Vi held her hand for longer than she thought she would. It had been a while since she'd been with someone like this. She'd had 'friends' in prison, but not friends, not like this. And she couldn't really deny it anymore, that that's what they were. When she first met her, Vi wasn't sure if she was being punked or not. After all, she looked young enough to be a rookie, but at the same time she just got a vibe that this girl had been well taken care of her whole life. She seemed like the warmup act before the actual beating came. Not a real enforcer, not yet, but someone wide eyed and naive who was sent down here to 'learn the ropes of how to deal with scum like her'. But all things considered, she had seemed pretty articulate and sure of herself, and instead of preparing her for a beating, all she did was ask her questions. That was when she saw those crime scene photos.

It had been strange, seeing that monkey again. It was like a little glimmer of hope that she didn't think she would ever have again. She seemed desperate enough–and secretly, so was Vi, so she figured she could gamble for her release and the chance to get out and find Powder once and for all. Looking back now, when Caitlyn had asked her why she would trust someone like Vi, it actually made sense. After all, all she knew about her was that she had broken the jaw of someone in prison seemingly just for the fun of it. She was a dangerous criminal, period, not a criminal from the undercity. Vi may have felt the same way in her position and had many times over the years in Stillwater. And what she said later on about The Last Drop had pissed her off, but that made sense too given the fact that it wasn't anybody's home or safe harbor anymore. She didn't know that was where she and her family used to play and hide from the world when even they couldn't deal with it. Vi bet that if she knew what it was like when Vander was alive, she might actually like it. Hell, the thought of her and Powder–the real Powder, going toe to toe and giving each other a run for the other's money in that shooting game made her smile. It would have been weird at first, but she would have fit in pretty quickly. That actually made her think of–

"Hey," Vi said as she let Caitlyn's hand go and watched as it slid back under her cheek. "I've been meaning to ask you about…about that girl in the brothel."

Caitlyn chuckled sweetly in response. It was the first time Vi had actually made her laugh and knowing that she could filled her with an incredible feeling of accomplishment, as strange as it sounded. She was always so serious, and they'd been through a hell of a lot in the past couple of, shit, days. It had felt like a week, maybe two had passed.

"You saw that, did you? On your way out the door, I suppose. Well, I'm a lady, we don't talk about such things," Caitlyn said with a smile.

"That's not what I meant." Vi smiled back. "I mean, what happened after I left you with Pim and you dropped that weird Matilda thing?"

"Well, apparently it was Pim's first time there, too and he was very nervous so we both just wound up awkwardly stuttering around each other for several minutes. Eventually we parted ways, but right after he pointed me in the direction of someone who he heard was better with 'novices like us'." She smiled a little at the memory.

"You're a novice, are you?" Vi challenged.

"I was sheltered, but not that sheltered. I was dragged around every party in the city and was forced to talk with all kinds of people."

"Just not Undercity people?"

"Much to my dismay. I could only imagine what a person like that would have had to say."

At first Vi wondered if she was teasing her, but Caitlyn seemed very sincere, which once again, surprised her.

"What?" Vi asked, not trying to sound critical and hoping she wasn't coming off that way anyway. "Did you think they'd tell you about all the stuff they stole or all the fights they'd gotten into?"

"Maybe." She seemed to be somewhat delighted at the possibility. "Who knows what went on down there. Well, I suppose you do. And I do, too, actually, now."

"Yeah. So, I was kind of like an exotic foreigner to you, wasn't I?"

"Shut up."

"Yeah," she chuckled. "So how did you end up with the huntress?"

"You mean Uma?"

"You remember her name? What am I saying? Of course you do. She looked very…unforgettable."

"Zip it. Her name was Uma, she'd been there for a while and she was very amicable, by the way. Very smart and very sweet–"

"Most of them are, actually."

"Come on," Caitlyn chastised, assuming she was making another joke.

"I'm being dead serious. Most of the ones that I've met were very nice, especially to me and my friends."

"You spent a lot of time at the brothel when you were young?" Caitlyn suddenly looked very concerned.

"Oh, wipe that look off your face, we passed them on the street. No one would let us in that place until we came of age. So anyway, sweet and smart–but still of course very sexy Uma–"

"Uma stood there and spoke to me for a little bit, and I actually lost that ridiculous accent and she figured out that I wasn't from around there and I came clean about being from Piltover–"

"That's not that weird. They get clients from up there all the time. Just never go down there in your uniform if you value your life."

"Got it. Well, I told her about how a friend of mine is encouraging me to branch out, and before I knew it, I told her about how I was taken to the outskirts of the city to hunt in the woods and learned to shoot. That really sparked an interest in her, so she took my hand and brought me back to her, I suppose you'd call it her workspace. It was filled with treasures that her former customers had given her to remind her of them. She doesn't really remember the clients, of course, but she does remember the stories they told her. How they took down an animal with a single shot, a branch from a tree they'd watch grow since they were born. I actually recognized a few of the things she showed me. I had a few stories to tell myself. She seemed really interested to hear them, too. I was surprised."

"I think I'd like to hear a few of those someday. And the mask?" By then, Vi had gotten lost in the story with a smile.

