Immortalized | Viktor - arcane

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Ever since Rose was given her job under Mel Medarda, not a day went by where she didn't think of her home, or the bridge. She thought about Bea and her parents every night. She wondered what the streets looked like, and if she would even recognize them.

Once her leg was healed she had considered going back but she never entertained the thought for very long. If she returned to find it changed to the point that it was unrecognizable, she feared she'd never recover.

She didn't want to go home if there was no one waiting for her. Her older brother Kai had died when she was young. She didn't entirely understand how it happened. He came home one day with a gash on his arm that he got after a rough fall jumping through the city roofs with his friends. Their mother had stitched it herself that night and they all thought he was fine. A few days later he developed a fever and the gash was an ugly sight, people told them there was nothing they could do.

After he passed Rose grew closer to her parents. She realized they were all she truly had in the world apart from Bea. While it may have brought her and her parents closer together it also inspired her parents to join in Vander's rebellion. A cut like that would never be fatal across the bridge. They just didn't have access to proper treatment.

They wanted to prevent something like that from happening to anyone else's child, especially their daughter and they would fight for it on that bridge. As far as Rose knew that fight cost them their lives.

The enforcers didn't leave many survivors, she didn't hold onto much hope that her parents were down there somewhere missing her. If they had been she liked to think they would go north looking for her and find Heimerdinger's advertisement about her.

While her parents might not have survived she was nearly certain Bea was alive. Bea had enough sense not to run in after their parents, she probably retreated somewhere safe until the smoke cleared.

Rose had always thought Bea was the tougher, stronger one out of the two of them. She would survive on her own without her parents. Rose had told herself that when she ran after her parents to justify leaving Bea's side. Now she wasn't sure that was true. She was plagued with guilt when she thought about it.

It took her over two years to gain the courage to go back home. She wasn't sure where it came from. Perhaps she had suffered one too many sleepless nights worrying over her friend, or her distaste for her new found comfort residing in topside. It could have even been meeting Viktor, someone else from the District of Zaun to remind her of where she came from and what she left behind.

The trip took a lot of careful planning. It was Elora's day to be at Mel's side. Earlier that week Rose had bought a set of solid colored simple clothes and put holes in them herself, she was careful to make sure they looked aged and worn. Her old boots had been returned to her when she was discharged from the hospital, though they hadn't been worn in two years they still fit.

She wore a long double breasted beige coat with her hair cascading down her back to hide her outfit as she made her way to the bathysphere that descended into the fissures. There were bushes close to the lift and when no one was looking she dropped her coat behind them and tucked it under the leaves. It wasn't the best hiding spot but she didn't care, she just wanted to blend in and she couldn't do that in the fissures with that jacket.

She felt her heart rise in her throat as the bathysphere began to descend. She almost felt like crying, there weren't many passengers with her, it would go unnoticed if she cried quietly but she refused to allow herself that. She was ashamed it had taken her so long to go back.

When she stepped finally stepped out of the bathysphere she felt tears prick at her eyes but she blinked them away. It was nearly the same. The buildings were exactly as she left them. It was like she was suddenly sixteen again.