A/N: I'm honored that people have already viewed this fic 342 times despite it just starting, and for those who favorited and followed, I thank you especially. Also, a lot of my energy is spent when working on a chapter, and I wouldn't have it any other way, as I need to give that much energy to make sure the chapters you all read are up to my own standard. Just know that I'm not always the quickest to get chapters out there, but once I do get there, it is my hope the wait is worth it.

A Setback

"Klaus..." Caitlyn says it as if to test the sound of the name, she nods seemingly satisfied with it.

Vi just chuckles, "You and your names Pow."

Jinx just looks at Vi with a faux-innocence, "My, whatever do you mean big sis? I don't have a habit of creating names for people."

Vi deadpans, "Right, and the first thing you did as my enemy was to totally not cause a huge scene and paint my likeness in a unflattering way and dub me 'Fat-Hands'."

Jinx flinches at the moniker momentarily before chuckling, "Well, to be fair, those gauntlets do make you look like you put on a few pounds."

It was Caitlyn's turn to laugh at Jinx's teasing, while Vi grows red from embarassment and anger, "M-my gauntlets don't make me look fat!" she exclaims.

Jinx smiles and mercilessly continues, "Don't worry about it sis! There are programs we can look at, and I'll be your own personal dietician!"

Vi just growls and starts to chase Jinx, who is already running before she starts to chase her, they both could faintly hear Caitlyn demand that they don't break anything, to which they both silently acknowledge, she doesn't use her shimmer enhanced speed because that would just be cheating and Jinx wants a challenging game, actually, now that she thinks about it, this would be a unique way to show her surprise, she quickly runs for her bedroom with Vi hot on her heels.

Just as she gets into her doorway Vi tackles her to the ground, she is face first with Vi holding her arms behind her back, utterly at her big sister's mercy, "Now, what was that about my figure?" She asks in a pseudo sweet tone.

Jinx could feel the pressure of Vi's weight, and the pressure on her arms, but she won't give in yet, "What? It happens to the best of us sis, all I did was offer some help."

Vi increases the pressure, but not enough to really hurt, they would never seriously hurt each other, this was just a game that held the facade of a fight after all, when they've actually fought in the past, people rightfully got the hell out of dodge.

Jinx sighs, "All right, all right! You're not fat okay? And I wouldn't think less of you even if you were."

Vi looks contemplative, "Hmm, you know, I think that just doesn't cut it."

Jinx is incredulous, "You're fucking with me, right?"

Vi grins, "Does it sound like I'm fucking with you?"

Jinx gives a growl of her own, "Fine, not only are you not fat, you have the physique of an Amazon, I'm in envy of your superior body compared to my scrawny and petite one."

Vi's mouth momenarily shifts to a frown at the last part, before she releases her, they both sit on the floor and look at each other before bursting into boisterous laughter.

"We-we're so stupid!" Jinx says in between her laughs, to which Vi just nods while laughing as well.

As the laughter dies down, Vi looks at her, "I didn't hurt you, right?"

Jinx shakes her head, "No sis, you're good."

Vi nods before remembering what Jinx said, "Hey.. that last part, you weren't serious, right?"

Jinx just shrugs, but Vi could see she really felt that way, "It's just a fact, you've got all the meat on you while I'm nothing but bones, I'm just not an attractive person."

Vi frowns and shakes her head, "Are you kidding me? Jinx, that's not true. You're totally beautiful! There's beauty in every body type, and plenty of guys and girls go crazy for the petite type."

Jinx smiles despite herself, that's exactly what Silco said when she told him her insecurities, albeit a bit more eloquently than Vi just did, but the spirit is still the same. Still she sighs, "You're just saying that because you're my sister."

Vi smirks, "Well, I don't know, Ekko seems to love petite girls too-" Vi is interrupted by a small hand covering her mouth, the hand of course belonging to Jinx who this time did use her shimmer speed.

"Sh-shut up!" She yells, red faced and clearly embarassed.

