2 - A Joke of Nature

by SorrowfulReincarnation

Jinx has been gone for an entire week, something that bothers Piltover's finest a little. But as the criminal returns, the effects of the nightly 'game' become more apparent. Something has changed in between the three, and Vi wants to use it to reach out to Jinx and offer her help. But with one bad day away from them, can Jinx still change? Sequel to "A Killing Joke".

Note: This is the sequel to "A Killing Joke", 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.

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A Joke of Nature

"Ladies first."

The sheriff of Piltover rolled her eyes at her partner. Duty for the day was over, a surprisingly quiet day without major crimes, and the duo commonly referred to as 'Piltover's Finest' had decided to spend the rest of their evening together at Vi's place.

Vi's place was a simple apartment in the third story of a building near the center of Piltover, just a few streets away from the Police station, which Vi had been thankful for ever so often as she tended to sleep in ocassionally. It wasn't a big apartment or anything too fancy, but yet comfortable and more than a single ordinary person needed.

But Vi was no ordinary person.

She needed a lot of space for when she was wearing her gauntlets to move freely around without knocking anything over, and even without them preferred to not be constricted by cramped spaces between furniture or walls. Furthermore, not quite unlike their nemesis Jinx, Vi wasn't the most orderly person, a trait that seemed to come with being an inventor, or at least mechanic, as Caitlyn knew that Heimerdinger, Ziggs and even Jayce shared that trait as well.

But for Vi, this trait came with another thing – Despite not quite being an inventor and being more of a mechanic, her desire to work on machines and gadgets was strong, so strong in fact, that she had changed one of the rooms of her apartment into a workshop, where she fixed and modified her gauntlets and other gadgets. It was like a hobby to her, and she had spent most of her free time on it, at least the free time she didn't spent lazying around or sleeping.

Now, both her hobby of working on her gadgets and her laziness had suffered a little, had been reduced in favor of spending time with her girlfriend, the sheriff of Piltover herself, Caitlyn. They had been attracted to each other for quite a while, but had never pursued the possibility of a relationship, though they had wanted it.

But that had changed in a single night.

Jinx, the maniacal nemesis of Piltover's finest, the crazy gun-wielding psycho that terrorized their city out of boredom, had decided to play a game with them – whether or not it was meant to help them or to simply mock them, they still didn't know. All they knew was, that Jinx had made them sit on, what she made them believe, mines, and had wanted to play a game of truth or dare.

Though they had to say the truth or they'd be hurt, and the only dare was to stand up and blow them to pieces.

But it was during this game, in which Jinx had been asking questions about their relationship and preferences on purpose, that Vi and Caitlyn had taken the step that no one had dared to take before. In the aftermath of that event, they had started to date each other.

A week had passed since the event that followed the game, the day when Vi and Caitlyn had traced the renting of an apartment with Caitlyn's stolen ID to Jinx, and for some reason, the madwoman had stayed under the radar since then, much to the cops surprise and confusion.

That was unlike Jinx, and even more out of character than the time-bomb, the renting of the DVD and the apartment, the nightly game at the office and the bombing inside the apartment had been. First Jinx helped them, and now she disappeared entirely?

Something was up, and both cops knew it in the back of their mind. Not that they minded the peace. What the cops also knew, however, was that they owed Jinx now, and both didn't like it one bit. Not that Jinx would be able to call in that favor any time or make them do something impossible, dangerous or stupid, like letting her get away with a bombing or something like that.

But where was the lunatic? Why would she have stopped the bombings just like that? These thoughts lingered like a bad aftertaste in the back of the minds of the cops, but neither of them cared too much about it.

But to say that neither of them cared about the lunatic was wrong. Even Vi didn't only hate the madwoman's guts. Even she would rather say that she helped rehabilitate the loose cannon than saying that they had run out of alternatives, locked onto a suicide course, forced to one day kill the lunatic or end up being killed by her.

Even Vi would rather shout out "We don't have to kill each other!" than to run out of the alternatives.

Even Vi did not hate Jinx enough to want her dead. Not unless something would happen to Caitlyn that Jinx was at fault for. If that would happen, she wouldn't know what she'd do.

But with Jinx gone at the moment, there was no need for these dark thoughts, these dark possibilities. Neither of the cops worried about the absent loose cannon, but not entirely forgetting about her either, though.

At the moment, the two only cared about their new relationship aside from work, both wanting it to start off as good as possible.

As such, Vi did everything she could, showing off a little more than usual in front of the sheriff, who could only roll her eyes and smile good-naturedly at her boisterous girlfriend's attempts to impress her. At that moment, the cause for that was Vi, gauntlets off and attached to their spot on her back, holding the door to her own apartment open for the sheriff.

Deciding to humor Vi, who bowed to her and waved her in, Caitlyn made a mock-curtsey and entered the apartment of the enforcer. Vi followed swiftly, closing the door behind her, smiling widely as she turned to the sheriff.

What followed next was, despite happening rarely and only since a week, almost like a routine. Guided by their feelings, their bodies found another, the stronger enforcer's arms sliding around the lithe form of the sheriff and rather boldly coming to a rest on her ass, while Caitlyn's arms slid up the enforcer's front and encircled her neck, pulling the slightly taller woman down for a kiss.

It didn't last long, but more than long enough to be passionate. Vi could be surprisingly gentle, especially when it came to interactions with her girlfriend, something that even Caitlyn had formerly deemed unlikely. But now she was the enforcer's girlfriend, and now she had seen the more tender side of the brawler. And she loved it.

When they broke apart, they smiled at each other, Vi winking at Cait before she let her go. They maintained touch for as long as possible, Vi's fingers sliding along the sheriff's right arm, Caitlyn's hands brushing down Vi's front and down to her toned stomach.

"You know what, Vi?" smiled Cait, winking back, "I know you don't like the paperwork and all, and yet you helped quite a lot with it today. Thanks for that."

"Yeah, it's been quiet with the brat being absent for whatever reason. We didn't see her after she bombed that apartment to hell." interrupted Vi, but stopped when she saw how her girlfriend playfully raised an eyebrow at her.

"True. But it still doesn't go without saying that you do the paperwork, you're Piltover's enforcer, not my secretary." surprisingly seductively, the usual by-the-books Caitlyn ran her fingers up her partner's sides, stopping at the height of her chest, "So I thought I'd give you a small reward for that today."

Vi's smile grew. She knew that the situation must've looked misleading to anyone who would've seen it, as the two had agreed to go slow with their further relationship. No, Caitlyn wasn't trying to seduce her, even if it looked like that.

"What do you say... How does it sound to you if I make dinner for us as a reward, and you go relax on the couch until it's done?" whispered Caitlyn in a low, purring voice, sending a pleasurable shudder down the spine of the enforcer.

"Sounds great. Can't wait for it, your cooking is the best thing I've ever tasted." sniggered the enforcer, pulling her girlfriend in to kiss her forehead, "I'll be on the couch then, cupcake."

Giving her girlfriend's sides an affection pat, Caitlyn winked again and slipped past Vi into the direction that she knew the kitchen to be in from her few visits to the apartment before. As Caitlyn left for the kitchen, Vi found her gaze being drawn to the, as she swore, intentionally sensual swinging hips of the sheriff until they vanished from sight, at which point the enforcer rolled her eyes, stretched her tired limbs, and headed into the direction of her living room, where her couch was waiting for her.

She didn't like paperwork after all, but had decided to help her superior on such a boring day, knowing that a little help would mean that they could spend more time without worrying about the literally growing piles of work.

What a good thing she had cleaned her apartment a little during the last weekend, though. She knew that Caitlyn was well aware of her need for working on mechanical things and her less than orderly lifestyle, but she did want to impress the sheriff, after all, showing her that she could get over the smaller flaws she had.

She knew it was pointless to try and get rid of the bigger flaws she had. It would mean that she'd have to change herself completely, and in her eyes, if you had to change yourself completely for the person you wanted to be with, it wasn't the right person.

The right person accepted your flaws, and you accepted that person's flaws.

Sauntering through the hallway of her own apartment, Vi couldn't stop the smirk from spreading across her lips. Her life had taken a turn for the better during the last few years, starting with her decision all those years ago to turn her back on her gang and go back to save the mine workers when that one raid on a mining facility had went bad. It was the day she acquired her weapons, taking the fists off a damaged mining rig and modifying them to the first version of her gauntlets, which she had used to save the mine workers.

Of course, her gauntlets had received countless modifications since then.

But it was that day that everything began to make a turn for the better, though it didn't become that noticable until the day that Caitlyn apporached her and offered her a way to redeem herself.

Caitlyn was truly godsend.

And now, she had that wonderful woman as a girlfriend. She was dating the woman she owed so much to. Her savior. To believe that she owed this to her nemesis was a different thing.

Caitlyn was the right one for her. The sheriff accepted the flaws the enforcer had, her boisterous personality, her need to brawl, her hotheadedness, occassional drinking and her laziness. Caitlyn accepted these, knowing that Vi was also reliable and loyal. At the same time, Vi could and did accept Cait's by-the-book way, seriousness and sometimes workaholic behavior.

One might think they were opposites, and maybe they were, but the chemistry between them was perfect.

The enforcer was so lost in thought, so in glee about having Caitlyn, that she didn't think anything of it as she heard voices from the living room. Lost in thought as she was, she opened the door to the living room and stepped inside, paying no attention to the cartoon that was running on TV, simply dismissing it as having forgotten to turn it off that morning.

She tended to do that. When Cait wasn't over, something that even after they had begun their relationship didn't happen often, Vi usually stayed up late after work, sometimes up to 1 AM, to work on some gadgets, her gauntlets or her blast shield while watching some TV. Sometimes, she was still so sleepy or late the next morning that she'd leave the TV on.

"Welcome home. Ya seem to have had a good day at work."

"Yeah. Thanks." replied Vi without even thinking about the fact someone had just spoken to her, and stepped further into the room, having spotted the remote for the TV on the cupboard next to the device.

It was when only a few steps divided her from the remote that her brain's primary functions kicked in. And it clicked inside her head.

The brawler dug a heel into the carpet that the couch, the small coffee table and the TV stand with the device on it stood on, using the momentum of coming to the sudden stop to twirl around on the spot. In a nearly dance-like motion, she turned and reached for her gauntlets and pulled them, later thing on instinct, facing the comfy red couch that she had bought a year prior, Caitlyn having been the one to help her decide which one to choose.

Sitting on the couch in such a lazy way that it could almost be considered lying, a thing that Vi did as well if she was especially bored or lazy, was a certain woman that Vi had hoped not to see too soon again.

The woman with the electric-blue hair waved lazily with her left hand, the left one holding a can of cold beer – Vi's beer, the thing she had been looking for all day.

"Yo, fat hands." greeted the insane criminal lazily, her pink eyes sparkling in mischief, before taking a big swig from the can, much to the enforcer's further irritation. As if to mock Vi, she recognized the cartoon on TV as well that moment, the clown-like guy in it laughing in a way that sent cold shivers down the enforcer's spine.

"Jinx, what the hell?!" hissed Vi, more indignant than actually angry, surprised at the sudden appearance of the woman she hadn't seen in a week, "What the crap are you doing in my apartment?! How did you even get in?!"

The madwoman rose a delicate electric-blue eyebrow, then glanced to her right. Vi followed her gaze, only to do a double-take as she noticed what else occupied her couch – or, if Jinx would've phrased it, who else.

Propped against the backrest of the couch with it's muzzle into the air was Fishbones, Jinx's trusty rocket launcher, and she had one arm resting on the backrest behind it, almost as if to hold it like a girlfriend. Furthermore, Pow-Pow, Jinx's mini-gun, laid on the couch with it's barrel on Jinx's lap, reminding much of how someone would rest a girlfriend's head on his lap, too.

And then, there was Zap, Jinx's s shock gun, 'sitting' in the armchair that belonged to the same set as the couch.

The only armchair in the room.

"Meh, whatever, fat hands!" whined Jinx, obviously feeling no need to explain herself, suddenly waving her hand at the enforcer, "Now move outta the way, your fat hand is blocking the TV! Can't you see me and my friends were watching that?"

Vi felt how her blood began to boil in anger. But, for whatever reason, she actually listened and stepped to the side, putting her gauntlets away. It didn't seem like Jinx was looking for a fight, and Vi would rather not fight Jinx in her own apartment – She did love it the way it was, after all.

Standing to the side now, Vi rose an eyebrow at the criminal, then glanced towards the TV and the running cartoon, watching it for a short moment. It was definitely the same cartoon that Jinx had borrowed with the pinkette's ID last time, but it was a different scene and probably a different season as well.

"Whose ID did you steal this time to borrow that? You don't have one of your own, do you?" growled the enforcer, a questioning frown on her face as she turned to the loose cannon and her 'friends'.

"Of course I do!" shot Jinx back, never taking her eyes off the screen, where the clown-guy had just revealed a freaky child-like version of himself and had escaped on what appeared to be a remote-controlled gurney, "But it's from Zaun, and I don't think people would like to recognize me."

Jinx took her eyes off the screen for a second, a point at which Vi noticed that the loose cannon didn't blink very often compared to other people and was a little creeped out by it, looking directly at the enforcer.

"But I didn't steal any ID this time." she revealed, and Vi rolled her eyes at the thought that the DVD was stolen in that case, "I used a fake. A fake of yours, so would you kindly pay for this one, too?"

Vi cringed, anger instantly boiling up again, one hand balling to a fist on instinct. Maybe her apartment would have to suffer a little, after all.

"I have no intention to." she growled to the loose cannon, who immediately began to pout at her.

"I don't even plan on returning this one late! I'll do it in time!" whined the madwoman, only serving to further annoy Vi.

"I will not pay this for you!" snarled Vi lowly and rose a fist a little, hoping to intimidate the criminal enough for her to drop it, but Jinx seemed to have no intention of doing that, even after the silent threat. She didn't pursue the topic after all, though, and merely turned back to the TV after mouthing something about Zap telling her that the episode was going to get good just in that moment.

Vi groaned at the unwanted and unexpected guest she had, and all hopes of a nice evening with Caitlyn were thrown out of the window. Speaking of which, had Jinx come in through one of those? She hadn't noticed anything wrong with the door when they had come in.

Also, she had to find a way to break it to Caitlyn that their evening was over and that Jinx was still alive after all – not that either of them wanted her dead. Sometimes, the dead could be worse than the living. Of course, she could just throw Jinx out – maybe literally, the window was right there where it used to be, no hole blown into it or anything – but had to do so without Caitlyn noticing. If Cait would notice Jinx, she'd be back in her 'sheriff mode' and would try to arrest Jinx.

Actually, that's what she should be doing, too. For some reason, though, Vi didn't feel like it. Probably because her evening, and with that her mood, was ruined. Now really exhausted, not only by the paperwork but the actual irritation, Vi would've loved nothing more but to flop down on the couch.

Only problem, her couch was already completely occupied, and Vi didn't like it. Not a single bit.

Scowling at the madwoman and her weapons, Vi felt the need to actually pull her own weapons and let them make some space by getting rid of Jinx's weapons, but it remained for only a single second, then died down due to the exhaustion overwhelming her irritation.

For whatever reason, paperwork tired her more out than physical labor did. She loved the thrill of chasing a criminal to arrest them, and enjoyed a good brawl, especially against a single strong or many opponents.

But paperwork? Meh, it was boring, dragged on forever, and certainly didn't get any more interesting with all those technical terms and referrals and god did she hate the formal writing, mostly when it came to complaints about the property damage she caused on accident while on the job, especially when it came to chasing Jinx, when her hotheadedness and Jinx's agility led to even more destruction than other missions did.

If someone had a problem with her, he should come up to her and tell her himself. And if he really had to write, then he should at least write what he really thought, and not all that formal crap. She enjoyed informal complaints at least a little. Formal stuff never included a person's actual thoughts for real, only the 'sugarcoated' version.

Oh great sheriff of Piltover, during her last chase of the criminal Jinx, Piltover's enforcer, known by the name Vi, has accidentally caused the following damages... Ugh!

"Jinx, do you mind?" sighed the enforcer, glaring at the occupied couch. The madwoman frowned at her, obviously annoyed at being distracted from the cartoon she was watching.

And then, she dared to have the audacity to shush her and wave her away.

Immediately, the brawler saw red again, not enjoying the mischief-maker's boldness – after all, Jinx had broken into her apartment, the apartment of Piltover's enforcer, had rented a cartoon with her ID twice now, was using her TV and occupying her couch, and all that on a day when she wanted to do nothing more than enjoy the evening with her girlfriend, waiting for her to fall asleep in her arms while watching a movie, and then to fall asleep with her in her arms.

And that meant no Jinx!

As if things couldn't get any worse, Vi's ears picked up a noise they had grown accustomed to – the sound of the door to her kitchen creaking as it opened. Caitlyn was on her way to the living room.

Oh great.

"Hey, Zap, could you pass me the saltsticks? I put them on the table in front of you, but I'm kinda too lazy to get up right now, and the scene is so interesting! I don't want to miss a thing!"

And oh great, Jinx was talking to her weapons again like they were actual people and able to do something on their own.

Sending a last glare at the insane criminal, Vi hoped she'd get the message and not do anything dumb (then again, it was Jinx), and made her way back to the door to the hallway in hope of stopping Caitlyn before she'd enter the living room and spot Jinx.

No such luck.

The door opened before Vi reached it.

"Hey, Vi, what happened to the window in your kitchen? Is it broken or why did you remove it? And why did you put it against that chair just behind the door?I almost fell over it!" inquired Caitlyn as she entered, giving Vi just enough time to send another glare at Jinx, who just pretended to not have heard it and continued to watch the cartoon with the glee and amazement of a child.

At least that explained where Jinx got in, and meant that Vi no longer had to fear that there was some giant hole in her bedroom's wall or something. But simply removing a window? Not breaking it or anything? Too nice for Jinx's usual 'I-don't-care-about-how-much-destruction'-way. Too unflashy.

Caitlyn entered the room with a curious expression on her face, not noticing Jinx or the cartoon at first. She just had eyes for Vi, something that the enforcer was pretty proud of. After all, there wasn't much that was able to distract the workaholic sheriff of Piltover from a loud and insane criminal watching a cartoon.

"Anyways, do you have some wine? I think it would go great with what I've planned for dinner. It'll have a classy touch to it, but you're going to enjoy it nonetheless, I can tell." giggled the sheriff, and before Vi could say a thing, had already encircled the enforcer's neck with her arms again, "Then again, those lips of yours look tasty as well."

The sheriff was fond of kissing to show her affection, and Vi had learned so very fast in the week they'd been dating by now. While they didn't kiss often in public, fearing that someone, especially a criminal, might exploit the knowledge of their affectionate and close relationship, Caitlyn loved kissing her a lot when it was just the two of them. As such, Vi wasn't surprised by the sheriff's flirting and displays of affection.

For a moment, she even forgot about Jinx, especially as the kiss grew more heated and hungry.

But the problem with Jinx always remained the same – her attention span was short if something was uninteresting. But no matter how long her attention span would be, she'd always focus on the most interesting thing in her surroundings.

Neither of the cops paid the loose cannon any attention, Caitlyn not even having noticed her presence, and as their kiss came to an end and they broke apart, even Vi had forgotten about her, having gotten lost in Caitlyn's eyes just as much as Caitlyn was only focusing on her.

'Had' being the keyword.

"So, are you going to go further than that or will it remain at that kiss? That was pretty hot already, ya know? If ya want to continue, don't pay any attention to me, I'll be just here and enjoy the show!"

Caitlyn's eyes widened and the magic of the moment was lost. Vi let out a deep groan and mumbled angrily under her breath, unable to keep the swearing to herself now that Jinx had ruined that for her too, while Caitlyn took two steps back and stared with wide eyes and obvious shock at the woman that was leaned over the backrest of the couch lazily and staring at her, waving weakly as if to say 'hi'.

"Jinx!" gasped the sheriff, immediately reaching for her rifle, only to realize she had left it in the kitchen – which was probably for the better. Vi didn't want a bullet hole in her huge TV, not with how expensive it had been and how long she had put money aside for it.

"That's my name, don't wear it out or I'll make you buy me a new one~!" hummed the crazy female, before she burst into a laugh, nearly losing the saltstick protruding from her mouth, "Though I could always steal me a new one!"

Aside the question as to how Jinx had managed to get the saltsticks, seeing as she hadn't moved from her spot other than turning around, for a short moment fearing that she either was going crazy as well or that Zap actually was a sentient being since it had definitely changed it's position somehow, Vi found herself questioning the further outcome of the evening with the way that Jinx was smiling at Caitlyn, and how Caitlyn was glaring back.

Also, she began to really fear the state her apartment would be in after that night. Not that it was orderly or anything, but she was sure that it would've been never as messy as it would be after a real fight errupting between the two marksmen.

The situation was saved by a gasp of the cartoon's hero as he was surprised by the clown-guy, turning Jinx's attention back to the TV with a sharp gasp, followed by the noise of a scrawny woman choking on a saltstick that had slipped a little too far into her mouth.

With Jinx distracted, Caitlyn took a quick step forward and grabbed the enforcer by the right arm, pulling her closer – so close, in fact that their noses nearly touched, still allowing both of them to glance towards the crazy woman choking on a saltstick, holding her throat as she thrashed about.

"What the hell, Vi, what's she doing here?!" hissed Caitlyn, obviously displeased with the return of their nemesis.

"Like I have a clue. I just came in here and she was already there, on my couch with all her crazy death machines, watching a cartoon she rented on my name again, using my TV!" hissed Vi back, stopping for a second as the choking noises stopped.

The two of them sent a glance to the couch, only to find that Jinx had managed to save herself from choking to death, now glaring daggers at the saltstick in her hand, which was, much to Vi's disgust and outrage, dripping saliva onto the enforcer's precious couch.

"So you did want to kill me, little guy! I knew you guys were monsters and brutal killers, and now I've proved it! You thought that assassinating me would stop me? Ha! I've already written a letter to the Police Department, revealing your little conspiracy to overthrow all other species so you can be rulers of Runeterra! The world knows about you now!"

Both cops closed their eyes, Caitlyn pulling her hat a little lower and Vi covering her eyes with one hand, embarrassed by just how crazy their nemesis was. Really, a conspiracy involving saltsticks? How again did they lose to her all the time?

"And they called me crazy!" roared Jinx, laughing in her madness, before taking a huge bite off the saltstick, making sure to bite down on it extra hard.

"And they still do, sicko..." grumbled Vi to herself more than to Caitlyn. The sheriff didn't really listen to the enforcer, though, more focused on keeping an eye on the criminal that lounged on the couch, watching the cartoon. Strangely, in such a moment, even Caitlyn herself couldn't believe that the woman, which was more of a girl actually, was supposed to be their nemesis and a maniac.

She seemed surprisingly innocent there – if not for the three death machines surrounding her, of course. In fact, Jinx's behavior was almost childish, with the way the cartoon captivated her and she reacted to it.

No, even Caitlyn couldn't bring herself to capture Jinx at that moment. Not that it would be a smart thing to try, with how close the weapons were to the madwoman, meaning she'd be able to use either of them - save for the probably least dangerous, Zap, which actually lay out of her range - and how they were in Vi's apartment.

So instead, the two cops just stood there, completely silent, both lost in their own thoughts as they stared at the back of the loose cannon's head. The only noises that filled the room for a long while were the excited gasps of the criminal, not quite unlike those of a kid, and those of the cartoon that blared from the huge speakers that were attached to Vi's oversized TV.

While Caitlyn was mostly concerned about Jinx's last appearance and the connection to the newest appearance, Vi's thoughts had drifted off into an entirely different direction, coming to a point where she wasn't even sure anymore herself how she had reached it, and why she had allowed this to happen.

But despite that, there were a few questions that the two cops shared. They mainly involved 'why was Jinx back all of sudden?', 'where had she been?', 'why again did she help us?' and 'why isn't she going all batshit on us and destroying everything around her?' - though the last one was phrased different in Caitlyn's head than in Vi's.

"Look, Cait..."

The sheriff glanced back to the enforcer, raising an eyebrow at how lost in thought her partner seemed. Little did she know that Vi had just come to a conclusion, a decision she had made just then in light of their last encounter with the criminal – a decision that Vi knew would come back to haunt her.

And yet she knew that this was possibly the last chance to look for a way to stop the suicide course, the last chance to stop it before they reached the point of no return, the point where they'd run out of alternatives but to kill the criminal.

Caitlyn knew it, too, when she saw the desperation in her partner's eyes as Vi turned to her.

