Vi has never had a very high opinion regarding the HQ's workshop. It's not that it's poorly equipped, not at all, police officers with a variation of standard gear won't have trouble finding everything necessary to repair said gear when not wanting to wait for a gunsmith. Problem is, the Enforcer's gauntlets do not count as standard in any way. It wouldn't be so annoying if something really serious or really menial got destroyed too, like a pressure valve or just a stupid battery, one she can repair with precision tools and spare time, the second is just a damn fifty marks battery.

But no, what got damaged are pistons and servos. Rendering three of her gauntlet's fingers in state she prefers not to use in, lest she fancies breaking her hand when the grip snaps back, pulled by the loose, yet still operational parts. It's a good thing she couldn't lift her arm back when it got shot, if she had the strength to still use her baby... well, she probably wouldn't be calling it that at this very moment. More like a stupid, bloody, disgrace, if at all. Jayce would never let it go, getting her arm squashed by her own weapon.

Okay maybe he would. He's a decent sort after all and wouldn't laugh about the cause of her death. If she got her hand crushed, she wouldn't be sitting in the workshop, bitching about how there are no spare parts that she can use around here. More than likely, she'll have to visit a wholesale to get what she needs. Casual mech shops don't sell mining equipment.

The pinkette blows her cheeks and begins reassembling the gauntlet, yes she will have to take it apart back home but well. She doesn't trust herself not to lose something before safely packing it up for reference. Choosing spares by eye and then fitting them in is not something she'd like to do ever again.

Still, the prospect, she finds, isn't as daunting as it would normally be. She's most relaxed she's been in in a long time. And why would she not be? She had the first long (although not solid) nine hours sleep in a month. And it's not that she hadn't had the time before (she can squeeze in eight hours a day if she really needs to), but she just couldn't. It felt like every hour she took to rest was another that Jinx was free to do as she pleased.

She will never admit it to anyone but she's relieved to have this mess with Jinx over, maybe not completely but they can deal with the Zaun issue on their own terms. Without the threat of another bombing looming over their heads. The realization didn't hit her till she was given a bed in the infirmary but when it did, it felt as if her stomach uncoiled, and not in a good way, it felt like painful tension bleeding out of her body, where it had accumulated over the weeks. A damned mess it'd been for the first couple of hours before she finally fell asleep. And it wasn't much better in her sleep either when the dreams came, waking her up twice, once in the morning and then around noon. But when she finally got up she still felt better than she had in weeks. Almost like after a massage. Maybe there is merit to psych leaves after all, she always thought them bullshit.

She pushes the pressure meter into its slot and leans back, yawning. She might have had decent enough sleep but it's gonna take more than one night to get back in form. And not only because she's tired. Particularly because she hasn't been working out since Jinx's arrival. It hasn't yet put a noticeable strain on her performance but give it another two or three weeks and she'll feel her gauntlets' weight. But yeah no, not today, she will give her hand a couple days before that, enough not to start bleeding while benching, or at least should be enough. Given how she won't be able to lift her usual weight anyway what with the stupid wound.

She looks at the clock hanging on the far side of the workshop's wall. Thirty-seven past five. Ugh, still some time before she's supposed to meet up with Caitlyn and hammer out the finer details of her report. Well, their report. While Vi hates paperwork, she knows full well it's only because of these sessions that she's still in police, and that Cait is still its boss. She wonders how many other officers' work she puts her fingers in. There is no way she's the only one, they hadn't had serious charges against The Force put forward in months!

She takes a sidelong glance at the radio, briefly wondering about turning it on before remembering how the only thing on all Piltovian channels would be Jinx and her capture, Cupcake's press conference and perhaps even Vi herself mentioned as the captor. She should have expected such a juicy piece of info would fall into press' sticky hands by noon. She already had to break through the living dam of journalists waiting outside the headquarters when she went to grab lunch (or early supper, given the hour she woke up at), and those little shits know how to get under people's skin too. It was an exceedingly difficult struggle not to punch the fucker who all but accused her of causing the yesterday's deaths, the harpy of a woman's been itching to do so ever since she heard, Vi can bet. Asking it on the fifty meter walk from the station to the bakery and then still going about what would she say to the families.

Gears damned vultures.

If she had said anything? She'd say that she already killed most of the responsible for the massacre. And she'd say she will kill the rest, and shortly. She'd say it if Caitlyn didn't order her to show in her office at six to decide on official version of what transpired that night, after she's done with the more important stuff for today.