Vi just laughs, "Ah, my little sister, so powerful and strong, when people hear your name they tremble with fear, if only they could see you now, a girl all flustered about a boy." Vi smiles at her.

Jinx's face reddens even more and she scoffs, "Yeah well, don't tell anyone, I have a reputation after all."

Vi snorts, "I won't have to, you always did have a terrible poker face."

Jinx raises an eyebrow, "Since when? I've always been able to fool people."

Vi rolls her eyes, "Yeah, to people that don't know you. It's pretty easy when you've been family and an enemy with someone for so long to tell when they're being honest and when they're full of shit. Now with you finally opening up, the world's going to know it too."

It was Jinx's turn to roll her eyes, if Jinx had her way she'd have a quiet and secluded life with her family, she doesn't think Vi knows just how dedicated she can be to being anti-social. Suddenly, she remembers why she led Vi here, "Alright, now that we've had our fun and games, time to show you the real reason you're here."

Vi raises an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

Jinx quickly gets up, walking to the center of her room, Vi quickly following suit. When she's in front of Jinx, she points her hand upwards, Vi follows the hand up and gasps at the sight of the ceiling.

Tears form, and she's slightly shaking, Mom, Dad, Vander, Powder, Claggor, Mylo. Their faces were almost lifelike, surrounded by an ethereal golden color, Jinx got the details down to the nitty gritty.

Then her joy and emotions turn to bitter rage at seeing Silco and Jinx in the next part of the mural, suddenly it was as if nothing else existed on that mural besides that accursed monster. She looks to Jinx, who is looking at her with excited eyes and a smile.

A part of her mind is screaming not to make a big deal out of it, but the overwhelming rage is too much. "What the fuck is this?!" She yells, pointing clearly at Silco's form.

All of Jinx's excitement and joy turn to ash, she finds herself starting to get angry too, "What's your problem?! It's a fucking mural showing people you and I have both lost, we've both lost our first two families, and I lost my third with Silco-"

"You seriously still consider that sick bastard to be part of your family?!" Vi screams incredulously, she knows she should stop as Jinx suddenly starts to come undone at her clear displeasure and rage at something she worked tirelessly on that was supposed to be for both her and Vi, but she can't.

She chuckles bitterly as tears start building in her eyes, "I guess I do, is there a problem with that?" Her voice is lowered, but behind it are so many emotions, disappointment, anger, and sadness being the chief ones.

"Jinx! The man was a monster! He made you into one too!" The judgment in her eyes made Jinx snap.

"BULLSHIT! YOU did! He just helped me develop my skills and gave me resources to do more with my gadgetry. He was a monster, but you know what? At the end of the day, he was still my father!"

It was the first time she ever heard Jinx refer to him in that way, and it was too much, before she could even stop herself her fist had already landed on Jinx's face.

The punch was strong enough to send her back on to the floor, as if in a trance Vi quickly realizes what she had just done, worse Caitlyn followed them while they were playing their little 'game' and was seeing the whole thing unfold and she gasped when she saw Vi just do what she did.

"VIOLET!" She yells, clearly outraged.

Jinx quickly spit out some blood which was as purplish pink as her eyes, her expression nothing short of enraged. "Don't bother, Cait, this is par for the fucking course with her!"

Vi is full of regret, but as she tries to come closer to Jinx to offer her hand, Jinx smacks it away. "Don't you fucking touch me!"

Jinx gets herself up, she walks to the door where Cait is, Vi tries to follow her before Jinx looks back at Vi, her face is stoic, but her eyes are clearly full of pain, "Your impulse, Vi. Not that I can really say anything, but it's the one and only thing that'll ever keep you from being truly great."

That sentence stops Vi in her tracks as she looks down in disgrace, Jinx quickly leaves the room after that.

"Vi..." Caitlyn sighs, "What the hell were you thinking?"

"I wasn't." Vi admits, "All it took was to see that bastard's face and I forgot about everything else in that moment."

Caitlyn shakes her head, "Vi, you cannot let your animosity towards him get between you and your sister."

