3 - A Final Joke

by SorrowfulReincarnation

Vi hasn't been herself lately. And when she makes a grave decision, even she is not prepared for it all to come crashing down on her, Caitlyn and Jinx, all that which she has known and believed in. Because all it took for that to happen, it was one bad day. One bad day worth over a ten years... Sequel to "A Joke of Nature". Finale of the "Bad Day" Series.

Note: This is the for now final installment (more about that at the end) to the "Bad Day-Series", meaning it's the sequel to "A Killing Joke" and "A Joke of Nature", which I highly recommend you to read before you read this. Otherwise, you may not understand some of the things mentioned in this story. You have been warned.

---

A final joke

"I quit."

With a sharp scratching noise, Caitlyn's pen came to a sudden stop on the report she had been signing. Two words. It had taken just two words to completely catch her off guard, to throw her concentration out of the window.

"Excuse me?" she asked, slowly raising her gaze to meet that of her enforcer and girlfriend. Vi was about to quit something? Quit what? First she wasn't in bed when Caitlyn woke up that morning, was nowhere to be found in her own apartment, showed up late to work and now, the first thing she said was that she'd quit something?

Something wasn't right, something was up. The sheriff of Piltover had felt it slowly arising, slowly building up inside her girlfriend over the past two weeks. Ever since the police governor's party. Ever since Jinx had completely given up on the good and sane inside her.

Since Jinx had, once more, vanished completely off the face of the earth.

It had been alright for the first few days. After Vi had cried herself to sleep that night, she had woken up somewhat recovered, somewhat herself again – But had still refused to talk about why she had them, the mirror image to Jinx's tattoos.

As she had promised, Caitlyn hadn't pressed the matter. She hadn't asked her why she had them, where she had them from and what they meant in relation to Jinx's tattoos. Seeing them again that morning, and each day after that – Vi had gotten more comfortable about presenting them to her when it was just the two of them after the initial night – had given Caitlyn some answers already. Nothing specific, nothing to quench the thirst of knowledge towards her girlfriend's past. But at least something.

The tattoos were old. Old enough that they had slightly faded out over the years, despite being more protected from the influences of weather and time unlike those of Jinx, whose tattoos were easily recognizable as old ones. Scarred tissue ran over part of the tattoos, further reinforcing the theory of Caitlyn that those tattoos of blue clouds of smoke and pink bullets were already a few years old, as the ink curled the scars and never crossed them, proof that the scars had been inflicted to Vi after she had got the tattoos, and that the tattoos hadn't been painted over the scars. She knew, for a fact, that Vi had received some of these scars right after their partnership had begun, so the tattoos were older than that.

At least it explained why Vi had been so hellbent on not showing the wounds to a doctor and on treating them herself.

So how old were those tattoos of Vi? Caitlyn had her own theory to that, guessed that her girlfriend had received those tattoos earlier than the tattoo of a gear on her neck – and that was from the time when she had been a criminal. The outline of the gear when she had been with the gang, the interior of the gear when she had quit them and worked on her own.

The pink bullets and the blue clouds of smoke were the oldest tattoos that Vi possessed, if her theory was right, and they were from before the time when she had ended up as a criminal. In her early teens.

And if her theory was right, Jinx had gotten her tattoos around the same time.

After the first few days of peace after Jinx's disappearance, with the tattoos being the only uncomfortable topic that lingered silently in the air, things had changed quickly. Vi's behavior had taken a turn for the worse – she distanced herself, became introverted and quiet, spent less time trying to impress Cait, didn't cuddle with her as often, fell more and more into daydreams, and eventually began to retreat into her workshop, often not resurfacing from there for hours.

But she had always, no matter how long she had retreated in there, returned to bed some time during the night to wrap her arms around her girlfriend, who had come to stay with her in her apartment after that night to ensure she would be alright. And she had always stayed there with Caitlyn into the morning, when the two of them would get up and go to work, where she'd try to hide all her negative emotions behind a mask of neutrality.

Until that morning, when she had been gone when Caitlyn woke up. And for her to leave the bed without Caitlyn noticing was a feat on itself.

And it was also exactly that mask of neutrality that was staring down at the sheriff at that moment. A mask that Vi used to hide all her true emotions. Caitlyn knew her long enough to see what Vi was really feeling on the inside when she was hiding it behind that mask on the outside – And this time, there was anger. Anger at whom, though, Caitlyn couldn't tell. Couldn't tell if it was directed at Vi herself, or at Caitlyn, or at something completely different. What had made her so angry?

What was the reason for Vi standing before her in her civvies, holding a bundle of cloth in her left hand, trying to hide her anger behind a mask of neutrality from her? Why was this expression delivering that those two words that Vi had spoke were so well-conceived?

The documents before her were long forgotten, pushed aside by her left hand when Caitlyn leaned forward, tilted her head a little to the side and waited for Vi to finally respond to her question.

"I quit." repeated the enforcer, lips barely parting to let the air and sound escape, expression remaining unchanged and serious. She suddenly, without moving anything but her arm, slammed the bundle of cloth down on her girlfriend's desk, causing the brunette to cringe on the inside, having not been prepared for that violent reaction from the enforcer. But surely, Vi had not slammed the bundle of clothes down on her desk with such force on purpose, in anger at her. She couldn't believe that. She just couldn't.

Slowly and hesitantly, as if looking away from Vi would be the mistake of her life, Caitlyn let her gaze trail down the enforcer's arm to the bundle she had placed on her desk. Black and blue greeted her, topped off with something gold and another black object.

Caitlyn's blood ran cold, her worst fear confirmed. Vi had meant the worst possibility of all with 'I quit'.

The bundle underneath Vi's hand, still holding it down, consisted of the enforcer's uniform, her golden badge, and the simple black taser that every officer got, but that Vi had never once used. With quit, Vi didn't meant her occasional drinking, didn't mean her use of excessive force, her swearing or her preference to play a lone hand.

It was more serious. Possibly the most serious thing that Vi had ever done.

Vi meant to quit the police force.

She hastily looked up to meet Vi's gaze, hoping to find explanations there, but the brawler had already turned away, avoiding to meet her gaze. Her hand slid off the bundle of clothes, shortly over the edge of the wooden desk, numbly hung at the enforcer's side as she wordlessly walked towards the door to leave the room.

And for the first time in her life, Caitlyn felt the fear of loss. Panic inside, panic that, if Vi were to leave through the door in the state she was in, without an explanation, that she would never see her again.

The calm manner of the sheriff was swept away by that fear. She surprised herself when she jumped up and hammered her hands down on her desk, screaming her partners name in a mix of anger and panic. She almost thought Vi wouldn't listen, would ignore her call – But the brawler had frozen up, the doorhandle already pushed down. She was hesitating.

Caitlyn reacted immediately. Her chair had fallen over when she had jumped up, so she just had to round her desk, ignoring the documents, ignoring the bundle that Vi had left back, leaving her hat on the desk and heading straight for the other woman. But Vi had none of it. The moment that she heard Caitlyn's steps approach her, she pushed the door open, scaring the hell out of the officers in the room by how sudden it exploded outwards.

Heads turned when Vi stormed into the room only a minute after walking into the sheriff's office in her civvies, the brawler stomping through the rows of desks, with Caitlyn hot on her heels.

"Vi!" roared Caitlyn, ignoring all the confused officers, speeding up her steps to catch up to her girlfriend. Vi didn't even turn to her, didn't slow down to allow her to catch up. Nonetheless, Caitlyn managed it, reached the brawler before she was out of the room and grabbed her arm, spun her around and slammed her against the wall next to the door, despite their difference in height and strength.

Vi's emotionless, lifeless eyes stared down at her. And Caitlyn knew, deep inside, that she wasn't just looking at a mask. Something had drained Vi of all her life over the past two weeks, starting with their dispute with Jinx on the police governor's party.

"Vi." Caitlyn's voice was much more quiet, but no less serious, "What is this about? What is the meaning of this?!"

She didn't intend to get louder towards the end of her question, not that loud at least, but the emotions were getting the better of her – the anger, the panic, the confusion. Something wasn't right with Vi, something was nagging at her, and it wasn't only driving her insane – it caused it's fair share of emotional trouble for Caitlyn, too.

"I've thought this through, Cait. You can't stop me." Vi's words were cold and harsh, empty of life and all that Vi was known for, "You can't change my mind."

"And what is the goal of this all in your mind? What do you think you're going to achieve with this?!" shouted the sheriff, losing her patience with the enforcer – or the woman who once had been the enforcer. The moment that Vi would leave the room and the building, she wouldn't be Piltover's enforcer anymore. Wouldn't fight for the right thing anymore.

Leaving the room, Vi would give up anything that she had lived for in the past years. And Caitlyn couldn't allow that. She couldn't.

"I have to take care of a few things.", again none of the warmth in the pink-haired woman's voice that Caitlyn had gotten used to as Vi gestured towards the still open door to the office they used to share, where her things rested on the desk of the sheriff, "Things I can't take care of as long as I am holding onto that badge."

"And what could that possibly be? What could make you throw your life away just like that?" roared Caitlyn, didn't have herself and her voice under control anymore, didn't care as it failed her. It failed her a moment later anyway, as Vi did something she had not expected her to.

Vi pushed her away, brought space between them. And, even though no one else in the room would understand it, as Vi wore a black leather jacket over a white tank top, lifted her left arm. Caitlyn's mouth felt dry as she remembered the tattoos underneath, the mirror image of Jinx's tattoos.

Vi's behavior had something to do with Jinx, was that what she was trying to tell her? But what would Jinx have to do with this? The maniac had been gone for two weeks and had announced that she was going to give up on her sanity when they last saw her. How was she influencing Vi when they didn't even see each other?

A new thought struck Caitlyn, one that made an awful lot of sense, in some way. Was Vi behaving like that because she didn't see Jinx anymore?

She had heard of cases before where officers would become so obsessed with a case that they had been working on for years, the Harlequin Case concerning Jinx in their case, that completing or giving up on it would rob them the reason they lived for. That didn't seem to be the case with Vi and the Harlequin Case, Vi had never been overly obsessed with it. She could safely say this was not the reason Vi was behaving out of character.

But the reason was without a doubt Jinx, and possibly the absence of her. Vi had some connection to the maniac, and it was driving her into some unreasonable decisions to not see her, to not chase her, to not interact with the madwoman.

But why? That was the point everything revolved around. The thing she and Vi and Jinx had never once talked about during all those years, this feeling that there was a bigger connection, that they hadn't started at 'zero' when they first met. If she was right, this wasn't about her, but she had rather experienced an expansion of the fact that Jinx and Vi hadn't started at zero. Jinx and Vi had known each other – And with her being always at Vi's side, Jinx had immediately treated her like an old acquaintance, rather than a stranger, a nobody.

Vi slowly lowered her arm, knowing that Caitlyn had understood. Somewhat at least.

"So what? You're throwing everything away just... just...!" the words remained stuck in her throat. She couldn't say that, couldn't blame Vi for something she had no insight about. 'Just because of that' – She had no right to say that. She didn't know if it was something small. It probably wasn't. Not as far as she knew.

That got a reaction out of Vi, to see her otherwise eloquent girlfriend at loss for words, at the end of her wit. Worry flashed across her face for a moment, broke through the mask. Vi's eyebrows rose a bit as her features relaxed, her lips parted slighty and she gently gnawed on her lower lip.

And finally crossed the distance between her and Caitlyn and took the sheriff's hands into hers, holding them tight as she looked her girlfriend deep into the eyes.

"Yes, I'm throwing everything I have away. And it hurts me just as much as it hurts you." whispered the pink-haired woman to the brunette, their faces mere inches apart, "It hurts me even more as it hurts you, to throw away everything that you have offered and given to me so graciously and selflessly. I wish I had another choice, that I could do what I am about to do while still holding onto your present and onto you..."

Vi pulled her closer, and Caitlyn could clearly hear how Vi swallowed down the knot that formed in her throat. The emotions were getting to her, too, and yet she was staying strong, held the tears at bay. She must've already used all of them up during the last days, when she had hidden herself in her workshop. Was this the reason for it? Cause she couldn't face Caitlyn, knowing what decision she was about to make?

"But there are things I want to do, and things I have to do. And sadly, this is a thing I have to do. I don't want to drag you into this, cupcake, but if I stay a member of the police force and do this, I will drag you, and everyone in here, down with me. And I can't have that. That would mean to trample on your feelings and everything you've ever done for me – Which I will never do."

She gently placed a finger underneath Caitlyn's chin and pulled it up to look into the sheriff's eyes again.

"Though I love you with all my heart, Cait, though I wish I could do nothing but stay here at your side and continue as I did before – I can't keep my eyes closed to this problem any longer. I can't ignore it forever, and I might as well bring it to a close now. Before it escalates once and for all." Vi gently pressed a kiss to the sheriff's forehead, "I have to do this my way."

Another gentle kiss to Caitlyn's forehead, this one longer and much more focused on getting a silent message across, the silent message that Vi could only deliver in two words, but so much more detailed in this one gesture.

"I'm sorry." came the final whisper from the woman that had been the enforcer of Piltover just a few minutes prior, a last gentle brush of her lips over those of Caitlyn, the last tracing movement of the brawlers fingers along the back of Caitlyn's right hand.

They kept eye contact for as long as possible, the thought of separation hurting their hearts, while Vi slowly turned away. It seemed like forever, but eventually, Vi had turned away from her, slowly opened the door and stepped through it, left her former team and workplace. Left her girlfriend.

Slowly, Caitlyn lowered her gaze and rose her hands – Vi had placed something into them when she had held them, something cold and heavy. She opened her hand to look at the object. It were the keys to Vi's apartment, a small note attached to it like a keychain.

"Take care of it, but don't search me there. By the time you'll get there, I won't be there anymore. I know you will take care of it for as long as necessary. Feel right at home. And thank you, cupcake."

She closed her hand around the keys, felt how the cold stung on her fingers, how the metal cut into her palm as she closed her hand even tighter around it. She had to stay strong, had to trust Vi just as much as Vi trusted her at that moment.

But that was easier said than done.

Vi had her full trust, had her full support. But it was the feeling that Vi was going to do something dumb and dangerous, something that she had no choice but to do, but that would ultimately hurt her, maybe even kill her, that had Caitlyn worried so much.

Whatever it was that Vi saw no choice but to do in regards to Jinx – Caitlyn feared for Vi's health and life. If Vi got angry, and she'd easily get angry if it was a personal motivation that brought her to a point, which was the case, she made unreasonable decision that were not thought through well enough. And those rarely ever brought safety and a good outcome.

It was as if Caitlyn could already feel the bad day looming on the horizon, drawing closer each breath she took. And the feeling only got stronger as she turned after Vi's departure, wordlessly commanded the officers to continue work, and vanished inside her office to lock the door behind her, and cry for her hearts content.

She and Vi had not broken up, and yet it felt like their relationship had already come to an end.

---

About twelve hours after Vi had left the police force, an already badly damaged alarm clock flew through the room minutes after it started to ring, the lazy owner finally finding the strength to throw the irritating device. It hit the wall on the other side of the room, shattered into thousands of pieces the moment it did so, raining down on the chaos that littered the cupboards and crates, the floor and most of the room.

Lazily, a pink eye cracked open and glared over to the dent in the wall, accompanied by the countless dents of where the alarm clock had impacted with it in it's former incarnations. It was slowly getting hard to hit it somewhere where it didn't have a dent, but that was a thing she could worry about once she had repaired the alarm clock yet again later that evening, before she was going to bed.

It had actually become sort of a habit, a hobby even maybe, to brush her teeth, find the remains of what once was an alarm clock, and take them to bed with her, where she would put it together – Only to throw it at the wall the next morning again. Rinse and repeat.

With a groan, she glanced over to the digital clock mounted on the wall in a crooked manner. It had seen better days, too.

"What? Is it really still that early in the morning?" groaned the woman and sunk back into her pillow, closing her eyes again, "It's not even seven in the evening... Not even time for breakfast..."

She cracked her other eye open and glanced towards the window, where the sun hung already deep over Piltover, coating the city of progress in twilight, soon to fall into darkness.

"Who does even get up at this time, anyways? Got to be mad to get out of bed this early." she grumbled to herself and lazily sat up, rubbing her swollen eyes. One bare foot, nails painted blue and pink, crept out from underneath the thin blanket and gently touched the ground, seeking for a safe place to be put down without something digging into the flesh. Kind of hard with all the screws, bolts, nuts and other random things strewn across the floor, but as it had already become part of routine, it managed.

She rolled her neck first, then her shoulders, cringed when she felt the effects of spending the night on a worn-down couch. But that's what she got for not going to bed and deciding to pull an all-nighter to get her weapon fixed. At least it worked again.

"Good thing I am mad." she assured herself under a snicker and lazily stretched herself, joints popping and groaning accompanying her satisfied moan. She didn't get enough exercise nowadays. She really had to do something. Pick up a sport or something.

Grenade Golf sounded amazing. Torture Tennis, too. And bombing a city to pieces flat out amazing.

She dragged herself out of the comfortableness of the couch, using the springs to bounce up into a standing position. Good thing she had calibrated those new springs she had put into it – Her first try had ended in a disaster. And while it had been fun to be catapulted twenty feet into the air and through the window she had in the ceiling above it, falling down those twenty feet afterward certainly didn't. Not when you land on your cramped glass table. Well, technically yours. She had stolen it, so it was technically hers.

With a sigh, she began her usual routine, rounded the table – glass replaced with wooden planks – and stumbled through her labyrinth of random junk she couldn't find the heart or energy to throw out. Eventually, she'd probably have to. That gas bottle near the window had been making funny sounds at night for the past six weeks.

Grabbing a bottle of pills from a dresser standing on two legs, a stack of books and a pencil, she opened the lid and downed sixteen or so. Low doses of that stuff had stopped getting rid of her headaches ages ago, and she really didn't like the one she was having that moment.

The nearly empty bottle was thrown lazily aside when she neared her kitchen, stepping over the stack of video games she kept by her oversized, self-built TV. Three thousand channels and she didn't pay shit for any of them. God how she loved her technical skills. If she ever were a main character in a crazy game, she better get a mechanical skill-tree. Like that ginger with the robot arm. And she better get that Anarchy ability, too!

She just loved Anarchy!

Her bare feet made loud and funny sounds as she stepped onto the cold tiles of her kitchen, though not as funny as the ones she made with her mouth sometimes when she walked there. She patted over to the fridge, ignored the window that had been removed from the wall and placed against her dishwasher - she didn't even use that thing, anyways – even as she nearly stubbed a toe on it.

A funny little tune that always reminded her of long-eared people and a green tunic played when she opened the door to her fridge, a neat little thing she had installed to the otherwise boring device, and the light inside came on. Sometimes, when she was bored, she wondered if the light really turned off when she closed the door. She'd sit there for hours, trying to find the spot where it turned off but the door wasn't completely closed, and when she'd finally get bored of it, she'd just drill a hole in the door and look inside, finding the exact spot where the lights inside the fridge turned off, and would close the hole back up while being pleased about herself.

And to believe that people called her immature!

She eventually found what she was looking for, grinned stupidly as she shoved the half-eaten chocolate easter bunny from earlier that year aside and found the jug of milk in the back of her fridge, and pulled it out. Turning around and putting the jug of milk on the table while kicking the door to the fridge close behind her, she began to hum a little tune to herself. She wasn't even sure where she had it from, but it was catchy as hell.

Twirling on the spot and striking a pose, one hand on her hip and the other pointing towards the box of cereals next to the fridge, she continued to hum. She twirled again, pulled an imaginary hat lower when she stood with the back towards the cereals, and slowly began to move backwards in a way that made it look like she was walking forward but moving in the opposite direction. Again, she couldn't remember where she knew those things from, but she had practiced that move to perfection. It looked amazing and felt even more amazing to use. The stupid and confused look on that scumbag Jayce's face that one day when she did that in his laboratory and vanished with that pocket generator of his! Ha! It had been priceless.

She sure was one smooth criminal, and she had proved it that day again.

With the box of cereals and a simple white bowl in hand, she returned to the jug of milk on the table, but changed to a different tune as she placed the bowl down and opened the box.

"I'm a typical critical, call me serial killer." she hummed to herself, let out an excited gasp as she grabbed the milk and poured some inside the bowl, then turned the box of cereals over to put them inside as well, "I eat a lot of Kellogs, call me cereal killer!"

The box was turned over all the way, cereals rushed out of it, along with a simple spoon that hit the milk and sprayed it all over the table, but not that she cared about it. She just threw the empty box lazily over her shoulder and turned her attention to her bowl of cereals, her 'breakfast'. Leaning over the bowl, she smirked madly.

"Until I vomit up cornflakes so that the..." she froze up, smirk vanishing. There was something missing. She twirled around on her spot and glared at the empty box on the ground, spotted the large advertisement on it, the large letters that told her that there was supposed to be a small surprise inside.

So where was her surprise?

Irritated, she leaned down and picked the box up, shook it, but heard no sound coming from it. A quick glance into the dark depths confirmed her suspicions. Nothing inside. She wasn't hellbent on getting some toy or something like that like a little kid, but she liked her surprises, no matter how useless they were!

"Hey, where's the surprise?!" she complained and threw the box at the wall, huffed in irritation as she found her good mood ruined and sunk into the chair. Angrily, she grabbed her spoon and put a spoonful of cereals in her mouth, growled around the spoon. "I should've known it. Stupid marketing trick."

"Ain't I surprise enough?"

The second voice caught her off guard and she took a deep breath – A mistake, as it turned out, cereals and milk, along with a spoon, getting a little deeper into her mouth that she preferred, but found herself as proud of for achieving.

Choking on the cereals, she quickly spat the spoon onto the table and coughed, one hand hammering on the table as she patted her throat with the other. With tears in the corners of her eyes, still choking, the madwoman turned on her chair to face the doorway, where one cocky-looking woman stood, leaned against the wall just aside the door with her arms crossed beneath her chest, a huge smirk on her lips as she watched Jinx struggle for air.

Finally, just as she was slowly starting to turn blue, Jinx recovered and spat the barely chewed cereals onto the table before her, not caring how gross or disgusting that was. The other woman didn't seem to care either, the smirk even grew a bit.

"Didn't think you'd take the 'vomitting cornflakes' part serious. Hats off to you, you know how to put a song into real life." taunted the pink-haired woman as she pushed herself off the wall, flicked a small Kog-Maw toy onto the table that unmistakably happened to be the surprise the maniac had been looking for, and began to approach Jinx, leaning over the table, "Hey there, how's it goin', Dr. Inks?"

"Fat Hands?" coughed Jinx, confused at the other woman's sudden appearance, "How the heck did you get into my hideout? How do you even know where it is?!"

Vi smirked, self-pleased, and nodded over to the removed window that Jinx remembered briefly acknowledging before she opened her fridge. And scowled as she remembered that she had entered Vi's apartment the same way two weeks prior, removing the window of the enforcer's kitchen and leaving it laying around.

"Thought I'd repay the favor and drop by. Ya know, out of the blue. Throw your plans for the evening out of the window, so to speak." chuckled the pink-haired woman, pulling a chair up and making herself comfortable on it, "As for how I knew where your hideout was – there never was a time when I didn't know. I know you too well, Jinx. You've become kind of predictable to me."

"Isn't this breaking and entering?" inquired Jinx, but remained ignored by the other woman.

"Besides, these are the lawless outskirts of Piltover, girl. I grew up in here. I know them in and out. And this here...", Vi gestured to the living room, still smirking, then down to the floor, "Is actually a place I have used as a hideout myself before. I've spent most of my lawless days exactly in this building here. Gotta say, girl, you have taste."

Frowning, Jinx stared at the pink-haired woman in a mixture of disbelief and confusion. And shoved another spoonful of cereals into her mouth while keeping an unimpressed expression that was supposed to tell Vi that she hadn't explained why she had broken into the criminals hideout. Slowly munching, she continued to stare.

"I need to talk to you about something. Call it a proposition. One you just can't refuse if you hear it." replied Vi eventually. In return, Jinx simply shoved another spoonful of cereals into her mouth. She wasn't ready for that amount of bullshit until after breakfast. Nonetheless, she gestured to the chair that Vi already sat in, a gesture of 'Be my guest. You're welcome', which Vi reciprocated with a smile.

Eventually, Jinx swallowed.

"I'm all ears. Isn't every day I got Piltover's enforcer in my humble abode, after all." she taunted, but then gestured to the fridge, "You want something? There's beer in the fridge, if you want, go ahead and grab it. It's only fair, given your hospitality the last time. I quite enjoyed that beer at your place."

"I just don't recall offering it to you, but that's just me." Vi chuckled uneasily, "But yeah, don't mind if I do." She rose from the chair and made her way to the fridge, pulling it open and frowning at the tune that played. Eventually putting it aside as just another one of Jinx's weird things, she began to rummage through the fridge, which was mostly filled with sweets, candy bars and instant food.

"You're not a great cook, huh?" mused the enforcer as she eyed a bowl of instant ramen.

"Let's call it that way." was Jinx's tired reply, "The last time I tried to cook something, I accidentally build a bookshelf, created the ultimate lifeform, and turned my kitchen into an active volcano." Vi stared in disbelief over her shoulder, and Jinx, despite not seeing it, shrugged. "And I still don't know how that happened when I just tried to make pancakes!"

"Okay. Crazy?" muttered Vi uneasily, but eventually coughed and recovered as she remembered her own cooking skills, pulling open one of the drawers at the bottom of the fridge when she didn't find the beer – and immediately found herself staring in disbelief at her new discovery.

"Is that a frozen chicken? Like, frozen in it's entirety?! With feathers and all?!" she squeaked, frowning in disbelief at her discovery.

"Well, that's actually a funny story..." giggled Jinx around another mouthful of cereal, swallowed it before she turned in her chair and continued, "Ya see, at this one point, I was experimenting with this new kind of weapon, a Freeze Ray Rifle. It worked just fine on water, ice cream and lifeless objects, but I hadn't tested it on organisms yet, and actually just wanted to do that to avoid killing someone on accident. I wasn't intending to try it on that chicken, I swear, but it was still around from another experiment, and it accidentally got in the way and..." Jinx giggled uneasily, "Well, now it's a handy chicken sword! Surprise your enemies with it!"

"You're mad."

"Don' tell me you just figured that out. After all those years, Fat Hands."

"Touché."

The brawler grabbed a can of beer from underneath the frozen chicken for herself, shoving it gently aside to get it, then one for her host. With the cold beverage in hand, she returned to the table, where Jinx had just finished her cereals, and had moved on to a toast.

"Want some?" asked the madwoman, but received the shake of a head in return. She shrugged, but placed her toast in the toaster, pushing it down, then catching the can of beer when Vi threw it to her. "Now, you wanted to talk about something? Something about an offer?"

"Actually, yes." replied Vi, sinking into the chair and opening the can of beer with the skilled movement of a finger, while Jinx used her teeth to do so, "Let's start off by saying that I ain't here on duty. Actually, I'm not Piltover's enforcer anymore."

Jinx gently rose an electric-blue eyebrow, frowning at her unlikely guest. "You've been promoted then? You want me to congratulate you? Nicely done, Fat Hands. You just slept your way up with the sheriff. Still doesn't explain why you broke into my home and tried to steal my shit. That surprise from the cereal box is mine!"

"And it can stay yours, I was just messing with you!" the pink-haired woman rolled her eyes, but managed a weak smile as Jinx rose the beverage to her lips, "And actually, no. I didn't sleep with Cait. I'm not even a member of the police force anymore."

Pink eyes widened, followed by the maniac choking again, this time on her beer. Vi found herself rolling her eyes yet again, especially when Jinx spilled some of the cold beverage on her own legs as she coughed, and had to lean forwards to avoid making a mess out of herself.

"T-Timeout! You guys got to stop throwing such things at me when I'm eating or drinking, geez!" coughed the madwoman, but seemed to recover relatively quick nonetheless, as she sat up again and took a deep breath, "But what the hell, Fat Hands? You got thrown out by your girlfriend? And now you want to crash at my place?"

"Actually, I quit. Just this morning. And I got my own place, like I'm going to stay at this run-down excuse for a house for no reason!"

"And what the bloody hell would make you come to me of all people? What do I have to do with you dumping your girlfriend? And what for, actually? The two of you were all lovey-dovey and over each other and making out and doin' couple stuff when I last saw you!" growled the older woman, leaning back in her chair. Vi frowned at her, not understanding the reason for Jinx getting so worked up over her leaving the police force. But Jinx didn't know the whole thing yet. Knowing it would change her mood, Vi knew it.

She took a deep breath to begin, but was interrupted by the toaster. Jinx's toast shot up into the air, leaving the madwoman to catch it with her free hand. Something else shot out as well, three golden triangles connecting to a big triangle that was missing one upside-down triangle in the middle, but the object descended as quickly as it had ascended, and vanished inside toaster again. Vi didn't even question it, though she wondered what exactly the golden object had been, and what it was doing in Jinx's toaster.

"I never broke up with her, Jinx." sighed the pink-haired woman, "I just quit the police force. And it's complicated."

"Well, I'm listening. I'm a psychologist and relationship expert, ya know? So what is your problem, Fat Hands?"

Vi rolled her eyes, couldn't quite believe that Jinx was still using that joke, but didn't make a comment on it, merely took a long swig of her beer. How was she going to explain this best? It had taken her hours to make this one decision, the one decision she had to quit the police force for. Countless thoughts had been wasted, every possible scenario had played itself out in her head while she had locked herself into her workshop.

And there she was, just one sentence away from her goal. Just one step away from tying up the loose ends.

"There's no problem anymore, Jinx. Not anymore." Vi gently smiled at the villainess that was chewing on her toast, "Would you please stop eating for a moment so you don't choke again?"

Jinx froze up, but then rolled her eyes and lowered the toast with a low 'Fine'. Vi smirked.

"I quit the police force for a good reason. I enjoyed my time there, with Cait, with all the work to do. The people." Vi sighed, took another swig, "But there's something missing. Someone. Someone that should've been at my side for most my life, but wasn't."

Jinx frowned, could already guess who Vi meant, but didn't understand the connection. Not until Vi leaned closer and smirked.

"I'm done with being the good guy. It was nice while it lasted, and even though being a criminal ain't my style, I can live with it. As long as we work together again, Jay." Vi extended a hand to the other woman, enjoyed the shocked expression on her face, "If not on the good side of the law, then on the bad side."

Jinx's toast hit the table, and while not landing on the buttered side, her jaw followed right after. So to speak. Just as Vi had predicted, her offer had caught Jinx completely off guard, had stunned her. Justified – After all, Vi was just saying that she'd turn her back on that which had fulfilled her, just to come back to her.

Just to be with her again.

Realization was slowly seeping through, Vi saw it on the madwoman's face. Saw, how excitement began to sparkle in the pink eyes of the older female, how the right corner of her lips slowly began to twitch upwards. Jinx was enjoying the offer, was playing out some scenario in her crazy mind, Vi knew that – and smiled as she saw it.

