Chapter Text
When you first woke up as Powder, you didn't know how to react.
You may not have enjoyed your old life, but it was still yours, you know? It wasn't fun and could have definitely been better, but it was yours, and that meant something. Or it had, before it ended.
You supposed there wasn't much point in mourning that now, especially not when it could raise questions you can't answer.
So you did your best to fit in. To fill the shoes you found yourself in, to gather your bearings, figure out when in the timeline you are and how the previous Powder had acted before you took her place. If there even was a previous Powder; you hadn't just been thrown into Powder's body with no idea what's going on - you had all of Powders memories, and you didn't know if you had somehow replaced an existing Powder or had always been Powder, just without access to your previous memories until now. Yet another thing to avoid thinking too much about, seeing as you've been here for a week now with no sign of waking up and not being Powder anymore.
So you continued to live.
It wasn't hard to fit in, once you got over the abrupt change. You remembered everything Powder had done, and you had always had a passion for creating things, even if you had never been much good at the artistic side of it, always more drawn to the more logical stuff, be it maths, engineering, or computer programming. Seems like you had a lot of time to improve your creative skills now.
And so you did.
It only took a few months for you to figure out when you were, when Ekko (so much younger than your last memories of him on-screen) came to Vi with a tip - some piltie sticking out like a sore thumb, buying stuff from Benzo's with too much money, too little sense and no idea of their actual value. It didn't take long for you to realise this was Jayce.
You had thought about Arcane a lot, both before and after your arrival, as you had labelled it. You had always thought Vi was cool, and loved Jinx's chaotic energy, but you did wonder how things could have gone. One small change here, a little nudge there, and everyone could've been so much happier. So with no reason not to, you decided to rewrite this story, to give it a different path.
Hextech needed to be prevented, that was obvious. But equally obvious was that it wouldn't be as simple as an anonymous tip to the academy or enforcers, given that canon Jayce's first reaction to being banned from his research was to try and take his life. For all his mistakes, you didn't particularly want Jayce dead, so you needed a way to prevent hextech without Jayce getting arrested. You had thought on this a lot, and in the end, your solution turned out to be extremely simple.
Once Vi kicked in the door, you made a show of looking around, examining the blackboard, reading some of the calculations. You were no expert, but you had been studying intensely for the last few months with help from some books you stole from topside, and despite the unfortunate topic of his research it was some extremely impressive work. A few mistakes that you figured were likely overlooked due to sleep deprivation (his handwriting noticeably declined in certain areas in a way you were all too familiar with), but otherwise masterful work. It was almost a shame it would amount to nothing.
And so the moment you could do so without suspicion, you peered out the door and down the corridor, before heading into the other room and uncovering the chest. You knew you couldn't clear the blackboard without raising suspicions, but the blackboard was only a small part of Jayce's research. Wasting no time on the very tempting sandwich he had left there, you opened the case and plucked out each crystal, carefully storing each one in the padded pouch you had acquired specifically for this moment. Ensuring that they were all safely tucked away and taking one last look around the room, you grabbed his notebook on hextech along with an interesting looking physics textbook and stepped out of the room just in time to hear Vi shouting for them to leave.
And just like that, you thought, canon had been derailed.
You still got ambushed on the way back, but this time rather than standing by until you were noticed, you ran and hid with the loot the moment everyone was distracted. You had never been much good at fighting and your time here had not improved that yet, but you refused to be the reason that everything went wrong after being so careful to make sure the heist went right. Especially given the volatile crystals in your pocket - if you tripped or got knocked too hard whilst fighting or getting chased, everyone nearby would be killed. Given the sheer number of crystals, you didn't even want to think about what could happen to the area. So you ran, until your legs felt weak and you could barely breathe, until you were sure the others were no longer in the possible blast radius. It took you a while to find your way back to the Last Drop, but you did, and after peeking through the backdoor you determined you had even made it back before the others! You felt a bit guilty at running off when they were being attacked, but the possible consequences of staying wiped the guilt away quickly.
Some time later the rest returned, having spent longer trying to find you before returning. You winced when you realised that and blurted out apologies for abandoning them to the fight, but ultimately were forgiven after some snide remarks from Mylo ("Could've helped with the fight instead of abandoning us" "Mylo!" "At least she didn't jinx it again, I guess"). After some celebrations with your siblings (you still weren't used to that - you had a sister before, but you were never very close, so even after months this still felt strange), and the expected scolding from Vander (which none of you enjoyed, but you knew was unavoidable), you hid the crystals away under your bed right up against the wall, pushing some boxes in front of it to keep it well hidden, and prepared the next step in your plan - disposing of them.
The next morning, you snuck out early. You had all planned to meet up with Ekko to share the good news, but you needed the crystals gone first. So you went to the rivers, the same pollution filled water you knew Vander had tried to kill Silco in. And you tossed the crystals in from a distance. You had debated the risks of throwing versus dropping them in, and determined that given the number of bounces it would have taken to cause the explosion in Jayce's apartment, the chance they might explode from the force of being thrown far out into the river was low enough that it was worth the risk to ensure they were that much harder to find. And so, one by one, you tossed them out, spacing out where they landed, ensuring no one saw you do it.
And just like that, for better or worse, most of canon had been prevented.
Most, but not all.