Second Chances Don't Always Go As Planned

[Kylia Quilor]

Author's Notes: A few bits of Admin to get out of the way

First, I am always open to criticism or critique of my plotting, pacing, characterization, character voices, getting lore details (of the show) wrong, etc. I may not always agree with any given critique, but if it's given in good faith I will always listen in good faith. So if you have an issue, bring it to me. I'm not perfect, and this is my first fic in the fandom.

Secondly, I would prefer it if readers did not engage in extended Spelling and Grammar nitpicking. If it's something that really makes it hard to understand what I'm saying, or something that really gets in the way, sure, but if it's clear what the sentence/etc actually means, I would prefer not to have nitpicking in the comments over it.

Third, due to the very narrow lens the show gives us on life in Piltover and Zaun, etc, I am no doubt going to borrow elements from League Lore here and there. But while I will do it, I won't hold myself fast to any of it - so borrowing one thing may not mean I'm borrowing other stuff related to, and I may repurpose the League of Legends Lore as I see fit rather than adapt it one to one to my fic. Please feel free to draw attention to things I get wrong, but I may be doing so deliberately. Though I may not. Sometimes I just get things wrong.

Finally, this fic is not going to be particularly friendly to Silco. I don't exactly hate Silco though I tend to think he's ultimately a negative force on the lives of both Powder/Jinx and the people of Zaun in general, but he's definitely a complex and nuanced character. However this fic is not really going to be fair to him due to how things will go, and how Caitlyn feels about him (which isn't very positive, to say the least) and how that will slant both her narration and slant the information about the future she eventually provides to people. Not really deliberately, just, how she sees him. Silco fans will probably not enjoy this fic, in many cases.

Thanks are extended to UnMaddieCaited and Catpower 23 for beta-reading this chapter and giving it a look over.

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Breakfast in Kiramman Manor was, for Cassandra, usually a quiet affair, a chance to spend some time with Tobias before dealing with the various tasks of the day. She woke up before her husband to see to her schedule and prioritize the most vital matters, then - barring emergencies - she would eat with her husband, and they would both take their time, enjoying intermittent and usually mild conversation, discuss plans for both the day and in general, and of course, discuss their daughter (who usually took breakfast in her suite in the east wing of the manor) - though by mutual agreement they usually pushed the more contentious matters involving Caitlyn to the evenings.

Fortunately, apart from her recent desire to become an Enforcer, there weren't that many contentious matters relating to Caitlyn that needed discussing. Cassandra clashed with her daughter often enough - too often, sometimes - but they were usually easily resolved within a few days once passions had cooled, often with Tobias playing peacemaker.

So she wasn't given to worrying about her daughter all that often, really.

Well, like any good parent she worried about her daughter's safety and health and well-being in general. She worried about Caitlyn's future in the general sense, but Caitlyn was a mostly well-behaved, studious and reserved girl. She was a little more socially withdrawn than Cassandra would have liked, but she was also brilliant and clever, and was ably learning how to navigate Piltover's high society as she grew older.

And, just as importantly, Caitlyn was not slavishly obedient to rules simply because they were rules, which boded well for her daughter's future as head of House Kiramman and a member of the Council. Both roles required a certain flexibility about both rules and laws, and while Caitlyn - as anyone should - tended to follow the rules and laws as a general principle, she always tried to understand the underlying reason - and she was willing and able to argue rationally against them when she found them poor. She'd even managed to convince Cassandra and Tobias to relax or remove certain rules through careful, reasoned argument in some cases.

So it was perhaps more accurate to say Cassandra was not used to feeling specifically worried about Caitlyn, but she was now, as one of their maids hurried into the private dining room. The maid that usually attended to Caitlyn's needs in the morning, including bringing her breakfast.

"Forgive the interruption, Mrs. Kiramman, but I'm - I'm worried about the young miss." The maid - Anne - said quickly. "She - she yelled at me when I tried to bring her her breakfast. She's never done that!" Anne smoothed down the front of her uniform as she spoke, then started biting her lip.

Cassandra placed her teacup down on its saucer more quickly than she preferred, the clinking sound echoing in the mostly quiet room, and Tobias looked up from his own meal quickly.

"That is quite unlike her." Cassandra could think of only two times when her daughter had yelled at the staff in all sixteen years of her life. Once when she was six and having what could really only be called a tantrum, and once two years ago when one of the staff - recently hired - tried to steal papers from Cassandra's office, and Caitlyn had caught him doing so. She'd quite enjoyed rubbing it in Councillor Salo's face at the next function, since the odious man had been the one behind the would-be spy. Not with an accusation, of course, but that was never how things were done.

"What exactly happened?"

"I was bringing her breakfast, like I always do. I heard her moving around quickly, muttering to herself, she sounded upset and agitated," Anne began hesitantly, smoothing down the front of her uniform again, even though it didn't need it. "I opened the door - the room was in disarray, at least compared to how she usually keeps it. Blankets were thrown off the bed onto the floor, several of her drawers were hanging open, she'd knocked things off her desk..." Anne shook her head, mouth open as she trailed off. "And when she saw me setting her breakfast down on the little table by the door she yelled at me! I've - I've never heard her yell at anyone."

"It's not a common occurrence for her, but she's been known to do it," Tobias looked at Cassandra with a small uptick at the corner of his mouth, a spark of mirth twinkling in his eye.

The one time Caitlyn could be expected to raise her voice was when she argued with Cassandra. Tobias always said, with a fond smile, that Caitlyn had inherited Cassandra's strong will and fierce conviction, which made them clash even harder when they disagreed. Cassandra couldn't really dispute the claim, and she knew that those two things were good for her daughter to possess...

If she could just wait a few more years before being quite so vehement and pick better convictions to defend so loudly than her desire to be an Enforcer and her fascination with the Undercity (among other things), Cassandra would be quite pleased.

"Did she yell anything in particular at you?" Cassandra asked Anne, masking the tension she felt easily. Not only did Caitlyn not yell at the staff, barring those two exceptions, but she almost never had harsh words for the staff or really anyone of lower social status, as a general rule. A Kiramman was of the highest levels of Piltover, but it was gauche to be rude or disrespectful to your social lessers, and that was something Caitlyn had always taken to heart. Compared to the horror stories she heard about Salo's niece or Hoskel's son and how they treated their family's employees or the employees of any establishment they decided to 'patronize'...

There was a difference between exercising one's authority as a member of a Great House of Piltover, and an almost Noxian treatment of one's social inferiors.

"She demanded to know who I was and what I was doing in her room, as if she hadn't seen me almost every morning for the last three years!" Anne shook her head, "She asked where 'Vi' was, I said I had no idea who she was talking about and she demanded I leave her room..." she swallowed, "So, I left. I - I didn't - and then I came straight here, Mrs. Kiramman."

"You are not in trouble," Cassandra assured Anne. Capable, trustworthy staff were not something one threw away without a very good reason, and Anne had done nothing wrong. If she remembered correctly, Anne was due to be married in a few weeks, and there was nothing to be gained by adding to the young woman's stress at a time like this, leaving her worried about her employment. "I've no idea what's come over Caitlyn, though I intend to find out shortly. As for you, if you need a break to collect yourself, please, take as long as you need before resuming your normal duties for the rest of the day."

"Yes ma'am," Anne curtsied and left the private dining room. Cassandra turned to Tobias. "I don't suppose you have any idea what's gotten into Caitlyn? She confides in you more than she does me."

Tobias shook her head, looking as confused as Cassandra felt. "I have no idea what could have brought this one. Unless Caitlyn has experienced some sort of memory loss, I can't imagine what could have happened. The only way to find out would be to talk to her." Tobias stood up from his chair, and Cassandra set her napkin down and did the same.

"True. There's no reason to delay, especially if something is wrong with Caitlyn." They left the private dining room together, heading for Caitlyn's wing of the Manor. "What about the name 'Vi'? It is presumably a diminutive of some sort, most likely Violet. Has she mentioned anyone by the name? One of her paramours perhaps?" Cassandra made a face - she didn't care for diminutives, either using them or hearing them be used.

"One of her paramours?" Tobias laughed, "You make our daughter sound like she's some sort of lothario sailor with a girl in every port!"

"She's snuck at least four different girls in through the window over the last year," Cassandra countered. "Caitlyn seems to have an easier time convincing young women to kiss her than she does making friends with them." Sneaking girls in through her window was one of those things that Caitlyn did that was against the rules, but it was a rule Cassandra had decided - at Tobias's urging - wasn't worth enforcing.

As long as Caitlyn kept things discreet - which she had - and refrained from actually having sex with any of these girls until she was at least eighteen - Cassandra was content to look the other way. Caitlyn deserved some trust, so long as she didn't violate it.

