VI & CAITLYN

It was the end of dusk by the time the acting Sheriff and the enforcer finally reached the hospital at Piltover to see to Vi's gunshot wound, which was briefly addressed, especially when Caitlyn had to state whom she was to the hospital crew which seemed hesitating to operate one from the Undercity and wanted to inform authorities, as was protocol, of gunshot wound events, despite Caitlyn being, technically, an authority. The wound was promptly treated, though the doctors recommended she spend the night, at the very least, at the hospital, despite there was no bullet to be removed.

And then, some hours into the late night, as Caitlyn remained by Vi's side, the sound came.

Metal horns, which Vi and Caitlyn came to know - the Sheriff from her training, the enforcer from her previous, childhood of crime.

All Piltover enforcers to scramble, as something serious had just happened.

When Vi tried to come out of bed, Caitlyn insisted she stayed, given it was hours after the operation, but Vi remembered her it could very well be Jinx at it again. Caitlyn didn't think this was right, but relented, and Vi tried to keep up with the Sheriff, limping. This wasn't right. Vi had done too much with getting both alive out of the Undercity that raged against both, with all reason, and both needed rest, but it was Caitlyn's job. Well, it was both their jobs, now, given Councillor Medarda made an enforcer out of the Fissure girl, also.

The fatigue and the limping weren't the only thing, however. Caitlyn never saw Vi having collapsed like that after the escape, as if it was clear she failed the Undercity, somehow. Weren't for what she said mere minutes after the blast, because of the interference, Caitlyn could've comforted Vi with the fact none of this was her fault, but instead Jinx and Jinx alone was to blame. All of that was Jinx's brick bag that was dropped at Vi's shoulders, and Vi definitely had zero obligation to carry, at that point.

Caitlyn couldn't still wrap around her head just how come every disgrace concerning both her and Vi, the past days, had that blue braided, manic girl at the bullseye core of it. Be it the destruction of the Council, or the Bridge, or even the trap laid against Caitlyn's fellow enforcers at Progress Day... And to complicate things, Vi attempted and apparently is still attempting to save that one.

It didn't even take a dead mother, at the time, for Caitlyn to realize - Jinx could not be saved. She could only be stopped. The problem was getting Vi to see that, now. Both her and even Councillor Medarda, who now wanted Jinx alive, too, if only to calm things down with the Undercity crime lords.

Caitlyn's destination was as obvious as to every enforcer at that point - the Academy, and reason why was clear. Hextech. Used by Piltover, and now used by Jinx, too. She arrived there to meet groups of enforcers, at least those whom haven't deserted to the rogue Ironhands, keeping watch outside, blocking the streets and preventing an ever-growing crowd to enter what was now a crime scene, some flashes around, probably from either investigators or the vultures of the Daily Pilt, who could smell a carcass of a story more than the animals ever could...

"Sheriff!", a voice called, from a dark-skinned woman with a luscious tied hair, glasses almost wide as bottles, and wearing a white skirt and red shirt underneath the jacket, waving her hand and heading towards Caitlyn. "Sheriff, ma'am!"

"Shelley?", Caitlyn asked towards her. "What you're doing here, don't you do paperwork at Central?"

"That and being your aide, I'm always the aide to the Sheriff.", Shelley answered. "I was briefed by Councillor Medarda, but you didn't come today to the station, so I had to handle some things..."

"I was trying to hunt Jinx.", Caitlyn explained. "Well, trying, being the word...", she then looked behind to notice Vi, with her gauntlets on, arriving and limping, and then gesturing at the Academy. "Well, what was it?"

"The alarm bells started ringing forty minutes ago.", Shelley said. "Didn't take long before the enforcers on guard shift called Central and confirmed the break-in, signs of struggle and break out, objects reported missing. Two suspects sighted, both apparently wearing masks, two witnesses at the scene. Well, one witness, given the other was found passed out, possibly chloroform."

"Any particular vandalism?", Caitlyn asked, stressed on how much of a notorious calling card that was. "Drawings, words and the like?"

"Definitely not, nothing like that.", Shelley answered, shaking her head. "The room is still a mess, though, a warzone within that chamber. And get this - the enforcers spotted people flying out of the building, right across the street and towards the river."

Caitlyn's eyes widened. "Flying?", she asked, surprised.

