A few hours earlier, at the secret hideout Vi and Powder used to visit as kids.
Back before Vi took Mylo and Claggor to rescue Vander, they had loved coming here.
Back then, there wasn't much to worry about. Even when Mylo gave Powder a hard time, the day still always ended with everyone laughing.
A bottle of water poured over Vi's head, and the icy shock made her shiver.
Then she opened her eyes.
The Atlas Gauntlets were already gone from her hands. The black-haired man in front of her gave her a little wave.
He even brought over a towel to wipe away the rest of the water.
"A slap would've worked too," Caleb said, picking up a cup of coffee. "But if your face swelled up, that'd make talking harder."
He took a slow sip, then frowned.
"You people in the Undercity really know how to brew coffee. One sip and I can taste at least a dozen things."
"Caleb! What are you trying to do?!"
Vi shouted angrily and struggled against her restraints. Her Atlas Gauntlets were right beside Caleb, yet still out of her reach.
"My advice? Calm down first."
Caleb took another sip of coffee and made an even stranger face.
"Now I can taste another dozen."
Please. Years ago, Silco had already managed to lock Vander down.
Now Caleb had both Hextech and chemtech basics in hand. Did she really think he'd tie her up so badly that she could break free after a couple of tugs?
Ekko might let his guard down around Vi. Caleb definitely would not.
"Why are you doing this?" Vi's expression darkened.
Ever since she had brought Caleb out of prison, he had never once seemed like a decent person to her.
Especially after she had shaken off Caitlyn and Caleb to act on her own.
Caitlyn had made it there in time because of the commotion from her fight.
But how had Caleb managed, with Silco after their heads, to openly keep both of them alive?
There had just been too much happening, too fast, and Caleb had played too important a role.
That was the only reason he had been allowed to stay by her side and Cupcake's this whole time.
Then Vi suddenly remembered something else. After she had spoken out on impulse and been escorted out of the Council chamber by the Enforcers, Caleb had gone back in alone.
Why?
Could it be that the Council and Caleb had already decided to negotiate with Silco?
The man in front of her seemed to read her thoughts. He smiled.
"Let's wait for the other one."
Caleb idly chewed on his straw as he looked around at the room.
The other one?
Confused, Vi looked around too.
Only then did she realize this was the old hideout she and her friends had come to all the time as children.
In the center stood a boxing robot, the one Vi used to train with.
Scattered off to the side were workbenches and a few things for entertainment.
The biggest area was a moving target range, the one Powder and Ekko had built together when they were kids.
"You're..." Even someone as slow on the uptake as Vi could guess why Caleb had brought her here.
"Come out," Caleb said softly, setting his cup aside.
A burst of dazzling light flashed, and a blue-haired girl appeared where the glow had been.
"I really didn't want to see her..." Jinx muttered with her head lowered. "And how did you even know I was here?"
"I didn't." Caleb stood up and walked out of the room. "Call me if you need me."
...
The two faced each other in a long, heavy silence.
"So what Caleb said was true," Jinx said at last, breaking the stalemate. "You really did team up with topsiders. And you even got these."
Her voice was thick with contempt. After all, she had mastered Hextech too, at least enough to use it. And Vi had only gotten hers by joining forces with topsiders.
"Powder, you..." Vi looked at the girl in front of her, yet found herself unable to say anything.
"Here. This is yours."
Jinx tossed over a rabbit doll. Vi had left it hanging on a wire a long time ago.
Jinx had gone back and retrieved it.
"Powder, you need to wake up. I shouldn't have yelled at you back then..."
Jinx listened, but she gave no reaction.
"Powder..." Vi raised her eyes to look at this girl who was both familiar and completely unfamiliar.
Not far away, above the boxing robot, the scoreboard that Vi used to dominate had now been overtaken. Two-thirds of the top scores had been replaced by the name Powder.
"We both changed..." Jinx found a random place to sit. As she looked at the sister she used to know, her eyes filled with grief.
"Do you know what else Caleb told me? He said you'd join Piltover. That you'd become an Enforcer there... and hunt people like me..."
Tears slowly ran down Jinx's face, and her voice turned ragged.
"And now it looks like that's actually going to happen!"
"No, Powder, I..." Vi opened her mouth, trying to explain. "I..."
Caitlyn's face flashed through her mind.
And then she hesitated, unable to say anything else.
"Oh, sorry."
Caleb suddenly poked his head in from outside.
"Jinx, can I borrow one gemstone?"
"Catch."
A small sphere glowing with arcane light flew from Jinx's hand and landed neatly in Caleb's.
"A Hextech gemstone? How is that possible?" Vi stared in shock. Then she thought of the blue light from before, and the Hexgates, and realized—
"Yes, I've already mastered Hextech. At least enough to use it." Jinx stuck her tongue out at Vi.
Caleb lazily sat down, tossing the marble-sized gemstone up and down in one hand as he smiled.
"Looks like the two of you hit a little communication problem."
"All right, then let's start at the beginning."
"Powder was never the fighting type. On the other hand, she was an incredible shot, and you never paid any attention to that."
"Mylo had his lockpicks. Claggor had a steel pipe. And Powder? All she had were those little inventions."
"And going to Piltover, letting Powder keep those crystals instead of turning them over to Vander—that was your call too."
By the time he got there, cold sweat was already running down Vi's back. Beside her, Jinx sat in silence.
"You went to save Vander, walked right into the simplest trap imaginable, and got everybody boxed into that room while Shimmer brutes pounded on the door outside."
"If you were in that position, Vi, and there was something—anything—that could change the situation with one big explosion, would you use it or not?"
"Powder chose to do something. The outcome was terrible, but still."
"I just made a mistake," Jinx said, choking on the words.
"In fact, that wasn't Powder's fault. She had no way to calculate the blast yield."
"Claggor could break through that wall, sure. But how did any of you know there wasn't another trap waiting on the other side?"
"The one who made the wrong call was you. But everyone else paid the price for it. Did you really reflect on that in Stillwater?"
"I don't think so."
Caleb smiled when he said it, but his words were cold as ice.
"Who are you? How do you know what happened that night?" Vi's voice wavered with panic.
Not long ago, this guy had still been her fellow inmate, all skinny and harmless-looking.
Now the feeling he gave her was no less terrifying than Silco had been back when he was ordering Shimmer monsters around.
"There, there. Don't cry."
Caleb even reached out and wiped away Jinx's tears.
"When someone treats you like the boss, you don't get to think only about yourself."
"You say run, they run. You say swim, they jump in. You say set something on fire, they bring the fuel."
"Sound familiar?"
That same smile was still on Caleb's face as he looked at the stunned Vi.
Then Vi remembered.
Vander had once said those exact words to her.
And later, Vander had gone with the Enforcers back to Piltover in their place.
Only for Silco to intercept him on the way.
"What do you want?" Vi asked darkly, staring at the unfathomable man in front of her.
Caleb smiled and pretended to think it over.
"What do I want? Maybe I want to be the boss of Zaun."
Before Vi could grasp the meaning behind that, Caleb was already back on his feet, tossing the gemstone back to Jinx.
"Give me a ride. I still have a few things to take care of."
Jinx only nodded silently. She watched as Caleb put on the Atlas Gauntlets and set the gemstone back into the teleport device.
"No, Powder, don't go!" Vi shouted urgently, and at that exact moment, the chains binding her snapped open.
"Goodbye, sister."
After saying that, Jinx vanished together with Caleb in a burst of light.
Nothing remained behind but the fading glow.