With a sudden movement, Jinx had shot up, almost knocking her chair over in the process. The half-eaten toast flew across the room, hit the wall above the garbage can and fell into it, but was completely ignored by either occupant of the room.

Before Vi could fully realize it, Jinx had pulled the taller female out of the chair she sat in, and had jumped at her, hugging her with nearly inhuman strength. And again, as Vi patted the head of the smaller woman, she could only smile.

Smile softly like she hadn't smiled in over ten years.

"For real? Do you mean it?" pressed Jinx on, sounding like the excited kid she was deep down, "Just the two of us? Throwing Piltover into chaos? Vandalizing boring white walls with our artwork? Spraying funny lines onto buildings? Breaking into banks for no reason other than to anger your ex? Riding unicorns into the sunset?! Does Soraka count as unicorn?!"

"Jay, calm the hell down!" laughed the pinkette and pushed the criminal down into the chair she had sat in before, "You're getting excited!"

"I have every right to! You're back! You're yourself again! The dreaded duo is complete once more! The criminal chicks! The sardonic sisters! I don't even know what sardonic means!" Jinx jumped up again and bounced up and down, "We shall bring terror onto Piltover! Destruction! More baked goods! They will regret not having any donuts last Friday!"

"But Jinx, you ate all the donuts yourself!" chimed in Fishbones from the side, though it was, as usual, just Jinx using a different voice. And this time, Vi could merely smile and roll her eyes at the crazy woman's behavior. It was actually a little bit funny.

"Oh, oh! Let's find the League's greatest asshole and break his legs!" Jinx threw her arms into the air – and quickly lost all excitement in favor of a thoughtful expression, "What If it's Hecarim? He's got four legs! Do we have to break all four? And Cassiopeia and Vel'koz don't even have legs! What if one of them is the biggest asshole? Wait, Nami doesn't either!"

Jinx was overdoing it again, but Vi didn't care for once. Amused, she leaned against the chair she had sat in before, watched as Jinx kept ranting to herself about how a few people she had met over the years didn't possess any legs.

"And holy shit, Vi, Elise got eight legs! Imagine if she's the League's biggest asshole! We'd have so much fun breaking all those legs!"

"Jay, calm the hell down. You're ranting." chuckled the brawler, placing a hand on the electric-blue-haired woman's right shoulder, "Besides, while I agree with you that we should do something fun for the sake of the old times, I think we should do something different. Something real big, real amusing and real crazy. You've got to have a plan for something like that."

Jinx's excited grin confirmed this. She waved a finger, excitedly bit down on her tongue and suddenly rushed out of the room – the sound of her falling over something followed next, the sound of piles of junk crashing down. And only a few groans of pains later, she came back in.

"Owwie. Okay, I just show it to you later." hissed the madwoman as she returned to the room, rubbing her lower back, "But I got exactly what you want! We break into that new bank in downtown and make our way down to the vault! I even have a plan for that which involves you!"

"Why do I have the feeling it was supposed to be like our first meeting here in Piltover? You making me chase you through the walls of a treasury until it comes down on us?" inquired the brawler, to which Jinx showed her a sheepish grin.

"Nothing like a good reminder of one of our funniest games, right?" chuckled the maniac in response, "But we don't have to resort to that anymore. We're gonna use the plan I just made up now! Well, the new version of the plan I made originally. I got the blueprints..."

She turned to the door, pointed into the other room – the same room she had vanished into moments earlier and had fallen over something – while still rolling the 's' and smiled, but seemed to be thinking real hard about something.

"Somewhere." she finished sheepishly, "But I'll find them. Anyways, with you on my side now, we do it a little different. We start with you going in through the front entrance – they won't suspect a thing – while I take care of the..." Jinx hesitated, stopped the movement of her fingers that meant to represent Vi walking, smirked, "Distraction."

"Your beloved Plan B? Explosives?"

"Actually, my old Plan B has long become Plan A, but yeah. And when my charges go off, you pull your gauntlets out, we play some tag, we have some fun doing that while people think you're still the enforcer chasing the dreaded criminal, and once we get bored and the police is about to show up, we start wrecking the place until it comes down! That ought to make Piltover less boring for a while!"

"As long as no one gets hurt, I'm in."

Jinx's smile dropped at Vi's condition, she frowned for a moment at her new partner-in-crime – that literally – but after a few seconds, shrugged and smiled again.

"Fine. We tone it down a bit with the violence towards people if that's your condition for working with me. But less hurting people means some more property damage!" snickered Jinx with a shrug. Vi nodded, let Jinx's mad smirk infect her.

"Fine. When will we head out, Jay?"

A nasty smirk found it's way onto the lips of the madwoman. In silence, Vi watched as Jinx went for the fridge and rummaged through it, eventually pulling out a candy bar that she unwrapped with her teeth and bit down on, before reaching back inside the fridge.

She suddenly twirled around, and to Vi's amusement and horror, held the frozen chicken skyward by it's legs. "We strike as soon as I find those blueprints and went over the plan again!" exclaimed the madwoman around the candy bar in her mouth, a self-pleased smirk on her lips – but then, slowly lowered the chicken and frowned at it, then into the drawer in the fridge she had pulled it from, "And I finally got rid of this thing here. I don't know why I even kept it. Well! At least it won't rot for the next... twenty years or so? Freeze guns are amazing, aren't they?"

Carelessly, she tossed the frozen chicken aside and closed the fridge with her right foot behind her back.

"Whatever happened to that freeze ray thing anyways?" inquired the pinkette, even though she already knew she'd probably regret asking. And indeed, with how Jinx chuckled, it couldn't be anything good.

"Let's just say I took it apart and found another purpose for it." replied Jinx and shrugged, "And that I'm neither paying anything for using my fridge since it doesn't require electricity, nor do I possess an AC Unit."

"Figured as much." snorted Vi, somewhat amused by the thought that a cryogenic core was cooling the beer, "It was probably for the better to not use that thing as a weapon longer than necessary."

"Probably. It was kinda unstable, anyways. I didn't use enough of this weird ore that I dug up in the jungle – I should show you that sometime, it's really amazing. That stuff is some kind of ore that keeps itself frozen. Works perfect for building something that would otherwise overheat quickly!" Jinx grew thoughtful again, rubbing her lower lip gently, "Though I'm not quite sure how it does keep itself frozen. Touching it with bare hands isn't any good, either. Gives the word 'Freezer burn' a completely new meaning, let me tell ya."

"You're using experimental, non-researched ores that are possibly radioactive for building your stuff?"

"Not really. Only did that with the Freeze Ray Rifle. I was intending to use it more once I understood it. Even I am not as crazy as to use stuff I don't really understand." complained the madwoman, sounding as if she was taking offense at Vi's words

"Uh-huh."

"Skepticism is not appreciated in this partnership!" huffed Jinx at the brawler's tone and the questioning raise of an eyebrow.

"But necessary." snorted Vi. And Jinx frowned.

"Well, that's true." she admitted, looking back to her past actions for a second, before letting out a sigh and growing excited again, "So anyways! We better prepare ourselves! I'm not missing this chance to work with you after so long!"

Excitement took her over again, and just like an affectionate puppy, she lunged at the other woman again, wrapping her arms around her again.

"Aw, I can't believe you came back to me!"

"Me neither." sighed the taller woman, softly patting Jinx's head, "Me neither."

Seconds that felt like hours passed, with Vi eventually lowering her hands and hugging the smaller female back, melting into the warm embrace. Gently, she lowered her head and rested her chin on Jinx's head, breathing in the smell of her hair, letting it intoxicate her.

For how long had she been yearning for this, deep down? How long had she tried to bring Jinx back to justice? It had taken her years to realize this one thing – if not with Jinx on the good side, it was her with Jinx on the bad side. Such a simple thing, and yet such a hard and serious decision.

But it was all worth it. All the troubles worth this one moment, where she held Jinx in her arms again. After all those years.

"...Can I still call you fat hands?"

With a soft sigh and a gentle smile, Vi hit Jinx on the head with her fist.

---

A dark mood resided within the holding cells of the Piltover Police Station, emitted by the shady individuals sitting in the cells, of which a few had already gone to sleep, with it being close to nightfall. Few criminals ever went there without a reason, and of the police force, only the guards and the sheriff herself entered the back of the station, where the cells were located.

Usually, the place was lively. Full of criminals who complained, ranted and talked. But on that day, even they were quiet. Even they felt the way darker mood that had entered the prison part of the station. And the other dark mood at the back of the corridor, in the special holding cell, trying to compete with it.

And no one wanted to get in the way of either.

With secure steps and a glum expression, Caitlyn directed her steps directly towards the small window in the room after entering the prison section, watched as the man that sat in the small room behind it looked up from his book and offered her a weak smile.

"Sheriff Caitlyn." he greeted curtly, waited for her to nod in appreciation before he straightened himself and came closer to the window.

"I'm here to see... her." muttered Caitlyn quickly, knowing the man behind the window would understand.

Indeed, the man behind the window nodded curtly, mumbled something she didn't quite understand, and pressed a button that was on the control panel to his right. Immediately, a deep horn rung, and the bars that blocked off the corridor to the prison section slowly began to retract into the opposite wall. The sheriff thanked the man curtly, but paid him no attention other than that, too many things on her mind at the moment.

Wordlessly, she stepped into the corridor that had opened, ignored the glares, stares and frowns she received from the inmates in the cells on either side of her, instead walked down the corridor with her gaze straight up ahead and a goal set on her mind.

No one dared to say anything as the sheriff walked by in her glum mood, no one dared to even make as much as a noise, and yet they all stared. Stared in wonder at the otherwise so polite and happy woman that now seemed so far away. Like a distant memory.

Caitlyn reached her goal relatively fast. The prison section wasn't that big, it was merely meant as means to store lesser criminals, drunks or those she had yet to interrogate, with the worse ones going directly to the main prison of Piltover. And while the one she was looking for was not a lesser criminal and quite dangerous, she wasn't to be put into prison, and merely waiting to be picked up.

"Miss Du Couteau." spoke Caitlyn, void of emotion, eyes glued to the woman that sat hunched up at the bottom of the wall at the back of the cell, just beside the bed. With a groan, the Sinister Blade rose her gaze and glared at the sheriff, obviously not taking too kindly at being locked up for more than two weeks.

While Caitlyn certainly remembered seeing friendlier faces, at least it allowed her to see the state that Katarina was in – Fully healed. After the beating she had gotten from Jinx and Vi two weeks prior, she had looked a lot worse, with most of her face swollen and a few teeth missing, but even those had been replaced. The wonders of the city of progress were sheer endless.

"If that ain't the sheriff." snorted Katarina in sarcasm, no intention of hiding her anger, "What brings you down here into this hole? And without your little loyal mutt, of all?"

"I came to tell you that someone came to bail you out. They paid for you." replied Caitlyn coldly, pointing down the corridor, "You're free to go. But I best don't find you living out the problems between Demacia and Noxus again in Piltover. As soon as you're out the station, you head directly - and I mean directly – for the closest exit to the city. And the next time you want to enter it, you will have to announce your visit directly to me. Ignoring that will send you to a less friendly place than this. And no amount of money will bail you out of there."

"Yeah yeah.", huffed the Sinister Blade dismissively as she pushed herself up, climbing to her feet and dusting herself off, "About time Noxus sent someone to buy me free."

Caitlyn used the moment to open the door to the cell, but didn't comment on the Sinister Blade's words. Instead, she took a few steps to the side after pulling the door open, allowing Katarina to step out of her confinement. Of course, the woman didn't wait a second to do so, stretching her tired limbs as if she had the best rest of all time just prior to that.

"Where can I find my weapons?" she asked Caitlyn, smirked in the most self-pleased manner that Caitlyn had ever seen her do, letting the sheriff know that she thought she had the upper hand. And quite frankly, she had. There was nothing Caitlyn could do to keep her locked in, her ransom was paid, and unless Katarina would attack her – and she doubted the Sinister Blade would do that – there was no way, and no reason, to keep her in prison.

If she would have to be honest, Caitlyn didn't even want her there. Wanted her far, far away from Piltover. Piltover had it's own problems and struggles, and the war between Noxus and Demacia was the last thing it needed on top of that. Especially a political assassination taking place in it.

It needed an enforcer, first of all.

"I gave your weapons to the one who came to pick you up with the instruction to not give them to you until you're out of Piltover. She's waiting outside the holding cells in the station." replied Caitlyn coldly, narrowed her eyes at Katarina. It wasn't that she outright disliked the woman from Noxus, she even respected her as a fighter – But Katarina's brutal, vicious, ruthless way of handling things and her obsession with killing anything and anyone from Demacia that came in her path was anything but what the sheriff of Piltover could accept or would approve of.

Katarina raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but shrugged it off, even smirked a little at the sheriff.

"Probably for the better. Don't know what I'd have done if I had them and met your stupid loyal mutt of an enforcer and her crazy nemesis on my way out." a cruel laugh escaped Katarina just as she passed Caitlyn, "I don't know why they worked together when they're usually at each others throat or why that shrimp with the big guns worked on your side, and to be quite honest, I don't give a damn."

The blade-wielding woman was so into her rant, she didn't even notice as Caitlyn's stoic expression slowly fell apart, turning into a glum, depressed look, a pained expression. Vi was gone for little more than twelve hours, and Caitlyn had still not yet accepted the enforcer's disappearance.

Accepting it would mean that an important part of her life had already come to an end. Her first true love – gone. After just a few weeks. And even though the rational part of her mind screamed that 'nothing was meant to stay forever', she didn't want to accept it.

Didn't want to accept the emptiness in her heart that had appeared with Vi's leave.

"Are these two idiots here?" inquired Katarina, snickered maliciously, "I want to see their expressions when I tell them I will have my revenge one day. Will it be fear? Anger? Maybe they see it as a challenge. They do that all the time, don't they? Especially that 'no brain, all brawn'-enforcer of yours."

"Vi isn't Piltover's enforcer anymore."

Katarina froze up, hesitated as she heard the dejected tone of the sheriff. She even flinched a bit, not used to experiencing the sheriff of Piltover in such low spirits, knowing her as a very calm and resolute woman from the few encounters they had and the things said about her. An excellent sniper that kept a cool head even in the midst of battle, a masterful tactician and a loyal and reliable person. Serious and by-the-book, but fun-loving in general with a very reasonable view of what was right and what wrong. And of course always accompanied by the enforcer of Piltover, Vi.

Now, as Katarina slowly turned and took in the sight of the glum woman in front of her, Caitlyn was lacking most of these things. She seemed lost in her thoughts, mind far away, lacked her fun-loving side and had it replaced with a dark, almost depressed aura. And Vi was nowhere to be seen, either.

Katarina's smirk fell, all amusement gone.

"What do you mean by that?" she inquired carefully, almost hesitantly. All anger and hostility towards the sheriff was gone within the blink of an eye, replaced with something akin to worry. To have changed Caitlyn like that, that sentence couldn't mean anything good.

Slowly, Caitlyn rose her right hand, rubbed the bridge of her nose in irritation and the attempt to stop the negative emotions from taking her over again. The last thing she needed was for her to break down in front of Katarina. The thing with Vi was mostly personal, and while it had some relation to her job, she still couldn't allow the two to mix.

"Vi's gone." she replied, not trusting herself with longer sentences. Not without letting her emotions betray her through her voice. She was unaware of the thought she triggered inside the Sinister Blade's head, unaware of the other woman trying to find a considerate way to ask, but failing.

"Dead?"

A horrible chill went down Caitlyn's spine. No, Vi wasn't dead. She wouldn't quit the police force to do something so reckless that she'd put her life into danger. She wouldn't go and throw her life away just like that. So Caitlyn twirled around stared at Katarina.

"No." she hissed, probably a little colder than initially intended, "Vi isn't dead. She isn't gone like that, she..."

Katarina rose an eyebrow as Caitlyn trailed off again, as the pained and troubled expression returned onto Caitlyn's features. Letting out a soft sigh, the Sinister Blade, despite knowing she'd regret it later on, let her softer side through.

"Come on." spoke Katarina softly, placed a hand on Caitlyn's left shoulder and gently guided her into the cell she had just been let out of, gestured Caitlyn to sit down on one of the wooden stools that stood inside by a small table, just near the bed, "Sit down."

With a heavy sigh, Caitlyn slumped onto the stool, didn't feel like putting up resistance. It didn't seem like Katarina had any ill intentions, not with the way she rested herself against the wall not too far from Caitlyn and stared at her expectantly.

"Tell me exactly what happened." demanded the Sinister Blade all of sudden, expression serious and arms crossed beneath her chest, upper back leaned against the concrete wall, "I know I may not seem to be the best person to talk with about things like these, and frankly, I don't think I am. But I don't think you have much of a choice. And I'm willing to listen."

Katarina closed her eyes, thus connecting the parts of the scar above and below her left eye.

"Even I'm not bad all throughout." she added under her breath, surprisingly soft, but quickly regained the edge to her voice, covered her small slip-up with a mask of seriousness, "Now spill it already, Caitlyn. What the hell do you mean with 'Vi's gone'? You say she isn't dead, but why the hell would that loyal mutt ever leave your side? She's been following you around ever since I first met you, and probably longer."

"You're not exactly the most likely person for me to turn to..." sighed the sheriff, but Katarina noticed nonetheless how Caitlyn slowly relaxed a bit, "But I guess you're right. Fine, I'll tell you."

The Sinister Blade nodded in understanding, relaxed a bit as well and gained a more stoic expression as she waited for the sheriff to begin. For a few seconds, Caitlyn didn't say anything, got lost in her own thoughts again as she tried to gather her thoughts and put them into the right order, looking for the point where she should start.

"I guess it all started a few weeks ago when..." Caitlyn trailed off again already, the images of an angry Vi and a very amused Jinx flashing in front of her inner eye for second, "When Jinx fell out of her usual pattern. Her falling out of her pattern had it's effect on both me and Vi, more so on Vi. She was angrier than usual, more irrational."

"So it started with the insane brat?" mused Katarina, but nodded to herself as she closed her eyes, "Should've known. People say that she has way more effect on Vi than either of them would want to admit."

"You have no idea how right you are." sighed Caitlyn, lowered her head onto her hands, elbows resting on top of the table, covering her upper face with her hands, "Jinx used a time bomb to blow up a factory, luring us away from our office so she could set up what she deemed another 'game'. She placed whoopee cushions on our seats, under the cushions, and made us believe we were sitting on contact mines."

Katarina's eyebrow shot up, immediately realizing the logic behind Jinx's actions from that night. "A mind game. She wanted to put pressure onto you. For what reason?"

"Call it 'interrogation'. She called it 'truth or dare', with the only dare being the one to stand up and blow us all to pieces." a shudder went through Caitlyn's body, experiencing the same fear she had felt that night for a second, "I'm still not quite sure what her real intentions were that night. All I know is that she asked questions regarding my relationship with Vi. And that it brought us together. Jinx left after that."

"As in 'dating'? If so, congratulations. You may not want to hear this, but people were wondering when you and Vi would finally start dating." commented the Sinister Blade, "Do you think that was Jinx's intention? To get you and Vi finally together?"

"Possibly. She dropped some hints into that direction." replied Caitlyn, rose her gaze to meet that of Katarina, "Next, she lured Vi and me into an apartment. To make it short, she tricked us and blew the apartment up. After we were outside."

"No explanation as to why she blew that apartment up? If not, I suspect it was to show that she was back to her old pattern. A symbol that she had finished her job." mused Katarina, waited for the nod of the sheriff. Caitlyn did nod.

"Exactly what I thought. And yet she continued to behave out of character. Vanished off the face of the earth for an entire week. She had never done that before. And then, she just showed up in Vi's apartment out of nowhere, behaved casual. Like she usually would. Unpredictable."

"I guess that was the day I got my face remodeled?" snorted the Sinister Blade, but didn't expect Caitlyn to shake her head.

"Two days prior. We managed to convince her to try the other side of the law for once, but she needed time to prepare. For whatever reason, she showed up in Vi's apartment that night again, but Vi refused to tell me what exactly happened, aside from the fact that they apparently bonded over some mechanical stuff." sighed the sheriff.

"You know, they are pretty similar in that aspect." commented Katarina, closed her eyes again, but grew more thoughtful, "Come to think of it, comparing the things I heard about either of them, they are pretty similar in many aspects. Only difference is their mindset. And their level of madness."

While Caitlyn left that without comment, she couldn't help but agree. Had always thought the same. Vi and Jinx were so alike that it wasn't just a coincidence. As it wasn't a coincidence that they were exact opposites in other aspects. No coincidences.

"She appeared two days later in the station, fully prepared. We went with her on patrol, it wasn't exactly her thing because she deemed it 'boring'. You know what happened next."

"Your enforcer and her crazy nemesis happened next. To me." growled Katarina, revealed just how much rage she still felt inside at that event, "But please go on. I get the feeling that something important follows next."

"The police governor's party. We went there with Jinx, and at first everything was alright, Jinx even admitted that she enjoyed that day, somewhere deep down." a knot formed inside Caitlyn's throat, the rest of that evening's events becoming painfully obvious to her once more, "And then, Jinx changed. Said something about a bad day that she and Vi experienced, something about a death they experienced. Jinx was slowly losing it completely, fell deeper and deeper into her own madness as she and Vi screamed at each other. She talked about her own madness, how she saw it, said something about a dream. And a grating..."

Caitlyn lowered her head again, once more covered her eyes with her hands.

"That was two weeks ago. And Vi hasn't been the same since that night. She was lost in her own thoughts when we returned to her apartment that night. It was the first time I ever saw her so down, and about Jinx of all people, she didn't even realize I was in the room when she..." Caitlyn bit down on her tongue, trailed off. Vi's secret. The tattoos. Jinx's tattoos on her body. She couldn't tell anybody about those.

"Vi's been distant from that day on, even towards me. She kept falling into her daydreams, retreated into her workshop all by herself. She avoided people, avoided me. It kept getting worse as the two weeks progressed. I saw less and less of her. And this morning..." Caitlyn swallowed again, wondered if talking had always been that hard, "This morning, she quit the police force. Said she had something to do that she couldn't do as long as she had the badge."

Tears threatened to fall after all, but Katarina wouldn't see them, Caitlyn made sure of that when she let her face sink deeper into her hands.

"She left me. Didn't break up with me, reassured me that she loved me. And yet, she left. And I feel like she's not going to come back. That the next time I see her, she might be..." She stopped herself, took a deep breath.

"I see." muttered Katarina after a few minutes of silence. She, too, was growing thoughtful. The situation was a lot more complex than what she had assumed at first, but at least she understood the weird mood that Caitlyn was in now. Experiencing something like that, even she would've not been able to be herself.

Caitlyn, while not enjoying the silence that followed very much, still appreciated it. It gave her time to collect herself again, time to gather her thoughts and calm down. The wounds were still too fresh, the worry about her former partner's behavior still too much of a shock and burden on her mind.

"She's with the brat."

Caitlyn froze up, rose her gaze and stared in wonder at Katarina, who had begun to frown at the wall opposite to her.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I'm assured she's with the brat. After all I've just heard, I'm quite sure that there's some deeper connection between them, something in their past. Before you were there, I mean." continued the Sinister Blade, glanced towards Caitlyn, "And I'm sure you've come to the same conclusion."

Weakly, Caitlyn nodded. Yes, she had indeed wondered about that several times, and had always come to the same conclusion, the conclusion that the two of them knew each other from before Vi's day as the enforcer, and before Jinx's days as a criminal. How, she didn't know. Had never found the explanation for it. Jinx was from Zaun, that much did Caitlyn know, and Vi had never let on that she was from Zaun as well. For all Caitlyn knew, Vi was from Piltover.

"What I'm saying is, that I think that your enforcer has come to the conclusion that whatever connects her to Jinx needs closure. She knows Jinx is a criminal, and if she truly knows more about Jinx than she lets on, she doesn't want to pull you or the police force into it if she brings that old connection to light. That explains, at least to me, why she put the badge down." Katarina turned to stare at the wall opposite to her again, "Have you ever heard of it? 'The ties that bind'?"

Again, gathering what little strength she had left after the depressing day, Caitlyn nodded.

"I think Vi wants to sever them. Or at least bring whatever connects her to Jinx to a close." revealed Katarina and took a deep breath, pushed herself off the wall, "She wants to come to terms with her past, Caitlyn."

The sheriff found herself surprised by how gentle the voice of the other woman was, how gentle and genuinely caring Katarina was, despite her usual brutal and cold self. Even more of a shock was it to the sheriff as Katarina approached her, crouched down in front of her and looked her into the eyes with an emotion that could only be worry. Genuine concern. Two pair of blue eyes met.

And then, Katarina embraced Caitlyn, hugged her and held her close for a few second.

"Have some trust in Vi. I'm not saying that you should approve of what she does, or that what she does is right. But what I'm saying is..." Katarina gently pulled back, rose to her full height and offered a smile that was surprisingly genuine, "If you don't have trust in Vi, then I don't know who has."

Katarina bowed in respect to the sheriff, found herself a little surprised how much her view on Caitlyn had changed in the past few minutes, how she had come from anger to genuine concern about the sheriff, but decided that their conversation was over. She had done her part, she saw it in Caitlyn's eyes. She had reassured the sheriff, had given her new hope and new understanding of her partner in a time when Caitlyn couldn't understand her. Sometimes, all it took was a look at the problem from a different perspective, a new angle, that of someone who wasn't in relation to the problem.

And yet, as she left the cell, she took a deep breath and whispered the part that she had omitted to the sheriff under her breath, let the worry through that she had tried to hide in the last moment. "Cause I don't think she trusts herself with the decision she made, Caitlyn."

Caitlyn followed the Sinister Blade with her eyes as she left, watched as Katarina left the prison part of the station to meet up with the one who came to pick her up. While Caitlyn still couldn't smile again, still didn't fully understand Vi's actions, she at least felt a lot more calm. And that meant she could finally make rational thoughts again. It was time to sit back and think about things on her own. And maybe, she'd finally understand whatever connected the two – Vi and Jinx.

"What?! Y-you?!" she heard the Sinister Blade shriek all of sudden, and could only smile weakly in amusement as she imagined the expression of Katarina at that moment. She must've just met the person who had come to bail her out, the one that had payed her ransom - It wasn't someone from Noxus, which Caitlyn had until then purposely omitted. For whatever reason, she wasn't sure herself.

It was quiet for a moment - Caitlyn guessed that the other, way more calm and gentle person was talking – then Katarina was heard again, much to Caitlyn's amusement.

"Ashe! I thought we wanted to keep this... You know..." As Katarina trailed off, sounding embarrassed, Caitlyn let out a soft chuckle and rose from her seat, gently pulled her hat a little deeper. She let her gaze roam through the room to ensure that she had everything with her and that Katarina hadn't missed a thing, and then left the cell as well, following Katarina back into the station.

The man who had opened the corridor closed it behind her again, waited until she nodded to assure him that everything was fine, and went back to his book – Caitlyn could only imagine how boring his everyday work was, but they all had their burdens to carry, and each had their role – after ensuring that the gate was properly closed again.

Stepping back into the lighter part of the station, Caitlyn passed a few officers, greeted them with curt nods. When she spotted the Sinister Blade and the Frost Archer, with the pale woman with the white hair scolding the scarred woman, she let out a small chuckle as she passed Katarina, enjoying how the blush on the Sinister Blade's face grew more intense upon hearing the sheriff's chuckle.

But no word was exchanged, and Caitlyn continued her path throughout the station back to the office she had shared with Vi until that morning. Even that felt less lively, felt empty and cold as she entered it, not like it used to without the enforcer.

But Katarina's words had given her a spark of new hope again. Vi knew what she did, she wasn't stupid, was smarter than people gave her credit for. Heck, she was probably as smart as Caitlyn, if not even smarter – Maybe not as much in the tactical aspect, but definitely when it came to mechanics and understanding of the criminal mind. After all, as Caitlyn knew, she couldn't build some mechanical wonder from scratch with just a bit of junk, like Vi could. And because of that, she always found herself amazed at the brawler's skills. At the things she created with just a few pieces of iron, often giving old things a new functionality. And also, Vi was way more precise with her thin fingers than people would believe, despite her otherwise brute and rough use of her hands.

The sheriff fell into her chair, shivered as she was reminded of the night that Jinx had come to play her mind game with them. But there was no whoopee cushion this time, she was sure of that.

Letting out a sigh and leaning her head back for a moment, Caitlyn concentrated on the situation at hand, found herself wondering slightly if her partner truly had set out to search for her nemesis. Was Katarina right? Was Vi out there to finally put the thing with Jinx to a close?

She groaned as she leaned forward, reaching for the reports she had put aside that morning. Unfortunately, she forgot the plastic cup she kept her pens in for a moment, and ended up knocking it over, hissing in irritation as they spread across her desk, with one of them falling over the edge, clattering as it hit the tiled floor and bounced along it, vanishing underneath her desk.

With another groan, she pushed her chair back, leaned down to pick up the pen, reaching for it – and freezing up as she spotted it. Aside from the fact that the cleaning staff had been lazy and had neglected some parts of her and Vi's office, there lay something underneath the table that made Caitlyn shiver.

It was a simple playing card. Or at least, it appeared simple at first glance. A simple joker card. Aside from the fact that someone had scribbled over the 'J' in each corner of the card with a pink permanent marker. They spelled 'Jinx' now instead.

Gently, Caitlyn picked the card up, along with the pen, and sat up. She frowned at the card, felt how memories flooded her mind. Memories of the night of Jinx's game, the night that had started them all. Jinx had brought that card with her, had used it to mock them.

And one sentence from Jinx that night echoed through Caitlyn's head again.

"Don't you get it, fat hands?" Jinx had asked Vi as she had stood by the window, back to them, "This is it, fat hands. This is the killing joke."

Deep in thoughts, Caitlyn stared at the card, everything else forgotten again. The night played itself out in her mind again, before her inner eye. How different Jinx had seemed that night, how much pressure she had put onto them. Something hadn't been quite right with Jinx that night.

It wasn't Vi who had messed up their game, who had led them all to that day, that situation. It had been Jinx. Something in Jinx had changed that night, and it had led them to that point. If she only knew what it was. Surely, it would explain it all, all from Jinx's weird behavior to how it affected Vi. How it had changed her.

"Sheriff!" the door flew open and an officer stumbled into the room, panic in his eyes. Caitlyn looked up from the card, frowned at him.

"It's her! She's back, they saw her! At the new bank in downtown!"

"Who's back?" inquired Caitlyn, even if she already had her suspicions. She narrowed her eyes, prepared herself, fingers holding the playing card tighter.

"Jinx!"

She growled, had guessed as much. Of course it was the heavy artillery wielding woman. After two weeks of being completely absent, of having practically vanished off the face of the earth, she was back. On the day that Vi had left the police force to, most likely, search for her. That was no coincidence. Again, there were no coincidences when it came to things related to Vi and Jinx.

Sliding the playing card into her pocket, she rose from her seat, hissed to herself. Vi vanished, Jinx resurfaced. If she wanted answers, she'd most likely get them from the maniac herself. And she wanted answers.