The pinkette listened to the press conference on the radio actually, it being a sort of celebration by the city's officials Vi thinks. That being the first reason that comes to her mind for this sort of thing. Putting on a show being the second, the Enforcer had learned even before joining The Force how important that can be. In this case, to ostentatiously show that the crisis is finally over. To put civies at ease, to feed the press, to let the underground know the leisure time is over. Crowd control, and nothing more beside smiling, lying faces, Vi hadn't had to be there to know that.

She glances at the clock again and curses under her nose when she sees that only a minute has passed.

Screw it, Cupcake will either have to bear with her or just throw her out the office, she is pretty strict about punctuality, when she says six she means six and not two minutes before or after. But honestly, Vi has no time to do anything else before the meeting, might as well twiddle her thumbs or walk in circles before the Sheriff's door if the woman is busy.

In a matter of minutes she finds herself in front of said door and about to knock (Cait hates it when she doesn't, Vi figures there's no need to annoy her boss any more than she has to today). Just as her fist is about to land on the wood, she hears a click and she finds herself standing face to face with a similarly surprised officer, a prison warden if his uniform is any tell, though she can't say of which complex. She doesn't pay attention to this stuff, there are seven prisons in Piltover. While not exactly her turf, if the timing isn't a coincidence then she'd chance a guess this guy is from Lockbox, the megamax for the worst of the worst. Homing half the death rows in the city, it might just be the most guarded prison on the continent.

The Enforcer steps back to let him by and returns his nod of greeting, he spares her a measuring once-over and wordlessly walks away. Huh. Cupcake's not farting around (though that shouldn't at all surprise her by now), not a full day has passed and she's already making arrangements for who she can bet is Jinx. And she hasn't even been transported out of the department's infirmary to a hospital yet.

She peeks into the office to see Caitlyn hunched over the desk, her brows creased and fingers massaging her eyes, her hair not quite the perfect cascade it usually is, no time for all of her morning rituals probably. And she has yet to notice her new guest, the woman has to be tired, she's very attentive of her surroundings on most days. Vi briefly entertains an idea of pulling a ninja on her while she's distracted but gives it up when she remembers her boots, not stuff of dreams to sneak about in those.

"Hey Cupcake!" She loudly walks inside and the older woman looks momentarily startled, her eyes briefly sporting this wide-eyed look that the world would benefit to see more often (at least in Vi's opinion, she has a feeling her boss would disagree though) before quickly regaining composure to shoot her subordinate an annoyed look.

"I distinctly remember saying six." Her tone is flat enough to make party balloons deflate.

"Yeah, uh, well. I was done with my babies and thought, hey, maybe we can start sooner and get this over with? You know, instead of burning time." The Sheriff's expression says clearly enough she has only heard "I was bored." in Vi's explanation. Wordlessly, she turns her eyes to a stack of prints in front of her for a couple of seconds before turning her attention to Vi once again.

"Might as well." She sighs, clearly irked but not to the point of directing it at Vi. "Sit, and tell me what exactly happened last night. From the moment we spoke over the radiophone if you please."

Vi puts her bag beside the clothes rack before doing as told and beginning the story, the Sheriff doesn't interrupt her subordinate, writing down her own notes, up to the moment the pinkette mentions the man she interrogated.

"Which reminds me, why is the man that was in your captivity dead?" The hard and mocking tone of her voice tells Vi that the question is purely a formality.

"Ah... well, Jinx got him."

The brunette frowns, irritated by her subordinate's dodging words.

"A development I'm sure you're grateful for, the bullets ripped him apart, covered up most of the signs of your... interrogation, yet I have to wonder how did he wind up where he did. I understand that he was being problematic, violence against captives is a whole other issue- but that I can understand even if not applaud. What I cannot understand is how did he end up dead after you secured him, as you said, in the hallway whilst his body was in the middle of the courtyard. Care to elaborate on the part where Jinx got him?"

Vi scowls and crosses her arms, leaning back in the chair.

"He said they killed our guys at the uni." The look in Caitlyn's eyes is knowing, though unapologetic. She knows full well what happened, she simply wants to hear the Enforcer say it.

"Which fails to explain how had his position changed by thirty meters after he said it."

"Urgh, yeah fine! I threw him there, lost my shit after he said it."

The brunette hunches in her seat and sighs, putting away the pen and massaging her brow.

