VI & CAITLYN

Violet - Vi for a few - was no alien to losses. Especially of loved ones.

While she wasn't able to feel exactly the same, she could have a rough sketch of what Caitlyn was going through, as that one was on tears before what was once her mother, lying atop a gurney, covered in a sheet. It was far too close to home, that pain, too reminiscent of that fateful day, when Hextech, as a destructive force unknown back then, was unleashed on that cannery and Vi lost everything to it. And now, it occurred again, with someone else.

All but one thing, which she foolishly berated and left behind at the worst possible time, the grief speaking for her. And now the ramifications of a big mistake from years ago were before her, all over again. Maybe it was that which drove Vi to stop Caitlyn from nearly doing what she did, when Powder offered her the opportunity.

Vi grinded her teeth, taking a breath in frustration and anger. Not Powder, not anymore. Just Jinx.

Much as she hated to admit, what Jinx had said prior to that Firelight ambush... was right on point - Powder fell down a well, and wasn't coming back. Especially after the tea party and what happened to Silco, which broke her. Vi should've said something, anything to try and bring her back, but didn't. She couldn't. She didn't have the right, after the verbal battle which'd decide Caitlyn's fate nearly tore her sister apart.

Maybe that was what Jinx was talking about, as well - Vi apparently changed too, in regards to enforcers. Once, she and her sister saw the enforcers as nothing but butchers on fancy uniforms to be fought against. And now here was Vi, putting herself on the line for one of them. One which only got her out of that prison all for the sake of that cursed Hextech gemstone, and yet grew to work along with her after she saved her life on that first scuffle with Sevika.

Vi took a glance at a nearby bench, where the recently vandalized gauntlets lied, plastered in that trademark pink and light blue. Ironic as the colors represented, maybe Jinx never thought that it wasn't as much black and white as it was supposed to be. Maybe Vi should've known better than just recalling Vander, Mylo and Cleggor, people too close to home.

Maybe Vi was thinking too much on it, when something, *anything*, had to be done, right now.

"Trencher.", a voice called close to her, almost coldly, and Vi turned around to the source - the man she saw when Caitlyn took her to her house.

Cupcake's father.

"Mister Kiramman.", Vi replied, trying to keep it to as much a minimum as possible. She had, in this case, to speak only when spoken to, the day was already as screwed up as it could get without anymore needless words. Words that could hurt more than fists would. A lesson learned the hard way.

"She said you know the one who did this.", Tobias Kiramman started, after a while. "And that you stopped Caitlyn from shooting her after the fact."

"Shooting to kill, you mean.", Vi said. "Cait- your... daughter got her on the shoulder."

Tobias glanced at Vi for a second and looked away, the pain just too visible. The look alone spoke enough on his opinion of Vi, perhaps more than before all this happened. Vi was virtually an anathema, at that point. "May I at least know why you did it?", he asked. "Why didn't you let her, as you say, shoot to kill?"

"Because I know this pain too well.", she answered, a second later. "The pain that makes you do something you... you wouldn't think you'd ever do. It's what created Jin... the one whom did this."

"And b doing this, getting in the way, you think you helped my daughter?", Tobias asked, pain latent on his worse. "Didn't you think you might've made her pain worse? Or mine?"

"...I-I don't know, really.", she answered, rashly, letting out a sigh, looking away.

"Look me in the eye, and let me be clear.", Tobias started again, coldly, and Vi did so. "I don't know what Caitlyn saw in you. And now I don't care."

"I get it, I'll give her the goodbye and be on my-", Vi nodded.

"I didn't say anything about you leaving her.", Tobias interrupted, waiting a while before continuing, the will to cry building up in him, trying to hold up with all his strength, though the eyes got watery gradually. "It's clear she'll need something to lean on, more than ever, now. Or someone, for that matter. It'd happen, eventually, her having to bury her mother, though I preferred it'd be much more later and in better circumstances. Just as it'll happen her having to bury me. Just promise me, I won't be burying Caitlyn."

Vi looked away, in shame. She wanted to say that was something she simply couldn't promise, that she didn't know what Caitlyn would do from this point onward. Yet she saw the grief in Tobias' eyes, and what it meant. What it spoke to Vi, just like what Vander said years ago, but she failed to follow when it mattered the most.

She failed to take care of Powder. Now she had to take care of Caitlyn.

That's why Vi only gave Tobias a silent nod. Despite the silence, the man himself could see she'd, if anything, try her best. It wasn't enough for him, though.

"The one whom did this...", he started again. "Can you find her?"

"I have to.", Vi answered, after a while.

Tobias turned around to leave. "Go to her.", were his last words, clearly mentioning his daughter.

Vi hesitated, but both knew the youngling needed help, more than ever. She walked up to Caitlyn, this one drying her tears and looking up, with an empty stare at the horizon, trying to leave the image of her mother behind, especially in that state. Caitlyn knew Vi was close by and could hear a bit of the conversation between her and her father, but both remained silent for a while.

"I had her...", Caitlyn started.

"Yes, you did.", Vi replied.

"I told you she was too far gone.", Caitlyn retorted. "And you still got in the way, after what she's done."

"That was for you.", Vi was quick enough to answer, causing Caitlyn to look her in the eye. "She threw the gun and you didn't even think about it."

Caitlyn's heart and breathing raced. "AND WHAT'S THERE TO THINK ABOUT!?", she suddenly roared in anguish, a second later, almost collapsing in tears and gesturing at her mother. "Look at my mother! The building ablaze! Both cities at war, now! All this for nothing!"

"It was the same with Vander, for me!", Vi stood her ground. "Only I made the mistake of running away from the one whom only wanted to help, too much focused on my pain, and look what it bred! Try and push me away all you want, I'm not going anywhere. Never again."

Caitlyn simply looked at her in disgust. "It never was for your... sister, or me.", she stated, bitterly. "It was all to ease up your guilty conscience..."

Vi looked away again, hurt. "Still doesn't change what you nearly did.", she said. "Had you done it, you'd be no better than her. And we gotta be better."

"Should we be better?", Caitlyn asked, almost in a provoking tone.

"Miss Kiramman?", a voice called behind them. An enforcer. "Councillor Medarda has called for you. You and the fissure girl. Immediately."