Chapter Text
You trip over something hidden in the soft powder, throwing your hands out to catch yourself before hitting the ground. A frustrated cry leaves your lips as your wrist cracks, sending a shooting ache up your arm.
“Well, well. Look who's back.”
You snap your head to stare at Zephyr. He isn't surrounded with his gang of delinquents, unusual for him.
He snickers at the sight of your tear-ridden face and squats down to see you better. “I saw your little meltdown back there,” he chides, showing all of his teeth with a grin. “What's wrong, hm? The Topside traitor isn't treating you very well, like you thought?”
You sneer at him, hoping you could scare him off and he would leave you alone. He simply threw his head back, laughing wickedly. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out an oversized vial, the purple liquid sloshing inside.
“Want some?” He teases, popping off the cap and swirling a finger inside the glittering substance. You feel frozen, your addiction keeping you rooted in place. You wish you could move your fucking legs, but they feel heavier than ever as you come down. “You'd just have to do something for me first.”
“Where did you get that?” You breathe. Sevika had been trying for the better half of the year to mitigate shimmer sales, and it wasn't as readily available as before. It was reserved for those still needing to be weaned off, but Sevika wasn't innocent; she still used shimmer to power her arm. Seeing a lowlife like Zephyr with that much shimmer sent a feeling of dread through you.
“An old friend,” he mused. “You know, Sevika is just one woman. Terrifying, but just one woman.”
The Chem-Barons. One must still be hustling shimmer across Zaun. Your eyes narrow, taking a better look at the vial. There is something... off.
“That… that isn’t shimmer. What is that?” Zephyr only tilts his head at you, raising an eyebrow. You found yourself reaching for the vial. Real shimmer had a sickly sweet scent, chemical but tempting. This smelled wrong—bitter and acrid, like burnt metal and sulfur. It made your throat burn before you even touched it. “That’s not real.”
“Real enough for you.” He smirks, tapping the glass, and you notice the peeling skin along his knuckles, the way his fingers look scabbed over, raw in places. His nails are cracked, yellowed at the edges.
You drag your gaze upward. The tip of his nose is scarred and red, the skin uneven like it had been burned through.
“What the hell happened to you?” you mutter.
He just laughs. “Price of getting high these days.” His eyes darken as he lilts his head. “Come on, baby. You know the deal.”
You shot to your feet. Your wrist throbs as you hold it close, feeling too vulnerable to be in this situation again.
Zephyr bolts towards you and you let out an ear-shattering scream, but not before he clamps a mechanical hand over your mouth to silence you. “One more time.” It wasn't a question. “You can do this for me one more time.”
Your knee came to slam into his groin, remembering the self-defense lessons Sevika had drilled into you. You use your good hand to strike his throat, a choked sound escaping him. The fleeting moment of satisfaction left as soon as it came. Zephyr snarls and knocks your legs out from under you.
“Zephyr, stop!” you beg, trying to use your legs to kick him away. His finger smears shimmer across your lips, silencing you. It burns and blisters your lips. He forces the finger past your lips, grinding the drug into your teeth before you relent. He slips a slim finger down your throat and you choke, the burning substance making its way down your throat.
He was groping at you as your legs fell limp to the ground. Oh, fuck.
His green eyes are filled with malice and he menaces above you. In a swift motion, he cuts through Sevika's jacket, giving way to the biting cold wind. You can't move. The shimmer you knew ignited a fire in your veins. This numbed all your senses, but you could still feel his cold, metal hand grip your waist.
A piercing shriek filled the alleyway and you felt lighter. You manage to lift your head to look. Zephyr is bleeding, clutching a hole where his real arm used to meet his mech hand. Sevika is moving silently, Zephyr's momentary screams reverberating through the alley, ending when she cuts his throat.
You focus on moving your legs, managing to push yourself behind a barrel and curl between it and the wall. Making yourself as small as possible, stupidly hoping that she wouldn't see you.
You fall to the ground as the barrel is ripped from the ground, cracking into a thousand pieces as she throws it against the wall.
You feel a warm substance leak down your face, blood spurting from your nose. The liquid freezes against your skin and you shake violently. What was in this stuff?
Your vision is going. Fast.
Blood chokes your throat, bubbling, and your body jerks like it’s trying to save itself, but it’s too late. The burn is inside you, eating through your veins, through your lungs, pools of acid settling in your stomach.
Sevika is there. Sevika is always there.
But she isn’t yelling. She isn’t grabbing you rough like she usually does, isn’t snapping at you to get up, get your shit together.
She’s still. Wide eyes. Lips parted. Chest rising too fast.
You barely see it before the dark edges of your vision swallows her whole. But you hear her.
Not cursing. Not calling your name.
Chanting.
Soft. Desperate. In a language you almost remember, from a life before this one.
The old words of the undercity, the ones that are dying, just like you.
Her voice is shaking.
You think— Sevika is begging.
Then everything goes black.