"Just like the moon does, we rise and shine and fall...". The dark-haired man three cells away from hers used to sing that, sometimes. Exception to the rule, no other inmate would order him to shut up when he started singing in the night. His deep, soothing voice had that effect. Vi couldn't really tell why, but for a split second, she thought of that man and his song, as she watched the rocket flying in the nightsky toward the upper city, her shoulders burdened with the weight of Caitlyn.

- NO! screamed the young woman in blue, as if her voice could change the trajectory of the explosive.

Time had slowed down to a point where a single second lasted an eternity, but even several eternities were not enough to prevent the disaster. Almost silently in the distance, the red-painted rocket turned into a cloud of fire and steel.

- No! No no no! begged Caitlyn out loud, trying to get out of Vi's grasp and run toward the city, before her right leg gave up first, her wound still not healed.

Vi tried to say something, not sure what it could be, but she tried. She didn't have the time, Cait had turned her head toward her, her eyes wide in panic:

- The Council ! She hit the Council Chamber! My mother is up there!

Shit, thought Vi. Not because of the Council, but because if Jinx had killed Cait's mother, the near-by future she had made the mistake to imagine for a single second, a future with Powder back at her side and Cupcake at her arm, would be shattered into oblivion.

- We have to go now! ordered Caitlyn, the cop in her taking over. They will need all help they can get.

She stepped forward with all the strength she could summon, which was not much, but whether Vi would keep helping her or not, even if she had to crawl all the way back to the upper city, she was going.

Vi followed her lead.

She looked back one last time, still torn between helping Caitlyn or going back to her sister. But her sister was gone. Literally, at least. Because she knew that, figuratively, she was still in there. Different, yes. But still here. Vi was smart and real enough to know and understand that, if years in prison could change someone, growing up with that bastard Silco, the man who killed Vander, would be just as bad. Different or not, Jinx or Powder, she didn't care. She was her sister.

Then she realized. Jinx was gone. For the first time in their lives, Vi was not the one to leave, Powder was not the one staying, begging for her sister to stay. Jinx was the one who left, without a single look back.

Her heart cracked.


Three Days Later

Jinx woke up with a jump. No nightmares, no threatening sound, just this horrible feeling you get when you gently fall asleep in a chair, and you're woken up by the weight of your own head falling forward.

She grunted.

Silco's chair felt cold, despite her being sit in it for hours and hours. She wouldn't move anyway. Not till he came back. It shouldn't take long anymore. After all, Milo had taken just a few days to be back and talk to her again. Claggor, a bit longer, so she hoped her foster father would be less of a douche. Vander had been back fast, but she had casted him away on the spot.

Traitor, Traitor, Traitor.

She was hungry. She didn't want to get out, but she was hungry. Maybe there were some biscuits left in one of the drawers. Of course not. Silco never had any biscuits anyway. She had some left her workshop. She could go, maybe...

- Shut up, Milo! she burst. He will find me! He always does! Here or at my place won't make a difference.

The stench of Sevika's mix of oil, shimmer and cigar smoke was still hanging in the air. She must have been there not long ago, there were still stains on the couch, but Jinx had neither seen nor heard from her since. Not that she cared.

She made up her mind, mostly just to prove Milo wrong. She got up from the chair and jumped across the desk. She stopped at the door, looked quickly at her guns stacked in the corner. She cracked a smile for Fishbones, the big rocket launcher she had just modified. Her most magnificent creation to date. That same smile disappeared when looking at Pow-Pow. The machine gun was still her favourite, but it now was stained with the blood of Silco. She grunted again, and opened the door. She wouldn't need them for now. Zap, on her left hip, would be enough of a firepower if anyone was foolish enough to cross her path. She was hungry.

Her workshop was in a worst state than she remembered. One too many explosions, maybe. The place was supposed to be used to it, at that point, but well. She found comfort in the paints on the wall, pink and purple flashes in the dark, in the cold sounds of the steel of the giant propeller's blade when she walked on it. Home more than anything else. She spotted some traces on the fireworks she had used to surprise her father.

- Happy Progress Day, she whispered to the void.

