Vi leant against the railing of the balcony. Her fingers traced the weathered stone as her gaze settled somewhere on the horizon as she looked out over Piltover. Wind breathed around her, a bird or two floated overhead and she found herself not really thinking of anything in particular.

In her pocket was the small wood carving of the monkey, its presence perhaps a reminder of memories long since gone. The sun had only just begun to rise in the sky and it was early, probably too early for her to be awake but she couldn't sleep for some reason.

Vi took in a deep breath, she held it for so long that her lungs started to protest and then she exhaled, she let the breath rattle her lungs and she let it calm her body for a little while.

The trips she had made down to the Lanes, the trips down to Zaun, the deepest parts and to her old home and where Jinx had made a new home for herself had helped. Or it had done something. Perhaps it hadn't quite helped, but it had made her face the past a little more than she had been doing. Perhaps it would take her time still, to figure things out and to accept that she couldn't change the past and that she'd need to accept that the people she had lost were truly gone and that she'd need to move on in some kind of way.

She'd seen Ekko in passing just a few days ago too, and just like her she could tell he missed loved ones and the ways things used to be. She hadn't had a chance to say much to him and maybe she'd make an effort to reach out, bridge whatever gap had slowly taken place between them.

But it was hard. Hard because she felt divorced in some way from her old life, from the struggles of Zaun, from the struggles of fighting to survive, a bed too comfortable, a meal too warm, a place too safe for her to feel worthy of.

Vi found herself staring at her hands, she found herself gazing upon the lines that traced their way across her palms. She turned her hands over to find that there were scars on her fingers, on her knuckles that would never fade but the longer she looked, the longer she studied, the more she realised that where once there would be callouses, bruises, dried blood and split skin, there was now nothing.

Her skin was blemish free, bruise free, soft, smooth, unkind to the memories for which she had fought.

A soft laugh slipped past her lips yet she didn't know if it was a bitter laugh or something more distasteful. She closed her fists, her knuckles whitening and she stared. She could remember the feelings of struggle, she could remember the impacts, the bruises, the pains that would meet her each and every time she could need to fight, but it had been so long that she felt a little lost, a little unsure, unable to find herself in the present and Vi felt herself falling, felt herself tumbling, losing control of what and who and where she was and—

And she felt a hand on her shoulder, she felt a warmth seep into the cool of the early morning and she startled.

Vi turned to find Caitlyn standing beside her, a shawl wrapped around her shoulders, her hair sleep tussled and her eye gazing at her cautiously.

"Vi?" she asked.

"I couldn't sleep," Vi said. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

"No," Caitlyn answered as she shook her head.

Caitlyn came to lean against her, the heat from her body slowly flowing into hers where their shoulders met. Vi felt a more honest smile spread across her lips as she turned back to look upon the city that stretched out around them. She'd tell Caitlyn to go back to bed, she'd tell her she'd catch a cold but she knew Caitlyn wouldn't listen and maybe Vi liked that, liked the fact that Caitlyn would seek her out at times.

It was a promise they had made to each other, one that they had both fought to achieve each and every day and Vi cherished it, she thought she always would.

"What's on your mind, Vi?" Caitlyn asked her quietly as one of her hands slowly wove their fingers together.

Vi hummed a response as she took a moment to think and to consider how she wanted to answer the question. Or she took the time to think so that she knew what the answer was.

Vi let herself consider everything. She let herself consider all the things that had happened and that had come to be.

"I've felt directionless," she said eventually.

Caitlyn didn't answer her immediately. Her only response was to squeeze her hand as if to say she'd listen, take everything Vi gave her without judgement or interruption if she wanted it— if she needed it.

Vi thought about changing the topic, she thought about pushing it aside but she found herself staring at Caitlyn's hand holding hers, she found herself once more staring at her knuckles, callous and bruise and blood free. She chewed her lip, her jaw clenched and she tried to make sense of her thoughts as best she could.

"I needed to fight," Vi said quietly. "Every day, for everything and for everyone," Vi shook her head. "That's what I needed to do to survive."

Caitlyn leant her cheek against her shoulder, she pressed herself a little closer to her and Vi embraced it, leant herself against Caitlyn's warmth and she inhaled her essence, she let it sit within her mind and she let it clear her thoughts.

"Every day for as long as I can remember," Vi continued. "I fought. And then I was locked up for years and I fought," she laughed quietly, the sound a little less kind than she intended. "And then after prison, with you, with Jinx. Silco. Ambessa," Vi didn't need to elaborate.