"Look, cupcake..." she began again, trailing off only for a second to swallow, though they both knew very well that Vi had stopped to find a thoughtful way to say what she had in mind, "What I'll say now will probaby sound really crazy, especially coming from me but..."

Vi trailed off again, this time to turn to Jinx. Caitlyn watched as Vi began to gnaw on her lower lip, something she didn't do often. It was why Caitlyn knew that what would come next was a serious matter – and important to Vi.

"I want to help Jinx."

Caitlyn cringed, not only at the enforcer's revelation, but also the sadness in the enforcer's voice, the sheer desperation. The hushed request of Vi sent a shiver down the sheriff's spine, especially at the real weight hidden behind this simple sentence, this simple request.

Whoever said that a simple word held no power was stupid. A simple word could change everything. A simple word held incredible power, the power to not only change one's, but the fates of many. As such, the power of a sentence was beyond imagination.

Vi's request was proof for that.

It was a moment later that Caitlyn realized that she had not answered, that she had got lost in thought. She knew so as she saw that Vi was looking at her with begging eyes. She meant to answer, but Vi held up a hand, knowing she'd have to explain before she let Caitlyn reply.

"I don't want to end up being forced to kill her one day, cupcake. I don't want to reach that point where I have no chance but to kill her, 'cause..." Vi swallowed, and her hand balled to a fist all of sudden, desperation replaced with a anger and sadness, hopelessness even, "Cause she hurt you... Or lost it entirely. I don't want to lose you... And I don't want to kill her. Arrest her is a different thing, but we both know we'll never be able to do that for long, cupcake... And eventually, we will have no choice."

Vi's fist opened up, the enforcer simply staring at her palm for a moment, before she finally rose her gaze to meet that of Caitlyn.

"I don't want to ever reach that point, Cait. I don't want her dead, I don't want to kill her. I want to help rehabilitate her."

It was quiet in between the two for a moment. Both were staring at each other, blinking as little as possible, not wanting to move their gaze away for a single moment. To the side, Jinx was completely unaware of their conversation, it's topic or the weight behind it, completely oblivious to how it would decide her fate, too captivated by the cartoon.

It was, probably, for the better.

"Vi..." whispered the sheriff, despite her mind still racing thousand miles an hour, "Vi, I... Vi, what are you saying?"

The enforcer balled both fists and turned away, her anger acting up again, but not at her partner or the situation, but the sheer knowledge that they had already let this go on for too long, that they had probably already gone past the point of no return.

"Yeah, I know it's a big word for me, but I want to help rehabilitate her." growled the brawler, eyes closed now, "I know I should hate her, and quite frankly, I used to hate her."

Her eyes shot open and she turned her head to meet the sheriff's gaze again. The sheer amount of emotions that one could see in Vi's eyes nearly frightened Caitlyn, partly because a lot of dangerous emotions were included in the mix, but also because there were emotions she wasn't used seeing from Vi.

One was hopelessness.

"But something has changed, Cait. Maybe it's me, maybe it's her..."

"I know..." sighed the sniper, pulling her hat a little deeper, not wanting to see this dangerous mixture of emotions in Vi's eyes anymore, "I felt it, too."

Vi was silent for a few seconds after that. She simply stared at her partner, but no actual thought crossed her mind other than the thought that she hadn't hallucinated, that she hadn't simply imagined it, if Caitlyn had felt it, too.

Something had changed. And it had changed in that one night over a week ago.

"When I look at her now..." began Vi again, and glanced towards the excited criminal on the couch, her gaze suddenly far away, "When I look at her now, Cait, I see mysef from back then. I've been no different than her before I met you, Cait, only a little less insane. I was all alone, I thought I didn't need anyone. I developed my own weapons, planned my own raids, tricked authorities and other criminals all by myself. To be quite honest, I've probably considered myself some demigod at one point."

She turned to her partner, and a soft but short-lived smile found it's way onto her lips, all the anger and desperation suddenly gone. If anything, it was suddenly hard to even imagine that something could distort the beautiful face of the pinkette.

"But then, I met you. And look where I am now. I've changed. I grew up on the wrong side of the law, but I'm on the good side now. I'm chasing down that which I've been before. I know I'm not perfect, and I know I'll never be. I know I still have some of my criminal ways, I'm still always looking for a fight and still cause some problems when I try solving them..." Vi trailed off and proudly placed a hand on her hip.

"But I've changed from my original ways, and it's the best thing that has ever happened to me. And I'm sure that, with our help, Jinx can change, too! She does not have to be our enemy. I'm not saying that Jinx has to become a cop like I did, but she definitely does not have to be a criminal."

The declaration of the enforcer let Caitlyn sigh – both in happiness at how much she had helped Vi, and in recognition of the problem this request of Vi brought. It wouldn't be easy.

"I see where you're coming from." sighed the sheriff. She really did. Vi had a point, and Caitlyn definitely did have similar thoughts before, not only once. A rehabiliated Jinx was better than a criminal Jinx – and definitely better than a dead Jinx, which was the result of the course that they were on now, if nothing changed.

The sheriff was pulled out of her thoughts before she could come to a conclusion when she suddenly felt two bigger hands wrap around her own hands – warm hands, enveloping her own, lifting them to the height of her chest. She nearly fell back as she realized how close Vi was all of sudden, but met her gaze, her desperate gaze, and did not once look away as Vi continued.

As Vi begged.

"Cait, this means a lot to me. I know it's Jinx, I know this will be nerve-wrecking and anything but easy, but to kill her..." the enforcer tightened her grip on the sheriff's hands and came even closer, "It would rob me of a piece of myself."

Again, Caitlyn found herself unable to form a clear thought and robbed of the ability to speech. All she could do was to stare at Vi. Stare as she tried to get a hold on her ability to think, knowing that it was her decision. She alone could decide the fates of many with that answer, including that of herself, Vi and Jinx. But to answer 'yes' didn't simply mean that things would change for the better. Of course, a rehabilitated Jinx would mean that countless lives were safe, and that Piltover could once again become a city of progress – but only if they suceeded in rehabilitating Jinx. If not, it could very well also lead to their death.

Jinx would cetainly not simply accept to play their game now after they'd been playing her game for so long.

"Or would you rather want to give her that final bullet between the eyes one day? From close up? From afar? Is that the justice you want, Cait? That we want?" the sheriff cringed as she heard Vi choke once, "Or would you rather want me to crush her with my gauntlets? With my bare fists, perhaps? Or would you rather want me to strangle her to death one day? There's so many ways we could end it, Cait... All with the same outcome. One that I do not want."

Jinx excited gasp interrupted them, and both glanced towards the criminal once.

"Or would you rather want one of her bombs to blow her to pieces? Is that the justice we are looking for?" sighed Vi shortly, hoping that the criminal was indeed as oblivious to the whispered conversation behind her.

"Well, it would be one kind of justice."

Vi snapped her head around, glaring at her partner. Caitlyn immediately regretted the non-chalant comment she had just made. It was why she usually thought about things before she said them, a thing she had learned when she had her rebellious phase.

Deep down, she and Vi weren't as different as they seemed. Their true difference lay in what they showed to the world – it was why she understood Vi's harsher thoughts and expressions. She felt them, too, merely didn't show them.

"Cait..." growled Vi, her glare so cold that the room's temperature could as well have dropped ten degrees, "I'm serious about this."

"I know." sighed the sheriff, dropping her shoulders, "I'm sorry. That comment really was inappropriate, wasn't it? Of course I don't want Jinx to die, and especially not like that, and especially not by our hands."

Vi merely nodded in return, and Caitlyn nodded as well.

"And you're right, Vi, neither of those ways is the kind of justice we are looking for. I don't want Jinx dead, I don't want to kill her, I don't want you to kill her, and I don't want her to die in an accident. She's become part of our daily lives in a weird way, even if she doesn't appear she's on our minds, whether we want her to be or not." continued the sheriff, crossing her arms in beneath her chest and lowering her gaze, letting out a small sigh, "So you think we may be able to rehabilitate her? That she can change?"

Another time, the only reply she got from the enforcer was a nod.

"Alright then. Look, I can see that this is important to you. And well, if you of all people think that there still is a chance for her, I guess I should respect that..." muttered the sheriff, only to then send a glance from the enforcer to the criminal in question, who was still unaware of what was going on behind her, "You probably see in her what I saw in you back then."

Caitlyn didn't have to look at Vi to know that the pinkette had just raised her left eyebrow at her. She turned to look at Vi nonetheless, wanting the enforcer to see that she was serious about this as well, not avoiding to meet Vi's gaze as she explained herself.

"I saw a chance. Back then, nobody trusted me when I said you could change, and I will not have a repeat of that, even if I personally think that any help is lost on Jinx..." she revealed to Vi, who didn't seem sure if to be happy about Caitlyn agreeing to help Jinx, or if to be sad that Caitlyn didn't see the same that she did, "Besides, if it isn't us who believe in the good in a person, then who is?"

This, in return, did ignite the bright smile on Vi's face, the same smile that Caitlyn loved so much that she referred to it as 'brighter than a thousand suns', mainly because it had helped her to relax and had lifted her mood ever so often before, even long before they had started to date.

"Does this mean...?" began Vi, the smile on her face full of hope as she let the question trail off on purpose, her gaze not once breaking away from that of her girlfriend.

"Yeah, we'll try to help her." confirmed Caitlyn, unable to hold back her smile as well.

"Hm? You have to go? Now, like, really urgent?" began Jinx all of sudden, turning to her rocket launcher with a deep frown, though neither cop was paying her any attention, "Tummy ache?! Woah, I did warn you about that burrito, Fishbones! I told you that your stomach can't stand spicy stuff! I mean, I should know, I made it!"

None of the cops paid that any mind. In fact, neither of them even looked at the crazy criminal, knowing that she wasn't talking to them, but her weapons, which was usually unimportant stuff. Instead, the two were lost in one another's eyes, both smiling

But as it was with such a moment, one had to end it, and it was the question that naturally followed the agreement to help Jinx that should lead to a new moment of silence.

"So, Vi, do you have a plan how to do that?"

The enforcer's smile faded away and her shoulders slumped. She groaned lowly, glaring to the side – no, she didn't have a plan, Caitlyn could tell that from Vi's reaction alone. Because of that, though, she found herself even more surprised as Vi opened her mouth nonetheless.

"Well... You showed me that there was a different side to the world, cupcake. You included me into your life, offered me a life as the enforcer of Piltover. It was a place for me in the world, a purpose, something I was good at other than beating people up and stealing stuff." muttered Vi, to Caitlyn's surprise blushing a little, "Well, I still beat people up..."

Caitlyn couldn't help herself. She burst out into laughter, rolled her eyes at the slightly amused and nearly embarrassed tone in Vi's voice as she added the last part. Jinx shortly glanced over her shoulder, her attention drawn away from the cartoon to see what had made Caitlyn react like that, and gave the two cops an expression that was clearly saying that she was questioning who of the occupants in the room was insane.

"Anyways, Cait... You were there for me, that's my point. You were there for me when no one else gave a shit about me, and you helped me find a better place in the world." huffed Vi with an expression that made Caitlyn question whether or not Vi was taking offense at her laughter for real, "So, if we were to include Jinx into our life like you did with me back then... If we were to take her under our wing and show her that there is a different world to the one she knows..."

"I see... That's actually an interesting idea. Not quite free of hazards and maybe a little questionable." mused the sheriff with a glance to the still somewhat oblivious criminal, who was enjoying the credits of the episode of her cartoon, "People will think we're crazy if they see us with Jinx in a police uniform. They thought I was when I showed up patroling through the city with you, and your face was less known to be that of a criminal than Jinx's face is."

As much as she hated it – Vi had to agree. People, especially the other cops and probably most of the League's champions, would call them crazy.

"Ya know... If we could convince her to dye her hair, and maybe wear my aviators, then..." began Vi, but shut up as soon as she saw her partner's glare.

"I want your hair green by tomorrow." huffed Caitlyn all of sudden, causing Vi to cringe, then stare in disbelief at her partner.

"Wh-what?! My precious hair?! Green is cool and all, but not if it's the color of my hair! Pink is the only color!" declared the enfocer, hands protectively placed on her hair.

"Now you know what Jinx will say. There is no way she's going to dye her hair, Vi, not if she's anything like you." concluded Caitlyn, and Vi let out a huff in realization, knowing that her partner and girlfriend was right. Not that she'd admit it like that, and give up.

"We could tell her it's a game. She likes games, right? Or that it's a party gag!" suggested the enforcer, less serious though, "Or we could do it the hard way and knock her out, and then dye her hair. Then again, we could knock her out and throw her in jail for now, too... She's right there, after all."

Caitlyn rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time that day.

"Forget it, Vi. Anyways, I guess we should try your idea. I mean, aside from her being no enemy to us anymore if she'd really join us, having her as an ally could be really helpful." offered the sheriff instead, and frowned as she saw that it was Vi who rolled her eyes at her.

"Oh Cait, always seeing the resourceful side of things. You're spending too much time in the office nowadays. You even take some work home – Don't think I didn't see the paperwork the other night, when you let me sleep over at yours!" teased the enforcer, on purpose presenting her superior and partner a mocking grin, "I should be jealous of the paperwork. I'm your girlfriend, after all, and you don't take me home all the time for a long night of hard work."

Caitlyn rose an eyebrow, her expression remaining stoic.

"I'll remember that the next time I've got lots of paperwork. You seem to enjoy it."

Of course, Vi's amusement was gone immediately. Didn't look like Cait was up for flirting, after all.

"As I was going to say..." began the sheriff anew, pleased with herself for not giving in to the need to flirt back, "As you mentioned the other night, Jinx's a genius. She's a great mechanic and knows lots about hextech like you do, knows tons about explosives of all kind, she's good at plotting things, and has mastered heavy artillery, including a mini-gun and a rocketlauncher... She'd be a great addition to our forces."

"I'm getting jealous. Do I have to fear about my place at your side during work now, as well? First you replace me with paperwork in your bed on countless nights, and now the crazy one is going to take my place at Piltover's enforcer?" complained Vi with mock-hurt.

"Stop right there, Vi. First off, you were the one who said that this is a serious matter earlier. And second, Jinx is certainly not going to be Piltover's enforcer. She doesn't have the necessary requirements at all, and I'd not enjoy an unpredictable, impulsive and destructive partner, thank you very much." huffed the sheriff – before an amused smirk grazed her lips, "You know... I think I just described you as much as I described her. The only difference is the sane part and that you meet the requirements."

Vi's face became stoic, then turned into a scowl. Caitlyn found herself rolling her eyes anew, amused at her partner's reaction to her joke.

"I'm sorry." she giggled, shaking her head in amusement and placing a hand on her partner's shoulder as soon as she was ensured she'd remember the expression for the rest of her life.

"You're not." stated Vi flatly.

"I'm not entirely." admitted Caitlyn with a cute little smile, moving closer to the enforer to gently peck her, arms encircling Vi's neck anew, "Anyways, be assured that I'm not replacing you in either way. Paperwork cannot be a replacement for honest love, cuddling and warmth, and Jinx cannot be a replacement for you."

"Damn straight." added Vi, her fire ignited again. Caitlyn rolled her eyes when she was sure that Vi wouldn't see it – the enforcer was kind of easy to influence for her. Just a little flattering and Vi was back to her loud and proud self, and was surely already meaning to impress her again, even if there was no need to.

Caitlyn was already fully smitten with the enforcer.

"Good. Now that we've agreed on this, we just have to get Jinx to play along, somehow..." whispered the sheriff into her partner's right ear, then letting go to take a step back. Vi smirked and watched her as she did so, amazed once more at the grace that Caitlyn moved with, and then, both of them turned to Jinx.

Bad moment.

"Hm, saltsticks... I've never thought about this before, but the name is kinda funny. It would fit as the name of a weapon." muttered the criminal just as the two cops turned to her, the credits of the episode being over and Jinx leaning her right arm onto the backrest, turned to the right, staring at the saltstick in her left hand while her right hand traced her lips with it's index finger.

She turned to the frowning, confused cops, totally oblivious to their earlier conversation.

"What do you think about it, fat hands?" she asked with surprising innocence for someone who bombed and terrorized a city on a daily basis.

Both cops let out a groan, Vi actually putting a hand over her eyes and turning away, doubting her idea already. She had been sure that it would be a nerve-wrecking experience to help Jinx, but the criminal had just unknowingly reminded her of just how nerve-wrecking it would be.

"Jinx, we need to talk." began Cait, knowing that there was no sense in beating around the bush with their nemesis – partly because Jinx would realize something was up, and partly to spare their own nerves an unnecessary torture.

The criminal rose an eyebrow at her to express her curiousity, and the sheriff found herself shortly surprised at the thought of how much Jinx looked like a cat with the way she hung over the couch and was looking at her now.

Well, curiosity killed the cat.

"Boo, that sounds boring~" complained Jinx almost immediately, though mischief sparked in her eyes when she glanced at Vi, "Besides, fat hands... Isn't that the way girls usually start when they are unhappy with their relationship and want to break up?"

Vi's head snapped around, immediately scowling at the madwoman.

"Like I'd know." growled the enforcer.

"I guessed you would." shot Jinx back, letting a smug grin spread all across her lips, serving it's purpose in ticking Vi off.

"Are you trying to indirectly insult me?" inquired the pinkette with a dangerous tone and an equally dangerous glint in her eyes.

"You'd rather want it to be direct? Well, I was insinuating that you're easy to have. That you know how to use your... uh... 'charms'. That you've surely slept your way up to..."

"Jinx, shut it." snapped Caitlyn, interrupting the quarrel between the enforcer and the loose cannon before it would fully develop, stepping in between them.

"First off, Vi did do no such thing." she began, much to the criminals further amusement – for whatever reason – and held a finger up, "We have a proposition to make."

"Oh, how interesting." replied the criminal, but neither Caitlyn nor Vi were sure how interested she really was due to her weird tone, "I hope it does include sweets. I sure want some now after all the saltsticks."

She turned her head to the side and glanced to Zap, blinking a few times, before giggling to herself and jerking a thumb into the direction of her shock gun.

"Zap suggested we could also order a huge pizza and rent another DVD and have a sleepover. Of course the boys will sleep in a different room." she added with another one of her famous mental grins.

"What boys?" was the first thing Vi wondered about, but upon seeing that Jinx was about to respond to that, quickly shook her head, "Wait, whoever said we're all buddy-buddy now?! You're a criminal, and we're cops! We're supposed to arrest you!"

She probably meant her weapons with 'boys' either way.

"Aww, come on, what's the worst that could happen?" sniggered the insane female, twisting her body around so that she was sitting properly on the couch again, only to lean her head back until she was looking at the two cops with her head upside-down, "We will have tons of fun!"

"I remember your idea of fun. It included us literally 'having a blast'." snorted Vi from the side – Jinx's smirk grew in response, serving to annoy Vi further, even upside-down as it was. To believe that she wanted to help the insane woman...

"You sound like you want a repeat of that." she giggled.

"Definitely." was the snappy reply from the enforcer, leaning closer to the criminal, "Preferably with your annoying face strapped to the explosive."

Seeing that the situation was already escalating again, Caitlyn let the annoyance get the better of her and slammed her palm into her face, trying to calm herself down with steady breaths. At least one had to remain calm in that chaos, and it was her. It was always her who had to keep a cool head.

"Aw, she's such a looser, always ready to cry. Ta-ta-ta-ta." taunted the criminal, bouncing up and down on the couch in a rythm that only played in her head, which looked creepy enough as it was with her head still leaned over the backrest.

"As I was going to say..." began Caitlyn, hoping to break up the fight between the two bickering females, "We have a proposition to make to you, Jinx."

"You already said that, hat lady. You know, it's not been proved or anything, but I'm assured that verbal repetitions aren't good for you." offered Jinx, rolling around so that she was leaning over the couch with her upper body again – it was the final straw for Caitlyn's patience as well.

"I wouldn't have to repeat myself if you two would finally start listening!" she shouted at her girlfriend and the criminal, catching both off guard. Vi frowned, now assured that Jinx really could get under anyone's skin as long as she really wanted to.

"See? People always get irritated when they verbally repeat themselves, irritation growing with the times they repeat themselves. If that isn't proving my theory, I don't know what is. You should trust me more, I do have a degree in psychology!" offered Jinx proudly – and Caitlyn let out a frustrated growl, silently debating with herself whether or not to simply arrest Jinx after all.

"Is she always that feisty? In bed, I mean?" whispered the criminal as she leaned to the enforcer, "If so, could I borrow her every once in a while?"

She barely managed to duck underneath the gauntlet, not even worn but simply swung by it's wrist, as it came swinging at the height of her head.

"What?! I have needs, too, ya know?" sniggered Jinx as she rose from behind the cover of the couch's backrest.

Oh, the situation was escalating alright.

"Jinx!" bellowed Caitlyn, pointing one finger at Jinx, nearly stabbing the criminal in the eye, "Listen already, will you?!"

Jinx, staring cross-eyed at the finger of the sheriff, let out a chuckle and gently pushed the finger aside with her right hand, looking back up at the sheriff.

"Got it, sheriff. So, whadda'ya want to offer lil' old me? Are we having pizza, after all? A sleepover? Oh, are we going to a theme park? Can I bring Fishbones, Pow-Pow and Zap? We could get a family discount if I say I'm your adoptive daughter or something, since pretty much everyone thought you'd been dating, like, forever already!"

Jinx's excitement was as indestructible as ever.

"We're not taking you to a theme park! What is it with you and...?!", began Caitlyn, infuriated by Jinx's behavior, but was cut off by Vi letting out a loud snort of utter amusement.

"No way they'll believe that crap story, Jinx! You're older than me!" snickered Vi, one crooked finger pointing at the now frowning criminal, "You just look younger 'cause ya're flat as an ironing board. You, my adoptive daughter? Bullshit!"

As Jinx's frown turned into an actual scowl, all amusement finally gone from the criminal as she lazily slumped onto the backrest again and chewed on another saltstick, Vi continued to laugh at the idea of Jinx pretending to be young and innocent, and Caitlyn found herself frowning at something that she couldn't explain in what she had just experienced.

"Jinx is older than you?" repeated the sheriff, before her frown grew even bigger, "Wait, how would you even know that, Vi?!"

Vi's laughter died in a sharp intake of breath, followed by an actual gasp, on which the enforcer choked. Jinx perked up from her place on the couch, raised an eyebrow at the enforcer, then the sheriff, and pointed in confusion at Caitlyn, almost as if surprised that Caitlyn wouldn't know how Vi knew the criminal's age. She opened her mouth to say something, but Vi quickly stepped in front of her.

"Research, cupcake." coughed the enforcer, still recovering, "You know that I've been chasing her a lot more than you do, and I knew I had to find out more about her background eventually, so I asked a few favors in and got my hands on a few informations about her we didn't know so far, including her birthplace indeed being Zaun, and her birthday, which is why I know that she's a little older than I am... You know what they say, know your friends, and know your enemies even better!"

"That's not how that saying goes..." piped Jinx up, but was quickly shut up again when Vi used one of her hands to knock her off the couch, and with Jinx still chewing, it was quickly resulting in the criminal choking on a saltstick again.

"That's not important now, anyways! Are we going to make her this offer or not?" added the enforcer, stepping to the side again, but not without pointing to the still choking Jinx, "She's going to listen now. See? I'm useful!"

Caitlyn found herself rolling her eyes at her partner and her methods once more, but decided to let this one slip again.

She really needed to stop letting Vi get away with her methods, especially now that she was dating the enforcer. It had become even more of her responsibility to keep Vi at least somewhat in line.

"So, Jinx, seeing as you are listening now..." began the sheriff, sending her partner a frown as Vi let out an amused snort, "We have this offer to make."

"Just say it already before she recovers and interrupts again." huffed Vi from the side. Caitlyn sent her another glance, but let this go uncommented again, and turned back to the still choking woman. She had grown accustomed to Vi's brash attitude and abrasive humor over the years, getting infuriated only when Vi really overdid it.

Jinx chose that moment to roll onto all fours and, with a final cough, let saliva drip onto the carpet, along with the saltstick that had been her problem, the sharp and loud intake of breath that followed a sign of her relief.

"Join us."

Jinx turned her head around at an insane speed, eyes wide – only to choke again, this time on her own saliva, sending her into another coughing fit. Vi opened her mouth to taunt the insane one, but a mere raise of Caitlyn's hand was enough for her to shut up.

And people said she didn't have the enforcer under her control. Funny how Ezreal and Jayce both weren't too far from the truth, calling Vi 'Cait's lapdog' and 'Cait's dog on a leash' respectively. Sometimes, it really felt like Vi was a loyal puppy.