"Sheriff, that's not all!"

Caitlyn, who had just reached for her rifle, shouldered it as she turned to the man, frowning at him. He seemed disturbed about something, seemed to be confused.

"What's it?" inquired Caitlyn, glanced towards her desk again, where the reports lay that she'd still have to attend to.

"It's Vi! She's been seen there as well, chasing Jinx!"

Caitlyn turned her head towards the man with incredible speed, not quite believing what she was hearing. Her throat felt dry all of sudden.

Vi was there. Jinx was there.

There were never coincidences when it came to those two, after all.

---

It was half an hour prior to the message reaching the sheriff that the woman that once was the enforcer of Piltover walked casually along Piltover's most wanted criminal. Almost like the two of them hadn't been each others nemesis for most of their time during the more recent years, like they hadn't been enforcer and criminal just a few weeks prior, with Vi chasing Jinx each and every day, dedicating her every effort to catching her, never caring about how much property damage she caused or how much pain she received.

And now, they were walking alongside each other, with the people around them ignoring Jinx in fear of the criminal's reaction to being treated differently than a normal person, had their weapons out in broad daylight, were laughing and chatting happily about things that revolved mostly around their shared interest in taking things apart, studying them, putting them back together, rebuilding and reshaping them, finding new purpose for things that long served no function any more.

If they were alike in anything, it was that.

But their conversation, as pleasant as it had been, came to an end when their goal came into view, the new bank in downtown Piltover. Jinx, in the middle of explaining the mechanism inside Fishbones that absorbed most of the recoil of the rockets, trailed off to let out an excited squeal in excitement of the job about to be done.

For some reason, Vi didn't share the enthusiasm. She did feel excited about working with the maniac, did look forward to relaxing a bit. She hadn't been throwing her mind out the window and letting her excessive energy and her need for battle and destruction control her in a long time. Was it for the better to let that happen again? Was this what she was searching for, freedom? The freedom that Jinx had, enjoyed to the fullest each and every day?

Was this 'good Vi', the 'enforcer', even her true self? Had it been the right decision to join Caitlyn back then and letting the wild and stubborn self slowly sink deeper into the prison of her mind, until it was forgotten and locked away?

Or was this just the punishment she bestowed upon herself, the punishment of becoming stronger, able to influence things? The image she forced herself into? Her very own sacrifice, her punishment for having been weak, small, a child that could not have done anything to prevent the death happening before her eyes. As a normal kid, she couldn't do a thing. Could only have hold onto the small hand, pulled and begged for help as the bad day had it's dark peak. As rain poured down on them, the thunderstorm roared above and the small hand was slowly growing pale, weak, cold, only to eventually slip from her grasp.

But that had been back then. Had thrown her into depressions, the worst time in her life, down to the bottom of the very existence she lived in. Now she wasn't a small, weak kid anymore. She had been a criminal and learned the strength of body, a cop and enforcer of the city of progress itself where she learned the strength of mind from Caitlyn. Was it now the time to be herself? To let instincts and her own judgment guide her? To learn the strength of her own self? From Jinx?

"You know the plan, fat hands!" sniggered Jinx as she placed a hand on the right shoulder of the brawler, thus pulling her back into reality, "You go in through the front door, be yourself until I set up the distractions and prime them, and when they blow up and people start running for their dear lives, I come in and we start our little game of tag throughout the bank!"

"Right." agreed Vi, falling into amusement after all, punching her balled fist into the palm of her left hand, "Let's do this."

"You know the safety word, right? Ya know, for when the game needs to end and we go for the vault to leave our message?" inquired the electric-blue-haired woman for the umpteenth time since they left the hideout, raising an eyebrow at her new-found partner. Vi rolled her eyes, much to Jinx's chagrin.

"Depends. Did you change it again, like you did about six times on our way here? Is it 'hat lady' like you first said, is it 'fat ass' like you said near my apartment, or is it 'Arkham' – no clue what that is even supposed to mean – like you said near the insane asylum just a few blocks down? How did you even come up with 'Arkham' when you saw that asylum?"

"Told you before, taking a lunatic to an insane asylum is just taking him home. And I have the best ideas at home." replied Jinx with a shrug, sending a glance towards Vi, "And c'mon, do you know anyone that's as crazy as me? I'm crazy, even got a doctor's note! There's no one that's as bonkers as me!"

"Point taken." chuckled the brawler and rolled her neck, "So what's the safety word again? And please stick with it this time."

"I will." smirked the madwoman, rolled her neck, "It's still 'vault'. It's a nice pun, eh? Ya know, 'safety' word, we're going to destroy a bank and break into a vault..."

"The irony." snorted Vi in a mixture of irritation and annoyance at her partner, "Now let's get this over with. See you in a moment."

Vi smirked as she let her excessive energy take control, her need for destruction slowly being unleashed from the prison it was put into for the past years. Nonetheless, she reached out and grabbed the other woman's shoulder after Jinx had nodded with a big smirk and had just turned to leave, thus earning a confused frown from her, silently inquiring why Vi had stopped her already.

"Don't mess this up, Jay. I want this to be a good memory of our first heist together."

The madwoman took the hint and grinned widely, let her excitement cloud her mind and take control of her. She twirled on the spot, already fell into a sprint in the same movement, thus stumbled and swayed as she finally started to run, looking like she was drunk beyond salvation. Vi merely chuckled to herself as she watched Jinx leave for the small alley leading to the back of the bank, preparing herself for her own role in the heist.

Making sure that her gauntlets were in their spot on her back and ready to be pulled and activated, Vi took a deep breath, threw the last bit of reason out. Let the insanity in that she had always kept at bay. She had done that to prevent becoming like Jinx – Making it even more ironic that she let it happen now to do the opposite, to become like her crazy nemesis.

With a self-pleased smirk, the brawler stepped up to the glass doors, waited in front of them until they opened automatically, and entered the warmth of the building as soon as they had opened up enough for her and her gauntlets to fit through.

A few people rose their gazes to see who had come in, and while most glances quickly lowered again in disinterest or acceptance of the woman they still knew as the enforcer of Piltover, a few lingered for a moment, taking her appearance in. A few noses scrunched up at the appearance of the enforcer, the wild and rebellious look of Vi especially to the distaste of a small group of especially snobby appearing women. Well, if they only knew how often Vi had probably saved their sorry asses from being the next target of a mugger or Jinx's newest idea of a fun time.

How fitting that they were just about to get involved into one. Served them right.

"Officer." greeted a man in a suit, coming up to her, "To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?"

"As much as I wish I could say I'm here for personal reasons, like thinking about opening an account, I fear I'm here on duty. Nothing too serious, though.", lied the brawler, glad that she had picked up enough eloquence from Caitlyn over the years, even though she still deemed herself a woman of actions rather than words, "Caitlyn thought it would be better to check up on a few locations while on patrol. Jinx has been surprisingly quiet during the last two weeks, and she assumes that Jinx has planned something big. Like taking down a building or releasing all animals from the zoo."

"I see." mused the man, didn't seem too excited with the idea of Jinx being her usual destruction-bringing self, "Then I wish you good luck. I hope you will catch her eventually. Surely, that would make Piltover a better place."

"Who knows." huffed Vi under her breath, a little more irritated than she had intended to be.

"Excuse me?" asked the man, didn't seem to have caught what she'd been muttering.

"I said 'Probably'." lied the brawler again, didn't really think that way any longer. Capturing Jinx was no option anymore. Had it ever been an option to begin with? Now, in retrospect, she wasn't so sure anymore. After all, capturing Jinx would've come equal to accepting all her past mistakes, to embrace all her guilt, the guilt of that day in particular.

The day that she couldn't save Jinx.

"Well then, I wish you luck with that, officer." replied the man, bowed politely, but turned to make his exit. The former enforcer watched him leave, watched him as he went over to a woman that had already awaited his return.

Vi gently rose an eyebrow. Just what was Jinx taking so long? Setting up bombs was usually child's play to her, she had experienced Jinx setting up more bombs in less time over the last years. And yet, Jinx wasn't done yet?

Still, it gave Vi time to think. Time to ponder. While the plan Jinx had come up with, or had rather changed to work with their new partnership, definitely was quite planned through, going into several smaller details that were mostly 'what if'-possibilities, it was lacking a major factor, nearly completely ignoring it.

The arrival of the police. Having been part of it, Vi knew how fast messages reached the sheriff, and Caitlyn surely wouldn't miss the chance of capturing Jinx AND follow the few trails that Vi had left. Even Vi felt it, knew that even Caitlyn's patience had it's limits, and that the sheriff wanted answers. Needed them, even. Especially after Vi's latest decision.

And silently, the ex-enforcer begged that Caitlyn would for once not use her sharp mind and come to the conclusion that, whatever connected Vi to Jinx, was in Zaun. Because, the moment Caitlyn would come to that conclusion and would use her contacts to get her hands on Jinx's files – Vi knew that Caitlyn had recognized the dogtag that Jinx had worn prior to the police governor's party as those of Zaun's former military special forces as well, meaning that she knew there would be some official documents regarding Jinx – and read them, she'd know everything. All from Jinx's real name to the missing link between the madwoman and the ex-enforcer. Everything.

And Caitlyn would hate her, Vi knew it. Would hate her once she'd know with what monster she had worked with all those years.

A sudden explosion rocked the building, and as heads turned and people began to screech and scream, Vi found herself slowly letting go of these dark thoughts, let them fade away with the very last bit of her sanity and seriousness. And instead, a small smile found it's way onto her lips.

A smile that was in no way inferior to that of Jinx in pure madness.

Panicked people ran past her, security calling for evacuation. The group of snobby women that had stared at Vi earlier screamed and shrieked, lost it completely as Vi remained calm and collected, as she let the panic fill her glee, her excitement. Jinx was ready.

Slowly, Vi fell into motion, began to walk. Walk calmly away from the entrance that everyone else was headed for, walked slowly deeper into the building as everyone else fled. She reached for her gauntlets, pulled them off her back and slipped her hands into them. With a soft hum, they activated, came alive. Energy began to flow through them, a small wave of steam being released. They were ready. She was ready. The room was empty, save for herself.

Would Jinx just show up herself? Would she have to go and look for her, find her before they began their game? The thought alone, the thought that their game would begin now, excited the brawler like nothing had ever excited her before, insane excitement filling her with glee. She hoped she'd find Jinx soon so their game could properly begin.

She didn't even have to wait long. A few steps later, her having crossed the room half, Jinx appeared.

"Heya, fat hands!" greeted the insane woman as she appeared out of a corridor that led to the back of the bank, rubbing some dust and rubble off her shoulders and clothes, "Sorry for keeping you waiting, but I had to take care of something else first."

"And what would that be?" inquired Vi, pulled a small trigger in each gauntlet with her fingers, let them slowly charge up, "Something interesting?"

"You'll see. Just be patient and wait for it." replied Jinx with a shrug, patting the base of Pow-Pow as she slowly approached the nearing ex-enforcer. Vi rose an eyebrow, but didn't stop walking.

"Shouldn't you of all people know that I have no patience, Jay?" she asked, found herself distracted shortly by the bench she was nearing, "Let's go over the rules of this game of ours again, shall we? Am I right if I assume that there'll be no rules?"

"Rules are made to be broken. Like buildings." chuckled the madwoman, stopped in her steps and fell into a cocky stance, hand on her hip. Her smile fell relatively quickly, though, as Vi let out an insane laugh and changed her course entirely.

"Or people!" finished Vi for the loose cannon, used her charged up gauntlets to pick up the bench that had piqued her interest, immediately throwing it towards the other woman. Jinx let out a sharp gasp, had not been prepared for that action, had for once not seen through the brawler. She barely had the time to react as the furniture came flying towards her, only managed to avoid by letting her entire body fall forward. She made a full turn on the spot in a crouched position, the wooden object missing her head by mere inches. Towards the end of the turn, she reached for the large weapon on her back, pulled Fishbones from it's hook and ended her movement on one knee with the weapon on her shoulder, already aiming towards the ex-enforcer.

She hadn't been prepared for a new piece of furniture already heading her way though, the wooden table already at the highest point of it's journey, forcing her to quickly change her target and pull the trigger of Fishbones. With a sharp hiss, the rocket was released from the jaws of the metallic beast, rushed through the air at incredible speed, impacted with the table above the ground.

Another explosion rocked the building, the table and the rocket turning into a large fireball high above the tiled floor. Splinters and burnt wood flew through the air, one part of the table that had survived the explosion falling to the ground with a loud crash, where it remained ablaze, slowly withering away in the flames.

And over the burning remains stepped Vi, not caring about it at all.

"Hey!" complained Jinx immediately, not taking too kindly at being thrown at with furniture nearly twice her size. But the only reaction that got from Vi was a self-pleased smirk, making the brawler seem way more insane than Jinx ever remembered her to be.

"Didn't you say that rules are made to be broken?" chuckled Vi, kicked the burning remains of the table across the room, "I'm just following the rule that there are no rules."

The madwoman's expression remained serious for a moment, confused at the side she got to see of the woman that had been once Piltover's enforcer, the side she had never seen before. A completely new side, one nearly as twisted as herself. A strange side to the pink-haired woman.

But not one that Jinx disliked.

Allowing her own insanity to seep through again, Jinx let Fishbones fall over her shoulder back into it's hook, rose from her crouched position with a big smirk on her lips and madness sparkling within her pink eyes.

"Somehow, I really like the way you think, fat hands." sniggered the loose cannon, stared her former nemesis and partner into her equally madness-filled eyes, "I have the feeling that this one game of ours will be especially fun."

While Vi didn't reply, both women knew Vi thought the same way, confirmed when Vi suddenly charged at Jinx after a few seconds of silence, with the woman wielding the heavy artillery jumping backwards as the brawler with the huge hextech gauntlets jumped at her. Broken tiles and concrete was whirled up as Vi's fist impacted with the floor and dug into it, but at no point did either woman lose eye contact, not daring to let anything get in the way of that as time seemed to slow for a few seconds for the two of them.

As the flow of time returned to normal for both of them, Jinx hit the ground after her risky jump backwards, the weight of her weapons pulling her into a stumble for a second. She used the momentum, made use of it by letting it turn her body around, so that she, the moment she was facing away from the ex-enforcer, could immediately fall into a sprint up the stairs located just aside the door she had surfaced from earlier.

The game was on. The hunt was on.

Pulling her right gauntlet out of the ground, Vi made a dash for the stairs as well, took two steps at a time on her way up. She caught up to Jinx near the top of the stairs, unleashed the energy she had build up in her gauntlets to make a charge at her. Of course, Jinx had seen that coming, and with another risky roll to the side, avoided the huge gauntlet, letting it impact and break through the wall at the top of the stairs instead.

Rubble rained down as Vi turned towards her partner-in-crime, the wall demolished beyond the point of where a few minutes of hard work would save it. Jinx had meanwhile leaped onto the metallic railing, her combat boots squeaking a bit on the clean, shiny and slippery surface of the railing. For a second, it seemed like she slipped and lost her balance, but instead jumped up in the last moment to turn upside-down, landing on the railing again in a clumsy handstand that she could barely keep up with the weight of her weapons. But then again, both Vi and Jinx had always been known for carrying weapons that weighted a lot more than what the average person could carry over a long time.

Again, Vi charged forward, this time carelessly into the railing as Jinx graciously frontflipped out of the way. Metal bent and squeaked, a large human-sized dent remaining in it where Vi had impacted. A large hextech gauntlet curled around the bent railing, Vi smirking as she realized she could yet again catch Jinx off guard.

And true to that, the loose cannon didn't quite see it coming as Vi suddenly ripped out a part of the railing and swung it at her. Again, the railing bent under the impact, this time as Vi swung it with all her might at Jinx, railing hitting a hastily pulled up mini-gun. And while the railing bent completely this time, Pow-Pow remained just fine thanks to the special materials used to build it, something that Jinx was incredibly thankful for in that moment.

"Nice one. Didn't think you'd escape that." chuckled Vi as she threw the crippled remains of metal to the side, discarded them. The mad smirk was still on her lips as she spat on the ground once, not even caring that she was inside a bank, probably the richest bank of all Piltover, where one was expected to behave prim and proper. Deep down, she had been sick of being the nice and thoughtful person, and it pleased her quite a lot to do that. Besides, who was around to blame her? Jinx wouldn't judge her. Jinx didn't judge anyone as long as they had fun. Jinx wasn't like all those stuck-up people that sat on their wealth and commanded others around.

"That would've decapitated me for sure!" complained Jinx, but found herself unable to hold back her own insane smirk. This was exactly what she had been longing for, going to her limits with Vi not holding back for once.

This was everything she could've wished for. And maybe Caitlyn showing up, showing her cute self as she ranted on about how wrong the actions of the loose cannon and her newest partner-in-crime were. To even believe that she worked with someone for once who knew how to have a good time, Jinx-style, was thrilling and ironic at the same time. After all, neither her nor Vi were exactly known for working with someone without a problem, both of them rather doing things by themselves in their own way than relying on someone else.

"Sure would've." agreed Vi, but the smirk wasn't dying down, "Wonder how this one'll do!"

She charged anew, threw herself at the loose cannon with her gauntlets charged up all the way. The loose cannon, still on the railing, reacted by quickly falling to the side, going back into a handstand, this time not only avoiding Vi though, but also kicking at her.

The brawler grunted when the madwoman's combat boots slammed into the side of her face one after the other, but blocked the third kick by taking advantage of the longer time it took for Jinx to prepare it. The madwoman turned her world the right way around, landed on her feet just aside Vi and smirked, especially as she found Vi smirking back, using her left arm to wipe the dirt off her face that the kicks had left there.

"Not bad. This is turning into my kind of party. And since I'm the host, lemme give you an advice." grinned Vi, but Jinx didn't quite like the insane sparkle in her eyes, knowing that it made her incredibly hard to read when that happened. And true to that, she wasn't prepared for when Vi, being a mere arm's reach from her, suddenly lashed out with her left gauntlet and hit the loose cannon in the gut with enough force to knock all wind out of her, the impact being a lot harder than Jinx remembered it to be.

"Try the punch!" shouted the ex-enforcer just as Jinx's back impacted with the remains of the already nearly completely destroyed part of the railing, breaking through the metal with the force of the punch. Again, metal squeaked and bent, this time as both women broke through it and fell back into the entrance hall, the impact with the floor knocking all wind out of Jinx for the second time in mere seconds.

And yet, as Vi straddled her and sat on top of her, one gauntlet on her right shoulder and pinning her to the ground that way, Jinx couldn't help but breathlessly chuckle, the pain she felt at that moment firing up her insanity completely, making it all worth it. All the time she and Vi had been separated, all the hardships they had gone through, all the pain and betrayal .

Not that one bad day, though.

"Didn't see that one coming." snorted the criminal, her whole body aching and protesting, and yet so full of adrenaline, of energy she was continually desperately yearning for.

"You weren't meant to." replied Vi, equally out of breath, but with a bright smirk on her lips, even as she came to realize one thing: For the first time ever since she had begun to chase Jinx, she had her exactly where she wanted her to be. Had beaten her in her own game by stooping as low as playing the game by the loose cannon's rules. With her mind switched off, just instinct and excessive energy guiding her, her own need for violence and destruction.

And it felt good.

"Oh and tag. You're it."

Letting out a breathless laugh, Vi sat upright on the smaller frame of the older woman. She had her where she wanted her. Could stand up and capture Jinx without expecting a lot of resistance. Could finally throw her into the dirtiest, darkest and best guarded cell in all Piltover. She had full control of Jinx's fate.

Only wasn't she Piltover's enforcer anymore. She wasn't expected to follow the right path any longer. She was, once more in her life, a criminal. Just like Jinx.

Before any other word could be spoken between the two women on the floor, the sound of the front doors being thrown open interrupted their game. Frowning, Vi threw a glance into that direction – and immediately wished she hadn't. All the insanity she had unleashed for her game with Jinx was suddenly locked away into the deepest parts of her mind again, reason returning.

Standing in the door was Caitlyn, weapon pointed at them, two cops on each side of her doing the same, backing her up.

"Freeze!" roared the sheriff, blind anger in her eyes, mixed with something Vi couldn't quite understand. But, as she quickly noticed, the guns weren't quite pointing at her like she had expected and believed at first. All of them were pointed at Jinx underneath her.

The loose cannon frowned at the sheriff for a moment, then turned her gaze to meet that of Vi – And smirked as she saw the sparkle in her new partners eyes, got the hint. As such, she was prepared for when Vi suddenly pushed her back down on the ground, harder than she had at first.

"Don't worry, cupcake. She's going nowhere anymore. Not without help." spoke Vi loudly, slowly standing up and turning to the police force she had been part of until that morning, couldn't help but notice how amazing the sight before her looked with the very last rays of the sun visible through the large windows that made up the front of the building behind the cops, "I left her within an inch of her life."

"Don't expect me to approve of that, Vi!" shouted Caitlyn, obviously angry at her former partner, "What the hell were you thinking, doing this all by yourself? Quitting the police force to hunt her down? Do you know what consequences that'll have for you?"

"I do know that, Cait. But they're my burden, and not yours. If I would've done this while still part of the police force, the consequences would've been more grave. Another burden to you. And I'm sick of being a burden to you, sick of my actions always ending up causing problems for you, when I'm the one who has done them." replied the brawler, deactivated her gauntlets, but kept them on, "So this time, I will have to face the consequences."

"And I'm sick of you doing this solo! We're a team, Vi! I didn't spend the last years showing you the right path for you to suddenly ruin it all for yourself!" roared the sheriff, lowering her weapon to swing her hand in a gesture of her anger, "I'm fine with you wanting to bear the consequences, but this is not the right way to do it."

"I've strayed from the right path, cupcake. I don't give a shit about it." replied Vi, feeling the excitement and insane thoughts return as she noticed Jinx slowly starting to move, "I'm doing this my own way now."

"Again?" snarled Caitlyn in frustration, remembering the time when Vi had just become her partner only too well, when the rebellious woman was still refusing to accept any orders and merely saw them as 'suggestions', "What ever happened to...!"

"Vault."

That was all Vi had been waiting for. Jinx had used the safety word. The game was over, the next step of their plan had to be set into motion. Immediately.

The gauntlets gave off a loud hum as they came alive yet again, Vi's fingers already curled around the triggers that charged the gauntlets up for the move she called 'Vault Breaker'. Before that, though, she reached for the nearest piece of furniture, another wooden bench, picked it up and hauled it into the direction of the cops, catching all of them, and especially Caitlyn, off guard. Even Jinx.

Vi wasn't even sure herself why she had done it – guessed it was a reaction out of panic, of the inner turmoil generated by wanting to be on Jinx's side and on Caitlyn's side at the same time, of the pressure put onto her to be in between the two – but she didn't wait to see how it would further unfold. Instead, she twirled around on the spot and dashed for the corridor that Jinx had first appeared through.

In the doorway, she hesitated. Froze up in the middle of her movements to cast a last glance over her right shoulder.

Seeing Caitlyn there, having dodged the bench that had flown over their heads and had shattered the windows and now stuck in the open front doors, Vi felt a spike of remorse and guilt. That had not been the wisest action, and she knew it.

"I'm sorry, cupcake..." she whispered under her breath – And then vanished into the corridor after all. Vanished from Caitlyn's sight, out of the sheriff's reach, for the second time that day.

Silence reigned in the entrance hall, shock over the action of the woman that had been the enforcer of the city until that morning. In just a few hours, Vi had once more strayed from the path of justice, the right path – Only Caitlyn knew that it hadn't been as quick as that. That it had been a slow process of loss and acceptance for the enforcer.

And again, it was all somehow connected to Jinx.

The loose cannon in question, while equally shocked, slowly rose to her feet, knowing fully well that she couldn't wait too long or their plan would fail, after all. Reaching her full height, while still being slightly hunched over in pain, Jinx swallowed the knot that had formed in her throat with Vi's action.

"She didn't mean it like that." coughed the criminal, gaze hard and serious, lingering on Caitlyn, "Girl just has a lot on her mind right now that she needs to work out. She'll be back to her old self. Eventually."

The spark of doubt was ignited within the loose cannon. The doubt of if this partnership with Vi really was for the best. Their first game, while it had been amazing, was already slowly turning out in a way that even Jinx felt it – Felt that Vi was forcing herself to it. That the brawler still felt too much for Caitlyn, still had too many connections to the police force. The criminal that Vi was, that Vi had become. The criminal was part of Vi, deep down.

But not the Vi she was anymore, but the Vi she had been before she had met Caitlyn.

And the question was – Did Vi know that herself?

Pulling Pow-Pow got a reaction out of the frozen up cops. Guns were lifted and pointed at her, but Jinx didn't care one bit. Now, she had a lot on her mind, too. She desperately wanted this partnership to work out, wanted to keep Vi at her side, as partner. But she also wanted Vi to be alright. To be happy.

The mini-gun activated upon the madwoman's command, barrels pointing at the ground in front of her for now. She let her gaze trail over the men, the sheriff and the large glass wall, over the darkness that fell over Piltover as night fell.

First things first – Their plan. She had to bring that heist to an end. She could care about Vi and their partnership after that. And so, letting all worry dissipate, all reason slowly fading into darkness, letting her insanity gain control once more, Jinx slowly began to smile.

"Hey, hat lady! Did you hear the one about the lunatic woman, running around and wreaking havoc in a bank? No?" Jinx let out an insane chuckle, continued in a deeper, more sinister tone as she rose Pow-Pow and pointed it at the squad standing by the entrance, Caitlyn at the front of it, "Stick around."

The eyes of the sheriff widened, much to Jinx's insane glee and fascination. Caitlyn had understood the message quite well, she knew that even before the sheriff reacted and Jinx herself pulled the trigger of her mini-gun back, the barrels slowly starting to rotate, soon to glow brightly in heat.

"Move!" roared the sheriff, making a risky leap to the side herself, taking cover behind a stone counter as the other cops followed her example, just in time to escape the hail of bullets that Jinx unleashed on them. Windows shattered and glass rained down, Caitlyn crawling deeper under the counter, using her left arm to shield her head from the shards that fell down on her.

Laughing madly, Jinx slowly began to move backwards to the doorway Vi had vanished in, taking each step with great caution, never taking her gaze off the entrance and the hiding cops.

"See you in time, hat lady! You haven't seen the last of me!" roared Jinx in a sing-song-tone over the roaring of her mini-gun and the empty shells hitting the floor as she reached the doorway. Pulling her finger off the trigger and quickly ducking into the hallway, long before Pow-Pow's barrels stopped rotating and it retracted into it's smaller shape, Jinx waited for the cursing of the cops and the sheriff before she fell into a sprint down the corridor, following her partner-in-crime.

She put the mini-gun back into it's place on her hip, making sure that the barrels had retracted into the gun itself to avoid burning herself on them, and put all her strength into running. The layout of the building flashed in front of her inner eye, the blueprints she had stolen and memorized. She thanked herself for her photographic memory, quickly took a left when the corridor parted at an intersection, pushed her feet off the ground and jumped down the flight of stairs just behind the corner, absorbing the impact in a roll that ended in a clumsy stumble.

She and Vi really had gone a little too far in their game of tag, she felt that now. Still, she swung herself on top of the railing as she reached the next flight of stairs down, deeper into the building, used the railing to slide down. While not the best way, it spared her the pain of jumping down another flight of stairs. Her body really wasn't ready to take that yet after the game with Vi.

The walls changed as Jinx jumped off the railing and slammed shoulder-first into the next door, the lock already broken by Vi without a doubt, throwing it open. She had reached the part of the bank with the higher security levels, where Piltover's richest snobs stored their beloved money in special lockers, but Jinx didn't care about money. Sure, she did have a rather expensive hobby, but if she really needed something, she just stole it. And besides, not like anyone missed the junk she picked up from the junkyards, the scrap metal. People just didn't know what could be done with it, didn't appreciate it!

But she wasn't there for the money. She had other intentions, another goal. While she truly respected him, she wasn't the clown prince of crime from the cartoon she loved so much, she had no need for the money stored there.

Her steps carried her down the long corridor, carried her right when she reached an intersection, then straight on when the next followed. The corridor made a sharp turn to the left and Jinx followed it, recalling the layout once more.

The vault was three intersections away when Jinx came to the conclusion that she really had received a bit more damage than she had intended to, not able to run quite as fast as she wanted to. Then again, she hadn't expected Vi to have this much 'fun' – Just what had she unleashed inside the pinkette when she took the offer up? She had always figured that Vi had violent tendencies as well, tendencies that she had stopped giving into after she had become a cop, that now resurfaced. But even she had not expected them to be this... extreme.

"Jinx! Freeze!"

The loose cannon stopped to cast a glance over her shoulder, spotted the sheriff that had followed her. She wasn't sure when Caitlyn had recovered from the shock of Vi turning on her and the madwoman's hail of bullets, but Caitlyn didn't look pleased at all, standing mere feet away with her weapon drawn and pointing right at the criminal.

Jinx knew she wouldn't get away just by turning around and picking her sprint up again, the corridor was too narrow for extensive evasive maneuvers, and didn't provide any cover. Unless of course...

"Okay, fine, you got me, hat lady!" chuckled Jinx, hands at the height of her waist, making a gesture meant to calm the sheriff down and prevent her from shooting her. Caitlyn still seemed irritated, a lot more irritated than the loose cannon knew her for. Being apart from Vi sure didn't do her good, of that, the criminal was assured.

"Hands where I can see them, Jinx. There is no way you're going to escape this time." Caitlyn jerked the weapon up a bit to gesture where exactly she wanted the hands of the loose cannon, "As much as I don't approve of any of Vi's actions right now, she did do a good job at putting you to a stop this time. What did she beat you up for? Aren't you supposed to work together?"

"There's a lot of things you don't understand about Vi, Caitlyn." spoke Jinx, for once carrying a hint of seriousness in her voice as she used the sheriff's name instead of the nickname she had given to her, the same seriousness that turned the unpredictable crazy criminal into an unreadable mastermind, a change that managed to scare even Caitlyn every time that it happened, especially with how these changes came without any prior notice, "Things you'll need to learn. She isn't just the simple-minded brawler people say she is. There's a lot more to her, and unless you know her true self, her whole story, I'm afraid that you're not going to understand anytime soon."

Slowly, Jinx rose her arms, just as Caitlyn wanted, but was amused. Way more confident and amused than she should be for her own good, probably.

"But I don't blame you for that. Vi is making sure to keep her distance, she doesn't want people to know who she really is. That's why she hides herself behind two letters, hides her intellect behind two fists that are always ready to make someone's day turn reaaaal bad." Jinx's hands had reached the height of her chest now, palms turned towards herself, "But if I wouldn't trust you with her, wouldn't trust you with reaching this true self of hers eventually, I wouldn't have brought the two of you together, would I now?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" inquired the sheriff, and while still sounding irritated, Jinx didn't fail to notice the hint of confusion that had found it's way into her voice, making her sound a little calmer than before. Jinx's hands were by now raised over her head, palms still towards herself.