Caitlyn seemed to understand, she always did and Vi loved that about her for Caitlyn simply hummed a quiet response, she reached up and Vi felt Caitlyn's hand grace against her cheek and pull her face towards her so that they looked at each other.

"You fight for what you believe in, Vi," Caitlyn said quietly. "For what you think is right."

Vi let Caitlyn's answer hang in the air between them for a short moment as she looked back down at their hands.

"My hands," Vi said. "I don't have callouses anymore," she didn't mean for it to sound so straightforward and she hoped it didn't sound as silly to Caitlyn as it did to her.

Caitlyn looked down too, Vi felt her hold her hand, pull it up into the space between them before she pressed her lips to her knuckles, the gesture small, intimate, barely felt and keenly embraced.

"The fighting has to stop one day, Vi," Caitlyn said in answer. "Isn't that why we fight? So that we don't have to one day?"

Vi let Caitlyn's words settle within her mind once more and she found herself memorising the way a strand of Caitlyn's hair fell across her face, she found herself memorising the way Caitlyn's hand felt in her own and Vi smiled, the expression small, honest, more open than she intended.

"Maybe it's a sign," Caitlyn whispered quietly as her fingers brushed across her knuckles. "A sign that the fighting was worth it."

"You always know what to say, cupcake," Vi said, her tone lighter, teasing, her voice still so very quiet between them.

Caitlyn exhaled a small laugh, she nudged their shoulders together and Vi appreciated that Caitlyn didn't push further, didn't try to make her open up more than she already had, in part because she didn't even know what she felt, in part because she felt so very foolish, foolish for feeling the way she did and so very foolish for feeling like Caitlyn wouldn't understand or be accepting for she knew Caitlyn understood so very clearly.

"The Last Drop," Vi said eventually. "My— Vander's— old bar," she shrugged. "I think Jinx burnt it down," Vi let out a sigh, she felt herself leaning against Caitlyn a little more forcefully as if she needed her warmth, needed to feel her presence beside her in that moment.

"What will you do?" Caitlyn asked her.

Vi turned away from Caitlyn and she let both her hands rest against the stone railing and she found herself thinking, really thinking about Caitlyn's question.

She had taken a moment to visit it earlier and part of her had been surprised to find it burned down. But part of her had somehow expected it. She didn't know why, didn't even really consider the how of it. But it had felt natural in some kind of way. Maybe Vi had expected even places from her past were to be torn from her, taken from her to leave her with nothing left.

There had been anger, too, anger when she had come to the conclusion that Jinx had done it. But she could in some way understand, or perhaps not understand for that wasn't the right word. But she could empathise with Jinx. Perhaps she had done it after Isha's death. Perhaps she had done it some time after killing Silco, perhaps it had happened at any other time when Vi had been fighting for her life ever since being released.

It really didn't matter. And maybe Jinx had destroyed it to find peace, to burn her past away, to rid herself of the demons that plagued her.

But just as much as the Last Drop was a home to jinx, so too was it a home to Vi, one she had spent hours and days, weeks and even months and years of her life within.

So maybe Jinx had wanted it gone and burning it to the ground had been what Jinx had needed.

But Vi made up her mind. She didn't know when she had, she didn't know if it was even conscious thought. But as she considered it more and more in that moment she realised what she wanted to do.

"I think I'm going to rebuild it," Vi said as she looked back at Caitlyn. "I've spent so long breaking things, destroying things, using my hands to hurt and fight and punch my way through life," she laughed quietly, the sound a little ironic to her ears as she stared down at her hands. "I think—" she paused, she watched as one of her hands began to ball into a fist before she forced her fingers to still and her mind to ease. "I think it'd be nice to build something for a change," Vi finished quietly.

"I think that's a beautiful idea, Violet," Caitlyn said just as quietly, and Vi smiled at her, she stared at her in the eye and she found herself unable to look away, unable to break their gaze and she knew she would never tire of what she saw staring back.

Vi was about to answer when a small yawn broke past her lips, she tried to stifle it, she tucked her face into the crook of her arm in an attempt not to ruin the moment only for Caitlyn to tut and laugh, the sound just a little chiding and full of good natured humour.

"There's still a few hours before we need to be up," Caitlyn said, her fingers brushing against her forearm as she began to lead them back into their room. "Come back to bed, Vi."

