Piltover - Veteran's Center - [The Future]

Woods leaned back, tapping his fingers on the armrest of his wheelchair as he recounted the memory. "After that mess, Caitlyn got her strike team together. Me and Mason were in, of course. Then there was Vi. She's tough as hell, and I respect her for it." He smirked slightly. "Maddie? We all thought she was the ray of sunshine. But don't get that mistaken, she was a traitor. Steb—the quiet one, didn't say much but got the job done. And Loris, the big guy with the shield. We called him our walking fortress."

He paused, his tone growing more serious. "Caitlyn led us into Zaun through a place called The Grey. It's this ventilation system connecting the Uppercity to the Undercity. However, it wasn't any normal ventilation system, it was designed to contain the toxic fumes Silco created. Smug bastard, good riddance. We all wore gas masks to get through the toxic smoke. It was the only way to sneak in undetected, covered by the haze."

Woods chuckled darkly, his expression grim. "That smoke, though—it reminded me of Nova Six, some chemical bioweapon. Not from Zaun, though. No, that stuff came from somewhere else, somewhere darker."

Lawson furrowed his brow. "Nova Six? You mean something worse than what that ventilation could create?"

Woods nodded, his face shadowed by the weight of his memories. "Yeah. Trust me, you don't want to know what that stuff could do. But in The Grey, it worked to our advantage. Covered us, masked us, made sure we got into Zaun. That was just the start of it."

Woods exhaled heavily, his frustration evident as he continued. "Apparently, we decided to split up. Caitlyn and Vi went off to track down, Jinx. Steb, Maddie and Loris we're detaining the man we caught back at the grey and sending them back to Piltover, while Mason and I were tasked with finding any remaining shimmer—enough of it to neutralize the mess they were stirring up."

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He paused, the tension in his voice growing. "But something went wrong."

Woods leaned forward slightly, his expression darkening. "We found this building stashed full of shimmer—a whole damn cache of it. But before we could secure it, Silco's loyalists came down on us hard. Next thing I know, Mason and I are pinned down in this gunfight. It was bad, but we've seen worse. We were holding our own... until the weapons started acting up."

He shook his head, the frustration clear in his voice. "Our guns—hextech-integrated—started glitching mid-firefight. It wasn't just a jam or a malfunction; it was like they were shorting out, sparking, it was trippy. I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. It had never happened before, but it couldn't have been a coincidence. Something about the shimmer, the Hextech—maybe both—it was screwing with our gear."

Woods rubbed his temples, the memory clearly gnawing at him. "And let me tell you, when those glitches hit, it wasn't just the guns acting up—it hurt. Like getting jolted by lightning through the damn thing. It was all Mason and I could do to keep from dropping everything and covering our heads."

He exhaled sharply, the tension still present. "It almost got us killed, more than once. But we didn't have a choice. Glitches or not, we kept pushing, fought through it. Somehow, we managed to take out Silco's loyalists and destroy that cache before they could get to it."

Woods leaned back, his face hardening. "But that fight? It wasn't a win. Not in my book. We shouldn't have made it out of there alive, and honestly, I still don't know how we did."

"However, Jinx and Sevika got away, and yeah, that pissed me off. But what really stuck with me was that something happened between Caitlyn and Vi during their encounter. Something big. And neither of them ever told me or Mason what it was."

Lawson tilted his head, curious. "So Caitlyn and Vi never explained what happened? Not even a hint?"

Woods shook his head, leaning back with a bitter chuckle. "Nah. I didn't bother asking. Sometimes it's better to let people handle their own personal shit. Whatever's going on between those two, it's their business."

He glanced at Lawson, his expression hardening. "Same way I keep my own history to myself. Me and Menendez? Angola? That's a part of my life I don't feel like dragging anyone else into. And I figure Caitlyn and Vi see it the same way with whatever happened out there."