Vi cursed through her teeth.
Blood ran down the torn side of her suit, bright against the metal. Jinx could see it. She could see every drop, every shake in Vi's arms, every twitch in the creature's bladed limbs.
Move.
Her body listened this time.
Jinx grabbed the shock baton again, stretched her arm around Vi's side, and jammed the charged end into the Voidborn's ribs.
The weapon snapped.
Electricity cracked across the creature's shell. It shrieked and jerked sideways, just enough for Vi to tear herself partly free. Vi did not waste the opening. She drove her helmet forward and smashed a brutal headbutt into the Voidborn's face.
The creature reeled.
Vi followed with both gauntlets.
One punch into the throat. Another into the chest. A third uppercut under the jaw that lifted the thing backward. Vi shoved forward with a roar and carried the Voidborn away from Jinx.
"Go!" Vi shouted.
Jinx stared at her.
"Go!"
Vi charged the creature again before it could recover.
Jinx turned and ran.
The platform had a light pull to it, not enough to feel normal, but enough that her boots struck something solid with every step. Her knees threatened to fold and her breath still came too fast.
Then she stopped.
Up close, it was worse.
The five spines had gone into Ahri's back in a rough X pattern. They had punched all the way through. Two points jutted out near her collarbones. Two more pushed through her lower ribs. The last one had emerged near the center of her chest, darker with blood than the others.
Blood covered her front, her arms, her tails, Logan's torn clothes. It ran from her mouth in a thin line and dripped onto his hair. Her face had gone pale under the red. Her breathing was shallow, each inhale catching around the things inside her body.
But she still had Logan in her arms.
She had not loosened her grip.
Jinx dropped beside them. "What do I do?"
Ahri's eyes moved toward her slowly.
"Do I pull them out?" Jinx asked. "Do I not pull them out? Tell me. Say something."
Ahri tried to breathe. Blood bubbled at the corner of her mouth.
Jinx looked at the spines, then at Logan, then back at Ahri. "You're some kind of spirit goddess thing, right? Can you fix this? Can you take something from me?"
Ahri's eyes did not change.
Jinx leaned closer, frantic again. "Life. Soul. Whatever. You eat that stuff, don't you? Take mine. Use mine."
Ahri's fingers tightened against Logan's shoulder.
"I need…" Ahri swallowed, and fresh blood slipped down her chin. "The presence. The spirit."
"The meep?"
Ahri gave the smallest nod. "For Logan."
Jinx stared at her.
Ahri's back had five spines in it. Her chest had five points coming through it. She was bleeding so badly Jinx did not understand how she was still conscious. And still, the only thing she asked for was the thing that might save Logan.
Something inside Jinx's head went quiet.
The noise changed shape.
Logan twitched in Ahri's arms.
At first it was small. A jerk in his remaining hand. A tremor through his jaw. Then his whole body convulsed, weak but sharp enough that Ahri had to bend over him to keep him from twisting against the wounds in his body.
"No," Ahri breathed. "Logan. Listen to me."
His lips moved.
Jinx leaned in before she could stop herself.
"Jinx," Logan murmured.
Her heart stopped.
Then his face twisted.
"Kill... her," he whispered. "Isha. Have to. Before they…"
Jinx went cold.
Ahri took his face between shaking hands. "No. That is not real."
Logan made a broken sound.
"Logan, listen to me." Ahri's voice was barely there, but it did not break. "Jinx is here. She came for you. She is beside you."
Jinx could not breathe.
Ahri looked at her. "It is the Void. A corrupt dream. It uses what hurts him."
Jinx swallowed hard. Her eyes burned, but nothing came out.
Logan's mouth moved again, but Ahri bent closer and whispered to him until the words turned into a low, pained murmur.
Then Ahri looked back at Jinx.
"Do not worry about me," she said.
Jinx almost laughed because that was insane. Ahri was full of spines. She was bleeding onto Logan. She looked one bad breath away from falling over forever.
Ahri still managed to smile.
A small one, tired.
Almost apologetic.
"Help the other girl."
Jinx turned.
Vi was still fighting.
The Voidborn had forced her back again. Vi's attacks had slowed. She still hit like a hammer, but her injured leg dragged when she moved, and one arm did not rise as quickly as the other. The creature knew it. It kept pressing, aiming for the weak side, trying to drive her back toward the platform's center.
Jinx looked at Logan once more.
Then at Ahri.
The shaking in her hands stopped.
"I'm gonna kill that thing," Jinx said. "Then I'm coming back."
Ahri did not answer.
Jinx stood.