The most loyal puppy of all, actually. She'd always be able to trust Vi, she knew that for sure.

"E-excuse me?" to both cop's surprise, Jinx was laughing as she finally climbed back onto the couch and managed to bring something forth, which certainly didn't help her recovery from it, "Did you just ask me to join you?"

"I did." was Caitlyn's short reply, her stoic gaze not averting from the still laughing criminal.

"Woah, that's pretty hot and all, but don't you think we should have a dinner first or something, get to know each other? Besides, I'm not comfortable with the idea of putting my ass into the fat hands of Piltover. That aside, your partner and I probably shouldn't end up in a threeso..."

"Shut it, Jinx!"

Ducking underneath a furious Vi's punch, the madwoman burst into a fit of deranged cackling, especially as she saw the blush on Caitlyn's face, and how the sheriff was covering, despite being fully dressed, her chest and lower body.

Vi used her momentum for another attack, which Jinx avoided again, this time falling backwards off the couch, catching herself in a weirdly graceful roll.

The enforcer narrowed her eyes, but did not try to further pursue her nemesis through the apartment. She remained where she was, but her glare and stance were signs of the silent, unspoken threat she was presenting Jinx with.

Jinx, still smiling madly – literal madness in fact – and questioning Vi with the raise of an eyebrow, let her gaze trail to the flustered sheriff after a few seconds.

Caitlyn would never understand how the enforcer and the criminal could talk about intimiate stuff openly like that, even taunting and teasing one another with such things, not once showing the slightest signs of a blush.

"Okay, joke's over." this declaration of Jinx made both cops cringe and frown, "Still, did you, hat lady, really just say something stupid like 'join me'? I thought you were smarter than that!"

"How is that stupid?"

"Hello, local terrorist speaking. I'm blowing your city up and I'm having lots of fun doing it! I'm crazy!" cackled the loose cannon – only to pull out a piece of paper and throw it at Vi, "See? I've got a doctor's note!"

The enforcer caught the thing that the loose cannon had thrown at her, at first noting that it wasn't only a piece of paper but also lots of the modified Joker playing cards Jinx had presented them during their 'game night', then taking notice of the actual doctor's note, and what was off with it.

"You wrote this yourself." deadpanned Vi, the alias Jinx had used the other night, 'Dr. Jay Inks', written in pink, scribbly and bold handwritting at the bottom of the note.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. I have a degree in psychology, why can't I be my own patient? Does it even matter?" Jinx leaned over the couch and snatched the note from the pinkette's hands, "I'm crazy as a coot, we don't need a doctor's note to know that!"

Jinx fell back, the couch separating the cops and the criminals, and began to pace a little, arms crossed behind her back.

"My point is, I'm crazy, and a criminal. I'm terrorizing this city, I'm terrorizing you, and now I should just stop doing all that and do the exact opposite? Aside from how unlikely that is, don't you see it would also be a little counterproductive?" voiced Jinx, almost as if she was voicing her exact thoughts and not expecting an answer, despite the question at the end.

"Vi was also a criminal." countered Caitlyn.

"Criminal, not terrorist. She stole and didn't destroy the city on purpose, like I do. And besides, weren't you, hat lady, the one who told me that fat hands was already beatin' up criminals while still being one herself? I'm not doin' that. I'm not doing anything good for this stupid lame city at all, and I sure as hell ain't gonna mess with other criminal's buisness."

"And we can change that."

Jinx froze in her steps to glance at Caitlyn like she was the crazy one in the room.

"Excuse me?" snorted the criminal, a mocking smirk on her lips as she turned to the sheriff and pretended to clean her ear, mocking the cop.

"You heard me well, Jinx. I said we can change that. If you'd simply accept and let us help, we'd surely be able to not only help you with whatever problem you have, but we could also show you there's something else to live for than destruction and adrenaline." growled the sheriff, suddenly gesturing to her partner, who had become surprisingly silent as she watched the exchange of the very personifications of law and crime.

"Look at Vi – she wasn't that different. She enjoyed to beat people up and to feel the thrill of adrenaline pumping through her veins in the face of danger. Beating people up is what she's good at. She's still like that, but we found a way for her to use it to help the city." Caitlyn balled both hands to fists, much to Jinx's further curiosity, as it was a sign of desperation, "Jinx, we've seen what you're capable of. We know what you can do. You possess traits and abilitites that would be more than just a simple advantage to Piltover! There's nothing wrong with using your 'talents' to help others!"

All desperation of Piltover's finest was crushed when Jinx, without a moment of hesitation, threw her head back to let out the most cruel laugh either cop had ever heard from her.

"Nothing wrong, you say?!" roared Jinx in her laughter, not even trying to contain it, madness in her eyes as she stared at the cops, sending cold chills down their spine at the, even for Jinx, unusually strong display of uncontrollable madness, "That's nice of you to say, hat lady..."

The laughter died down as Jinx suddenly started to walk again, determined and fast steps leading her around the couch and up to the two cops, Vi immediately getting ready in case Jinx, even without her weapons a threat, would try anything funny.

"That's nice of you to say, hat lady... But you two of all people should know that there's plenty wrong with me."

Both cops froze, unsure whether or not to take Jinx's words as a threat or not, the tone Jinx had used foreboding and new to them. But Jinx gave them no time to think about it, as she suddenly snickered and drew back, spreading her arms to the sides as she let herself fall over the backrest and onto the couch.

The seriousness of the situation was gone, however, as Jinx suddenly shot back up, arching her back as she let out a sharp gasp – she had landed on the barrels of Pow-Pow.

"Ugh, stupid Pow-Pow. And you don't even care, you indifferent piece of scrap metal!" growled the criminal as she rolled off the couch in a pitiful manner, vanishing from the sight of the two cops as she hit the ground with an equally pitiful thud.

"Wow. How again did we not catch her before?" muttered Vi in surprise, not quite sure how to react otherwise, "I mean, we could've just waited. Did'cha see that, cupcake? She just knocked herself out..."

"I'm not out! Down, but not out and not down for the count!" came Jinx quick reply, one hand appearing from behind the couch, given them a weak thumbs-up, though the hand sunk back out of sight eventually, "I'm not fine, either, though..."

Vi rolled her eyes and shook her head, smirking at her partner. Caitlyn however, merely sighed and placed a hand over her eyes.

"Oh hey, a dancing bug! What'cha doin', lil' guy? You're shaking it all wrong! One day, I'm going to show you how it's done!"

Ignoring Jinx normal insane comments, the two cops frowned at one another. They had expected it to be hard to convince Jinx, but the criminal hadn't just outright called their idea stupid, but had reacted in a way neither of them had expected.

"What are we going to do now?" sighed the enforcer, "I thought she'd refuse, but she went even further."

The sheriff didn't reply, not knowing what to say. She had thought the same thing. She, too, had guessed Jinx would just refuse. But to call them crazy?

"I accept."

"Huh?"

The unintelligent reply came, to even her own surprise, from Caitlyn. One moment, she had been about to get lost in thought, and the next, Jinx's hand appeared again, one finger pointing up at the ceiling. Her hand turned a bit, pointing into the general direction of the cops.

"What did you just say, Jinx?" muttered Vi in amazement, surprised that the criminal seemed to accept their offer, after all. But leave it to Jinx to destroy Vi's glee. The hand that the two cops could see turned again, now pointing in Vi's general direction, imitating a constantly moving mouth.

"Talk to da hand, 'cause da face ain't listenin', fat hands."

"You little piece of...!" roared Vi, the anger getting the better of her again, but one quick, although subtle movement of Caitlyn, and Vi stopped once more. As if on cue, to mock Vi even further, Jinx's head appeared from behind the couch, a wicked smirk on her lips.

"Whipped."

Vi scowled at her criminal counterpart, but remained silent.

"Barking dogs do not bite, after all."

Vi's scowl grew, knowing that Jinx was trying to provoke her. And on any other day, she would've gladly given into the desire to punch the criminal's face in, especially if it was as close to her as it was now, but she knew that such a radical move would ruin their chance with the criminal, after all.

"An enforcer with fat hands like our fat hands surely is..."

"Jinx, please be professional for once. We're trying to help you this time." interrupted Caitlyn, not allowing the insane criminal to finish her newest taunt. Instead, Jinx stopped and frowned at the sheriff, no sign of amusement on her face this time.

"So you're really offering me the same thing you offered Vi back then?" muttered Jinx in a surprisingly sane manner, catching Vi off guard and eradicating all her anger with the mention of her name alone.

Jinx did not use her name unless utterly serious – which would be a first.

Waiting for any sign from the sheriff, who she was focused on now, Jinx sat surprisingly still, even as she got the sign in shape of a nod. She even rose to her full height and dusted herself off, not once allowing the smile to return. She was serious, partially because this offer meant to play a new game that she wasn't quite sure about.

Little did the cops know, though, that Jinx, deep down, had wanted such an opportunity. And yet, despite a dream she had thought of as long crushed, being just within an arms reach, Jinx remained skeptical. Remained distanced.

At least one sane thing she did.

"I see... Whadda'ya expect of me, then? How do you imagine this to work? Let's remain realistic – I am a wanted criminal, my face is known in all of Piltover." huffed the woman with the electric-blue hair, flopping down on the couch, leaning against the backrest with her side, "I've destroyed, I stole, I've killed. Be realistic, Caitlyn – I am not Vi. People are not going to forgive me."

"People didn't forgive me either."

The attention was drawn to the ex-criminal in the room, who was surprisingly serious as well now, staring at the madwoman with cold eyes.

"Not everyone, at least. And they won't ever start to forgive me and entrust me with their lives and safety if I don't prove myself. Forgiveness is not given, it is earned. This is why I'm chasing you each and every day. Not only to ensure their safety, but to prove them wrong. To prove that people can change. That even a criminal can realize the faults of their past, and I try everything to pay my debt to society. And I didn't change in one night either, saw Cait's orders at mere suggestions at first..." growled Vi, balling her hands to fists.

"And here I am, Jinx. Here I am, trying to do exactly that each and every day by trying to put your scrawny little ass into a cell... But this time, I'm trying to do it by the books. This time, I'm trying to help your sorry ass, to help you just like Cait helped me back then. I'm trying to actually save you, sparing you from fates like arrest for lifetime... Or even death." Vi's gaze hardened, her lips becoming a thin line.

"Because it will eventually lead to that if we don't find an alternative now, Jinx. If we do not find a way to change, this game of yours will only lead to tragedy. Your death by our hands, a fate I don't want for you. A death by an accident, sadness and anger the result of that. Our deaths by your hand. Would you want that?"

The madwoman was silent after the enforcer's short speech, for once apparently really thinking about the results her actions would have. She stood frozen to the spot, her eyes glued to the enforcer, no emotion in those otherwise so cruel pink gems that her eyes were.

"One day."

Both enforcer and sheriff perked up as these two words left Jinx mouth, none of her usual amusement present in her voice. The criminal had a stern expression as she met the gazes of both enforcer and sheriff, something that was quite unlike her.

"You want to convince me that there is a different side to the world as I know it. You want to show me that the world isn't just the black, awful joke I see it as."

"So you did listen in on our conversation." mused Caitlyn, only getting a shrug in return from the criminal.

"Only at the end. But let me tell you, my interests are not too different from yours. I want to try this, too." replied Jinx with a seriousness that at least Vi didn't like, simply because it wasn't the Jinx she knew. This Jinx was kind of even scarier than the crazy one was. She was unpredictable and dangerous while insane, but while actually displaying some sanity?

"One day. I give you one day to convince me that the world isn't such an awful place. Convince me, and I will stop trying to go against this cruel world." spoke Jinx with a calm and collected, although cold voice, her eyes glued to the sheriff now, a staring contest of dangerous sorts, "So, I ask again. What do you expect me to do, Caitlyn? How are we going to do this?"

For just the fragment of a second, Caitlyn's gaze wandered to her partner, begging Vi not to intervene – Not that Vi had planned to do so. Despite her brash and rebellious attitude, Vi knew that she was not very skilled with words, and would always leave the negotiations to Caitlyn.

Caitlyn was the brain, she was the brawns – it was the unspoken rule they had agreed on at whatever point in their partnership Vi had begun to accept and respect Caitlyn, and had begun to actually follow the sheriff's orders instead of simply seeing them as suggestions.

And though neither of them had ever said a thing about this aspect of their relationship, they were both very aware of it, and knew that they were two parts of a body – Vi was the body itself, the flesh, the first layer that protect that which lay beneath. The second layer.

The second layer. The mind, the brain, the control. Caitlyn was that second layer, a layer so beautiful and yet so fragile, a layer that needed to be protect by the first, outer layer.

On their own, they were both strong, both their own individuals. But, if they worked together, they made up a body with a mind, two layers working in a perfect harmony.

Only together were they Piltover's finest.

"First off, Jinx, you will behave that day. I hope that will go without saying." shot Caitlyn back, eyes narrowing at the criminal, who did the same, "You will listen to my orders. You will stay in line."

"Do I get to wear some uniform, eh? Some uniform, like you two have?"

Finally, the crazy and amused Jinx was back, and Vi relaxed evidently. Somehow, she was more comfortable with the enemy she knew well.

"You will." responded Caitlyn, still stoic and indifferent. Or rather, serious and intimidating.

"Sweet." giggled the criminal in return and pumped a fist into the air, "Hey, can I bring my friends? We always wanted to play the other side of cops 'n robbers! Can they get uniforms, too?"

If there's one thing one had to know about Jinx, then it was that she didn't have any friends, teammates or anyone she associated with for long periods of time. While both cops had seen her talk to a few people who seemed to tolerate her, as well as having seen Jinx annoying people other than them, Jinx still seemed to prefer solitude and a lonewolf approach, especially when it came to her deranged games.

Jinx did not have friends – so if she referred to friends, she wasn't talking about actual friends. You couldn't consider a mini-gun, a rocketlauncher and a shock gun as friends, each the impersonification of one of Jinx's multiple personalities. Personalities that even the best psychologists in all Piltover weren't sure about whether they actually existed, and if they did if Jinx was aware of them, or if Jinx merely pretended to have them for reasons no one really understood.

At this point, Vi turned to her partner again to observe her reaction. After all, Jinx was 'requesting' to use her regular weapons. But Caitlyn remained surprisingly calm, face ever so stoic.

"You're an expert at heavy artillery, Jinx, and my police force does not possess the kind of heavy artillery you prefer... Unless you want to pull a Vi on me and build something that would suit your tastes and preferred style from something unlikely."

The answer didn't only surprise Vi, but Jinx as well, though the maniac's surprise quickly dissolved into excited giggling, which Vi regarded with a disturbed glance towards her. Deciding to voice her thoughts and concerns after all, the enforcer stepped closer to the sheriff until she was sure only Caitlyn would hear her.

"Are you sure it's smart to let that maniac keep her weapons? They are the same weapons that she tried to kill us with ever so often! As skilled as she is with them, she could turn them at us any time when we don't expect her to!" hissed Vi lowly, glancing over to the loose cannon, who was perfoming a small 'happy dance' with Pow-Pow.

"No." replied Caitlyn simply, narrowing her eyes, "But if we want her to trust us and cooperate, we have to make accomodations. The more we grant her, the smaller is the risk that she really turns on us."

"I see. I'm still not quite happy about it, though." mused Vi, earning a nod from her partner. The serious gaze on the sheriff's made place for a small smile eventually, and the enforcer noticed out of her eyes that Caitlyn was grinning mischievously at her.

"You know, Vi..." she began, one hand sliding up the enforcer's arm and finding it's place on her shoulder, "It's the same tactic I used with you back then. You didn't think it was a mere coincidence I assured you that you could beat up bad guys, right?"

The enforcer cringed, immediately pointing an accusating finger at her partner.

"Stop comparing me to Jinx, dammit! What's it with that, anyways?!" snarled the ex-criminal, eyes glaring past pink hair at the smugly smirking sheriff, who merely shrugged in return and closed her eyes.

"Sorry, Vi, but you can't blame me for Jinx and the you from back then having a similar mindset. Besides, didn't you say yourself that you see yourself from back then in her now?"

With the enforcer unable to find anything to counter that, Caitlyn giggled to herself and turned to the criminal in the room, meaning to go back to discussing the terms with her.

"Say, Jinx, fancy a cup of tea while we further discuss this?" offered the sheriff, well knowing that her girlfriend had begun to buy the necessities for tea since they had started to date, despite not being fond of it herself.

Jinx didn't seem to be either, quickly sticking out her tongue and gagging as she heard the word 'tea'.

"Nah thanks, hat lady. I'm not too fond of that icky brew. Besides, I planned on leaving now, I have to get ready for my new job as an officer!" gagged the madwoman, before suddenly cringing and glancing down at her right hand, wiggling her fingers, "Now that I think of it, where did the beer go?"

Vi had to resist the urge to slam her palm into her face, fearing the worst - namely that her carpet had some big beer stain now. Not that it would be the first, just another stain among many, but those had been her fault, falling asleep with a can of beer in her hand.

"Ah, Zap, you sneaky lil' bastard!" exclaimed Jinx all of sudden, and sure enough, when Vi glanced towards the armchair, she found that the can of beer had somehow ended up next to the shock gun during the course of the evening, none of it's contents spilled, "What did I tell you about alcohol? You're still too young to drink that, it's not good for you!"

At this point, Vi really considered the idea of visiting a psychologist. Some things had happened that evening that made her actually begin to consider that Jinx's weapons weren't as inanimate as they seemed. After all, they had moved without Jinx seeming to move them. Or anyone than Jinx seeing them move.

Speaking of moving, there was something else amiss. She just realized then, but Vi hadn't seen the rocketlauncher in a while. She hadn't paid any attention to when it vanished, but it must've been around the time when she had argued with Caitlyn.

"Jinx, where is your rocketlauncher?" inquired the enforcer with a sigh, actually relucant to ask, fearing the answer. Jinx merely raised an eyebrow, glanced towards the spot her rocketlauncher had been all along, and then shrugged.

"That gluttonous idiot ate the remains of my burrito last night, and spicy things disagree with him." murmured the criminal, before suddenly pointing to the door to the hallway, "He went to use your toilet."

Vi's hands balled to fists again, the undeniable signs of utter irritation finding their way onto her face this time. She was going crazy, wasn't she? She hadn't seen Jinx leave the room at all, and especially not with the rocketlauncher. And why would Jinx even carry her rocketlauncher into the bathroom and leave it there?

But surely, she would've seen it if the rocketlauncher suddenly would have developed a life of it's own and would've waddled out of the door, right?

She knew one thing, though – Being around Jinx for long wasn't good for her sanity. This made her doubt her decision to help the criminal once again, and especially if she was ready to have the madwoman around her for one day, even more to have her around for the rest of her life.

"Look..." began Vi eventually raising one hand, glaring dangerously at the criminal, "You stay here. You won't move at all, or Caitlyn will shoot you in the foot. I'll go and get your rocketlauncher, and then we see where to go with this, alright?"

When the criminal didn't move, Vi sent a single glance to Caitlyn, only to remember that Caitlyn didn't have her rifle on her, left in the kitchen.

"I'll behave." assured her Jinx that moment – not that it convinced Vi, but she knew that Caitlyn was more than capable of defending herself even without a weapon. That aside, she'd be only two rooms down, and if Jinx would try anything, she'd hear it.

And if it was to save Cait, she didn't care about her apartment – she'd barrel right through the walls if she had to, no matter the damages or costs this would cause.

With a last glance at the sheriff and the criminal, Vi left the living room, quick steps taking her through the hallway to the door to the bathroom, a way she was only to familiar with. Her hand reached for the handle, and turning it, Vi let out a sigh and pushed the door open.

"Oh, fat hands, be careful by the way! When Fishbones eats spicy things, he usually has this explosive diarrhea later on!"

That was the last thing that sounded through the apartment before it shook under the power of a explosion, several doors, including that to the living room, slamming open under the force.

Jinx's laughter was the next thing that should reach Caitlyn's ears, and with a panicked glance towards the criminal, she found that Jinx had thrown her head back and was laughing in the possibily most lunatic way she had ever done.

Panic taking her over, worry about her partner, Caitlyn let out a frustrated growl and made a dash for the door to the hallway, planning on leaving Jinx behind to see if Vi was alright.

It was that moment, however, as the enforcer, blast shield still active, stomped into the room, holding the rocketlauncher in one hand, the other balled to a fist. Caitlyn was about to express her glee at her partner's wellbeing, but Vi let out a howl of frustration and threw the rocketlauncher at the criminal.

Jinx, who had stopped to laugh but was grinning madly, was hit in the chest by the rocketlauncher and knocked over, hitting the next wall and sliding down on it, still smirking despite the pain.

"Explosive diarrhea my ass... That maniac booby-trapped the door!" roared the enforcer, making no attempt at hiding the blazing anger in her eyes and on her face. Caitlyn found herself staring at the criminal, too, though with a mixture of emotions, of which she herself wasn't sure which was the strongest.

Probably relief.

"Relax, fat hands, it was a joke! I knew you had your blast-shield. And besides, even if not... It was a weak explosive! You didn't even get thrown around, right?" laughed the maniac, patting Fishbones affectionally, producing dull metallic sounds, "And Fishbones is made of a special alloy meant to resist explosions, so if a rocket blows up in his stomach, he doesn't get hurt, and I don't get hurt, either! I knew he'd withstand the explosion."

She glanced down at him, eyes lighting up in glee.

"And he does feel better, now that his stomach is empty."

That was the final straw for Vi. Cracking her knuckles and pulling her gauntlets, she began to advance towards the maniac on the ground, fury in her eyes as she glared down at the criminal. Jinx, being who she was, was in utter delight at seeing such a harsh reaction.

And yet, it wasn't enough for her.

"Wait! Wait, fat hands!" she exclaimed, holding both hands in front of her, "Before I leave now..."

She suddenly reached into her right boot and pulled out a simple pen, presenting it proudly to both cops, especially to the enforcer right above her.

"Wanna see a magic trick? I learned it from this Shaco-guy at the fat man's bar the other night. Ya know, this Shaco-guy is kinda like the clown-guy from my cartoon!" she declared proudly.

Vi was in no mood for magic tricks.

With her gauntlets on, she grabbed the electric-blue braids of the lunatic and yanked her onto her feet by them, Jinx hissing out in pain. Vi immediately let go, though not in mercy, but to put a hand on top of the woman's head, holding her by it.

"Want me to show you a magic trick, Jinx? I can't show you how exactly it works, since magicians don't reveal their secrets, but it's funny as hell..." hissed Vi, and before Jinx even got the chance to make a comment, let alone protest, the enforcer had yanked open a window to the side of the criminal.

And had thrown her, along with all of her weaponry, out of the window onto the street below, not caring that they were on the third floor. Jinx was like a cat – no matter how deep she fell, she never got hurt.

Not too bad, at least.

"Two days!" shouted Jinx as she got up from the floor and dusted herself off, apparently indeed unscathed aside from a few cuts on her arms and legs, "I'll be showing up in two days at the police station! And I'll better get a warm welcome!"

Vi let out a sigh and turned to Caitlyn, only to notice that Jinx had lost the pen she had pulled for her magic trick. Anger flaring up again, the enforcer picked the pen up and threw it out the window as well, hoping to hit Jinx with it.

A sharp gasp made Vi cheer inside – she had hit.

Turning to her partner, who had used the last chaos to sit down on the couch, she smirked, though she did not expect Caitlyn to smile right back. She hadn't taken Caitlyn for the sadisitic or gleeful type.

Turned out she wasn't.

"Vi, I'm proud of you." smiled the sheriff, patting the spot next to her to invite the enforcer onto the couch as well, with what Vi gladly complied.

"I know." chuckled the brawler as she flopped down and leaned her head back, one arm finding it's way around Caitlyn's shoulders, "What for, though?"

The sheriff laughed. Laughed because she didn't know what else to do after all the chaos just a moment before. Jinx had taken all the negative or confusing emotions with her, all of them gone out of the window. Quite literally.

That aside, seeing Vi relax after dealing with the criminal helped lifting the mood again.

"You want to help Jinx, which by itself is quite noble. And well..." Cait trailed off to snuggle into the slightly taller woman's side, nuzzling her neck, "You actually approach this problem different than you approach other problems. It isn't just another brick wall for you to punch through. Still, why the sudden change? Why do you suddenly want to help Jinx? Is it because you feel that we owe her?"

Vi froze up. Caitlyn clearly felt all of the enforcer's muscles tense under her touch, and found herself surprised at this odd reaction.

