Honestly not much to say in the pre-notes of this, beyond I hope it feels as natural and in-character to read as it felt to write.
I do not own Arcane or League of Legends. This is purely fan work. Please, feel free to comment, criticize, and above all, enjoy!
The Fractured Reunion - Chapter 3 - Revelations of the Heart and Soul
Caitlyn woke with a start, the sound of a man being sent away for simple association echoing in her mind. The ringing of a gunshot that ripped through the little girl's head, her orange hair and yellow eyes disintegrating around the force of the Hextech bullet. The SCREAMS of people fleeing before her and the Enforcers as they moved neighborhood to neighborhood. The bloodthirsty ROAR of the woman she'd- Caitlyn took a shuddering, gasping breath, and swore in her mind as the woman next to her stirred.
"Go back to sleep, dear. I'll be..."
Caitlyn turned her head to look and...
She didn't see Maddeline, almost cocooned in the covers she couldn't help but hoard in her sleep. She didn't see Maddie's wonderfully round face look at her with love and concern, her lithe-but-strong arms shifting the covers and reaching out. Didn't feel Maddie's soft fingers reach up to touch her face.
No. She saw the perfectly sharp face with the tattoo on its cheek. She saw the shorter, stronger body. Felt the rough callouses of a near-decade of unlawful imprisonment and a lifetime of unjust struggle wipe at her cheek. Saw the rough and uneven undercut that was such a perfectly red contrast to her own blue hair, the Aspects themselves must've ordained that such perfect opposites must fall in love.
"Cait, you're crying. What's-"
Caitlyn realized she was starting to hyperventilate. The woman who couldn't possibly be there, who would NEVER BE THERE AGAIN, flickered in her eyesight like a bad microfilm even as her face grew evermore concerned. Caitlyn slammed her eyes shut and gasped her way through a calming breath exercise, 5 seconds for every part of every breath as best she could manage. When she opened her eyes again, all she saw and felt was Maddie.
"It's- it's alright, Maddie. Just a-a bad dream. Go back to sleep. Please."
Caitlyn tried to soothe her with a soft kiss to the backs of her fingers, and while Maddie looked unconvinced that her job of comforting her lover and commander was truly done, she laid back down and closed her eyes. Caitlyn didn't. She buried her head in her hands and tried to keep her tears and her gasping sobs as quiet as possible. As the damning accusation and it's equally damning answer rampaged through the blackening matter of her brain.
'And then I remember that I still don't know if you didn't know or didn't CARE that you were gonna kill a little girl with your own two hands.'
Caitlyn knew now. The accusation had buried itself in the center of her mind for the last few weeks, like a boil in her psyche. Growing larger and fetid and straining for space as it pushed forward the awful truth until it burst out into her, beyond the ability to ignore, beyond the ability to dispute.
She HADN'T. She hadn't cared. All she could see, all she wanted, was Jinx dead. She'd have killed that child without a second thought, so certain of herself, her skill, her justice, her veng-
Caitlyn clamped a hand over her mouth, trying to muffle her sobs as the tears flowed again. Her gaze lifted to the imperious coat hanging in the corner. To the rifle, her OLD rifle, hanging on the wall. Then it drifted to the window, piercing buildings and rock. To the Undercity, where even now her officers were patrolling and enforcing and suppressing and arresting and hurting and beating and-
WHAT had she DONE?
"I still maintain the point that this 'Herald,' whoever they are, represents the greatest danger to our authority in the Undercity. Arcane healing and polymorphism? They'll build a base of unstoppable fanatics. We ought to cut it down NOW, before it becomes intractable."
Caitlyn's eyes narrowed at Ambessa's words. 'Our authority.' As if she weren't a foreign, unofficial advisor whose advice Caitlyn was privately finding more and more dubious.
"The Herald might well be the sole bright point in the Undercity. Take away the only hope they've had for generations, how do you think they'll respond? The answer remains 'No.' What's next?"
Maddie set an intelligence folder down before her, flipping it open. Photos of murals, of groups, of dye and tattoo parlors. All... LIONIZING her. JINX. Her bright blue hair, the blue smoke tattoos, her utter lack of cohesive clothing style. Caitlyn took a shuddering breath, her fist clenched, and...