Vi looks at her as if realizing something, "You knew she painted this?"

Caitlyn crosses her arms, "Yes, and I informed her you would love it, not exactly the best time to be proven wrong."

Vi is even more ashamed at that, Jinx got the love of her life's opinion on it before showing it to her, wanting to make sure everything was perfect, and this is how she repaid her.

Caitlyn walks towards her, "Did you even see the last part of the mural?"

Vi shakes her head and looks up, and for a moment it feels like her heart stopped, they were all there, Vi, Caitlyn, Jinx, a baby girl and boy in Caitlyn's arms as Jinx and Vi in the painting stare and smile at them, in the background was their home. Jinx obviously didn't know what sex the child would be so she opted for painting both, with each baby wrapped in a pink and blue blanket respectively, good thing Caitlyn was having twins.

She couldn't stop the tears from flowing in that instant as she got down to her knees, touched beyond belief at the beauty of the painting, even if that bastard graced a part of it, so what? It was clear that Jinx was trying to heal from the pain of the past and look to the future, and her reward was a punch to the face.

Vi suddenly realizes something else, and she almost feels like throwing up, what just happened was an imitation of that day.

Caitlyn gets down on her knees and embraces Vi, "You know what you have to do, right?"

Vi nods.

Jinx found herself in the gardens of the Kirraman estate and observing all of the flowers that grew there, it's funny, it was this same garden that she used the flowers to paint her mural with, all with the Hat Lady's permission of course.

All paint in Zaun was made with synthetic materials. However, when she was still little and under Silco's guardianship, he had an artsy connection who still knew the dying art of making paint from natural sources, flowers in particular made for really beautiful colors to paint with.

Silco and her sometimes did it together to bond, but she also made the paint herself. She lucked out with Top Hat's home, because apparently her great-grandfather was another artsy type who grew certain flowers perfect for painting, which they have grown and maintained ever since.

Now she was sorry she even wasted the fucking effort.

"Aw, what did you expect Jinx? Vi embracing you as family? She only took in your sorry ass because that's her job, managing her nuisance of a little sister." Jinx growls at the voice in her head as tears fall down her face, but cannot find the energy to say anything back.

Just as she though things were looking up, it all came tumbling down again in an instant. She should have known better.

She hears footsteps approaching her and turns around, seeing Vi approach only makes her roll her eyes, "What do you want, Vi?"

Vi winces at the tone but figures she deserves it, "Powder loo-"

Both flinch at the utterance of that name, Jinx was able to tolerate and even accept the nickname 'Pow-Pow' because it wasn't truly her birth name, just a nickname from childhood, hell even she's nostalgic of that name, that's why she named her minigun after it, but it's the first time in a while Vi has used that full name to address her.

Vi mentally scolds herself for using it, while Jinx has a somber look about her, "'Powder' still clinging to that name after all these years, eh sis?"

Vi shakes her head, "Sorry, just habit."

Jinx says nothing to that, and only turns to look at the Magnolias that were starting to bloom, and took note of one that was struggling to keep up in growth with the others, a kindred spirit, Jinx decides, she gives a side glance to Vi "Well, you're here, say your piece, I'm sure it's just more of the same."

Vi sighs, "No, I fucked up, okay Pow? I guess I still have some unresolved issues with him and I took it out on you. I know he was important to you growing up, and I just have to learn to live with that."

Jinx fully turns to Vi and frowns, "I don't expect you to ever forgive him, I think it's a miracle you've forgiven me, but I won't put up with any future judgment of our relationship."

Vi nods, "And you shouldn't have to. Look, while I do hate Silco for what he's done, I think the reason I have so much animosity towards him is because he constantly reminds me of my failure as a sister to you, sometimes I still have nightmares of that night, after realizing I fucked up by turning my back on you, you're always so close and far away at the same time and I'm always so powerless to do anything, and it always ends with me losing consciousness and waking up in my cell."