"It's not as if Caitlyn is just finding random girls at taverns and taking them home, Cassandra," Tobias chided as they climbed stairs up. "She's just a teenager moving from potential relationship to potential relationship. It's perfectly normal to decide someone isn't suitable."

"I might wish she decided someone was unsuitable before she snuck them in through her window, but it's a battle in which I've accepted defeat for the time being."

"While you didn't sneak me in through your window, I do remember more than a few furtive moments alone during our courtship, Cassandra," Tobias said with a grin. Cassandra allowed herself a small smile. "As to this 'Vi', again, we really can only ask her."

They reached the door to Caitlyn's suite and Cassandra knocked on the door firmly, "Caitlyn?" There was a moment of silence, a gasp, and then the doors were flung open and Caitlyn, still wearing her sleeping gown, was throwing her arms around Cassandra, hugging her tightly.

"Mother!"

"Caitlyn!" Cassandra said again, raising her voice a touch, eyes wide, stiff for a long second before she returned her daughter's hug, somewhat awkwardly. Cassandra wasn't one for physical displays like this, and she couldn't quite remember the last time Caitlyn had hugged her, certainly not so enthusiastically. "What's gotten into you?!" Caitlyn pulled back, hands still on Cassandra's arms, clutching her, as if afraid Cassandra would poof out of existence at any moment.

She searched her daughter's expression, hoping to find answers - Caitlyn looked like she'd slept poorly - a redness in her eyes - well, eye, as Caitlyn hadn't brushed her hair away from the left side of her face yet, so it hung down, covering her left eye. Cassandra reached up and tucked some of the hair in question behind Caitlyn's ear., or rather, tried to - as she moved to do so, something she'd done literally hundreds of times with her daughter - if not lately - Caitlyn recoiled, flinching and pulling back, as if Cassandra's touch to the left side of her head was anathema.

"I'm sorry," Caitlyn said, managing a more level tone. "I -" she hesitated for a moment, lips parted just a touch and then she exhaled, "I had a rather vivid nightmare... in which you were dead." Caitlyn paused, stiff for a moment, inhaling, obviously collecting herself. "It was - it was intense, and- I was disoriented for a bit, after I woke up."

Cassandra didn't see any sign her daughter was lying - and she couldn't imagine Caitlyn would - but for a nightmare, even a vivid one, even one where she died, to have such an impact on her daughter... it seemed difficult to believe. It would explain why Caitlyn had hugged her so tightly out of seemingly nowhere, especially if Cassandra's passing had been abrupt or unexpected in this nightmare.

"And that would be why you yelled at poor Anne when she bought your breakfast?" Caitlyn was sixteen, not six. She should be able to handle a bad dream better than this, but clearly not. Either Caitlyn wasn't the resilient girl she'd raised, or the nightmare had been even worse than Caitlyn was saying, to affect her so severely.

The latter was obviously the case.

"Anne" Caitlyn started, eyes narrowed, brow furrowed as if confused, then her mouth opened in a small 'o' and she nodded. "Yes. That is why I yelled at her. I - as I said, I was disoriented and I didn't quite grasp that it had all just been a dream." Caitlyn moved around behind Cassandra to Tobias to hug her father, a sight much more familiar to all three of them.

"I will have to apologize to her," Caitlyn added after she pulled back from hugging Tobias."

"I should say so! The poor girl looked like she was afraid she was going to be let go." Tobias scolded gently. "She's going to be married in a few weeks. Imagine how that would be for it, to lose her job at a time like that?"

Caitlyn nodded, "You are right, father."

"You haven't had a nightmare since you were six," Tobias noted. "Do you have any idea what might have brought this on?" His tone was both concerned and clinical, a doctor and a father.

"I have actually had other nightmares in the last ten years," Caitlyn corrected, "They just haven't been worth mentioning."

"It would seem this one is," Cassandra looked at her daughter, and held back a frown as she saw the way she was standing - Caitlyn wasn't quite as good at schooling her reactions as Cassansdra was, not yet anyway - she'd get there, she had years to develop those skills of course - and when she was uncomfortable at a social event, surrounded by people she didn't know, Caitlyn had a tendency to stand with her shoulders angled inward, tense, but not hunched. That was how Caitlyn was standing now, and so for all that she was calmer now, she was clearly still affected by the nightmare she'd had. Cassandra gestured for all of them to actually enter Caitlyn's suite, rather than standing out in the hall and once they were inside, Cassandra closed the doors behind them. She took a moment to look around the room.

It was as Anne had described - disarray. By Caitlyn's standards, a mess. She'd knocked most things off her desk, left drawers open or askew, and flung her blankets all over the floor in the process of getting out of her bed. It was quite unlike her daughter, but then...

"How did I die in this dream, Caitlyn?" Cassandra asked after a moment, looking back at Caitlyn. Her daughter had brushed her hair away from her left eye, and she was angling her body in a rightward way towards them, that same inward tension in her shoulders. "Did you see it happen?"

She couldn't say for sure, but she had to guess for the nightmare to impact Caitlyn so deeply, it couldn't just be dreaming of her mother dying peacefully in her bed at a ripe old age.

Caitlyn hesitated to answer, lips parted, eyes darting around the room, between her and Tobias and the silence was so long Cassandra was about to withdraw the question when Caitlyn finally answered.

"I didn't see it. But - in the dream. There was - an attack on the Academy. The Council Tower. I - I was in a position to stop it before it happened, to take a shot at the culprit and - I didn't." Caitlyn swallowed, "You died, Mother, and - you weren't the only one." Caitlyn's expression crumpled, and Cassandra bit her own lip, concern and decorum warring in her chest as she saw guilt and shame on her daughter's face.

"Oh, Caitlyn." Tobias said softly, closing the distance between himself and their daughter quickly and pulling her in for another tighter hug. Once Tobias pulled back from the hug, Cassandra put a hand on Caitlyn's left shoulder, and held back another frown at Caitlyn visibly suppressing a flinch.

"I can appreciate that that would be a difficult thing to dream of," Cassandra said softly. Not just her death, but being in a position to stop it by - presumably - killing another person, not doing so because... it was taking the life of someone and then suffering the consequences for one's humanity by the death of your own mother.

Cassandra Kiramman, like her own mother and grandmother before her, was a very good shot, though Caitlyn was the best shot House Kiramman had ever produced and would only get better. But Cassandra had never taken the life of another person, or even fired a gun at a person - she'd shot targets and she'd gone hunting and that was all. And that was all she wanted from her daughter, Caitlyn's ridiculous ambition to join the Enforcers notwithstanding.

"Given that, Caitlyn, I would understand entirely if you wanted to be left alone for a while to feel better or perhaps spend the day with myself or your father." Cassandra let her arm fall by her side. "I can tell Jayce-"

"Jayce?" Caitlyn's eyes widened.

"I know you were looking forward to seeing him working in his lab today, I understand he acquired some new equipment," Jayce diligently submitted regular copies of any receipts or invoices for things he spent the funds they afforded him for his research, "But if-"

"No, no, I'm-" Caitlyn started quickly, and there was a familiar spark of excitement at seeing Jayce in Caitlyn's expression and tone. Her daughter was not going to be a scientist or inventor, but she did have an interest in the topic, as she should, and she was enormously fond of Jayce, seeing him as a sort of surrogate older brother - had she not known her daughter was exclusively interested in women, she might have assumed Caitlyn had a crush on the young man.

As it was, Cassandra largely approved of Caitlyn's friendship with Jayce - he was a brilliant scientist, an ambitious inventor with real potential, and a well-behaved young man from a good family. The young man's insistence on calling Calityn 'Cait' (and Caitlyn's acceptance of it) was one of his few notable flaws as far as Cassandra was concerned.

"Are you sure? I'm sure Jayce would be more than willing to reschedule-" Tobias stated but Caitlyn shook her head.

"I'm fine enough, and - the nightmare was upsetting, but that's all it was. It - it would be good to get out of the manor for a bit." She took a breath, "There isn't going to be an attack on the Academy, and you're not going to die, mother." For a moment it seemed as though Caitlyn was promising that those two things weren't going to happen, as if she was going to personally prevent them, but of course they weren't going to happen and Caitlyn wouldn't be in a position to prevent them.

"Well, I have no plans to die any time soon either, I can assure you," she promised her daughter. "Piltover has been at peace for decades and if I should fall sick," she looked over at her husband with a small smile, "it is fortunate that I married the best doctor in the city, isn't it?"

"I knew there was a reason you proposed to me. I'm on to your schemes," Tobias with a mock-grave expression.

"Mother, the Bridge Massacre was only five years ago," Caitlyn corrected, raising her voice a little. "There's hardly been peace for 'decades'."