"What, who was flying?", Vi asked, having just arrived, apparently still a bit dazed from the anesthetics.

"Councillor Talis!", a voice shouted as flashes started intensifying, especially towards the crime scene and where Caitlyn, Vi and Shelley were, Vi using her gauntlets to shield her from the flashes. Caitlyn noticed Jayce and Mel approaching them.

"Just what we needed!", Caitlyn whispered, angry.

"You're the Sheriff, ma'am, get the enforcers to drive the reporters away.", Shelley suggested, in private.

Caitlyn nodded. "HEY!", she shouted to the enforcers at the cordons. "Get'em away, now!"

One of the enforcers nodded as he headed towards the cordon. "Alright, press comments come later!", he started shouting. "Pipe it down, this isn't a ballet gala!"

Caitlyn waited for Jayce and Mel to approach. "Before you ask, we just got here, Councillors.", Caitlyn started, trying to keep decorum. "But from what Shelley here told me, this one doesn't look like Jinx."

"It wasn't.", Jayce replied. "It was Viktor."

"He sneaked away from the hospital while you were at the Undercity.", Mel elaborated.

"What, Viktor?", Caitlyn asked. "That's jumping to conclusions and it doesn't make sense, why he would-"

"There's an experiment, here.", Jayce cut her. "Or was here, that he was conducting, and I kept him at the hospital and away from it, to protect him."

"And he'd rather broke out because of it?", Vi shrugged. "Talk about a workaholic..."

"Well, what was it?", Caitlyn asked.

Jayce looked back a bit, towards the photographers and reporters of the Daily Pilt. "Not here.", Jayce answered. "I can testify later. In the meantime, try and help me get something so we can find him-"

"Councillor.", an enforcer approached them. "They won't budge, they want a hot statement, no matter what."

"I'll handle it.", Mel replied to the group. "We'll continue later."

Caitlyn nodded as she, Vi, Shelley and Jayce headed to the entrance to the Academy. "Any luck down there, by the way?", he asked to both enforcer ladies.

Caitlyn and Vi stared at each other, wondering just what to tell him. Unless he, of course, could take that they just had to face-off the whole population of Zaun whom found out both Vi and Jinx were sisters and this even resulted in the Ironhands getting in the middle.

The silence and the stare took too long, enough for Jayce to notice and make his own conclusions. "You're better off not telling me, then.", Jayce said, expressing disappointment. "And it better not bite us back in the ass..."

The foursome went upstairs, with Shelley taking the lead, towards the scene of the crime itself, into the workshop which Jayce and Viktor worked when Jayce wasn't attending as Councillor. Caitlyn noticed the door was merely unlocked as they arrived at the corridor, no signs of forced entry or even that much struggle across the academy.

As Vi and Caitlyn entered the workshop however, it was a different story - They could see burnt marks, like lines across the floor and the walls, the nearby window broken through and some objects left apart and what seemed like a jewel box open. An enforcer at the scene was taking pictures.

Jayce looked at the workbench, shutting his eyes then, frustrated, and letting out a sigh. "It was there.", Jayce said, gesturing at the workbench. "What Viktor was working on."

"Was it Hextech-related?", Caitlyn asked.

"A lot larger.", Jayce answered. "He thought, or maybe still thinks, it could heal him back up."

Caitlyn lowered her head, aware of Viktor's prior ailment, no doubt a consequence of his infancy in the fissures prior to coming to Piltover. She could clearly feel a bit of the desperation, but still didn't explain all the struggle.

However, Vi, at the meantime, took a look around and noticed something by the door she didn't expect, or wanted to see. Crystalline formations, almost colored as honey, as well as crystal pieces at the floor.

She and Caitlyn did see those before. Vi, on that night when she was back-to-back with Jinx, fighting them off. And Caitlyn much before from a raided blimp. And if what Vi heard downstairs on flying was true...

"Shit...", she cursed in a whisper, but it happened to be carelessly too loud for both Caitlyn and Jayce to notice, and both turned around.

"What'd you say?", Jayce asked, getting Vi's attention. Caitlyn took a notice at the crystalline formation as well, and slightly froze, but quickly recomposed before Jayce could notice it too.

"Oh, I mean, shit, looks like someone did quite a party.", Vi dismissed, trying to look vague as Jayce stared at her, before then looking at the burnt lines and pointing at one of them, trying to get the attention off. "Still wonder what could've done that, though."