"I brought you and Vi together because I figured that you are the only right person for her. You're her polar opposite, you keep her in line, you bring out the best in her and you have only the best intentions. I trust you with her, and I trust you to not mess her up any further. And of course..." Jinx trailed off, smirked in a mysterious way that confused Caitlyn just as much as it made her curious, "Catch her if she ever falls. Pick up the pieces of her world should it shatter apart. Support her and back her up, but keep her from making wrong decisions. Not all the time of course, she needs to make mistakes every once in a while to help her grow. After all, Vi's not as invincible as she pretends to be, isn't immune to all that which happens around her, either."

The sheriff rose an eyebrow and lowered her rifle a bit, not sure what the criminal was getting at. That was the chance that Jinx had waited for, however. Not wanting to explain her words, wanting the sheriff to figure them out herself, she revealed the reason for her confidence despite the situation, turned her palms towards the sheriff. Caitlyn's eyes widened in shock as she spotted the Flame Chomper that Jinx held in her right hand with only her thumb, formerly hidden behind it.

She quickly rose her rifle again, cursed herself for being so careless, but never got to aim at the loose cannon again, Jinx throwing the Flame Chomper down on the ground in between them. Immediately lowering her weapon and jumping aside, Caitlyn avoided the small explosion of the grenade, but knew she had screwed up big time when she heard Jinx's mini-gun activating. Looking up after she had caught herself in a roll, the sheriff found that the mini-gun wasn't aimed at her, much to her surprise.

Instead, Jinx was curiously pointing it at the lockers that littered the walls on each side of the corridor. The mini-gun went off, barrels spinning and heating up again as the hail of bullets was released anew, and the sound of metal breaking under the impact of bullets echoed around. Caitlyn had suspected it before, but that moment assured her that Jinx's bullets weren't normal at all – No simple bullet should've managed to break the high security locks on the lockers like the bullets of Jinx's Pow-Pow did that moment.

After Jinx had quickly swung her weapon around, breaking as many locks as possible in that single movement, she fell into a run away from the sheriff – and pulled the lockers open that she passed. At first, Caitlyn didn't quite understand the reason for that, why Jinx would damage the lockers to open them as she passed them, causing banknotes to be whirled up into the air, but the moment that Caitlyn pulled her rifle up to snipe the criminal down with a net after all, she understood.

The open lockers blocked most of her view, with the banknotes doing the rest. The way it was now, there was no way Caitlyn would get her with a net, let alone with a bullet. As good as she was as a sniper – She couldn't shoot that which she couldn't see.

With a curse, she lowered her rifle again and fell into a sprint herself, desperate to catch up with the loose cannon before she could escape. However she had planned to escape though the high security area to begin with. After all, there was only one entrance down into the basement of the bank, and otherwise only corridors ending in dead ends, especially the one that Jinx was heading towards to, where the vault of the bank was located.

Jinx vanished around the next corner, the sheriff hot on her heels, at least until a sharp hissing noise from around the corner warned the sheriff of the criminal's next attempt at slowing her down. An explosion followed, but no rocket shot past the corner, and with that, her – Jinx hadn't shot at her, as Caitlyn quickly realized.

Following the loose cannon around the corner after waiting for a few seconds to ensure no rockets or bullets would follow, Caitlyn was presented with a scene of destruction, found the real target of the loose cannon to be a wall of lockers. The explosion hadn't only blown a huge hole into it, it had also caused part of the wall and the ceiling to cave in, obstructing not only her view of most of the corridor and thus her field of fire, but also part of her path, making it harder to pursue the maniac. But she was desperate to do so, and no rubble was going to stop her.

It was moments like these that she was happy that she preferred to wear boots, as these allowed her to climb the pile of rubble a lot easier, especially since she didn't have to worry about some rubble falling into her feet, since the boots protected those just fine.

The pile was quickly climbed over, left behind and completely ignored in favor of picking up the chase again. While Jinx's lead had increased a bit with the sheriff being forced to climb over the pile of rubble, Caitlyn could still see her, and was quickly catching up again. While Jinx certainly was good at fleeing or escaping tight situations, she wasn't that fast. The madwoman was quite strong, carrying all of her weapons around like that and still being able to run and move without any real restrictions, Caitlyn had to give her that, but it still slowed her down a bit, much to Caitlyn's advantage.

And yet, Jinx reached the vault of the bank before her.

The large door was already wide open when Jinx and Caitlyn rounded the corner to the corridor it was in, the damage done to the thick door to the vault so grave, so extreme, that only one thing that the sheriff knew could've caused it. Only one thing existed that Caitlyn knew that could rip a door of that size and quality nearly out of it's hinges without leaving back the signs of explosives.

Quite literally, Vi's 'Vault Breaker' technique, the charged state of her gauntlets.

And true to her assumptions, the pink-haired woman stood inside the vault, in the middle of piles of gold coins and ingots, of jewelry and emeralds, of the most valuable material of all Piltover, which she didn't seem to care about at all. Her gauntlets were attached to their spot on her back, arms crossed in beneath her chest, a grim expression on her face as she spotted Caitlyn chasing Jinx.

But Jinx was smirking. The last stage of their plan was about to take place.

With a leap, the madwoman entered the vault her partner-in-crime was in, started to laugh like the maniac that she was. She twirled on the spot almost immediately, waited until Caitlyn had reached them as well, stood in the door to the vault, one foot resting on the doorway.

"I think you misheard me, Jinx!" roared Caitlyn, rifle pointing at the madwoman, "Freeze!"

"But I'm not cold, hat lady. It's warm in here." mocked Jinx, hands on her hips, "Quite cozy actually. But almost too small, too narrow. I'm no claustrophobic, but even I feel restricted, standing here."

Jinx's pink eyes, full of madness, trailed over the walls, but then back to the sheriff. Mad glee sparkled in her eyes, madness tugged at her lips, turned them into a weird smirk as Jinx said something that seemed completely out of context for the sheriff, and yet seemed to carry a secret meaning. A message, intended just for her, and would probably make sense at some point. Only not at that moment.

"You're not laughing, hat lady."

"Now is not the time for jokes, Jinx!" snarled the sheriff, aimed at the loose cannon. One movement from Vi though, and she found herself doing the one thing she had never thought she'd be forced to do – She pointed her rifle at her former partner. At her girlfriend.

Vi showed no reaction, no sign of intimidation or of being impressed by that – And yet, both Caitlyn and Vi felt it, deep down, the seriousness of that action. To what point a simple decision from the enforcer had brought them in just a few hours.

In just a few hours, Vi had turned from enforcer to civilian to criminal. Had given up her partnership with Caitlyn, had set out on a search for the criminal by herself, and had joined Jinx. From good to bad with a simple decision in just a few hours.

Jinx rose an eyebrow at the seriousness of the situation, found herself, to her own shock, unamused. She had planned this to be fun and games with her beloved partner, and while they sure had some fun for a while, it had turned way too serious with the arrival of the police. Way too serious.

It was time to put this situation to an end before it escalated even further.

Reaching down to her belt, she pulled one of the rounds off and rose it to the height of her face, immediately attracting Caitlyn's attention again, and thus being the one being aimed at again. She didn't care, though, quickly pushed her thumb against the tip of the round she had pulled off her belt, and thus revealing it to be a fake – the tip fell off and revealed a small button beneath.

The round was a detonator.

Before Caitlyn had the chance to realize that, though, Jinx slammed her thumb down on the small button. The detonator let out a loud hum for a second, Caitlyn's breath remained stuck in her throat as she realized what Jinx had done.

And then, the north wall of the room suddenly blew up in a series of explosions.

As Caitlyn shielded her face with her arm from the dust and the small rubble flying at her, Jinx's mad laughter rang in her ears, a soft chuckle that was definitely that of Vi shortly in her ears as Jinx took a deep breath. When she finally could lower her arm again, she could only gape in shock at what she saw – the structure of the north wall had been gradually weakened by the explosions, with large cracks running through it, smaller holes here and there that had definitely not been there before. The metal beams that supported the wall had also been bent by the sheer power of the explosions.

And then there was Vi, standing in front of that wall, one gauntlet-wearing hand drawn back already. Before Caitlyn could completely recover from the events, Vi had punched the wall, leading to it giving in completely, breaking in and revealing, much to the sheriff's surprise, part of what was definitely the sewers of Piltover. She had definitely forgotten about those, hadn't even known that the bank had violated guidelines and build their vault so close to them.

That didn't matter, though. What did matter was the criminal duo that stood in front of the hole in the wall, with Jinx laughing her ass off that her plan had worked. In glee, she continued to exclaim "Told you that you'd see what took me so long, Vi! How do you like the escape route I prepared?"

A smirk was cast into the direction of the sheriff by the loose cannon, a mocking salute as goodbye, before she rushed into the cloud of dust in the sewers that had yet to settle down again. With a last glance towards her former partner, an emotion in her eyes that Caitlyn couldn't quite read, Vi mouthed the words 'Sorry, cupcake, but I need to do this', and, after a last deep breath, rushed into the cloud of whirled up dust as well.

Left Caitlyn standing alone in the doorway to the vault that was now filled with all kind of valuables and treasures, rubble and dust. Caitlyn was alone again. And the last thing that Caitlyn should hear of the criminal duo should be Jinx, somewhere in the distance.

"You go that way, fat hands! Go back home to the hideout! I need to take care of something first, so don't wait for me." echoed Jinx's shrill but serious voice through the sewer system, "It'll be... late."

The sheriff's throat felt dry all of sudden, and not just because of the huge loss of the night against Jinx, but also the loss of that day – Vi. This time, she was sure.

She had lost Vi, after all. And still had no explanation as to why.

Her legs felt wobbly, weak, not able to carry the little weight of her body. Her rifle felt heavy and she had long lowered it, pointing the barrel at the floor. Her shoulders felt heavy, her body refused to move. And so she stood there, stood and stared into the hole that the criminal duo had escaped through, as the dust cleared and the walls of the sewers finally became visible to her.

And as she saw them, everything became too much, all the burdens on her mind taking their toll on her. She laughed. Laughed at the irony, the mockery, the situation.

They must have found her by her laugh, must have heard it echoing through the basement of the bank as it slowly turned from hysteric laughter to desperate crying, tears streaming down her face as she hiccuped and didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but the other members of her squad eventually found her there in the door of the vault, staring at the hole as she laughed and cried.

The walls of the sewer system were full of pink graffiti. Graffiti that mocked the sheriff and the enforcer, almost as if Jinx had sprayed them with the intention to mock Vi as her enemy, which assured the sheriff that Vi switching sides had not been planned by the madwoman and had taken place after she had prepared the graffiti.

Crude drawings of Vi with gigantic hands or a way too big head, drawings of Caitlyn wearing a way too huge hat that covered her entire head and thus blindfolded her, the shots she fired from her rifle random and without aiming. A drawing of Vi destroying a building by breaking though it's walls.

Had that been Jinx's original plan?

Either way, it filled Caitlyn with equal amounts of irritation, anger, sadness, worry and hysteria at the same time. Was this how Jinx felt most of her time? So confused, disoriented, distant and betrayed? So...

So far from the world? Wasn't that what Vi said about what Jinx said about her madness? That she was 'just one bad day away from the rest of world'?

"Sheriff..." began one of the men at the front of the squad, carefully stepped up to the woman, "What is the meaning of this?"

Caitlyn swallowed the knot that had formed in her throat. The question was justified, and she found herself asking it. What was the meaning of this all? Of Vi switching sides, of Jinx being so ready to accept Vi, the point of the heist that wasn't quite a heist, with nothing stolen from the bank?

It all made no sense. Not without knowing the missing link between Jinx and Vi. At least she was assured of one thing now – This missing link between them, it was the 'bad day' that Jinx kept talking about. The original bad day that had started it all. That had led to them being separated in the past, that had brought Vi to the point where she ended up as a criminal, where Jinx had grown up in Zaun and had eventually come to Piltover to wreak havoc in the city of progress.

She needed to know what that bad day was about.

"Sheriff."

The voice of the man made her slowly turn her head towards him, then towards the rest of the squad, where she found confused, uneasy and conflicted expressions staring at her. They wanted answers. She wanted them, too.

"Sheriff. Was that Vi?" asked the same man carefully, voice barely louder than a whisper, "Was that Vi working with Jinx?"

Caitlyn's throat was dry again. And yet, as she bit down on her lower lip and turned back to the open vault before her, she knew that there was no point in denying it anymore.

Vi's grave decision forced her to accept the horrible reality that she didn't even want to face, but had to. Forced her to make a decision just as grave. So swallowing again and taking a deep breath, trying to bring her inner turmoil into control, she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, tried to speak with as much distance in her voice as possible.

"With this..." a hiss of utter desperation, barely able to hold back the tears, keeping the sadness at bay only by biting down on the tip of her tongue, Caitlyn spoke the words she had dreaded to voice, the very few words she had never wished to be forced to say, "With this, Vi is no longer considered an ally. Vi is from now on just another criminal we have to take care of for the peace of Piltover. No matter our relationships with her in the past, our connections to her. No matter that she's my girlfriend. Was, for all I know. We can't make no difference just because it's her – in the face of law, everyone is to be treated equal. Even Vi will have to face the consequences."

"I'm sorry, Vi. You left me no choice..."

---

Tender, thin fingers curled around the cold piece of metal, played nervously with it as she ascended the final steps to the third story of the simple apartment building near the center of Piltover, just a few streets away from the Police station. The metal was rough to the touch, sharp tips rubbing against her skin as she slid the finger over the metal again and again. With her mind, though, she was elsewhere.

Reaching the door to the by now well known apartment, she pulled the metal object out of the pocket on her belt, frowned down at the key in her hand. The key to the apartment. The key to the place where her happiness should reside, where she should feel content. Where everything should be right in the world.

But coming 'home' had never felt this empty. Never felt this bad.

The key sled gently into the lock when she finally managed to find the strength to lift, the door being unlocked once she turned the key. Way too easy in her eyes, but not because it was indeed too easy to open the door. For her, it was way to easy to step into her past when it had become so far away in her present. When Vi had become so far away in her present.

Having gone 'home' to the place she had lived in with Vi for the past weeks, the place she had meant to move in with Vi to live a simpler life where it was just the two of them, their private lives and their jobs, didn't help the feeling of emptiness inside her at all.

But that dream, too, had moved far out of reach along with the woman that she had thought she knew and understood.

The apartment felt just as empty as she did, though. Without the boisterous and loud enforcer there, without the woman that continually tried to impress her and enjoyed every moment she spent with her, the apartment felt nothing but empty. Lifeless.

One step inside and she already felt the difference. How cold and lifeless the apartment lay, how empty it felt. As if all the positive emotions had followed the ex-enforcer out, away from her, from Caitlyn, way out of her reach. In just a few hours, everything in there had changed. Felt dull and colorless. No happiness lingered, not even a trace that those memories of their time shared there, their love and intimacy, were real.

She stepped further into the corridor, noticed the absence of Vi's jacket on the coatrack. The small flashlight that Vi kept on the dresser, in case that she'd ever need it, gone. Of course, the ugly plant that Caitlyn had never liked but that Vi was so fond of had remained. Stood where it used to on the dresser, right aside the mirror above it.

Moving slowly, almost like on autopilot, her body moving by it's own accord, the sheriff continued deeper into the apartment. Her fingers sled across the surface of the dresser, felt how cold and yet smooth it was. One by one, she pulled her fingers back as she passed the furniture until only her index finger remained on it and reached the edge. And then, hesitantly, pulled that back as well.

The door to the enforcer's bedroom stood lightly ajar, allowed Caitlyn a peek inside. Immediately, the scene from two weeks prior repeated itself inside her head. Before her inner eye, she saw her again, Vi, standing in front of the bed in just a tank top, the tattoos that looked exactly like Jinx's running down her left side as both ugly mutilation and yet fascinating, beautiful addition to the rebellious woman.

Not believing how distant the memory already felt, Caitlyn forced herself to look away from the bedroom, away from the bed that looked neat and orderly on the side she had slept the night prior, with the other side, Vi's side, the opposite of that. Continued down the corridor to forget about that for now.

It should be the first time she saw it like that, but the door to the workshop was open. The door to Vi's sanctuary, the door she always kept close. Vi didn't close many doors, preferred them open so that she could always walk through them with whatever she had in her hands - and there was barely any time when Vi wasn't running around in her apartment with some kind of gadget she was working on or repairing, her gauntlets, or at least with something to eat, even if it only was a candybar, her sugar intake another thing she seemed to share with her nemesis, who Caitlyn knew to be quite fond of candy as well – at that time, but the door to her sanctuary, to her workshop, was something she always kept close unless she needed to carry something through it.

That alone made it even scarier to see the workshop so empty, void of most gadgets and inventions that Vi usually kept inside there. She should've known, though, should've known that the first thing that Vi would come to pick up with Jinx would be her gadgets. Her hobby. Her life outside the police and her love life with the sheriff.

Still, to see it so void of Vi's stuff scared the sheriff more than anything else, more than finding the apartment empty of the enforcer. Because, of all the things that could signal the absence of the enforcer, this was the one that screamed it out aloud, the one that said it like no else did.

Unable to face the sight anymore, unable to face the sign that Vi was truly gone and wouldn't return, she averted her gaze, refused to accept it. Her throat felt dry again as she reached out to the door and closed it. Vi would've wanted it that way.

She moved on, needed to get away from the workshop. Reaching the end of the corridor, she cast a glance into the kitchen to her right, found it empty. An empty, used plate stood in the sink, right where Vi had left it the evening before, not even bothering to clean it before she had retreated into her workshop. For the possibly last time, as Caitlyn feared now.

Turning to the other door at the end of the corridor, the door to the living room, she pushed the ajar door open. Gently, hesitantly. It made almost no noise as it opened, revealing the empty living room that usually looked so comfy and inviting. Vi always made sure to keep the radiator on when the colder times of the year drew closer, she had told Caitlyn that even before the two of them had become an item, but the sheriff had appreciated it a lot after they had. But now, it was cold in the room. Vi had left, had seen no reason in keeping the radiator on.

The living room didn't look as comfy as it used to, wasn't anywhere near as inviting. After all, there was no pinkette on the couch, ready to snuggle and cuddle. Vi wasn't there.

Vi wasn't anywhere in the apartment.

Despair took the sheriff over, after all. Somehow, despite Vi's warning that morning, she had expected to find Vi there, had deep down hoped that she'd be there, waiting for her. But she wasn't there. And it gave the sheriff the rest.

Losing what little energy she had left after that day, Caitlyn dragged herself into the kitchen. She needed distance from everything. She needed to clear her head, calm her racing thoughts down. The brunette knew Vi always kept some bottles of alcohol around, stored them in the kitchen in the cupboard above her fridge. She needed a distraction, and that was as good as any other. She wasn't fond of drinking, never would understand why Vi and the other members of the squad sometimes went out on a Friday evening to some bar to drink. But at that moment, Caitlyn simply needed it.

The cupboard was placed relatively high, Vi was quite tall after all, but despite their difference in height, Caitlyn managed to reach it and pull it open, even if that action seemed less elegant than many people believed her to be.

A few bottles greeted her, and while Caitlyn didn't really have any idea of alcohol and how strong which brand was, she did remember Vi speaking about the strongest liquor she possessed being Bacardi. She definitely needed something strong.

The bottle was thankfully one of the ones at the front, the clear liquid inside hard to miss and of the beauty of a crystal. Liquid crystal, but still full of beauty.

She pulled the bottle out, closed the cupboard. Realizing she was still holding the key to the apartment in her hand, she sled it back into the pocket she had pulled it from, placed the bottle down on the counter before her, and opened another cupboard, the one she knew the enforcer to store her glasses in. No matter how dark the situation, how hopeless and irritating – Caitlyn refused to drink alcohol out of the bottle.

Deciding for a small glass, she took it from the cupboard, closed it. Picking up the bottle again, she opened it, shuddered at the smell of strong alcohol that immediately filled her nostrils. She still poured herself a glass, immediately downed the liquor inside, shuddered as a tingly feeling of warmth spread through her throat and her body.

Drowning your problems in alcohol wasn't the solution, she was well aware of that. But this time, just this one time, she simply needed to. Needed to take her mind off the enforcer. Needed to forget everything so she could approach the whole matter in a different way the next day. More distanced, more objective. A way that would allow her to come up with solutions on how to find out the truth behind Jinx and Vi, on how to bring Jinx to justice and show Vi that whatever led her to working with Jinx wasn't worth the consequences.

She poured herself another glass, slammed the bottle down on the counter. Not even caring that it was still open, she realized that she wouldn't get a clear head as long as she was inside Vi's apartment, but didn't know where else to go.

Distance. She needed distance. Needed to be outside, needed the cold and fresh air of the late night. It had to be slowly approaching midnight to begin with. She hadn't found her peace in writing reports at the station, hadn't found a distraction in it.

Thankfully, Vi's kitchen had a glass door that led to a small balcony. With the glass of liquor still in hand, she fondled with the doorhandle, eventually realized that to open the door, the handle needed to be turned sideways, was glad as she could finally pull the door open and the first breeze of the cold air hit her.

Outside the apartment, standing on the small balcony, she could finally let her thoughts wander. Taking a sip of Bacardi, she closed her eyes, let her thoughts trail away from the dread she felt on the inside. It didn't just feel like she was separated from Vi. It already felt like she had lost her for good, her fear of loss acting up again, stronger than ever before.

But now, on the balcony, with the alcohol in hand and the cold air taking her mind off things, she could finally calm down. Would have to calm down. People expected it of her as the sheriff of Piltover, to stay strong, no matter what.

But they forgot that she was, beyond her job of being the sheriff of Piltover, a woman, albeit a strong one. She was human, too. And emotions were no stranger to her either, even if she kept a stoic expression most of the time.

Resting her arms on the railing of the balcony, Caitlyn opened her eyes and looked down on the street below her, the buildings across the street and their flat roofs. The lights down the street. Across the street, behind a window in the second story, two women were passionately making out on their couch.

Caitlyn's heart ached at the sight. She quickly rose her glass to her lips, took another long sip. When she lowered the glass eventually, it was empty. And she craved more, needed more. There was still too much on her mind.

With a heavy sigh, she turned, faced the kitchen once more with the intention of going inside and pouring herself another glass. Maybe the last. She had herself under control and had no intention of overdoing it.

But the bottle was gone, no longer on the kitchen counter.

"Alcohol doesn't solve any problems, ya know? Especially if you're not used to it."

Suddenly struck with a mixture of disbelief and irritation, Caitlyn turned her head to the right, frowned at the woman sitting on the railing of the balcony there, back resting against the wall, the bottle of Bacardi in her right hand. As if to mock the sheriff, even if Caitlyn doubted that was the original intention, the woman rose her hand and shook the bottle a bit.

Irritation got the better of the sheriff. She twirled around and angrily leaned onto the railing again, still holding her empty glass, even if a little harder now.

"What do you want, Jinx?" hissed the sheriff in her anger, refused so much as to even look at the intruder. Where had she even come from? Caitlyn would've heard if the maniac had entered through the front door of the apartment, even if she had Vi's key. And she would have had to move past her.

"I was looking for you. Worried about you." was the surprisingly serious reply of the loose cannon, "And it seems my worries are justified. You look like crap, Caitlyn."

"Oh gee, thanks. That coming from the woman who has hair in the color of candy and looks like she's barely legal when she's a few years older than me means a lot." snorted the sheriff, not even caring to be nice for once, "I feel like crap, too."

"No need to get personal, okay?" huffed Jinx and climbed down from the railing, revealed that way that she wasn't carrying a single of her weapons on her body, offered the bottle to Caitlyn, "I'm genuinely worried and you treat me like I kicked your puppy. I don't kick puppies. Even I don't do such a horrible thing as that."

"Good to know. Always wondered where your limit is." growled the brunette, held her glass out to the woman with the electric-blue hair and allowed her to fill it with Bacardi again, "To know that even you have some morality calms me down on so many levels."

"You're no happy drunk, huh?"

"I'm no happy woman right now."

"Well, then at least the mood is set for the topic I was going to address." sighed Jinx, returning to her spot by the wall, only to suddenly turn and present the bottle to Caitlyn again, "You're going to drink all of this?"

Caitlyn shook her head after a few seconds, already felt the effects of the alcohol slowly reaching her.

"You don't mind if I drink this then, right? This tale I'm about to tell sure ain't a happy one, and even I refuse to even think, let alone speak about it completely sober." Jinx climbed back onto the railing with the little prize she had claimed, the bottle in her hand.

"Go ahead. Suit yourself." huffed the sheriff, lowering her chin down on her arms, resting it there.

"Don't mind if I do." replied Jinx and took a long swig from the bottle, more than used to the effects of alcohol. She wasn't a heavy drinker, but her body could take a lot of it before she even started to feel nauseous.

"And what's this tale supposed to be about? I'm actually not quite in the mood for another stupid mind game of yours, should it be one." muttered the sheriff, "How did Vi always put it when she spoke about you after your first time causing chaos in Piltover? 'I don't care what this Jinx's sob story is'."

"That's cold. You should hear me out first. I bet I can change your mind about my lil' tale quite quickly." challenged Jinx, but instead of explaining that, merely took another swig from the bottle.

"And just what is that supposed to mean again, prey tell?" inquired Caitlyn, rose her head a bit and took a sip, "What exactly is supposed to change my mind about not wanting to hear your stupid story? Didn't you take enough from me today when you took Vi? Do you need to steal my precious time as well now?"

"Well, I suppose you don't want to hear it then. Fine with me." huffed Jinx, seemed genuinely offended for once, "But here I was, about to tell you about that which you've yet failed to understand. The missing link between Vi and me that you've always wondered about, but never dared to ask."

Caitlyn perked up, nearly lost her grip on her – well, technicaly Vi's – glass, which would've sent it plummeting down to it's demise on the street three stories below. She twisted her head around, stared in disbelief at the other woman that sat so casually on the railing, back against the wall, one leg resting on the railing and the other dangling over it, the bottle of Bacardi on her lap as she stared out into the distance and took in the lights in the darkness.

Gently, Jinx turned her head so she faced Caitlyn. Smiled weakly, genuinely, was amused that she had been right. Aside the shock that was now so obvious on Caitlyn's face, there was curiosity. The need to finally learn what she had been failing to understand.

"See? I knew that you'd be interested when I offer to share the sad and horrible tragedy that the original bad day was. The bad day that made me who I am. That made Vi who she is. And that, through that, also forged you ever since you came in touch with us. With the two twisted beings that we are, looking for our place in the world." Jinx chuckled, but not out of amusement, a dry chuckle at something she deemed ironic, "With one finding it but giving it up, and the other failing to find it, and turning insane."

"Are you really..." began Caitlyn, but was silenced when the madwoman rose a finger to her mouth and gestured Caitlyn to be quiet.

"It won't be easy, Caitlyn. It's hard for me to look back to it, let alone talk about it. It'll be risky. At several times throughout my tale, I might slowly start to lose it, might become insane again. Right now, I'm actually surprisingly calm. For the first time in over ten years, the voices inside my head have become quiet, whispers instead of their distorted screams." Jinx rested her head against the wall, looked up to the balcony above them and the stars she could see beyond it, "Ignore me if anything weird happens to my personality and mentality throughout it. Ignore it if I start to experience emotional pain. I've made my decision, and now is the time that you shall finally learn the truth. You deserve it."

The sheriff nodded gently, even though she felt a little worried about the loose cannon, not liking the effects that the tale seemed to have on her. But she could feel the desperation that Jinx radiated. And that, mixed with her own need for answers assured her that Jinx was right.

The loose cannon seemed to feel that, too, as she gently nodded after a few seconds of silence, and closed her eyes.

"Let me start with asking somewhat of a strange question." began Jinx after a few moments, didn't even open her eyes, "What is Vi's handedness, Caitlyn?"

The sheriff found herself caught off guard, had to agree that the question was somewhat strange and didn't seem to have any connection to the 'original bad day', and yet pondered about it for a few seconds. Jinx was taking this serious, she could feel and see it, and so, she wanted to be serious about this as well.

"Ambidextrous." she answered, the countless memories of Vi using both her left and her right hand for everyday things, not once thinking about which hand to use, assuring her that the answer was right. Vi brushed her teeth with her left hand, but on occasions used her right one. She punched with right first, but Caitlyn had also seen her use her left hand for the first punch. Vi held cups with her right hand, but would pick them up with her left hand at other times and drink from them.

Jinx opened her eyes and smiled, leaned her head a bit towards the sheriff and nodded gently.

"Correct. Vi is ambidextrous." began Jinx anew, but something about her tone bugged Caitlyn, and she should learn what as Jinx continued after a few seconds of silence, "And what is her original handedness?"

Now, Caitlyn really felt caught off guard. Vi's original handedness? Was Jinx implying that Vi hadn't always been ambidextrous?

"Still ambidextrous?" offered Caitlyn, but didn't feel so sure about that anymore. For all she knew, Vi had always been ambidextrous. From the moment that Caitlyn had met her, she had always seen Vi use either hand for everyday actions. Jinx smiled.

"Vi is left-handed, Caitlyn." answered Jinx, genuine amusement on her lips as she turned away again and closed her eyes anew, "Sorry for the strange questions, but there are things I need to ask you first. It'll make sense in a moment."

"I see. Though I'm not quite sure how they're related to this 'bad day' you talk about."

"You will, in a moment." was the loose cannon's reply, "Now, what is Vi's real name?"

Again, Caitlyn felt herself caught off guard. Did Jinx imply what Caitlyn thought she was? That she knew the brawler's full, true name? Not just the two letters that Vi made everyone believe her name was? The brawler had once told her the truth about those two letters, but to think that Jinx, of all people, would know the truth!

...Did Vi know? Had Jinx told Vi?

"I don't know. Vi doesn't, either, if what she told me at the beginning of our partnership was true." replied the sheriff, recalling the first days of her partnership with the rebellious pinkette only too well, "When I once asked her about it, she said that that she lost part of her memories. All she remembered at the beginning of our partnership was that which she had done during her time as a criminal. And before that, just waking up one day in the middle of a dirty alley in the lawless part of Piltover, with no clue as to who she was and how she had come to that point. She named herself after the tattoo that she found on her cheek the moment that she first saw her reflection."

Jinx was slowly nodding, but didn't say a thing yet. She felt that Caitlyn wasn't done, and she should be right.

"When Vi became a cop, she had to go through a lot of evaluations and tests. At least a half dozen of them were of psychological nature, since she was a criminal before, and everyone wanted to be assured that she'd really rehabilitate." continued the sheriff, relaxed a bit and turned to look down at the city below, "After one of those psychological evaluations, a doctor came up to me and told me that he assumed that Vi had went through some kind of trauma at one point in her childhood, which was the trigger for her losing her memories. Something so horrible that her brain, in order to forget it, completely shut it out. He said she wouldn't even recognize anyone that had been close to her before. Would neither know her former friends, her family, nor a pet if she had ever possessed one. All of it, erased by just one really bad..."