"I don't know myself, I guess." came Vi's response eventually, though it didn't sound very convincing. Before Caitlyn got to ask any other questions, though, Vi laid her other arm around the sheriff as well and pulled her closer, almost onto her lap.

"Let's not talk about Jinx anymore, I had enough of her today. Let's just enjoy the rest of our evening, okay? I rented a good movie... Let me just get rid of Jinx's stupid cartoon first, and then we'll have a nice and quiet evening, okay?" whispered Vi in a low voice, and the sheriff rolled her eyes. Of course she knew that Vi was trying to distract her, but didn't mind.

She, too, had enough of Jinx for the remainder of the night.

And so, Piltover's finest did have a nice evening, after all.

---

It was a few hours later that Vi was pulled out of her sleep by what she, despite her sleepyness, immediately knew to be the noise of something hard slamming onto metal. She had worked on enough gadgets and had modified her gauntlets enough times in her life to clearly distinguish them.

Somewhat sleepy, the enforcer glanced towards the alarm clock on her nightstand. Just past three in the morning.

Now, if Caitlyn had still been there, Vi wouldn't have immediately gone into panic, but with the sheriff having left earlier that night, Vi should definitely be alone in her apartment. And that aside, what would Caitlyn do that included slamming hard objects onto metal?

Immediately wide awake, the ability to fully wake up in a matter of mere seconds something that she was proud of, the pinkette silently leaned over the side of her bed and reached underneath, fingers sliding across the soft carpet of her bedroom in search for something while her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

As her fingers sled across something cool and hard, she knew she had found what she was looking for. Pulling the two objects out from underneath her bed and slipping out of her warm sanctuary, the enforcer remained in the darkness next to her bed until her eyes had nearly completely adjusted to the darkness, allowing her to see her surroundings more clearly.

Now able to see, somewhat at least, she looked down to the objects she was holding.

It was a pair of gauntlets, althought not the same pair she had with her all the time. If anything, this pair was a prototype, a byproduct of wanting to test a few modifications that she hadn't been sure about whether or not to do to her actual weapons, which was the reason she had purchased another defect pair of mining rig fists from a junkyard, saving them from the fate of being molten down.

While similar to her actual weapons, these were of a different model of mining rig, slimmer and longer in design, a curved blade-like section at the sides reaching up to her elbows. After making the modifications, however, she had come to realize that Caitlyn would never approve of her using such a modification to the gauntlets she used in combat and on duty, deeming them too cruel.

But, even though she would never admit it, much like their nemesis Jinx, Vi quickly created emotional bonds to the things she build, and was unable to actual get rid of them, always telling herself and others that there could always be a time when she'd need them. So Vi had, after adjusting the modifications to the gauntlets to a definitely non-lethal level, kept them under her bed in case that there'd ever be an armed burglar in her apartment, even though she hadn't really guessed it would ever come to it.

As Vi clenched her hands inside the gauntlets, fingers hooked behind small levers inside the fists, the room was tinted in a bright blue light for a second, electricity rushing back and forth between small spike-like extensions on the knuckles of the hextech fists.

Back when she had first made them, the electric current had been way stronger, so strong in fact that she deemed it nearly lethal, and at least strong enough to leave permanent damage in shape of scars, burn marks, permanent tissue and muscle damage and paralyzation. Of course, she had never meant to make them lethal, let alone let it stay like that, but Caitlyn had outright refused to allow Vi to use tazer-implemented gauntlets.

So she had never implemented that feature into her real gauntlets, but had not gotten rid of the prototype either, though she had reduced the output of the electric current, and had thus reduced the effect from deadly to 'mere' stun.

Still, imagine getting hit by a truck and a bolt of lightning at the same time, and you got the effect of the prototype in action.

Assuring herself one more time that the prototype, which she had never truly tested on a living target, was working and releasing electricity correctly, the enforcer carefully maneuvered herself through her dark bedroom, around the clothes she had been wearing earlier.

The wind was cold on her bare skin as she stepped past the open window, her sparse night clothes, consisting of a dark tank top and nothing more than panties, not exactly made for nightly trips. Once she had gone to bed (and not actually fallen asleep on the couch), she rarely ever stood up again at night, only for the occassional trip to the kitchen for a midnight snack if she was really hungry, or to the bathroom if she really had to go, too lazy and too exhausted otherwise.

Speaking of bathroom, she still had to fix the ugly black tint that the tiles around the door that weren't broken after Jinx's 'prank' had taken on.

For a second, her left, gauntlet-covered hand hovered over the doorhandle, but froze in place when she spotted something on her left arm that she had nearly forgotten about.

Muttering a curse under her breath, knowing that no one was ever to see the true state of her left arm, especially not Caitlyn, she quickly took the gaunlets off again and rushed over to the discarded clothes, picking up a dark-red leather jacket from the pile and throwing it on, not caring to actually button it up. It served it's purpose just fine: Hiding her left arm from whoever was in her apartment with her, as well as part of her left side.

Not caring to put anything else on, mainly because she thought that clothing was restricting her movements in a brawl anyways, the enforcer picked up her gauntlets again, slipped her hands inside, and tested the functionality of the weapons anew. Still working properly.

With that ensured, Vi slowly opened the door to the hallway, leaving the questionable safety of her bedroom behind to find the intruder. The hallway hadn't changed to how it had been before she went to sleep, safe for the cool draft that teased her bare legs, indicating that a window was open somewhere else in the apartment. Probably where the intruder had got in. She had fixed the window in the kitchen, after all, Jinx had simply removed some screws that she had had to put back in.

The door to the bedroom creaked as she closed it behind her, something she had completely forgotten about, and she held her breath in realization of the volume. For a moment, it was completely silent, and she feared that the intruder had heard her and would either come for her now, or would flee.

But then, the noise she had heard earlier continued.

Relaxing slightly, Vi scolded herself quietly for forgetting such a thing, but continued to listen, searching for the source of the noise that, as she walked down the hallway, continually grew louder. It was so loud, it completely drowned out her heavy steps, and her steps were quite loud, she wasn't even trying to be stealthy. She was a brawler, a fighter, not a thief or a ballerina. Her steps had to be secure and heavy, nothing was supposed to be able to throw her off balance, and each step should have the right amount of strength to let her use the momentum of it for an attack, no matter if kick, punch or an outright tackle.

Eventually, she stood right in front of the room it was coming from. She recognized the door immediately, recognized the special reinforcement and the metal grate at the top of it, despite the darkness.

It was the door to her workshop.

What burglar intruded the home of an enforcer, and instead of stealing anything or get revenge on the enforcer, the only two reasons she could imagine why someone did that, went straight to the workshop, something not present in any normal apartment, and didn't even try to keep quiet?

A maniac, that's who. But of course, a certain maniac didn't come to her mind, even as Vi made a decision.

With a powerful punch, the door flew open.

She stormed inside in the same motion, fingers clenching around the small levers inside her hextech gauntlets, the otherwise nearly completely dark workshop tinted in flickering blue lights. As the door shot open, the noise in the room stopped and something turned, a powerful light hitting the enforcer, temporarily blinding her.

Vi still swung her fist, but missed whoever was in there with her. Instead, her right knee impacted with something, pain filling her body and causing her to let out a sharp hiss and a curse, muffled by the sound of falling metal and metal rolling over the tiled floor, and finally drowned out by the noise of her body slamming down on the tiles, metal digging into her left side, errupting another small shriek from her.

Colorful lights danced in front of her eyes from being blinded, slowly fading away as the light was no longer there. Instead, it was focused on her, allowing her to see that she had hit a stack of boxes filled with screws and bolts, the same ones that were now scattered across the floor, the same ones that she was lying on.

She remained lying there, despite the pain, afraid of what the intruder, which stood above her with a flashlight, would now do to her. She wouldn't be able to use her gauntlets, one had slipped underneath a table during her fall and had got caught up with the metal legs of the table, thus preventing her from using it, and limiting the range she had with the other.

But when the intruder didn't do anything at all, Vi unable to see it due to the light blinding her whenever she tried to get a glimpse at him, the enforcer eventually pulled her hand out of the caught up gauntlet and, curious as to why nothing had happened, rose to her full height with the help of her other gauntlet.

Standing in her own workshop, the flashlight still pointed at her, Vi felt a mixture of anger and worry. And she knew only one way to react to the fear of the unknown.

Threatening whatever it was.

She activated the other gauntlet again, let the electricity illuminate the room again while pulling her now free hand back, hiding it behind her back. A sharp pain went through her left side as she did so, and she realized that a few of the screws had impaled her side, the few droplets of blood on the ground confirming this theory.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my workshop?" she hissed into the room, despite the flickering light of the electricity still unable to see who exactly she was in there with, the flashlight just too bright, leaving a bright circle in her vision that hid whatever was behind it.

"Huh? You... Oh."

Vi found herself caught off guard as the other person in the room just replied, and even more so as she heard the person move a bit, followed by the flashlight, which had been surprisingly motionless the entire time, was pointed away.

For another moment, the colors that were the aftermath of being blinded danced in front of the enforcer's eyes again, taking the place of the bright circle.

And as it died down, too, Vi could finally see who was with her in the room.

It was Jinx.

The madwoman looked like she always did, save for her hair being a little messier than usual, and the yellow-tinted welding goggles on her forehead, as well as the belt with small pouches on it around her bare midriff. She was obviously a little sleepy, eyes bloodshot, even more so than usual. And, if Vi didn't know better, Jinx had the same expression that Caitlyn had described Vi herself to have whenever she couldn't find any rest and had to work on something.

The question as to how the light had been motionless was also quickly answered, as well as Jinx's apparent confusion at Vi not being able to realize it was her. The criminal had the flashlight, obviously self-built due to how messy the design was and how unnaturally strong it seemed, strabbed to the right side of her head, just a bit above her eyes.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing in my apartment at three in the morning, you lunatic?!" hissed Vi, for a reason she couldn't explain herself relaxing at the realization that it was 'just' Jinx. With the identity of the intruder no longer a mystery, she bowed down and freed the gauntlet that she had to abandon from it's misery, though hissing as she felt the wounds on her side again. Not that she'd let Jinx know.

With the gauntlet in hand, she rose back up and threw it onto one of the tables in the messy workshop, this one littered with gears, followed by the other gauntlet right away. After all, Jinx didn't have her weapons on her, either, which certainly was a rare sight.

The lunatic had raised an eyebrow at the enforcer, as if her surprise visit to her nemesis was nothing out of the ordinary, and then beckoned to the workbench she stood in front of. Vi followed the sign, frowning as to what her insane counterpart would be doing in her workshop at three in the morning.

And did a double-take.

"Is that...?!" she began, at the same moment that Jinx opened her mouth to reply.

"Fixing your blast shield, obviously."

Vi felt how her jaw practically unhinged, not responding to her desperate attempt to close it again. Her eyes weren't deceiving her, where they? She wasn't dreaming this, was she?

No, she wasn't. It really was Jinx, leaning back over the workbench and the backpack-like gadget on it, swinging a hammer, getting rid of a dent it had received the other day. Clearly, the sound of the hammer hitting the metal was the thing she had heard before.

And if that wasn't worse enough, Jinx proceeded to throw the hammer carelessly aside, turn the flashlight so that it was pointing into the direction she was looking again, and pull down her welding goggles, picking up a thin metal rod and the welding device.

"The hell are you doing to my blast shield generator, you moron?!" shrieked the cop as her brain finally caught on, making a dash towards the criminal. Jinx, however, put the metal rod down again and quickly showed her to stand back.

And for some reason, she really stopped.

"Like I said, I'm fixing it. I didn't plan on this at first, but when you entered the living room earlier after my prank, I noticed that your shield was fluctuating a bit. It wasn't running at hundred percent of it's capability then, and I didn't get any rest over it the entire night. That's why I came here, but you were already asleep." muttered the madwoman, getting lost in thought as she actually began to weld, "What, you're not trusting me with this?"

"You could've simply told me." huffed the enforcer, yet cleared the table next to the workbench of bolts and screws with the back of her hand and hopped onto it, watching the other woman as she continued to weld.

"I could have, but I wasn't sure right then. I ran a few tests earlier this night, using the hammer to simulate impacts while I was wearing the blast shield." Jinx stopped and frowned at Vi, "Yes, I did throw a hammer into the air so that it would fall onto me."

Despite this being the creepy serious Jinx again, Vi couldn't help but let out a giggle at the thought of how stupid her nemesis must've looked like, trying to be hit by a falling hammer on purpose.

"I noticed a fluctuating pattern in the efficiency of your blast shield. It dropped at seemingly random intervals during the time of it's activation, but when I evaluated my tests as one graph, I found a recurring pattern of the energy flow, in which it dropped every two seconds to a mere fifty percent of it's full power for the same amount of time." explained Jinx, eyes narrowing behind the welding goggles as she gently bit down on her own tongue, her welding reaching a complicated part of the blast shield.

"The alternative energy flow." mused Vi, immediately getting a nod from Jinx, "I used a failsafe mechanism when I designed my blast shield. When it's active, it will continually get energy from the hextech reactor on my back through four wires, two running over each of my shoulders, but only uses two at a time, each of the wires able to conduct up to fifty percent of the energy. It toggles between the two cables closer to my neck and the two further away every two seconds, and detects if one of the four wires is not working correctly, ignores it and changes for a working one."

"It should, you mean." corrected Jinx, glancing to the other woman as she stopped welding, "It's a design I would use, too, and the design you used for this failsafe mechanism isn't the problem itself. Using four wires and changing between a pair isn't dumb at all actually, it means that, even if one wire is not working, you do have a fully functioning shield. Even more so, I noticed that you designed it so that, even if two wires on the same shoulder were destroyed, the system would change to use the two remaining wires on the same shoulder. It's a nice failsafe mechanism."

Jinx turned to observe her work, a finger sliding gently across the weldseam she had made, her expression turning into a frown. She didn't seem happy with it.

"The problem was the dent." she added suddenly, her finger moving to the spot where the dent had been and tapping it twice, the spot just aside the weldseam, "It damaged the ammeter, putting quite a dent in it too, which caused it to not recognize the broken wire on your right shoulder correctly. Because it didn't, the failsafe mechanism didn't kick in and it was still used, but as it was broken none of the energy ever reached the generator, meaning it only got energy from the other wire on your left shoulder, leading to the shield merely having fifty percent of it's full power."

Jinx suddenly turned her head again, her expression still too serious to be like the normal Jinx.

"I was at fault for the broken wire. It had a hole in it, and some traces on it were left by a hot alloy, the same kind of special alloy I use as ammunition for Pow-Pow. A bullet must've grazed your shoulder at some point during our last chase over a week ago... Quite dangerous that you didn't notice. Imagine the other wire of the pair would've broken, too. You would've been vulnerable every two seconds... And Vi, even if you do forget it ocassionally, you're still human."

It became silent after that. The enforcer wasn't quite sure what to respond to that, partly because Jinx had used her actual name, and knowing Jinx was right. In the thrill of battle, she tended to forget how vulnerable she was opposed to some of her non-human opponents, or how easily they could crush her. Also, she had not found the time, nor mind for her regular maintenance of her blast shield, being too occupied with thinking and caring about her newfound relationship with the sheriff.

She tried the maintenance of her gauntlets a day after the apartment-bomb fiasco, and had quickly ended up receiving an eletric shock from one of them when her mind had drifted off to the topic of her girlfriend. Not exactly innocent thoughts, but she had received the punishment for it.

The silence between them lasted for quite a while, with the enforcer watching silently as the loose cannon continued to do some finishing touches to her work on the blast shield.

"You know what you're doing, huh?" commented Vi eventually, not failing to notice that Jinx turned and moved the blast shield reactor with great care and expertise, "I build that thing from practically scrap, and yet you have already completely understood it, I can see that."

Jinx let out a short huff of amusement, turning the blast shield over to examine the dent she had fixed.

"Stop trying to make small talk if you don't want it, Vi. You've known that I'm good with mechanic stuff and hextech since forever. I taught it myself, much like you did." growled Jinx, sending a glare at the other female, "You don't have to have a degree in psychology like I do to know that we two aren't too different form one another. We share many traits and interests."

Jinx turned back to the blast shield, the serious expression on it sending cold chills down the enforcer's spine.

"All that separates us, Vi... It's one bad day. One bad day is how far I am from you. How far I am from the world."

She nearly didn't catch the whisper, but she kind of wished she didn't, as it just sent another chill down her spine to hear the loose cannon say something weird like that in such a forsaken tone. The serious Jinx herself made Vi nervous. She had dealed with the insane, fun-loving, lunatic, unpredictable and fugitive Jinx ever since the criminal had shown up in Piltover, but this was not the same Jinx, and she didn't know how to deal with this Jinx. She was serious, expressionless and showed up all the time, not even trying to run.

And she was helpful, too.

But how was she to respond to that? Jinx had just seen through her, had immediately realized how awkward she felt and that she didn't know how to deal with the situation.

The enforcer let out a sigh, for a moment just contemplating to let Jinx do her stuff and go back to bed. No matter what she'd decide on, she knew she'd have to check the blast shield later, to see if Jinx had messed with it or manipulated in any kind of way.

She didn't trust Jinx fully, even this serious Jinx was unable to gain her trust. And she knew that, even two days from then, when she'd have to work with Jinx, she'd not be able to trust Jinx just then.

Just like with forgiveness, trust was not given, it was earned.

Sneaking a last glance at Jinx, who had gotten lost in thought after she had picked up the welding device again and was working on the blast shield, Vi hopped off the table, fully intent on going to bed after all. Jinx wouldn't kill her in her sleep, Jinx wasn't like that, she didn't murder just for the fun of it or to exert revenge. Especially the serious Jinx would not do it, even Vi could feel just how hellbent this Jinx was on actually trying to make their proposition work.

As Vi landed on the ground, though, everything changed rather quickly. Instead of being able to head back to bed without a problem, a sharp pain shot through her side and her left leg, affected by that as well, gave in. She tried to cover it up, but a glance to Jinx told her that the loose cannon had noticed it.

With a heavy sigh, Jinx put the welding device back down and closed her eyes. She remained like that for a second, and Vi didn't move either, the pain not having subsided yet, but eventually, Jinx turned to the cop and pulled her welding goggles up.

"Okay, strip." commanded the loose cannon all of sudden, catching Vi off guard, especially as Jinx reached into one of the pouches of her belt and pulled out two rubber gloves, all while looking Vi up and down, "Not that you've been wearing much. Expecting or having company tonight? Perhaps by a certain hat-wearing sheriff?"

Vi felt her eyes twitch in disbelief at the situation, a single thought lingering in the back of her mind, but that was disregarded as Jinx began to fumble with the flashlight strapped onto the side of her head, turning the brightness down so that it wouldn't blind Vi when she looked directly at her.

"Cait and I aren't doin' anything like that yet, we want to take it slow. We're dating." sighed Vi, finally realizing what Jinx intended to do, and began to strip off her leather jacket. Jinx simply nodded, putting the gloves on, adjusting the flashlight for a last time, then gesturing the enforcer to sit down on the ground. Vi complied without a complaint, exposing her left side to the loose cannon.

Jinx, gloves on, began to examine the wounds that caused Vi the discomfort. A few cuts from the screws she had landed on, their length and their sharp end enough to have cut and impaled her side even through the leather jacket. Nothing too bad, though, even the one screw that had impaled her leg and was still stuck in her calf didn't seem to bad.

She was used to worse pain, even as Jinx pulled the screw out it didn't hurt too bad. It wasn't what caused the discomfort to the enforcer though, not the pain, not the fact that Jinx was looking at her being practically naked.

What caused her the discomfort was that Jinx was, even as she pulled out the screw, examining the secret that she desperately had wanted to hide from anyone, and that she had hidden from everyone for years. Even Caitlyn didn't know. Heck, she even had somehow managed to get it past the doctor that had done her physical check-up when she had joined the police force!

The thing was, though, that there was no point in hiding it from Jinx. Jinx was the only person in the world who she didn't have to hide her secret from, and yet it made her uncomfortable to know that Jinx was seeing it again at that moment.

Jinx knew her secret, had known for years, even before showing up in Piltover, where the two had met. Again.

It made her uncomfortable that Jinx was not showing any emotional reaction on her face, though, as she took care of Vi's wounds, patching them up with the help of bandages she had been carrying on her in one of her pouches. In fact, she was patching her up with surprising gentleness for the insane criminal.

"You've never told Caitlyn about our past together, huh, Vi?" muttered Jinx all of sudden, and Vi cringed. She knew immediately, despite being barely able to see Jinx's expression against the light, that the criminal was scanning her side up and down, her eyes devouring the enforcer's secret, the mutilation to her left side, the mutilation that ran up the side of her torso, that ran up her shoulder and nearly touched the gear-tattoo on her neck, and finally curled around her arm, down to her wrist, like a snake.

The secret of the enforcer – it was what linked her past to that of Jinx. The link that she desperately tried to deny, that she never wanted anyone to know of.

One day, she'd have to tell Caityln, especially if their relationship continued to grow more intimate, she knew that much. And even if their relationship would not grow intimate, Caitlyn was the only person in her life that she truly trusted, and she wanted Caitlyn to trust her just as much. As such, it should be natural that Caitlyn would know about this. She had a right to know, one day.

One day, she'd have to, somehow, explain to Caitlyn that she had known Jinx long before becoming Piltover's enforcer. That she knew Jinx before the loose cannon had even showed up in Piltover.

That she knew Jinx before the woman had lost her mind.

The enforcer was pulled back into reality by one of Jinx's fingers sliding across her arm, tracing the mutilation to it, sending chills down the enforcer's spine – both due to the unknown feeling of the touch, and the memory accompanied to it.

"Caitlyn doesn't know about this either, I bet. I thought you had told her at some point after all of this began, thought she knew why my actions really got under your skin so much. But earlier today, when she was surprised about me being older than you, I finally realized that you never did. I can understand why, I'm not going to blame you. Probably wouldn't have done it myself, had I been in your place" muttered the criminal quietly, eyes darting up to meet Vi's, then going back to the mutilation, the enforcer's dark secret, "But if you two ever are going to do somethin' more than kissin', this is going to be hard to explain, you know?"

Vi let out a sigh, then yanked her arm out of the loose cannon's hands. She examined the work Jinx had done to her side, surprised at the skill with which Jinx had patched her up, but before she even got to ask, Jinx had already answered the question.

"Caitlyn doesn't always miss with her bullets, you know? She's a damn good sniper, being able to hit me while we're both running and all." explained Jinx, turning the flashlight away and putting the things back into her pouches, "It's just that I'm not as sensitive to pain while I'm on adrenaline, which I have a lot of in my blood while really insane and on the run, ya know? I often don't even notice that I've been shot until I'm calming down, sometimes merely stumble when the moment I'm shot, and then continue to run. My point is, I've been shot enough times to know how to patch wounds up."

With a final heavy sigh, Jinx rose to her full height again and offered the enforcer a hand, pulling the taller and heavier woman up without a problem. Then again, she did run around all day with a heavy rocketlauncher and an even heavier mini-gun without a problem.

Vi dusted herself off, making sure to avoid touching the bandaged areas of her body, not wanting to ruin the neat work Jinx had done. She shared a glance with the loose cannon, but Jinx barely returned it. Instead, she had turned back to the blast shield, pushing the welding device aside.

"I'm done here. It should work again now." sighed the maniac, turning away from the blast shield to glance at her counterpart, "Go ahead, check it if I sabotaged it, I won't blame ya."

Jinx picked up the last stuff, some tools she had brought with her, put them back into her belt, and nodded to Vi. The enforcer was about to say something, but Jinx had already pushed past her, leaving the workshop through the still ajar door.

"Goodnight, Vi. I'm looking forward to our meeting in two days."

That should be the last thing that the enforcer heard that night from her nemesis, who she began to understand less and less.

And the worst part – it felt like something was slipping away along with the loose cannon she knew.

---

Two days later, still early in the morning, Piltover's finest found themselves sitting in their office, both dressed in their police uniforms and dreading the arrival of their nemesis. Caitlyn managed to hide it quite well, as usual working on the piles of paperwork.

Vi didn't manage to hide it anything as well like that.

She had offered Caitlyn once again to take some of the paperwork off her shoulders, bored as she was without having to chase Jinx, but found herself unable to actually work on it, her mind continually focusing on the loose cannon they were expecting.

"I checked my blast shield at least five times after she left. I took it apart, put it together..." rounded the enforcer up, retelling what she had experienced just two nights prior, skipping the details concerning her secret, "Believe it or not, Jinx really just fixed it. No suspicious little additions, no sabotage. She just repaired it."