Jinx listens to her and by the end she lightly smiles and walks over to Vi, "Well I'm right here, and by Piltie decree my ass ain't going anywhere. We can't change the past Vi, no matter how haunted we are by it."

Vi grimaces but nods, "I know, trust me, I know. It's just that what just happened was like an imitation of that day, and realizing that made me sick to my stomach."

Jinx nods solemnly before she looks down and then looks back at her again, her voice wavers, "I know he did a lot of bad things, and he taught me to be as ruthless and distrusting as him, not that I really needed that much encouragement, you created Jinx, but he helped mold Jinx. He was a killer, a liar, a radical, and more. He also loved music and art like me, sometimes we would sit and listen to music together, he even gave me a record player that his dad once gave him. He loved to smoke his cigars, it got to the point that his cigars became part of his natural smell, I can't smell tobacco smoke without thinking about him. He dropped everything and always worked to calm me down after a bad episode, made sure I ate my vegetables and maintained a balanced diet and despite his best efforts I always got in more sweets than were necessary. He helped me through my first period, made the voices go away whenever he was there, and so much more, and I loved him, I will always love the memory of him, I understand that you hate him, but can you please love me more to not to make it an issue?"

Vi is shaking and walks up to hug Jinx, "Of course I can Pow-Pow, your big sister is an idiot, okay? Nothing will ever stop my love for you."

They both just stay there and hug each other while crying, before Vi gets an idea to make things right. "How about you get a free pass to punch me?"

Jinx is unsure, "I don't know Vi, I don't want to hurt you."

Vi chuckles, "Oh come on, I'm not some delicate flower, I can take a punch."

Jinx chuckles, "Could you handle a shimmer enhanced punch?"

Vi stops to consider that, Jinx mostly uses her weaponry to do her talking rather than her fists, but she's seen the gear she carries around, no way in hell she would have been able to carry all of that stuff with ease without her shimmer enhanced body, and that made her pause for a second.

"Is there a way you could maybe hold back?" Vi asks hopefully

Jinx full on laughs, "I mean I've had this altered body and it's perks for some time, of course I know how to control my strength, it still is gonna hurt like a bitch though."

Vi just sighs and nods, bracing for the impact, Jinx gets into a stance, internally laughing her ass off at the fear in Vi's eyes as she sees her fist coming at her at blinding speeds, but as Jinx just said, she's had this body for years, and definitely knows how to control her own strength and speed. Right as the fist is about to hit her face, Vi closes her eyes in anticipation.

The fist never comes though, instead she feels two fingers squeezing her nose, Vi opens her eyes in confusion to find Jinx with one of the biggest shit eating grins she's ever seen, "Honk!" she exclaims.

Vi is flabbergasted, while Jinx just smiles, "Now we're even."

Vi scoffs, of course, leave it to Jinx to decide the anticipation and fear of getting punched by her is worse than actually getting punched by her.

Jinx just smiles though, "Did you see what I painted at the end of the mural?"

Vi smiles as well, "Yeah I did, and I don't think I've ever seen anything more beautiful in my entire life, it really touched me Pow, and made me feel like even more of an idiot."

"Yeah, I can imagine." Jinx snarks.

Vi merely rolls her eyes, "Yeah, yeah, I get it, I'm the meat head of the family."

"I would have used a few more expletives but you seemed to gotten the gist of it." Jinx says with a grin.

Both of them start laughing.

Jinx was working in her own office at the academy, though it was more of a mini workshop, they even gave her an aide so that if she wanted anything, she'd have it without ever having to leave her office. It was a nice and kind hearted gesture on the face of things, but she knew the unspoken and real reason, it was to isolate her from everyone else, even the aide existed for this purpose.

The aide was taller than her by a few inches, but whenever they interacted you'd think Jinx was a twelve foot giant staring down at a three foot dwarf, she was timid, shy, and quick to flinch whenever Jinx gestured to her, Jinx was sure she was terrified of her own damn shadow.