It clicked in Caitlyn's head all of a sudden and she trailed off. Something horrible had happened to Vi at one point, making her forget everything. She turned to look at Jinx, was already expecting the knowing, self-pleased grin on the criminal's lips.

One bad day.

"I see you realized. Good. I knew you'd see the connection sooner or later." chuckled Jinx, then let out a dry laugh that sent a cold chill down the sheriff's spine, "Yes. It was the same bad day. The original bad day. Something so horrible happened that Vi couldn't take it. Or should I say..."

Jinx leaned her head to the side, looked Caitlyn directly into the eyes.

"Violet couldn't take it?"

It all happened relatively fast after that – Jinx jumped off the railing and landed right next to the cop, took another swig from the bottle, then slammed it down on the windowsill aside her. The bottle wasn't quite empty yet.

"VI, the two letters tattooed onto her check, Caitlyn. They're the initials for her name. She didn't just randomly chose them for her name after she forgot everything. V stands for Violet. But everyone has always called her 'Vi' to begin with, so I guess that's why she felt natural about that name when she had no memories."

Jinx leaned onto the windowsill now, seemed pleased with the progress they were making. She crossed her arms over her chest, laid one leg over the other as she closed her eyes and nodded to herself. She really was pleased with the progress they were making.

"But let's move on. I get to the rest eventually as we move down the memory lane at horribly fast speed." snorted the madwoman as she opened her eyes again and focused back on Caityn, "Time we move on to some more important stuff. But before we do that, let me tell you that despite the fact that Vi is ambidextrous nowadays and does everyday tasks with either hand, she always preferred her right hand for the more brutal actions and still punches criminals that she really doesn't like with it first, while she preferred her left hands for the more gentle actions. She used to pat my head or ruffle my hair a lot with it when we were younger and she was proud of me. And that despite the fact that I'm the older one! Well, then again, Vi was always freakishly tall and I've always been a lil' bit smaller than the rest."

The look on the madwoman's face was that of a happy puppy, a dog that had just been praised. For a moment, Caitlyn even expected her to grow a pair of dog ears and a tail, but quickly discarded those thoughts again. Alcohol really wasn't her thing.

"Just some trivia I thought that would be interesting for you to know." added Jinx quickly, but the sheriff had still caught on to the real point of that 'trivia'.

"So you two do know each other for quite a while now." mused Caitlyn, "Does this mean you're among those who she forgot as a result of her trauma?"

"Yeah. The first few days of my time here in Piltover, Vi didn't recognize me. Thought I was just another mad criminal." Jinx let out a disappointed, heavy sigh and lowered her gaze a bit, suddenly thought of the floor as incredibly interesting, "But I was also the one who helped her to remember everything. Who she was before her time as 'Vi, the Piltover enforcer'."

Jinx saw how Caitlyn's eyebrow shot up immediately, knew what question the sheriff would ask next, and yet let her voice her thoughts.

"Does this mean that Vi actually remembered everything from before her memory loss? For how long?" Caitlyn trailed off, doubt arising within her, "Is this why she suddenly decided against the Police force? Against me?"

The criminal shook her head, knew that this would calm the sheriff down at least somewhat.

"Vi has known who she really was for about a year now. We ran into each other one day when she wasn't on duty and I wasn't intending to play a bit in the city. When I saw the chance that this offered, I decided to talk with her about our past. And once she heard my name - my real name, not 'Jinx', what everybody calls me – she remembered. And it was painful for her. More so than it was for me to see her suffer. To see her drown in the guilt of that one bad day..."

Jinx slowly sunk down on the wall below the windowsill, let herself fall down onto the ground so that she sat with her back leaned against the wall and was staring out into the city.

"I've been hearing this for quite a while now, from both Vi and you." mused the sheriff, found herself surprised at how melancholic she felt, how sad after all the anger before, how calm, "This bad day... You said someone died that day. And you both said that Vi feels guilt over this bad day. Does this mean she...?"

"She didn't kill anyone, and she wasn't responsible for the death that day." sighed Jinx and lowered her head a bit, rubbed her eyes with the thumb and the index finger of her right hand, "But she thinks she is. She keeps blaming herself. Even now, over ten years after it happened."

"So this original bad day happened over ten years ago? And it still affects us today?"

"Yeah. In more ways than you can imagine, Caitlyn." Jinx heaved another sigh, "Before I start the actual tale now, how this all connects me and Vi, are there any more questions that you have about Vi?"

Of course, she didn't find herself surprised when the sheriff nodded. By now, Caitlyn had fully turned around and was resting her back against the railing, her body facing the smaller, but older female. Chuckling, Jinx gave the brunette the sign to go ahead and ask.

"What's with the tattoos?" inquired the sheriff hesitantly, "Why do you have those tattoos and Vi has the other half? I've seen them, Jinx. I've seen that they're exactly alike, only mirrored to yours. Why does Vi have the same tattoos as you do? When did she get them? Where?"

"That's a lot of questions, but alright." snickered Jinx, even though she found no real amusement at the situation, knew it was too serious for that, "Vi got her tattoos, both the letters on her face and these..." Jinx presented her right arm, "...when she was what? Maybe ten?"

Seeing Caitlyn's honest shock, Jinx giggled after all.

"Calm down, sheriff." mocked the older woman, "Zaun is not exactly the place with the most laws, it was legal that we got those when we were little. I decided on these first and got them, and Vi was so amazed by them that she decided she wanted them to. But on her other side, so that it's almost like a puzzle. Two parts of a whole. These tattoos became the sign of our bond."

"So Vi is from Zaun, too?" inquired the brunette, found herself caught off guard yet again, especially as Jinx nodded with a serious expression on her face. Another step towards the truth, towards the answers. She had always thought that it made no sense for Jinx and Vi to know each other from before their time as criminal and cop respectively if Jinx was from Zaun and Vi from Piltover, but if Vi truly was from Zaun, it suddenly made a lot of sense. Scary sense. Including Vi's natural talent with hextech and her ability to learn everything that included mechanics at unnatural speed. After all, Zaun was, just like Piltover, known for their hextech. Even if for the wrong reasons.

Zaun and Piltover were like two sides of a coin – one used science for the good, that was Piltover, and the other used science for selfish reasons and beliefs, which was Zaun. And while not everyone in Piltover had access to hextech, the city of progress making sure that their production was clean, safe and trustworthy, Zaun couldn't care less, was full of toxic chemicals and acids, had abandoned and still active factory grounds everywhere with little to no security, and dumped their unsuccessful hextech creations on the countless junkyards.

If one wanted to see it that way, Piltover was holy, and Zaun unholy.

"Any more questions, Caitlyn?" inquired the loose cannon, reached for the bottle and took another swig, well knowing that her horrible tale of that bad day was coming closer and closer.

"One more question." muttered the brunette, this time crouching down so that she was on one level with Jinx and could stare the crazy woman directly into the eyes, "How come you know this all about Vi? Who are you to her, Jinx?"

The dry laughter of the loose cannon scared Caitlyn this time. Upon the question being asked, Jinx slammed the bottle down with enough force for it to receive a crack but not shatter apart, and threw her head back.

"First of, Caitlyn. My name isn't 'Jinx'. I like that name, really do, but that's not what my parents called me. It's merely the name I adopted when I came here, thinking it was ironic since it sounded almost like my actual name." Jinx rose the bottle and stared at the crack in it with fascination, "My name is Jay. Jay Inks. And this time, I'm not joking about it. Vi was bluffing when she made fun of my name that night in the Police station. She knew it very well."

The madwoman lowered the bottle again, gently placed it on her lap and laid an arm across her waist, stared at the brunette with a smirk on her lips.

"And as to what I am to Violet, Caitlyn..." Jinx chuckled weakly, and only now did Caitlyn realize that the criminal's amusement was fake, a mask she had tried to put on in order to hide what she really felt at that moment. Her eyes betrayed her, didn't look happy. The corner of her mouth was twitching in an attempt to stay up. Her chuckling were sobs she tried to control and disguise. But that all was for naught when Caitlyn, for the first time in her life, should see tears in Jinx's eyes, tears in the corners of the madwoman's eyes that threatened to fall.

"I'm her older sister, Caitlyn. Violet is my little sister..."

The final piece was put into place. The connection was there, the puzzle complete. Everything made sense now, from Jinx and Vi's background to the way they treated each other. Even Vi's actions of that day finally made sense to the sheriff.

And yet, the truth was hard to face. To believe that the two polar opposites that were large parts of her life, the enforcer and the criminal, were related by blood, and not just by their past. But it explained it, explained Jinx's obsession with 'playing' with Vi, explained Vi's sudden obsession to rehabilitate Jinx, even why none of the three women had ever come to serious harm during all the chases over the years.

And Caitlyn knew that Jinx wasn't lying. Knew it from the very moment that the woman broke down in front of her and started to cry for her hearts content right then and there, on the balcony. This wasn't Jinx with her, wasn't the totally crazy and outright mad woman.

Sitting on the balcony with her that night, so close to midnight, was Jay Inks. A woman that Caitlyn had no idea on how to comfort. A woman that Caitlyn wasn't even sure she truly knew.

"Does this mean that..." Caitlyn trailed off, scooted closer to the crying woman, laid a hand onto the criminal's right leg, "If V stands for Violet, then is the I for Inks? Violet Inks?"

Jinx nodded weakly, was still crying, but seemed to have calmed somewhat down after feeling the sheriff's touch. She wasn't sobbing as much as before, was looking at her again through teary eyes. Caitlyn tried to relocate her hand to Jinx's shoulder, couldn't help but feel bad for the woman, but Jinx moved before she could, rose from the ground to her full, albeit small, height.

With the bottle in hand, Jinx went for the kitchen. For a second, Caitlyn pondered if she should follow her, but Jinx resurfaced before she could come to a conclusion, carrying a chair from the ex-enforcer's kitchen. She placed it on the balcony, unceremoniously dropped into it, body leaned forward, and led the bottle to her lips again.

Jinx was not a happy drinker, either. And not a happy woman right now, to add to the irony of the situation, which now almost felt reversed for the sheriff.

The bottle sunk down, as did Jinx, her gaze slowly dropping until she was staring at the floor. Gesturing Caitlyn to pull a chair up as well, the woman with the electric-blue hair waited until Caitlyn had done so, and only then seemed ready to continue. By then, she had already calmed herself down as well, with the tears dried, and the bottle a good bit closer to complete emptiness.

A drunk criminal and a depressed sheriff on a balcony – it sounded like the beginning of a weird joke to Caitlyn. To Jinx, and anyone who would've ever heard it as well, probably. Unless they knew the background, the reason why the sheriff was depressed, and why the criminal was drunk, and what had led them there onto that balcony.

"It all started on a day that wasn't unlike any other, as cliché as it sounds." began Jay, moved a hand through her hair, "I guess no one really expected it to become the worst day we should have. The bad day I refer to as 'the original bad day', or 'day zero'. But I get to that."

Another swig from the bottle. That much alcohol couldn't be good, even for Jinx. But Caitlyn didn't say a thing. Knew that Jinx needed it at that moment.

"We've been living in Zaun. Modest life, nothing too fancy, but nothing too bad." Jinx looked up, searched for the sheriff's gaze, "You know what Zaun's like, right? Inhabited by madmen with weird goals and scientists who want to experiment on something living without getting into trouble for it, lots of factories and toxic waste, generally dark and dangerous, lots of shady stuff going on there. No place for children, I'm sure of that after seeing all the playgrounds here in Piltover. Call me childish, but I spent some time on those. Always made sure to never damage one in any way. A playground is a holy place for a child, Caitlyn."

"Close to that, I'm sure. I remember some good times from my childhood." agreed the sheriff.

"Ever seen what a playground in Zaun looks like?" inquired the loose cannon, raising an eyebrow at the sheriff. There was a catch to that question, Caitlyn was sure of it, Jinx's voice gave that away pretty much, but she couldn't quite make this catch out.

"Can't say I have. I didn't actually even know that Zaun has any child-friendly environment at all."

"That's cause they don't have that, Caitlyn. There's nothing child-friendly about Zaun at all." spat Jinx and lowered her gaze again, seemed angry all of sudden as she stomped onto the ground and rubbed the combat boot over it, although this anger didn't seem directed at the sheriff, "There are no official playgrounds in Zaun. And what happens if a group of bored kids can't find a playground and have nothing to do at home?"

The loose cannon sunk a little deeper into her chair, elbows resting on her thighs, right hand resting atop her left. Her shoulders dropped further as she leaned a bit further forward.

"They find alternatives. Search for places to make their own playgrounds, a place to shape their own little world to live their adventures in." answered Jinx her own question, stared out into the cold night before them, "But while these adventures remain mere fantasy for the average kid, in Zaun, a mere fantasy, an adventure that a child's mind came up with... Becomes an actual danger."

She raised the bottle to her lips again, a solemn expression on her face – but as the cold bottle touched her lips, the loose cannon froze up for a second, stopped all of her movements. And lowered the bottle again, placed it on the ground before her.

"What do you mean, Ji..." Caityln stopped, then corrected herself, "Jay?"

The loose cannon perked up as she heard her real name being used, smiled weakly at the humorous twist of the situation. But Caitlyn saw no reason to call her anything but Jay, didn't feel right with calling the other woman 'Jinx', when she was clearly not the same woman in mind at that moment. This wasn't the destructive, overly excited, sarcastic and sadistic Jinx. She was too calm for that, too serious. Too depressed.

"We were mere kids back then, Caitlyn! I wasn't even in the middle of my teenage years, was just a fourteen year old kid that was looking for a place to play out an adventure with her younger sibling!" snapped the criminal all of sudden, nearly jumped out of her chair as she turned to the sheriff, "It wasn't supposed to turn out like this! Wasn't supposed to become that day, the bad day!"

Her anger dissipated as quick as it had appeared. Her scrunched up face relaxed, looked shocked for a second, then turned away while the criminal bit down on her lower lip. Again, she stared at the floor, growled to herself.

"To a bored kid in Zaun, who has never been on a playground and would love to be one to fight the boredom of their everyday life, the most promising alternative is one of the many countless factories, especially the abandoned ones." continued Jay, stared at the ground with a solemn expression, "They have everything a kid could possibly yearn for, are the place where the realm of fantasy can become one with reality. A crane becomes the hideous dragon, the abandoned building becomes the cave of the monster, hanging ropes and cables become vines in the jungle, a beam on the ground becomes the tree that is the only way over a rapid stream, scaffolds become a large wall that the brave adventurers have to overcome. The fantasy of a child knows no bounds, Caitlyn."

The throat of the sheriff became dry for the umpteenth time that day, this time as her sharp mind connected something that Jinx had said two weeks ago to what she was saying at that moment. And fought the tears as she came to realize the horrible connection.

"Jinx... Jay..." she whispered, stood up from her chair in intention of comforting the loose cannon, "Two weeks ago, you mentioned a grating when you spoke about that day..."

Jinx reacted different than Caitlyn expected. Instead of allowing Caitlyn to come closer, she jumped out of her chair with enough force for it to fall over. Caitlyn jumped back in surprise, hadn't expected such a violent reaction, hadn't expected Jinx to lash out with such blind anger. That was completely unlike her. Jinx was out of control, the method to her madness was gone.

"We were playing on this old, abandoned chemical plant's ground that was in our neighbourhood. It was raining horribly that day, but that didn't stop us. If anything, it made the adventure more exciting, two girls stranded on an island in the middle of a storm, fighting for survival in hope of reaching the eye of the storm, where the rain would stop and they could finally find cover." growled the madwoman, the bottle of Bacardi forgotten by the chair she had knocked over, hands curling around the railing with enough strength for her knuckles to turn white in mere seconds.

"Everything was fine at first. Our game was great, the adventure made us excited. More careless. The sky darkened above, but we didn't care. All we cared for in the middle of this cold, unforgiving rain was our fun, and that we would let nothing interrupt it in any way."

Jinx had begun to pant, and yet didn't feel any physical exhaustion. Her mind was gone, walking down the memory lane. Before her eyes, present and past began to mingle and overlap, saw rain falling in the darkness of the night, felt the cold rain hit her body when there was no actual rain there.

"And then I became too careless. Was too lost in that game of ours. I knew the ground was wet and slippery, had almost fallen off a pipe I had been balancing on, with Vi warning me to be careful. She wasn't as brave as me, wasn't as careless. She followed me, but avoided the things she thought to be too dangerous. I just should've listened to her."

Sweat was running down the pale woman's face, but it wasn't the sweat that dampened her cheeks, but the tears that ran down her face. Her panting had turned into uncontrollable intake and release of air, pink eyes staring straight ahead, unmoving. Jinx wasn't in the present anymore. In her mind, she was back on that day, balancing on top of a pipe. Felt the rain on her skin, felt her cold and wet clothes cling to her skin. Saw the young Vi standing at the end of the pipe, begging her to be more careful.

"And then, when the heavy rain was at it's worst point, I made this stupid, goddamn mistake. We had intended to end our game for the day, the rain had become too severe after all. Vi didn't want to be sick, she always hated being sick, so we headed for the hole in the fence that we had slipped in through to begin with. And I slipped."

The horrible noise of rusty metal breaking beneath her feet echoed in her mind, and before she knew, she screamed in the present just like she had screamed on that day as she lost ground, was falling, caught Caitlyn off guard who didn't see what she saw, who couldn't see the day before her inner eye like Jinx did.

"I had stepped on a rusty grate that someone, not caring about the danger that it could become, had placed over a hole in the ground before the company that had been building the factory went bankrupt, the reason that the factory had never been finished and had been abandoned. The rusty grating couldn't support the little weight I had. It gave in beneath my feet, I fell for a second. And then, there was only cold. And the pile of construction material that collapsed atop the hole, triggered by the grate that it stood on, the same grate that had given in underneath my feet, being moved."

Caitlyn, unaware of what Jinx was experiencing, could only wonder what the loose cannon really felt at that moment as she suddenly began to shiver uncontrollably, arms and head twitching and jerking around.

"The heavy rain had filled the hole to the brim with cold water, which would've not been a problem, if not for the strange pull on my legs that was continually forcing my head back down into the water. Had I not managed to grab onto the grating that had fallen atop the hole from the pile, sealing the hole up in the process though, I would've immediately been gone for good down the hole. But I clung onto it, fighting for my dear life. Literally."

Jinx was shivering, felt the cold, hands clinging onto the railing of the balcony like it was the grating that had trapped her in that hole. And she heard them in her head, the screams of a young girl, saw the young Vi at the edge of the hole, reaching for her hand.

"I was unable to get out, I couldn't. Could just fight the pull by using what little strength I had left, the cold of the rain water seeping into my body, draining away my strength. And then there was Vi, at the edge of the hole, screamed for help and told me to fight, grabbed my hand and pulled on it with all the might of her little body, knowing she wouldn't be able to pull me out with the grate in the way, but would be able to help me keep my head above the surface of the water. But the water was rising, and I knew that even if Vi and I managed to keep my head above the water, sooner or later the hole would've filled up and the grating would prevent me from staying above the cold. I would drown, I knew that as the cold had made my legs numb and I couldn't use them to fight the pull anymore."

Jinx was shivering uncontrollably now, clung onto the railing for her dear life like she had done that one day. She had bit so hard down on her lower lip that it was swollen and bloody. All muscles in her body were tensed up.

And chuckled. Shook her head.

"It was pointless. Despite all her tries, Vi couldn't save me that day. Could only hold my hand as the cold drained away the last bit of warmth from my body, and my last strength seeped away with my consciousness."

She relaxed suddenly, tensed up muscles stopping to work all of sudden. Her knuckles regained color, her teeth slowly pulled out of her lower lip, a wave of blood following them.

"Jay died that day. Drowned in a horrible accident. Vi lost her older sister. Blamed herself for not being able to do anything. Still blames herself." whispered Jinx, kept staring straight ahead in such a trance that Caitlyn wasn't even sure if the madwoman realized she was there anymore, "When my hand, wet and cold from the rain, slippery, was not holding onto Vi's hand anymore when I lost consciousness, she could only try to hold onto it. But it slipped from her grasp. And she saw her sister being pulled down into the depths of the hole. Jay never resurfaced. Jay didn't come home after that day. Never did."

Slowly, Jinx turned her head, returned to the present. Her gaze, still void of emotion, met that of the crying sheriff, who could barely believe the tragedy she had just heard.

"But you're here today. You're alive." sobbed Caitlyn softly, hoped Jinx would actually react. Jinx did. Jinx snorted.

"Jinx is alive. Jay's dead. Drowned over ten years ago." replied the loose cannon, lowered her head, "I'm not Jay anymore, Caitlyn. I can't be that person. Not if I felt her dying inside me that day. Not when I don't look anything like her."

Slowly, Jinx rose her hands, looked down at them.

"My parents and Vi couldn't stand the event. Couldn't stand living in Zaun anymore, constantly reminded of what they lost there. In the aftermath of it, they moved to Piltover, but could only afford a place in the lawless outskirts. Which is where my parents died on that day that Vi called her 'second bad day'. The day that left her as an orphan, fighting for survival in the streets, forced to become a criminal. Until she met you. Until she had her 'good day'. And now, she's about to throw it out the window because she thinks she can repay me that way, that she can soothe the guilt she feels."

"That doesn't explain how you survived." countered Caitlyn, knew that Jinx tried to avoid the topic. And Jinx knew she couldn't.

"The hole I was in, the hole that Jay drowned in." whispered Jinx softly, raised her unnaturally pale hands and presented them to Caitlyn, grabbed one of her electric-blue braids and did the same, "It was part of the drainage system of the surrounding chemical plants. The pull I had felt was because of that. And once I stopped fighting it and fell unconscious, I was..."

She chuckled, cracked up, made a movement with her hands that reminded of a toilet being flushed.

"I was flushed out! Ended up in a basin in the outskirts of Zaun, where I came to hours later." Jinx's laugh became hysterical, mad even, and she continued to wave her braid around, "Was stinging. Itching. My face. My hands. It burned. And when I finally saw myself in the reflection of a puddle..."

Jinx cracked up again, interrupted herself with dry chuckles.

"With my skin turned white as chalk and my hair turned into a hideous blue of flowing electricity, I knew that Jay had died that day and something different was born from her body. Something with a scarred mind, a broken personality. But I started anew, from point zero, as someone completely different. Which is why I call it 'day zero', the day of my second birth, where everything starts for Jinx." whispered the loose cannon, but the madness in her voice was growing stronger as she slowly tilted her head and began to smile in a sick way, "Once you face death, Caitlyn, you just snap."

"You're losing it, Jinx!" warned Caitlyn as she heard the madness in the whisper of the criminal, but the only response from the madwoman was more cackling, "That day clearly traumatized you, and I can understand why. But why did you never get help? If you really have that degree in psychology, shouldn't you have realized the state of your own mind?"

"Oh, I'm very aware of it. But I embrace this madness of mine, fully enjoy it. I don't want to be Jay again, Jinx is way too much to my liking for that." cackled Jinx, but rose an eyebrow as she saw the seriousness in the sheriff's eyes, "That bad day is just the blackest joke of all time, Caitlyn. So why aren't you laughing? Laughing like I am? I told you before - You're not laughing."

"And I don't intend to, Jinx, Jay, whatever you want to call yourself!" hissed Caitlyn, suddenly very aware of what risk Jinx had been talking about when she warned Caitlyn – the risk of Jinx losing control of herself – and yet the sheriff refused to back down, "Because that joke is not funny at all."

"That's what you say." countered Jinx, smile falling, excitement suddenly turning into a stoic void of emotions, "You wouldn't understand. You didn't feel it. Never experienced a bad day like Vi or I did. And I honestly don't want you to. I like you too much for that."

The madwoman turned away all of sudden, turned back to stare at the city below.

"Now you know my story. Know Vi's story." she muttered, suddenly not interested in talking about all that anymore, "And now it's up to you to decide how it ends."

Caitlyn rose an eyebrow at her unlikely companion, who she, as crazy as it sounded, suddenly felt like she understood a lot more.

"And what's that supposed to mean now?"

Jinx turned her head a bit, stared at her with the two voids of emotions that her pink eyes had become at one point during her tale, losing all their excited glow.

"In three days from now, Vi and I will pull off our second job together. At the hextech factory near the central station. Be there if you want Vi back, be on the playground right in front of the station after the sun has set. And be there alone." commanded Jinx in a cold manner that was just as unlike her as the whole conversation had been on that balcony, "Don't ask me why I am doing this, you should know it."

Jinx turned towards the sheriff again, stared at her with the most serious expression that Jinx had ever shown to her. And with that serious expression, none of her usual amusement on her features, Caitlyn could for the first time see how old Jinx really looked, missing the smile and the childish glee and fascination. The hard expression brought forth the real signs of her age, the toll that time had had on her.

"I'm doing this for the good of both you and Vi. She's making a horrible mistake right now. She should be at your side, shouldn't bother with me anymore, especially not out of guilt. I care for her as a sister, and this is why I need to protect her from mistakes she doesn't realize she's making. No matter at what cost."

"And what do you intend to do when the three of us are there, at that playground?" inquired the sheriff. But Jinx didn't reply. Instead, the loose cannon began to approach the kitchen, picked up the bottle along the way and emptied the rest with a last long swig. She remained silent when she entered the kitchen, placed the bottle on the table there, but kept walking, vanished through the doorway into the corridor of Vi's apartment.

"You'll see." called Jinx out, right before the door slammed shut behind her. Jinx was gone. Had left right after finishing her story.

Caitlyn could only imagine the emotional instability of the loose cannon at that moment, could somehow understand the reason for the woman's sudden escape. Jinx needed time alone now.

Caitlyn needed it, too. Was alone in the ex-enforcer's apartment. And despite her former wish that Vi was there with her, was glad about being alone in there all of sudden.

All the things that Jinx – Jay – had said and revealed had made her start to think. All the time, she had wanted answers, had wished to understand Vi and Jinx better. Now, she wished she didn't have the knowledge she had just gained, wished she could go back to not knowing.

But that was no option anymore. She knew things now that nobody else did, and she needed to deal with those. First for herself, and then for Vi. Needed to think how this knowledge would affect her relationship with the woman she was dating.

Gently massaging her temples as she felt a headache approaching, the brunette woman decided that it was all too much for one day. Returning into the kitchen and locking the door to the balcony, deciding to let the chairs on the balcony for that night, Caitlyn dragged her body through her girlfriend's apartment to the bedroom, shuddered at how cold it was.

Three days. She had three days to work things out and prepare everything she wanted to say to Vi in hopes of convincing her that she was making a terrible mistake. To know that Jinx was seeing it the same way, that Jinx was going to help her convince Vi, reassured the sheriff greatly. And she needed that reassurance, needed to be strong for Vi.

But for the rest of that night, the usually strong woman wept for her hearts content, broke down on the ex-enforcer's bed, collapsed into the pillow that smelled so much like Vi, the smell intoxicating and comforting her.

Her decision was made that moment, though – She'd stay in Vi's apartment. Would stay as long as necessary, would keep the place alive like it was the legacy of the brawler.

When Vi'd return, her apartment would still be the same. And Vi would return.

Caitlyn had sworn that to herself before falling asleep out of exhaustion.

---

"Soooo..." began Vi, gauntlets on her back, arms crossed behind her head as she and Jinx walked through the crowded streets of Piltover like it wasn't unlikely at all for the former enforcer and her criminal sister to hang out just like that, "You've been awfully secretive about this job, Jay. All you said was that we're heading for the central station. What's this about?"

The older sibling sent a glance towards her younger sister, but none of the usual amusement was visible on her features. Her eyes were hard and her mouth a thin line, not smiling and not scowling. This wasn't like Jinx, and Vi didn't like it.

Jinx had been in that mood ever since she had returned the night three days prior, the night after the heist on the bank downtown. Vi hadn't been able to sleep and was still up, working on her gauntlets, when Jinx entered their hideout with that mood. She had outright refused to say anything and had simply walked into her bedroom, locking the door behind her, leaving Vi to wonder wherever the loose cannon had been and what had gotten her into that mood. It wasn't until the next evening that Jinx had been ready to exchange a few words, only telling her briefly of the next plan she had, and that it would take place at the central station two days later. But after that, all communication with the madwoman had been for naught, no matter what Vi had said or done had got any other reaction that a grunt from her sister.

And it was worrying the pinkette a lot.

Even now, a simple groan of irritation was the reply she got from the loose cannon, a simple wave of her pale hand telling Vi to remain quiet and just walk. Not exactly Vi's favorite way of spending time, and certainly not that of the Jinx that she knew, who grew bored when everything was silent.

Jinx was in a mood, and certainly not a normal one.

When the lights of the central station finally got into view, the brilliant lights that broke through the darkness of the starless night sky, Vi was hoping that Jinx would snap out of it, for the job's sake. Usually, Jinx got excited at the prospect of doing something forbidden, anyways, so Vi was optimistic that the woman with the heavy artillery would slowly find back to her old self.

That optimism quickly faded, though, when Jinx took a sudden turn to the right, no longer walking towards the station, approaching a small playground instead. Optimism was replaced with confusion as Jinx glanced towards the large clocktower of the station to check the time, then to the west to ensure that the sun had completely set. Something was up, and Vi knew it.

And should be confirmed in that suspicion as Jinx stopped on the edge of the playground and let her gaze trail over it, almost as if to search for someone. Someone that she found sitting on a swing.

Someone that Vi had not wanted to see.

"What the hell, Jay?!" roared Vi immediately upon spotting the sheriff of Piltover, by which point Caitlyn and Jinx had already made eye-contact and the brunette was already approaching them, immediately realized that it was no coincidence that Caitlyn was exactly where Jinx had led them, "What is Cait doing here?"

"Shut it, Vi." growled Jinx, the first words she had spoken in days, voice hoarse and dry, "Stay where you are. This is important."

The criminal greeted Caitlyn with a curt nod that the sheriff reciprocated, took a step to the side so that Caitlyn could stand directly in front of the confused and angry Vi. To think that she had brought them together to begin with, and now had to do the same yet again, to think that she was responsible for bringing them apart as well, enraged the smallest of the three, but she managed to keep her anger contained.

This was about the two now, not about her.

"This isn't important, this is bullshit, Jay." snarled Vi after a few seconds of silence, turning to her sister, "Is this your idea of another fun game? Of another challenge? To have Cait already here when we arrive?"

"You don't get it, Vi, do you?" hissed Jinx in return, narrowed her eyes in pure anger. She took a step forward, after all, stepped in between the two taller women, index finger stabbing Vi in the sternum. "You just don't get it, Vi! This is neither a game, nor is this another job. This here is me trying to save your stupid ass and preventing you from ruining your future!"

"And what has this to do with Cait? Why do you pull cupcake into this?!" roared Vi – and suddenly found herself being pulled down by her collar, pulled down until she was on one level with Jinx.

"Stop resisting and listen for once, you airhead." snarled the older sibling in her anger, eyes glowing in pink malice before she pushed Vi away from her, causing the taller woman to lose balance and land on the ground on her ass, with Jinx turning away from either of them.

