AN: Finally got around to the new Taylor album and immediately thought of "No Body, No Crime" with "Vigilante Shit", so here's an AU chapter where Isiah does NOT kill LLD before Lydia is able to help her uncover the truth (and the facts).

Could be read as Crimson instead of Lydia, either works.

Lydia pulled the makeup brush slowly across her eyelid, tapering off at the end into a deadly point. Normally, she didn't put so much effort into her appearance, but tonight, the story was going to turn itself on its head. She was just a humble driver, but being in a position where she got numerous members of the Syndicate alone on a very frequent basis, sometimes for a decent amount of time depending on how long each trip took, made her one of the most powerful Syndicate members of all.

You did some bad things, but this is the worst of them. Lydia observed her smirk in the mirror. Justice was a joke. There was corruption, bias, and nepotism everywhere. There was no such thing as right or wrong, just power and weakness. A crime against a Citizen meant nothing, but a crime against a Syndicate member was everything. That was why she felt no shame in admitting that she cared not for what Isiah Bullet got up to on a daily basis, no matter how vile or gory. She only started caring after he started hurting his wife, her best friend, Lady Love Dies.

"What an unfortunate last name," she shook her head, smirk still on her face, but this time laced with anger and sadism. Sometimes I wonder which one will be your last crime... Her eyes flickered back to the mirror as she pulled on a dark but elegant suit, patterned with dark blue and just the faintest traces of neon pink here and there. People would be curious to know what the special occasion was. Lydia never dressed so well. Casual was her preferred style.

"I'm just a lowly driver," she spoke out loud, even though there was no one around to hear her. "But I'm still a member of the Syndicate." There was a party tonight, a ball, at one of the central buildings on their newest island. Lydia was normally little more than a chauffeur, but tonight, she wanted to be an attendee. There were too many important people she wanted to keep an eye on. She wasn't going to miss the party for anything.

The driver hopped into her car and made her way out. One, two, three, four, five, she drove all of the Syndicate to the central building. Some of them asked, some of them didn't care, but they all noticed how unusually lovely she looked that night.

"I'm not dressed for you, I'm not dressed for anyone else." I'm dressed for a purpose.

She was just a lowly, humble driver. Despite her fancy finery, that was the atmosphere she exuded as she made her way through the ballroom. "I won't start shit," she promised with a crooked, disarming smile. But I can tell you how it ends. Crimson wasn't the only one who was excellent at finding and keeping secrets. Even if Lydia wasn't a driver, her husband was a bartender. Lips were looser after alcohol slipped past them. That was how she got the truth and the facts that Lady Love Dies needed.

"Is it true?" the detective demanded as soon as she caught sight of her friend gliding through the crowd.

"Don't get sad, get even," Lydia advised, sliding Lady an envelope. Lady's eyes widened, then her fists tightened. There was more than enough evidence for a conviction. Would the detective turn her eyes away from the truth? No, because Lady would always choose her life as a detective over anything and everything else. And especially after what Isiah did, even if she might've made an exception for him in the past…

ooo

How did she find out?! Isiah didn't say a word, but the anger flashing in his eyes spoke volumes, and Lydia's flashed in smug triumph. Now Lady had the truth, had the facts, had the lies. Isiah's lies. And Madam Complex's. Loose lips sank ships and long rides revealed lies all the damn time. She and her dear Sammy found all of the skeletons in the closet and all of the cheaters between the sheets.

"Picture me, thick as thieves with your ex-wife!" she whispered to Isiah, but she had no idea if he heard. He was lost in his own head, wondering what would happen next. Lady was no longer with him. How much longer before people started nosing about the scandal? And what would happen if the truth ever came out? Lydia was still deciding and wondering about that, too.

She looked in her rearview mirror and smiled. Lady was dressed up to the nines as well. In Lydia's opinion, LD always looked fine, but of late, she looked even better and brighter than she ever had before. The ring she used to wear around her neck was absent.

"New fashion statement, LD?" Lydia teased. "It suits you well."

