Chapter Text
28 DAYS EARLIER, UNIVERSE 070915-ANOM01
Maybe she could beg the Captain for reassignment, vi thought miserably as she approached Central. There was a chance her superior would take pity on her based on looks alone, with her sleep-deprived, baggy eyes, and a slouch that her predictable hangover wouldn’t let her shake. Vi wasn’t confident enough in that to actually try it though. Angeline already let a few things slide on her last assignment that should’ve gotten her in trouble with PROJECT at the very least, if not demoted. Hey, if enforcer regs didn’t allow her to rough up some shithead trying to smuggle illegal bots into the city then they shouldn’t have made it illegal in the first place… But that wasn’t here nor there.
What was here was Agent K in all her snooty glory, waiting in Central’s lobby just like she said she would be. Vi’s head was already pounding steadily despite the painkillers she’d dry-swallowed an hour ago, so she couldn’t say she was looking forward to hearing whatever plan K had for the day. She didn’t have much of a choice though. Stifling a huge sigh, she made her way through the lobby until she reached K who appeared to be reading something on a display embedded in her forearm guard.
K looked up when Vi stopped in front of her, squinting a bit at the blue light emanating from the woman’s chest armor.
“Hope you got some sleep, Detective. We have quite the day ahead of us.” Vi noticed that it didn’t look like K fared much better than she did on the ‘rest’ front, she looked drained, and her voice was tired, though its usual cold and condescending tone was still present. Vi raised an eyebrow at her, inviting her to continue. “I did some digging last night after we parted and found a potential lead.” She paused, eyeing Vi. “I see you already have your gauntlets, let’s walk and talk.”
Vi grunted in acknowledgement and followed K as she strode out of Central and onto the streets.
“There is a group of masked criminals I learned of that seem to be connected to the New Lanes and who are in the ‘business’ of rare tech. Their operation’s precise location is unknown, as are their exact motivations, and there was no record of an outstanding leader among them. However their actions are clearly organized, and they seem to fancy themselves as a criminal group ‘for the people.’” K explained. Though she was being forthcoming with information, Vi couldn’t help but get the impression she was avoiding specifics for some reason, but that’s not what made Vi’s insides feel like they flooded with coolant. Vi only knew one group of masked anarchists that operated out of the lower levels…
K was talking about the Firelights.
She was talking about Ekko.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
“What was it they actually did? Since last time I checked, just being connected to the New Lanes doesn’t make you a criminal.” Vi stalled as best she could. K gave her a look before rolling her eyes.
“I’m surprised you hadn’t heard of them; I ran into several of your cases in my research, Detective, and you seem to be very well acquainted with the dark side of Zaun. You’ve had quite a successful career it seems.”
“Flattery, Cupcake? I’ll be damned.” Vi said dryly.
“This group,” K continued, visibly gritting her teeth, “though nameless, has been the perpetrator of several robberies across both Piltover and Zaun. They seem to be interested only in tech, both rare and valuable. None of what they stole has ever been found either, they seem to be using it instead of selling it. They sound exactly like the type of people who would take an interest in Ezreal, if for no other reason than to get their hands on Pulsefire tech.”
“So, what, are you gonna throw a bunch of darts at a map of Zaun and check each spot for a reclusive group of tech thieves harboring a fugitive?”
K scoffed. “Of course not, all signs point to the group operating from somewhere near ‘the Heap.’ That narrows down our parameters to a specific area.”
Vi stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. “You actually want to search ‘the Heap?’ Do you have a deathwish?” Oh so she was crazy, crazy. K turned to face her.
“If that’s what it takes, yes, I’d search hell itself in order to bring Ezreal to justice, and I’ve been there. It’s not pleasant.” She added, without a shred of sarcasm. Vi did not have the energy to unpack that one. “I take it you know how to get to the location safely, Detective?”
Vi felt like her brain was trying to push her eyeballs out of her head. “Yeah. Fuck it, Agent, say I do. What’s your plan when we get down there? If you’re planning on a visual search good fucking luck, because The Gray is so damn thick that you could swim in it down there. Not to mention the shit that lives in it.” K looked surprised. “Oh, yeah, you think Zaun’s slums are bad? Wait ‘til racoons the size of children swarm you so they can use your corpse as a mushroom farm. Or you could let the scrapper gangs catch you and wake up stripped down to your skivvies and choking to death on top of a garbage pile, not sure which is worse.” K’s eyes narrowed.