"She's right, Vi. She sees what you fail to see, the mistake you're making. That's why she came to me and told me to meet you two here today." added the brunette calmly, gaze resting on the criminal that she slowly but surely failed to recognize more and more – Jinx wasn't like the Jinx she used to be. Had changed in mere days from a woman driven by boredom to a woman driven by anger. This was escalating, the whole situation, and she could only hope that Jinx would return to normal as Vi would once she'd return to the police force, to Caitlyn's side.

"Mistake? What mistake?" growled the brawler, still sat on the ground and looked up at the two women that had teamed up on her, "I don't see this 'mistake' you're talking about!"

"You're throwing away your life, that is your mistake! Choosing your criminal sister's path, a path not meant for you, over the path of your girlfriend, the second chance you have been offered!" shouted Jinx, anger flaring up again, as she twirled around and pointed accusingly at Vi, "Dang it, Vi, you're messing everything up! All our lives, not just yours! I didn't work so hard for this in all the past years, just for you to go and mess it up in one day! You're place is at Caitlyn's side, on the good side, the side of the law! As much as we both want this to work, as much as we both want to be partners again, Vi, we're not meant to be! The bad day didn't separate us to find back together like this!"

"Jay is right, Vi. In most points, at least. You're not a criminal, not a criminal at heart, not a criminal anymore!" added the sheriff right after that – and watched the anger in Vi's eyes became more intense. The brawler shot up, but immediately turned to glare at her sister.

"You told her? Is that where you went the other night?"

"I told her everything, Vi. She had a right to know. This all has started to influence her life as well, so she at least deserved to know why you're behaving as stupid as you did during the last days!" shot Jinx back, took a step towards her sister, "Now how about you pick your goddamn brain up from wherever you left it at, and go back to her? You're the goddamn enforcer, not my partner!"

"So you're blaming me now for wanting to support my sister? For being there for her?!" roared Vi in return, Caitlyn long forgotten by either of the furious sisters.

"Exactly! You don't need to be there for me! I'm not a helpless little girl, and neither are you! For gods sake, Vi, you're not to blame for what happened to me back then, so stop blaming yourself! All this stupid guilt you feel, that's been leading you to make all these dumb decisions of the last days, is completely unnecessary! You weren't at fault!"

Instead of shouting anything back, Vi let out a furious roar and threw her hands up, restrained herself from using any form of violence. Instead, she whirled around, turned away from the two women, and began to stomp away.

"This is stupid! I don't need to put up with this shit of yours, Jay! Calm the hell down and come up with a new plan or something so we...!" The rest of Vi's words remained stuck in the ex-enforcer's throat, a bolt of lightning that impacted right in front of her feet catching her off guard. Slowly, she turned her head around, stared at her older sister. Jinx was holding Zap in her hands.

"Stay where you are. I'm not letting you run away from your mistakes. Or are you telling me you're chickening out now? That you're a little coward after all that won't face her mistakes?" hissed the loose cannon. And was promptly ignored by Vi just flipping her off and turning to leave once more.

Jinx bit down on her lip, snarled as she watched Vi run away from her mistakes. Just like she had expected.

"She's trying to fool herself. Still trying to tell herself that I need her and that her place is at my side. Even after this." growled Jinx in a low tone, was addressing the sheriff at her side. Slowly, Jinx turned to her, looked the brunette in the eyes with desperation.

"But the spark of doubt has been ignited within her now. Now, it's just a matter of time and persuasion." she muttered, glared into the direction that Vi had left in, back towards their hideout, "Leave this to me now, Caitlyn. Go back to the station and wait there. You've done your part in this, seeing you has made her insecure inside. Now it's my part to reach her..."

The loose cannon, having holstered Zap, clenched her fists as she fell into a jog, desperate to catch up with the brawler. She didn't look back to see if Caitlyn was following her instructions, she knew Caitlyn would. Caitlyn trusted her this time, she knew it. She was the only one who could help her, after all.

Catching up with Vi was easy, even if it took a while. The brawler wasn't really looking where she was going, was blindly stomping through the streets of the oldest part of Piltover, where industry had come to a stop in favor of growth in population, an area meant to be completely destroyed and build from the ground up anew.

Even from afar, Jinx could see the inner turmoil of the brawler, knew that her words and Caitlyn's presence had given her something to think about. But it wasn't enough. She needed to convince the brawler once and for all that the life as a criminal, at the side of her sister, wasn't the right choice.

Vi was just passing the street under one of the many streetlamps when Jinx jumped out of the darkness and leaped at her, jumping onto Vi's left arm and holding onto it. Caught off guard, Vi reacted on instinct, reached for her attacker and pulled it off, swung it with all the power she had into the wall to her right, which happened to be an old iron fence. Iron bend under the force, but it was Jinx's cruel laugh that did the trick, that made Vi stare in confusion at her older sister that now sat to her feet in the bend fence, glaring up at her with a nasty smirk on her lips.

"What the hell, Jay?" growled Vi, more in actual shock than anger. In return, though, Jinx merely tilted her head a little, continued to smirk cruelly.

"I could ask the same, Vi. What the hell is happening to you, and why aren't you seeing it? Seeing what you're doing to Caitlyn? To me? To yourself? That it's messing me up even further than I already am, that it's changing you slowly but surely?" Jinx smile fell in favor of anger, "Are you even aware that your actions could lead to something horrible? To Caitlyn experiencing that which we've sworn to never experience again? A bad day?!"

This had the impact that Jinx had been aiming for all along. Vi cringed notably, averted her gaze almost immediately to stare to the side, unable to face Jinx directly. No, she had not been aware, Jinx knew that. Vi had not seen the danger of a bad day looming on the horizon for the one person that Vi had sworn to always protect, Caitlyn.

Vi was visibly shaken. Now it was just a matter of things that Jinx had to throw at her, and the criminal knew it very well. Before she could, though, she felt something warm on the left side of her face, something that slowly ran down her cheek, starting just above her left temple. Sliding a hand over it and looking down, she found what she expected. Blood. Being thrown into the fence hadn't left her unscathed. But she didn't care. Just didn't care.

"And you! Haven't you noticed how this decision of yours has changed you? Can't you feel it?" hissed Jinx, slowly rose to her feet, felt weak and exhausted after not having recovered from the game at the bank completely and now being thrown into an iron fence, "The hell, Vi, you're behaving like me! You're allowing the insanity to take control of you, thinking that you can be at my side if you do! But that excitement when you hurt me three days ago during our game, when you won it, that wasn't you! And if you associate yourself any longer with me, you're just going to lose it completely!"

"And what about it? Maybe I want to be like that! Maybe I don't give a shit about my mental health if it means I can be at your side again, if we can be sisters again like we used to! Play our games like we used to without giving a shit what consequences those had!" countered Vi, turning back to glare at her sister.

And froze up when Jinx's anger slowly vanished, as her face softened and she slowly shook her head. As Jay stood in front of her, and not Jinx.

"We can't turn back time, Violet. We can't change the things that happened, and we shouldn't try to. I'm not doing that either, am I? I told you the truth because you deserved to remember, not to change the things I've done, that you've done, that have happened and drove us further apart. It was just not meant to be, and you need to accept that, too. That we both have our own lives now, apart from another. That I'm just a criminal that you and your girlfriend have to chase down, no matter the bonds that tie us. 'The bonds that tie' does not apply to us."

"Of course it does!" shouted Vi, but didn't sound as sure anymore, didn't sound as angry, either.

"No, it doesn't. That was once, but is not the case anymore. And it's just one of the things you have to accept about that day. That you lost a sister, and that I lost my life. That accidents happen, and that you can't keep blaming yourself for that. You did all you could back then. You didn't leave me dying alone. That was the most that you could do." spoke Jay softly, reached out to her sister and gently stroked her cheek.

"No, it was not!" whispered Vi, was fighting the tears and the acceptance, "If I had been stronger, I could've done more! Could've saved you! I could've..."

"Shh. No, you couldn't. But that's okay, Vi. It really is." sighed Jay, closed her eyes, "You couldn't save me back then, and you can't save me now. But that's okay. Really is. I don't want it any other way anymore..."

"LIAR!"

Vi's sudden reaction was violent and nothing that the loose cannon could've prepared for, Vi lashing out and pushing her away – maybe a bit more violent than intended, as Jinx found herself flung through the air shortly, impacting with the already bent fence and knocking it over, body hurting from the impact as it rolled over the dirty ground and came to a stop on her back, Fishbones mere meters from her, Pow-Pow lost somewhere during the flight. It had rained the night before, the ground was soft and muddy, her clothes stained with dirt.

"Why do you try to push me away, Jay? Why do you try to keep your distance to me? I know that I made a mistake, alright? I know I shouldn't have left Cait like that! But I don't care about guilt anymore, don't care if that day back then was an accident or my fault! I'm trying to help you, I'm trying to be there for you now, to pay you back for all the times I couldn't!"

Vi's voice hollered through the starless night, echoed in Jinx's throbbing head as the loose cannon curled in pain in the mix of mud, rainwater and her own blood – the fence had cut into her left arm and had left a gash on it. But the pain was what she needed to keep on. It called forth her madness, and the madness numbed her pain, drowned out the exhaustion, gave her new excitement.

"Damn it, Jay... I'm willing to continue making this mistake if it means that you're not alone anymore. Not as alone as you were when you died all by yourself back then..."

The madwoman growled as she heard the steps of her younger sibling approaching her, growled and leaned her head back, arched her back as pain still ran through her body – and that was when she saw it. Saw where they were. The irony behind it. The sign that destiny was giving her.

So it was going to end where it begun. Come to an end just like it had started. A mad smile spread across her lips as she let the insanity take full control of her, knowing it was what would change Vi's mind once and for all again. No matter at what cost.

Digging her head deeper into the mud, letting it stain her electric-blue hair, Jinx stared upside-down at the old abandoned chemical plants grounds that she was on, hearing the steps of Vi in the mud slowly grow louder and louder...

---

The room lay in a dim light, illuminated only by the lamp that stood on her desk. Other than her, nobody was in the building anymore. She shouldn't even be there, either, with midnight mere minutes away, but she just couldn't force herself to leave, felt like she was glued to the chair, leaned over the reports that she should've finished days ago. She still hadn't. Wasn't even halfway through.

For the first time ever since she had become the sheriff of Piltover, Caitlyn didn't feel motivated enough to get any work done. She knew the consequences of that. Knew that, the longer it took her to finish these reports, the more would be waiting for her afterward.

But with her mind constantly on another subject, the subject of Vi, she hadn't been able to concentrate enough. And even now, she couldn't even finish a single one. Wondered how Jinx and Vi were doing, how long it would take for Jinx to finally convince Vi of the mistake she had made.

Despite Vi's actions, there was still hope for her. The owner of the bank, while certainly not too happy with the damages Vi and Jinx had caused, had decided not to further pursue it, as long as Vi would apologize to him in person and explain the reason for her behavior. It had taken Caitlyn a lot to convince him, but if Vi were to really find the right path again, it wasn't too late.

Her gaze drifted over to the clock. 11:42 PM.

Something else caught her attention. The bundle of clothes on the edge of her desk, still where Vi had left them three days prior. For some reason, the sheriff hadn't found the strength of heart yet to put them away. Stared at them each and every day when she saw in her office, trying to work on the reports.

But it wasn't because she yearned for Vi to be there again. Not entirely. From day one on, from the day that Vi had quit the police force, something didn't feel right to Caitlyn whenever she looked at the bundle. It was as if her mind was trying to tell her something, screaming something that she just couldn't understand. She was missing something very important, but she just didn't know what.

What was weird about the bundle? Nothing seemed off with it! Consisted of the blue uniform Vi sometimes wore on duty, the small badge that read 'Piltover Police Department – Enforcer' in golden letters underneath the symbol of a badge with a star, and the simple black taser on top of it, the device that Vi had always complained about.

For the tinkerer, the taser wasn't 'flashy' enough. Too small, too simple, too weak, with an inefficient design to go along with it. It went against everything that Vi stood for as a mechanic, and more than once, she had begged her partner to allow her to take it apart and rebuild it from scratch to create an efficient and reliable taser. But Caitlyn had always refused, had said that Vi didn't have to use it if she didn't want to. But that wasn't the brawler's problem with the thing, Caitlyn knew it, for Vi, the taser had always been an abomination created by someone's unskilled hands, something that she had to put out of its misery. Quite unlike her radio, which Vi had always been fond of using, even if it was for a joke with Caitlyn, the ex-enforcer's fascination with it that of a little kid with a walkie-talkie and...

Caitlyn froze up. Scanned the bundle again. Couldn't quite believe her eyes.

She jumped up and leaned over her desk, pulled the bundle closer, carelessly threw the taser to the side even before she had fallen back into her seat. The badge went next, was shortly turned over to look at the back of it, but then thrown onto the desk, almost hitting the lamp.

Pulling the bundle of blue clothes apart, scattering the pieces of it over her desk, Caitlyn's frown increased. One by one, the pieces were picked up, Caitlyn's hands first reaching into their respective pockets, then ran over them in search for something.

But nothing. It wasn't there.

Vi had returned her clothes, her badge and her taser. Had kept her usual outfit and her gauntlets, but those were hers.

But the radio wasn't there. The radio with the special encrypted frequency, with Caitlyn's radio being the only counterpart. Vi had not returned it. And that not by accident.

So that was it. That was what her eyes had registered all along each time that she saw the bundle, but her brain hadn't realized – The radio was missing. But if it wasn't there, it could only mean that Vi still had it, still kept it in it's place – the hidden compartment in her left gauntlet. Always with her.

New hope flared up in the sheriff, new hope that her partner hadn't completely abandoned her, but had planned to keep the possibility to contact her should she ever need it. How stupid of her to not have realized sooner, to have doubted Vi!

Caitlyn sunk into her chair, closed her eyes and relaxed, one hand darting for the device on her body, still in the pocket that it belonged in.

Vi was a genius.

How much this realization was one of fate, though, Caitlyn should learn only a few moments later. With eyes still closed and head still leaned back, hand still resting over the radio in her pocket, Caitlyn had let her consciousness slowly slip away, had allowed herself to sink into a soft slumber of exhaustion and relief.

Until the thing in her pocket suddenly buzzed.

Immediately awake again, Caitlyn's eyes shot open and she pulled the radio from her pocket, nearly cried in excitement as Vi's voice immediately poured out of the small black box.

"Cait! Cupcake!" she heard Vi shout, smiled to herself as she gently rose the black box and pushed the button on the side to talk herself.

"I'm here, Vi." she whispered softly, leaned back in her chair and let out a deep breath, "I'm always here. God, you can't believe how happy I am hearing your voice."

"Not the time for flirting now, cupcake! It's..." Vi's voice was interrupted by the sound of an explosion, followed by static, which caught Caitlyn off guard and took all the happiness away again, let her tense up and stare in shock at the radio.

"Vi! Vi, do you hear me? Was that an explosion?!" she yelled into the black box, stared in disbelief at it. Counted the seconds that she continued to hear the static noise being emitted from the speaker in it. And after what felt like an eternity, Vi finally spoke again.

"It's Jay! Jinx! Caitlyn, something is wrong, she's completely lost it! She's...!" Another explosion, another static, followed by the sounds of a groaning Vi from the radio, "She's trying to kill me! She started spewing some nonsense on how it's supposed to end here, with either me or her dead!"

Caitlyn darted out of her chair again, knocked it over, but didn't care as the loud noise echoed through the room. This was what she had feared the other night. This was the second worst outcome. Or the worst. At first, she had only been worried about losing Vi, but after seeing how much the madness devoured Jinx the other night, at Vi's apartment, she had been fearing for the madwoman's mental health even more so than ever before, had feared that it would all be too much for the fragile mind.

And now, her fears seemed to have become reality.

"Where the hell are you, Vi? Come on, where are you?!" she screamed into the radio, running for the window, pulling the blinds up so she could see the city outside, hoped for any explosions in the distance that would give her a hint as to where the two sisters were.

"The recently abandoned industrial area! On the chemical plant's ground!"

"I'll be there in a moment! Keep fighting! Don't die on me, you heard me?!" Grabbing her rifle and swinging it over her shoulder, a box of ammunition that she kept in one of the drawers of her desk, and her hat, Caitlyn made a dash for the door, one hand still clinging to the radio.

"Be careful, cupcake. I think Jinx has completely lost it this time! She's spewing nonsense and isn't reacting to me anymore!" she heard Vi's voice from the radio, heard the faint mad giggling of Jinx being emitted from it as well, "I don't want to lose you..."

The soft whisper made Caitlyn freeze up shortly. Stuck to the spot, she lowered her gaze and looked at the black box, couldn't believe what she had just heard.

And with a smile, nodded, even though she knew Vi couldn't see her.

"You too, you heard me? I'll be there as soon as I can, so don't give up just now!"

Before Caitlyn knew, she was out of the station, ran faster than she remembered her feet to be able to carry her out into the darkness and the cold of the night.

She wouldn't allow this to become a repeat of the original bad day.

She wouldn't allow this to become one.

A bad day.

---

The sharp hiss of a rocket being fired from behind her made Vi twirl around, just after Caitlyn had finished talking. With a gasp, the pinkette jumped off the catwalk she stood on, just in time to hear it blow up above her, landed on another one below.

Debris and shards of metal rained down on her, with her blast shield taking most of the brunt. Rising from the crouched position she had landed in, the brawler turned around and looked up, stared in disbelief at the now way shorter catwalk that she had stood on, part of it completely ripped apart. Turning her gaze to where the rocket had come from, she expected to find her older sibling with her rocket launcher standing there, but found the beam that Jinx had stood on when she fired empty. And knew that it didn't mean anything good, even before a foot slammed into her face from the right.

Thrown off balance, Vi let out a grunt and stumbled, merely managed to regain her footing in time by using one of the gauntlets she was wearing. She glared into the direction that the kick had come from, found Jinx standing there, Fishbones on her back, blood still running down one side of her face, with the most maniacal expression she had ever witnessed on the woman's face – Jinx's eyes were wide-open, but her irises had contracted, were small orbs of pink, and a nasty smirk revealed Jinx's teeth, a sinister laughter rolling in her throat.

The maniac threw herself at Vi, but the ex-enforcer managed to block the next kick with ease, using her left gauntlet.

"What the hell has gotten into you, Jay?!" snarled the brawler, was caught off guard when Jinx shifted her weight and came right past her guard with an uppercut that made Vi's world turn black for a second as her head snapped backward.

She stumbled again, prepared for her older sister's next move as she recovered, but Jinx was already in the middle of it. Leaping at Vi, she probably thought she could pull off some acrobatic trick, but hadn't taken into account that Vi would evade despite the restricted space on the catwalk. Letting herself fall over the edge to the right, Jinx's jump missed her and ended with the horrible scene of the madwoman hitting the railing and falling over it.

Still hanging on the edge of the catwalk, Vi watched and cringed as Jinx fell on top of a large machine with a grunt of pain as she bounced off it and sled down at the front of it. She hit a row of levers, grunted again and cursed before she hit the floor. She had lost Fishbones along the way, the rocket launcher having gotten stuck in between two pipes approximately halfway down the machine, definitely out of Jinx's reach as long as she didn't climb it.

The machine came alive in response to the levers being pulled down. Having pulled herself up onto the catwalk, Vi could see the orange glow in the depths of the machine through a row of slits in the large spherical part of it, immediately realized that it was a huge furnace, long before the steam began to rise from the slits.

At least it wasn't going to be a cold night, thought Vi in amusement, was shortly distracted by her own humor, had temporarily forgotten about her maniac sister just a few meter below her. Had her maniac sister been anyone but Jinx, it would've not been much of a problem to be shortly distracted. But it was Jinx.

Jinx, who recovered way faster than the average human. Jinx, who had survived worse. Jinx, who wasn't just the average person.

Fingers curled around Vi's left ankle all of sudden, pulled on it with enough force to throw the pinkette off balance. The ex-enforcer was caught by surprise and couldn't do anything as gravity did it's job and she fell, hit the catwalk with her back first and cried out in pain as her whole body first tensed, and then went numb for a second.

Rolling onto the side to try and get up onto her feet with the help of a gauntlet, she found Jinx swinging herself onto the catwalk a few feet from her. The maniac with the incredibly high pain threshold had, after hitting the ground, immediately got up onto her feet and had climbed the next pipe up until she had been on the next tank, from which she had jumped onto the side of the catwalk and had pulled on Vi's leg, and that in just a few seconds. And with a large gash in her left arm that was definitely going to infect with all the mud on and in it.

Even Vi was slowly beginning to doubt the humanity of her sister as the maniacal woman approached her. The brawler intended to be up by then to meet her, but Jinx was faster than she anticipated and the pain of hitting the catwalk was numbing her body more than she thought at first, and so, Jinx was right by her side when Vi was just propped up onto one gauntlet-wearing hand. She rose her gaze to glare at her sister, but Jinx didn't let her do as much as that, kicked the ex-enforcer hard into the face with her combat boot and sent her rolling over the catwalk again, groaning in pain as her face ached.

Anew, the ex-enforcer tried to get up, was on all fours when she felt it, the liquid gathering in her mouth. Pulling her lips back, blood dripped onto the surface of the catwalk, dripped through the small holes in it. Jinx packed a punch. Even in her kicks.

The catwalk squeaked and groaned as Jinx came closer. Shaking her head to clear it, Vi pushed herself onto her feet, spat the blood down into the factory below, growled as she turned to her sister.

"I don't know what this shit is about, Jay, but if it's a fight you want, I'm gladly giving you that." snarled the pinkette, rose her gauntlet-covered hands and fell into the well-known stance of a boxer that she had trained to perfection, shifted her weight and ducked her head in behind her gauntlets. Other than a frown, this didn't get a reaction out of Jinx, didn't intimidate her.

Instead, the woman with the electric-blue hair charged forward without a thought of the consequences. Reacting quickly, Vi swung her right gauntlet at her sibling, an objectively dumb idea, as Jinx knew her too well. Instead of smacking the criminal in the head, the gauntlet failed to connect with Jinx's skull when the maniac leaned out of the way, swung one leg up and curled it around Vi's arm. Using her former momentum, Jinx swung herself up on Vi's extended arm, ended in a handstand on it, took the hand further away from Vi's head off the brawler's arm and swung herself around on the hand on Vi's right shoulder, then put the second down on Vi's left shoulder.

Unable to react to the quick and nimble movements, Vi was hit by both of the criminal's boots into the stomach when Jinx fell out of her handstand with her grip still on the ex-enforcer's shoulders. It hurt like hell, made the brawler double over and knocked all wind out of her. Not that she could think about it for long, as Jinx had pushed off her, backflipped twice, and came already rushing at her again. Completely bypassing Vi's defense, she slammed shoulder-first into the brawler and sent her down onto the ground again, this time sliding backwards over the catwalk.

Laying on her back, Vi cursed to herself, having never expected that Jinx was quick and nimble, cursed herself for underestimating her and judging her on how she behaved and moved when carrying her weapons. Of course the same didn't apply to her without them!

Before she got the chance to stand up, Jinx's combat boot slammed down on her stomach again, once more forcing all air out of her. Jinx wasn't going to have any mercy on her, and she let the brawler feel that very well with that kick, followed right up by Jinx stepping over the woman that curled in pain, let herself fall unceremoniously on top of her.

Vi coughed, didn't have enough air in her lungs to properly make any other noise, but Jinx wasn't after inflicting pain, wasn't living out her sadistic side. Instead, straddling the ex-enforcer, she enjoyed Vi's inability to do anything due to the pain, enjoyed how helpless Vi was as she leaned forward and reached for the enforcer's left gauntlet.

Vi immediately realized what her sibling was about to do, forced her other hand to respond and reach for Jinx's neck, but the maniac avoided the attack by letting her upper body fall backwards, changed the position of her right leg and slammed it into Vi's skull from the side, disoriented the woman long enough to bring her foot down on Vi's left arm just above the elbow, numbing it in another wave of pain, making Vi scream out.

Ignoring it, Jinx took hold of Vi's other arm, twisted it until Vi screamed, sled her fingers under the gauntlet and pulled it right off, knowing Vi couldn't hold onto it with her arm like that. With the heavy gauntlet off, Jinx unceremoniously dropped it right away, let it plummet down from the catwalk. With a loud thud, it hit the ground far below them, vanished in the shadows of the machines, tanks and pipes.

Animated by that, Vi swung her good arm at her nemesis the moment that it was released from it's hold, yet another thing that Jinx had foreseen. She caught the arm, pushed it back down, didn't care how much Vi struggled, fought and screamed. Reaching for her hip, the maniac took hold of the only weapon she had left, pulled it and pointed it's tip at Vi's good arm, let it dig deep into the flesh before she pulled the trigger.

Vi screamed. Screamed as electricity flew through her body. And Jinx giggled as she let go of Zap's trigger. Zap couldn't kill. Wasn't made to kill. But it could still hurt. Hurt horribly. Could turn entire parts of the body useless for hours if shocked long enough.

Stubborn as she was, this only served to fuel Vi's anger. With both arms numb and Jinx straddling her waist, one might think she couldn't do a thing, but Jinx was the one who made the mistake this time by leaning a bit too much forward in her attempt to rip the second gauntlet off. And as Vi's head swung forward, it was Jinx who was caught off guard. The headbutt was a full success, let Jinx howl out in pain and made her dizzy for a moment, all that Vi needed to sit up and throw Jinx off herself. She delivered a kick to follow up with it, sent Jinx falling off the edge of the catwalk where she was forced to once more hang onto it, which in return gave Vi finally the chance to stand up again.

Thankfully, she had a pain threshold nearly as high as her sick sister, and at least her right arm had already recovered, the shock from Zap having been nowhere as long enough as to numb her arm any longer than a minute. So, using her right arm, she pushed herself up, growled at the weird feeling in her left, still numb arm, the weight of the gauntlet on it becoming aware to her for the first time in a long while.

But she wasn't the only one who had recovered. Jinx was back for more before the brawler knew it, surprised her yet again by throwing herself at Vi once more – And this time, the brawler couldn't evade. Knocked off balance by Jinx slamming into her, Vi fell towards the railing, hit it and felt how gravity pulled on her, pulled her over the edge. But she wouldn't go down alone, managed to get a hold on Jinx's wounded arm and pulled, pulled her with her over the edge.

Their fall was short and separated them, with Vi hitting the top of the spherical part of the furnace first, landing painfully on her side. Just a few meters away from her, the sound of something hitting the metal and causing an echo told her that Jinx had landed as well, and not any more comfortable, skull first judging by where the dent in the metal was located.

Knowing Jinx wouldn't stay down for long despite the impact of her head into the metal, the ex-enforcer ignored all the pain she felt and stood up for yet another time, would always stand back up for as long as she could struggle, for as long as she had to fight for the right thing. For Jay. For Caitlyn. For herself.

Charging forward before Jinx could, Vi swung her good arm at her, took Jinx by surprise and hit her square into the side of her face with a well-placed right hook. Saliva and blood splattered onto the ground, Jinx cursing as she stumbled backwards, holding her cheek.

Even if that was not how Vi had planned it to end, it was unavoidable now. She knew Jinx wouldn't back down anymore, knew that the endgame had come. The finale to the game, the part where Jinx's maniacal mind had reached the point of 'kill or be killed' as the only option.

But Vi wouldn't allow either. Wouldn't allow herself to die, but wouldn't kill Jinx. There were still alternatives. They hadn't run out of alternatives yet. There were still chances, and she was hellbent on using each and every of them.

She rushed forward again, distracted her older sister by feinting another right hook, but went in for a headbutt when Jinx rose her left arm. Their skulls connected and Jinx cried out yet again, fell backwards as her vision blurred for a second. Her back impacted painfully on the furnace, began to roll over the sphere, felt how her body slowly picked up speed.

Not wanting to fall another time, she swung both hands down on the metal, tried to dig her fingernails in, looking for something to hold onto. A sharp pain shot through her as one of her nails broke, getting stuck behind a screw, but she absorbed the pain with a mere hiss. Her body was getting faster and faster, she failed to find hold, cursed as she knew she was beyond the point of where she would find anything to hold onto – until she was falling for a second, left hand finding hold after all on a small pipe. As her left arm tensed, Jinx screamed out anew, felt the large gash in her left arm more than ever before. But that wouldn't stop her.

Hanging off the pipe, finally come to a stop, she glared down, found herself hanging somewhere halfway up from where she had been before, halfway down the rusty sphere. Lifting her glare, she found Vi slowly sliding down the side of the sphere, making her way towards where Jinx hung.

The brawler was glaring as well, but glad that she felt a tingling feeling inside her left arm, meaning it was slowly recovering. With it being the only arm that wore a gauntlet at the moment, her only weapon, this was more than a good sign if she wanted to beat Jinx. Sure, she was the better of the sisters when it came to close combat, but her gauntlets and her blast shield were her only way of defending herself from Jinx's weapons, and the maniac had at least Zap still in her possession.

At least, that was what Vi thought, before Jinx suddenly swung her right arm up onto the sphere. Vi's eyes widened as she saw Fishbones, realized that Jinx was hanging mere inches from where the rocket launcher had gotten stuck, but there was no chance to avoid anymore with the way she was sliding down the sphere, no chance to defend herself with her left arm being numb and it wearing her only gauntlet. Jinx knew that, too, judging by her nasty smirk.

The maniac let out a cackle as she aimed shortly and pulled the trigger, the rest of her laughter failing her in favor of a gasp. Even with how little recoil the rocket launcher had with it's special mechanic, hanging from the sphere while firing still caused her body to move a bit, putting more strain onto her wounded arm.

The ex-enforcer panicked as the rocket closed in on her, reacted completely out of panic as she violently jerked her whole upper body to the right, not caring about how it threw her off balance. The numb arm was pulled up by that motion by the centrifugal force, smacked into the side of rocket in the very last moment and changed it's course, albeit slightly, thankfully not triggering it's warhead.

Deflected by the gauntlet, the rocket's new course missed Vi's right shoulder by mere inches, impacted with the sphere to Vi's right instead. A powerful explosion threw the ex-enforcer off her feet, knocked her over and made her hit the sphere in a roll that was anything but gracious or painless. Thankful for not being thrown off, she took a deep breath and tried to recover as fast as she could, tried to rise to her feet.

Tried.

Again, Jinx was faster. Had recovered faster than her, had climbed back onto the sphere, Fishbones on her back. Vi had just managed to get up on all fours when she felt Jinx's hand grab her by the hair, pulling her by it. The ex-enforcer cried out in pain by how ruthless and violent Jinx was, cursed in pain as she was dragged by the hair over the sphere. She tried to do her best to keep her eyes open, and found herself a moment later thankful for doing so. Otherwise, she would've not seen the large hole that Fishbones' rocket had blown into the sphere, the air wavering above it, testament of the heat in the furnace below them.

Realizing Jinx's intention, she began to struggle, tried to free her hair, kept hammering down on Jinx's hand with her good arm. It was in the last moment that she changed her tactic and swung her whole head to the left, knocking it hard into the maniac's chest. The gasp and Jinx letting go were enough to tell her that she had knocked all air out of Jinx, but it was too soon to relax, she knew that much as she stumbled and fell, hitting the sphere just aside the hole, head already hanging above it.