"VI... you lost more than that. You lost a valuable prisoner who was only worth anything alive." There is a tired tinge to her voice, one Vi hates hearing. "And you lost your shit? Did you stop to think about something as basic as identification? Just that Vi! Faces, names- or at least pseudonyms, maybe more, things he didn't and now will never say. All that lost because you couldn't think straight for five seconds?" She doesn't sound angry, just cold. Vi has always disliked the cold Caitlyn more than the angry one.

"I couldn't reliably secure him, left alone anyone could pick him up." It is a sound concern but Vi can only wait for it to be decomposed by her boss. She always has better arguments. And yes, she knows now, and deep down- maybe even back then that what she did was a serious mistake, but it was not on the front of her thoughts at the time.

Caitlyn's eyes narrow as she shoots her an annoyed look before leaning forward and crossing her arms on the desk.

"Don't pretend you stopped to think about this Vi. And even so, what would it matter, one more or less mercenary in the basket makes no difference but his information could. I'm not asking you to change your methods, nor to even be less violent. The one thing I want is that you keep a cool head when it matters, to think about your actions. I know you can do it, you wouldn't be here in the first place if you couldn't." No. She would be rotting away in prison. "Keep that in mind." The younger woman bristles at the implication but she's cut off before she says anything. "No I'm not trying to threaten you. I'm saying you can, and have changed. It has worked out in your interest too but you still have a long way to go. As we can both see." She taps the notes she's been scribing throughout Vi's report for emphasis.

"Yeah okay I fucked up, yes, I know. We gonna spend the rest of the evening talking about it or can we move on?" She's being defensive, she knows. But she just wants this to be over.

"I wanted you to admit it." She picks the pen up again and her expression eases somewhat. "So that we don't have to have this sort of conversation again."

The tension partially seeps out from Vi's muscles as this time, she understands what Cait means. She wants Vi to improve her self control but not only, or even primarily for the good of The Force, but that of her own, so that she's not forced out of this life she's been building. So that she may be something more than a thief she once was. It's still not her business though who Vi wants to be.

Still, she can try. She doesn't have to like it but what Cupcake says is true, if she didn't lose it like she did then they might have been so much closer to getting who's behind the whole thing. As it is, she offed a goon, good riddance yeah, congratulations Vi, you got a foot soldier. Amazing.

"Alright. I get it." The Sheriff looks as if waiting for something more, not for apology, she doesn't care for those, being sorry changes little and besides. Vi doesn't feel sorry, just stupid for not juicing the opportunity she made. Assurance- Vi realizes, she wants her to do better, to say that she will do better. "I'll... I won't screw up like that again."

"Hm, I should hope not killing captives is not too much to ask for," she says, tone just barely hinted with grim amusement. The woman's brow creases a moment after. "Which, curiously enough, you seem to have remembered when it came to Jinx. Pray tell the difference."

"It is different." The pinkette pauses to gather her thoughts. How can she best describe it? "Those mercs killed our guys because they couldn't fu-" she bites her tongue and exhales through her nose when she hears her voice raising in volume, she shouldn't yell at Cait, it's not her she's got a bone to pick with. It's difficult. "Cause they couldn't just get her head from the morgue, nah- they have to do the job themselves. So they killed twenty people just to get her damn ten minutes later!"

"Reputation probably, can't have others do their work," murmurs Caitlyn.

"Whatever alright? I was just- so pissed! Fuck, I get angry just thinking about it."

"Obviously." The brunette notes dryly. "And you're often just as angry with Jinx, yet she remains alive."

"I said it's different. I don't think she plans killing, with her it just... happens. Like with an animal, you gotta put it down sure, but- we call her a monster and then 'normal' people show up." She air quotes while saying 'normal' and then crosses her arms, an upset look crossing her face. "She's a menace, and a killer yeah. but she's nowhere near those fuckers."

The older woman's eyes are focused as she listens to her subordinate, as if searching for something on Vi's face, which she probably is. She often knows people better than they themselves do, for her, listening to others isn't as much about what people say as much as what can she unravel based on her own knowledge. In Vi's experience, it's detectives' professional quirk. She wasn't fond of it when she first began working with Caitlyn, not at all, but over time she learned not to care that much, it's all she can do to keep herself sane when the other woman seems to know things about her she has no business knowing, she did expect being spied on (which had been happening for some time when she joined police, annoying, but given her background she couldn't have hoped for anything else) but the woman knows things about her that could only be guessed. And more (way more) often than not, she guesses correctly.

The woman's searching gaze switches to the duffel bag lying close to the door and then back to Vi again, eyes no longer inquisitive, apparently finding what she was looking for, whether or not she's satisfied, Vi can't tell. The Sheriff picks the pen up again, set on continuing their original task.

