"I'm not going anywhere with any of you until he tells me who the fuck he is!" Caitlyn shouted, raising her gun angrily while tears began to form in her eyes. "Do you know what the fuck I just saw?!"
Her gaze snapped to Vi, who stepped back in shock and then to everyone else who shifted uneasily.
"A man bashing his head into a bloody mess! He said the voices kept telling him to 'make us whole again' before he dislocated his arm to escape and died running!"
"How did he die running...?" Powder muttered, before Caitlyn snapped back angrily, "He fell and died when running! Happy?"
Her gaze returned to Xander, her grip tightening on the weapon as a tear slid down her cheek.
"Now you'd better tell me who the fuck you are. All of this... this insanity from yesterday, today, this bloodshed, this death, it all started when you appeared. So answer me!"
She finally snapped, raising her gun directly at him.
"Wait!" Vi panicked, stepping forward. Powder raised an eyebrow, standing up and stepping away while muttering dryly, "Yeah, that's totally gonna calm things down."
Powder then lazily pointed at Caitlyn's gun. "I already tried that when I first met him. News-flash, it doesn't work."
While Caitlyn glanced at Powder uncertainly, Xander sighed.
"Fine." The tension in the room paused and everyone turned toward him. "I'll tell you about myself but I don't know why people are acting crazy like you're saying."
"Start talking," Caitlyn croaked, her finger still trembling on the trigger.
"My full name is Xander Becket. My father, Michael Becket, died during a mission. He was part of Delta Force—" He stopped himself, realizing he needed to find more relatable terms. "Basically, elite soldiers. The toughest and deadliest where I'm from. My mother died giving birth to me, so my half-brother raised me with his wife, Jin Sun-Kwon."
He paused, hands clasping together as they listened. Caitlyn's expression softened, her breathing still shaky as some of the tension left her and her gun lowered.
"I wasn't anything special. My family homeschooled me and hired private tutors. It was... more of a Piltover-style upbringing. They were worried I'd become violent- like, really worried. To the point it became an obsession to prevent me from ever showing aggression."
"Maybe because of your powers?" Caitlyn asked as if the answer was obvious.
"That's the thing," Xander said, shaking his head. "I never showed any powers until I woke up here. Never. I literally went to bed and woke up in Dredge Prison. I thought it was a dream at first but..." He gestured around them. "Obviously it isn't. I still don't understand how I can move between worlds."
"So how did you find out about us?" Powder asked, frowning. "You know stuff about the other world too."
Xander hesitated, his jaw tightening slightly. His gaze drifted away from them, landing somewhere far beyond the room. "That... I'll explain later," he said quietly. "Right now, it'll just sound insane."
"You mean more insane than everything else you've said so far?" Caitlyn snapped again.
Xander just shrugged, his hands flopping helplessly onto his lap. "Maybe. But I'm not ready to tell you yet. Not until I understand it myself."
"All I know is all of this," he gestured toward their small, tense group, "—this is new. I don't know what comes next but the Hex Gates are still a problem. We need to shut it down.""
"Let's assume your mind is sane," Caitlyn said sharply, lowering her weapon completely now though her eyes stayed locked on him. "Why are people losing sleep? Acting violent and going mad?"
"I don't know," Xander replied earnestly. "Whatever's happening, beyond Shimmer, it shouldn't be happening."
He looked at her seriously. "You might not believe me," he said, then turned toward Vi, Powder, and Vander. "But you three, you know that none of this is normal."
"Yeah," Powder mused, resting her chin on her hand as she sat on the step of the boxing ring. "Kinda figured that when we saw the giant portal."
"What portal?" Caitlyn asked, her tone shifting to confusion.
"We, uh..." Vi started, rubbing the back of her neck. "Went to a different world. Lots of zombies, monsters, things trying to kill us..."
Vander nodded grimly. "It's true. I saw the portal myself."
"Wha—" Caitlyn gaped. "So did they escape? Is that what's happening? Something from your portal got loose and is making people lose sleep and act crazy?"
"No," Vander reassured her. "I waited by the portal. Nothing escaped."
"The world we went to has alternate dimensions," Xander continued, his tone steady but uneasy. "For stronger, far more dangerous monsters. Those dimensions might not be as contained as the one we entered."
He shrugged.
"There could be others… others like me. Or maybe not. These are all just theories."
A heavy silence fell over the room. Everyone stared at the floor, deep in thought, until Vi finally spoke up.
"So we either have some dangerous fucking monster out there," she said slowly, "or another psycho with psycho powers screwing up our home. Great."
"Yeah, no kidding," Powder muttered, sniffing as her foot tapped restlessly against the floor. "Even I have limits for crazy."
"We need a plan," Caitlyn said, exhaling in frustration as she started pacing. "We need to find the source. This is more urgent than taking down Silco."
"You know…" Powder began hesitantly. "Silco's men could help us…"
"Use Silco," Caitlyn said suddenly, her eyes widening. "That could work. He's got eyes and ears everywhere. His men would notice something off before anyone else."
"I wasn't gonna say 'use'—" Powder grumbled, folding her arms. "I said help. But whatever, yeah, sure. If he helps, maybe we can take the whole 'taking him down' thing off the table?"
"He still needs to answer for his crimes," Caitlyn said firmly.
Powder's eyes met hers and the tension between them became sharp. Her expression twisted before turning her head away, muttering under her breath.
"Bitch."
Caitlyn, however, heard it and snapped back.
"Cunt."