'And all any of us can apparently do is HURT BACK, but it's not... it's gotta st...'
"Monitor, closely. See if we can't get some operatives inside the movement undercover. But unless it escalates, do no more than observe and report."
"Commander-"
"If we start criminalizing personal expression, blue hair in particular, I'm going to have to resign and remand myself into state custody. And I rather enjoy my job."
The disbelief, even a simmering anger she could see in some, was perfectly diffused by the joke.
"What's next?"
"The Progress Day blockade should be up right on schedule."
Good. Good. Whatever other doubts and revelations had been growing in her mind, keeping the cities contained to each other on the upcoming Progress Day was one decision she didn't question. It would be too rich, too symbolic a target to resist.
"Wonderful. Anything else?"
"Our intelligence operatives in the deep slums have, uh... it looks like there might be a new player, but, well..."
The folder fell on her desk, and the first photo was the aftermath of such shocking, violent brutality that even Ambessa looked both impressed and a little nauseous. Caitlyn herself had to struggle to keep her breakfast down. It went on, photo after photo after photo. Some were known criminals, agents of the Chembarons, what few were left or had tried to rise to power. Others seemed simply... people, in the most unfortunate possible place at the most unfortunate possible time.
"Either another new player is making a move, or we've got some sorta chemed-out serial killer working their way up the Undercity." Steb said uncertainly.
"Don't know whether to thank em or kill em, doing our job like that." A voice she didn't quite have memorized cut across the chatter.
Caitlyn's head SNAPPED up from the pictures, her eyes narrowing.
"WHO said that, just now?"
The ice and disappointment in her voice caught everyone off guard. One eventually, slowly, stepped forward, confusion devouring his face.
"And you are?"
"Officer Aloysius Tennenbaum, ma'am."
"Wonderful. Officer Tennenbaum, I'm placing you on suspension without pay for the next month."
She could feel the collective surprise, disappointment, ANGER, explode across the room.
"M-ma'am, I just-"
Caitlyn lifted one of the pictures and turned it to face the small crowd in her office. What looked to be a entire family, a child's shoe stained in gore, CARVED and SLICED to bloody ribbons and bile-soaked chunks. The mood dropped instantly.
"If you think THIS is our job, you don't understand what we are here to do. We are PROTECTORS, officer. Not BUTCHERS. And you'll have plenty of time to think on the important differences between the two."
"But, ma'am, Commander, I was only-"
"Every further word that leaves your lips will be an additional two months added, Tennenbaum. I suggest you quit while you're ahead, and go home."
Tennenbaum stumbled out of the office in a daze, and Caitlyn turned her attention to Maddie.
"Officer Nolen, get the Strike Team together. Much as it pains me to admit it, the current balance of power in the Undercity plays to our favor, and we can't allow it to be disrupted any further by this killer. We're going hunting."
At time of writing, Steb has/had not yet spoken, and my coming-off-a-more-than-a-month-long-Star-Wars-binge brain just decided to assign him Dee Bradley Baker doing Crosshair. Lil bit of BTS trivia/ mental audioscape advice for ya.
So, part of this was leaks, part of this was me trying to manifest the years of fics where Caitlyn and Vi attempt legitimate reform instead of Caitlyn readily embracing all the WORST parts of the system she's seen is unjust, part of this was what this particular story NEEDED. Caitlyn NEEDS this crisis of conscience for everything that follows to work and flow, and I do hope I pulled it off convincingly. I will admit I'm especially pleased with myself for thinking that Caitlyn can feel the harshness of the oppression Vi has suffered on her very hands. And that remembering WHY Vi's hands feel how they do helps her realize her own wrongs. I'm REAL damn proud of that. One of the best things I think I've ever written.
I also had fun stealing a bit from the West Wing, that I almost more blatantly stole: Caitlyn's "What's next?" Is straight from Josiah Bartlet, and used the same way, if a bit more dictatorially. Being a dictator and all. She's DONE with what was just being talked about, and is ready to move on to other concerns of strategy and power.