Cassanda furrowed her brow, "'Bridge Massacre?' Caitlyn, what have your tutors been teaching you about recent history? The riots five years ago were a minor labor action that sadly turned violent, hardly worth mentioning and hardly a massacre. A few works and a few enforcers lost their lives, and that is unfortunate, but -"

"Ten enforcers died, though dozens were wounded," Caitlyn interrupted, raising her voice even more - not yelling, but her passion was raised. She stepped back a pace and turned her head so she could easily see both Tobias and Cassandra without turning her head. "And at least a hundred and fourteen Z- residents of the undercity died, and hundreds more were wounded, many of them crippled for life and unable to work, left to starve! If you weren't so narrow-minded and selfish, playing the same pointless political games all the time, trying to get richer just for the sake of having more money, you might have noticed that, Mother!"

Cassandra stared at her daughter, seeing the way she was leaning forward just a little, hands closed into fists. Caitlyn's words - apart from the absurd figures she raised for the losses of the riots - felt familiar. Caitlyn's passion for her beliefs were quite familiar, and her daughter's fascination with the undercity had obviously led her to believing lies spread by undercity agitators and rabble-rousers, the same ones who had caused that labor action in the first place.

While she hadn't had this specific argument with her daughter before, arguing with her about the way House Kiramman operated, and the realities of business and politics was ground that Cassandra knew well.

Still. Familiar or not, her daughter could not simply be allowed to have that tone with her without some sort of response. And she would be speaking to Caitlyn's tutors.

"Caitlyn! I don't know where you're getting those numbers, but I can assure you that there were not even close to that many deaths that day, and insulting me is not an effective way to make your point, regardless."

"It's not an insult if it's true, Mother! You created the ventilation system for the Gray, but you've done nothing for the people of the undercity since, and the rest of the Council doesn't give a shit-"

"Caitlyn!" Cassandra interrupted again. "Mind your language! You're acting as though the ventilation system is some minor thing. It cost a fortune and was the work of several years, and it has raised the quality of life across the river immeasurably."

"And the people there were still willing to fight and die to improve their situation. Think about that," Caitlyn said in a more level tone, though there was still anger underlying every word. She turned away, heading for her walk-in closet. "I need to get dressed before Jayce gets here, and apologize to Anne." Cassandra opened her mouth to say something more, but Tobias put a hand on her shoulder as Caitlyn stepped into her closet, closing it behind her.

"Arguing with her when she's this passionate won't get either of you anywhere, dear, you know that." Cassandra closed her mouth, lips a thin line, but she slowly nodded, because Tobias had a point. He went in. "Especially when she's still agitated from that nightmare."

"She's so relieved to see me alive she hugs me for the first time in years, and then starts yelling at me over lies from undercity agitators," Cassandra murmured.

"She's a teenager, Cassandra. Mood swings are to be expected." Tobias pointed out, a fond smile on his face. "Come, let's finish up breakfast. Maybe you can meet in the gardens later and talk it out."

"Tobias, you know very well the only reason we don't argue in the gardens is specifically because we avoid controversial topics there," Cassandra reminded her husband. "No. I'll talk to her tutors and find out who is giving her these ridiculous ideas, and then I'll speak to her on the subject after that."

"Of course dear," Tobias accepted.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Author's Note: Vi will show up, but it will take a few chapters. The first Caitlyn POV will be next chapter.

Thanks are extended to UnMaddieCaited and Catpower 23 for beta-reading this chapter and giving it a look over.

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When Jayce had first decided to petition House Kiramman for funding for his Hextech research - not that he'd used that phrasing, he knew he'd needed to be more careful, though Cassandra Kiramman had to suspect what he was doing by this point - he hadn't expected to also get a lifelong friend (well, he hoped lifelong anyway) out of the deal, let alone a surrogate little sister, but he had.

He was eager to show Caitlyn his new lab set up - he'd been able to move his research to the next stage, and that had required new equipment, new arrangements to keep everything accessible as he needed it, and more of the hexcrystals.

He was just as eager to show Caitlyn the items he'd procured from the undercity too, and eager to tell Caitlyn all about the trip - she was fascinated by the undercity and wanted to visit it, but it was a rule laid down by her mother that - at least for now - Caitlyn hadn't been ready to break. She'd gone no further than the Promenade and the Alcove District nearest to the bridges.

Jayce nodded to the guard at the gate outside the grounds of Kiramman manor - Mathias, if Jayce remembered his name right - and after a moment to look at him, the guard opened the gate for him, and Jayce walked through, passing the front gardens on his way to the front door, ringing the doorbell with the press of a button. It was a curiously simple invention, but one that had only been invented a decade ago, despite all the information necessary and all the knowledge necessary being known for much longer.

Hextech on the other hand... Jayce had scoured for evidence of anyone ever trying to harness magic with the power of science and technology before, or any sort of precursor, but as far as he could tell, no one else had. He really had come up with the idea on his own. Mages might have used hexcrystals for things, but no one else, as far as he could tell. They'd just been ignored as a source of power.

The door to the manor opened, but instead of the usual bushy-moustached face of Dorian, the Kiramman's butler, it was Tobias Kiramman who answered the door. Jayce blinked for a moment, staring dumbly in surprise.

"Jayce, come in," Tobias stepped aside, and Jayce stepped inside, moving slower than he should have.

"Doctor Kiramman," Jayce finally greeted after what had to have been too long - ten seconds? Fifteen? "I'm sorry, I just didn't expect you to answer the door. Is Dorian ok-" He cut himself off as he saw the butler in question off to the side, leaving the entryway to go down a hallway/

"Oh, no, Dorian's fine, I just wanted to greet you when you came in this morning Jayce," Tobias waved a hand sideways. "And how many times have I told you to only call me Doctor Kiramman if we're at my clinic or the hospital?"

"Twelve times, I think?"

"I didn't mean that literally, but that just makes my point even more," Tobias chided, leading the way towards Caitlyn's wing, up the stairs.

"I - you're right Tobias," Jayce accepted. "I'll try to remember it this time." While Cassandra Kiramman was exactly what you'd expect from a woman in her position, neither Tobias or Caitlyn were. Granted, he didn't know many members of other Great Houses personally, but he'd had some as classmates at the Academy, and they'd -

Well. He was hoping age would mellow some of them out before they became councillors. He wasn't going to hold his breath though.

"Why were you at the door? Is Cait alright?"

"She's... unsettled, and agitated," Tobias said, pausing to find the right words as they walked. "She had an argument with Cassandra half an hour ago, or the start of one anyway."

"They do that a lot," Jayce commented. Caitlyn had complained about her mother many times when it was just the two of them. She loved her mother, but found her exasperating and controlling, and Jayce could only be glad that his own mother was more willing to let Jayce leave the family's business behind. He'd have pushed forward anyway, but he appreciated he didn't have to make the choice.

Tobias smiled fondly for a moment. "They're both strong-willed and brilliant women, with equally strong convictions." He sighed, "I can't say I object to my daughter being willing to stand up for what she believes is right or that she has the intelligence to make her arguments well, but I wish it didn't leave me trapped between the two most important women in my life."

"Understandable." He wasn't sure what else to say really. "On the other hand, would she be a Kiramman if she didn't have the determination to do whatever she set her mind to?" When he'd prepared his petition for funding, he'd done his research into House Kiramman. Rare was the head of the family that didn't push boundaries or limits, blazing new ground in the worlds of politics, science, technology or finance.

"You're not wrong... and that's what worries me." Tobias sighed. "You'll understand when you have children of your own one day." He added, and Jayce shrugged.

"My mother said the same thing to me a lot when I was growing up. That and hoping I had a son that was just like me so I knew what it was like." Jayce chuckled. He didn't really have any plans to be a parent, let alone have children any time soon, but given that he was twenty-four, that was hardly surprising. Sooner or later, House Talis would need an heir once he assumed leadership of the family - hopefully not for many decades, since his mother's health was more than fine - so he had time to worry about that later.

Hextech needed to be perfected first. He was close, he could feel it.

"My father said both of those things to me as well," Tobias admitted. "I think it's universal among parents." They were drawing close to Caitlyn's suite, and Jayce hesitated a moment, then:

"If Caitlyn's argument with Councilor Kiramman was that upsetting, I can come back another day?" He offered.

"Caitlyn was quite insistent she go with you today." Tobias shook his head. "And it wasn't the argument that left her so agitated."

"What was it?"

"I'll leave her to tell you if she wants to," Tobias said, probably not meaning to sound so mysterious or ominous. "I think it would be good for her to be out of the house for the morning, at a minimum, under the circumstances. I'm sure you can keep her busy for that long?"

"I'm sure." Jayce agreed with a small laugh and they reached Caitlyn's suite. Tobias locked on the door.

"Caitlyn? Jayce is here."

"Come in," Caitlyn's voice said, and Jayce opened the door, Tobias nodding and turning away, walking down the hall.