She let herself fall in her dirty cushion. She had found her biscuits. They were old, too thick, too hard. Good enough. She closed her eyes. Even in the darkness of her eyelids, there was still a shade of purple now. Even when she slept. No more perfect darkness, no more complete rest. Singed fucked her up bad... Saved her life, but for what? Uh? Getting Silco, the only hope of Zaun, killed tied to a chair, and her even more broken that ever?

- You're perfect...

The whisper was low, far away, but she didn't have to search for it. He was already here. She giggled. She had missed him. Even if she could not truly believe him on this.

- I never would have given you to them... Not for anything.

That she didn't want to believe... It made it all so much harder to bear. But she did believe it. Thoughts were swirling in her mind, trying to ignore the annoying Milo as much as possible. She didn't know what to do. Silco was the one with a plan, she was the one with... the badgets. The guns. Not the plan No big, incredible, mastermind plan with five steps ahead on anyone else.

But Silco would tell her what to do. She couldn't see him yet, but she knew he was coming back. She had heard him. He would know what to do.

He did. The voice grew louder in her head, louder than Milo's.

- We will show them all... They can all burn!

Oh yes, they can...


Seven Days Later

Jayce sighed. This view was still hard to stomach. The machines, and the regular clink clank of the mechanical lungs, breathing fresh air into her still chest. Her face still haven't moved in inch since the explosion, a week before. She looked peaceful. Some of the deep cuts in her cheeks and skull had already started to heal. They would leave a mark, but nothing like her mothers. That is, if she ever woke up to care about it.

Speaking of the devil, he heard the door opened behind him. He recognized the sounds of the steps on the floor. Heavy. Decided. With a hint of metal at the tip of the shoes.

- Still here, Talis? asked the voice. There was no malice, nor anger in her voice, but there was something. He couldn't identify what. Maybe a judgment for not being somewhere else, doing something else, more useful.

- I suppose I could say the same thing about you, Mrs Medarda. I had thought you'd have leveled half of the undercity to the ground by now.

The old warrior women chuckled, bitterly.

- You still don't understand much about our ways, boy.

He had given up on trying to make her call him "Councilor". He didn't really care about it anyway. There was more important things.

- I have other ways to find the culprit. More subtil, but more efficient than blindly charging in. But I will "level half of the undercity to the ground" if I need, once I know where to look.

He sighed, again. He knew about her spies roaming the undercity. They were not as subtle and discreet as they thought, most of the criminal underworld knew about their presence. His own sources had confirmed it. Still he was worried. She would not sit quietly much longer. Once she'd get bored and frustrated by the failures of her spies, she would set the town ablaze. He turned back his attention toward Mel.

Her survival was nothing short of a miracle. Sure, her Noxian blood made her tougher than most, and her clothes, despite being light and revealing, were crafted by the finest artisans, as resistant as iron. Sure, the glass of the Council Chamber was supposed to be the most resistant in the world. It had shattered into thousands of pieces all the same, by whatever horror had been thrown at them, but it had soften the blow enough so they would not be all reduce to ashes.

But Mel was the closest, and the fire had entirely burnt her back, and a good part of her magnificent hair. Scars would cross her arms, a bit of her face, and she had lost a finger, cut clean by one of the shards. Nothing she couldn't live without. But the force of the blow had thrown her across the room, and she had crashed against the wall, face first. Since then, she hadn't woken up, despite the best efforts of the best physicians of the Academy.

Councilor Kiramman hadn't been that lucky. She had bled to death in a few seconds, shredded by the glass. So had been Councilor Hoskel, and Councilor Bolbok, the mechanical one, had been literally dismantled when crushed against the wall.

Jayce got up, with a grimace on his face. His left clavicule was broken, and his knee twisted. All minor injuries, relatively, that would heal with a bit of time.

- I have to go. I'll see you later.

She stopped him, with a single step in his way.

- Tell me, Councilor Talis.

Councilor? Crap, has to be serious.

- If you knew who was behind it, you would tell me, wouldn't you?

- Maybe. If I didn't think that telling you would endanger Piltover more than it would help her.

This was an honest answer, but she clearly didn't like it.

- And I don't know anyway. So until I do, I'm not bothering myself with that question.