Jayce turned around to notice an empty stand. "Dammit, Viktor, you took the claw too?", he asked.

"The claw?", Caitlyn asked.

"The Hexclaw, that is.", he answered. "He developed that one, while I made the Atlas Gauntlets.", he pointed at Vi's gauntlets. "The gauntlets were for the Fissure miners to work faster, without much fatigue. The claw was for assisting artificers."

"What, like some mechanical arm?", Vi asked, recalling a bit of Sevika's own arm.

"A mechanical arm that uses Hextech, conducting and focusing it's energy to high intensity into a lancing point.", Jayce answered, too serious.

"A beam?", Caitlyn asked.

"A beam that can cut through stone, and iron, given enough power and time."

Caitlyn beheld the burnt marks for a while, also considering what it could do to... to a person. "And now it's far away.", she said. "Probably at the Undercity, by now. If Jinx ever gets that or that project of his..."

"Just Jinx?", Jayce answered. "What if ANYONE gets their hands on it, or the gemst...", Jayce then recalled it, as he glanced at an open small box, totally empty. "He took those too...", he approached it, trying to rub his eyes.

Caitlyn and Vi stared at each other, aware, from a prior experience, that perhaps it might not have been Viktor, at all, whom took those.

"Uh, sir, the report of the enforcers and the eye witness account said it were two suspects at the time.", Shelley started, as Jayce turned around.

"Two?", he asked.

"Well, that's something.", Caitlyn replied, too quickly and glancing at Shelley, as that one noticed Caitlyn's stressed glance. "Maybe, it was a struggle."

"Yeah.", said Vi, catching up quick, knowing both had to get Jayce as away from it as possible. "Your pal went to get his inventions, sees... someone else trying to pull a score. Not hard to do the math on this, just some real bad luck..."

Jayce took a glance at Vi, then at the surroundings and nodded. "Makes sense.", he said.

"Councillor Talis.", an enforcer called at the door. "Councillor Medarda is waiting downstairs, they're waiting for your statement."

Jayce blew some air off as he then stared seriously at both Caitlyn and Vi. "Find him, please.", he asked. "And please, don't screw this one up!", he stressed, as he then walked out of the room.

Caitlyn and Vi stared at each other for a while, reading through each other's thoughts. Both didn't want to believe it, but it was too many evidences to dismiss, and there was also the fact there were witnesses present as well.

"You said something on witnesses, Shelley?", Caitlyn asked.

"One of them is unconscious, as I said.", Shelley answered. "The problem is that the other one, she just left."

"What?", Caitlyn asked, surprised and upset. "Left, just like that, no statement? The people here should've barred her!"

"Yes, about that...", Shelley started, walking close to both. "The enforcers, here, they say she was an intelligencer."

"A what?", Vi asked, not quite familiar with the term, as Caitlyn's eyes widened.

"Is this some joke?", Caitlyn asked. "It's not funny!"

"Still, she did make a statement, said she identified one of the suspects, even passed a face description.", Shelley replied, with both Vi and Caitlyn glancing at each other for a moment.

"I still want to speak to her, regardless!", Caitlyn decided, angry. "Intelligencer or not, you don't just leave a crime scene like that! Find her and bring her in!"

"Sheriff, that might not be a smart move.", Shelley replied, looking to the sides. "The ones here said this one is most likely with House Ferros."

Caitlyn's blood veins froze at that moment, the Kirammans knowing too well the pull of that name.

"Exactly, and many enforcers here aren't still used with you in charge, now.", Shelley continued. "If she decided to oust you, you wouldn't have much backup, even from a Councillor or two."

Caitlyn rubbed her eyes in frustration, knowing this, all this, was not what she needed now. For all she knew, it should've been just her, Vi and Jinx to worry about, but now with her new post, full of it's responsibilities and powers, which she didn't even consider if she was ever ready for...

An idea then hit her, as the acting Sheriff stared back at Shelley. "Can we subpoena her, at least?", she asked.

"We could, but I wouldn't advise -", Shelley started.

"Do it.", Caitlyn said, in a tone of authority. "I want to talk to her. Now, can you give me and Vi the room please?"

Shelley stared at both for a moment before she then turned around. "Delham!", she called, as the photographer enforcer and her left, and Caitlyn went to shut the door a bit.

"Unbelievable!", the acting Sheriff cursed.

