Chapter Text
Through the entire night the most persistent thought was ‘how did it come to this?’
You had been working at The Last Drop for almost two years before everything seemed to collapse in on itself. Your official title of course is bartender but over the years but you’d like to think you’d become more than that. The kids were fond of you and though you weren’t a part of the family you were a friend to the kids and and you’d thought possibly more to Vander. Thinking back to the peaceful afternoons with you and Vi helping Powder work on her drawings while Claggor and Mylo were bickering over god knows what. All the while Vander smiled over you and the kids.
Those cherished nights before the bar opened with the girls dancing to some song on the jukebox. What I thought could be lingering glances that Vander gave you as he spun you around behind the bar.
That all seems so far away now.
He had barely even looked at you as he ran out the door. Frantic as you had ever seen him.
But when you called out after him he just avoided your eyes and left you with three words,
‘Look after them’
Twenty minutes later you finally got Mylo and Claggor to spill what had happened. You knew they’d all been keeping something from you for the past days but never imagined that Powder was the one to cause the explosion up in Piltover.
Another twenty minutes and Vi burst through the doors in tears and you got the final part of the story.
Vanders plans to give himself over to the enforcers.
The mysterious man who came out of nowhere and
And Benzo…
You can’t think about that right now
You of course tried to stop Vi and the others as they headed out
Vi just looked you dead and the eyes and told you what you already knew.
Vander would never leave any of us.
You asked to come of course but you all knew why you couldn’t. You were a decent fighter and could get out of scraps but Vi was the team’s leader.
And more importantly someone needed to take care of Powder.
After that all you could do was pull her into a hug and make her promise to be careful, she made you promise to take care of Powder until she got back.
With that the three kids walked out
Ten minutes after that you catch Powder trying to sneak out to join the others.
It took a while but you had managed to get her to calm down and stop fighting your grasp. Even then she just kept crying out “they left me” over and over.
You were doing your best to convince her otherwise when the enforcers burst the door to the last drop off its hinges
That's where we are now. Staring down three enforcers who much to your horror- whose eyes were fixed at Powder.
“The one with the blue hair, thats the one from the scene of the explosion”
“Powder get downstairs now” you say as calmly as you can.
“But I-“
“NOW,” you shout, grabbing a bottle from under the counter and smashing it on the bar before hopping the bar.
You slashed the first’s leg, he went down to the ground screaming. You grit your teeth and cut his throat. You take no pleasure in killing, even enforcers. But there’s two more and you know that the others won’t be so simple.
The second approaches you, baton out and swings at your ribs.
The blow knocks the air right out of you and you double over.
You swing upward and land a punch on his face. The glass covering his eyes shatters as he screams.
You turn to where the third had been standing to see him gone.
A pit forms in your stomach as you hear Powder scream your name.
They’re standing at the entrance of the basement as he pulled her through the threshold. Once he spots you he grabs Powders hair and makes for the exit.
You sprint outside and see him dragging her through the street as she thrashed and tried to hit his arms and legs.
“Hey!” You scream “Let her go”
Before you even understand what you’re doing you find that you've tackled the enforcer to the ground and all three of you tumble to the ground. As you grab Powder the enforcer growls and throws a punch right to the side of my head. Your vision starts to swim as Powder clings to my chest sobbing. You hold her to your chest and try to stand but the throbbing in your head is rearing up and you nearly collapse and you're forced to crawl. With Powder clinging to my chest I desperately try to push myself back with my legs. Arms clinging to Powder as your vision starts to go dark.
The enforcer stands up and starts laughing at the two of you.
And once again you think to yourself once again ‘how did it come to this’ as slowly raises his gun and points it at right at Powder.
You only notice now that you’re also crying.
You turn your back to him to try to protect her desperately.
And you hear the gunshot.
You brace yourself for whatever awaits you on the other side and pray to whatever will be there that Powder makes it out of this.
You don't stop praying until you hear the enforcer hit the ground behind you.
Relief floods your system until you hear a voice behind you. Deep and serious.
“Well. It looks as though our dear Vander left a few things behind when he fled”
You summon the rest of your strength to turn yourself to your savior.
He stands tall above the both of you. A smirk on his face as he examines you both. Half of his face covered in shadows. Smirking at you both as he begins to kneel to your level.
If you were in another situation you may have stopped to notice his scar, or to wonder about the way his hand was pressed behind his back, or the people standing behind him.
But in this moment all you could do was ask
“Fled?”
“Grabbed his children and ran. Left the two of you to the wolves it seems”
Powder sobbed again against you before raising her head to look up at the man in front of you.
None of this made sense, Vander wouldn’t leave the two of you to be killed and you knew for a fact that Vi would never leave Powder behind.
But as you scanned the streets around you, void of the
faces of your friend and his children.
I don’t even know this man. Why would he lie to me?
More importantly if this man had been one moment later you would be dead, two moments and Powder would have been taken.
You thought of the way Vi had looked at you as she told you to take care of Powder.
“Poor girls. Left behind. Who’s going to look after you now?”
As much as you loved Vander and trusted him, it was hard to believe they were coming back as you sat cold and bloody on the road.
Almost as hard to believe as Powder removing herself from your grasp and throwing herself at the man in front of you.
His expression is just beginning to soften as the darkness finally overtakes you.