Lady's smile was morose. She was still heartbroken, Lydia could tell, even if she hid it well. Her love was dying, though, and behind the sorrow, there was anger and vengeance. She was a detective, an agent of justice, but she was human, too, and humans were susceptible to all sorts of terrible feelings and emotions, thoughts and actions. She was no flawless goddess.

She don't usually start shit. As a detective, she's only there to understand how it ends. But it was time for the story to turn on its head.

"Justice is a joke," Lydia said briskly. "It's a broken, crooked system, so the only fair thing to do is tilt the stage back in our favor." Maybe the Syndicate wanted to act as if they were civil and advanced, above petty notions such as "eye for eye", but Lydia knew better. A crime against a Citizen was nothing, but a crime against a Syndicate member was everything.

For just a second, Lady seemed alarmed. For Lydia to say something so audacious! The detective couldn't help but look left and right, eyes darting around, as if she was worried that someone was listening in on them. Lydia only shook her head with a scoff. The only one who could've possibly heard was her handler, Yuri Night, and he was an incompetent ignoramus.

Lydia knew why he was her handler. It was a punishment. This was not the first time she'd bent a few rules to avenge a wounded friend. She was an assassin no longer, but that was her core, her roots, her history, her upbringing! She didn't care for laws if laws hurt the people she cared about. She wouldn't let something as small and petty as a rulebook stand in her way of something far more important and real. Lady was too righteous for her own good, but Lydia wasn't.

Because of that, they saddled her with Yuri, someone supposed to keep an eye on her. It was insult added to injury. But as infuriating as his idiocy was, it also worked in clever Lydia's favor. Maybe they thought putting someone so much younger in charge of her would somehow set her straight or make her feel humiliated enough into obedience. No matter, she was an expert of her car, and she knew how to modify it such that Yuri couldn't touch a thing about it unless she wanted him to.

The car was Lydia's ultimate safe haven, not just because it was half of her, but because it was the one place she could voice displeasure with the Syndicate without being caught out. Yuri wouldn't be able to hear a thing, she made certain of it a few decades back after a few secret upgrades. Where did she get the material to make those secret upgrades, and how did she not get caught? That was secret too. As were the tunnels beneath her and Sam's bar. There were so many things a person could store down there…

ooo

And another secret: what she and Lady were doing. It was the weekend and they were off to yet another Syndicate party. Why would Lady go to a place where she knew her cheating ex-husband was likely frequenting, possibly with his mistress in tow?

Ladies always rise above. Ladies know what people want: someone sweet and kind and fun. She was still just as beautiful as she ever was, and she still knew how to smile, even if it was debatable how honest those smiles were. Not that anyone except Lydia would know. Lady had a few secrets of her own. But Lydia could read the real her. Was it due to their centuries of friendship, or Lydia's cunning observation? That was secret.

But what wasn't a secret, at least to them? The Lady simply had enough.

While Isiah was out blurring lines and crossing all of Lady's, she reported his little love affair to Judge, made it cut-and-dry, ensured he had no alibi.

"Classic Lady," Lydia chuckled to Sam. This time, he was in attendance too. Much like his wife, he was in a handsome black suit, although his was accented with red rather than blue. What she was most excited for was not the suit itself, however. Instead, she wanted what was underneath… (No, not in that way! Not yet, at least… First…)

When no one else was looking, he opened up his suit and produced a wine bottle, which had previously been tucked away inside, strapped to his spine, the bottom resting in his pelvis. And before that bottle was hidden on his person, it was hidden in a grave deep below his bar. Truly, there were so many things a person could store down there…

Much like his wife, he was dressed for revenge. Much like his wife, he was not as righteous as Lady. Maybe her idea of getting even was simply reporting Isiah's crime and hoping and trusting that Judge would do something about it, but the Day Breaks knew better. There were no villains or innocents. There were only a pair of ex-assassins, and their next two targets. A happy couple, but not for much longer. Sam and Lydia were supposed to be retired from assassin life, but it was time to turn the story on its head.

We're on that vigilante shit again…