Chapter Text
Vi wakes up to a riot.
That’s what it sounds like at least. There’s an alarm blaring, people shouting. She doesn’t know what time it is, the only light currently on is an ominous red, buzzing from the sodium bulb a foot from her cell door instead of the usual ‘day shift’ overheads. The shouting gets louder and there’s a distant boom, like an explosion or a building collapse.
Disorientated, Vi sits up and plants her feet on the concrete of her cell, so cold she can feel it through the thin soles of her shoes.
Her floor is empty, her floor’s always empty. It’s her floor for a reason, it’s where they stick her when they’re sick of dealing with her bullshit until she’s weak enough they can shove her back into gen pop, prove she’s alive so they can keep collecting their babysitter fees from Silco.
But it sounds like a riot’s happening upstairs. No one’s gonna think about securing a bribe in that kind of chaos. She’s going to be stuck down here until whatever happens up there settles.
There’s another boom that shudders through the stone, and Vi’s breath quickens.
Not a day’s gone by she hasn’t considered dying in her cell. This 8-pace wide cage in dim lighting might as well be a coffin in waiting, and as much as Vi hates it she relies on the corrupted fucks upstairs being alive to prevent that. If something happens…
She swallows, mouth dry, and stares at the hinge of her door wondering if she should try again to punch it out. Every blare of the alarm screeches against her raw nerves, and her fingers clench in the thin sheet of her bunk. She could wrap it around her knuckles, to absorb the blood at the very least. If something drastic is happening up there, if the guys who know she’s down here get wiped out, she’s fucked. Broken hand is better than—
The sound of gears is barely audible over the background noise but she’s so conditioned to it she hears it clearly. It cuts through the cold rise of her spiraling and she curls her hands into looser fists, more relaxed already. Well, relaxed might not be the best word for it, but familiarity is at least a bit of an ice compress against the bruise of panic.
Vi stands, goes to her door, waiting.
The elevator creaks and groans like it always does, clunking heavily to a stop at the end of its chain.
“Please, you don’t understand, we have to return to the surface,” a woman’s voice is pleading. “It’s important.”
“My orders are to keep you safe,” a man’s voice replies. “No exception.”
Vi leans against her door, trying to see out? Intensely curious. The male enforcer she just barely recognizes, a guard who checks in on her on occasion, but the woman’s voice is new. And what’s going on up there for them to take refuge on Vi’s floor?
“Only way down ‘ere is with this key,” the enforcer is saying. “Them things wont be getting in, we’re safe down here.”
“It’s not my safety I’m concerned with,” the woman says, her accent sharp. She sounds upper class, visiting politician or something? “I thought we were going to help the others, not go into hiding.”
“Marcus ordered me to get you to safety. Got to remember you’re special, Kiramman,” the man says, with a slightly mocking jeer, “and going into hiding here’s a privilege.”
The woman is silent.
Vi hovers by her door, rocking her weight on her heels when another loud bang comes from upstairs, followed by cursing from her… guests? Intruders.
“What’s going on?” She finally asks.
There’s a sputter of noise, she’s obviously startled them, and then quick, loud footsteps and finally the woman comes into view. She’s dressed in an enforcer uniform, a basic grunt, which surprises Vi. She even looks upper class, tall with sharply carved cheekbones made ever more stark in the red emergency lighting. Her eyes are wide, staring at Vi in complete shock.
“There’s someone down here?” she nearly shouts behind her to the other enforcer walking up.
“Oh shit,” he says. “Forgot she was down here.”
“You forgot?” the woman looks horrified, which has Vi laugh a little under her breathe, hiding it behind a snort. “Look at this place. You put a person down here and forgot her?”
She walks up to Vi, though she pointedly hesitates at the red line. “Are you alright?”
Vi leans against the bars, looking up to the woman. This guy isn’t the one that stuck her inside this time, so she’s not really surprised he forgot she was on alone time, but she’s not exactly going to jump to his defence. And it’s odd to see a guard be upset by the fact Vi’s down here, she’s never seen one give even half a fuck.
Smirking a little, Vi shrugs to answer. “Peachy.”
The woman makes a pinched face, and Vi wonders, amused, if her breath’s that bad. But the moment quickly passes with another loud noise, sounding like something large has hit the building, comes from above and the woman flinches.
“We have to get out of here,” she says to the other guard, quickly like she’s about to panic. Vi doesn’t blame her, not wanting to die in this shitty basement. The woman moves to the guard, nodding to Vi. “Get her out.”