"Mask? What mask?"

"The one you had in your lap when I walked past."

"Oh, when you abandoned me to beat someone up, you mean? Oh, I felt silly talking to someone wearing a sort of–I don't know, disguise. And she didn't seem very comfortable herself, so I offered to undo it for her–"

"Oh, is that the only thing you offered to undo for her?"

"Would you shut up and let me tell my stupid story? Please? She let me take the mask off and I held onto it for her."

"You seemed to be enjoying yourself. You've been wound so tight for so long I was surprised to see you like that."

"Well, you have that ass tightening effect on someone, you know. As she was telling me about some of her past customers, who for the most part were basically Prince Charmings, or were trying to be, that led me to ask about the less than savory characters that must go through there. She told me that, yes, there were a few. I managed to wiggle out of her that some of them belonged to Silco and that his lieutenant of sorts frequented the place, and that Uma didn't like the look of her. Which, again, you seemed to have figured out all on your own."

Caitlyn raised an eyebrow at her, something of a playful–and still not so playful accusation in her eyes.

"I'm sorry about that. How many times do I have to say it?"

"Well after that first time just now, I can stand to hear it a little bit more."

"Okay…I just thought I could find Powder on my own. It didn't occur to me that you'd wanna help me with anything other than your case. So that's how you found Sevika?"

"Yeah. I found your friend, too, Babette. Nice lady. She seemed surprised to meet me. She also said that I looked familiar, somehow, but I told her that I'd never been there before."

"Good old Babette. She may have saved my life back there."

"I saved your life".

"She pointed you in my direction, that's the same thing."

Caitlyn looked more than touched at what she'd just said.

"Thank you again for that," Vi continued. "Really, if you hadn't shown up…I wouldn't be here. I found my sister, I'm out of that hellhole, I went home, I found Ekko and the Firelights…and all that happened because you showed up."

It was clear Caitlyn didn't know what to say to that. Frankly, Vi was surprised that she'd said any of it. But she'd been thinking about it while Caitlyn talked to her parents. Vi tried to imagine what the 16-year-old version of herself would have said if she saw her now, in the penthouse of a topside enforcer–one of the tops of topside from the looks of it. Caitlyn had said she had a friend on the council, but apparently, she had a parent on the council, too. It was weird to think of this person she still barely knew as being anything other than the enforcer who busted her out of jail in desperation to find Silco, apparently purely out of some sense of lawful Piltie justice. Now she was someone's daughter. And from the looks of all these flowers with get well cards sticking out, she had a lot of friends. Vi had a lot of friends too, once. Then it had all gone to hell…

"I'm sorry you wound up in that place," Caitlyn said softly. "That's so unfair."

"Yeah, well, that's life…"

"I used to think that life was fair. I used to think that with people like Sheriff Grayson in charge…"

"I remember her. She was alright. She got along with Vander–"

"Your adoptive father."

"Yeah. She tried to keep the peace from what I heard."

"She was amazing. I only really interacted with her once, but it left an impression. When I think of the Enforcers and what they stand for, I think of her. I think of a group of people who protect the weak and the powerless and ask for very little, if any, glory or acknowledgment in return. The credit, the coin, it doesn't matter, not as long as the citizens are safe from harm because of us."

Vi had been tempted to fire back at her that that wasn't who the enforcers were, at least not to the people of the undercity, certainly not to her. But when she saw that look on Caitlyn's face, that sort of dreamy look like she was thinking of better days and a better person who had been in charge, the spiteful, venomous words died on her lips. That tended to happen whenever Caitlyn was around, she was beginning to notice. She didn't need to tell her that wasn't who those people were, she'd gotten that rude awakening herself when she had joined them, Vi was sure. But she was trying to fill her mentor's shoes and trying to be that person that she imagined could be found in every corner of the enforcers ranks before she knew better anyway. Vi had romanticized fighting because she'd seen Vander do the same, as well.

"I never used to think of them as 'enforcers'," Caitlyn said, seemingly lost in thought. "That word alone is just so…harsh and cruel. Forceful. I always imagined them as wardens."

"Uh, in my experience, wardens are pretty nasty."

"No, I mean, the definition of a warden is someone who's meant to care for something. Look after it, safeguard it, serve the people. Be useful. That's always something I've struggled to be."

"Yeah…it's a bitch and a half when you're no good to anyone."

"But we are. I mean we've done so much in such a short amount of time. Think about it. You and I never should have met, but we did. And because we met, we've just exposed so much corruption and we're about to open the council's eyes like no one has before. Right here, right now, you and I are about to become real instruments of change. We're going to stop a bad man and we're going to make things better for our city."

"For topside you mean?"

"No. Our city, do you understand? We are Piltover. You and me, those people down there, and we're going to speak for them, both of us. They're finally going to have a voice after all this time. Cheer up, please. Things are finally happening and they're happening…all because you broke a man's jaw."

At that realization, these two very different women who came from very different walks of life burst out laughing, and Vi let herself stupidly, wonderfully and haplessly feel hopeful about her future.

About their future. There was a thought. That these two might actually be Piltover's finest.