“I’ve got a good idea of their approximate location from triangulating the last sightings of the group’s getaways in reports. All I need you to do is bring me there, if you can’t handle the risks I will go in alone.” She announced. Fuck’s sake!
“Like hell you will,” Vi said, starting to walk forward, “time traveler or not you’ll die if you go down there alone. Just…” Vi sighed. “Just follow me.” She heard K keep pace behind her.
“Glad to know you are capable of seeing reason.”
Vi couldn’t quite suppress the growl in her voice. “Shut up.”
She hoped her anger and acceptance sounded convincing, because Vi had no plans to actually lead Agent K anywhere near Ekko or his crew.
-x-
As Vi led her through the bustling undercity, Caitlyn couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
It was rare for Vi and her family to not have at least known about Ekko. Of course, sometimes his parents were alive and well, subsequently keeping him off the streets and from getting himself into trouble… For the most part.
If nothing else, Ekko was consistent across the multiverse, always a champion of Zaun’s people, always in innovator, and someone who sought to do good in his world. All-in-all, Caitlyn was fond of Ekko, he had a good head on his shoulders, but he was also unfortunately just as consistently naïve. As such, he was never drafted into the Remembrancers for two main reasons Caitlyn knew of.
First and foremost, Remembrancer analysts determined that he would never be able to leave a timeline to its fate if there was even a chance of making it better. His bleeding heart was too much of a risk for the potential he had in both intuition and skill.
And the second reason was that across the entirety of mapped spacetime, if an Ekko was alive in a timeline long enough, it was always a matter of when, not if he would discover the ability to reverse time.
It was never so dangerous that the Remembrancers sought him out, because the technology was rudimentary at best, and generally did not do much else than create an abundance of localized branching timelines. There were an infinite number of choices and so there were an infinite number of timelines, making that a non-issue, however when an Ekko gained that ability, he would be infinitely more unwilling to cooperate with the Remembrancers.
Caitlyn had no proper idea why but attributed that unwillingness to reason number one. She hoped he had not crossed that threshold in this timeline yet, as that would make negotiating for Ezreal much, much harder, especially if Vi didn’t know him.
Hmm. Caitlyn was still stuck on that point. It was so unlikely for those two denizens of Zaun to be in the same place in the same timeline and not be aware of one another, so unlikely in fact that Caitlyn was starting to grow suspicious.
The feeling only compounded when, after two and a half hours of walking, they were nowhere near ‘the Heap’ as far as Caitlyn could tell.
“Detective.” Caitlyn started once the two of them had emerged from a particularly loud section of Zaun’s underbelly.
“Hm?” Vi replied without looking back at her, turning into an alleyway between two sprawling black skyscrapers.
“You do know where you’re going, don’t you?” Caitlyn didn’t want to start with a targeted accusation and give away her suspicion, but she would be able to gage how truthful the woman was being depending on how she took Caitlyn’s doubt.
“Cupcake, I grew up on these streets.” Vi responded, “Have a little faith.”
Someone who didn’t know the intricacies of Vi’s speech patterns might say that she’d been annoyed, slightly irritated by Caitlyn’s question, but Caitlyn knew better. Vi was far too calm.
“Its hard to have faith in someone who has dragged me aimlessly through back-alleys for the better part of three hours. I’m beginning to think you’ve lost your way.” A careful setup.
Vi scoffed. “I haven’t lost my way, Agent, I’m taking you down the safe route, its longer. Don’t tell me you’re getting tired already.” A counter, meant to derail Caitlyn’s line of questioning. Curious.
“Hardly. Tell me, Detective, what direction are we heading in?” Her question was met with silence. Ah. “Because as far as my readings can tell me, it’s not the direction of our destination.” A bluff, but one Caitlyn already knew Vi would fall for. Vi stopped walking, turning to face her, and Caitlyn could already see the anger-veiled panic on her face.
“I’m trying to help you, Agent, are you going to take it or are you gonna keep being a whiny bitch about it?” An invitation to fight. Vi was oh so good at placing those, too bad she saw right through it.
“How about you be honest with me.” She fired back. The look on Vi’s face got darker.
“You calling me a liar?” Vi took a step toward her, fists clenching and unclenching. Vi was scared.