Vi feels as surprised as the guard looks.
“What? Why?” He asks.
“We have. To leave,” the woman says insistently, motioning to Vi. “And we’re not leaving her down here to die.”
The guard looks to her, and then to Vi, then sneers. “She’s not down here for shits and giggles. She’s dangerous.”
That only seems to interest the woman, who looks to Vi thoughtfully. “How dangerous are you, exactly? What did you do to be placed here?” She asks, voice tense. Vi’s pretty sure she’s fighting off some panic here, and she’s a little impressed that the woman apparently has a noble streak strong enough to push her fear back so she can free a guttersnipe.
“I don’t think now’s the best time for my trial.” With a look to the male enforcer and back to the woman, Vi tries to put on her most polite and best behaviour smile. “But I promise to be good if you let me out. I don’t want me to die down here either.”
“She’s put multiple guards in infirmary,” the guard says, but the woman doesn’t look intimidated by that news. She tilts her head slightly, looking Vi up and down.
“So you can fight?”
That makes Vi laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, I can fight.”
“And if we let you out you’ll stand beside us?”
Vi can’t believe she’s getting this line of questioning, but she plays along, resting a hand on her heart. “On my honour, cupcake.”
The woman clenches her jaw, looking conflicted, then turns to the guard.
“Free her. Now.”
The guard looks ready to argue again, but the woman continues. “Or I’ll personally have you decommissioned and held legally responsible for anything that happens to her while she’s trapped here. We need her.”
Vi raises an eyebrow, curious. Who is this chick?
With a grumble, the guard takes his key ring, sticks it into the base of the lever beside Vi’s cell and flips it. With a rusty, grating noise, the bars of Vi’s door come loose, and the woman pushes it all the way open. She steps aside, giving Vi enough space to walk out, and looks at her with a tired smile. Vi steps into the hallway, flexing her un cuffed hands, giving this woman a look like a wary dog.
She could knock them both out, grab the key, make a break for it. Take advantage of whatever’s happening upstairs to get out. Maybe take the uniform jacket to help her sneak out. It would be so easy. If they’re planning anything she should get the first hit in.
But this seems real. And for all this place has changed Vi, it hasn’t made her into the type of person to go back on her word, hurt someone doing her a kindness, even if there’s some implied transactional reason.
“We can’t waste any more time,” the woman says, walking briskly back to the elevator. She pulls something out of the little pack on her back, and unfolds it into what Vi realizes is a rifle. Vi’s curiosity is off the charts now, she’s never seen an enforcer with a gun like that.
“I’m telling you Kiramman, we’re safer down here,” the guard barks after her.
“We really aren’t,” Kiramman calls back. Vi snickers, following after her to the elevator door and this time she can feel the shudder in the stone following the distant boom. “I can get us out, I promise.”
A scoff from the guard, and Vi watches Caitlyn tug the lever to call the elevator back down. While they wait, listening to the creaking chain, Vi looks cautiously to this woman dressed like a lowlife and acting very much not like one.
“Who are you?”
There’s a muscle twitch in Kiramman’s jaw, and she blinks rapidly a couple of times. Then she sighs. “My name’s Caitlyn,” she says, with an awkward and friendly little smile. “What’s yours?”
The elevator door creaks open and Caitlyn gets on, stepping aside to take room. Vi gets on beside her, and the guard deliberately steps between them, arms crossed. Vi leans forward a bit, so she can still see Caitlyn.
“I’m Vi,” she says.
An exhale and a nod. “Do you need any weapons? How well can you fight, Vi?”
With a look to the male enforcer, who’s avoiding eye contact but looks annoyed he’s being roped into going back up with them, Vi’s starting to wonder if he was right and downstairs was safer. But she’d rather die with blood on her fists for a chance at seeing the sun again than spend however much longer alive in that fucking box.
“I’m good with just my hands. What’s happening?” she asks, rolling a shoulder to warm up, wanting to know what to expect. Caitlyn only checks the sights of her gun, fidgets with the hinge of it and checks them again.
“With luck and your help, when it’s over I’ll be able to explain,” she says cryptically.
The sounds of chaos get louder and louder as the elevator moves up, until it comes to a stop at the first floor. Caitlyn takes in a deep breath, mutters to herself under her breath so quietly Vi almost barely hears it. “Please let this time work.”
The doors open.