"Well, she seemed to be honest about wanting to try the other side of the law." commented Caitlyn as she looked up at her partner, not even mad about Vi just sitting in front of the parperwork, "And we've done everything we could do. We've prepared everything, I've made sure that we can take her on patrol and that nothing will call me away from it... Now we just wait for her to show up."

Vi gave up on doing any paperwork at that moment, stacked it up at the side of her table and fell back into her chair, ignoring the groan of protest it gave.

"And you're sure it was wise not to warn anyone?" inquired Vi, casting a nervous glance into the direction of her partner, "I mean, Jinx is gonna bust the door down any moment now and walk, fully armed, into a room full with officers who don't know a thing about our deal with her. Hell is gonna break loose, cupcake..."

"Everything is going to be fine, Vi." replied the sheriff, though her stoic expression failed for just a second and was replaced by a concerned one, "If we would've told anybody, they'd all be standing behind the door now, pointing their weapons at it. So see it as a test for both sides. A test of reaction for the officers, and a test of how serious Jinx is about this. If she shoots anybody on purpose, the deal is off."

"I see... Nice thinking there, cupcake." mused the enforcer, leaning back as far as her chair allowed her to and placing her feet on the table, "Still, when do you think Jinx is gonna show up? And how? She likes big and flashy entrances, so I'm not even sure if she'll use the door."

"She will use the front door, and probably in about a minute. It's nearly seven in the morning, and that's when the nightshift ends and the dayshift starts."

"Wait, if the dayshift starts at seven, what are we doing here then every morning at six?!" exclaimed the enforcer in shock, the thought of how she was robbed of an hour of sleep annoying her like it would annoy a little kid to go to bed early. At least it explained why Caitlyn always remained surprisingly calm when she slept in on accident and showed up an hour later or so.

"We're Piltover's finest, Vi. We're supposed to be an example of punctuality and effciency." smiled Caitlyn, unable to keep a stoic expression at the way that Vi was pouting at her.

"More like workaholics..." grumbled the enforcer, crossing her arms and pouting into the other direction, away from Caitlyn.

"I pretend I didn't hear that."

Caitlyn barely got to finish that, though, as a loud slam, followed by the sound of at least thirty chairs sliding across the tiled floor and weapons being pulled in the other room caused both of them to cringe.

"Freeze!" roared a loud male voice, one that Vi remembered to belong to one of the officers closest to the entrance to the police station.

Hell had broken loose, just as Vi had predicted.

Caitlyn immediately rose from her chair, a stern expression on her face as she went straight towards the door, Vi immediately hot on her heels. The sheriff slammed the door open, slipped out of the office, Vi again in pursuit.

The scene presented to them was exactly what Vi had expected it to look like, save for a few minor alterations she couldn't have possibly expected at all.

Standing in the wide-open doors to the office, hands on her hips, a cocky and nasty smirk on her lips, was the loose cannon herself. Jinx was glancing left and right, taking in the sight before her like she was a little kid that had just found the huge toy-section of a store.

The officers around her were not as relaxed. Each of them was tense, standing between the table and the chair they had just rose from, a standard handgun pointing right at the terrorist in the doorway. A few of them were sweating heavily, the shock and fear more than obvious to read in their eyes. After all, they all knew who Jinx was.

The situation was tense. A single wrong movement from Jinx, and she'd be riddled with bullets.

Not that Jinx cared about that risk. If anything, it only fueled her insane glee.

"Sheriff, immediately go back into your office! We've got this!" growled the highest-ranked officer, and most direct subordinate of the officers present to Caitlyn, over his shoulder. He probably really did expect Caitlyn to retreat to her office and take cover in there, because his shock at Caitlyn's next reaction was more than obvious.

"All officers, stand down!" bellowed Caitlyn in a tone that caused even Vi to shiver. Confused glances were exchanged, stares of disbelief cast into the direction of the sheriff. But Caitlyn remained where she was, displaying nothing but seriousness.

The first few weapons were lowered hesitantly, quickly followed by more. The command from the sheriff slowly seeped in, and finally, the last gun was lowered as well.

Jinx took all of this in, her smug grin showing her utter amusement. She hadn't moved at all during the entire event so far, just standing there and observing as things happened with that maniacal smile of hers. This was just another part of the game to her, as it seemed. Seeing as it was the insane Jinx, this did make sense.

She waited until all weapons were lowered, took a glance around, taking in all the befuddled expressions and confused frowns, and only then started to approach Piltover's finest.

"Hey Grif, how's it going? How's ya sister doin'?" she suddenly called to the side to an officer, who immediately cringed and looked perplexed at the loose cannon, which had already turned to smirk at another man, pointing both forefingers at him, "Church, what about your ex? Still trying to kill ya?"

Confused glances were cast around, apparently no one quite sure how Jinx knew their names and personal stuff about them, but the loose cannon didn't care anymore and simply walked up to Caitlyn with what had to be the nastiest smirk of the loose cannon that either member of the duo referred to as Piltover's finest had yet seen.

"By the way, your officers are kinda stupid. Shouldn't they know that they have to release the safety catch first before they can shoot me?" commented the loose cannon as she stared the sheriff in the eye, her smirk growing even wider as the officers around them, safe for a group interestingly dressed in shades of blue and red who had not forgotten about it from experience, quickly glanced down to their handguns, only for their faces to turn red in embarassment, realizing that the loose cannon was right.

Of course, Jinx knew that most of the officers in the room did rarely leave the office, most of them taking care of paperwork and smaller cases that never required shooting anyone.

With Jinx standing in front of Piltover's finest, though, all three weapons in their usual places, along with a few Flame Chompers strapped to her belt just above her rear, both of them could make out the noticeable differences to Jinx three main weapons, all of them having received a small make-over that let them look a little more police-like, explaining what Jinx had been up to since her visit to Vi's apartment the other night.

Fishbones had received the greatest change, completely with a new metallic dark-blue paintwork and a red and blue light above it's eyes, which Vi found stupid, especially as she saw that it could indeed be switched on. Pow-Pow trailed close behind, while not having it's color changed, it was wearing a small black constable hat between it's ears, which Vi found just as stupid as the changes that Fishbones had received.

The change that Zap had received remained unknown at first, however, aside a new muzzle with some dart-like extensions on it, neither cop could spot any difference. But Jinx noticed their curiosity, and with a smirk, pulled the shock gun.

A quick sign from Caitlyn saved the lunatic from being riddled with bullets once more.

"How do ya like the new look I gave them? Pretty sweet, eh? Thought I'd go with the theme and all. I even changed the way Zap works!" exclaimed the maniac, jumping up and down like a little kid, before pointing Zap to the side, "Ya wanna see?"

Realizing what Jinx was about to do, Caitlyn took a quick step and laid a hand onto the loose cannon's extended arm. Too late.

Jinx had pulled the trigger of the shock gun, which immediately began to hum softly as it charged up, flashing blue and red instead of it's usual color, and before anyone could do a thing, the dart-like extensions on it's new muzzle shot forth instead of electricity, curly wires trailing behind.

A sudden groan, a strangled gasp, electricity flowing through the wires into the dart-like extensions, which were electrodes – and then, one of the officers in the room collapsed, tased.

Zap worked like a taser with the new muzzle.

Immediately, all weapons in the room were pointing at her again, safe for the one of the officer she had just tased right between the eyes.

"Oh, uh... Whoops?" giggled Jinx nervously, a single pull of the trigger causing the wire to retreat, "You alright, Caboose?"

While no one was quite sure how she knew the name of the man in blue she had just tased, it certainly didn't help any of them to relax. Later, Caitlyn would find out by watching the recordings of the security camera in her office that Jinx had broken into it several nights during the prior month, going through files and other documents in what appeared to be boredom.

Leave it to Jinx to find such a crazy thing to do something against her boredom.

The man called Caboose, still lying on the ground and giving the one or other violent twitch, gave a weak thumbs-up.

"Yeah, I may have done that accidentally on purpose." mused the loose cannon as she continued to watch the man twitch, though he didn't even seem to mind that he had been shot with a taser, "Note to self, taser works perfectly fine. May want to turn the electricity down a bit, though."

Caitlyn let out a deep sigh, rubbing her eyes with the thumb and forefinger of her right hand, before pinching the bridge of her nose with them.

"Jinx..." she gave an exasperated sigh, the loose cannon immediately smiling at her, having understood the hint. Not that she'd follow it. Instead, she twirled the shock gun in her left hand, holstered it, and pulled both Fishbones and Pow-Pow to present them to the sheriff, although she'd be unable to fire them without both of her hands, something that each person in the room knew, and thus did not gun down the maniac.

"I've got three guns, hat lady! Three guns means never having to say 'I'm sorry'!" declared the loose cannon excitedly, turning left and right to make sure that everybody saw the weapons before she holstered them again, Fishbones to her back, and Pow-Pow to her side.

She grinned back at the two highest-ranked members in the room, Vi and Caitlyn, but seeing their disapproving glares, let out a huff.

"Okay, fine." she grumbled after a moment, before suddenly putting Zap down on the nearest desk, so that she had just two guns and would not go against her own principles, "I'm sorry."

Vi could only roll her eyes at that childish behavior, especially as Jinx, as soon as these words had left her mouth, quickly picked up Zap again. The officer named Caboose only gave another weak thumbs-up, but remained on the ground, still twitching ocassionally.

Well, at least that meant he was alive.

Another heavy sigh from Caitlyn announced the growing irritation of the sheriff, and a handsign announced the end of the ruckus, telling all officers in the room to immediately put their guns away and return to their work, though they did so with skeptical and wary glances towards the loose cannon.

"You." growled the sheriff, pointing at Jinx, then at her office, "In there."

Jinx happily complied to this, holstered her shock gun-turned-taser with a small trick to show-off, and skipped past Caitlyn towards the sheriff's office, but not without grinning at the frowning enforcer.

"Smile, Vi. It's called gun play." giggled the maniac, hand gliding over Zap again to provoke Vi, but the enforcer had none of it and simply used her already gauntlet-covered hands to push Jinx inside the office. As she followed the lunatic inside, Caitlyn remained where she was, turning to adress all the officers on the room.

"We have a deal with Jinx." she announced loudly, loud enough to ensure that everybody heard her, "For the rest of the day, she is not wanted for any crime she has ever comitted. In return, she will accompany me and Vi on patrol. I don't expect anyone of you to understand, but if this works as we want, Jinx may soon follow Vi's footsteps and change sides. We're always in need of capable individuals with the growing threats out there, the growing rate of crime, which Jinx has led so far."

She led her gaze trail through the room, serious gaze meeting confused and shocked ones.

"I know that this room is full of capable men and women. Each of you has their role in the giant clockwork that our force is. Having Jinx on our side would be another great step to keep Piltover safe and clean of crime. This is the reason she's here today. She herself has agreed to try the other side of the law for one day, and if she indeed fancies it, will join us permanently to keep Piltover's streets clean. Those of you who have encountered her or have helped me and Vi on the Jinx case know how capable she is. Heavy artillery, explosives, calculations on a level beyond the normal human's ability, as she has proved each time she has build a bomb, and as we just found out, she's also capable of psychological evaluation of individuals, especially the deranged ones. We are in need of someone this skilled, no matter their background." continued the sheriff, closing her eyes.

"As you know, the Jinx case has a specific codename. The Harlequin case, based on her behavior. This case is the longest running case in Piltover's history. And now, we have the chance to finally close this case. If we'd not only get the chance to stop Jinx, but also win her over, she'd be a valuable and powerful member in the fight against other criminals, such as the other greatest threat Piltover has ever experienced, the C case I've been working on aside the Harlequin case." turning on the spot, Caitlyn reached for the doorhandle to her office, opening her eyes again as she did so.

"I do not expect any of you to trust Jinx, even if she were to become a permanent member of our force. My partner, Vi, has said something I couldn't get out of my mind, however... 'Forgiveness is not given, it is earned'. So if Jinx is serious about this, she will do her best to earn that forgiveness, from each and every of you, and Piltover's inhabitants. Starting today."

She turned her head to glance over her shoulder, taking in the reactions in the room, emotions laid bare in the faces of those present. Of course, she had expected such a reaction. Any other reaction would've been weird and unnatural.

"But I've got something for you to think about as this day, and the next day, and all the days after that progress..." she began, already moving the doorhandle so she could follow Jinx and Vi inside her office, "Do you not trust Vi? I know, for a fact, that most of you were around when she joined us. I remember the distrust you had in her, I remember how many of you thought that I had gone crazy to let an ex-criminal join our ranks."

"But I also remember how you started to trust her, how she earned her place in our force, at my side as my partner, and how she earned our friendship. Many of you trust her with your life now. You spend time with her, go for a drink at the end of the week. My point is, Vi has become an irreplacable member of our squad. And I know that, if she really wants it and we allow her to, Jinx can become that, too. I've learned myself that there are more sides to her, and that she can change."

She finally pushed the door open, sending a last glance over her shoulder.

"That is all. Please return to work as hard as you always do. Please do your best today again. For the safety of our city, Piltover."

With these last words, Caitlyn entered her office and closed the door behind her, leaving baffled officers back.

Inside the office, Vi and Jinx were already waiting for her. Vi had returned to her seat behind her desk, had put her gauntlets aside it, and had once more put her feet onto the desk, staring expressionless at her, while the weaponless Jinx sat on the same desk, feet dangling off the site as she gave Caitlyn a curious glance, most likely having heard the words of the sheriff.

For a moment, Caitlyn found herself reminded of the night that Jinx had forced them to play her 'game'. Back then, she had sat on Caitlyn's desk in a very similar manner.

"So, what's up, hat lady? What fun things will we do today? Hm?" grinned the criminal-turned-cop-for-one-day the moment she spotted the sheriff of Piltover, one eyebrow rising with the smile on her lips. Caitlyn did not reciprocate the smile, and neither did Vi.

"You will be joining us on patrol today. Let me warn you beforehand, though, as I know from past experience that you do not like boredom – there isn't always something exciting happening on patrol, and we don't always run into a crime. But I can tell that you will enjoy it a lot more than sitting around and doing paperwork." replied the sheriff with a stern gaze.

"She's right, Jinx." sighed Vi, the thought of paperwork bringing her back to the stack of paperwork she still had to do, "It's not always fun, exciting or full of action. Sometimes, you gotta sit down and do some paperwork. Not my favorite thing to do, either, but it's part of the job description."

The only to word to describe the criminal's expression was skeptical, frowning first at Vi, then at Caitlyn, and then at the enforcer again, almost as if she hoped that it was a joke. It wasn't.

With a groan, the criminal jumped off the desk and stretched her limbs, letting out a satisfied groan as she felt some of her joints relax. The only thought Caitlyn wasted on that was that carrying around heavy weapons like Jinx did couldn't be good for your body.

Speaking off weapons, the loose cannon had strolled over to where she had piled her weapons up, and bent down to first pick Fishbones up and put it on her back, then to take Zap and holster it, and finally heaved Pow-Pow up and attached it to her side.

"Yeah, whatever, glad that it's not the more boring stuff then." murmured Jinx as she turned to Caitlyn, one hand sliding over Pow-Pow, as if to calm down an angry pet.

"I knew you'd react like that, so I've got something to cheer you up." countered Caitlyn, finding herself amused as she saw how Jinx's face lit up. Seriously, Jinx and Vi weren't too different, after all. Sometimes, they were like little kids. Funny how those two ended up constantly clashing, they could've as well been best friends.

Vi, meanwhile, had gotten the hint, and with an expression that told how displeased she was about giving Jinx the present, leaned to the side and pulled the upper drawer of her desk open. Jinx nearly climbed over the desk when Vi reached inside the drawer, making it no secret how excited she was about getting a present.

She didn't get many, after all.

"Didn't have time to wrap it, squirt, so here ya go, take it and be happy." growled the enforcer as she pulled out the 'present' and threw it into the awaiting arms of the loose cannon. It was a police uniform and a black tonfa.

"You do enjoy weapons, if I am right." spoke Caitlyn up again, only to freeze for a moment as she watched how the loose cannon let out a squeal and hugged the tonfa to her chest like it was the most important thing in her life, "And that aside, we can't have you running around with only those weapons of yours, as police officer you will need a non-lethal weapon like this one. Of course, nearly each of your weapons is heavy enough to use it as a melee weapon with the same, if not even greater, efficiency, but you can't deny that they're too heavy to use them as fast as you'll be able to use a tonfa. And even if you changed the functionality of Zap, it's still not qualified and inhuman to simply shoot someone with electricity."

"It's great! I'll take it! Can I keep it?" hummed the lunatic, dancing around in the office, speeding up as she saw the nod of the sheriff. She suddenly stopped, though, and stared down at the tonfa in her hands with a skeptical frown.

"What's your name, lil' buddy?"

Vi outright groaned and fell back, palm slamming into her face. Of course Jinx would immediately start to try to communicate with the weapon. That lunatic. Caitlyn didn't seem to be elated either, pinching the bridge of her nose again in obvious irritation.

"Look, Jinx..." she began, turning the criminal's attention to her. She trailed off, however, as she saw out of the corner of her eye that Jinx had put the tonfa and the uniform onto the sheriff's desk and had began to strip, hands already fumbling with her top. Caitlyn felt how her mind stopped working for a second, and as it kicked in again, turned away to hide her blush at how surprisingly shameless he loose cannon was.

Seriously, that was just another thing she shared with Vi. Vi sometimes displayed no shame either, though she had never gone as far as to start undressing in front of her. Come to think of it, Caitlyn had actually never seen Vi in anything but her outfit, the police uniform or tops with sleeves down to the wrists, and Vi had always changed in a separate, locked room.

"L-let's just go on patrol. We can't muck around all morning. We've got work to do!" commanded the sheriff, picking up her rifle from where it leaned against her desk and stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind her as to not let anybody see that the criminal was in the middle of changing clothes.

Hearing that, Jinx smirked to herself and turned her head to the still sitting enforcer, who displayed none of Caitlyn's shyness or embarassment at the situation. In fact, even as Jinx was nearly completely undressed and already slipping into the new clothes, Vi had a perfect stoic expression on her face.

Jinx had no effect on her, and would never have, no matter how she looked.

"Ya heard that, fat hands?" inquired the loose cannon as she made sure that the clothes fit in all places, before suddenly adopting a fake british accent, "You can't muck around all morning, we've got work to do! We're on the case!"

Jinx's police attire didn't look too different from that of Vi and Caitlyn, only a few sizes smaller. It was a good thing they had another officer with nearly the same build as Jinx, though Vi had never bothered to learn her name.

Much like the attire of Piltover's finest, it sported a black collar with a tie, black aviators hanging from it, and consisted of a blue top and a blue jacket above it, though it left Jinx midriff bare, as she was a little taller than the officer the clothes were borrowed from. And she wouldn't get them back, most likely, as Jinx chose that moment to rip the blue pants she had received off just below her rear, effectively giving the whole uniform a more skimpy appearance and leaving her legs exposed, more like her own clothes, much to Vi's further irritation.

She had kept her fingerless gloves on, and picked up her belt and the holsters for her weapons to put them on as well, which she had nearly stepped on with her heavy combat boots. Once that was done, she tilted the blue beret that belonged to her outfit a little to the side and smirked, apparently pleased with the way it was placed, the golden badge on it showing the number 18, which was the identification number of the officer it was borrowed from. Ironically, Vi's was six, which became less ironic if you knew that she had insisted on it.

The last thing that Jinx did to round her outfit off, however, sent a cold chill down Vi's spine. Reaching into one of the pouches on her belt, the same belt that Vi recognized from the night in the workshop, Jinx pulled out a seemingly simple silver dogtag with her name on it.

But Vi immediately recognized them, though she had never gotten to see one herself so far, had seen one long ago on a picture.

This kind of dogtag was given to the members of Zaun's military special forces, an elite force said to be completely eradicated by an unknown enemy years ago, just about a year before Jinx showed up in Piltover, using heavy artillery to gun them down violently, leaving them barely recognizable.

That mystery seemed to be solved now, too. One member of the special force of Zaun had survived, and this member was in the very same room as Vi at that moment. And it actually made her fear the maniac with the electric-blue hair a little more than before.

Getting excited and being fully dressed, Jinx began to laugh maniacally and made a dash for the door, making stupid siren sounds, as she couldn't find a police siren in the last two days to add to her little make-over – only to suddenly freeze and stop laughing just in front of it.

"What the hell is 'muck around' for an expression, anyways? I mean – the first word is so weird! I know what she means, but my way of saying that sounds a little different. It rhymes, but it starts with a way earlier letter in the alphabet, namely..."

"We've got work to do Jinx, stop..." Vi, who had jumped up and picked up her gauntlets to follow both the sheriff and the loose cannon caught herself, nearly saying the word Jinx had intended to say and that she had sworn Caitlyn not to use, "...doing what you're doing!"

Jinx turned around and snorted, a mocking grin on her lips.

"Woah, fat hands... Whipped. And your girlfriend ain't even here."

Vi groaned and rolled her eyes. This was going to be a long day.

"Let's just go..." she sighed, once again contemplating whether or not her idea to help the loose cannon was good or not.

Especially for her nerves.

---

"Boring~"

Caitlyn let out a sigh as Jinx complained yet again. The three had been strolling down the sidewalks of the city for a few hours by now, and much as Jinx insinuated, nothing had happened. Of course, she had been warned, but that wouldn't stop Jinx from voicing her boredom nontheless.

It was quiet for once in the city of progress, which didn't come as much of a surprise, seeing as how the most active and most dangerous criminal in the city was currently walking down the sidewalks towards the east side of the city with Piltover's finest, for once no intention to blow stuff up.

Okay, so she did have thoughts about it, especially because it was so boring to her at that moment, but she knew she had promised to behave, and as unlikely as it sounded – Jinx actually kept her promises, no matter how much of a torture it would be for her.

That was one of the few rules she had.

"I warned you, Jinx. Life as an officer isn't always as exciting as the movies make it out to be." sighed the sheriff of Piltover as she glanced over her shoulder at the criminal. Jinx had been falling back for quite a while by then, lazily dragging behind as Piltover's finest followed their usual route with the usual vigor. Aside from Caitlyn practically living only for the job and thus never losing her vigor for it, Vi enjoyed the patrol because it gave her something to do other than sit around and take care of paperwork.

"Aww, c'mon..." whined the newest addition to the force, even if only temporary, throwing her hands up, "There's literally nothing been happening. There wasn't even a kitty on a tree that had to be rescued! Or Ahri!"

"Ahri is a fox. Aside the question why she would climb on a tree, she would be more than capable to get down." commented Vi, but quickly got ignored by her nemesis.

"This city is so boring, so... so pathetically neat! It's like it's missing something, like a bomb-planting, insane, good-looking and badass villain!"

Piltover's finest stopped and stared in disbelief at the loose cannon over their shoulders, who had stopped as well now and had rose an eyebrow at them, a look of confusion on her face.

"Well, what?" she demanded to know, shrugging at her two unlikely companions, "I was just saying..."

Knowing that there was nothing else to expect of Jinx, Piltover's finest turned around again, Vi letting out the groan that Caitlyn held back, and continued to walk, knowing their patrol was long from over. Piltover wasn't that small, after all.

"Sooo..." began Jinx again, though neither of them cared to turn around, knowing Jinx was just looking for something to amuse herself with, and would probably just mess with them again, "Does anyone know how late it is?"

Letting out a small sigh after all, Caitlyn reached inside her pocket to retrieve her cellphone, knowing that it also displayed the actual time. But someone beat her to the answer.

"Yeah." came a deep, weird-sounding voice from right behind her, "Me."

Nothing else followed, and when Vi suddenly slammed her palm into her face after turning around, Caitlyn turned, too – and immediately groaned after all. Jinx had managed yet again to irritate her beyond what she could handle, and that meant something.

Standing behind them, Jinx was holding her new tonfa up, which by now had a face drawn onto one hand, a grinning mouth full of sharp teeth and glowing pink eyes. There was no need to say that she had just distorted her voice, like she always did when she let one of her weapons talk, to give this new weapon a voice, too, right?

Jinx let out a maniacal giggle, not caring about the glares she was receiving from her temporary allies.

"Oh, Saltsticks, you and your dry humor!" she laughed, before suddenly peeking towards Caitlyn and Vi, "Hey, I believe I didn't introduce you to my new Saltsticks yet! He's a tonfa. Just ignore his dry humor, he can't do anything against it. He was raised like that."

The two cops shared a glance, Caitlyn's skeptical frown practically saying 'It was your idea to have her work with us, Vi', and Vi's angry scowl throwing 'So, where's the next insane asylum again? If we don't leave her on the doorstep there, I know I will need a room in there' right back.