“I read your case reports, Detective. I know you have a soft spot for Zaun, and I think I’ve already proven that I can tell when someone is hiding something.” That’s right… Caitlyn remembered something Sevika said the day before; ‘the kid took Benzo to his monthly treatment.’ It all started to come together.
“Look, I’ve had enough of your fucking s—”
Before Vi could finish her retort, the two of them suddenly had another problem, one with a glowing blue visor and a deadly-looking plasma arrow pointed directly at Caitlyn.
The interloper had dropped down in front of them so suddenly that it took a beat for either of them to react, Caitlyn drawing her rifle, and Vi activating her gauntlets.
The stranger spoke.
“I come with a warning.” Her voice was laden with a digital buzz, as though she was speaking through a holoscreen. “Stop searching for the rogue time traveler. The technology he possesses must not fall into the wrong hands. G/NETIC will ensure he is unharmed and delivered to Central’s holding cells, but the technology he carries belongs to us.”
“You—” Caitlyn was cut off.
“Do not try to stop us. We know your organization works for the PROJECT Corporation, which makes us enemies. I won’t kill you this time, but if we see each other again know you won’t be met with neutrality. Same goes for you, Hunter.”
Vi grunted, her own visor now down over her eyes, but Caitlyn could practically see the rage behind it.
“Know we are watching. Death to Corporations.” With that, the G/NETIC archer fired the arrow at her own feet, causing an explosion of coolant that created a noxious freezing cloud as Vi launched her fist forward. It hit only the air where the stranger had been, Vi roaring in frustration before coughing along with Caitlyn who had also unfortunately inhaled the sweet-smelling icy mist.
One the air had cleared and the two of them caught their breath, there was a prolonged moment of stillness. Vi seemed to be fighting with herself internally, one gauntlet messing up her hair while the other rested on her hip. Caitlyn decided to break the silence.
“Well… That certainly complicates things.”
“Yeah.” Vi absently agreed. Another long awkward pause elapsed before anything else was said. Then, suddenly, “You hungry, Agent?” Vi offered. Another peace offering sloppily tossed her way. That could be dangerous, Caitlyn reckoned, she’d been doing alright at keeping Vi at arm’s length until this point, it would be a shame to fuck that up now… Nevertheless, she gave in, feigning a measure of annoyance with a sigh.
“No, but it would be foolish not to take a moment to regroup.”
“That’s the spirit.” Vi joked halfheartedly. “C’mon, I know a place.” She pressed a button on the side of her headpiece, raising her visor, before walking past Caitlyn in the direction they’d come. Caitlyn stowed her rifle and followed.
Vi ended up taking her to a run-down old dive, elements of old world Zaunite architecture peeking through the sleeker, modern black façade. As they sat in a booth, weapons at the ready beside them, Vi gobbled down her lunch. Caitlyn sipped on some kind of energy punch; no doubt full of chemicals her body didn’t need. No matter what timeline she was in, Vi’s manners always seemed to disappear when food was involved. Caitlyn tried not to find it so endearing as she stirred her drink with its metal straw, wishing a bit of alcohol would materialize in the unnatural pink liquid, it would certainly make their impending conversation more bearable. When Vi pushed her now empty bowl to the side, wiping her mouth on the bottom hem of her shirt, Caitlyn braced herself with a sigh. She couldn’t stall any longer.
“My mission has become even more time-sensitive.” She began. “It goes without saying, but Pulsefire technology is dangerous in untrained hands. That’s why I’ve been chasing Ezreal in the first place. I don’t care what faction in this timeline desires it, good intentions or no, I cannot let it be used outside of my organization.” She sighed again and eyed Vi’s face for any sign of hostility, seeing only a focused knitted brow, she continued. “It’s clear you want to protect those you care about, Detective, so do I, and capturing Ezreal is the only way I can do that. I don’t care about your timeline’s petty criminals, I’m not here to help solve PROJECT’s problems—at least not this time—so whoever it is you’re protecting will be safe from harm as long as they’re willing to cooperate.”
Vi looked down at the table for a while before glancing back up at her, eyes hard and scrutinizing.
“If you can promise me that PROJECT and the Enforcers won’t find out about where you wanna go, and who you wanna talk to, then I’ll take you there. Deal?” Vi laid it out plainly.
“You have my word.”
