Chapter Text
CHAPTER: Way of the Gun
It was around midday that Councilor Cassandra Kiramman found herself taking a break from the small mountain of paperwork in her study. Walking the halls of her luxurious urban palace, she stopped as she came to the portrait painted just last winter of her precious daughter Caitlyn kneeling down, holding a trophy in one hand and an upright rifle braced against the ground in the other.
Caitlyn had admired the way of the gun since she had first been brought to the seasonal shooting competition by her mother. Though Caitlyn was only fourteen at the time, she remembered the thrill she felt as she watched Sheriff Grayson breeze through the snow-packed woods, targets perfectly ruined in her wake.
After waiting for her mother to attend that weekly council meeting, Caitlyn asked her papa for a rifle. He said that her mother got the final word, but he’d advocate for Caitlyn’s wish. He had a wide smile on his face; his daughter’s nebulous attentions had finally been drawn to a singular pursuit for the first time he could remember.
Initially taken aback at the wish of her young daughter, Councilwoman Cassandra Kiramman quickly saw the political advantages of having her daughter train up for the competitions. Caitlyn was now old enough to have a hobby that would reflect well on the family after all. Cassandra reasoned that there were certainly less prestigious paths. Caitlyn could’ve endeavored to become an artist, actor, writer, or something similarly gauche.
To the surprise of not just the Kiramman parents, Caitlyn won the second competition she entered into at the age of thirteen. Cassandra went for a quick word with the Sheriff to confirm beyond any doubt that her daughter was indeed so skilled. Sheriff Grayson looked at her with the penetrating gaze she could stake her job on while informing the Councilwoman that young Caitlyn had basically accused the Sheriff of being bribed.
“I’d never!” Cassandra replied honestly.
Grayson had shrugged and said in that calming way she was known for, “I thought it was quite an astute accusation from the girl. Tell me honestly, do you believe truly believe that the rest of the council other than perhaps Heimerdinger and Medarda wouldn’t stoop so low?”
“You’re not wrong,” Cassandra admitted like it physically pained her.
“You’re girl’s wit is as sharp as her aim. She was right in a sense, I let her win this time, barely. Next year? She’d outshoot me honestly by a couple seconds. In Caitlyn is quite a talented sharpshooter on your hands there, councilwoman.”
“I’m very proud of her,” Cassandra said with total honesty.
“Perhaps you should let her know that more overtly. Such a talented girl shouldn’t believe herself so deeply as to assume her greatest accomplishment is sapped hollow by you.”
“Are you accusing me of something, Sheriff?” Cassandra replied glacially.
“I know you wouldn’t sabotage her progress like that. You know you wouldn’t either. But Caitlyn badly misjudged you is all. I think it would behoove you to ask yourself why that is.” Grayson said as she drained the rest of her champagne before making her way away from the balcony they’d been standing on. “Good talk, Councilor.”
Cassandra shook her head of the conversation she’d had with Grayson not so long ago about Caitlyn. The way Caitlyn had jumped to the conclusion her rivals had been paid off by her own mother irked Cassandra as badly as the kowtowing of the inane cowards she shared the council with. Cassandra had made it a point after that shooting competition to make time for them to spend together alone more often.
A flutter of wings distracted Cassandra from her thoughts as a crow flew by the window casting sunshine on her skin. She sighed as she glanced at the nearby clock over the threshold to the cavernous foyer. Cassandra was about to turn on her heel when the front doors burst open in a flurry of voices.
A group of teenagers , some of whom were practically doused in blood, burst into the foyer. And at the front of them looking very frantic was her daughter who immediately began ordering the boys and smallest girl of the group to where medical supplies could be found.
7 Minutes Earlier
“Go on, Cupcake. Do it.” Jinx stepped forward into the gun as the muzzle sat pressed flush against the skin over her heart. She stepped forward again, effectively separating herself and Caitlyn from the rest of the group who looked in in quiet horror. Caitlyn stepped backwards as the blue-haired monster who haunted her dreams looked up at her and begged for death.
There was a short thunderous crack and the overwhelming smell of iron as both Powder and Young Caitlyn were doused in blood. Their screams filled the alleyway as chaos erupted.
To her credit, Caitlyn Kiramman, former enforcer and sharpshooter extraordinaire didn’t start screaming for half a second as her elbow and forearm were blown apart by the enforcer who saw her pointing a pistol at a teenager; and fired at her from down the alleyway. The Enforcer garb Caitlyn had been wearing was partially hidden by the alignment of shadows across the whole alley.
Jinx reacted first, snatching the pistol fallen from Caitlyn’s grip from the air and firing once back at the enforcer. Jinx’s aim was just off from a killing shot, but the gout of blood spurting from the lone enforcer onto the wall as he fell over suggested a critical hit all the same.
Jinx sprinted towards the shooter as Vi held Caitlyn in her arms. She kicked the rifle away from him, and looked down into familiar eyes. “Look what you’ve gone and done,” she said as she stared down at the bleeding man. It was Marcus, who had likely been walking back to Jayce’s place to regroup with Sheriff Grayson.
Jinx crouched down and grasped his chin. “You know, I thought she was actually gonna do it. Kill me. But thanks to your dumb ass, I’ll never know. I don’t think you’re gonna make it.”
Looking over him, she saw that she had clipped his carotid artery. “Last words?”
His eyes were darting all around in delirium. He didn’t know what was going on anymore between the pain of a third of his neck gone and the blood loss, “Tell Ren…daddy loves…” Marcus’ breath gave out before he finished the sentence.
Jinx’s involuntary inhale took her by surprise. Ice water trickled down her back as she connected the dots. “Fuck.”
“Jinx! Get back here and help me!” Vi yelled from where she was propping up a fading Caitlyn. Jinx rose from her squat over the dead man who would now never collaborate with Silco. Silco,
“I’ve got you,” Violet the younger replied as she shook herself from the grips of shock. “She’s gonna die if we don’t fix this in the next ten minutes.”
“Tourniquet.” Caitlyn’s young doppelgänger said quietly. “I, she needs one now. Or she’ll have bled out before we can get medical help.”
“And where is that?” Vi asked as she ripped a long strip off of Caitlyn’s Enforcer uniform. She quickly tied the tourniquet just above the elbow, helping to stem the gouts of blood spurting from the ruin of muscle and bone a couple inches down the arm.
Caitlyn spoke quickly, and with a noticeable tremble, “My place. The nearest h-hospital is more than a twenty-minute walk. But my place is close by. There’s supplies to keep her alive there. Ten minutes, maybe. But we need to go now.”
Jinx appeared between them and pulled Caitlyn’s uncrippled arm over her shoulder, taking most of her weight off the ground, and said, “Cupcake, you don’t look so good. Well, let’s fucking go already, sheesh, what’re you waiting for?”
As they walked out of the alley, Powder, who hadn’t said a word since the violence, stooped down to nick Marcus’ pocket watch.