"Oh, hey!" called Jinx out in her high-pitched voice, once more turning the attention of the cops to her, ignoring their expressions, "Isn't this one insane asylum just down the next street? I remember that I've been nearly put in there once, but do you know the problem with that plan? When you take an insane person to an asylum, you're just taking him home! It's the place he knows best!"

Jinx fell into a fit of mad giggling, leaving both cops to share another glance, one of mutual acceptance of leaving Jinx in front of the asylum and just continue their day as if they had never agreed on helping the oddball.

When they continued their patrol, Jinx followed quietly once more, boredom at least somewhat gone now that she had messed with her favorite two cops again.

And the last bit of boredom should be gone in the next breath she did, her insane prayers for something exciting that involved action having been heard.

Before Jinx got to take that breath, someone bumped into her, sending her stumbling to the side with a gasp. Both Caitlyn and Vi turned to see what the criminal's problem was this time, only for someone to quickly slip through in between them, leaving both to stare after the person.

"Hey, Vi..." began Caitlyn immediately, recognizing the blonde woman in blue and white that was running away from them even though she could only see her back, "Isn't that Lux of Demacia? Garen's younger sister?"

"It is." confirmed the enforcer, just as confused, "What is she doing in Piltover?"

"Well, let's ask her!" exclaimed Jinx from behind them, and before either one got the chance to stop her, had charged past them and after the lady of luminosity. Caitlyn immediately contemplated to shoot Jinx with her net, had already switched to the other kind of ammunition to do so, thinking it was best not to get involved with something like Demacia and their wars against Noxus – a moment later, Caitlyn was thankful she didn't.

Jinx wasn't the only one to charge past them, a black blur rushing past sheriff and enforcer as well at that moment, and as Caitlyn saw who it was, the question for Lux fleeing was solved.

Katarina Du Couteau, the so-called sinister blade. From Noxus.

Reacting quickly, knowing that Katarina was able to cut through her nets, that it would take too long to switch back to the regular ammunition, and that Vi or her would not be able to catch up with the fast sinister blade, knew there was only one chance to stop Katarina from what was obviously her goal: Killing, or at least capturing, Lux.

"Jinx!" she roared, knowing it alone wouldn't get the criminal's attention, "Stop the one behind you!"

What happened next got to be one of the best things Vi had ever seen in her life, and earned her a whole new respect for Jinx. The lunatic glanced over her shoulder during her run, eyes sparkling with excitement as she spotted Katarina, even though she did neither know Katarina, nor the conflicts between Demacia and Noxus.

Reaching for Fishbones, her heels suddenly dug into the ground, sliding across the pavement, pulling the weapon with both arms in what first appeared to be a stupid position – both hands just behind the jaws of Fishbones. But when she suddenly turned, using her entire momentum to swing Fishbones, Vi knew what was up.

And to be quite honest, the metallic echo that hollered through Fishbones as Katarina's head impacted with the rocketlauncher near the tail fin was something she had never heard before, and even she deemed it brutal, especially as she saw how the sinister blade suddenly collapsed into a pathetic heap at Jinx's feet.

Caitlyn and Vi finally caught up with Jinx just as the lunatic put her rocketlauncher back into it's place, completely ignoring the disapproving glare of the sheriff of Piltover, or that Vi quickly kicked Katarina's blades out of reach, should the sinister blade come to.

"I meant with your tonfa! That's what it was for!" scolded Caitlyn immediately, gesturing the the weapon Jinx had played around with moments before slamming a rocketlauncher into the face of the unsuspecting sinister blade. Jinx, however, merely frowned at the sheriff, an expression on her face that looked like Caitlyn had tried to explain rocket science to her.

Then again, Jinx probably knew something about that.

"Jinx, cupcake is right, ya know? You can't just use your rocketlauncher to knock out people! Did you hear the sound? You're lucky it was only that sound, and not that of her neck or her head snapping!" added Vi, angry herself. Sure, she had been accused of police brutality before, and sure, she was the one who wielded the giant gauntlets, but she had made it a rule never to go for the head, knowing how dangerous it was to move a head with the power of a mining rig.

Jinx made it no secret that she was confused about them being angry at her. In her eyes, it had been nothing wrong. If you blew up buildings on a regular basis and had killed before, such a move certainly lost it's effect on you.

And just like a kid that got accused of doing something wrong that was right in their eyes, it awoke anger in Jinx as well.

"You told me to stop her!" she snapped at Caitlyn, though her eyes remained focused on Vi, "And you! Hello, fat hands, you're the one who treats me like a bowling ball on a regular basis, and have I ever complained? Complained about you being the berserker you are?"

"You did not just call me a berserker!"

"And I call you fat, and you know what? I don't care! And this dumbass I knocked out won't either! I knocked her lights out, she'll eventually wake up with a headache, then continues whatever crazy shit she had been up to when you told me to stop her, and we'll chase her again."

"She's not you! She's not as inhuman as you are, with all the crazy things you seem to be able to survive, like nearly blowing yourself up, or throwing yourself out of a building across a street!"

Flabbergasted how a simple slap on the wrist she had meant to give Jinx turned into bickering between the enforcer and the loose cannon, Caitlyn found herself desperately trying to stop it again, but couldn't find a word to say.

She had feared something like that would happen, she had known that letting Jinx and Vi work together would sooner or later lead to problems, the two hadn't been on the best term on different sides, but at least they could let their frustrations about one another out on each other, and now they couldn't - but still, so soon?

Jinx tased an officer, undressed in front of them, had just knocked out someone with her rocketlauncher and was fighting with Vi, and hell, it wasn't even breakfast!

"Thank you, Caitlyn..."

The sigh from right behind her let Caitlyn cringe, but turning away from the two bickering women, she found herself in front of a very relieved looking Lux.

"I was on my way to meet up with Jarvan IV and my brother at the east entrance to the city when this crazy woman showed up all of sudden and yelled something about getting revenge on my brother for losing against him by killing me. Just think about it - she tried to kill me!"

Caitlyn nodded shortly, still trying to recover from her shock about her two still bickering partners, who didn't even seemed to have noticed that Lux had come back, and already getting lost in thought about this case.

"A visit to Ezreal, then? I heard he had recently returned from another journey, Vi and I had planned to pay him a visit as well." theorized the sheriff of Piltover, realizing she was still holding her rifle and quickly putting it back in it's place on her back.

"That was actually only part of the reason I am here... Isn't the police governor's party this evening?" Lux seemed perplexed, and Caitlyn realized why – she, as the sheriff, should know about this party. And she did, but with all the chaos connected to Jinx, she had entirely forgotten about it, and that despite her and Vi definitely having to show up.

Which led to another problem – what to do with Jinx?

"Yes, it is. I was kind of... Distracted, and forgot. Thanks for reminding me." muttered Caitlyn, finding herself embarrassed that she forgot something as important as that, and quickly tried to change the topic, hoping that Lux wouldn't notice, "Excuse my confusion now, Luxanna, and don't assume that I want to talk you down, but shouldn't you have the advantage over Katarina? I never had the 'pleasure' to meet her much, but as far as I know, she's only skilled in close-combat, so wouldn't you have the advantage with your light magic?"

Lux, much to Caitlyn's surprise, let out a sigh.

"Yes, I should. And I actually would have, I guess, even with her shunpo... But she showed me this weird talisman she carried on her, which deflected my light magic. Even my Final Spark was useless!" A pout found it's way onto Lux's face, and Caitlyn rolled her eyes.

Why was she attracting these child-like personalities? Vi, Jinx, Ziggs, now Lux – and she remembered Lulu, who had visited the Yordle Academy a few weeks prior, only too well. She and Ziggs had somehow managed to make bombs grow.

The sound of a mini-gun being lifted pulled her out of her thoughts. Lux's pout had turned into a frown, and as Caitlyn herself turned around, she found herself frowning as well at the scene before her. Namely, Jinx holding Pow-Pow right below Vi's chin, an expression of utter madness in her eyes, while Vi's own eyes seemed to challenge Jinx to do it.

"Look, fat hands..." whispered Jinx in a threatening tone, readjusting her stance, barely avoiding to step on Katarina's left hand, "All it takes is the pull of a trigger to bring a world to pieces – So don't let me make it your world, fat hands."

An insane giggle escaped Jinx all of sudden, the flash of uncertainty in Vi's eyes at these words not going past her unnoticed. This alone served to turn the mood once again, and as Caitlyn found herself reminded of their 'game night' this time, it wasn't because of the scene, but because of the mood of danger and uncertainty that lay in the air.

Would Jinx really pull the trigger? When had their bickering escalated into... this?

"You know, fat hands... I don't even have to shoot you." Jinx suddenly swung the mini-gun around, pointing it, to everyone's shock, right at Caitlyn, "I could shoot hat lady."

Lux was about to step in front of Caitlyn at that moment and prepare light magic to protect them, but Jinx had already moved again, the barrel of Pow-Pow once again against Vi's throat.

"Or I could shoot you. Both would result in two worlds being shattered." threatened the lunatic, madness in her eyes, "One completely, the other nearly complete."

And what Caitlyn saw next made her shiver, the cold feeling rolling down her spine making her uncomfortable. The sight making her uncomfortable. The threat Jinx made had quickly turned into a staring contest between the taller enforcer and the smaller loose cannon, the madness in Jinx's eyes unsettling on it's own.

But it was the madness in Vi's eyes, just as radiant and deranged as Jinx's, that really made her doubt just how amusing it was that Jinx and Vi were similar in so many aspects.

Apparently, it did include the state of mind, even if Vi's madness was not as obvious.

Either that, or Jinx's last threat had finally made Vi snap as well, something Caitlyn had feared would one day happen to Vi with how unhealthly her obsession about catching Jinx and thus closing the Harlequin case had become.

With a feeling of helplessness, Caitlyn found herself forced to watch as Vi raised one of her gauntlet-covered hands and used it to push the barrel of the mini-gun away from her throat, all while a smirk of utter madness appeared slowly on the enforcer's lips, almost like a reflection of Jinx's mad smirk on Vi's face.

"Don't you mean three worlds, squirt?" snickered Vi in a cold tone, one that Caitlyn had not once heard from the enforcer in all the years she knew her, "Or are you going to tell me that your world wouldn't suffer as well? Are you denying that your only goal in life is to mock us? To play your little game with us? Killing one of us would destroy your little game. Killing me will make Cait hunt you down, killing Cait will make me rip you apart. Killing us both will not ever allow you to sleep at night, and we both know it. So, wouldn't your world be shattered, too, huh?"

Neither Vi's, nor Jinx's expression changed after that. Madness in their eyes, madness in their expressions, they continued to smirk at each other with lunacy, their faces mere inches apart, each a weapon ready to kill the other one.

The tension had never been this bad, not in all the years they had been chasing Jinx. Not once had the two a confrontation this direct, a clash of their very beings. And even if they didn't seem to feel it, Caitlyn did – it was frightening. The feeling of dread in the air was horrible.

Jinx and Vi – should they truly lose it and go all out at one another, Piltover would never recover from it. Both possessed incredible destructive power, Vi with her gauntlets, Jinx with her heavy artillery, and both with their mind.

They were more than able to level the entire city in a battle of utter hatred.

Triggered by, for example, Caitlyn's death.

Vi had been right – they were running out of alternatives, and that quite fast.

Maybe it truly was already too late, and they were locked onto a suicide course. And they'd take Piltover down with them if it truly escalated like it seemed to do.

Jinx made a sudden movement, both Caitlyn and Lux cringing madly, taking a step away from the fight, although there was no need to. Jinx had merely pulled Pow-Pow to the side, the mad smirk on her face not fading away, however.

"Well played, Vi." snickered the lunatic, glancing out of the corner of her eyes at the enforcer, whose madness slowly changed to a mere smug expression, "You're right. You know me too well by now."

The loose cannon attached the mini-gun back to it's spot at her side and, chuckling, stretched her limbs. It was almost like the situation had defused itself, no matter how unlikely that sounded with the violent personalities of Vi and Jinx clashing.

How exactly it had, however, remained a mystery to Caitlyn, and she should not get the chance to think about it for long.

Too caught up in the arguement, neither of the four had noticed that Katarina had come to, the scarred eye opening first to assess the situation around her. Finding Vi and Jinx distracted by their arguement, and Caitlyn and Lux concerned, it was easy for her to come up with something, especially as she saw that one of her blades, which Vi had kicked away from her before, lay just behind Lux.

From then on, it was too easy for her.

With a agile movement, the sinister blade pushed herself off the ground, one foot slamming into Vi's chin from below, the other blocked by Jinx's quick reaction. The kick still served it's purpose and pushed Jinx into the stumbling Vi, making it harder for them to move immediately. She delivered a swift elbow to Caitlyn's gut, the sheriff doubling over in both surprise and pain, and immediately went for her real target.

Lux barely had the chance to gasp as Katarina tackled into her and threw the lady of luminosity off balance, rolling past her in the same movement to pick up the blade, and with a last turn, stood behind the woman from Demacia, one hand in Lux's hair and pulling her head back, the other holding the blade to the woman's throat.

"Sorry, but I'll be taking her from here. Hope you don't mind." laughed the sinister blade, slowly moving away from the three women in uniform, but without turning away from them.

Caitlyn was the first one to recover from her attack, Jinx helping a dizzy Vi, and immediately pulled her rifle. Crouching down, she put her eye behind the scope and aimed at the captor, but found herself in a classic situation – Katarina was using Lux as a shield, making sure that even her upper body was mostly covered by Lux, not allowing Caitlyn to get a clear shot at her.

Now, Cait had heard of a tactic before that involved shooting the hostage in the leg, as it wouldn't only intimidate the kidnapper, but also mean that the hostage would be unable to move much, slowing the kidnapper down, and thus be a dead weight to him. Problem was, she'd rather not shoot Lux, especially not with the police governor's party that evening, and she had made it a clear rule never to shoot someone innocent.

She could shoot a net to capture both Katarina and Lux in it – but Katarina still held that blade, and in one swift movement, could not only end Lux's life, but also cut through the net.

Caitlyn was out of options, and not only she knew that. The nasty smirk that Katarina flashed her across Lux's shoulder told her that the sinister blade knew, too. And so did Vi and Jinx behind Caitlyn.

Neither of them could do something, either. Vi's combat was limited to close range, and charging or throwing something at Katarina would also hit Lux. Jinx, being a marksman much like Caitlyn, had the same problem as the sheriff, only that none of her weapons would be precise enough to only hit Katarina, and Zap's range was limited.

And throwing Saltsticks, her tonfa? Nope, that would be just as stupid.

The loose cannon, just as out of options as her partners, let out a silent growl and turned to Vi.

And had the idea for the probably most insane plan she ever had.

"Caitlyn, distract her! Cover us! Literally." hissed the lunatic as she turned to Vi, knowing that Katarina had already moved far enough to not hear her. Caityln would've asked what Jinx had planned, but knew that there was no time with how dangerous the sinister blade was, and had no choice but to listen to Jinx, standing up to distract Katarina from what was going on behind her.

Whatever that was.

"We've only got one try, so we better don't mess this up." growled Jinx to the enforcer, knowing that Vi must've had the same plan with how she held one gauntlet into the direction of her. Jinx didn't question it, and merely hopped onto the open palm of the gigantic glove and let herself be raised higher into the air, crouching down in the open palm to aim at the escaping kidnapper and her hostage.

"I know." huffed Vi, annoyed that Jinx even had to voice it, "So, have you aimed properly?"

"I have. Fishbones?" inquired the loose cannon as she already reached for the rocketlauncher, not searching for Vi's gaze, knowing she would have to aim again, and that it could be too late by then already. Vi didn't respond immediately.

"Isn't Pow-Pow heavier?"

Jinx froze for a second, surprised by the question – and then, couldn't help but smirk.

"I like the way you think, fat hands." she chuckled, hands letting go of Fishbones and instead moving to Pow-Pow to unhook it from it's place at her right side, "On my mark."

"Got it."

"Three... Two... One..." began Jinx, narrowing her eyes, a calculation of constantly changing variables going on in her head already, knowing she really had only this one try, and if something went wrong, they'd mess up big time. Vi had slowly raised her higher, to the point where Katarina would have noticed already if she wasn't so busy taunting Caitlyn's warning shots.

"And lift-off!"

Caitlyn, despite not knowing what was going on behind her, understood, and threw herself to the side in a roll. Katarina was caught off guard by this, especially as she saw what she had missed all along, namely Vi picking up Jinx.

And before Katarina could even understand what was going on, Vi had thrown Jinx at her. The sinister blade reacted immediately and pulled Lux in front of her again, her intention to use the lady of luminosity as a shield, but that attempt was thwarted as she realized that Jinx wasn't coming directly at her.

She was flying towards a spot a little to the right of her. Confidence returned as she believed the throw to have failed, peeked over Lux's right shoulder to let out a taunt – only to be proved wrong as she spotted the barrel of a mini-gun coming right at her face.

For the second time that day, an unhealthy and sickening sound echoed through the street, this time not echoing like the first one, except inside the sinister blade's head as it was knocked back. The momentum that slammed into her sent her toppling backwards, letting go of Lux in the process, hitting the ground only a second later, accompanied by a small clattering sound of teeth hitting the pavement around her head.

Her teeth. A few of them, at least, thankfully not all.

An incredible pain in her head kept her down for a moment, but being the warrior by nature that she was, she tried to drown out the pain and moved. Wrong move, as the sound of something charging up told her.

Not a second later, she found her body convulsing with electricity.

"That was a stupid move, scarface." told her the high-pitched voice of Jinx as the electricity stopped with a second pull of Zap's trigger, but the sinister blade was barely conscious by then, sight already turning black, this time knowing that she'd be out for quite a while, "I know Vi may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot, but don't let that fool you, she really is an idiot! So don't underestimate her!"

Screw Garen, that had been her worst and most humiliating defeat ever. Of all time.

The enforcer didn't even say anything about the comment of the loose cannon as she stepped up to the woman on the floor, Caitlyn at her side, though the sheriff was more concerned about the lady of luminosity, who only assured her that she was fine.

It had been a dangerous move of Vi and Jinx, but it had saved her life. And made Katarina's so much worse.

"That was low of her." muttered Vi, finding it hard to hide her disgust at the unconscious woman on the ground, "Not only threatening someone else to hurt the one she really hated, but the last thing about taking Lux hostage."

Sharing a glance with Jinx, the two found themselves lost in thought for a moment. And then, Vi extended a gauntlet-covered hand to the loose cannon, who high-fived the huge mechanical glove with a big smirk on her lips.

Hating each other's guts or not – they knew that they could fight just as well together as they could against another, and Caitlyn had just learned that too, even though they themselves had known it already.

Had known it already for a long time.

Stepping past the unlikely partners, Caitlyn bowed down and pulled out her additional pair of handcuffs, originally meant to be given to Jinx, but on second thought rather kept at her side, knowing that the criminal would probably play with them and end up cuffing herself, or Caitlyn to Vi or something. Turning the still motionless sinister blade over, she cuffed Katarina, and then rose to her full height to glance into Lux's direction.

The lady of luminosity got the hint.

"She's been caught by you in your city. If I step into your town, I'll be answering to you, so she's yours. Handle her as you want." spoke Lux with a smile, knowing that Katarina was in the best hands, "If you excuse me now, there is a party I have to prepare myself for."

Caitlyn gave the blonde a smile, who returned it but left without a further word.

"Party?" muttered Vi, before cringing madly, "Oh damn, that's right, the governor's party!"

Caitlyn, turning back to the enforcer and their unlikely partner, gave a single nod to confirm this.

"And it's starting in less than two hours." sighed the sheriff, sending a single glance towards Katarina on the ground, "Vi, you take Katarina and bring her to the office. You're the enforcer, and you should be able to handle her should she wake up early – which I don't think. And even if she does, she'll probably be in a lot of pain. So tell someone to call a doctor for her, too."

"May I suggest Dr. Mundo?" intervened Jinx, though the gazes told her that Piltover's finest knew who Dr. Mundo was, "Well, just a suggestion."

"Anyways, put her in a cell and then go home and get ready for the party. I'm going to take Jinx with me, and we'll meet back up at the party."

Vi rose an eyebrow, and so did the criminal.

"What for?" asked Vi, frowning, her expression matching Jinx's perfectly at that moment, which didn't get any less funny by how they were standing right next to each other.

"We promised her to take her along with us the entire day, and I'm not intending to break that promise, even if it is the police governor's party." replied Caitlyn, "And we still need to get her a dress."

"Woah, cupcake, are you sure it's wise to take her along to the police governor's party? I mean... There'll be lots of people. People who don't know our deal with her." muttered Vi, but Caitlyn shook her head.

"Trust me, Vi." was all Caitlyn said, a mysterious smile on her lips as she put a hand on Jinx's shoulder, pulling the criminal along. Jinx didn't struggle a bit, but exchanged a last frown with the enforcer.

And before Vi knew, she was along with the still unconscious Katarina.

---

"I must say... I like this stuff. Can I keep it?"

Caitlyn sent a glance of disbelief towards the woman aside her, who was tugging at the pearl necklace around her neck, then at the front of her own dress – and quickly slapped the woman's wrist as she saw that a few guys around them were slowly blushing, she herself starting to blush too because of the shameless loose cannon. Leave it to Jinx to accidentally bare her own chest to the world in the lobby of a mansion.

Not that anyone would recognize her as Jinx, though. Wearing stockings, blue high-heels, a blue flapper dress with gloves of the same color that reached up to her elbows, Jinx had taken on a surprisingly classy vintage look, completely different from her usually skimpy clothes and wild appearance. Instead of in two braids, her hair was in a style that Caitlyn had called Gibson Tuck, giving the impression that there was no chance that it was so long that it reached nearly down to her ankles.

The only things that would allow anyone to really recognize her as Jinx would be her pink eye color and her tattoos, latter one only visible in between her neck and her glove due to her dress being halterless and only reaching above her chest, thus baring her shoulders and upper arms to the world.

And of course her weapons, which she had refused to put aside. But then again, Caitlyn was wearing her own rifle over her shoulder. The sheriff herself had chosen a simple white cocktail dress and had, for once, put no hat on, something that Jinx found as amusing as it felt odd to her.

"Look, you chose this stuff, I bought it for you, you can keep it." confirmed the sheriff, irritated that Jinx would ask this yet again, something she had been doing ever since Caitlyn had bought the clothes. Not that they had been expensive, being from a store for costumes Jinx had insisted on going into, not happy with all the other stuff in the regular stores.

"Come on now, we should announce our arrival." sighed the sheriff, nodding over to a man behind a counter at the side of the lobby. Jinx shrugged and nodded, but followed Caitlyn as the sheriff left. Not without sending a glance into the crowd, though, seeing if she could spot the enforcer, which they were supposed to meet at the party.

When she couldn't spot the brawler, Jinx followed Caitlyn, stepping up to her just as the man behind the counter finally turned to them.

"Lady Caitlyn." he greeted, recognizing her. Caitlyn gave a simple nod and a smile, and pulled an imaginary hat.

"In person. Would you kindly...?" she inquired, nodding to a list that lay on the counter in between them. The man nodded and gave a gentle bow.

"Of course, sheriff. Punctually as ever, if I may say that. I can see why you're a guest of honor." he complimented, and while Caitlyn smiled, Jinx turned her head away, trying to hide that all this formality made her feel the need to gag.

Another thing she had in common with Vi.

"Thank you. May I inquire if my partner has already announced her arrival?" asked Caitlyn gently, and with another nod, the man flipped through the pages of the list, right to the end.

"I fear not, lady. Your partner has yet to arrive. But if I may tell you so, Mister Jayce and Mister Ezreal have arrived already and inquired about your presence." answered the man, before turning his attention to Jinx all of sudden, "Lady Caitlyn, may I ask who your lovely companion is? She's quite a beauty."

Caitlyn opened her mouth to say something, but Jinx turned her head around almost too quickly, a sickening sweet smile on her lips.

"Dr. Jay Inks, I'm an acquaintance of sheriff Caitlyn. We had the pleasure to meet about a week ago,when I first visited this..." Jinx trailed off, and Caitlyn knew it was to surpress the word 'pathetically', though she masked it perfectly with a single cough,"...neat city."

"Well then, Dr. Inks, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I suppose you're not on the guest list?" inquired the man with a smile, and both Jinx and Caitlyn knew that the man obviously had a thing for the disguised loose cannon.

"I invited her, she's my guest. I suppose that is not a problem?" asked the sheriff, and didn't even need to wait for the man's smile.