And so Vi followed, her mind made up and her body already beginning to embrace the sleep she had deprived it of in the early of the morning.

Vi walked the streets and the lanes of Zaun with the afternoon sun overhead. She had spent the morning with Caitlyn talking about how she was going to rebuild the Last Drop. It didn't surprise Vi that Caitlyn had offered to reach out to any one of her fancy architect friends who owed her a favour but Vi had declined. Or not entirely declined, but said she'd try to do it herself first.

She didn't want to change the way the Last Drop had looked, she didn't want to make it something it hadn't been. It would take her time, she'd probably actually need help, but perhaps her first steps were just seeing it, taking it in, clearing it of the debris to give her somewhere to start.

Maybe then she'd have a better understanding of what she needed to do or whose help she needed to seek out. She wondered if Ekko would help her, if he'd understand her need to put things back together. But Ekko had been distant ever since Ambessa's attack. She'd given him space and she knew he had given her space, too. She knew he was mourning Jinx in his own way, and maybe it was selfish that she hadn't tried to reach out in more ways than she had but part of her didn't want to. Perhaps it was her subconscious trying to protect herself from her own pain. And it was selfish, she knew that.

And so Vi shook her head to rid herself of the thoughts that had long since turned to incomprehensible ramblings.

She didn't realise she had walked back to Jinx's old hideout, to the catwalks and scaffolding and platforms that overlooked their old home. Vi stood amongst the remnants of Jinx's life, she slowly turned around and stared at the paintings, the drawings, the trinkets and other things that had been part of Jinx and Isha's life.

Vi didn't really know what had brought her to where she was. She didn't know why her mind kept pulling her back. Perhaps it was because it helped her feel closer to Jinx, to her past, to times when life had seemed a little less burdened. Or perhaps she was lonely in some way, trapped in the past and unable or unwilling to let go.

But she needed to. She needed to let go, move on, let herself move past the pain, the memories, the hurts and guilts. She thought rebuilding the Last Drop could help.

Vi didn't realise she had lowered herself into the centre of the platform until the cold bite of the metal met her. She let her hands spread against the rusted, weathered metal and she took a moment to settle her thoughts.

That same wood carved monkey was kept in her pocket and as she reached in and pulled it free she found herself smiling something bittersweet at the thought of Jinx taking the time to carve it.

It reminded her of kinder days, moments in time when Powder had been her sister, when Mylo and Claggor had been right there with her. She took in a steadying breath as she turned her face up towards the small dot of light so high above. It wasn't quite sadness that filled her heart, it wasn't quite sadness that made her thoughts turn to kinder days.

Perhaps it was just memories, memories of friends, memories of ghosts, things that she needed to accept.

"Jinx," Vi said quietly into the space around her. "I—" she bit her lip and looked away from the light and into the dark, into the shadows as if she could see her sister in the remnants that still lingered about. "I know you burnt down the Last Drop, I don't know why," Vi shook her head. "Or I can guess why," she shrugged, she laughed quietly. "I'm going to rebuild it. For me. For us. For who we used to be and for everyone in Zaun."

Vi took in a deep breath and she let it out so very slowly.

"I hope you'll understand," she said quietly.

Vi found herself content to sit in the silence of old memories, her gaze focused somewhere off in the distance and her mind elsewhere for minutes, long enough that she lost track of time.

And so, as minutes turned to hours, as the sun continued to move through the sky, and as Vi sat amongst the ruins of her past she could imagine her sister's voice and it was as if she had never changed.

Powder sat at one of the booths in the Last Drop. Ekko before her, his gaze steady and serious as he took in each and every thing she said. There was silence, an awkwardness and something far too serious for Powder to feel anything but apprehension and nerves.

Powder played with a glass in her hands as she waited for Ekko to speak and in that space she worried her lip, cursed herself and hoped she had explained it well enough for him to understand. She knew it sounded crazy, she knew it sounded insane, sounded so bizarre that anyon—

"I understand."

Ekko's voice cut into her thoughts, it made her head snap up and Powder felt relief, she felt it wash over her and she didn't realise how much weight she had been carrying on her shoulders.

"I—" Ekko paused and it was his turn to look away and stare off into the distance. "I thought I was going crazy. I know something happened, I thought maybe the stress had made me forget something."