The suit had not started with storage in mind.
Jinx had designed it with a few personal improvements first. A little extra shape at the chest. A little extra at the rear. Enough to stand on the same battlefield as the fox woman without feeling like the universe had handed Ahri all the unfair advantages.
Then, halfway through building it, Jinx had realized something useful.
Extra space was extra space.
So she filled it.
Her fingers found the release near the chest plating. A small panel opened, and she pulled out a weapon.
Mini-Mimi was ugly, compact, and heavier than it looked. A short-barreled cannon, too small to be the real thing and too dangerous to be called a backup pistol. The original Mimi was supposed to be a destroyer cannon, a monster that could fire a magical beam wide enough to swallow a street. Mini-Mimi could not do that.
But it worked on the same idea.
Void-contaminated ore from beneath Zaun's ruins. Metal that could endure heat that should have melted clean through steel. A chamber built to hold an unstable burst long enough to point it at someone else.
Jinx reached behind her suit and pulled a Hextech gemstone from the rear storage pocket."Come on," she muttered.
She slammed it into the weapon.
Mini-Mimi woke with a rising whine.
The gemstone flared. Lines along the cannon burned blue-white, then violet at the edges. The barrel shook as the charge built. Too slow. Everything was too slow.
Vi and the Voidborn rolled across the platform.
Jinx lifted the cannon and tried to aim.
No clear shot.
Vi was too close. The creature's torso kept twisting behind her. Its head dipped, rose, vanished behind Vi's shoulder, then reappeared for less than a heartbeat. If Jinx fired wrong, the beam would tear through both of them.
"Move, move, move," she whispered.
The Voidborn slammed Vi down.
Vi caught one claw with both gauntlets and kicked at its stomach. The creature ignored the kick. One of its shoulders twitched.
Jinx saw the shell split.
New spines pushed out from beneath the carapace, wet and sharp.
Her vision narrowed.
It was going to fire again.
At Logan, at Ahri.
Jinx adjusted her aim for the shoulder where the spines were growing.
Vi twisted.
The Voidborn reared back.
For less than a second, the shot cleared.
Jinx fired.
Mini-Mimi screamed.
A narrow beam tore out of the barrel and struck the Voidborn's shoulder dead-on. Light swallowed the joint. The shell, muscle, and spine cluster vanished all at once, burned away so completely that the attached mantis arm separated from the body and spun into the air.
The Voidborn roared.
The beam cut off.
Jinx staggered back, smoke rising from the cannon.
Vi did not waste the opening.
She drove both gauntlets into the creature's exposed side, hit it again, then again, then again, each blow pushing it farther from Ahri and Logan. "Do that again!"
"It needs a second to charge!"
Mini-Mimi whined as the next charge built. Slower now. The barrel glowed hot. Jinx's fingers tightened around the grips.
The Voidborn slammed Vi across the platform.
Jinx raised the cannon, but Vi was in the way again. The creature moved too fast, even wounded. It snapped at Vi's arm, took a punch to the face, then drove a knee-like joint into her stomach hard enough to fold her forward.
"Vi!"
Something huge entered the platform from above.
Vander.
He crashed into the Voidborn shoulder-first, knocking it off Vi before it could strike again. He did not look clean either. One side of his suit had been torn open in shallow lines, and dark blood marked the plating.
"Need a hand?" he growled.
Vi pushed herself up. "Took you long enough."
"Kai'Sa covered me," Vander said. "She took my ugly one off my hands."
Vi glanced past him. "Where is it?"
"Not dead. And now she's fighting two at once, so we don't have time."
The Voidborn lunged.
Vander caught the remaining bladed arm with both hands. Vi hit the other side at the same time, smashing her gauntlet into the creature's ribs. The Voidborn thrashed between them, stronger than both, but off balance now.
"Hold it!" Jinx shouted.
"Trying!" Vi snapped.
Vander planted his feet and dragged the creature backward. Vi hooked an arm around its neck and drove one gauntlet under its jaw, forcing the head up. The Voidborn bucked once, twice, nearly tearing free.
Mini-Mimi finished charging.
The sound changed from a whine to a sharp, steady tone.
Jinx lifted the cannon.
This time, the shot was clear.
The Voidborn's head filled her sight.
Jinx exhaled once.
She fired.
The beam struck the Voidborn in the face.
Its head disappeared.
No scream or second movement. The upper body snapped backward as the skull, jaws, and eyes burned into nothing. Vi and Vander released it at the same time and threw themselves aside as the body convulsed.
The headless Voidborn twitched once.
Then it collapsed across the platform and went still.