"This aside, what happened inside the building?"

"Just fighting, I took three guys out before getting to Jinx, there was a forth but already dead, and believe me I couldn't hold back with them, too many, and well armed." She waits a second, half expecting a comment from her boss before continuing. "I found Jinx on the fourth floor. Total mess, didn't even hear me coming. Broke through the floor when I got her and holed up in that apartment, you saw it yourself, and then it was just a matter of holding out till you came."

"And again, no survivors in our hands." The Sheriff says with a blank face and tone.

"Yeah holding back wasn't exactly the first thing on my mind back then." Vi answers bluntly.

"So I've seen. You pulverized those mercenaries' insides, broken bones, ribs piercing organs... clearly self defense that one though, so it shouldn't be a problem." The second part she seems to direct more to herself rather than her company. It takes her a moment to refocus on the present and motion her friend to continue.

"Well that's all of it, I think, when backup came they bailed right away. So what now?" Asks Vi.

"Same as always." Caitlyn smiles a humorless smile. "I've already spoken with the coroner, the bodies will be buried in a communal grave and and the one you interrogated will end up at the very bottom. Try to avoid journalists and don't answer any questions regarding the capture of Jinx, investigation in progress and such." The pinkette smirks, same old bullshit. And actually legit too. "As to our own casualties..." She drifts off and starts rolling the pen between her fingers. "We don't need people to know Zaunites killed them, the diplomatic relationship between us is tense as it is and-" What?

"What?" The pinkette starts on her chair an the Sheriff pauses for a second at the interruption.

"Official story will be that local mafias that got involved. Shouldn't be a problem to pass that, they've benefited greatly from Her rampage after all." She stops twirling the pen between her fingers and looks at Vi, straightening up in her chair while seemingly waiting for another outburst.

"No, that's not- what in cogs?! We gotta take it up with Zaun! I mean- they send two merc squads on our turf and we just gonna bend over and take it?" She's damn right she should expect Vi to get angry. What in cogs?!

"I never said we will not take action." Caitlyn cuts in sharply, almost angrily- at the implication. "Just that we won't tell what needn't be told. Yes, the investigation will be secret but it's how we need to keep it. We need to hunt down those left and make sure they don't stir any more trouble." She gives Vi a meaningful look. "And learn who's to blame for the last night's disaster."

"Well Zaunites! We know that much what else do we need?" Caitlyn sighs and looks somewhere behind the other woman.

"And how do we know that?"

Vi almost answers the question before it clicks in her mind. She blinks and sits back, she hasn't even noticed how she leaned closer towards Caitlyn. The Enforcer runs a hand through her hair, one thought running through her mind.

"Shit."

"Adequate I suppose. But it's not the only reason. Vi you are my officer. You've done more good since you've joined than most statesmen ever will. I wouldn't have them ruin you, but I wouldn't hide the truth either if it was beneficial to us." Of course she wouldn't, for Caitlyn, the city always comes first, but the younger woman believes her, that she wouldn't let any harm come to her because of what happened. She doesn't have to take her word for it either, the Sheriff protects her own, as long as they remain her own. She fucked up yes but it is that, a fuck up. Dirty cops on the other hand... suffice it to say she would never risk it even if she didn't care for Caitlyn.

"So why not? We risk a lot like this."

"Two- well, more reasons actually but two major ones. The first is that I believe this would risk a lot more than keeping it secret does." Vi frowns, not understanding. "Imagine, Jinx has caused colossal property damage along with fifty three deaths total... that we know of at least. Had the Zaunites not managed to corner her she would likely continue for some time yet before we either killed or captured her. Most statesmen are either businessmen or have connections with them, and this whole mess cost them a lot of money. You understand now." It's not a question and Vi does understand. "I can't predict how far it would escalate but what I know is that beside a gentlemen's agreement there is precariously little keeping both sides in check. What happens when they learn it's been so blatantly broken?"

The pinkette winces.

"Open season before we reign it in." Shitty times for all save small fries.

"More or less, we already need to deal with mafias after Jinx, we can't keep up with private business wars at the same time, people would die, and we wouldn't be able to control it. Again. Our position is already frail after the recent events. I believe martial law would be implemented, eventually." She falls silent for a moment, lost in thought. "The first time around it was necessary, I'd like to avoid such necessity ever happening again." She's not the only one that remembers the situation that brought the martial law around for the first time. Vi was was a teenager at the time, not even in any gang and as such, the lowest piece of street filth one could find. In a way, life was harder for the low-key thief that she was before the military took to streets, the gangs would kill her if she was caught stealing on their turf. Still, she remembers the soldiers not being any less brutal with a caught pickpocket than a hired killer.