"Of course not. Please, Dr. Inks, all you have to do is to write your name down here." the man pulled another list from beneath the counter and passed it to the loose cannon, who accepted the pen that the man offered her, and wrote down in a surprising perfection, almost as if she had practiced it, the name 'Dr. Jay Inks'.

But there was no way it would be her real name, could it? Jinx was, after all, a nickname that was given to the criminal by the citizens of Piltover, though the sheriff was assured that Jinx herself had started the name.

"Very well. Now, sheriff, you know the procedure. We do have several special vaults in the next room, and upon order of the governor himself, all weapons but those of the security personnel are to be confiscated until you leave. No weapon is to enter the ballroom. Even that of the sheriff of Piltover." continued the man as he put the list back underneath the counter, sending another glance to 'Jay', taking in her impressive weaponry, "The same would go for you, Dr."

Jinx let out a groan, but surprisingly, without a single complaint, put Fishbones, Pow-Pow and Zap down on the counter right aside Caitlyn's rifle.

"Oh... A rocketlauncher shaped like a fish, a mini-gun and..." began the man, apparently recognizing the weaponry. Caitlyn shuddered, having forgotten that Jix would be recognizable by her weaponry, and already opened her mouth for an excuse, but Jinx beat her to it again.

"I'm a doctor of psychology, specializing in the evaluation of motives and feelings of criminals. I try to understand what they feel in their every moment, and thus try to live as similar as possible to how they live in order to predict their next moves." explained Jinx in the same sweet tone as before, suddenly gesturing to the sheriff aside her, "I promised Caitlyn to help with the Harlequin case that focuses on the criminal Jinx, and thus have started to live as she does, starting with her weaponry, which she seems to share a close, almost friendship-like bond to. I am sorry if I gave you the wrong impression for a moment, but ask yourself – why would the sheriff of Piltover come to a party of the police governor with the criminal who poses the greatest threat to Piltover?"

The man seemed to think about this for a moment, but then gave a weak laugh.

"You're right. I'm sorry, Dr. Inks, but you gave me quite a scare."

"It happens." giggled Jinx, "I've been mistaken for quite a few criminals in my time, as I usually try to take on an appearance that resembles their's greatly. As I said, it's so I can feel the same they do. I'm trying to put myself into the same spot, so to say. It's a questionable, and not necessarily approved method, but I'm always making sure to distance myself from these impersonifications, and to not follow their line of crime."

"Quite impressive." mused the man, before nodding to the weapons on the counter between them, "Are these all weapons that you carry?"

Jinx froze up for a second, then sent a small but uneasy smile to Caitlyn, who just rose her eyebrow at the criminal. With a sigh, Jinx turned back to the counter.

She reached inside her top, the man's eyes almost bulging out as she did so, and pulled out a knife that she had strapped onto her stomach with a hidden belt beneath the dress. Placing it on the counter, she next pulled her dress a bit up and revealed another strap around her right upper leg, holding another knife and a set of four needles in place. She simply undid the strap and placed it on the counter as well.

The man was about to say something, but Jinx had already reached back and pulled another set of needles out of her hairdo, to which even Caitlyn found herself surprised, not sure when the criminal had put it there. She was about to ask, but Jinx had already continued, reaching once more into her top to undo the belt around her stomach and pulling out, at which point the man behind the counter became surprisingly pale, all color fading from his face when he saw the set of Mini-Flame-Chompers and smaller explosives.

Both Caitlyn and the man remained speechless, especially as Jinx still wasn't done.

And before long, a pile of weapons lay between the man and Jinx, a pile consisting of Fishbones, Pow-Pow, Taser-Zap, smaller explosives and Flame-Chompers, knives, needles, a rolled up blueprint that was held close by a flashing ring (obviously an explosive, meant to go off unless a code was entered first) and read 'Friendship-Combine' (a codename Jinx had decided to use for a special device she was working on, designed to combine Fishbones, Zap and Pow-Pow to a single weapon), and finally the new tonfa, which she had dubbed Saltsticks, pulling the later out her stockings, much to Caitlyn's shock.

"W-was that..." the man, intimidated by the amount of weapons, swallowed, "...all?"

Jinx rose an eyebrow and let her gaze wander up and down the pile, her expression thoughtful, before she suddenly let out a gasp. Keeping her mouth open, the criminal reached inside and, to the disgust of the two next to her, pulled out a tooth and threw it onto the pile. Spotting the baffled and disgusted expressions of the sheriff and the man behind the counter, she frowned.

"What?" she complained, "I'm sure that the criminal named Jinx is a freak when it comes to weapons. She surely has lots of hidden weapons on her body... Oh, the tooth is a nice touch, isn't it? It's actually a small mini-explosive. Don't worry, there was no chance it could go off in my mouth, you have to turn the top of it twice and break the dental roots off, and then throw it on the ground. And that aside, it's not that explosive. Just a small one. Itsy bitsy."

Still shocked by the criminal, it was Jinx who rolled her eyes and let out a groan this time.

"Are you going to take my weapons or not?" growled the criminal, "I'll warn you, though, if just one of them is missing, I'm coming back and level the whole mansion on my search for it, maybe the whole city if I have to. And I do know how many of each type I was carrying on me!"

Caitlyn blinked several times, but the man behind the counter had just frozen up, almost stopping to breathe for a moment. Jinx kept her angry expression for a moment longer, before suddenly letting it return to a smile.

"See? I'm good in my role as Jinx, ain't I? I've practiced a whole lot! This is going to be my greatest role so far, maybe of all time!" she laughed, throwing her head back. Caitlyn let out a deep sigh at that, and the man behind the counter, although staying pale and quiet for a minute longer, chuckled weakly.

"Dr. Inks, please stop scaring me. You'll be the death of me otherwise..." he whined weakly, still pale, and Jinx let this fuel her amusement.

"I'll try to." she giggled, though Caitlyn was assured that she wouldn't, "We should head inside, Caitlyn. Let's hope Vi won't be too late."

"Uh... Have a nice evening, ladies. It was nice to meet you, Dr. Inks." offered the man with a weak smile, and Jinx smiled at him.

"It was nice meeting you, too."

Not waiting a single second longer, Jinx gave the man a last stare, eyes darting for the pile of weapons for a second to remind him of the threat she had made, and left the counter, Caitlyn trailing behind as the criminal in disguise headed for the large ivory double doors that led to the ballroom.

"Nice save back there... 'Jay'." smiled Caitlyn as she caught up to Jinx, to which the criminal shrugged.

"I made that all up." smirked Jinx, something she didn't have to tell Caitlyn, but still felt like she needed appreciation for. After all, she had it all made up on the spot.

"Still, I'm starting to feel more and more that you'll fit right into my squad." commented the sheriff as she walked along the criminal, not even caring to have a look around. She knew the ballroom, had been in there countless times on different parties over the years, and the people always were the same. The only difference this year was Jinx's presence, and that Vi had been, for the first time, invited, and would be there.

Even the police governor had finally acknowledged Vi as an irreplacable member of the police force of Piltover. Not that Vi had ever cared for his opinion, but she still had shown Caitlyn a smug smile when she had gotten the invitation.

"Hm..." grumbled Jinx in return, her expression not one that showed that she was convinced by the idea, "Let's just look for fat... Vi."

"No need to, I'm right here. Just went up to the guy and quickly got my gauntlets in the vault when you two entered the ballroom. Still, I'm not too comfortable with giving my gauntlets into the hands of some stranger... They can kill you if you don't use them the right way!" hollered Vi's voice from right behind them.

The unlikely duo turned around to regroup with the enforcer, but both Caitlyn and Jinx got the shock of their life as they saw the brawler.

Or the person who seemed to be Vi.

Dressed in black pants, black patent-leather shoes, a yellow tie, and a white vest with a red rose over a blue shirt with sleeves down to her wrists, this elegant attire seemed to contradict everything the two had ever seen about Vi's brash attitude and her abrasive humor. Furthermore, not only was her stance elegant in a manly way (Jinx, with her degree in psychology, was assured that Vi filled in the manly role in the relationship between the sheriff and the enforcer), but with her hair combed back and in a single long braid instead of several short ones, she looked straightout attractive, even Jinx had to admit that in an objective way.

To be honest, if not for the pink hair color, which Vi was proud of, and the tattoo displaying the roman numerals VI beneath her left eye, one would've to look twice to ensure it was Vi.

"You... uh... clean up well, Vi..." murmured Caitlyn, sounding surprised. Jinx didn't think anything of it, but turned to the sheriff – and recoiled as she saw that the sheriff was practically drooling at the sight of her girlfriend.

"You do so yourself, lady."

Just how had those two survived all the years without locking the door to their office, ripping their clothes off and going right at it on one of the desks?

The criminal let out a frustrated and disgusted sigh at the lovey-dovey ogling of the pair. Knowing they had entirely forgotten about her, she knew it meant that she could wander off a bit and look for more interesting things, and honestly, she didn't want to be around them all the time. Not for her sake, but for their sake; after all, they had just started to date and needed their alone time.

So Jinx, as bored as she was from time to time with no one to talk to and nothing to do, left the side of the two lovers and went to mingle with the crowd to look for something interesting, for something to do. After all, this was not her kind of party. It was formal, it was as quiet as a huge room full of stuck-up people could be, and there were no explosions, and it didn't seem to her that there would be anything interesting to do, either.

But as it was with things to do, sometimes you didn't find them, but they find out.

"Nehehe, if that isn't the queen of terror, the harlequin princess of crime herself!" called out a high but quiet voice, nearly getting drowned out in the crowd. Not that anyone but Jinx seemed to pay this any mind.

There was only one person who called her that. Someone she hadn't met too long ago on one of her bombing sprees – where they planned to both play with an explosive in the ally behind the Yordle Academy.

So, full of glee, the loose cannon twirled around – and immediately crouched down.

"Ziggs!" she exclaimed happily, hands on her knees, recognizing the Yordle that shared her interest in blowing things up, the dean of demolitions himself. She opened her arms wide and hugged the Yordle, who only giggled in a way that made one question if he wasn't insane himself, after all.

"Like the new outfit, Jinx. Almost didn't recognize ya when ya came in with the sheriff, quite hard to do so. How exactly did that happen?" he inquired as soon as the loose cannon let him go, the wide grin on his lips at no point losing it's intensity. He liked Jinx, after all. Crazy, unpredictable, quite dangerous.

All things he was called, too.

"Meh, got this stupid deal with her, I'm on the side of the police for one day. It's almost like a bet, you could say, but with an actual reason. It's supposed to show me the other side of the law, in hope that I want to join them." she replied, shrugging. Of course, she was being a lot more non-chalant about it than she actually was on the inside.

She did want it herself, after all.

"Oh? And, do ya plan to? Could be fun having ya around all the time. Caitlyn is thinking about whether or not to employ me for the bomb squad, so we'd probably end up working together."

Jinx rose an eyebrow, her smile growing wider at the thought of getting to play with explosives all day at the side of the dean of demolitions without the police chasing you afterwards. But then again, the last part was a lot of fun, too.

"Don't really know yet. I want to see how the rest of the day goes before I make any decisions. Last time I made a decision too early, I ended up nearly blowing a finger up. And the body attached to it." she mused with a shrug, but did sneak a glance into the direction of Piltover's finest nonetheless, which Ziggs followed.

"Can understand that. If you don't need to make them, avoid quick decisions. You may have a blast once you made them, but they usually are the wrong decisions and end up causing at least part of your world to come down on top of you. And ya know what they say, slow and steady wins the race. Trust me, you can have a blast and make the right decision if you had enough time to think about what you really want to choose." mused the Yordle, before grinning at Jinx.

"Hey, let this dean of demolitions give ya an advice, lady." he began all of sudden, the grin not fading away, "Life is like a bomb, you may have a blast, others may have too, but it sooner or later ends up causing something to collapse on you, and if you weren't careful, others as well. So, if the time comes, stop the fuse. Stop it before it is too late. You'll not get the same satisfaction out of it that you get by blowing things up."

He turned to look into the direction of Piltover's finest, caught up in their conversation and obviously having a good time, and Jinx followed his gaze to them once again. Her expression had become uncharacteristically stoic, almost thoughtful.

"What I am saying is... Don't let things go too far. Change before it is too late. You shouldn't make quick decisions, but you also shouldn't wait until it's too late, and the damage is done. There's a time and a place for everything, and you will know when it has come." continued Ziggs, though he did not meet the criminal's gaze, "Or do you want to destroy that?"

Jinx knew what he was referring to. She knew that he meant the happy couple that she had helped to get together, the relationship of the sheriff and the enforcer that she wished to be part of in some way. Just as she admitted her own insanity, she'd also admit that she was jealous.

She never had someone like that, never had found someone who cared for her.

But despite all the jealousy, despite the wish to be with them, she already knew the answer to Zigg's question.

"No. No I don't." she muttered, her tone glum and quiet. No, she truly didn't want to destroy that relationship. Apart from the fact that she was the one who had helped them to get together, she was fully supportive of them. After all, she didn't only do it so they wouldn't get distracted by their surpressed feelings all the time and probably focus on chasing her again, but to actually genuinely help them.

Vi and Caitlyn deserved it. They were kind-hearted individuals, even Vi was, and they most certainly didn't deserve what she had been through. The bad day. The loss of sanity. The madness. The pain.

They didn't deserve to fall into the gutters of life and drown in the gathering madness, like she did.

An image, a younger version of herself, hanging in a hole full of water below a grating, holding onto it as she desperately tried to gasp for air as the storm above continued on and rain poured down and the hole continued to fill with the muddy rainwater, flashed in front of her inner eye. The image of a young girl standing above the grating, holding her hand, crying as she tried to help her out of the cold water.

Cold. So cold.

It felt like her heart and breath stopped for a moment.

"I thought so." spoke Ziggs eventually, the grin having faded as he watched the loose cannon getting lost in thought, "Even you wouldn't want that."

Jinx nodded weakly, gaze not having returned to the Yordle, but still on the laughing duo that was Piltover's finest. Ziggs didn't fail to notice Jinx's faraway look, the dull color of her otherwise glowing eyes. He had guessed something like this would happen.

He let out a deep sigh and shook his head. He didn't know what Jinx was thinking about, but he had a faint idea. The only time he had seen Jinx like that, she had told him about this 'bad day' that she had once, that had made her like she was, without going into detail as to what exactly happened. But back then, she had this faraway look, too.

"Hey." he called out, happy as he saw that Jinx turned her gaze to him and gave him a weak smile, "I think this party is a bit too dull and slow for our taste. Want to help changing that?"

Jinx perked up, raising an eyebrow at him. But he simply grinned and reached into the bag at his side, grin growing wider as he pulled something out – a huge pearl?

With his grin growing to it's full size, the Yordle let one of his fingers slide over the surface of what looked like a way too big pearl, and let out a small giggle as he saw how the excitement in Jinx's eyes lit up again as the pearl suddenly parted, revealing that it was completely mechanic on the inside, a small red light flashing, accompanied by a beep.

"They didn't realize it's a tear gas grenade. I designed it so that it lets out a stream of gas upwards a few seconds after hitting the ground, meant to hit only one person. The gas itself doesn't last long enough for more than one person. Also, it's not too dangerous. It doesn't damage lungs, doesn't hurt too bad and leaves no permanent damage. Your eyes don't even swell and become all red!" giggled the dean of demolitions, "Heimerdinger made me design something like this after these pearls turned out to be unqualified for explosives. Who do we want to use it on, hm?"

Jinx's mad grin was back. And she already had an idea who to use it on.

"Let's use it on the dumbass of tomorrow! I heard someone say he's here." she snickered, the image of Jayce crying the whole time fueling her amusement and insanity equally.

"Jayce, hm? Well, I guess I saw him and the explorer by the..."

Someone pushed past the Yordle, immediately sending him into a stumble. The smooth surface of the pearl caused it to slip out from between his fingers, Jinx letting out a gasp, finding herself reminded of her fake mine prank during the 'game night' she had with Piltover's finest, with the difference that this was real.

She dove for the pearl, missed, hitting the ground between a group of people and scaring the heck out of them. Not caring about it, she turned around to see where the pearl had ended up.

And the last bit of color was drained from her pale face as she saw at whose feet it had landed. And that it was already too late.

A stream of white was released upwards with the sharp noise of gas leaking, the unfortunate individual above the pearl suddenly embraced by a cloud of white.

Jinx barely even got the chance to exchange a panicked glance with Ziggs, the two of them taking off running the moment that a furious roar echoed through the ballroom.

Seconds later, both the dean of demolitions and the loose cannon dove out an open glass door onto a balcony, followed by a crying Vi.

With a deep sigh, Caitlyn put Vi's glass of champagne, though Vi wasn't exactly fond of the bubbly liquid, down on the table at her side, having barely caught it when the enforcer emerged from the cloud, already running towards the two fleeing bomb fanatics.

And with that, another evening with Vi was interrupted, this time possibly even completely over.

"So I see that the rumors really are true then." spoke a voice to her right, and the sheriff turned to the new arrival with a weak smile.

"Good evening, Ezreal." she greeted the explorer in the white suit, who nodded back and gently rose his glass of chamapgne into her direction for a second. The other and taller man that followed him quickly did the same, although he bowed in front of the sheriff.

"Good evening, Jayce." she added as the man rose, the defender of tomorrow in a suit not too different from Ezreal's as well.

"I would've said lovely evening, but I believe that we were just proved otherwise." he commented, of course referring to the event they had just witnessed, the sounds of a furious Vi in the distance still occasionally audible to them.

"It was my fault." sighed the sheriff as she heard Vi roar yet again, with the mad laughter of a certain loose cannon and a certain dean of demolitions following. Why were the people she knew so childish from time to time?

"Then the rumors really are true." repeated Ezreal, and upon seeing Caitlyn's frown, opened his mouth to say something, but was beat to it by Jayce.

"You and Vi have been seen with Jinx this morning during your patrol, Caitlyn. Rumors say that Jinx was wearing a police uniform." explained the tall inventor, "And that aside, the whole thing with Katarina and Lux didn't go unnoticed. In fact, we met Lady Lux herself and she retold the events of this morning."

"I was already wondering when someone would ask." muttered the sheriff, more to herself than to the two men, "Look, it's an experiment. We want to show Jinx that..."

"Miss Caitlyn."

The sheriff was interrupted by an elderly man dressed in black walking up to them, bowing to her, then to Ezreal and Jayce.

"Your presence at the stage is requested, the police governor would like to say a few words. Your partner has already been informed as well." informed her the elderly man, and Caitlyn couldn't help but pinch the bridge of her nose and sigh.

"Look, I'm sorry for what Vi did, I'm sure that she..."

"I can assure you, the governor is not angry about this taking place. He was well aware that something like this could happen if he were to extend the invitation to your less mannered partner. No damage is done so far, and even if it were to, he wants to assure you that it won't have any negative influence on how he sees the police force or the enforcer. Instead, he wants me to assure you that he is quite impressed by your partner's hard work and her abilities. He is assured that she is a valuable and irreplacable, even if sometimes brute, member of the police force of Piltover, and that a police force were to be lacking something if someone like Miss Vi would not be in it. Her devotion to the Harlequin case did not go unnoticed, either."

Again, the sheriff sighed, but let it remain at that.

"Fine, please lead the way." she spoke, and the elderly man bowed in return. Turning her head to Ezreal and Jayce, she gave an apologetic nod, placed her glass aside the abandoned one of Vi, and turned to follow the man to the stage.

---

By the time that Piltover's finest could finally leave the stage, the governor's speech of how much he trusted the police force finally having ended, the evening had become late evening. Vi wore a smug grin, which wasn't much of a surprise, seeing as to how much the governor had praised her and her change from criminal to Piltover's enforcer, and was enjoying all the attention she got.

At least, it seemed that way until the two had mingled with the crowd again. The moment that no one was watching them anymore, Vi twirled around and placed a hand on Caitlyn's shoulder.

"Please tell me you saw Jinx somewhere in the crowd." she whispered, leaning closer to her girlfriend, masking it as starting to dance with Caitlyn, as a slow music was playing and most people around them had already paired off for a slow dance.

"I didn't." whispered Caitlyn back, following Vi's surprisingly skilled steps, "I hoped you had. Do you think she's up to something?"

"I'm not sure." replied the enforcer, her hand sliding down from the sheriff's shoulder and down to her waist, "I don't think she had actually planned to get me with that gas earlier. She and Ziggs were yelling something about an accident while they jumped from one balcony to the other."

"Well, it would certainly go against her earlier determination." mused Caitlyn, "I mean, she was looking forward to this day, wasn't she? She even changed the design of her weapons a little, after all, and if it's Jinx, that has to mean something. She loves her weapons."

"I was thinking the same. So where is she?"

"She's on the balcony closest to the banquet table. She asked me to tell you two that she wanted you to meet her there."

Both the enforcer and the sheriff glanced to their right, immediately realizing it was Ziggs who had talked to them. He had a surprisingly serious, almost glum expression, no sign of his usual big grin or his amusement.

It was the moment that the two cops knew that something was up with Jinx.

Separating from one another, stopping their dance, both turned to the Yordle. Vi was the first one to make an attempt at asking something, but Ziggs merely shook his head slowly, gestured towards the balcony in question, and without another word, vanished in the crowd again.

All that Piltover's finest was left to do was to exchange a confused glance, and follow the instruction given to them.

And to be honest, the feeling of dread that grew with each step towards the balcony was worse than the dread Vi had felt when she had waited for Jinx to arrive at the police station earlier that day.

The air was cool as they stepped outside the building and onto the balcony, the sun having long set and the moon rising up into the sky. Few stars were visible against the blackness above, though, and so, the moon was the only thing that really illuminated the scenery.

Jinx stood at the edge of the balcony in her dress, the sight of her against the scenery behind truly mesmerizing. It gave her a softer and slightly older appearance, less wild and insane. If anything, it was hard to imagine that the beauty that stood before them, blending into the scenery as if they were looking at a painting of a woman on a balcony, was anything but the most beautiful being in the world, both in mind and body.

"Please close the door, will you?"

The request, surprisingly soft and not as high-pitched as they were used to from Jinx, did not go unnoticed, and it was Vi who eventually turned around and gently closed the door, shutting them off from the party inside.

It had become silent, with the soft breeze that gently shook the dress of what was supposed to be the loose cannon being the only thing to prevent a complete silence.

"Caitlyn, Vi... I... I had a lot of fun today." admitted the criminal suddenly, breaking the silence, "Despite not everything going as planned, even with the boring parts in between and all the other stuff... It was fun. It was a change, and I loved every second of it. Loved every second I got to spent with you without running from you."

Jinx slowly turned around, facing them. In the dim light that reached her face and the soft smile on it, even Caitlyn could finally see that Jinx was no girl, the age clear as day now that the criminal was serious for once. Without the lunatic smile and the childish glee, one could see quite clear that Jinx was a woman in her twenties.

"That's good." offered Vi, unable to hold back her own smile.

But Jinx smile fell.

And she shook her head.

"It isn't. Not with who I am... Who I have become."

Deep frowns made their way onto the faces of Piltover's finest, both of them not quite understanding whether or not to like Jinx's behavior and odd comment.

"You see..." began the criminal and turned away again, gaze falling onto the scenery far away, the beauty out of reach rather than the beauty behind her, "I am no normal person, and you've noticed it. Noticed it the moment that we met. I'm crazy. I'm insane. A lunatic. And yet, today, I was given a taste of sanity, of the sanity I thought I had lost so long ago."

Her hand reached forward, as if to grasp some of the beauty in the distance, and for a moment, her smile grew. But as her hand fell, limp, so did her smile.

"You see, I wasn't always like this. Wasn't always as mad as I am today. I wasn't always a crazy lunatic craving destruction and blood. I was... like you." the whisper was so faint that Piltover's finest had nearly missed it, but what followed next was twice as loud as everything before that, as if to compensate, "My descent into madness, it all started with one bad day. And that, that was all that it took. Just one bad day to change me forever. To make me lose my mind. A confrontation with death and loss. Envy followed soon after, envy towards those who had what I lost. And then, the madness."

Jinx twirled around all of sudden, her gaze immediately meeting that of Vi, both of them staring at each other with seriousness that Caitlyn had not seen from any of the two before.

"You had a bad day too, Vi." spoke Jinx all of sudden, her gaze not breaking away, "And we both know that your day was the same bad day as mine. You lost what I lost. You saw the same death I did."

The sheriff, standing to their side, found herself caught off guard. She had always suspected that there was a lot more to the obsession of Vi to close the Harlequin case, and her obsession of chasing Jinx down, but it seemed that the past these two had ran a lot deeper.