Hot air hit her face, made her hiss in pain as she stared down into the huge flames not too far below her. Quickly rolling over onto her back, she wanted to sit up and get the hell away from the potential deathtrap, but the moment that she was on her back, Jinx dropped down onto her, straddled her anew.

A punch hit the enforcer in the face, blurred her world for a second. Not wanting to go down with a fight, she pulled her right, good arm up and defended herself from the next punch, let it almost harmlessly bounce off her lower arm.

Jinx began to snarl, bared her teeth and leaned further down, which should prove to be her next mistake – Vi gathered all the saliva and blood in her mouth and spat into the maniac's face once it was close enough. Jinx screamed out in pain and anger as the liquid got into her eyes, rose both hands to her face to rub them out, let her guard down. Vi made use of that, once more exploiting her physical strength, and flipped them over, made sure to knock Jinx down on the metal with as much force as she could, knowing that the position of Fishbones on Jinx's back made the entire thing way more painful for the maniac.

Straddling the criminal, Vi placed her knees down on Jinx's arms, pinned them to the metal below. She stared down at her sister, brought her right hand down on Jinx's neck, pushed and began to strangle her – not with the intention of killing her, but making her lose consciousness. It was then that she noticed that they had reached the edge of the hole in the sphere, with one half of Jinx's head, the left one, resting on the metal, the right one still hanging over the hole. And it was because of that that the two combatants smelled the stench of burning hair, the right of the maniac's long braids hanging down into the furnace, slowly sizzling away.

But Vi couldn't care less about Jinx's hair, her only intention having become to survive and bring her sister to justice. This should prove to be just as hard as it had been until that moment, with Jinx using the limited reach of her arms to dig her nails into Vi's side, catching her off guard and making her scream out in pain. Her grip softened for just a second, but enough for Jinx to sit up abruptly, smacking her forehead into Vi's, sending the ex-enforcer into a stumble off her. Quickly pushing herself away from the hole, Jinx sled down the sphere, closer to Vi, swung her right leg into the brawler's stomach with enough force to knock Vi backwards off the sphere.

The sound of a body hitting several pipes on her way down filled Jinx, her right braid burnt away to the half, with glee, and by the time she had reached the edge and grinned over it, Vi was lying on another part of the furnace, right at the bottom of the large sphere, where the metal was glowing in the heat that it received from the fire inside.

Following her down with a jump, Jinx's first intention was to land on Vi, but the enforcer rolled away in the last second, reached for Jinx's ankle and pulled, sent the maniac into a stumble into a direction that made both of them curse.

Jinx's right arm slammed into the hot sphere. And this time, the maniac screamed, no pain threshold would have ever been able to withstand that. She pulled back as fast as she could, but it was too late, her skin remained stuck to the sphere, ripped right off, a large part of her arm now with what was definitely a second, if not even third degree burn wound. They both knew it from the very second they saw it, knew that this patch of skin would never recover, would always be scarred tissue.

And Vi regretted her action immediately. Of course, it was an accident. Of course, she had just been defending herself, fighting for her life. But this was still her sister, and she had not intended to hurt her any worse than necessary.

But what was necessary? With someone like Jinx, where was the limit, and where was the point necessary to stop her? The criminal didn't seem to know herself, stared speechless down onto her arm for a second, but fell back into her insanity the next, seemed to completely ignore the newest wound, just like she had ignored the gash on her other arm, which she shouldn't be able to either.

She threw herself at Vi, but the ex-enforcer evaded, let Jinx fall past her. She tried to reach for the rocket launcher and pull it off, wanted to disarm Jinx, but failed to. And knew that, now that the maniac had her weapon again, there was only one way to survive this.

Abandoning the fight, the brawler jumped down from the furnace, hit the hard concrete ground a few meters below and caught herself in a roll. She heard the first rocket being fired almost immediately right after, but continued to charge towards her goal, towards two tanks connected to some kind of pump with a series of pipes. It had to be there somewhere, they had been right above there.

An explosion to her right broke a pipe and sent it coming down on Vi, but the enforcer blocked it with her gauntlet, her left arm having recovered enough to at least respond to her. She dove underneath a low-hanging pipe, ducked behind the tank, heard the next rocket being fired. The explosion occurred mere meters from where she was, let the pressure put onto her rise. She knew she didn't have a lot of time, Jinx knew where she was, and it would take only one properly aimed rocket to kill her. But she wouldn't allow that.

She stuck her head in between the pipes, leaned left and right in search for it, didn't have to search long for the object in question. She reached with her right hand for it, seeing as the gauntlet would never fit into between all the pipes and machinery, got the edge of it just the moment that yet another rocket hit the ground behind her, the tank to her right groaning as one of it's supports broke. But she had it, had the other gauntlet, shoved it out, picked it up, put it on just in time for the large tank next to her to come falling into her direction, threatening to squish her.

But that wouldn't happen.

Instead, she caught it, cursed under the strain put onto her exhausted, aching body. And yet gathered all the strength that she had, charged her gauntlets to the limit so that they could lift as much weight as possible. And indeed, the tank slowly rose off the ground as she lifted it.

The last thing she heard before she turned around and threw the tank under the greatest strain into the general direction of Jinx was a sharp gasp, then a rocket being fired. The rocket grazed the side of the tank, deflected without it's warhead going off, shot high up into the air instead of at the brawler.

Jinx barely had any time left, avoided the terrible fate of being crushed by a gigantic tank that had once been filled with chemicals by jumping clumsily off the furnace. She hit the ground without properly absorbing the impact, cursed aloud as she landed on her wounded arm and rolled over her burnt one. And remained there, stopped moving entirely.

The tank impacted with the part of the furnace that Jinx had stood on, ripped right through it, both of the giants shattering apart in loud screeching and groaning, part of the whole chemical plant coming down with them.

The deflected rocket had it's part in that, too, hit the roof and exploded there, sent a catwalk crashing down along with part of the roof.

Rain poured down on the sisters. At one point during their fight, it must've begun to rain, a thunderstorm roaring high above them. The starless sky was covered in dark clouds, swirling through the heaven of Piltover.

Vi felt the cold rain soak through her clothes, but couldn't care less. Instead, she stared at Jinx, lying on the ground, motionless. The former enforcer was panting hard as she stood there and just stared, stared at what she – they – had done. The chemical plant was in a terrible state. Should have been destroyed, anyways, but to see that they had done it to the place didn't exactly feel right or good to her.

Jinx had been right. The destructive and violent personality that she had displayed back there in the bank, when the two had played their 'game', that hadn't been her. Had been the insanity she had left behind when she chose a better life, when Caitlyn happened.

Where was Caitlyn? Why wasn't she there yet? How much time had passed?

Vi didn't know the answer to either question. Couldn't tell anything anymore as she stood there, in the rain, badly bruised and beaten, but as the victor of her fight with Jinx. Jinx, who lay broken on the ground. Gash on her left arm and her head bleeding heavily. Right arm badly burnt. Bruises all over her body. Right braid almost completely burnt off.

Vi had never wanted this to happen. Hadn't wanted things to become like this.

Jinx groaned, and Vi cringed. Could only stare as the loose cannon slowly pushed herself up, left arm propping itself up in intention of allowing the maniac to rise, only to fail. Too weak, too badly hurt. But Jinx had no intention of giving up. Her other arm rose, and despite the horrible burn, still had enough strength for Jinx to use it to push herself up.

Jinx's electric-blue hair was wet from the rain and laying in a puddle, dripped rainwater and clung to the madwoman's face as she slowly rose, pink eyes, void of emotion, fixing on the pinkette. Somehow, Jinx was able to push herself to her very limits, somehow managed to rise to her full height again, even if her stance was awkward, one side of her seemingly numb and unresponsive, as the shoulder was slumped, her arm hung loosely by her side, weight mainly shifted to her other leg.

"Why are you doing this to yourself, Jay?" sighed Vi, slowly began to approach her sister, seeing as she was the only one of the two who seemed to be able to move. Jinx remained standing there, wasn't moving.

"It doesn't have to be like this. We don't have to die here."

"No, we don't." spoke Jinx weakly, shifted her weight onto the other leg after all, shoulder rising, arm moving. So they were somewhat alright. "No we don't. Only I have to die here. Like it should've been all these years ago. I wasn't supposed to survive there, Vi."

"Don't say that!" shouted the pinkette, came to a sudden stop and balled her fists inside her gauntlets, "You're interpreting way too much into this 'bad day' shit! The only problem that you have is of psychological nature! You're believing this shit of fate and destiny and that you're an unnatural existence, the shit that you keep telling yourself!"

"But I am! I died, but survived! Shouldn't have! I was meant to die that day! Completely!" countered the older sister, took a step forward, adrenaline in her body blending out all the pain, all the numbness.

"That's bullshit, and we both know it!"

Jinx's face scrunched up in pain. In irritation. Anger. Sadness. Regret. Too much as for Vi to properly read it. The expression of her nemesis and sister was just too complex to be just one emotion finally coming through, for it to make actual sense.

All of sudden, Jinx twirled around. Vi barely found the time to react when Jinx made a run for the wall closest to her and jumped onto the ladder leading up to the catwalk. The brawler, knowing that Jinx was doing the same thing she had done earlier that day – running away from reality, from acceptance – immediately followed, ran for the same ladder. Jinx was nearly all the way up when Vi began to climb, using her gauntlets to climb the ladder in three powerful moves.

"Stop running, Jay! This is not time to fall back into this old game of ours! That game is over, and you know it!" roared Vi as soon as she reached the catwalk, finding Jinx on the other end of it, right by the door that led to the catwalks around the bigger tanks outside.

"Oh, is it? I can still run, you can still run, we're both alive." hissed the woman with the electric-blue hair, reaching for the handle of the door, "This game of ours won't stop as long as we are! It's supposed to continue!"

"It isn't. I'm taking you down now and throw you into the best guarded cell of all Piltover! And then we'll see how this'll continue." growled Vi back, began to charge her gauntlets up. But to her confusion, Jinx merely began to laugh, snorted and burst into a giggling fit.

"You seem to be forgetting something, Vi." snickered the maniac, "You're no longer Piltover's enforcer. You're not even just the normal individual living in Piltover. You're just another ordinary criminal. Just. Like. Me."

Jinx enjoyed the shock of realization that spread across Vi's face, snickered to herself when she saw how Vi slowly began to scowl. But being Jinx, that wasn't enough, she had to add fuel to the flame. Vi had her second chance when Caitlyn made her the enforcer of the city of progress, threw it away to be at Jinx's side. She even had the third chance earlier that evening to turn her back to the criminal side once more, to join Caitlyn again. She threw that away, too.

"You had your chance, Vi. I told you that." spoke Jinx, slow and full of malicious joy, "But you were so stupid as to think that I was more important, that you had no need for all that. But it fulfilled you. It made you happy. You had a job, had a life, even had love. You took this all from yourself, and deep down, you know that. Can't blame anyone else. Not Caitlyn. Not me. Only yourself."

She watched as Vi's gaze sunk, as the ex-enforcer's hands balled to fists. She had hit a nerve and she knew it, enjoyed it to the fullest as she saw how Vi bared her teeth in a feral snarl. She had told her. Had tried to make her understand. Now it was too late. They were too far into the game. The point of no return passed. The train with no brakes rushing towards the wall.

But it was about Vi, and if Vi was on a train with no brakes, she just jumped off the train, and turned herself into the brakes.

The snarl turned into a self-pleased smirk, caught Jinx off guard. Vi rose her gaze, madness in her blue eyes, amusement sparkling in them. Her right gauntlet suddenly deactivated, fell right off her hand and hit the catwalk directly aside her. Vi balled her free hand to a fist, opened it, repeated the process two times, then reached for her left gauntlet. With a skilled movement, she opened a small compartment at the bottom, enjoyed the confused expression on Jinx's face as she pulled something out of it. A small black box.

Lifting the radio to her mouth and pushing the button, Vi snickered.

"Hey, cupcake." she called into the box, was the one with the malicious glee as Jinx's eyes widened in realization.

"Vi? Is everything okay?" sounded Caitlyn's voice with it's accent back, "I'm almost...!"

"Relax, cupcake. Right now, I'm as fine as one can be that is half beaten to death." Vi's gaze trailed up and down the beaten, bruised and burnt body of Jinx, "Can't say the same about Jay right now, though. I'm seeing some rather nasty wounds on her."

It remained silent from Caitlyn's side, just the sound of fast steps on concrete, the sound of wind howling into the microphone, rain hitting the floor on the other side, telling them that Caitlyn was still pushing the button, but didn't know what to say. Vi did.

"Say, Cait, just for clarification." snickered Vi into the black box, "You still have no enforcer, right? The spot's still open, is it?"

Jinx began to snarl, bared her teeth as she found herself confirmed, realized that Vi was indeed mocking her right now. But she knew she had brought that onto herself. Waited patiently, even if angry, as Caitlyn's voice was coming from the radio again.

"If you're trying to tell me you want it back..." Caitlyn shortly cut off, let out a deep sigh, "Look, I'm getting the hint here. You want to do something you need the badge for, am I right? Just like you abandoned it because you needed to do something you couldn't do with it."

"You know me too well, babe." The smirk on Vi's lips had taken outright nasty proportions, left Jinx feeling angry and moody, the triumphant feeling from before entirely gone.

"Alright. Actually, there are no official documents or any official report of you ever leaving the squad, so technically, you had the title all along. Which means you should be more than happy that the owner of the bank has no interest in suing you or the Police force."

Vi cringed a bit at the edge to Caitlyn's voice, but kept smirking. Knowing that she was Vi, the Piltover enforcer again, made her feel more than just happy. It fulfilled her. Gave her tired and bruised body new energy. And Jinx didn't seem pleased about that at all.

"Of course, there are no documents either about your undercover job, working on Jinx's side. Not now, that is. But I'm sure that, after a long night of working on the reports, I might find one. One that excuses your actions." added Caitlyn, knowing that Vi's smirk was growing in size on the other end.

"You're the best, cupcake." snickered the enforcer, not quite believing her girlfriend would fake some documents to get her out of her self-created misery.

"I'm not letting you off the hook easily, though! We will talk about this once this is all over!" commanded Caitlyn, but Vi, without pushing the button, simply chuckled.

"Alright. See you in a moment, Cait." With that, Vi lowered her radio, put it back into into the compartment she had pulled it from and closed it. Turned back to Jinx, who was still standing at the door, now clutching the handle so hard that it was a wonder that it didn't break off.

Jinx hated being mocked, especially by her own sister.

"You might think you're great now, Vi, but you should think again. Look back at what you've done these past days. How you screwed up everything! We wouldn't be in this situation if you would've drowned out that damn guilt years ago! If you would've done yourself the favor of not remaining betwixt and between, but would've chosen Caitlyn's side for good! This time, you're to blame if anything happens! For all that has happened!"

"As if I didn't know that, Jay."

"You don't know shit, Vi."

The loose cannon pushed the handle of the door down and slammed her shoulder into it, pushed the door open that way and vanished through it. Vi had seen that coming, had expected Jinx to try and escape, and reacted at exactly the same moment. She picked up the gauntlet she had taken off, held it in her right hand as she used the same movement to slam her left gauntlet-covered hand into brick wall to her left.

The wall shattered, bricks and rubble exploded outwards, creating a large hole in the wall that Vi rushed through with the momentum of her punch. Ending up on the catwalk on the outside of the chemical plant, she found Jinx running down the catwalk towards where the larger tanks were located on the chemical plant's ground, several rows of tanks with catwalks above them, a gigantic water tower to the side of the catwalks.

Rain poured heavily down on her as Vi let out a growl and charged forward, following Jinx over the catwalks, each step resounding through the metal. She wouldn't let Jinx escape this time. This was the endgame. The end of their repetitive, pointless game of cat and mouse that had gone on for years.

She had been stupid to think that she and Jinx could work together on one side of the law. That Jinx could rehabilitate and become a cop, like she had done. That she could throw away Caitlyn's present to her, the second chance she had received from the sheriff of Piltover, and join Jinx without feeling remorse. Without adding yet another layer of guilt.

Jinx had been right. She wasn't made for being a criminal, and Jinx wasn't made for being a cop. And with one of them on either side, the same rule applied to them that should've always applied to them – The cop tried to catch the criminal, tried to bring it to justice. And the criminal tried to escape.

For once ever since she had learned of the truth, that Jinx was her sister, Vi didn't see her. Didn't see Jay, her sister, running from her. Wasn't Violet, following her like she had always done. She saw Jinx, the homicidal maniac, running from her, Vi, the enforcer of Piltover.

Lighting cut through the sky above, thunder roared seconds later. Vi put all of her strength into chasing the loose cannon, into catching up to her. For the first time in their time as enforcer and criminal, it was working, Jinx wasn't faster than her, couldn't escape through ridiculous means. Jinx was hurt, was badly beaten up, and the pain was slowing her down. Vi wasn't in that great of a state, either, but it wasn't slowing her down enough.

"JAY!" she roared, felt rain running into her mouth. Her hair was wet, clung to her skin, the cold was getting to her slowly, her clothes soaked. But Jinx didn't seem any better. Wearing less, her clothes weren't much of a problem, but she was soaked from head to toe as well as she finally slowed down.

Vi hesitated, slowed down as well, keeping her distance to the maniac. For Jinx to change her mind made no sense, could only mean that she had changed her mind about something. It couldn't be good, though. And little did she know that Jinx had given up on fleeing, had realized she was in too much of a bad shape to escape the enforcer.

Jinx was panting badly, stared straight ahead, away from Vi. The brawler saw how the loose cannon's fists balled slowly, unclenched, balled again, rainwater dripping off her fingers. Slowly, Jinx turned around, still panting heavily, puffing ever so often, blowing the rainwater off her lips.

"So that's how it is, huh, Vi?" coughed the loose cannon, swung her head to get a wet strand of electric-blue hair out of her face, "It really is to end here. On a chemical plant. When it began on one to begin with."

Vi watched as the loose cannon began to slowly stride towards her, hands still balled to fists. The light of a floodlight reflected off her wet skin, glistened on it. The madwoman shook a bit, shivered both in anger and because of the cold.

"You won't back down now, won't stop from trying to capture me. I won't let myself be captured." with a sudden roar, Jinx rushed at the enforcer, ignored the danger of getting into the range of the gauntlets, "At least not alive!"

Vi reacted on instinct, swung her left fist instead of her right. The maniac pulled her rocket launcher and used it to block the gauntlet, slammed with her shoulder first into Vi's body before the enforcer could swing the other arm.

The enforcer absorbed the impact with her body, put more strength into her left arm and managed to push Fishbones out of the criminal's hands. With both her arms free, Vi curled them around Jay in what looked like a gentle hug – If not for the enforcer immediately letting her upper body fall backwards, pulling Jinx off her feet and slamming her into the catwalk behind her.

The catwalk squeaked and Jinx growled, rolled over the catwalk as soon as Vi let go of her. She was back on her feet before Vi could even turn around, jumped at the enforcer again, landed on her younger sister's back. She immediately began to hammer down on Vi's head, swung her fists down on the enforcer's skull over and over again. Vi shook and threw herself around in an attempt to throw her older crazy sister off, with Jinx holding on for her dear life.

The enforcer reached over her right shoulder, grabbed a hold of Jinx's back with her gauntlet, pulled. Jinx screamed as Vi pulled her over her head and slammed her down the catwalk right next to Fishbones, this time with enough force for the metal to bend a bit, and Jinx to remain lying on the ground for a few seconds, not moving, not breathing.

The rain poured down on them, Jinx finally began to breathe again, Vi narrowed her eyes as the maniac slowly rolled onto her stomach and tried to push herself up.

"Give up, Jay. You can barely stand, let alone fight! It's over." panted Vi slowly, felt the exhaustion get the better of her as well. If not for the adrenaline, she would've probably collapsed from the exhaustion and the cold. But there was no time for that, and she knew it.

A sparkle to her left, one she had seen out of the corner of her eye, turned Vi's attention to the water tower. There, on top of it, clothes wet from running through the rain, was Caitlyn. The sparkle that Vi had noticed had been the reflection of the floodlight on it's foremost scope.

Caitlyn was aiming at Jinx.

Out of panic, Vi took a step closer to her sister, didn't know how far Caitlyn would go now that Jinx had actively tried to kill Vi, didn't want Caitlyn to make a mistake. Extending her left arm, she placed the gauntlet in a way that would make it impossible for Caitlyn to see, aim at, or shoot Jinx at all. Wouldn't allow it. She saw how Caitlyn rose her head and frowned, but ignored it. As thankful as she was for Caitlyn being there and being ready to do something like that – this was her fight, and it wasn't over yet. Wasn't at a point where she would deem it necessary to end it once at for all.

Jinx's dry chuckle made the enforcer look down at her, still lying on her stomach to the enforcer's feet. Jinx had seen Caitlyn, too.

"The ties that bind, eh, Vi? Even now, when I tried to kill you, you won't try to do the same to me. Feel too attached to me. The guilt is still there." Jinx tried to laugh, but could only cough, remained face-down on the catwalk, "When will you finally stop that? When will you finally admit it? That it's pointless trying to save me! That you don't have to blame yourself for it not working! I told you before, it's okay... You couldn't save me back then, and you can't save me now. My fate is determined."

"And I told you before, stop spewing bullshit." growled the enforcer, "Now give up, Jay. I told you, it's over. There's nothing that has to end here today the way you want it, and there's nothing you have to prove."

"There's nothing left to prove but one thing. I've proved all my points aside that one. I tried to all the time, but you just won't see this one like I do." growled Jinx, managed to get up on all fours after all.

"If it's about you seeing this world as one awful, black joke, then you won't ever make me see it like that."

"It's not about that." replied Jinx, turned her head a bit and glared up at Vi, "It's about how stupid you are!"

Jinx suddenly lashed out, right foot hitting the enforcer in the left knee. A sick crunch, Vi yelling out and her left leg giving in, and they both knew that Jinx had just shattered Vi's kneecap. The enforcer, now on one knee, cursed and bit down on her lip, the pain that hat shot through her body barely bearable.

And yet, she had not moved her gauntlet out of the way of Caitlyn's line of sight.

With a dry laugh, Jinx rose to her feet, shivering and shaking, but amused to no end as she stood above Vi, still shielded from Caitlyn's shot.

"The ties that bind, the ties that bind." hummed Jinx, mockingly leaned closer to Vi, "They're strong, aren't they? But so absurd! So ridiculous! Look at what they do to you when you don't drown them out, like I do. Look what you're doing! Didn't you say you wanted to bring me to justice? That you wouldn't..."

"I've tried to do everything I could to save you, Jay. I always wanted your best, from the very beginning." interrupted her Vi, spoke slowly and weakly, "I've always looked up to you, you know? You were my role model. And so, it hit me even harder when you 'died' back then."

Vi rose her gaze, met that of her older sister above her. Jinx's amusement had faded and had become serious, thoughtful. She didn't say a thing as Vi let out a deep breath.

"And even now, Jay, I want the best for you. Even as we fight on different sides, I want the best for you. I tried everything that I could." Vi tilted her head a bit, rolled her right shoulder, "Before our game at the station that one night, I tried to hunt you down and bring you to justice. The other day, I tried to make you see what I saw, letting you work with us. And now, I even tried to see what you see. But I couldn't. I only saw one thing."

The loose cannon rose an eyebrow, but proceeded to pick up her rocket launcher, seemed only somewhat impressed by Vi's words. The enforcer remained calm in the face of the mechanical shark, stared into it's jaws, where the next rocket already waited.

But Vi was calm.

"Vi! What the hell is going on down there?!" echoed Caitlyn's voice from the compartment in her left gauntlet, panicked and loud, "Move your hand out of the way! Now!"

But Vi had no intention to, not wanting to allow Caitlyn to shoot Jinx. Not in the state that she was in, that Jinx was in, that Caitlyn was in. A shot would be the thing that would make the game escalate once and for all, Vi was sure of it.

"I only saw how far you've strayed from the path, Jay. Not the path of justice, but the path of sanity. You're completely blinded by that madness of yours. You have a twisted view of the world and refuse to accept it. What you see isn't the truth, Jay."

"That's what you say, Vi. I say I'm the one whose eyes have been opened to the truth. The reality as it is." countered the madwoman, though her voice was softer, weaker than it used to.

"You've been completely consumed by your madness. Gone beyond the point of no return. And because of that..." Vi swallowed, her throat felt dry and it felt hard to continue speaking, to do what she had to do, but she knew she had no choice, had made her decision, "Because of that, I want the best for you now, too."

The two sisters locked eyes. Both knew what Vi was meaning. And while Vi had a hard expression, Jinx's finally softened, softened as she came to understand. Came to understand what Vi would rather not do, but would do.

"And because of that, I'm sorry, Jay. This is only for your own best."

Jinx nodded softly, never averted her gaze from Vi's. Pink and blue stayed in contact as the enforcer rose to her full height, ignoring the pain in her left leg, no emotion being displayed in either of them. The pinkette scowled, panted, felt sick in the stomach as she prepared her body for it's next movement.

And Jinx smiled.

"I know. Thanks, Vi. For everything."

The gauntlet was pulled back. Almost immediately, two shots rung through the air, Caitlyn having waited for this moment to pull the trigger. And even though she had thought about closing her eyes to not see it, Vi watched, with an upset stomach, as one bullet hit Jinx through the left shoulder, throwing her off aim and balance, then one in the right leg.

The elder sibling stumbled, first after being shot in the shoulder, then fell towards the railing after being shot in the leg. Her back hit the railing, and yet she managed to hold onto it with only her left hand, the right still keeping Fishbones on her right shoulder, holding onto her 'friend' with her last bit of strength.

"I'm sorry, Jay... I'm sorry." Vi didn't even know when she had started to cry, didn't know when her hot tears began to mix with the cold rainwater on her face or when she had started to sob uncontrollably, but never averted her gaze from her sister.

"It's okay, Vi. I told you, it's okay. You can't save everyone, and not everyone wants to be saved. That's an important lesson that you had to learn, and I'm happy that I could teach you at least that. But there's one last thing that you need to learn, and I told you before..." the elder sibling chuckled lowly to herself, felt how her strength was slowly leaving, both leg and shoulder bleeding, blood mixing with rainwater, "It's about how stupid you are. About you not realizing what you were about to throw away. How much that which you threw away is really worth."

Vi didn't quite understand, but couldn't care less. She gently approached her sister, ignoring how weak her own leg was, had to be there for Jinx just like she was back then. And Jinx appreciated it. Did it like she had done it back then, on that bad day.

The bad day that had led to this bad day. Over ten years in between them, and yet so similar. But neither of them was sure anymore if it had been two different bad days, or just one long bad day, one day that had lasted ten years. The nightmare had lasted all along, but had reached it's last moments, the morning about to brighten the darkness of it.

"Bring it to an end now, Vi. There's no point in letting this go on any longer than necessary." sighed Jinx, leaned her head back, "Stop this all now."

With tears running down her face, the enforcer nodded, stared at her sister, knowing it would be the last good glance she would ever get at her. But Jinx didn't look back, stared up into the dark clouds above, the swirling mass that hid the sky. Just like back then, in her last moments on that day.

"I'm sorry, Jay."

With these words, Vi kicked the loose cannon's leg away. And just like back then, Jinx felt like she was afloat, weightless. Back then, in the water. Now, as she fell. Clinging onto Fishbones, she fell backwards over the railing, a smile spreading across her face as all her burdens felt non-existent for once, her madness clearing up once and for all.

She wouldn't experience this final moment clouded in madness, would spent it clear and in full control of her actions. And as such, she chuckled slightly.

"I'm sorry, too, Vi."

Her finger curled around the trigger of Fishbones, and aiming for the last time, Jinx pulled, let Fishbones roar out for his final time. But it wasn't aimed at Vi, the rocket flying past the catwalk that Vi still stood on at incredible speed.

Vi whirled around, couldn't believe what was happening, at first happy that Jinx had missed. Until she saw where the rocket really was headed.

"CAIT!"

The feral scream of the enforcer echoed through the night, panic taking the helpless enforcer over. Caitlyn heard it, saw the rocket coming towards her, but just like Vi was completely helpless, so was she. And even though she grabbed her rifle and tried to run, there was no escape.

Powerless, Vi could only watch as the water tower was consumed in one fireball of gigantic proportions, groaned and croaked for a last time as it's structure was weakened by the explosion. How the tower came crashing down with Caitlyn still atop it.

"Serves you right, Vi." shot through the loose cannon's head as she heard the scream, but the blackness had long consumed her vision, her consciousness fading out for the very last time, "Maybe now you realize what you had all along, how much worth her life was to you. What you kicked with feet as you chose me over her. That you can summon a bad day with poor decisions. And you couldn't even apologize to her for what you've did, trampling her unconditional love like that."

She felt how her fingers lost their strength, how Fishbones slipped out of her grip. But that wasn't important any longer. He was there for her, until the very last moment. Like Vi had been. Like Caitlyn had been. Pow-Pow would've been there, too, had she not lost him on the other side of the chemical plant's ground. But Zap. Zap, he was still at her side.

"I didn't hit her, did I? Didn't intend to hit. The water tower was a way better target... Can't aim properly anymore in my state... And I didn't want to kill her, after all..." Jinx chuckled silently, wondered how long until the impact, "Serves you right, Vi... Maybe now you understand how stupid it was to leave her and mess up our game... How much she is worth to you... And that I could've never taken that place."

A final breath, a final thought.

"Still... Thanks, Vi. For everything. Goodbye."

Her body impacted with something, sent a last wave of pain through her. And then, nothing.

Shocked like she was, not being able to believe what she was losing in one single moment, Vi slowly turned around and stared over the edge of the catwalk, bit down on her lip as she saw Jinx's final state.

Jay lay at the bottom of a tank, partially buried beneath a grate that had formerly covered the tank, that she had broken through. A thin layer of water was at the bottom of the tank, had filled with water a bit due to the heavy rain.

The irony.

Dead. Jinx – Jay – lay dead at the bottom of a hole that filled slowly with water as the rain continued to fall, buried beneath a grating. Almost like back then. It was a repeat of back then. Jinx had been right all along about the fate she had unwillingly escaped being her ultimate one.

But even so – She seemed at peace. Her eyes were closed, a soft smile on her lips as her body floated atop the thin layer of water. Fishbones lay right aside her head, only it's fin above the water. And if not for the unnatural position of her left leg and her right arm, angled to her body in an unnatural way, Vi wouldn't even have believed that it was over, that Jinx was dead, Would've suspected that she was sleeping.

But the nightmare was almost over.

There were only a few last things to do for that.

With the reality of the situation finally sinking in, the enforcer twirled around, ran for the other side of the catwalk, placed one gauntlet on it and swung herself over the edge. She couldn't care less about how much it hurt her left leg to impact on the concrete at the bottom of the tanks, merely stumbled to her feet and limped into the direction of where the water tower had been.