“Whose word do I have, exactly, Agent..?” What she was asking for was obvious, and had Caitlyn actually felt a single shred of confidence in her resolve on this mission, the question would’ve already been answered when they met. But the truth of the matter was that she was already treading water, already on the verge of slipping under the waves of her own doubts. What unnerved her most, to her utter dismay, was that she truly didn’t know what she’d do if she heard Vi say her name.
Caitlyn let out a strained sigh, knowing she’d hesitated too long, but held her hand out to Vi anyway, her elbow resting on the table near the empty bowl.
“Caitlyn.” She said simply with a practiced straight face. It felt like her own atoms were at odds with each other, her heart anxiously thumping against her chest plate. Vi cracked a brief sideways smile and took Caitlyn’s hand, giving it a single firm shake. Her artificial, jet-black fingers were somewhat cold, but the material that coated them was adequately skin-like. She suppressed a shiver.
“Alright then,” Vi dropped her hand and used the table to support her as she stood, leaning forward a little, “hope you like the taste of filtered air, ‘cause we’re gonna need a good pair of gas masks where we’re headed.”
-x-
Vi was coping with the fact that she might be the most gullible motherfucker on the planet as she secured her newly-purchased gas mask to her face, ensuring its seal. Did she not just have a booze-fueled breakdown about trusting this time traveler the previous night? What the hell was she doing?
She tried to beat down those thoughts as they bubbled up, uninvited.
Caitlyn had extended a literal hand to her. That had to mean something, right? It felt like it did. It felt like the woman had given up something she wasn’t planning to, giving Vi a glimpse at something she was never meant to see. All that about her name, huh?
What a fucking weirdo.
Still, whether Vi thought it arbitrary or not, it was obviously something the time traveler safeguarded, and something she now trusted Vi to possess. It was a trade. Trust for trust. Did Vi think it was all that fair? Someone’s name for the whereabouts of someone Vi cared about, potentially putting them in harm’s way?
Probably fucking not.
But Caitlyn did give her word, whatever that was worth, and Vi figured she would find out its worth soon enough.
Vi took a long, grounding breath through the filter of the gas mask, chem-cartridge whirring as she inhaled. The scent of it burned her nose, pricking her nerve endings like frost despite the muggy heat trapped in the respirator. She watched her companion secure her own mask, its slightly convex, plexiglass face covering Caitlyn’s entirely. She blinked in apparent surprise as the inside rim lit up, a dull blue glow signifying the mask was successfully sealed. Vi snorted softly, she’d never put on a gas mask before? Must be nice. With her visor lowered, Vi only had to wear a half-mask, she was lucky her visor was air-tight, losing its functionality in ‘the Heap’ would be hell.
“You ready?” Vi asked, flexing her hands in her gauntlets.
“Quite.” Caitlyn looked determined, a confident air about her now, polar opposite of Vi’s read on her in the bar. She had the feeling it was a front, but they were about to walk into the worst place Vi knew of inside the walls of the city, so she didn’t blame her.
The safest entrance to ‘the Heap’ that Vi knew, and subsequently the closest to the Firelights’ hideout, was through the sewers. At a point in time that felt like ancient history, the sewers were part of an inter-connected network of tunnels that spread out all over Piltover and Zaun, but both cities grew way too large, their infrastructure needs far exceeding the limits of the old tunnels. Once, it was said that giant fans kept the Gray from flooding the fissures, but now the sewers were a crumbling shadow of something once-great, forgotten and desolate. The floor that met their boots was slimy, the rainbow-shine of oil-polluted water catching on whatever light made it through the Gray’s haze as the two of them splashed through the darkness.
Vi’s visor made light a non-issue, but the Gray made its night-vision sensors act up. Luckily for Caitlyn, her rifle had a built-in light, but Vi couldn’t help imagining the time traveler bumbling through the dark behind her, cursing in that accent of hers, she caught herself before she laughed at the image. At least she had one fun thought before they found themselves in the absolute shithole they were headed to.
The sounds were usually the first things Vi noticed when she found herself getting closer to ‘the Heap,’ skittering, groans, both animalistic and metal, the occasional screech of some poor mutated thing, probably getting eaten or crushed. Super great ambiance, didn’t unnerve her at all… At least she was used to it. When she looked back to see how Caitlyn was doing she wasn’t surprised to see the woman’s eyes wide, clearly on edge.
