water stained red with the thick blood pumping from Ambessa’s chest. Vi landed atop of her, swinging both legs over and grabbing the commander by the neck.
Vi wasn’t there anymore.
She held Ambessa’s head under the water and began to squeeze.
She was back with him.
Meaty arms thrashed violently about in the water, the warlord’s body convulsing.
Vi was watching his eyes light up as he told a cheesy aviation joke from the cockpit of their Apache.
Outstretched fingers reached up and scrabbled at the skin of Vi’s face and arms. She didn’t flinch.
She was watching as he effortlessly flung an arm around Powder, twirling her across the dancefloor.
Bared teeth gnashed and limbs flailed. Bubbles rippled between lips relentlessly up to the surface.
Vi was telling him a story, and the creases in his face were showing as he scrunched up, because he’d listen to Vi talk about anything and everything no matter what.
The thrashing had stopped. The fighting had stopped. No more air bubbles were seen, just a wide, gaping mouth and two empty eyes distorted beneath the water.
She was watching his coffin being lowered.
Vi stared down at the body beneath her. No pulse ran beneath the skin she had her hands wrapped around. Slowly, ever so slowly, she loosened her grip, took a staggered step back, and watched the waves drag Ambessa Medarda to her watery grave.
***
“Caitlyn?”
Vi called the name over her shoulder. She hadn’t turned around yet. She just stared out across the ocean, arms limp by her side, a heavy unknown feeling she couldn’t put her finger on settling in her chest.
“Caitlyn?”
Vi called out again.
No answer.
The unknown feeling was swiftly replaced with worry. She turned on her heels to see where her captain was.
Caitlyn was laying with her back to the sand, vision glossed over as she looked up at the sun. Her breath wheezed as her chest rose and fell unsteadily, hands flaccid by her side.
Panic began to set in. Vi sprinted over and knee-slid to Cait’s side, taking her captain’s hand in her own and using her other hand to crane her neck around so she could get a better look at her face.
Only then did Violet notice her eye.
Her left socket was a bloodied, sinewy mess of upturned grotesque flesh, a hollow chasm pumping viscid red liquid where her eyeball should have been. Streaks of crimson leaked down her face and pooled onto the white sand beneath them.
“Cait?” Vi croaked, her voice barely an octave above a whisper.
Fingers clasped around Vi’s hand. A single pupil flickered up to her. “Violet?” she responded weakly.
“Oh my God, Cait, your eye,” Vi fussed, brushing the hair out of the other girl’s face. She couldn’t stop gawping at her wound as it continued to bleed profusely.
“Vi,” she breathed, squeezing Vi’s hand again.
“We did it, Cupcake.” A sob choked the pilot’s words half-way through and she clutched Caitlyn tighter, cradling her in her arms. Tears brimmed at the corner of her eyes. “We did it, Cait, we won, Ambessa’s dead, we-“
“Vi?” Caitlyn cut off her pilot’s rambling.
“I’m here, baby, I’m here, it’s okay,” she fussed, beginning to rock the two of them backwards and forwards.
“I love you.”
Before Vi could respond, Caitlyn’s grip on her hand went slack and her body went still.