Once Jayce was inside Caitlyn's suite, he suddenly found himself under attack - Caitlyn had all but tackled him and hugged him tightly.

"Jayce!" She held the hug for longer than she usually did, the times she hugged him, and then pulled back. "I missed you."

Jayce chuckled incredulously, finding his voice after the sudden shock of her impact. "I just saw you the other day. But it's good to see you too, Sprout."

Caitlyn smiled fondly at the nickname, stepping back from him entirely, her arms falling by her side for a moment. "It - it doesn't feel like it was only a few days."

"Well, I am hard company to beat," Jayce agreed with a smirk that turned into a genuine smile. He debated asking her about what had made her so 'agitated' - though she seemed like her normal calm self now - and or her argument with her mother, but at the very least, it was probably better to ask her outside of the manor. "Are you ready? I've been looking forward to showing you the new setup since I got it done, especially since I have my new equipment arriving today."

It had been too much to bring up all the way from the lowest parts of the Undercity all by himself, so he'd paid for delivery - it had arrived via the cargo elevators, rather than the bathysphere, and the Postal Service would be dropping it off at his apartment building just about when they got there, give or take.

"One moment," Caitlyn said hurriedly, and disappeared into her closet for a moment, before returning, stuffing something into a pocket. "Now I am."

"Alright." They left her suite and started making their way to the front door. "I'm close to a breakthrough, you know." Caitlyn to his left as they went.

Caitlyn laughed, "I seem to remember you saying that a few times before."

"And each time, I was right, I did make a breakthrough... just not the final one that will let me perfect what I'm doing." Jayce defended himself. "Science isn't a simple thing, especially what I'm working on. I'm basically inventing a whole new -"

"Field of math as you go?" Caitlyn finished and Jayce rubbed the back of his head wryly.

"I guess I've said that a few too many times?"

"I mean, it's true. You're going to change the world, Jayce. I'm sure of it."

"If I do, it will only be because of your family's support. And yours." Jayce countered.

"Even without Kiramman money, you'd have figured it out one day." Caitlyn disagreed. "You will, I mean." She corrected herself.

"I like to think so, but funding does help," Jayce pointed out, and Caityn nodded. They were down the stairs and crossing the foyer to the front door. "Especially when I need rare or hard to obtain equipment." Or equipment that was restricted and normally could only be obtained after a lot of paperwork and even more delay, if at all.

Going to the undercity had been a bit of a gamble in the first place, in terms of finding what he was looking for. He'd figured it might take several days scouring every shop selling old antiques, junk and items of dubious legality to find the equipment he needed from the right materials. Instead, he'd found it all in one shop, and at a surprisingly fair price. He'd expected the kid manning the till to rip him off when he'd said he'd wanted the items on display, but he hadn't. The price he'd been asked for wasn't cheap, by any means, but he'd come prepared to pay through the nose, with much more gold than he'd ended up parting with.

The equipment he'd needed was rare and restricted, and that raised prices just on its own. Had he been spending his own money, he'd have had to think a lot harder before making the purchase, but - that's why he had a patron.

"So you did get everything you were looking for then?"

"Of course." Jayce pushed open the front door and Caitlyn remained on his left side as they moved through the gardens. "It wasn't easy. There were only a few places on this side of the river that might have had what I needed, and I couldn't find it at any of them."

"So you went to the undercity," Caitlyn said, and Jayce blinked. He'd have expected her to guess the Promenade, the Southside docks, or the Alcove district first. He'd had a whole plan for revealing he'd gone down there.

"How did you-?" Jayce started, and Caitlyn actually stiffened for a moment, saying nothing, tense, almost looking worried. Did I say something wrong? Is it related to-

"You were playing coy about where you got your new equipment," Caitlyn finally said, and resumed walking towards the gate, out into Bluewind Court. Jayce blinked, but hurried to catch up with her - she was shorter than him and she still managed to walk faster when she put her mind to it. Though, give it a few years and she would probably end up nearly as tall as him, at the rate she was growing.

"And there's really only one place you wouldn't have just said where you went to find it," she added, quickly.

Jayce chuckled, "There's that investigative mind. You really will make an amazing Enforcer one day, Cait." Caitlyn stiffened again, probably related to her various arguments with her mother about her ambitions, and then nodded slowly.

"...I hope so."

"I know so, Caitlyn. Sheriff Kiramman. It has a nice ring to it."

"Better than 'Commander'," Caitlyn murmured, under her breath, as if absently, to herself.

"Unless Piltover ends up in a war, there won't be much need for a Commander," Jayce chuckled. "Who would invade us?"

"Piltover is a rich, and strategically located city." Caitlyn countered. "And it's not as if our technology isn't a prize all its own. Kiramman Arms sells to governments and organizations across Runeterra because our weapons are among the best. Not to mention everything else we build here."

"But an invasion would just destroy the goose that lays the golden eggs," Jayce disagreed. "What's getting into you, to worry about someone attacking the city? Did you and your tutors just start on the last war?" Piltover's last actual war was... fifty years ago? Something like that. And it hadn't been that long or involved. A small neighboring city-state had decided to cause issues on the border, he was pretty sure he remembered learning.

History classes had never been very interesting to him.

"No. I-" Caitlyn bit her lip. "I had a very vivid nightmare," Caitlyn admitted as they walked the streets, people going about their business all around. A carriage passed by ahead before they could cross a street and then once it was by they resumed walking. "It... felt like a year, until I actually woke up."

"And there was an attack on the city? By who?"

"More than one group, but Noxus was among them." Caitlyn explained after a silent moment. "A lot of people died."

"Well, it was just a dream, vivid or not." Jayce said, patting her shoulder, trying to reassure her. "The city's defenses aren't exactly made of paper anyway."

"No, they're not." Caitlyn agreed after a moment. "You died in the dream. Mother too."

"Shit." Jayce said, then bit his tongue a moment. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. You didn't kill her in the dream, and you won't in real life."

"I'm pretty sure if your mother and I ever ended up in a fight somehow, she'd be the one to kill me. She's almost as good with a rifle as you are." Jayce chuckled, and rubbed the back of his head ruefully again. "Whereas I can't hit a wall at twenty paces." Caitlyn had taken him shooting once.

Once.

"Oh, don't sell yourself short, Jayce. You'd hit the wall... just probably not the part of it you were aiming for," Caitlyn teased, elbowing him in the ribs lightly. She smiled fondly again. "I'm very glad you're not dead, you know," she added in a softer voice, her words almost swallowed by the hubbub of the city all around them as they moved into the Academy district. They were just a few minutes away from his workshop. Jayce stared at Caitlyn as they kept walking, and nearly walked into someone else, only stopping when Cait grabbed onto his hand to pull him up short.

Just how vivid was that dream? And how exactly had he died in it? Did he want to know?

I'm not sure I do.

"I'm glad to not be dead." Jayce agreed. They were quiet for a moment, both of them, then Caitlyn spoke up again.

"So. The undercity. What was it like?" Caitlyn asked, eagerly, though for a moment it almost sounded forced. "How far down did you go?"

"All the way to the final level before the mines. They call it 'The Lanes' down there, apparently." Jayce explained. "It was... crowded. The main streets weren't too narrow, but everything branching off them was a tiny alleyway. I didn't get mugged, no one even threatened me or picked my pocket."

"Not everyone in the undercity is a criminal, Jayce," Caitlyn said firmly, almost glaring at him.

"No, but there are a lot of them down there. Everyone knows that.":

"But none went after you, so maybe everyone's wrong?" Caitlyn pointed out, and Jayce pondered her words.

"Or I got lucky, or they decided I looked like I wasn't an easy target." Jayce offered. He was big, tall and he worked out to stay in shape - nothing too intense, he was just lucky in that sense. But if someone was looking for an easy mugging...

"But," Jayce allowed before Caitlyn could make more of her case, "I was surprised by how things were down there. Like I said, they were cramped, and crowded, but it wasn't a slum or anything I'd have expected like that. It was lively. The shops and the people were different, but... it could have passed for any busy market street anywhere else in Piltover, on either side of the river." And the contents of the shops - the ones he'd seen through the windows, or in the stalls and shop-tents lining parts of that main avenue - were even more diverse than your average street anywhere else in the city. The air hadn't exactly been as clear as the air on the surface, but nothing like the smog and mining gasses that had plagued the place before Cassandra Kiramman had created the new ventilation systems over a decade ago.

He'd gone down that far because his inquiries about where to find rare equipment had all pointed down to 'The Lanes', where just about anything could be found, for a price.

Jayce could only assume at least half the stuff for sale there wasn't entirely legal - at the very least, smuggled in - but he couldn't say for sure, and he wasn't going to suggest it now, given what Caitlyn had said just a minute earlier.