If it would go that far... If Cait thinks it can go that far...

"Yeah. Yeah okay. You got me convinced." Caitlyn doesn't react to her words, she probably knew all along that this would be the outcome, probably having all the right words ready if not before she even came to the office, then shortly after. It grates on Vi's nerves sometimes but it always comes to one simple fact.

Caitlyn's right.

"Now the second reason, it ties into the first one. I will be taking a leave sometime next week, maybe even this one should the administration push for investigation harder than proper." What now? A leave at this time?

Caitlyn seems to be waiting for her to mull over this revelation, possibly for another outburst. It doesn't come, Vi's lost enough arguments for one day. Instead she asks.

"Why?"

"Because we should have caught Jinx long ago. An investigation will be carried out with or without my consent, it is better I wrap up any current business and let it happen than to be forced to do it at an inopportune time," the woman explains patiently.

"But why the leave?"

"Because the investigation will turn up with nothing, and I want to avoid accusations of influencing its outcome," she smirks while saying that and the Enforcer can't help but snort. Yeah good luck finding any dirt on Caitlyn, regardless of whether it exists or not. "It will be faster that way, the administration only has two weeks to perform its duties, if they're given nothing, that will be it. So they will find nothing. We have no time for these games and I need to take care of irregularities. We've had trouble once because the officials found a fine over-payed by... thirty pfennigs that we didn't return I believe." Yes, Vi can see the never-ending pain in the ass that is the administration doing this sort of stuff. "But I digress, that's the why of it. Either way I would have to leave the city in hands of someone less qualified during time when we'd be all but at war with Zaun. I believe I would be sent on 'much needed vacation'-" she says with biting sarcasm in her voice. "-sometime around when the trouble would begin, too early and too little for statesmen to see they need me."

"What, you're saying they wouldn't call you back?" They kept her throughout this whole mess with the mad terrorist because they knew anybody else would be even more helpless, and they'd send her away just as more trouble would start?

"No. They would, to clean up the mess after it's already been created. Believe me Vi I do not like skulking in the shadows either but, being open about the case is the last thing we should do."

"And what should we do?"

"The Force will focus on the resurfaced crime, the public won't mind us being more ruthless than usual in the wake of the massacre that gangs carried out last night." Vi just shakes her head at this, both amused and exasperated. Of course she'd use it. What did she expect? "I'll have our sleepers track down the Zaunites, they must have left something to go after. As for you... I might not have been entirely honest when we last spoke."

Duh.

"For you," she continues. "I have a more fitting assignment than showing children around the department. Although I do have to say that you have an admirable way with them from what I hear from the hospital." The brunette smiles when her subordinate's cheeks turn light pink at the mention. "They probably recognise their own."

Vi will swear it up and down but there may be some merit to her boss' words.

"Or maybe they just know I'm cool. You know, I think they prefer listening to my stories than your- what was it again?" she mock-fakes trying to remember, as if she could ever forget. Caitlyn doesn't put her face in her hands but her sour expression tells the pinkette she would very much like to. "Oh yeah! The thrilling life of a detective! I don't know what made you talk about cataloging evidence but I'm sure glad I wasn't there to listen." As opposed to hearing about it later, she laughed her ass off when she heard the kids either fell asleep or vanished on their way to bathrooms.

"Well it is interesting." The Sheriff grumbles, making Vi smirk, she rarely gets to see her boss embarrassed. "And we've steered off topic I think." Too rarely.

"Hey! You started it." The smaller woman pointedly ignores the remark.

"You will neautralise the Zaunites should our people find them still in Piltover." It's a menacing and ugly smile that crawls its way onto Vi's lips. "Just remember what I told you, we need more information." The taller woman nods. "And there is one more thing you'll be doing in the meanwhile."

"Sure, what's that?"

"You, will be responsible for safeguarding Jinx."

Important!

I retconned the League out of the story. The plot that I've set in motion has barely a thing to do with League in the first place and I realised it would create some plot-holes with it in picture, so I decided to get rid of it altogether.

I think I know now why Riot did what they did.

Also!

The time it took me to write this is simply unacceptable. I plan to release at least one chapter a month henceforward. Shouldn't be that hard actually, I had trouble writing this because of the presence of League really. So yeah, fun times ahead.