Author's Note:

I'm alive. And this story is too. After I was able to go to my usual haunts, I got caught up in the behemoth that is Critical Role and neglected the hell out of this story.

I'm sorry about that.

Here's the next part of this story.

While it may not seem like it, your comments/reviews do mean a lot to me. Even if they're sometimes a little pushy.
I've left a few dozen of those 'please update/are you dead/wtf?' comments myself, so I get it, truly.
Thanks for sticking with me. Even though I don't treat you with the kindness you readers perhaps deserve.

CHAPTER: Meet in a Dark Alley

When Deckard and his compatriots accost the group on their way back to the Undercity, he was expecting a group of two teenagers and one child. Vander's kids. Everybody who was anybody in the Undercity knew Vander's kids.

One boy was tall, and fat and he wore goggles everywhere, the tank. Another, the younger boy was average height and skinny, but with sharp pointy hair, angled features, and was their crew's lock-picker. Then there were the sisters, the brawler with pink hair, and the runt with blue hair. Violet and Powder.

Deckard knew the kids, after all, until Silco hired him, he used to hang out with them. Though that was a couple years ago by now. Deckard and the other kids hadn't been friends or whatever, but they were certainly familiar. Which was why when he laid eyes on his former acquaintances to rob, he realised he may have made a mistake in promising Silco he could deliver their goods.

Deckard's will to fight for the bag of goods slung over Milo's shoulder died when he made eye contact with the taller girl with blue hair down to her ankles. The look in her vibrant purple eyes raised the hairs on the nape of his neck. If the colour wasn't so different, he would believe he was looking into Silco's eyes.

That girl's glare chilled his blood like wasn't looking at him like she could see into his soul like Silco did. Her gaze evaluated him, and designated him unworthy of that effort; he was just an insect to her, and he didn't need to look too deeply down into his instincts to understand she'd crush him like one with the appropriate disinterest.

"Hey, so…why are your eyes purple?" the Powder piped up as they walked down the shady-looking alleyway.

"I died, maybe. But after I bombed the bridge, I was really out of it. Silco must've brought me back to Zaun. Then a really fucked up scientist brought me back different," Jinx replied with a shrug that sent chills down both Vi's backs.

Before any of their crew could respond, Jinx drew her pistol and pointed it at the leader of a group of boys approaching them. Deckard. "Fuck off or die," Jinx said in a tone that was dryer and colder than anything the kids had seen.

Caitlyn the elder looked sharply at the ruffians attempting to corner them, and then at Vi. Vi had murder in her eyes when she looked at the kid Jinx was pointing her gun at. It was an expression she'd never seen on the brawler's face. Not even when Silco was in the room with them. Vi put a gentle hand on Jinx's forearm before walking towards the thugs.

"Hey now, we don't want any–," Deckard began to speak up, but was interrupted as he suddenly found himself grappled by the throat and yanked off his feet and dashed into wall by an enraged Vi. Her left hand clasping his throat and her right with a fistful of his jacket assuring he won't squirm out of her grasp.

"Look at me you piece of shit." Vi growls.

"What the fuck?" one of Deckard's crew speaks up before the gun is leveled at him.

"Don't fire!" Caitlyn said with an air of urgency.

"I know I know, we don't want enforcers," Jinx replies waspishly just before she flips the gun around in her hand so she's holding the barrel. "I don't need to shoot this scum to kill them."

"What the fuck is going on?" Mylo asks.

Caitlyn just shrugs as she looks at the two sisters with murder in their eyes. "Vi. Vi. Look around you."

Vi comes down from the momentary rage of having one of Vander's killers in her grasp. She looks back at the younger versions of herself and her sister. Young Violet seems cautious, but not moving forward. But Powder is actively standing behind her big sister, lightly grasping her waist in fear.

"Jinx, read the room," Vi calls out to her wayward sister.

Jinx looks back toward her terrified younger self and sighs. She looks at young Cupcake who while older, looked just as shaken.

"Fuck it, fine." She walks over to where Deckard is now standing against the wall and strikes him with her empty hand. His head whips to the side, but he manages to stand on his feet. Her palm imprint covers the right side of his face as he crouches and whimpers.

Vi gives her a look, but Jinx replies, "Don't fucking look at me like that. Without this asshole, Vander would've probably been fine."

"You're right." Vi concedes. "Let's just get back to the Last Drop, okay?"

Jinx looked over their motley crew and said, "Vander's never gonna believe this shit."

"Sure, he will," Vi replied.

"We need to deal with Silco you know," Jinx whispered in a distinctly softer tone.

Deckard was still there, looking between the two girls who just wrecked him and quickly re-affirmed to himself that maybe Silco was skimping on the pay for this job.

"We're not gonna kill him," Jinx followed up firmly, wicked gleam right back in her eyes.

"I didn't say we would," Vi said.

"Good. I'm gonna talk to him. But I'm gonna kill the Chemist," Jinx said.

Vi thought about it for a moment, "The guy who saved you?"

Jinx looked up at her sister, unnatural violet irises locked onto Vi's blues. "Look at me Vi, he didn't save me. I'm not me anymore." Jinx reached out and put her fist through the wall next to Deckard's head. She withdrew her arm from the wall without flinching, and Vi could see the tiny abrasions and cuts the brickwork caused disappear before Jinx was done moving her arm back to her side.

"Hey, enforcer girl, wanna end Shimmer before it starts for real?" Jinx leered at Caitlyn.

Caitlyn replied, "I want him to put on trial. Not executed in an alley," she gestured to the now cowering Deckard.

"Trials are for Pilties," Jinx replied. "And on what charges? You know, you have seen with your pretty little eyes what he'll be responsible for six years from now. Justify keeping him alive to me, go on."

"How do you justify keeping you alive?" Caitlyn spits back. "You kill so many people."

"I know. But killing me changes none of that," Jinx said. She walks up to Caitlyn while flipping her pistol over her long fingers with expert dexterity. "But we're not talking about me now. I'm talking about the guaranteed potential to ruin lives. The Chemist already had a stockpile of the shit at this point just sitting in that warehouse ready for dispensing to the masses. You're talking about killing her."

Caitlyn looks down at Powder, then looks back at Jinx and nearly snarls at the insinuation she's capable of such a thing.

Jinx presses her pistol into Caitlyn's hand and steps into her space. "So, what's it gonna be? You gonna prove yourself a real enforcer? Or are you still just mommy's little wallflower?"

Caitlyn doesn't even hesitate before bringing the gun up towards Jinx's chest. Jinx' manic grin stretched across her face. "Go on, Cupcake. Do it." Jinx stepped forward into the gun as the muzzle sat pressed flush against the skin over her heart. She stepped forward again, effectively separating herself and Caitlyn from the rest of the group who looked in in quiet horror. Caitlyn stepped backwards as the blue-haired monster who haunted her dreams looked up at her and begged for death.

There was a short thunderous crack and the smell of iron as both Powder and Young Caitlyn were doused in blood. Screams fill the alleyway as chaos erupted.

Second Author's Note: For those of you who have seen Critical Role's Campaign 1, go check out my hilariously unread fic for that fandom if you're feeling generous.