"Oh, just you?", Vi asked. "From what I could try catching on, these guys, these 'intelligencers', they're the ones whom get their hands dirty, right? Stuff the enforcers can't be seen doing? Mini-Sevikas of a sort?"

"You meet one, you'll swear Sevika's a saint.", Caitlyn answered. "And now Ekko, or one of his group, now just ran into trouble with one of them..."

Vi could relate a bit of Vander on the acting Sheriff, in which someone else's antics caused a Noxian flagship's worth of trouble. It still wasn't good.

"I don't get it.", Caitlyn continued. "I mean, he once had it and wanted to use it against Silco, but now Silco's gone!"

"Something must've happened.", Vi replied. "Either my sis or the Ironhands, I can't think of someone else. I don't get what's this to do with this Viktor pal, either."

"By the looks of it, the fight indicated they must've fought each other and the intelligencer.", Caitlyn said, looking around, images flowing in her mind as she drew conclusions from what she could gather. "Clearly Viktor was here for his invention, the gemstones must've been the Firelight. He throws the crystal bombs to trap Viktor, Viktor has to protect himself and does the only logical thing, uses the Hexclaw. It gets out of control, Viktor has to sound the alarm on panic and runs off as the Firelight flies off, both with what they've got."

"Still doesn't explain the intelligencer at the room...", Vi replied. "Guess we'll know what's what from Ekko's mouth, really. We gotta get there, now."

"No.", Caitlyn shook her head. "Not now, not even at nightfall, too risky."

"What? Cupcake, it's Ekko!", Vi started. "I know we just barely made it out alive, but-"

"It's not just the mobs, Vi!", Caitlyn censored. "The people downstairs, Jayce and Medarda, everyone else, if we go now, it'll raise suspicion - either that we knew and went on our own, thinking we could handle it, or worse, we were in on it! And that 'shit' you let out? Jayce had you made right there! He knows you know something, we go now, we tip the hand. Think, Vi, you want to draw a swarm of enforcers to those kids? Also there's that intelligencer too, she even described how Ekko or his friend must look like! And a Ferros' one, apparently!", she walked a few steps away, having to think.

"Yeah, what's with these guys, anyway?", Vi asked, a couple of seconds later.

Caitlyn let out a sigh. "I've heard most about them from some enforcers on the station, some training with late Sheriff Grayson, and even tried...", she took a breath, a sign she had to scrape through some bad memories. "...even tried asking mom about them. She said, every time then, that 'Any business with the Ferros' name in or anywhere near is more worth refusing it', and the less I knew, the better."

"That bad?", Vi asked, surprised. Who'd ever tell that Piltover actually had Silcos of their own...

"Clearly so, they were big timers on politics and this, intelligencers and espionage.", Caitlyn answered. "It's said they once even ruled about half of Piltover for a time, so much that screwing with them was classified suicide at the coroner."

"Wow.", Vi said, modestly impressed. "And now you've just subpoenaed one of'em..."

"I've got to know what she knows about the Firelight.", Caitlyn said. "If it is who I think it is, I mean..."

"Who?", Vi asked.

"You don't wanna know.", Caitlyn answered.

"Well, she might be going to the hideout, right now!", Vi protested.

"If it's that one, she won't tonight, either, it'd draw too much heat, even more after she ran off a crime scene like that.", Caitlyn said, noticing Vi's apparent anxiety. "Look, I know, but we leave right now, it'll be a lot worse. Won't be able to help Ekko if we're busted. Tomorrow I'll think of something but right now, he has be on his own. Well, he was even before you met him again, right?"

Vi looked down for a bit, not liking it, not one bit, but Caitlyn did have a point. For all the issues with this cluster of all bad ideas, Ekko could still handle himself to a degree, and it wasn't like the Enforcers, especially those under Silco, would find the hideout, else they would've stormed the tree with Marcus spearheading the assault ages ago.

"Tomorrow?", Vi asked, and Caitlyn nodded. "You'd better deliver."

With this, Caitlyn nodded to the door. "We better get out, and go home.", she said. "I'll see if I can get Shelley to withhold the wanted posters for a while, but we need the rest."

Both then walked out of the crime scene, which did have quite the story to tell, but it wasn't the one either enforcer thought of.

That story she was interested in belonged to another, far deep in the fissures, living in a tree.