Sitting down at her desk, she goes over some dull report on another wonderful invention for review surely meant to change the world, she sighs, as part of her deal, she also has to review work her other "peers" have done and see if there should be any improvements to be made, how many flaws said invention had, and/or if the invention should be dead on arrival. Everyone in Piltover aside from a few individuals hate her a great deal, and yet it seems they respect her opinions on engineering and gadgetry immensely.

You'd think the work would be at least somewhat interesting, but the people here are as creatively stunted as she is impatient. She swears, if she sees another variant of a fucking nose hair trimmer or some other boring appliance, she'd tear her hair out, get the keys to a cell, and imprison herself so that she wouldn't have to experience such horribly boring creations nor the minds that spawned them ever again.

There was one invention though that stuck out from the rest, and as much as she was loathe to admit it, it came from Jayce himself, if there is one good thing she could say about the man, is that he never created anything that was boring, and creating something that can take the essence of a hextech gem and put it into something else? That she could respect as a fellow inventor.

Maybe his knack for creations is genetic. Mylo teased.

Jinx felt like gagging, leave it to Mylo to ruin something positive.

Speaking of that invention... she looks to her aide who is in the corner of her office typing away about something.

"Mia" Jinx says annoyingly, Mia jumps at the sound of her voice, "Y-yes, Ms. Jinx?"

Jinx snorts, "What is that? Just call me Jinx."

Mia frowns, "Oh! My apologies! It's common courtesy for an aide to refer to their superiors with a-"

The look on Jinx's face made her stop dead in her tracks, she sighs, "Just Jinx it is."

Jinx merely shakes her head, "Did you give my report to Golden Boy about that Hex Absorber? Did he take my advice on anything?"

Mia clears her throat, "After complaining about your use of markers and crayons to write your reports with instead of a black pen-"

Jinx chuckles, he would get uptight about something like that, though it may just be her brain playing tricks on her, but she swears she sees Mia wearing a ghost of a smile as well.

"He did take your suggestions with approval, especially the one where you suggested he should make tiny incisions on the gems before absorbing them."

Jinx nods, "Tell him he needs to be extremely careful when he does that, I've seen what an unrefined gemstone can do when it explodes, and while I do love an explosion every once in a while-"

Mia stiffens at that, and Jinx notices, "Without people being inside them of course. Well now, at least." Mia visibly relaxes.

"I don't want to be in this building if he screws up and makes a refined hextech gem go boom. Still, it should speed up the absorption rate, and should mean he can absorb more essence than before if he does it right."

Mia stiffly nods, "As-as you say." She says timidly.

Jinx sighs, alright, enough was enough. She looks Mia dead in the eyes to which she flinches slightly, "We need to talk, you're the only person here that will have anything to do with me, and I can't have you flinch every time you look at me, is it my reputation that has you so spooked?"

Mia shakes her head, and despite the possibility that she was just saying that to make her feel better, when Jinx looks into her eyes, she believes her.

"Then what is it?" She asks softly.

Mia looks unsure, as if debating whether she should say, whatever secret she's hiding scares the shit out of her apparently, and it's driving Jinx crazy.

Just as Mia decides to seemingly divulge what's been bothering her, the door to her office slams wide open, the person coming through it of course being Top Hat, who came into her little work space like a bat out of hell.

If it was possible, Jinx was sure Mia's soul would have evicted itself from her body.

Mia looks between Caitlyn and Jinx, "I-I'll just let you two talk." She says in an anxious tone.

"No, wait!" It's too late, Jinx's chance to find out what was wrong with Mia came and went, it was like the girl had super speed.

Jinx looks at Cait irritatedly, "Well, congrats, I finally almost had a heart to heart with the one person in this place that I can talk to, and you ruined it, what's the deal Hat Lady?"

Caitlyn doesn't respond, Jinx narrows her eyes, she seems panicked, heavily breathing, sweat was pouring down her face, and this makes her face soften.

"Cait, what's wrong?" She says tenderly and with concern, not just for her sake, but for the babies she's carrying inside as well.