Powder winced because she should have done more and done it sooner. Of course Ekko would have had questions, but he had Benzo, he had Mylo and Claggor to bounce off and she had been too caught up in her own insecurities and worries that she hadn't been able to look past that.

"I'm sorry," Powder said quietly. "I should have tried to explain sooner, I should have tried to explain everything, even if I—"

"Hey, stop it," Ekko said. "I'm not going to say I figured everything out on my own but I had a feeling and I know you were going through something," he smiled at her and Powder felt herself falling into the expression more than she intended.

And yet she still felt a little guilty.

"I wish Heimerdinger was still here, though," she said quietly. "He'd be able to help."

Ekko nodded his head slowly.

"What if he was from this other world?" Ekko asked.

Powder had considered that but she didn't think it could help simply because he was gone and she had no way of even searching for him.

"I thought about that," Powder said. "But—"

"—but we don't know how—" Ekko winced.

"Sorry. You go," Powder said with a laugh.

"I was just going to say," Ekko continued. "We don't know how to get him back."

Powder just nodded her head.

"Then we do what we've always done," Ekko said.

"And that is?" Powder asked, an eyebrow lifting curiously.

"Experiment," Ekko said with a confident nod.

"Experiment?" she repeated, the idea not entirely unattractive to her but still, there was worry and uncertainty in her heart.

"You said you already threw something into the portal, right?" Ekko asked. "So we check if it's still there, and then we figure out what to do next."

Powder bit her lip before nodding her head.

"Ok," she said. "Let's go."

The walk down to their lab went by fast, Powder and Ekko didn't really speak, both of them lost in thought as they tried to figure out how best to proceed. Powder could feel an excitement beginning to settle within her mind, too and she tried so very hard not to let it take control lest whatever they were to do end in disappointment.

She cursed herself for keeping this inside for so long too. It felt good having Ekko by her side, it felt good having him there to bounce ideas off, she had missed it and she had missed him.

Eventually they turned one last corner before stepping out onto the scaffolding, the platforms and the machinery that still lay just as she had left it.

"Wow," Ekko said quietly as he followed her slowly. Powder turned to find him staring at everything with new eyes, his gaze moving from thing to thing.

Of course it wasn't the first time he had set foot in their lab since the event but this was perhaps the first time he had been there long enough to take it all in with her by his side.

"I'm sorry it's been so long," Powder said, guilt gnawing at her as she turned to face him.

"It's ok," Ekko said. "I get it."

Powder frowned slightly at his words, only because part of her didn't think she deserved as much forgiveness as he was giving her, but she pushed that aside just as she pushed the voices that laughed at her aside.

"Here," Powder said quickly, she reached out and grabbed his hand and pulled him with her.

She brought them both to the platform that the portal had appeared at and she paused, she stopped and she tried to figure out how to say what she wanted to say.

"This is where it all happened," she said eventually. "Where not you disappeared. Where the portal is, where everything happens," she bit her lip and fell silent as Ekko took it in.

"So we need to turn this on?" Ekko said. "See if what you threw into the portal is still there," he paused, looked around. "Then we go for something bigger, see if its stable."

"And then what?" Powder asked. "Then what do we do?"

She was afraid of what he'd say, she was afraid of what she wanted, she was afraid of so many things.

But most importantly, she was afraid that what she wanted couldn't be hers to have. What not-Ekko had said filled her mind. The things he had said about her, about Vi and she didn't know how to deal with it, didn't know if she was doing this for the right reasons or if she was being selfish, if what she was doing was even safe for her, for Ekko, for everyone else who she knew.

"—And you said…" Ekko's voice brought her back to the present.

"Sorry," Powder winced. "What did you say?"

"Those blue crystals," he said quietly. "At least the fragments of it."

Powder found Ekko staring at the machine, at the small receptacle that held the shards of the blue crystals.

"We use them to power the machine," Powder said. "I think the more we have the more powerful it becomes."

She chewed her lip as she felt the weight of those blue crystals she had kept ever since Vi's death and she didn't know what to do.

"Well," Ekko said. "There's at least some still here," Ekko said. "Enough at least to turn the machine on, enough for you to throw something through."

"I—" Powder almost told him she had more before she stopped herself. "Let's see if what we've got is enough to turn it on and get something larger through?" it came out half a question.

Ekko smiled at her and nodded.

Powder looked back at where the portal had formed as if to say something to it, as if to think a thought or any other thing but she simply shook her head and took a step back. Her mind was made up, her resolve had formed and she wasn't going to back down, not when she now had Ekko by her side.