"So what if I did? I saw it too. I felt it, too." growled the enforcer, her eyes narrowing at her nemesis. And Jinx's merely smiled.

"You didn't feel shit, didn't feel the cold embrace. You didn't feel it slip away, the every last ounce of life, you didn't feel anything." hissed the loose cannon past her smile.

"I felt your hand getting cold. I felt it slip away, and I tried everything I could to not let it happen!" countered Vi right away, taking a step forward. Jinx didn't budge, but the mocking smile vanished again.

"That's the closest we've ever come to talk about that day." she realized aloud, before a cruel laugh escaped her as she turned away again, waving it off as if it suddenly didn't matter anymore, "Anyways... So you've had a bad day too, Vi. It's what made us who we are. It made you, it made me, here we are again. And we're not the same people anymore that we've been before it."

"I had another bad day. I had it when my parents died, and I was all alone, forced to suddenly fight for survival in the streets of a lawless district of Piltover." growled Vi, taking another step towards the criminal, "I know what you feel. I can understand."

Jinx whirled around all of sudden, but no insanity or seriousness could be read on her face. Instead, what made her glare at Vi and slap the enforcer's hand away, was blind anger.

"You don't understand shit, Vi. You don't understand me at all! Didn't you listen? We changed! We're not the same people anymore!" roared Jinx as she took the step that separated her from the enforcer, finger held threateningly close to Vi's face, "And if you'd let me finish, you'd see why! Maybe then you'd at least understand how I feel right now!"

Vi was quiet. Shocked and intimidated by the sudden flash of anger of the criminal, she wasn't sure anymore what to say. Even the helpless glance towards Caitlyn didn't help, as the sheriff merely stood at the side with the same helpless expression. She couldn't do anything this time. She didn't even understand the connection between the enforcer and the loose cannon.

Jinx suddenly turned away again, just as fast as she had turned to the enforcer, and collapsed onto the railing before her.

"You can't understand, Vi, because..." Jinx's voice had gone back to soft and glum, her mood change from angry to sad just as fast as the other way around, and her expression matched her tone as she turned to sent Caitlyn a soft smile, "Because you have Caitlyn. And I'm glad that you have her. You've had a bad day once, Vi... But you had a good day after that. And good days are rare. Why do you think I was so hellbent on getting you together? I tried to make you realize what precious treasure you had at your side all the time! I tried to make you realize the worth of a good day!"

Jinx turned to look away again, this time lowering her head until her forehead rested on the railing, right between her arms.

"I on the other hand... I've gone too far into the madness already. I fully embraced it, and I still do so. My bad day was so bad that nothing is left to save, and I try to make you two realize it right now. I can't let go of the madness anymore, can't abandon it anymore. Not alone. And not with your help alone. There's no good day in the world that could ever reverse the effects that the bad day had on me."

"And you think one good day could heal me?" hissed Vi, the anger in her voice causing both sheriff and criminal to turn to her, "You think that all my scars have healed? I was so foolish to think that, too. When Caitlyn offered me a new life and I slowly began to adapt to it, I really thought that all the horrors of my past would stop. That the nightmares would stop. But when you suddenly appeared in Piltover, I only came to realize how deep the scars really run."

"Scars, Vi. Scars are mere reminders. But if you were to compare us today, based on what remained of the bad day that we had... You'd be a body covered in scars, and I..." a cruel laugh escaped Jinx, who before their eyes, slowly began to return into the madness again, "I'd be a disfigured being, it's body covered in open wounds, who smiles as the blood turns it's body from white to crimson..."

"You're losing it." warned Vi, but Jinx only began to laugh even louder at her, laughed as if she had just heard the greatest joke of all time, a laugh so cruel that it caused Caitlyn to cringe and Vi to narrow her eyes.

"I can't lose what I don't have, Vi! I'm insane! I've lost my mind already, I can't lose it a second time!"

"Now you're making it easy for yourself! You're just scared of trying to escape it! Dammit, Jinx, I'm offering you my hand right now! Caitlyn does, too! We're trying to pull you out of the gutters!" roared the enforcer, grabbing her nemesis by the shoulders, but Jinx just smiled at her. Smiled in that insane way that sent shivers down their spines.

"Don't you mean... grating, Vi?"

As if Jinx had suddenly become too hot for Vi to hold, as if holding Jinx any longer would burn her hands off, Vi recoiled and threw her hands up, taking two steps at once away from the criminal with a shocked expression.

But Jinx merely smiled.

"And now you're suddenly not as hellbent anymore, hm? To try and help me?!" now it was Jinx who stepped towards Vi, and for the first time in her life, Caitlyn should see how Vi actually backed away from a fight, away from Jinx.

"Don't you see, fat hands? I tried. We tried!" bellowed Jinx, the crazy smile vanished for a second, then turning into a thoughtful, almost sad frown, "But I can't change. Trying to make me change is a joke of nature! It goes against my nature! Against your nature! Our nature! I destroy things, you hunt criminals like me down, and we continue this cycle! We are bound by nature to continue this cycle! By our nature! I can't suddenly stop to destroy and help you hunt criminals..."

Jinx stopped advancing towards Vi and suddenly lowered her head, staring at the ground to her feet.

"I just can't." she whispered in a whimper. But this fueled Vi with new hope, the whimper alone seeming to give her new strength, as she suddenly took the step towards Jinx after all, and laid her hands onto the smaller woman's shoulders.

"I never said that it has to be sudden! If we go slow and try to change you bit by bit, then...!" began Vi in a new attempt, but Jinx suddenly moved both her hands up and pushed Vi's hands away from her.

"You just don't get it, do you? I've become who I am now, and I can't go back. Just like the catterpillar who becomes a butterfly, I can't turn back into what I was before the transformation, before the change!" Jinx took all the steps back to the railing, collapsing backwards against it, "Only that I am the most ugly butterfly in the world, with the most nihilistic view of life."

She looked up at her two unlikely allies, a twisted smile on her lips.

"For me, it's all a joke. Anything anybody ever valued or struggled for, for me, it's all just a monstrous, demented gag."

"And because of this view, you think you can't change?" interrupted Caitlyn, trying to get back in, "You think you have strayed too far from the sanity? That you've stepped too far into darkness?"

Jinx gave a weak smile this time, something she always couldn't help but do when she saw Caitlyn. Caitlyn. Poor, poor naive Caitlyn. She'd never understand the full extent of a bad day. Born rich, raised safely and without ever having to fight to see the next day. She was far from a spoiled princess, but she just couldn't understand. Never would.

"I tried to prove the opposite to myself, Caitlyn." sighed the loose cannon, throwing her head back to stare at the moon in the darkness above her, just like her sanity seeming so close, but being so far away from one's grasp. Finding herself reminded of the other night just after the whole apartment-event a week ago, Jinx chuckled and extended her hand towards the moon.

Just like her sanity, she could reach for it, but would never, not in her lifetime, be able to grasp, let alone touch it.

"But now that I had a taste of sanity, thanks to this day with you two... I am even more assured that I can't do this. My life consists of nothing more than wrecking havoc without a thought of the consequences, I can't do anything else. Anything else would make me realize that I should be long dead. That I am practically dead." she murmured, only then lowering her gaze to meet that of the sheriff again.

"And that's my dilemma. I want to beat you two, I want to win my own game! But doing so would end my game. The game that I've dedicated my entire life to. I dedicated my entire life to blowing up this boring city to pieces, and to beating you two over it."

It became silent again on the balcony, and this time, even the breeze remained unheard.

"What are you trying to tell us, Jinx?" whispered Caitlyn eventually. The criminal, having gotten lost in thought, cringed and looked up at the sheriff, a weak smile returning to her lips, though her eyes remained dull and her gaze distant.

"You know, this reminds me of a joke... No wait, it wasn't a joke, there's no punchline, and it's not funny at all. Was it a dream, then? I don't know, but it was funny to me, ya know?" chuckled Jinx all of sudden, before slowly pushing herself off the ground, rising to her full height and dusting herself off.

"Imagine this... The world has suffered a terrible disaster. A black haze shuts out the sun, and the darkness has become alive. People scream, moans of the wounded echo around." the voice of the loose cannon was weak and barely louder than the breeze before, not even seeming to grow stronger as Jinx approached the door behind Piltover's finest, "And suddenly, there's this small light glowing in the darkness. A candle has flickered into life, a symbol of hope for everything that exists. A single, tiny candle, shining in the ugly darkness."

Jinx pushed the doorhandle down, the smile on her lips growing, but not losing it's softness.

And suddenly, Jinx blew against the glass of the door.

"And I laughed, and blew it out."

Jinx pulled the door open with a silent snicker, the warmth from inside rushing past her.

"Don't search for me for the rest of the day. Tonight, I'll vanish, and won't appear again for a few days. But when I return, we'll just continue our game as if nothing has ever happened. The other side of the law, and the other side of sane and insane... It just isn't made for me." muttered the loose cannon over her shoulder, "And that was not a suggestion."

Without another word, Jinx stepped inside again, and before either cop found the strength to let alone move, Jinx had vanished in the crowd, gone from sight.

While Vi's mind had stopped working after all of this, Caitlyn's hadn't. She knew now that her partner had some connection to Jinx, and knew that it would take Vi a while to recover and become herself again. She herself would have to suffer on this quite a while before she'd recover, too.

But the last thing Jinx had said, the thing about the dream...

She hadn't tried to make a joke, as she had first said, and possibly thought herself. It wasn't a joke, and it wasn't a dream. It was Jinx reflection on her own madness. The bad day she had mentioned had let her fall into a darkness, into a world where no light existed. The screams and moans of pain were her own, of her dying sanity.

And the candle... It had been the last hold on sanity long ago. But, mad as she was, she had given up on it, and had blown it out. Jinx had given up on her own sanity.

On the inside, much like she had said, she was dead.

But Jinx wasn't only insane. There were more sides to her. And one of them was a depressive and nihilistic one, one that had lost all faith and trust in life and the people around her. Even in, whatever her reason for first trusting her was, Vi. And to lose that trust seemed to have shattered the last bit of trust that Jinx had to begin with.

Piltover's finest didn't see her again that evening. At least, Caitlyn didn't. Vi, saddened by Jinx's words, however, was sure that she had seen Jinx in the crowd at one point, dancing to a slow rythm with Ziggs, a soft and honest smile on her lips, no sign of the madness. And despite Vi's glum mood, she couldn't help but smile for a short moment as well as she saw that.

She smiled for Jinx, because she knew that this dance, and this smile, would be the last time that the loose cannon wanted to experience the taste of sanity. She had said it herself – after that night, she'd give up on the last bit of sanity that she had held onto.

Her long crushed, but until that moment never abandoned dream of being at the side of Piltover's finest. This day had told her that she didn't fit into their world.

The loose cannon was losing a part of herself, and Vi was losing her last bit of connection to Jinx.

Piltover's finest left the party a little earlier than anyone else, distraught and disheartened by Jinx's rejection and saddened by Jinx giving up on ever recovering from that bad day she had, from her insanity.

And as they left, 'Dr. Jay Inks' had already long departed.

---

Vi was a mess, and by the time that the duo had reached Vi's apartment, the sheriff was assured of that. She was unresponsive, uncharacteristically much lost in thought, and barely even seemed to register Caitlyn's presence – or anyone's presence, for that matter, the reason Caitlyn had decided to leave the party a little early and guide her home.

"Vi, would you please open the door?" requested the sheriff gently, understanding that something else was going on inside Vi right now, something that had to do with this 'bad day' she and Jinx had argued about. Whatever had happened that day, it was horrible enough to have made Jinx go insane, and had an effect on both the broken girl and the brawler to that day, that much had the sheriff understood.

She waited for a few more seconds, then repeated her request, but got no reaction from the enforcer. She truly was lost in her own thoughts, and little did Caitlyn know that the horrible day repeated itself before Vi's inner eye at that moment.

With a deep sigh, the sheriff reached for the left pocket of the enforcer's black pants, slipping her hand inside in her search for the keys to Vi's apartment. Finding none, she tried the other pocket, but found none, either. Frowning at the absence of any keys, she considered the possibility of the keys being stored inside Vi's gauntlets, which had a small storage compartment, but before she even got the chance to reach inside them, a bulge in the breast pocket that contained the rose of Vi's white vest caught her attention.

"Really?" she muttered to herself, but considered the chance that someone would try to get the keys out of the enforcer's breast pocket. No one would be that stupid, since it definitely meant to go into Vi's range. And that could be deadly.

"Vi, just a quick warning in advance, I'll be reaching into your breast pocket now to fish out the keys, so don't..."

"No need, cupcake." sighed Vi suddenly, returning to reality all of sudden, "Sorry that I kinda spaced out on you. Didn't mean to."

"It's fine." smiled the sheriff as she watched how the enforcer reached into her breast pocket, though the sadness did find it's way into the smile, "I'm kinda down to. And if I feel down already, I cannot even imagine how it is for you. After all, you and Jinx seem to share some kind of bond that..."

Seeing the gaze of the enforcer, the eyes that usually were so full of life pleading her to stop, Caitlyn trailed off. It was too soon for that.

A thankful nod, then Vi turned to the door and unlocked it, allowing both herself and the sheriff to enter the apartment. Or at least, Vi entered and left the door open, which Caitlyn considered an invitation. And even if it wasn't, she felt that she had to be there for Vi, no matter what the reason for this was.

"I can't believe Jinx decided against us. Against the law." muttered Vi, though more to herself than to the sheriff behind her, which silently trailed behind and watched as Vi undid the yellow tie and simply discarded it to the side, which the sheriff picked up.

Undoing the buttons on her vest with one hand, Vi opened the door to her bedroom with the other, stepping inside. Caitlyn followed her in there as well, placing the yellow tie on the backrest of a chair, which was swiftly followed by Vi throwing her vest on it.

Seeing as the chair served a different purpose at that moment, Caitlyn silently moved past Vi and sat down on the enforcer's bed, crawling further onto it to lay down on her back. Vi, meanwhile, had moved over to the mirror on the door of her wardrobe, dropping her pants and stepping out of them on the way, sending them onto the chair with a weak kick.

The next thing she did was to step out of her shoes, sending them into a corner of the room with two more kicks, though neither of them were any stronger than the first one. Caitlyn watched this with a heavy heart, the depressive sight of the enforcer so disheartening that she wished for nothing more than to hug the enforcer and allow her to cry for all her heart's content.

But before that could happen, something should happen that would open Caitlyn's eyes to the true connection between Vi and Jinx, something she would've never expected.

In a moment of carelessness, lost in thought about how Jinx had brought up that one day they had always avoided to speak about, Vi grabbed the lower end of her blue shirt and pulled it over her head, taking it off.

And thus, revealing the mutilation of her left side, the dark secret she had always been careful about who to show and who not, to the sheriff on her bed.

A sharp gasp pulled Vi back into reality, making her aware of her girlfriend's presence on the bed. Trying to hide her secret, she wanted to pull the shirt down again, only to realize that she had already thrown the shirt onto the chair as well in the same motion that she had pulled it off. And her arms, especially her left, would never manage to hide the secret.

And thus, her secret was exposed to the sheriff, after all, with no chance to hide it.

"Vi..." muttered Caitlyn in amazement, eyes wide as she apparently struggled to find the words, or any words, to say to what she saw. And it was that very moment that Vi knew that there was no point in hiding the mutilation anymore. Dropping her arms to her sides, Vi bit down on her lip, sending an apologetic glance to the sheriff.

"Cait... I meant to tell you, I really did!" she began, lips trembling as the panic and shame mixed. Shame that Caitlyn knew her secret.

And the feeling of guilt that she had not told Caitlyn.

Caitlyn's eyes, formerly glued to her side, rose to meet the gaze of the enforcer. Neither of them dared to say a word. Neither of them knew what to say.

Vi's left side was covered in tattoos, but they didn't have the shape of a gear, like the one on her neck.

Vi's left side, from the shoulder down to her wrist, and the entire left side of her upper body, was covered in tattoos in the shape of blue clouds of smoke and pink bullets.

The 'mutilation' of Vi's left side, the enforcer's dark secret, the one that made the connection to the loose cannon so obvious – it was a set of tattoos running down her left side, the other half to the tattoos that covered Jinx's right side, a mirrored version of them. The left to Jinx's right.

"I... I did mean to tell you, Cait. I just never found the moment to, and I didn't mean for you to find out like this. And not after what happened today." whispered Vi, the panic still in her eyes, "I wouldn't have hidden them from you if Jinx hadn't shown up all this time ago. But when she did, displaying her tattoos to the world, I was afraid of what you'd think. We were still getting used to another, and I..."

"Shhh."

Vi froze up as Caitlyn hushed her, the remaining words stuck in her throat. Not that she really knew what to say.

Caitlyn sat up on the bed, her gaze travelling down to the tattoos again, taking note of how they were a perfect match to Jinx's set. She would've gone to the enforcer, would've touched them in amazement, but she knew that Vi would only shy away from her at that moment, too frightened how Caitlyn would handle the knowledge of the secret.

To be honest, after the day's events, Caitlyn didn't know herself. But she knew one thing – she was not angry at Vi, and didn't trust her any less.

"I'm not angry Vi. Just tell me one thing." muttered Caitlyn, her gaze meeting that of Vi again, "What does this mean? Why do you have those?"

Vi lowered her gaze a bit and bit down on her lower lip, eyes travelling to a spot somewhere to her far right. Shame. Remorse that she hadn't told Caitlyn earlier. She had trusted Caitlyn with everything for so long, and should've known that Caitlyn wouldn't hate her for it.

"I... Cupcake." breathed the brawler, swallowing the knot in her throat, "Please don't ask me that. Please don't make me remember it. Not now. I'm not ready to live through that, not again. Just do yourself a favor and forget it for now. Don't think about why I have these. Don't ask yourself how this connects me to... Jinx.I promise you, the moment I feel comfortable with it, I will tell you everything, just..."

"I promise."

Vi found herself caught off guard, having not expected Caitlyn to react that quickly, and not like that. But there she was, Caitlyn, sitting on the edge of her bed, smiling at her while she patted the space aside her.

"Vi, I see that this is troubling you. I don't know why, and I don't know how this connects you to Jinx, but if you don't want me to know, I will wait until you're ready to tell me. I've suspected from the very beginning that you two had a past together, Jinx was always after you, always mocking you, even at the moments that I was the greater threat."

"I didn't recognize her."

The confession confused the sheriff, but she didn't have much time to think about it, as Vi began to move at that moment, approaching her. Vi climbed onto the bed, one arm curling around Caitlyn's shoulders and pulling her down with her, which Caitlyn gladly allowed, despite still being dressed.

The moment that Caitlyn lay on her back, Vi immediately laid her arms around the other woman and pulled her close, nuzzling her neck. Caitlyn shuddered as the warm breath of the enforcer hit her neck, but held Vi closer as well, buried her face in the enforcer's hair, and realized that they were this close in such an intimate way, in a state of undress, with Vi in her underwear, and Cait in the white dress that didn't cover that much.

"I didn't recognize her, Cait. Didn't recognize her when she showed up in Piltover and started to call out to me, to mock me, thought my mind was playing tricks on me. I thought it was a mere coincidence. It wasn't. All the signs said it wasn't, and yet I refused to accept it. And Jinx is right. It's because of this one bad day... The day that everything went wrong. The day that my world came to a stop." breathed the enforcer into her ear, and by the tone alone, Caitlyn could tell that Vi was fighting the tears.

And she was losing.

"Sh. It's alright for now. I don't think Jinx hates you for that." whispered the sheriff, soothing the crying enforcer. She didn't know why this had such an impact on Vi, she didn't know what this all had to do with Jinx, or how and why those tattoos existed on the enforcer's left side.

But she knew that Vi would tell her one day. And then, maybe that day, she'd understand the weird relationship and connection between enforcer and loose cannon.

"Cait...?"

The sheriff pulled her head back a bit to glance down at the face of the pinkette, smiling softly at the distraught woman.

"Stay with me tonight, will you? I don't think I can stand being alone tonight. I don't think I can stand the thought of being all alone, losing everything around me... again."

The sheriff rolled her eyes and let out a chuckle, but then pulled Vi closer and buried her face in the enforcer's hair again.

"Don't worry, Vi." she whispered into the hair, hands soothingly trailing over the back of the woman in her arms, "When you'll wake up, I'll still be right here. You're not alone anymore. We are in this together. And if one of us doesn't have the strength to continue on, then the two of us will have it together..."

The soft hum of compliance was the last thing she'd hear of Vi that night, and the tears of the enforcer would be already dry by the time she fell asleep.

And as Jinx promised, she did not reappear again the next day, or any day of the week after that.

But as the pair should learn soon, a bad day was looming on the horizon.

A bad day for all three of them.

A bad day like no bad day ever before.

But until then, everything should be at peace and right in the world for Piltover's finest.

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And that was the second part of the "One Bad Day"-Series!

Before we go on to my last notes on this installment, I want to thank my good friend Time96 (Otouto~) once again, who, just like with 'A Killing Joke', was my beta-reader for this. I didn't exactly make it easy for him, I had to constantly move the time at which he gets this back by a few hours, since I never managed to write this in the time I told him I would as the scenes kept growing (happened about eight or nine times in two days), so this shall not only be my greatest thanks to him, but also my deepest apologies for that. He helped quite a lot again with this, we were discussing and throwing ideas back and forth in steam and via SMS, and he ultimately beta-read it. So thank you for that, otouto.

By the way, last time, I mentioned that he had no account himself and wasn't writing anything. But guess what? He had a bad day, and my awesome powers of persuasion worked quite perfect! He now has an account and goes by the name of 'Time96', and as far as I know, is eventually going to upload his first fanfiction, but he doesn't want to make any promises yet about when that'll be. So do him a favor and check him every once in a while, 'cause, who knows, maybe the fanfictions he writes will pick your interest? Maybe you'll even see my name floating around every once in a while. I plan on helping him with the one or other fanfiction – at least with discussing the ideas, something we've been doing since forever.

Anyways, on to my notes about this installment to the "One Bady Day"-Series!

This time around, Jinx is a little crazier than last time and a little more in the humorous way, mostly because I didn't go as much into her view of things – though we should not ignore the darker moments. These are the result of me wanting to show the different layers of Jinx's insanity – the neutral side, the funny side, the light in the fog of madness where she accepted and tried to change, but also the more aggressive and dangerous parts of her insanity, and the depressive one as she gives up.

Once again not quite sure if I managed to capture it well enough, but I tried. Jinx is fun to write, but it's just as hard to capture her personality simply by how unpredictable and complicated it can be. 'A complicated girl with simple wishes' – that's how she describes herself in the song 'Falconshield – This is War 2', which you should definitely have a look at if you didn't do so before.

Of course, there's lotsa 'Batman' references as well this time, simply because I think that some of Joker's lines go well with Jinx – heck, they capture some of the moments in the only right way. And then again, Batman, even though I'm not a hardcore fan of it, was one of the greater influences I had for writing this series. So yeah, a little tribute, eh?

Speaking of references, did anyone catch the Red vs. Blue ones?

Also, on a side-note: Vi's appearance at the party was of course a slightly changed version of her upcoming "Debonair Vi" Skin (which, with it's rolled up sleeves, sadly contradicts with the theory I had for long that Vi's left arm has the same tattoos as Jinx's right arm), and Jinx's appearance was an altered version of her Mafia Skin.

Well... Starting off a little funnier than in the first part of the series, though, it is undeniable that we, much like in "A Killing Joke" delve once again into the darker and more complicated things towards the end, like Jinx giving up on her sanity once and for all, and Vi accidentally revealing a secret that implies dark and less funny things.

So... This is the end of this installment. Hope you're still interested in a third installment, which as far as I have planned, will be the final one of the series for now, though I might pick it up again some time and continue it after that. I've already gathered all notes necessary for it, but I want to focus on my other stories first, which I abandoned this month, as well as another one-shot I've been meaning to do for quite a while, "bond of the disfigured", a Warframe story to follow my other one, "The Disfigured Beauty".

The third installment to this series will explain it all, everything from Jinx's bad day, over Vi's bad day to the bad day that is to come. But until that happens, I want to hear your theories! What was the bad day that Jinx experienced, the one that started all of this and broke Jinx's mind? And what do you think will happen in the (for now) final installment of the "One Bad Day" Series? Tell me in your reviews or in a PM, I'm really interested!

I love reading theories!

But until the (again, for now) final installment, some time will pass. But once the time has come, we'll meet again – in the installment that I'll, for now, will call "the final joke" (title might change as I work on it).

Until then,

So long~

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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.