Violet's fist clenched in frustration as she watched the stilted interactions between her future self and Elder Powder. Jinx. Her baby sister was so fucked up she insisted on calling herself a name she hated. At least Powder hated it. What happened to us? Even holding Jinx's hand looked like it took an emotional toll on Vi. Violet could see that Powder seemed to be having similar thoughts. Her wide powder blue eyes darted between the three older girls with questions boiling in her brain. Violet had a feeling that those questions' answers were all miserable at best. The pretty Piltover girl that also apparently time traveled was giving Jinx a look that was halfway between contempt and terror. Violet leaned forward in her seat just slightly and could see that Cupcake and Vi's hands were clasped together just as tightly as Vi was holding onto Jinx's hand on the table's top.
Vi spoke up, "So, Councilor Talis, would you consider letting the Undercity share in the benefit of your glorious Hextech revolution?"
There was a pause between her words and Jayce's squawk.
"Councilor?" Caitlyn asked as if offended. "You're having us on!"
Cupcake shrugged, "It's true."
Caitlyn added, "But He's a student! You don't look too much older than me. Perhaps ten years, give or take a couple? He couldn't be one so soon. There's no way the current councilors would allow that. Even my parents are only just sponsoring him as it is." Caitlyn's nose scrunched up as she frowned at her parents' regrettable attitude towards her big brother in all but name.
"Should you…um, should you talk about the future so casually?" Jayce rallied his wits after a moment of shock. He wasn't sure what to make of this revelation. For now, he'd just sit on it. He pat Caitlyn on the shoulder. He loved the girl, but she should let him fight his own battles. Especially when it was against her parents; she shouldn't have to see that side of them, at least not while she was still a child.
Jinx shrugged as she picked up one of the biscuits Caitlyn had brought out earlier when Jayce had laid the tea out. They were weird and crumbly, but really great actually. "Didn't you just flap your mouth about multiple futures? And what are these biscuit thingies? They're awesome and I want more."
"Shortbread," Cupcake supplied automatically while she took another sip of tea.
Cupcake's response seemed to bring Jinx up short for a reason. Jinx's glance at Cupcake was a little too mischievous to be considered benign. "Hey Cupcake, I think we found a nickname for mini-you."
Vi couldn't help the sudden laugh that burst out of her. Maybe it was tension, but in that moment, it was plain as day that she and Jinx were indeed sisters.
"Shortbread?" Young Caitlyn asked, not a little horror in her tone.
Jayce took one look at the look of petulance and mortification on his young charge and said, "I think that's genius actually."
"Traitor!" Shortbread cried out and slapped at his arm, much to the amusement of everyone else.
"Well, since I'm apparently a councilor, I feel the sudden urge to call a vote on this matter. All in agreement?" Jayce raised a hand in mocking fashion. Violet, Jinx, Powder, and Vi all raised a hand. Mylo and Claggor openly chuckled as they too raised their hands. Vi looked at Cupcake expectantly. But Cupcake and Shortbread affected an identical pose with arms crossed and death in their eyes.
"We have a majority!" Powder chimed in with both arms above her head in cheer. She looked happier than when her future self had basically admitted to a suicide attempt in every way that mattered. Violet put her hand on her baby sister's shoulder, she wouldn't fail the way that future Vi may have. She'd protect Powder no matter what, even if it was from herself.
Jayce nodded and said, "Yes. But it still couldn't hurt to be careful right?"
"We're well past that now," Cupcake said with a look at Jinx who winked at her, having corralled her demons for the moment. Cupcake's hand twitched and formed a fist as she made to stand. Vi automatically a hand on Cupcake's arm to stop her from rising out of her seat and doing something stupid. She had a hand each on the two people left who mattered to her.
Jinx's eyes flashed purple and the smirk on her face wasn't a kind one. She picked up the spoon that had been serving the sugar and began twirling it expertly between her dexterous fingers.
"So, I'm guessing things are bad back home then in the future aren't they?" Violet spoke up.
"Yeah," Vi replied.
"Things are not optimal," Cupcake admitted. Her tour of Zaun had revealed the lies her parents told her. Even when as an enforcer, her patrols were kept well away from the bridge, never mind properly venturing into the Undercity, thanks, mother.
"Bad?" Jinx giggled. "Bad? Oh, to be optimistic and young again!" Jinx waxed with no small amount of sarcasm.
"You're not even that old! You can't be more than a few years older than me," Violet retorted.
Shortbread seemed to compare Jinx and Violet, and they did seem to be of a comparable age to her as well. Jinx just shrugged. "You're all kids to me."
"Well, I'm interested in how Hextech became a household brand. As it is, I can't stabilize it," Jayce spoke up.
"There's a partner you had. A man named Viktor," Cupcake supplied.
"Why does that sound familiar?" Jayce replied as he sipped up the rest of his tea.