"Let's do it," Powder said.

She turned and walked back to him, to the control panel and the lever that powered the machine on.

"Just—" she paused once more and bit her lip. "Just be careful," she said.

Ekko reached out and squeezed her hand in answer.

"Always," he said.

Powder smiled at him before she reached out for the lever, her hands shaky, more uncertain in motion than she had felt in days and she let her fingers close around the cold metal. She took a steadying breath, she took a second to take in the machine as if to check that everything was still in order and then she pulled.

The machine whirred into life just as it had done earlier. She felt the subtle shift in the air, she heard the gentle thrum of arcane taking control and she felt Ekko's hand close around her free hand more tightly in reassurance.

The machinery spun up, came to life, breathed power around them and Powder's eyes were glued onto the spot where she could see the shimmering begin to take place.

Ekko's hand squeezed hers more tightly as she stared, as he stared, and she couldn't tear her eyes away.

Just as before the portal formed, it settled and it seemed just as constant, just as steady, just as present as it had done before.

Powder blinked once, twice, three times as her mind caught up with the sudden change in what she saw.

Through the portal she could see the same paint spread out around the scaffolding, the walls, the furniture and it seemed as if nothing had even changed in the days since she had turned the machine on.

"Woah," Ekko's voice was quiet, he stepped forward cautiously and Powder moved with him as she watched him slowly peer through the portal.

"See?" Powder said quietly.

"I—" Ekko's voice was breathless as he stared. "Powder. This is amazing. You're amazing."

Powder bit her lip and squeezed his hand more tightly as they stopped at the edge of the platform lest they somehow get pulled into the portal.

"Is it there?" Ekko asked.

"What's there?" Powder answered.

"That thing you threw into the portal."

Powder's eyes widened. She hadn't quite forgotten about why they were there, but it had slipped her mind.

"I—" she frowned as she stared at the spot she was sure it had fallen. "I don't know," she let go of Ekko's hand and slowly started walking around the platform to get a better look. "Stay there, Ekko," she said.

She saw him flash her a thumb's up as she continued to walk around the platform. Powder's eyes stared at the spot she was sure she had thrown the monkey carving. She stared and she willed it back into existence but the longer she looked the more it became clear it had disappeared.

Thoughts started flooding her mind, Powder felt a sorrow beginning to take hold, an acceptance beginning to fill her heart. The carving was gone, maybe it hadn't been able to survive in whatever other world she was looking into, maybe it couldn't survive more than the few short moments she had spent looking at it, maybe it could only exist as long as the portal was open. She cursed herself for getting her hopes up, she cursed herself for even thinking she could solve this mystery, this revelation, this—

And then Powder froze.

She froze and she didn't know what to say, what to do, what to even think.

She stared at the portal, her eyes wide and the blood draining from her face.

She blinked once, twice, a third time as she tried to make sense of what she saw.

The first thing she registered was that a figure sat on the floor. The second thing she noticed was that she was a woman, her shoulders slumped as if the weight of the world rested upon her. But then Powder stared, she stared and she couldn't tear her eyes away from the fact that the woman's hair was a shade of rich, deep, reds and pinks and warm tones and it made her heart freeze.

In the woman's hand was held the same wood carving Powder had thrown through the portal and she realised it hadn't disappeared from existence, but it had been collected, it had been found, held by someone and yet Powder couldn't comprehend, couldn't compute, couldn't make sense of any of that in that very moment.

And why?

Because she recognised who sat before her on the floor and through the shimmering portal. She'd recognise who it was at any time, through any world and at any age.

Guilt.

Pain, hurt and loss and regret and so many emotions suddenly broke within Powder and she couldn't help the choked sob, the choked sound of anguish and hurt that suddenly flooded her as she realised who she looked at.

"Vi," Powder whispered.

It couldn't be. Perhaps a mirage, perhaps a ghost, perhaps those voices that had always lingered in the corners of her mind had now seen fit to become more than her torments in the shadows.

But the woman's head shot up, her eyes moved back and forth in a confused, frantic, crazed motion before they must have settled on the portal and on her.

Powder saw confusion in her eyes, she saw shock, she saw disbelief, she saw so many different emotions that she didn't know how to think, how to grasp, how to make sense of it at all.

And then the woman spoke.

"Jinx?"