“We’re almost out.” Vi hoped that was a comforting thought, but it was a fifty-fifty shot as far as she was concerned. The time traveler simply nodded, continuing to scan the tunnel with her rifle. The chems burned as Vi inhaled in preparation for a sigh.
Finally, after a few more agonizing moments, they were out of the claustrophobic sewer tunnels, unfortunately they were now in ‘the Heap,’ the ground under their feet changing from stone to the crunch of garbage that went miles deep. The Gray’s overwhelming presence was even more obvious now that they were out in the open, the sky was clearly above them, some light still making it through the Gray’s hazy strata, but Vi had to change her visor’s visuals to heat-mapping because she stopped being able to see her gauntlets in front of her face about five minutes ago.
“Stay close.” She said, catching sight of Caitlyn’s heat signature a few feet from her.
“Copy.” She said, quickening her pace in order to stay in visual range. Vi certainly did not envy the woman. She’d make sure to go slow, as much as Vi couldn’t say she was fond of Caitlyn just yet, it would be a shame to lose the time traveler to the horrors of ‘the Heap.’ Speaking of the horrors, as she heard a few garbled voices in the distance, she was kinda glad her companion had trashed her Enforcer jacket, as wearing it down here would be like asking someone to kill you. She’d thrown on a half-vest over yesterday’s tank top and was starting to regret not putting on some armor over that.
It was too late to worry about that now. Hopefully they would be out of danger in no time.
She more-or-less remembered the landmarks too look for in order to find the hidden entrance to the Firelight hideout, giant scarab mech leg sticking straight up out of the trash, the sound of running water would lead to an old mine runoff pipe embedded right in the fissure wall. Then all Vi would have to do is move a piece of scrap hiding the door. Trouble was, it had been a couple years since she had actually been there. Hadn’t visited since she’d been promoted, too risky. Ekko might not be too thrilled at her showing up without going through Scar… Actually Scar might be pissed that she didn’t go through him first, but fuck it, they could yell at her all they want when she got there.
After a few more tense minutes, Vi picked up the silhouette of the mech leg on her visor. She let out a held breath, scanning her surroundings as the two of them approached the giant metal limb. Scarab mechs were a sight to behold when they were in use. When Vi fought in the tail end of the Corporate Wars she was lucky enough to see one of them in action, a behemoth of acid-spitting, bot-stomping terror. Her sister loved those things, always wanted to ride in one of them.
She swallowed a cold lump in her throat and distracted herself by listening for the sound of water. Instead, she heard Caitlyn impatiently huff, muffled through her mask.
“We’ve stopped.” She stated. Vi rolled her eyes.
“Very perceptive.” She replied sarcastically.
“Why?”
“The people you’re looking for are a secretive bunch, there’s a trick to finding where they’re at, just give me a second.”
“What exactly is it you’re looking for?”
“A quiet second.” Vi could almost hear Caitlyn struggle not to talk back, it was unfortunately sort of cute. What was decidedly not cute was the sound that Vi realized was getting closer to them with every passing second. It was wet, but not the flowing water she was looking for, it sounded thick, like the slime that coated the floor of the sewers. “Oh shit.” She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
There was a property of ‘the Heap’ that was considered an unconfirmed rumor, mostly because it sounded fake, but also because there were almost no witnesses of it. It showed up in reports sometimes; the unlucky enforcer team that came back with only one traumatized survivor, rambling about there being something that brings inanimate shit to life down there. The thing was, a lot of enforcers noticed there was a consistent through-line between all the accounts, as insane as they all sounded. All the poor fucks that made it out of ‘the Heap’ saw the same damn thing.
Up until now, Vi had been dubious of the whole thing.
That was until the slime stuck to her boots started to move on its own, oozing down off of them and across the shards of scrap below them.
“Detective…” Caitlyn’s voice was shaky.
“Run.” Vi felt herself go pale as she watched sewer slime collect and form into a shape that was too human-like, and way too fucking big. “RUN.” Vi grabbed Caitlyn’s arm with her gauntlet and guessed the direction the Firelight hideout was in, taking off at a full sprint. She hoped to gods she was right.