"He's Heimerdinger's assistant right now. The explosion that brought us here happened very differently in our timeline," Cupcake said.
Vi mouthed 'Timeline?' at her, and Cupcake just shrugged.
Jinx looked around before pickpocketing her younger self. She held them splayed between her fingers, "You should get that fancy box of yours. This little babies are killer."
Jayce looked at the Hextech crystals and glanced at the solemnity in her too-vibrant eyes before quickly doing as Jinx suggested.
Jayce returned with the box and Jinx put the Hextech crystals back into them. Jayce reguarded her and said, "You know how these things work, don't you?"
Jinx shrugged, "Enough to make that puppy," she gestured to the ruined gun that lay forgotten on the charred wooden floorboards in the room where the explosion happened.
"A weapon? You turned my invention into a weapon?" Jayce seemed disgusted.
"Yeah? It took a couple weeks, but I finally got it to work once I raided your lab for the little glowing things," Jinx replied casually.
Jayce seemed conflicted before he nodded and sat down. Cupcake recognized the look on his face. It was the 'reckless genius' look that she was very familiar with having dropped in on him and Victor during her training with the Enforcers.
The former enforcer sighed before turning to her fellow time travelers and proposing, "We should probably stick together. As much as I detest you, none of us should go running around on our own." She looked at Jinx expectantly.
Jinx regarded her with cold eyes before shaking her head lightly, eyes darting to somewhere in the corner of the room before saying, "I don't like how you corrupted my sister,"
"Corrupted?" Vi protested, blush rising on her face.
Jinx continued like Vi hadn't said anything, "She used to fight for us; she knew who she was, and who the enemy was. Now?" Jinx trailed off. Vi looked like she really wanted to interrupt, but in a rare moment of tact, understood Jinx needed to get her words out now while she was feeling generous with her words and not her bullets. Cupcake nearly snarled at the younger woman.
Jinx looked between them before continuing with a leer, "Well, you must taste even sweeter than you look, Cupcake, because now I don't know what she fights for now, other than you apparently."
Muffled squawks at Jinx's insinuation filled the silence. Shortbread was doing her level best at impersonating a tomato. Mylo looked confused, Claggor nodded to himself like the apparent sage he was. Violet looked torn between asking questions and flipping the table to hide her brilliant blush that nearly matched her hair.
But it was Powder of all people who spoke up, "What's so bad about Cupcake? She seems alright to me. And she's really pretty."
"She's an enforcer," Jinx replied blandly.
Caitlyn sat there amid the mild panic of the younger kids and thought. Jinx was looking at her with such a deep level of contempt that Caitlyn was half-impressed that the girl didn't try to strangle her on the spot. Enforcers killed their parents. Caitlyn knew that. She had even processed it, on an academic level. But now, as she saw how that one word changed the entire mood at the table?
The kids weren't angry at Vi. They were afraid of her. Even Violet looked nervous all of a sudden. And all it took was that one word, almost like magic. Cailyn almost chuckled at the thought that Jinx didn't even need a bomb to blow everything up. But as much as she disliked Jinx, she bravely reconciled the real phantom haunting the room.
"Not anymore." Caitlyn said quite clearly. "I'm not an Enforcer anymore, and even when I was, I never set foot in Zaun. I haven't been since the after you blew up my patrol." She couldn't resist letting that bit of ire slip from her lips.
"Oh? That was you?" Jinx looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"And you should be thankful. If I hadn't been an enforcer, I wouldn't have been able to liberate Vi from Stillwater prison. You know, the place that Silco and the Sheriff let her rot and didn't tell you about it?" Caitlyn continued acidly.
"Marcus?" Jinx asked entirely too calmly.
Shortbread mouthed 'Sheriff?' to herself as she took in the realization that something terrible must've happened to Grayson who was at least a decade away from retiring from old age.
"I didn't want to believe it at first, but you're not the only one with an amoral boss. Only the sheriff would've had the necessary credentials to drop a teenage inmate in that place without charges filed, and kept her there indefinitely with no release scheduled at all. Apparently his conscience extended just enough to let her live. But since Marcus was Silco's man, I'd bet my life he knew where Vi was the whole damn time, and he let you mourn her all the same." Caitlyn finished with a huff.
Jinx lowered her head to the table and massaged her temples with trembling hands. "Marcus. The guy who shot Ekko. Was gonna execute you too, on the bridge. I kinda saved your life, didn't I? When I lit them up." Jinx drawled.
"You almost killed her too," Vi pointed out firmly.
"Yeah, that's true." Jinx admitted with a shrug. "But he shot Ekko in the chest from like right there. Sheriff or not, he and his weren't walking away after that."
As much as Caitlyn wanted to vehemently deny that Marcus would've shot her, he had shot a teenager without a care, right in front of her. And none of his men even flinched. Daughter or not, Marcus would've done it. And her eyes misted up with the acknowledgment.