Besides, given that he'd gone down there to buy things that were heavily restricted without any of the proper paperwork, he couldn't really criticize too much. Sure, what he was doing was for science, not just to get rich or whatever else was happening down there, but -

"Well, there was one thing that stood out more than anything else. The lighting." Caitlyn looked at him, and he went on as they reached the door to his building. "That far down, there's just no sunlight at all. They have some standard gas lamps, but they also have these glowing green lights. Like... vials filled with liquid, but it glows, bright enough to light up an alley entrance, or a whole room, if it's big enough." Jayce shook his head. "It was kind of fascinating. I wonder how they make it."

"Not very safely." Caitlyn said, then, "Or so I hear." She added that last part quickly.

"I could believe it. I passed a foundry, and it looked like it wouldn't pass any sort of safety inspection, and I didn't see the workers having half the safety equipment they should have."

Jayce opened the door, and in the alcove for newly arrived packages, sure enough there were two boxes sealed up and labeled with Jayce's address. Jayce went inside, and crouched by one, opening the box to check the contents, make sure it was what it was supposed to be, and all there.

Caitlyn was outside, and out of the corner of his eye he saw her looking up and then she made a face, stiffened and her mouth moved - it looked and sounded like she was suppressing a curse.

"Somethining wrong?"

"What? No - nothing," Caitlyn said quickly. She looked at the items in the box he'd opened. "What's so special about this stuff anyway?"

"My work is delicate, and I need tools made from materials and metals we just don't use anymore, for most of it. The wrong ratios of brass for what most scientific work uses today." He went on to explain the details further, getting into it, not noticing he was monopolizing the front entrance - fortunately no one else needed to come in and out.

For most purposes, the more modern materials and metal ratios were better for most things they could be used for. Jayce wasn't sure why hexcrystals responded better to older designs and ratios, but they did, so if he wanted to push forward...

"Then there were things people just don't make anymore in general. From what I saw in the undercity, they don't throw a lot away. The kid manning the till was working on repairing this old grandfather clock." He paused, "Well, I say repairing, but he was basically rebuilding the internal mechanisms from scratch, using what looked like random leftover bits from other stuff. Surprisingly ingenious, if horribly haphazard." Jayce frowned. And unsafe too, if the kid tried to turn that thing on with the set up he had, Jayce figured it was even odds the whole thing would break if the clock tolled too hard, and break badly.

"Kid?"

"I figured he was the shop owner's son or something. Nephew or whatever. He was 12? 13?" Jayce shrugged. "He should be in some sort of school at that age, but I guess they needed the extra hand for the store that day."

"There's not really any schools down in the undercity, especially not that far down, Jayce."

"What are you talking about? The Council funds basic education for everyone up to fourteen or fifteen, depending on exactly when they get started."

"And none of that money has ever reached the lower levels of the undercity." Caitlyn ground out, sounding genuinely upset. "And that foundry was unsafe because the owners on this side of the river don't pay for it to be safe!"

"What are you talking about? They have to. Professor Heimerdinger writes the safety laws for factories, smelters and foundries personally." The little Dean of the Academy went over those same rules with all the students once a year at the academy. 'Safety in Progress is Paramount' he'd always say. "The people in the undercity just aren't getting too bogged down by it all, obviously."

"Because they want to be burned when something goes wrong, or choke on industrial gases in their workplaces," Caitlyn countered. "Salo and Hoskel own two thirds of the foundries and smelters in the undercity." Few things reminded Jayce of the fact that Caitlyn regularly rubbed elbows with the members of the Council and their families more starkly than the fact that she just called Councilor Salo 'Salo' and the same for Councilor Hoskel. She just... knew them, saw them on a regular basis at every society function she attended. And so they were just normal people to her in a way they just couldn't be even for Jayce, and House Talis was still a wealthy and notable family.

"Do you really think either of them would part with a single bronze washer for worker safety if they didn't have to?" Caitlyn concluded.

Jayce wasn't surprised by the passion in Caitlyn's voice as he started to open and go through the other box quickly. He was surprised by the fact that she was this passionate about this, and he wondered where it was all coming from. Caitlyn had always been interested in the undercity, but it wasn't like she'd known much about it - that was one of the reasons she'd been so fascinated.

So where was all this coming from? And was she right? Caitlyn wouldn't say it without having good reason to believe it, but still. He considered her words seriously, quiet for a moment as he paused, looking at her and -

Why did Caitlyn keep looking up and to the side every half-minute or so?

"I've only ever met them in passing at the parties your mother hosts. I don't think I've done more than exchange a polite greeting with Councillor Hoskel." Jayce pointed out. "And I've only had a slightly longer interaction with Councillor Salo once."

"Right," Caitlyn said, closing her mouth quickly, her tone quiet and almost distant, as if reminding herself of something she should have already known.

"That said, from what you have said about them, and what I've heard, they probably wouldn't spend more than they had to on worker safety. Which is why the safety laws exist - so they have to." Jayce admitted.

"And yet, as you said, you passed a foundry that violated those laws, and it's hardly alone," Caitlyn pointed out. "Hoskel and Salo have so many foundries in the undercity because they can get away with breaking the law down there, in addition to being able to pay the people there half the wage, at best."

"Or they just sell the safety equipment on the black market, or it gets stolen," Jayce countered, the stories of the lazy criminality of so many people in the undercity had to have some basis, even if what he'd seen on the main thoroughfare of 'The Lanes' had been better than he'd have thought. He turned and held up a hand as he realized that Caitlyn was still standing outside and he was still in the doorway. "I'm not saying you don't have a good reason for saying what you're saying," Jayce added quickly. Caitlyn wasn't always right - and he didn't think she was now - but she didn't just say random things for the hell of it. She had reasons for thinking what she did.

"But, I am saying we shouldn't have this conversation right here in the doorway."

Caitlyn nodded slowly, "You're right."

"Here. You take this one," Jayce said, handing Caitlyn the smaller and lighter of the two boxes. He stepped aside and let her go through and then closed the door behind himself before picking up the other box, heading for the stairs.

"I just can't believe the enforcers would just sit there and let Salo and Hoskel get away with breaking Professor Heimerdinger's safety laws. Or that the rest of the Council would."

"Why not? Kiramman Arms buys from Salo and Hoskel's foundries and smelters." Caitlyn said, the sour look on her face half-covered by the box she was carrying. She misstepped and stumbled, nearly falling over - she hit the box into the wall instead and the box hit her torso and she went 'oof'. One of the smaller and thankfully less fragile items fell out of the box.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine. Just lost my footing for a moment." Caitlyn inhaled slowly and moved to set the box down.

With her being fine out of the way, Jayce chuckled, "Careful with that, it will be your family's money that you're breaking-"
"That I'm breaking," Caitlyn said at the same time he said the last three words, and he blinked, then shrugged after a moment. It wasn't a joke he'd made before, but it was a pretty obvious comment once he'd started it.

"Exactly." Jayce reached the door and set his own box down carefully, unlocking it, and pushing it open -

Didn't I leave the balcony door closed?

Jayce stared, eyes taking in the main workshop room, the chalkboards, the workbenches, the shelves... which were a lot more bare than they had been a few hours ago.

Didn't I lock the balcony door?

He had.

His eyes landed on a half-eaten sandwich lying on the ground. A sandwich he'd last seen intact... and in a different room.

A room that-

"Shit."

"Jayce?" Caitlyn asked, coming around to the left. "What's wr-" she cut herself off as she stood next to him, her voice suddenly a little flat. "Oh."

He'd been robbed.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Author's Note: The show Arcane I have discovered in planning, outlining and writing this fic, can be maddeningly vague about so many things. It leaves a lot of room for writers to take interpretations in different directions, but sometimes, it would be nice to just have an answer, you know?

Thanks extended to UnMaddieCaited for beta-reading this.

---

---

"Jayce?" Caitlyn asked, mind racing, keeping the plan she was still scrambling to put together worked. "What's wrong?" She moved around Jayce to see, even as she knew the answer. "Oh." She tried to act surprised, but she wasn't sure if she pulled it off as well as she wanted.

Hopefully he's too shocked to notice.

"I've been robbed." Jayce said slowly, as if he couldn't believe it had happened, as if the very idea of it was unthinkable. Caitlyn bit her lip. She had to be patient with this version of him. She was ten years in the past, and this was Jayce before he'd met Viktor, before he'd cracked Hextech, before he'd been forced to fight for his life more than once.

When Caitlyn had realized what day she'd come back to, when her mother had mentioned Jayce's new equipment - the same equipment she'd been carrying when that hexcrystal had gone of - when she'd realized she had the chance to set everything right, her original thought had been to get to Jayce's apartment/workshop before Vi and her siblings did. Unfortunately, the open balcony door when they'd reached the building had proved they were too late and Caitlyn had had to stall him as much as she could... thankfully the four thieves hadn't lingered long, and there'd been no explosion.

