You Don't Know Me ~ An Arcane Fanfiction

When Everything Went Wrong

Yes, the title is the name of the song that plays when Vi fights Sevika. Buckle up for this one, folks.

When Caitlyn wakes up, Vi is not beside her. She sighs in fond exasperation as she drags herself out of bed. She isn't supposed to be up and moving yet - she'll aggravate her wound - but of course Vi had never been one to follow rules. Caitlyn smiles at the thought. She'll have to give her a piece of her mind, though. If she keeps this up, it'll only add a lot more time to her recovery, and neither of them want that. Jinx is probably still asleep. It's been about a week since she had agreed to stay with them, and Caitlin had learned a few things about her: her favourite breakfast food is pancakes, she loves surrealist novels and she will never, ever get up before at least 3:00pm. She checks the time just to be sure she hasn't overslept.

Caitlin makes her way to the landing at the top of the stairs before she realises it's too quiet. If Vi was up, she'd probably be making breakfast or something. She'd be able to hear footsteps, someone humming a familiar song, the clattering of equipment in the kitchen. And probably smell pancakes, too. Vi and Jinx had been bonding over their love of their childhood favourite food. Watching them act like sisters again made Caitlyn feel as if she was sitting by a warm fireplace.

 Jinx snored loudly on the best of days. Right now, it was dead silent.

She furrows her brows apprehensively before proceeding down the stairs. They creak uncomfortably loudly beneath her bare feet, and she finds herself holding her breath, tense and rigid as a metal pole.

Four enforcers and councillor Jayce Talis stand at the bottom of the staircase.

Vi's there too. She's staring at her feet and her face is twisted in pain. One of the enforcers is keeping a death grip on her side, right where her injury is. Despite being already restrained in handcuffs. He smirks cruelly as Caitlyn stares in horror. She recognises him from her training days and darkly recalls how he had almost failed due to his excessive brutality. He was one of those recruits that only joined up to brawl and fire guns. Vi looks up at her, and suddenly her stony grey gaze turns desperate and panicked. But she says nothing.

Jayce looks positively uncomfortable as he says, 'Caitlin Kiramman, you are under arrest.'

~~~

'What is the meaning of this?' she spits in the dim light of the interrogation room.

'Cait,' Jayce begins weakly, as if he knows her, as if she should trust him. As if this is all some big misunderstanding and she is a child who made an innocent mistake. It makes her blood boil. It makes her teeth grind. But she reins it in - she would rather like to hear his explanation. Even so, her fists are balled at her side, her eyes narrowed. She hopes he wants to cower.

'You're better than this,' he says. It is the worst possible thing he could have said.

'Better than what, Jayce? Better than what?' Caitlyn shouts, slamming her hands down on the table. 'Don't think I don't know what this is about. You think you're doing the right thing. You think I'm just an ignorant rich girl who has no idea what she's doing. You don't know them, Jayce! You don't know what life is like down there!' Her voice cracks as she raises it and she can feel angry tears brimming in her eyes. Goddamit. Why now? 

'Calm down, Caitlyn, I just want to-'

'What, Jayce, what? Send me home with a slap on the wrist and a letter to my parents, while the real victims of this situation rot in a cell?' 

Suddenly, Jayce stands up. His face curls into a savage snarl. 'Victims? Caitlyn, these people you're grouping yourself with - they're dangerous!' 

In the long silence after, he stands there panting like an angry beast, as if he has any right to be concerned. As if he has any right to call Vi, the kindest, most loving person she'd ever met, dangerous. Like they were mere animals who needed to be controlled. If her blood was boiling before, she's on fire now. She'd honestly rather be burned at the stake than have to listen to such patronising bullshit any longer.

'You speak about them like they're less than people. Is that really what you think of trenchers?'

'No, I-'

'It's certainly coming off that way to me, Jayce,' she says icily, taking her seat once more. The councillor looks conflicted, if anything, but she does not pity him. She hopes he cries himself to sleep tonight.

'Caitlyn,' he says in this stupid, annoying tone, like an exasperated teacher trying to explain a basic concept. 'Jinx is dangerous. She killed those enforcers, she killed your mother and she almost killed me. Surely - surely  you can't just let that go?' To add insult to injury, he rubs his face with his palm. And Caitlyn realises he's right. Jinx has done terrible things. But, then, that's all she'd ever known: terrible things.

'Jinx,' she says quietly, finding her footing, 'is a product of her environment. Because of Piltover's failure to protect Zaunite youth, she is horribly traumatised. She has regular psychotic episodes, you know that? And you think locking her away in a damp stone box is going to fix her issues.'

'I didn't know-'

'Of course you don't,' she spits. 'Us pilties never do.'

A long, heavy silence falls again. Jayce stares ashamedly at his feet, and refuses to meet Caitlyn's cold, furious gaze. She speaks up first, of course. 'Not to mention Vi. You arrested her without trial or any of the necessary proceedings.'

'She was in Stillwater before-'

'For what crime, though? Did she have a trial then? Was she proven guilty for anything?' She laughs bitterly. He looks scared. She laughs harder. 'For a city of progress, we're certainly backwards. She was fifteen, for Gods' sake. You have any idea what it does to a fifteen-year-old to be put in a pit of drugs and murderers, away from the outside world,  for years? Nobody even knew she was there. Her file's so barebones I could barely identify her as it was. I bet she was on track to spend her life in there for a crime she didn't even commit. We just threw her in there, and then forgot about her. And not to mention the abuse she endured from the guards the council hired. At fifteen.'

Jayce looks down at his shoes again. 'At her arrest, she-'

'Don't pull that shit with me. We're done here,' she says, standing up and walking towards the door. He nods to someone through the window to unlock it, and she storms out.

~~~

Two weeks later, Vi is released from Stillwater Hold by order of Councillor Jayce Talis. 

~~~

On Jinx's mental health: she is not enjoying prison, but at least there's rats. She's named them as follows: Archibald Throckmorton III, Big Z, Double Eight, Marilyn and Toad. Milo says they are stupid names (but he secretly likes Big Z). Claggor just stands there. Vi's not around, and Silco keeps telling her that Caitlyn's a traitor. She doesn't want to believe him, but it's wearing her down.