"Cait! Cait, answer me!" she screamed, cursed her legs for being so slow, cursed herself for bringing Caitlyn there. And all along, there was this voice in her head, Jinx's words echoing unrelentingly as she approached the pile of scrap metal, not even drowned out by the lightning that struck ever so loudly through the heavens.

"This time, you're to blame if anything happens! For all that has happened!"

Why was she so slow? Why couldn't she be any faster? Why was she never fast enough to save anyone?

But Caitlyn didn't have to be dead. The tower had collapsed underneath her, not atop her, and the small chance that she was alright was fighting Jinx's voice with all it had. But that was only a possibility, only a small chance. One that she had to put all her hope into.

She reached it, the pile that had remained of the tower. Steel stringers, twisted metal, remains of what was once the rocket in a gigantic puddle that was definitely not from the rain. The base of the tower had remained, was still with water, but now overflowing, and each of Vi's steps through the mud made a disgusting smack.

Driven by adrenaline, she slammed one gauntlet into the pile of metal, pulled with her strength, was in overdrive in hope for any sign of Caitlyn, any sign that she was still alive. The first parts flew through the air, carelessly thrown away without any care as to where they landed.

"Cait, come on, don't do this to me!" she whispered to herself, dug in again, panted and twitched, sobbed and cried, told herself continually that her partner was fine, that she would be alive. More metal thrown to the side. No sign of Caitlyn. She was buried. And that lessened the chance of her being alive. And yet Vi didn't want to accept it. Didn't want to accept that possibility.

She dug both hands in.

"Over here, Vi..." whispered a weak voice, barely audible over all the rain, and yet powerful enough to take all the weight off Vi's heart, "I'm fine. Kind of."

The brawler pulled her hands out of the pile, quickly rounded it, found her girlfriend on the other side, laying atop the pile. She was anything but fine, Vi could see it from the very first moment, even though it was clearly looking worse than it really was. If anything, Caitlyn seemed not too uncomfortable on top of the pile of twisted metal, if not for the awkward angle of her left arm and the rather horrible sight of a metal rod protruding from a bloody hole in her right leg, having impaled it. Other than that, Caitlyn really seemed okay.

As okay as one could be after all that.

Despite feeling her own wounds act up, Vi acted on instinct. She leaned down to the sheriff and hugged her, let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding all the time.

"Oh god, Cait, you're okay..."

"Wish I could say the same about you. How do you feel?" inquired the sheriff weakly, reciprocated the embrace and patted Vi's back.

"Like crap." replied Vi, couldn't put it any other way. The relief of knowing that Caitlyn was partially okay, though, gave her the strength she needed at that moment. Looking down to the metal rod that had impaled Caitlyn's leg, she evaluated the damage, hoped that it wasn't as bad as she thought it was.

"Should I...?" she asked cautiously, wanted to know if Caitlyn was comfortable with the idea of her pulling the rod out. Seeing Caitlyn nod, she reached for the metal rod, searched Caitlyn's gaze, waited until the sheriff nodded to assure her it was okay. And then, knowing it would hurt her as much as it would hurt Caitlyn, pulled on the rod.

Caitlyn screamed out, Vi bit down on her tongue – But it was over just as quick, Vi standing with the bloodied rod over Caitlyn's sweaty body, watching as the rain poured down on the sheriff and she panted.

Throwing the metal rod aside, she gently bowed down to pick her girlfriend up, making sure as to not move the dislocated arm or the leg too much. Carrying her bridal style, the enforcer ignored her own injuries and turned to leave, knowing there was not much left to do there but one thing. And for that, she had to come back later. Alone.

"Vi..." whispered the sheriff gently, slung her good arm around the brawler's neck to steady herself, "What happened to Jinx?"

When Vi didn't answer but fell into a run instead, Caitlyn knew the answer. Didn't ask again or probe any further. Instead, after looking up to Vi's determined expression for a few seconds, turned away and wondered where Vi was carrying her, quickly realized that Vi was probably heading for a hospital.

"Cait, I need you to do me a favor. I know I'm in no position to ask for one, know you're already risking a lot by covering up my defection, but I really need you to..." spoke the enforcer, taking a sharp left after leaving the chemical plant's ground, glanced down towards her girlfriend with pleading eyes, "Do not tell anybody about this. Don't tell anyone that Jay is..."

Vi trailed off, her mask shattering for a moment and letting Caitlyn see how much it really hurt Vi to think of Jinx. Reassuringly, she placed her hand on Vi's cheek, stroke it gently, trying to calm her down. And indeed, it seemed to give Vi new strength, new reassurance.

"Let's just cover it up! Let's just say Jinx... Jinx escaped us! If she doesn't act for months, people will begin to wonder, and we could just say that she's... Moved on! Gone elsewhere! Left some last message that Piltover got too boring for her, or something like that! Just don't tell anyone that Jinx isn't among us anymore... Please."

Letting out a soft sigh and snuggling deeper into Vi's arm, no matter how soaked her clothes were, Caitlyn nodded softly. She understood Vi's motivation. Knew the story behind the sisters, after all.

"I won't. I can respect that you don't want anyone to know." she whispered, closed her eyes and let her consciousness slowly drift off, weak and exhausted as she was, "But what will happen to her body?"

"I'll take care of that. Give her a proper burial. Somewhere only we knew, Jay and me. I know this one place she loved a lot." replied the enforcer, "But first, I'll take you to a hospital. That's more important now. You need that leg of yours getting looked at."

The sheriff nodded gently. Remembering something, though, she shifted her position in Vi's arms, surprising the enforcer with it, reached into her pocket to pull something out. Presenting it to Vi, she saw how the enforcer's eyes widened in shock, not quite believing what she saw.

Gently placing Caitlyn's feet on the ground, the woman reached for it with her right, gauntlet-covered hand, holding the small object in between two fingers to get a better look at it, turning it back and forth to examine it as good as possible.

It was that Joker Playing Card that read Jinx's name.

"I want her to have it back, Vi. A last present from me to thank her for what she has done for us." whispered the sheriff gently, placing a hand on the gauntlet that held the card, "Could you do that for me?"

---

Vi didn't know how many hours has passed since then, didn't know how late it was as she strode through Piltover's streets into the direction of her apartment. It was all too much, too many things happening in only a few days, and even more in just a single night.

The first rays of the morning sun peeked over Piltover's horizon, symboling the end of a bad day and an even worse night. The end of their year long nightmare.

Just a day ago, she had believed she could make everything right. Could repay Jinx for everything. Could find peace with herself. That she could save everyone, and that everyone wanted to be saved. But that wasn't the case anymore.

After having dropped of Caitlyn at a hospital, the woman that was called the enforcer of the city of progress had headed back to the horrible place, found the scene just as she had left it. Her sister, dead, afloat on the water that had by then nearly filled the tank halfway. Her weapon lying on the ground of the tank. Now, no more.

With both the wet body of her sister and her sister's 'friend' slung over one shoulder, the enforcer had made her way through the darkness, through the storm, at one point picking up the madwoman's other 'friend' Pow-Pow, which lay discarded and broken among the dirt and the mud. Bringing Jay to the place she had once admitted that she liked the most in all Piltover, the only place that wasn't boring to her, Vi had also brought her past along.

Had buried it along with the woman that she had always longed to be her sister again. But in the aftermath of it all, she should`ve seen it. Seen the signs. Jinx and Jay weren't the same person. Never were. Never could. Jay had died on a day over ten years ago. And Jinx had died that night.

Her own body was covered in dirt and blood as the rain finally stopped, as the storm came to an end and the madwoman was no more, hidden in a place that was unknown to the world around it. Most of the blood had been washed away, but some remained, dried onto her skin after the rain finally stopped. Bruises were forming all over her body, her left leg had given in at more than one point as the adrenaline slowly subsided, with Caitlyn safe, and Jinx gone. But Vi carried on. Ignored the signs of weakness her own body was giving her. Too much was on her mind. Too many things learned, too many things that needed to be forgotten, too many things gained and too many lost. All just because of one bad decision.

Of one bad day.

So she dragged herself through the streets towards her apartment, ignored the few people that were up and giving her weird and odd glances. Ignored the lady in the fancy red dress that passed her and smiled encouragingly at her, that would soon vanish as the sun rose higher.

At one point, the radio in her left gauntlet activated, first giving out static, then Caitlyn's gentle voice. Vi didn't reply, listened as Caitlyn said things to encourage her, words of compassion. Barely took note as Caitlyn informed her of being released from the hospital already, with her arm set and her leg in a plaster, and that she'd head to Vi's apartment, waiting there for her.

She still appreciated it, Caitlyn's attempts at comforting her. They were working, somehow. Despite the large void that she felt in her heart. The thing that made her feel so empty.

She barely registered reaching her apartment and entering it. Barely noticed Caitlyn on the bed, waiting for her. And even so, no word was exchanged as Vi put her gauntlets down, slipped out of her by then somewhat dry clothes and into something new, as the enforcer crawled into bed and gently embraced her girlfriend from behind.

Only then did the emotions well up, the full realization hitting Vi harder than her gauntlets would've ever been able to. Only as she sought refuge in her girlfriend did Vi finally let the mask shatter, sobbed into Caitlyn`s shoulder from behind.

And as much as she wanted to do something, Caitlyn couldn't. Could only be there for her girlfriend and console her by gently embracing her.

She hadn't been able to prevent that bad day. But she could at least catch Vi as she fell, could pick up the pieces of Vi's world that had shattered.

Exactly as Jay had told her to.

Jay had known this outcome all along.

---

It was one week later, nearing the late evening, that Caitlyn sat in her chair in her office, right leg in plaster, left arm in a sling. Unlike Vi, who had not picked up her job again after Jinx's death – Caitlyn had forbidden her that, no matter how much Vi had begged as the days dragged on, worried about the enforcer's health – Caitlyn had returned after half a week of absence, had picked up her job. Being unable to go on patrol again, she used the time to go over the reports she had abandoned.

But for that day, she had chosen a different file. She had dreaded the day she'd pick it up for the last time for years. Even more so since Jinx's death, knowing what it meant. But now she sat in front of it, pen scratching over the last page, with mixed feelings. Happy that it was over. Sad that it was over. Angry at the outcome she had always wanted to avoid.

She looked up when the door opened, frowned at the person that entered her office. Vi stalked into the room, had recovered surprisingly well. She was still a lot more quiet than usual, but as her wounds healed over the course of the week, she became more active again, slowly crawled out of the hole she had fallen in with Caitlyn's help.

Still, Caitlyn's instructions had been clear.

"Vi? What are you doing here?" inquired the sheriff, stopped writing, pen coming to a sudden stop on the report.

"Sorry Cait, but I can't stay at home anymore. I feel useless if I remain there and you go back to work." replied the enforcer and approached her desk, noticed the file in front of her partner and girlfriend, noticed the odd coloring, "Is that...?"

"Yeah." sighed Caitlyn gently, lowered her gaze and wrote the last few words down, signed the final page with her name, "Yeah, it is."

Closing the file and turning it around, so that the front faced them, the two women looked down at it, read the black writing on the front of the bright pink folder. 'Harlequin Case', it read. The case that had been revolving around Jinx for years.

"I added the last entry to it. That Jinx planned to blow up the old chemical plant in old fashion, but that one of her explosives went off while she was placing it. That no body was ever found in the debris." explained Caitlyn, knowing Vi would want to know the lie that closed the case, "People have waited for that. Cruel, isn't it?"

"It is. But it was bound to happen one day." sighed Vi, sank into the chair in front of Caitlyn's desk, let her gauntlets fall to the ground on either side of her, "You know, if... THAT hadn't happened."

Caitlyn knew Vi was referring to their fight in the chemical plant, but didn't say a thing. The wounds were still fresh, and even at home, in Vi's apartment, into which had Caitlyn had begun to move, neither of them talked about that night. Caitlyn didn't ask where Jinx was buried, didn't ask what Vi had done to the weapons of the maniac.

It was the rule that Vi and Jinx had always made sure to follow, and that Vi and Caitlyn would follow to.

You don't talk about a bad day. And when you think about it, never ask yourself 'what if...?'.

Breaking that rule led to that which had happened to them. Vi had dared to ask herself 'what if?', and it led to her defection, and ultimately, to Jinx's death.

"I've finished the other document, too. You know, about you working undercover." continued the sheriff in return, reached into the upper drawer of her desk and pulled a pale green folder out, waved it to to present it to Vi, "So you should be alright. The owner of the bank still wants an apology from you."

"He'll get it eventually." groaned Vi as she leaned back in the chair. This gave Caitlyn the chance to examine the brawler's condition. Physically, Vi had completely recovered for the most part. With all bruises gone and a week of recovery, it was mostly Vi's knee that had yet to recover, but that was only a matter of time, too.

It was Vi's mental condition that worried Caitlyn a little. While Vi pretended that she felt just fine, there were still moments where she seemed to feel down or depressed. And that was why Caitlyn didn't think it was time for Vi to pick up her job again just like that, knowing what damage could be done if Vi didn't feel completely fine.

"And you're sure you can just pick your job up again? Look at me, even I'm taking it slow. I can't go on patrol like I am, so I use the time to go over the paperwork that has piled up over the week." began Caitlyn carefully, hoping it was the right approach, "And I'm not only talking about my physical condition, Vi. I didn't know Jinx like you did, but even I feel down. Depressed. Even I have nightmares of that night, and I only saw the end of it."

"Don't worry, cupcake." smiled the pinkette, a small mysterious smile on her lips as she leaned forward and put a hand reassuringly down on Caitlyn's, "What do you think I've been doing while you were at work? I've been visiting a psychologist. I won't make the same mistake twice and pile up all that I've been through until it eats me up from within. Not again."

"You've been visiting...?" Caitlyn trailed of, surprised, but then chuckled softly and nodded, "Well, I meant for you to do so, anyways, before you pick your job up again. All that stuff hasn't been exactly easy on either of us. I even considered visiting a psychologist as well. Probably for the better, isn't it?"

"Probably." agreed Vi, rose out of the chair, picked up her gauntlets and walked over to her own desk, smiled gently, "I could recommend you mine. She's quite good, knows how to be considerate."

Unceremoniously, the enforcer put her gauntlets down aside the desk, dropped down into her chair, let out a deep groan and rolled her shoulders. Caitlyn watched as her girlfriend leaned over the desk and picked up a pen - her favorite one as Caitlyn had noted on several occasions - before she bowed down and opened one of the drawers of her own desk, pulling out a pile of files.

"Besides, the new recruits come in later today, and I don't want you to suffer through that alone. I picked out the best twenty, and most of them are still more than incompetent. Makes me wonder how they even passed through the academy!" snickered the enforcer, slamming the files down on her desk, "But there are a few good ones among them. Not good enough to take on criminals of Jinx's caliber, but more than good enough for the standard stuff."

"New recruits?" wondered Caitlyn aloud, surprised that she didn't know about that. Vi frowned for a moment, but then let out a gasp, seemed to realize the problem.

"Oh, it was part of the paperwork I did that day that Jay showed up in my apartment. You know, before the whole 'cop for one day' thing." revealed the enforcer, nervously rubbed the back of her head as her smile slowly became crooked, "Uh, I think I meant to tell you that, but kinda forgot?"

The sheriff let out a groan and rolled her eyes, couldn't help but smile. That was the Vi she knew. The Vi she loved. Her partner and girlfriend was back. But that didn't mean that she wasn't annoyed with Vi's behavior.

Still, that psychologist of hers had to be quite good for Vi to have come to terms with her sister's death so fast.

"Alright, Vi. When will they arrive?" sighed Caitlyn, picked up the Harlequin Case file and put it back into her drawer, silently vowing herself to always keep it there, to never put it into the archives. Despite the fact that it was closed, for her, it didn't feel like it.

Maybe it was just her not wanting to accept Jinx's death.

"Uh, about that..." Vi's sheepish voice made her look up and frown at the enforcer with the crooked smile, "About five minutes ago?"

The enforcer ducked out of the way of a pen flying at her, giggling as she dove under her desk.

It was just like it had been before this all.

And yet, they'd not forgotten Jinx.

---

The door to the sheriff's office flew open, an irritated sheriff entering, slamming the door close behind her. Vi hadn't exaggerated things when she had said that the new recruits were anything but qualified. Of twenty, only nineteen showed up. Of these nineteen, only eleven had the right mentality, eight only wanted to do it to wield a gun and impress their friends. And of those eleven, she'd only call six qualified enough for the job. And the rest had just gone on her nerves with stupid questions and even more stupid ideas of an officer's everyday life, thinking it was all 'like in the movies'.

And that her leg had started to ache halfway through wasn't helping, either.

Falling into her chair, she threw the nineteen files that Vi, who had checked the recruits' presence, had given to her onto the desk, already sorted by who would get a chance and who had failed already, and who was still in between and needed to prove himself. More paperwork she would have to work on. More reports to be written. Sometimes, she really didn't like paperwork, either.

She was just about to begin with the paperwork, despite by how late it was, when the door opened again. She threw a glance towards the clock, grumbled as she realized it was nearing midnight already and that she and Vi were the only ones left in the station, but still decided to get at least the files of those who she would accept done.

Looking up for a second as the door opened, she found Vi leaning into the room, smiling at her. Knowing her girlfriend, Vi would probably beg for them to leave and get the paperwork done the next day – Vi had strangely agreed to help Caitlyn with that if she would be allowed to pick her job up again – so that they could spent the rest of the night together on the enforcer's couch, watching a movie.

Gaze moving down to the first file again, Caitlyn gestured Vi to say whatever she wanted to say with her only good hand, the one that was holding the pen, before putting it down on the file again. She really wished she could use her other hand, but the doctors had strictly forbidden her to do that until the swelling of her shoulder had finally gone down.

"Cupcake." began Vi with a hum to her voice, like she usually had when she wanted to talk Caitlyn into something, and the sheriff found herself reassured that Vi was about to talk her into going home, which, to be honest, sounded rather amazing to her at that moment, "The last recruit is here."

With a sharp scratching noise, Caitlyn's pen came to a sudden stop on the file she had been signing. Five words. It had taken just five words to completely catch her off guard, to throw her concentration out of the window.

"Excuse me?" she asked, slowly raising her gaze to meet that of her enforcer and girlfriend, not quite believing the words she was hearing. A short glance to the clock, then back to Vi.

"Talk about punctuality." snorted the sheriff, voice dripping with sarcasm, irritated. With a groan, knowing that working on the file was pointless now that she couldn't concentrate, the sheriff leaned back and moved her hand through her hair.

"She said she was sorry." replied the enforcer with a shrug, rather amused by the turn of events, "Should we still give her a try? She seems rather qualified, compared to the others. Overqualified, actually."

Caitlyn frowned as Vi waved with the last file, the one she hadn't handed to Caitlyn, both deeming it pointless as the recruit in question hadn't been there before. Caitlyn pondered about it for a moment, the word 'overqualified' echoing through her head. She glanced down at the nineteen files on her desk. Shuddered as she remembered how 'qualified' those were.

"Bring her in. Let's give her that chance." sighed the sheriff and closed her eyes, "And tell her she better be overqualified, because I do not condone unpunctuality like this!"

"I bet she has a good explanation for her unpunctuality." offered Vi, vanished out of the door to get the recruit. Caitlyn let out a silent growl, turned her gaze down to the files again.

"She better has. Something that explains why she is four hours late. Like being in an accident and escaping it half-dead or something!" growled the sheriff, already irritated and not taking unpunctuality too nicely, "I'm not going to forgive her the unpunctuality otherwise!"

She heard the sound of the door opening again, didn't immediately look up as Vi entered the room with the last recruit in tow. Frowning at an information on one of the recruits files that she was sure she had to check again, she waited until both of the females that had entered were in front of her. Picking up her pencil to underline the weird information, she wondered if the recruit in question had faked his transcripts.

"Does being completely dead count, too?"

Caitlyn cringed violently, her pencil snapping in half as her good hand clenched down on it. Her gaze shot up immediately, first landing on Vi, then the woman aside her, the new recruit with the familiar voice. And did a double-take.

Smaller than both Vi and Caitlyn, the new recruit had a rather petite appearance, seemed young and full of childish excitement, rather fun-loving. Wearing the uniform that all the other recruits had worn that day – a blue beret, a blue short-sleeved shirt with a black tie with aviators hanging from it, but with blue pants that were ripped off directly underneath her rear – Caitlyn immediately noticed the scars on the woman's right arm, scars received from burns, intensive burns. Looking further up, the mischievous pink eyes of the woman caught Caitlyn off guard for a second time, as did the single braid of electric-blue hair that rested on the woman's left shoulder.

"I... I think?" muttered Caitlyn in shock, mind blank for once, not quite believing what she was seeing. Was she hallucinating? Was this another nightmare? Another nightmare born from the traumatic events of that one night?

The woman before her sat down in the chair opposite to Caitlyn, smiled up at Vi and took off her beret, handing it to the enforcer like she was a coatrack by simply hanging it onto Vi's finger. With a smirk, she turned back to Caitlyn.

"Well, sorry for being late." she began with her high-pitched voice, amused to no end, "I hope that doesn't get in the way. Have to admit I'm not the most punctual person, but I take great pride in my other qualities. I'm sure you want to hear them."

Still confused as to what was happening, if this all was just a hallucination, Caitlyn nodded slowly.

"A quick summary of your background would be nice, I guess..." she muttered, blinked as the recruit giggled and sat upright, coughed in an overdramatic way.

"I was born in Zaun, I don't want to make a secret out of that." began the woman, and Caitlyn found herself further disbelieving what she was seeing and hearing, "I also don't want to hide that I didn't go for the police force right away, but chose a different approach, a different line of work."

Almost teasingly, the recruit nodded to herself, drew out each and every word for longer than necessary, eventually licked her lips as if they had been dry.

"I've made my doctor in psychology in Zaun a few years ago, though I don't insist on the title all the time. Having people call me 'Dr.' makes me feel like I'm overly smart or something, or that I know something about all that medical stuff. I don't. Just a doctor in psychology is what I am. A little crazy in the head, maybe, but it takes a psycho to know one, am I right?"

She didn't wait for an answer, though it appeared like that for a moment. Instead, she relaxed her body a bit, tilted her head and frowned.

"Eventually decided against work as a psychologist, simply due to how many madmen live in Zaun. No matter how crazy I am, there's no way I can help all of those! I'd have to work overtime most of the year!"

She cackled, and Caitlyn shuddered anew – the cackle was also familiar. Way too familiar. And there was no way it was all real... Was there? She was slowly getting the need to reach out to the woman and touch her, to know if she was real or not.

"I went for the special forces of Zaun, was trained in different combat styles, mechanics and weaponry, but decided to abandon Zaun and came for Piltover a few years ago. It's a way nicer place to be. A neat city, really is. Maybe a bit boring on occasions, but that's part of life, isn't it?"

That choice of words! The appearance! The mentality!

"Now, I'm sure you'll find me as quite an addition to your force, sheriff! I'm a master mechanic, probably on the same level as our enforcer here, a weapons expert and fanatic, know my thing about explosives, I possess the ability of psychological evaluation of criminals and madmen and I specialize in heavy artillery, of which I prefer mini-guns and rocket launchers."

Caitlyn swallowed again, felt how dry her throat and her lips had become. She rose her gaze and glanced towards Vi, couldn't help but blink as she saw the huge smirk on her girlfriend's lips. Came to realize that this was all very real. But the question that bugged her was – How?

"W-what did you say your name was again?" asked Caitlyn hesitantly, frowned at the woman in front of her. In response, Vi threw the file she had been holding onto Caitlyn's desk, with the sheriff immediately noticing that the date on it was a lot more recent than those of the other recruits' files, made only a few days ago.

Vi had known it.

"My name would be..." the recruit coughed dramatically again, suddenly leaned closer to the sheriff, elbows resting on the brunette's desk, a very risky move for a recruit under the normal circumstances, "...Dr. Jay Inks, hats."

'Hats', the very same nickname that Jinx had used during the night of their 'game' in that very room. The appearance. The choice of words. The mentality. And the Joker Playing Card sewn into the chest of the shirt that Caitlyn noticed only now.

Caitlyn's gaze dropped to the file, read the name on it, the date. Then slowly rose to the recruit named 'Dr. Jay Inks'.

And smiled softly.

"Well, we really don't have a heavy artillery expert here, and we could kinda need one." chuckled Caitlyn, couldn't believe she was playing along with the game, "And our bomb squad is kind of small as well. I'm sure that Ziggs, who has agreed to be the bomb squad's supervisor a while ago, would enjoy your help."

Dr. Jay Inks rose an eyebrow, smirk growing.

"Well then, consider yourself employed, Dr. Inks! You'll be working with our enforcer, Vi, for the time being. She will introduce you to everything you will need to know." continued the sheriff, gesturing to Vi, who was swinging the beret around, "Originally, I am Vi's partner, but as you can see..." she trailed off again to show the recruit her arm, then gestured for her leg, "I can't exactly fill that role at the moment."

"You'll get better, cupcake." commented Vi with a slightly amused tone to her voice, reassuring the sheriff. But Caitlyn regarded that with a mere gesture for Vi to wait.

"Anyways, after you've worked with Vi for a while and learned the basics, I will give you to Zigg's capable hands, but if you show exceptionable skill – and you seem to have that, according to your background - I'm sure that you will rise up quickly in ranks. After all, we didn't have such an exceptionally skilled individual here since Vi has joined us." continued the sheriff, leaned back in her chair and relaxed. Seemed actually pleased with what she was being presented with, no matter how absolutely ridiculous the situation seemed.

She rose from her chair, picked up the recruit's file, placed it atop the ones of the six accepted recruits and smirked. Gesturing both Vi and Dr. Inks to follow her, Caitlyn headed for the door. Today was really not a day for paperwork.

"Who knows? If you become the head of the bomb squad, and maybe even more than that, you may even end up working with Vi and me on a regular basis." she added eventually, waiting for the other two women by the door, opening it.

"What bright future I have then. Full of good days." commented the woman with the electric-blue hair as she approached Caitlyn, bowed slightly to her in respect. Caitlyn merely rose an eyebrow.

"Quite so." she replied, "Dr. Inks, may I ask where you reside?"

The reply didn't follow immediately. Instead, the woman with the blue hair smirked up mischievously at Caitlyn, tilted her head a bit, then pushed past her out of the office. Caitlyn let out a chuckle and followed her with her gaze, waited until Vi had picked up her gauntlets and, with Dr. Inks beret on her head, had left the office as well.

Only then did Caitlyn leave the office as well, the office where the series of events had started over a month ago with a simple game, a simple joke. A killing joke. She flicked the light switch, turned the lights off, throwing the office into darkness. Then, she followed the two women waiting for her by the front entrance.

Together, they left the station, walked out into the cold, starry night of Piltover.

"Oh, you know, hat lady... It's a nice little apartment in the third story of a building not too far from here..."

---

And with that, we've reached the end of it. The end to the 'Bad Day'-Series. Despite the open end we have here, I figured that it might be the best point to stop things. But more to that open end in a moment.

Once again, my greatest thanks goes to Time96. Just like with 'A Killing Joke' and 'A Joke of Nature', he was my beta-reader for this, and the one who I kept discussing the things I wanted to implement with. And he had quite a lot to do this time around. Just like with 'A Joke of Nature', I continually had to move the time at which he'd get the story to beta-read back hour by hour, cause even though I put all my heart and soul into finishing it, I kept being distracted and for some reason, each and every scene took longer than I thought it would! So once more, while this is my greatest thanks to him, it's also my deepest apologies for making it harder for him than it should have been. He found it amusing, but still.

Still no story from him, but 2015 increases the chances for one.

Onto my notes!

This time around, things were a lot different. I took a very different approach on it, starting with a less humorous version of the Jinx from the previous installments. Not necessarily noticeable at the beginning, when she is her usual random self, but the closer you get to the end, the more delusional and maniacal does she get.

Just like this installment. While not starting off as funny as 'A Killing Joke' or 'A Joke of Nature' do, there was some last humor with Jinx at the beginning, but we went for the darker themes a lot quicker this time. After all, this is the finale to the series.

But Jinx isn't the only one who experienced a change from the former installments. Caitlyn is desperate for answers this time around, loses her trust in Vi for a while, doesn't understand why the events of this installment happen. Little does she know that her being so long around Vi and Jinx has caused the original bad day to influence her life as well. Dramatically.

And then there's Vi, who, after seeing Jinx so desperate in "A Joke of Nature", has decided she wants to try being on the other side of the law again, for Jinx. And we all see where it went. By the way, her being left-handed was officially confirmed by Aatrox according to the wiki, so don't wonder about that. Not sure when that happened, but it kind of fit with the direction I was heading into. The part about her having no memories was official too, according to the wiki.

There's one more character I'd like to talk about, and it's Katarina. No, I do not hate Katarina, I'm sorry if it looked that way in "A Joke of Nature", but I needed someone ruthless and villain-like, and her relationship with Lux was perfect for it. I even play her occasionally, though her play-style is not exactly my style, I prefer our Piltover Trio - Caitlyn, Vi and Jinx - a lot more. So here's some love for Katarina instead – she helped Cait a lot this time, didn't she? Her being put in prison was kinda a build-up to this, too. Her being hurt had a bigger reason, you see? And she's fine again now!

Credit where credit is due - The song that Jinx sings as she prepares her cereals is actually Kog-Maw's part from Falconshield's "This is War 3, Part 1 – Shadow Isles vs. the Void". If you haven't heard it, you really should give it a try. I like the 'This is War'-series a lot for my part.

Moving on to the last notes – Yes, just like the former two installments, this one was influenced by Batman a bit, though a lot less as you should've noticed. No mentioning of the Joker at all, Jinx merely uses a few quotes that were inspired by his. The real influence for this one was, as some of you probably noticed already, 'Heavy Rain'. No spoiling from my part, though. Just have to say that it inspired the original bad day.

Now, there's one last thing I want to speak about, and it's the open end to this, and the importance of it. I don't want this to be over once and for all, that was the biggest motivation for it. While the 'One Bad Day'-Series is over now, at this very moment, I love it so much that I still want to be able to pick it up again at any point, want to be able to continue right here where I left off should I ever feel like it. And that might be at any point in the near to the far future.

But in the end, if this new recruit 'Dr. Jay Inks' is like Jinx by coincidence or is actually is entirely up to you. Though I say it right out – When I continue this, we MIGHT see our beloved loose cannon again just like we used to know her.

Crazy as a coot.

This is SorrowfulReincarnation, and thank you all very much for reading this.

I hope I'll see you again when I pick this up again in a new, probably smaller installment.

But until then,

So long~

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ONCE MORE!

IMPORTANT:If you're the Guest who reviewed "A Killing Joke" and asked about drawing it into a comic - You sadly left me without a way to contact you. If you are that Guest and do possess an account, please PM me or leave me with a way to contact you (deviantart acc name, for example, no e-mail adress) in the review!

If you don't want that contact, then I already want to confirm that I'm excited about the idea, so go ahead (someone please tell me when it's ready!). Just please don't forget to give me credit for the story line, and Riot Games for making LoL.