This was lie. He knew. Of course he knew. Even before Caitlyn and Vi reported to him, he had known. Silco wouldn't do that. Not when he was so close to get all that he wanted. The only one capable of this madness, of risking a war with Piltover for nothing, was Jinx.

He stepped around, limping carefully to protect his knee, and got out.

On his way out of the hospital, he stopped by another room. Viktor's. His best friend was in the same state as Mel, minus the cuts and burn. But when the rocket exploded, he was sitting behind Jayce. The blow threw both of away like ragdolls, along with half of the circular table, which miraculously protected them from most of the glass shards. Viktor crashed on the wall, and Jayce crashed onto Viktor. He had heard and felt the bones of his friend cracking behind him. He could still hear the sound, every time he closed his eyes.

Viktor was lying still, eyes closed, breath steady. He, at least, didn't need machines to breathe. His medical devices had protected his own spine. His nose had been broken, so was his hand and one shoulder. But aside from mended bones, he could actually be in a fairly good health, his deadly sickness aside, if he would just wake up. Physicians couldn't tell why. Something might have happened to his brain...

Which would be the worst. Viktor's brain was his most precious possession, the only part of his body that had never betrayed him ...

Jayce pushed the dark thoughts away. He approached the bed. Most nurses and doctors had been spooked when they discovered the changes in his leg. Jayce had reacted on the spot, claiming it was part of their experiments and totally normal. He himself had no idea what his friend had done to himself, but he'd cover for him, he'd protect him, even if this was the last thing he would do. He put his hand on his arm. It felt warm, even through the sheets.

- Please my friend. Don't rest too long. We need you back. I need you back.

He turned away. Viktor would have known how to use Hextech to heal people. To help Mel. To wake her up.

He was late for his meeting.


Caitlyn was sitting straight in the chair. The grief and anger had straightened her like a forger's hammer on a red hot iron rod. She glanced at Vi. The pink haired woman was sitting in a much more relaxed way, legs across the armchair, her head hanging in the void. She looked so careless, and bored to. It sparked the flame of anger again. How could she be so casual, so cavalier?

Of course she knew how. Vi was just way better at hiding her pain than her, that was all. But seeing her was seing Jinx. She could not separate the both of them in her mind, the purple, glowing tears of the mad woman when she fired that rocket, the look of despair Vi's eyes, the fact that she still wanted to go back to her sister... Seing Vi was a torture at every second.

And not seing her was worse. So, so much worse.

By simply being here, Vi pushed her to focus on matters at hand and not dwell into sorrow. She's the one who dragged her back to the city, and kept her from crumbling when an Enforcer announced the death of her mother. She hadn't say a thing, she just hold her up, her grasps tightening a little more on her waist and her wrist. She had say nothing when Cait had cried for hours, against her chest, in her corner, in Jayce's arms, in her father's arms. She just stood there, and didn't move.

- I know what it's like to loose a mother, she explained on the second day, when Cait was finally ready to speak and listen. And a father. Twice. When my parents were killed, Vander was there, and he didn't move. So I will be there, and I won't move.

What she didn't dare to add, was that when she had lost Vander, no one was there for her but the stone walls of her cell, and it had almost destroyed her. Cupcake didn't need to know that.

Despite that, the young peacemaker could see the blood burning in her friend's veins. She wanted to go back. Search for her sister. Whether it was to make her pay, or run away with her, she couldn't say.

Jayce finally came in.

- Sorry I'm late. I was at the hospital.

- No changes? Councilor Medarda? Viktor?

He shook his head in negative.

- I'm sorry...

She wanted to hug him, but they were here for serious business.

While the Council Chamber was still under repair, Jayce would conduct his official affairs in a small but comfy meeting room.

- Why did you call us in, Poster Boy? asked Vi.

She didn't mean that as an insult, at least not anymore. He knew it, but still highly disliked it. They had fought side by side, and despite their differences, he had hoped it would be enough to be taken seriously. He decided to ignore her.

- How you doing, Cait? How's the leg?

She raised an eyebrow.

- Leg is fine. I can walk. T'was just a flesh wound.