The lack of an explosion was a good first step, but the odds were very good Jinx - Powder - had still stolen hexcrystals, and those being loose in Zaun were an absolutely terrible idea for everyone right now. She only knew a little about what Silco was up to - she couldn't even remember where Vi had said his hideout was - but -

He had Shimmer, and a lot of it. And if Enforcers went down to the undercity if Jayce reported this theft -

"The - I have to check-" Jayce said, cutting himself off twice and then hurrying to another room. Caitlyn looked around, mind racing.

Convincing Jayce not to go to the Enforcers should be easy. His research violates the Ethos. It would only be when he proved that it worked that he would be able to get anywhere. Assuming he did.

Without the explosion, he won't meet Viktor. Caitlyn put that aside. She had a million and one questions about how to handle that, but first she had to make sure Vi didn't lose her family and end up in Stillwater... and make sure Powder never became Jinx.

Convince Jayce not to tell the Enforcers. Convince him there is a better way to get them back. Buy everything? They can't fence all that stuff quickly, so if I go down there...

"No, no, oh no, damnit," she could hear Jayce moaning from the other room and he was leaning over a table, one hand on the table next to an open chest - it was lined with little raised holders, but each one was empty. Jayce's other hand was being slowly pulled down one side of Jayce's voice as he stared helplessly at the empty chest. "Everything else was bad enough, but these?" he muttered.

"What was in that chest?" Caitlyn asked. "What's so bad about it being stolen?"

"They're the foundation of my work." Jayce explained, "The crystals I've been trying to harness the energy of." Caitlyn nodded. "The ones that I said are volatile if handled wrong?"

"Oh." Caitlyn said distantly, still trying to come up with the right thing to say to make sure she could control this situation. She just had to get everything back in Jayce's hands as soon as possible, before anything blew up.

"Oh shit, you mean." Jayce murmured. "Eveyrthing else - it would be bad enough, but I could get it all back one way or the other, but these? These are - were -the most expensive thing in this shop, and if someone hits one too hard or drops it -" Jayce shook his head. "It could kill dozens of people if it falls in the wrong place."

"...and you were experimenting with it in an apartment building in the middle of the Academy District?" Caitlyn asked - she'd burned to ask him that question ever since the day of the explosion. What had he been thinking?!

"I've been more than careful with them. That's why I keep them all in this chest, where they're safely contained, and everything about my research has been about trying to control the volatility, dampen the oscillations that make them so dangerous." Jayce said defensively. "You know I'd never put people in danger, Cait."

"Not on purpose," Caitlyn agreed. "But what if the thieves had dropped one?" Jayce just... didn't think. He didn't think about things that didn't occur to him, that weren't within his realm of experience. He did get better - working with Vikor, with Councillor Medarda had expanded his worldview and made him think bigger, but even still. Jayce got so focused on one problem in front of him...

On the other hand, he doesn't get so lost in the big picture he has trouble figuring out what to do, usually. Caitlyn still wasn't sure what she could do about... everything, once she resolved the immediate issues of this robbery.

"I -" Jayce threw up his hands a little, "I didn't think I would be robbed. It's not like the Academy District has an epidemic of burglaries. There's multiple Enforcers on every street!" He looked shrugged helplessly. "Who would be crazy enough to break in and rob this place in broad daylight?"

Desperate, impulsive teenagers with chips on their shoulders? Well, Vi and - from what she'd said - Mylo were the ones with chips.

"Whoever broke in."

"I was gone for two hours, maybe a little more! I locked the balcony door!" Jayce pressed his fingertips to his forehead, covering his face. "I have to tell the Enforcers. I have to report this, and - I can't let those crystals be loose in the hands of thieves that will do who knows what with them."

"And what are you going to tell the Enforcers?" Caitlyn demanded. Whatever she had to say, she had to get through to him. But Jayce - rightly - would want to get the hexcrystals...

Do I tell him that I'm from the future? Do I tell him why I don't want him to go to the Enforcers? Caitlyn bit her lip for a moment, but pushed that thought aside. Not yet. She didn't think the time was right. It would be soon, but clear this hurdle first. So how would she -

Wait.

"Are you going to tell them that the incredibly volatile crystals you're experimenting with in the middle of an apartment building, using restricted equipment you don't have the proper permits for, were stolen?" Caitlyn shook her head. "How do you think that will go?"

Jayce exhaled slowly, and pulled a hand down his face, mind probably racing. He shook his head, "I'll probably get fined, and forced to relocate my workshop, which I should do." He shrugged helplessly, "You're right. It was reckless and short-sighted to do it here. I wanted to keep my work close to hand to where I was sleeping in case something came to mind in the middle of the night-"

"Of course you did," Caitlyn chuckled affectionately, shaking her head. Jayce could never just turn his brain off, he'd told her more than one story - before and after today - about conceptual breakthroughs at the oddest times "I wouldn't be so sure it will just be a fine, Jayce. You're probably right," she frowned, "My mother's patronage can cover a lot of sins, but there are Enforcers that care more about the law than appeasing Councillors. And I doubt Professor Heimerdinger would look casually on the risks of the crystals in a residential building."

Jayce made a sort of 'yeah, fair point' gesture with one hand, moving it in her direction a moment. "On the other hand, nothing actually has happened or gone wrong, and as long as we get the crystals back quickly, nothing will, right? So- it won't be as bad."

Really. Jayce. Caitlyn almost wanted to slap him. He really had been thoughtlessly reckless and his main defense was 'well, nothing blew up yet?' And yet, it would work. Legally, a theoretical threat like that just didn't carry the same sort of weight as one that actually happened.

"You should relocate your work, yes, but we don't need to go to the Enforcers to get the hexcrystals back." Because she would get them back herself, but if she told Jayce that, he'd tell her mother. He'd mean well, but he still saw her as a sixteen year old, his kid sister who needed protecting.

"What are you talking about?" Jayce narrowed his eyes. "Look, I appreciate you're worried about how the Enforcers will respond when they find out about my work, but-" suddenly he pulled up short, and then, "How did you know I don't have permits for my equipment?"
Caitlyn hadn't realized she'd said that, but "You don't need to because House Kiramman has people that can handle the recovery of stolen property discreetly." Caitlyn said, staring at him. Jayce opened his mouth, closed it, blinked. "All the Great Houses of Piltover do, and probably several of the Lesser ones too." She felt a bit like a hypocrite suggesting this, because once she became an Enforcer, she had rapidly developed a loathing for the position of Intelligencer and the way the elite of the city would operate outside the law to deal with all sorts of 'private' matters that should have been left to the Enforcers.

But she had to work with what she had right now.

"That - that makes sense. That makes too much sense. Why didn't I think of it?"

"Because you have even less interest in the business of House Politics than I do?" Caitlyn suggested, smirking. Jayce nodded after a moment.

"Fair enough." He pulled his hand down his face again, then took a deep breath. "Okay. Then I should probably try and take a full inventory of the place and see exactly what was stolen. And you-"
"I'll look for clues," Caitlyn said, walking over to the open door. "Call it practice for when I become an Enforcer." She crouched by the broken lock. If she remembered the story Vi had told her about the robbery, she'd kicked the door open because she'd been too impatient to let Mylo pick the lock.

Would it have been better or worse the first time around if he'd been allowed to take his time? Vi and her siblings were only there for a few minutes before she and Jayce had arrived, so having even less time while there may have prevented Powder from finding those crystals...

Or maybe not. Maybe they'd have been caught, because they'd have had less time...

Still. This was a sturdy lock, nothing cheap. It looked like Vi had kicked it in the right place, but still. The force required...

Seven years in Stillwater hadn't given Vi her skill or her strength. It had just honed both to a sharp edge.

She won't have that this time around, but I have no doubt Vi will end up the same capabilities either way. Vi loved fighting. More than Caitlyn was ever thrilled about, since she couldn't help but worry about her, every time she did, but -

Caitlyn shook her head as she turned and looked at Jayce. He was writing something down in a little notebook.

"You're right that going to the Enforcers is a bad idea, since there is another option," Jayce said, "But telling your mother that I let someone steal stuff she's paid - I don't even know how many hexes - for feels somehow more terrifying."

Caitlyn rolled her eyes, walking over to Jayce and pushing him lightly, "She's not going to do anything worse than scold you a little "

"I've heard the stories about how your mother can dress people down at the Council, Cait." Jayce replied distantly as he wrote more things down. "Forgive me if I'm not thrilled to be on the receiving end of her sharp tongue."

---

"...you were most definitely reckless, both in conducting your experiments in a residential building, and by not locking those crystals up inside a proper safe or something of that sort when they weren't in use," Caitlyn's mother said primly, looking at Jayce with a pointed, sharp look, though her tone was as Caitlyn had suggested, merely scolding, rather than flaying him with her tongue.