"I-I-" Caitlyn starts hyperventilating, causing Jinx to panic, she looks around quickly for a paper bag and grins victoriously when she notices Mia's empty one from the lunch she had today. Using her shimmer speed she quickly takes the bag and then puts it over Cait's mouth.

Caitlyn eventually calms down and she looks to Jinx appreciatively, "Thanks Jinx."

Jinx grins, "No problem, Top Hat! You know how many times Vi had to do the same thing for me whenever I had anxiety attacks as a kid? Dealing with this is like second nature to me. Now, can you tell me what just made you come in here like you've seen death itself?"

Caitlyn looks down, "What I'm about to tell you must remain strictly between us, Vi cannot know."

Jinx's eyes widen, now she really needs to know, "What happened, Caitlyn?" If she were not focusing on bigger things at the moment, Jinx would likely note the fact that this was the first time she's ever used her full birth name.

Caitlyn inhales and then exhales, "I just got done doing a prenatal test, as far as Vi will know, everything came out fine, no birth defects whatsoever, what you and I know however is that- is that-"

Jinx quickly marches to Caitlyn and puts her hands on her shoulders, "What?" She asks, eyes looking at her intently.

At that, Caitlyn comes undone, it's the most emotional she's ever seen Top Hat by far, sobbing and crying her eyes out, Jinx quickly goes to hold her, "Shhh, it's okay. Tell me what's wrong, I promise I'll do everything I can to make it better." She whispers.

Caitlyn shakes her head, "You can't! Niklaus is going to- going to die."

Jinx looks at her horrified, "What's wrong with Klaus? Tell me."

Caitlyn look at her with tear filled eyes, "The doctor in charge of my testing told me that Nik's heart is badly damaged, he'll survive for a year or two, but that's it. He'll- he'll be dead."

Jinx shakes her head furiously, "N-no! There has to be a way for him to survive! He can't die!"

"Don't you think I would've asked those questions myself?! Nothing can be done! Transplant surgery could have been an option, but wait time currently is too long, and with how weak Klaus will be, it would be very hard for him to survive any sort of major procedure!" Caitlyn snaps.

"So-so what, we just give up? Let your son, my nephew, just die?" Jinx asks, her heart broken with tears coming down her own face.

Caitlyn sobs, "I-I don't know what else to do."

Jinx thinks of everyone she's ever lost, everyone's Vi's ever lost, their mom, dad, Vander, Claggor, Mylo, Silco, other family friends that were no longer with them, and their home at the Last Drop. So much pain, so much hardship, only to have another added to that list?

Jinx looks up resolutely at Caitlyn, "No. Hell no. Your son isn't dying, my nephew isn't allowed to die. I don't know what I'll have to do, but I'll find a way, hell, I'll even work with the Golden Boy if I have to, and I know both him and I will agree to put aside our differences to do something."

Caitlyn merely looks at Jinx in awe of her determination, suddenly gratitude and love swell within her heart at the sight of Jinx's promise.

"Jinx, thank yo-"

"Don't thank me until I find a solution. But just so you know, this isn't something you're going to be able to keep from Vi, and you shouldn't either." Jinx says.

Caitlyn looks down in shame, "I know, I just panicked, you know she takes these sort of things so hard, and I didn't want to see her break." Her voice wavers at the last word.

Jinx does know, but she also knows Vi can be as resolute and stubborn as Jinx can be. "Yeah, I won't lie, she'll respond very emotionally, her heart will be broken, shattered, but eventually she'll also come to the same conclusion I just did."

Caitlyn suddenly clings to Jinx's body like a lifeline and sobs again, "Please Jinx, I don't know how you'll do it, but please, save my baby boy."

Jinx holds Caitlyn firmly, "I will, I may not have any solutions right now, but I know they're out there, and I will move heaven and earth to find them."

A/N: Phew! And there goes the second chapter, and of course, these poor women can't catch a break. Just so you all know, I was already halfway done with this chapter when I uploaded to AO3. So the third chapter will be a bit of a longer wait. Hope you enjoyed!