Both of them carefully avoided to mention the matriarch of the Kiramman family. The images were still fresh in Jayce's memory, the corpse shredded, liters of blood on the floor... In a way, he was glad that his friend didn't have to see her mother like that.

- Good, good. Are you ready to get back to work?

It wasn't even a question. Cait could not wait anymore, sitting around at the house was tearing her apart. She needed to be out there. She needed to find Jinx and bring her in. Vi was still silent.

- You know I am. Stop beating around the bush. What do you want?

- I want you to take Marcus position. Be our new Sheriff.

Well, she didn't see that coming. Neither did Vi, who whistled loudly.

- Damn Cupcake! That's one hell of a promotion! Congrats!

Her tone did not carry any congratulations though. It was, if anything else, almost mocking.

- Thanks Jayce. But I don't want it.

- I know you don't. I knew it before even thinking of asking. That's why I really need you to do it.

The sharpshooter looked up, straight in his eyes, an eyebrow raised.

- Cause there's no one else you can trust, am I right?

He scratched his head.

- Exactly. The word of Silco's death will soon spread through the entire Undercity, if it has not already. The power vacuum will be massive, and many will try to get their piece of the cake. And each one of them will try to imitate their predecessor and have their own puppets in our police. I need the only one that they can't bribe.

Then he looked at Vi,

- The only ones.

Vi let herself fall from her chair and up on her feet. She walked to Jayce, right under her face, and studied his eyes.

- You ain't kidding, she said. You really want me to help you.

- Yes. You're a good fighter, I'll grant you that. But more than that, you hate that scum that roams down there. You want to see them burn for what they did to you, what they did to your parents. To... Vander, am i right? To your sister.

Vi's knuckled turned white. She wanted to talk back, but Jayce cut her short.

- From the little I know of you, I know you want to protect people. You don't want to rule them, you don't want to abuse them, you want to make sure that they don't go through what you went through.

- Tsss.

She hated that he was right. That he acted like he knew everything of her.

- I'm a smart man, Vi. Many actually call me a genius. And it doesn't take one to see that you and Caitlyn are very good together. Hell, in a few days you found and brought down Sil... I mean, you're efficient. And I make the hypothesis that she would only accept my offer if she could have you at her side.

Vi turned around, looked at Caitlyn. She didn't confirm out loud, but her eyes and the slight mouvement of her shoulders did it for her.

- Fine! But we'll do things my way!

Jayce sighed.

- I'm afraid it won't be possible. We can work around the protocols and paperwork, but we have laws. I can't have you punching first and asking questions later. You can't help people if they are scared of you, Vi.

- Then I'm out.

She turned away, and walk to the door, her red leather jacket glistening under the lights.

- Wait! Wait... I got something for you...

She stopped, and just gave a short glance. Jayce went to his desk and reached for under it. He took out a massive suitcase, which he almost struggled to put on the desk.

- They were not yet ready when we.. teamed up. But they should be a seriously improved version...A few new tricks I'm expecting you to love.

Vi came to the desk, almost too fast. She beamed at the new pair of iron cloves.

- Holy shit, poster boy... What a pair of beauties! Can I take them for a spin?

- Depends. Are you willing to work with us?

- Yeah yeah, you got me...

Jayce looked at Cait. She hesitated for a second, and lowered her head, shaking it.

- Damit Jayce... Yes, I'll help you. But only until we get things back in order. Til we get someone better suited.

- Deal. Your office is already set. I had all files and documents delivered, and a few toys. If you need anything, you come to me.

Caitlyn rose up silently, waited for Vi to join her with the massive briefcase.

- Cait, Vi! called Jayce one last time. Your first mission is clear. Bring me Jinx.

The Peacekeepers nodded, and walked past the door.

- And find me Heimerdinger! he yelled.


A/N : Hello everyone! As many people I recently watched Arcane and I was hooked and obsessed. Hte end left me with an itch I needed to scratch, so I started to write. I'm not really sure we're I'll be going with that fic, or how long it will be. What I have in mind is meant to be a mix between flashbacks of Vi's time in prison and my take on what Season 2 could be... Let's see, and I hope you'll like whatever I come up with =)