Caitlyn knew her mother could, but Jayce didn't merit it.

"That said," she went on, setting her teacup down on the saucer "you made the correct decision to bring this to me, rather than the Enforcers. Or rather," she said, looking over at Caitlyn, "You made the correct decision to listen to Caitlyn when she said to bring this to me. Your immediate instincts were correct in this Caitlyn. This is exactly the sort of thing we have an Intelligencer for. You are taking to your lessons for when you are in my position quite well.

Not exactly. Caitlyn tried to school her expression carefully and nodded, trying to appreciate her mother's praise for what it was meant as.

"Thank you, Mother." She and Jayce were standing in front of her mother as she sat at her desk in her office. If the Intelligencer figures out it was Vi and her siblings... Well, if she did this right, she should be able to get them back before Nicholas could figure it out, but.. "Do you think it was one of the other Great Houses, trying to sabotage our patronage of Jayce?"

"That would be my guess without other evidence, but we must be careful to avoid getting too attached to any theory without the facts," Her mother cautioned, but there was a small, proud smile on her face.

"So your Intelligencer can recover the crystals before anyone is hurt?" Jayce asked, leaning forward, worried. "And - before anyone can figure out my research? I - I've worked on this for most of my life, maybe it's a bit selfish but I don't want someone to steal it out from under me at the last moment. Not when I'm so close."

"Almost certainly, yes. Faster and more discreetly than the Enforcers can as well. As for being selfish - you have every right to want to reap the fruits of your hard work, Jayce. Don't feel bad for that." Her mother explained and Caitlyn nodded.

Hextech could have done so much good. Even the Hexgates had done good - actual good, not just more money for the wealthiest elites in the city - but things had fallen apart and then Hextech had become almost utterly discredited. Understandably, but... with Jayce 'dead' or... whatever had happened to him after his final confrontation with Viktor...

Jayce deserved a chance to see his vision realized, if it was possible -

If it was possible to prevent everything going wrong.

If.

Caitlyn shoved those thoughts aside. One thing at a time. Save Vi's family first. Vi - the one alive today, and the one she'd married in the future she'd already lived through - would never forgive her if she didn't.

Caitlyn's mother rang a bell on her desk, and a maid arrived mere seconds later. "Find Nicholas and have him come join us, and then arrange for more tea to be brought up."

"Yes Ma'am. Tea for you, the young miss, Mr. Talis and Nicholas?"

"Caitlyn should probably go and see to her studies," her mother mused, slowly.
"Shouldn't I be here to see this to see how it's done?" Caitlyn asked quickly. She wanted to find out if Nicholas suspected Zaun as the source of the thieves.

"I was considering that. Yes, tea for the four of us," her mother told the maid with a nod, who gave her a nod of her own back and hurried out of the office. Her mother turned back to Jayce, "Once Nicholas is here, you can explain everything about what was stolen and what you know, and then you both will go back to your apartment and take a look at the scene. Tomorrow, I'll have one of my people meet with you to arrange for a better place to relocate your experiments to. We have a number of potentially viable properties that would represent less danger to others if something went wrong."

"I'm glad to hear it. And I'm not eager to make the same mistakes I just did, so I'll also make sure there's a safe for the crystals." Jayce said with a nervous half-laugh, twitching, hand almost going up to pull on his shirt collar.

"How dangerous would the crystals have been, had they gone off?" Her mother asked. "How much space would it be best to have from occupied buildings, in other words?"

Jayce took his pen and notepad out of his pocket and started making calculations quickly, muttering a few times and then after a minute, turned the notepad around and showed it to Caitlyn's mother.

"Roughly? That much force. I've never risked detonating a full sized crystal, of course, but I've tested on carefully harvested fragments and extrapolating from there..."

"So akin to one of the more powerful mining explosives Kiramman Arms sells than anything else," Her mother mused, tapping two fingers against the desk.. "Dangerous, and I suppose it would be worse if more than one went off, but..." she nodded. "Kiramman Arms has an old warehouse in the north docks we've been trying to sell for a few years - it's surplus to requirements, but that section of the docks is just not of much interest after the recent expansions in the north docks facilities, so we haven't had much interest. I think it would be perfect for your work. A large space that can still be secured; nobody lives in the area, so if something does go off, at worst, only some empty warehouses or some stored goods get damaged."

Jayce nodded, looking relieved. "That seems reasonable. And I would prefer to keep my work in the city if I could." He closed the notebook and slipped it and the pen back in his pocket. "I'd have to see the space, but I can't imagine why it wouldn't work."

"Good." Before her mother could say more, there was a small knock on the door, and she said 'Enter'. The door opened and Nicholas stepped in. Caitlyn blinked at how... similar he looked to the last time she'd seen him, shortly after she'd become Commander. She'd fired him - with a gift for his long years of service - because she hadn't believed in Intelligencers.

A little over seven years back and he looked... exactly the same. Utterly nondescript, no real major distinguishing features. Plain clothing. Short brown hair. No facial hair. Short. He carried himself so as to take up as little space as possible.

"You sent for me, Councillor?"

"I did. This is Jayce Talis. He is one of the inventors we patronize, and unfortunately his workshop was recently robbed. It would be in everyone's best interest for the materials and tools that were stolen to be recovered quickly and discreetly."

She's right. Just not for the reasons she thinks. Caitlyn loved her mother, and she knew her mother just wanted to protect the family and protect Jayce and House Kiramman's investment in him - but after years of seeing the city's elite bend the system to their advantage so easily...

"Of course." He inclined his head respectfully and turned to Jayce, his voice clipped and direct, professional. Nicholas had never believed in wasting time, and he'd always been one for being precise, even about unpleasant truths. "Just how illegal was your work, Mr. Talis?"

Jayce coughed and sputtered, and looked over at Caitlyn's mother, who nodded for him to answer the question.

"Forgive my bluntness, but in my line of work, I find that if you can't say what you mean, you can never mean what you say." Nicholas explained. "Precision is everything."

"Right." Jayce coughed slightly again, and then, "Some of my equipment was obtained without the right permits or waiting periods and that crystals that are key to my experiments are... very volatile. Dangerous enough that working with them in an apartment building was both stupid, and illegal."

"I see. And I would imagine that one of your concerns is recovering these crystals before whoever took them accidentally sets them off? What sets them off, exactly?"

"A lot of things, if you aren't careful..." Jayce started and Caitlyn saw him actually tug at his shirt collar this time, flushing with obvious embarrassment as he had to face just how dangerous his work really had been, how risky his choices had been. Caitlyn bit her lower lip.

I just need to make it to tonight.

---

Why is this - is this really what I wore when I was 16? Caitlyn was searching through her drawers and closet, looking for something suitable to wear down to the Lanes. Then again, almost anything would be better than wearing her Enforcer uniform. What had she been thinking? She was lucky that Vi had given her that hooded jacket to wear over her uniform, taken off a would-be mugger.

Though it's not exactly luck given that Vi did it so I wouldn't draw so much attention and get in the way of her search for her sister.

Still - she had nothing suitable for going down there, and -

Without an explosion, then in theory, Vi wouldn't have been ambushed by those thugs working for Silco... in theory. And then in theory, Powder wouldn't have tossed the stolen equipment in the river, though she'd apparently kept the hexcrystals separate and probably would have this time anyway.

No explosion meant that Silco might not see an opening to strike against Vander yet. Especially when Enforcers hadn't started flooding the Lanes. All of which gave her time.

But she didn't know how far along Silco's plans were. Or even what they'd been. Silco wanted independence, and from what Vi had told her about the day she'd been arrested, the day she'd lost her siblings and Vander, Silco had had an ample supply of Shimmer in his hideout... some sort of abandoned factory, somewhere south of the river, on the surface.

She also didn't know why he'd waited seven years afterward Vander's death. He had to have rebuilt any supply of Shimmer he'd lost in the explosion. He was too dead to ask by the time the question had occurred to her, but those Chemtanks of his could have made short work of the rank and file Enforcers. The city did have more potent weapons for wartime that could have been used, but they were kept in storage. A well timed strike could have overwhelmed the Enforcers and possibly even taken the Council captive before any could be used.

She had to recover the hexcrystals and the other stolen equipment, and then convince Vander - through Vi, likely - of what Silco was up to, and what it would do to Zaun. Convince them she was on their side, and then...

Stop Silco. Wherever he was. Hopefully before innocent people were killed by his Shimmer monsters.

"But I need to- there. That will do." Caitlyn pushed aside another outfit she'd been forced to wear to one gala or another and then put in the closet never to wear again and found the outfit she wore when hunting, or on shooting competitions. It wasn't exactly perfect for the Lanes - it was clearly expensive and had the Kiramman crest on it, but it was easy to move in and less objectionable than what else she had.