Running in the heap was as loud as it was difficult, scrap and trash as fine as sand shifted underfoot, and shards as sharp as blades poked out threateningly, whatever material was sent flying clanged and crashed against itself. If you were at the point of running, there was no chance you were making it out stealthily and whatever was chasing them seemed to have ears.
The sound of a giant tube of hair gel being squeezed to shit was not what sound Vi thought would accompany her death, but it sure seemed like that’s how it was going.
Not seeming to understand how utterly fucked they were, Caitlyn managed to slip out of her grip while she was unfocused, and Vi skidded to a stop as a pulse of blue light exited the time traveler’s rifle. Vi was momentarily shocked, the air pressure of the blast dissipating some of the Gray, letting Vi get a momentarily crystal clear view of the sentient slime as it paused, a big blackened, melty crater in its torso.
Unfortunately the moment was short-lived, as the creature’s sickening green body reformed, flesh-like ooze knitting itself back together.
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!” Vi blurted in disbelief. This shit was like a horror tape, and not even a good one. Caitlyn readied another shot, but the thing was too damn fast, and before she could fire, they had to run again. Vi didn’t want to discover the difference between inanimate and animate sewer slime.
Vi’s throat burned with every chem-filtered breath, feeling like she was fighting the scrap underneath her feet, stumbling over the uneven dunes of junk. She was lucky she had metal limbs, as scrabbling up piles of sharp garbage would be a pain in the ass otherwise. Oh. She suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for Caitlyn, managing a glance over at her as they ran, and her visor let her know that the agent was leaving traces of blood behind her. Fuck…
When Vi turned her head forward there was just enough time for her to grab Caitlyn and stop them both from careening head-long into a huge mech carcass. The two of them still stumbled into it, Vi’s mechanical shoulder complaining as it banged into the metal hull, and Caitlyn grunting at the impact. They quickly turned to face their pursuer, Vi coming to the sour realization that she was probably going to have to fight her way out of this one. At least she had some backup. Her gauntlets flickered orange as she activated them, taking a few steps toward the giant green sludge monster that was definitely about to rock her shit.
Except, against all odds, that didn’t happen.
In fact, as Vi stared down her opponent, something else threw the first punch.
It was big, it was metal, and it nearly stepped on her as it emerged from behind the mech carcass she’d just plowed into. As she staggered out of the way she watched the enormous bot retract an extendable fist which had just obliterated the slime creature’s face. Once again, the force and speed of the blow had disturbed the Gray enough for Vi to see the thing clearly, and now she could see the bot better too.
It was large, rotund, and had a prominent blue-green power core in the center of its chest. That was about all Vi had time to notice about it before she turned, grabbed Caitlyn again, and dragged her the fuck out of there.
The two of them were eventually comfortably far enough away that they could stop running, taking a moment to recover, Vi hunched over, bracing her gauntlets on her knees as she caught her breath. When she looked up, Caitlyn was doing just about the same, leaning her full weight on her rifle. The time traveler didn’t look so good, ‘worse-for-wear’ would be putting it lightly. Her suit was torn in several places, mostly around the knees, and Vi could see freely bleeding cuts beneath the fabric. Shit. Those needed treating. She tried to remember if she had any useful chems in her belt pouches when she heard something over the din of ‘the Heap.’
Vi didn’t consider herself lucky, quite the opposite in fact, she had shit luck most of her life, but today it was like the universe felt bad for her. She could hear running water.
“Hey, you alright?” She asked, knowing the question was pretty pointless.
“I’ll survive, Detective.” Caitlyn answered, still out of breath.
“Good, now that we’re not being chased by the angry spirit of Zaun’s cesspits, I have good news.”
“Yeah?” Caitlyn looked skeptical.
“You’ll get to meet a whole bunch of petty criminals real soon.” Vi managed a sly smile, and she was convinced it was the stress and exhaustion that made Caitlyn let out a clipped, breathy laugh.
“Lead the way.”
Once Vi found the fissure wall it was easy to see the hidden entrance if you knew what to look for. A six foot tall metal carapace with Firelight markings etched onto it was not exactly subtle, but Vi guessed if you made it to this point, the Firelights wanted you there. She led Caitlyn up to it and began pushing it aside, revealing a person-sized crack in the fissure wall.
“After you, Agent.” Vi stood to the side, allowing Caitlyn to examine the crevice apprehensively before squeezing her way in. Vi followed suit and grabbed the metal cover, pulling it closed behind them.