I'll have to buy a cloak or something in the Alcove district... Something she could wear over this to make it a little less obvious how little she belonged down there.

It was after dark, the sun fully set, and her parents were off in their wing of the house. She changed into her hunting clothes quickly, and moved to her gun cabinet. She didn't have her collapsible rifle - that was an Enforcer standard issue item - and any of her rifles would be too conspicuous.

She was being reckless enough going down to the Lanes at all. She couldn't go unarmed... she only owned two pistols right now, apparently. She couldn't even remember when she'd gotten the rest - she grabbed the two she had and holstered them on her belt.

She just needed one more thing... moving quietly but quickly, Caitlyn left her suite and went down a hallway to a painting of the view from the Kiramman Hunting Lodge during winter, painted when Caitlyn's own mother was a child. She carefully moved it aside, revealing a small safe. It was a matter of moments to use the same combination it still had seven years later - the date of her parent's marriage - to open it. Shortly after her 18th birthday, her mother had told her about the safe and the combination, if she needed a large sum of hexes in a hurry.

She grabbed a bag with a hundred of the gold coins - a fortune for most people even on this side of the river - and stuck it in a pocket. Her own coinpurse was mostly cogs and a few hexes, as she simply didn't need more day to day.

She returned to her room and stepped out onto her balcony, climbing down - at this point the first time around, she'd never actually snuck out to see anyone... she'd just snuck people in. But in the following seven years, she'd snuck out enough times to know what to do.

Or so she thought - she placed her hand wrong and slipped, misjudging how much less strong she was at sixteen, or maybe the reach of her arms and legs or -

"Shit!" She managed to hiss it rather than scream it as she caught onto a part of the exterior wall at the last moment, dangling, finger slipping - she swung her other arm up and grabbed another bit, arms straining but her fall broken.

I'm not twenty-five. I'm not twenty-three. I'm sixteen and I need to - Caitlyn licked her lips and slowly finished the climb down.

Climbing up and over the fence surrounding the manor was easier than climbing out her window and soon enough she was walking down the street. Piltover at night was calm, quiet - deceptively so. It was still possible to get mugged here, if you turned down the wrong alley. Not that often, granted, but as much as too many people on this side of the river liked to pretend otherwise...

There were others on the streets, including assorted carts moving bulk goods quickly down the main thoroughfares, delivering to shops across the city, but as long as Cailyn kept close to the edges and -

There was a sound behind her and Caitlyn spun, drawing her pistol and then-

"Jayce?" She lowered the pistol and the man lowered his hands, the light from a street lamp a bit away casting shadow across his face. "What are you doing out here?"

"I could ask you the same question." Jayce said slowly. Caitlyn holstered her pistol. "But I think I know."

What? Had Jayce come from - no, there was - he wouldn't have talked like that if he lived through the next seven years, right? And then everything after until he vanished. So how did -

"I have no idea what you're-"

"I didn't realize it until Nicholas pointed out that the thieves had to have come down onto the balcony from the roof, since there's no way they could have climbed up from the street and not been noticed." Jayce started. "And then I remembered you kept looking up and at an angle when we were at the front door of the building. You saw the thieves on the balcony, didn't you?"

Shit. Caitlyn had worried Jayce would notice, but he hadn't at the time and she'd just assumed -

"You did!" Jayce hissed, stepping closer. "Cait, why didn't you say anything? Or - shout or - and you were so insistent on not getting the Enforcers involved..." He furrowed his brow, then, "You knew who they were?! Did you know the robbery would happen?"

Caitlyn's eyes darted away, biting her lip, moving a step to the side unconsciously to keep him more to her right.

"That's absurd."

"You are a much better liar than I realized," Jayce said. "But where are you going dressed like that, armed, if not to - are you going to try and steal it back? Is this about wanting to be an Enforcer?!" He demanded urgently, still hissing. "What the fuck is going on!?"

Caitlyn looked around for an alley that looked clear - she couldn't tell him everything, not yet, not here and now, but what she could tell him wasn't something they could do in the open like this, even at night.

"We can't have this conversation here," Caitlyn said quietly, then gestured to an alley across the street and a hundred feet down. "There." She turned and walked quickly towards it, and she heard Jayce sputter for a moment before he rushed to catch up, reaching her side and then overtaking her to the alley.

"What the fuck is going on, Cait? You're not a thief, you especially wouldn't steal from me - did someone put you up to this? Threaten you? Blackmail you? One of the girls you-" Jayce started, his mind clearly working faster than he could talk, the words running up against each other.

"I wasn't involved in the theft!" Caitlyn snapped, interrupting him quietly. She swallowed. "Jayce, I can't tell you everything. Not right now. Tomorrow - tomorrow I can tell you everything, but right now, I need to get to the Lanes."

Telling Jayce the truth or at least large parts of it - she'd need to say something eventually to get him to work with Viktor let alone make sure things didn't go wrong like they had so... this wasn't the end of the world, but she'd have wanted more time. The ability to choose when and how she revealed things to him.

Now she'd lost that.

"The Lanes - the thieves were - didn't you just nearly bite my head off this morning for saying there were a lot of criminals in the undercity?" Jayce demanded.

"I 'nearly bit your head off' for blaming the unsafe working conditions in the undercity on the workers," Caitlyn corrected. "Not that I even went that far." Caitlyn crossed her arms in front of her. "Jayce, I don't have time. I have to get there." She bit her lip, "Yes, I know who the thieves are, no I wasn't involved, and yes, I saw them. But this is bigger than just the robbery - I'm going down there to get them back."

"At gunpoint?!"

"No!" Caitlyn snapped. Did Jayce really think she would do that? "Buy it back." Caitlyn carefully reached her pocket and let the hexes inside clink against one another for just a second. "I promise, I can explain everything tomorrow, but I need to get down there and talk to the person who can send my offer to the thieves."

As she promised to tell Jayce tomorrow again, Caitlyn realized another thing she needed to find a way to do - save Viktor. He'd been dying from his lung damage. But not at this point, or at least not as advanced. Could medicinal shimmer save him this early, if they caught it? For all that it was monstrous as a drug or weapon, it could save lives if used properly... or could there be another option, if a process was started soon enough?

Caitlyn remembered having a conversation she'd had with Jayce about Viktor, during the period between Jinx shooting the council tower and the memorial attack, about Jayce using the hexcore to save him... she couldn't remember the whole thing, but -

"If you know who they are, why not just go to them?" Jayce asked, interrupting her train of thought.

"Walk up to a gang of criminals in their lair with a bag of money?" Caitlyn countered and Jayce opened his mouth, then closed it and nodded. Not that she wasn't about to more or less do that, if one called 'The Last Drop' Vi's lair. But she couldn't just approach Vi out of nowhere. Not until she could explain how she knew who she was and where she lived and -

She wanted to explain it all to Vi. But couldn't just walk up to the redhead and expect her to hear her out. She had to... convince Vi to listen to her. To give her a chance. And this would be part of that.

"If you knew who the thieves were, why didn't you tell me? Or your mother? Or Nicholas?" Jayce demanded. "You haven't told me what this is about!"

"Because I can't, Jayce. Not right here, not right now. I need to go. This can't wait." She stepped closer to Jayce and put a hand on his wrist, "Please. Trust me. I know what I'm doing." I hope so anyway. "Just don't tell my mother that I'm going down there."

"Why don't you just explain things to her too?"

"Absolutely not!" It was bad enough she'd admitted to her mother about her death, even if it was in a dream, but -

And then -

No. Caitlyn didn't think telling her mother what happened in the next ten years was a good idea. Losing her eye, the rise of Silco and Shimmer, the attacks from the undercity. She - she didn't think her mother would take the right lesson - that Zaun needed far more from Piltover than it was getting, that Zaun even existed as its own entity in the first place - from what happened in the future. Not this version of her mother. The one that had actually lived through the next seven years and had been perhaps about to approve the peace deal with Silco? Maybe but -

Her mother had built the ventilation system for the undercity, yes, but ultimately, her mother still looked at the undercity and its residence with disdain. She did care about them, to a point, paternalistically, but -

No.

"Please, Jayce. I promise. I know what I'm doing. If you tell her, she's just going to try to - confine me to the manor for months, at a minimum. And there's too much that I need to do for me to accept that."

Jayce looked down at her - it was too dark and they were too far from any lamps for Caitlyn to get a good look at his face now, and he hesitated, then, "I can't believe I'm even considering this. I should be trying to make you back home!"

"If you try to force it, I can and will hurt you, Jayce," Caitlyn threatened without much heat.

"...and that's one of the reasons I'm not trying to drag you back to your parents." Jayce admitted. "This had better be one hell of an explanation tomorrow." He finally said. "Alright then," he exhaled slowly. "Let's go."

"Let's?"

"I'm not letting you go down there alone. It's that or I'll tell your mother."