Miss American Pie
After leaving Vi at the officers’ mess, Caitlyn had allowed herself to be taken home by Maddie, fucked her like a pig then left in the morning before she could see her again.
It wasn’t like Cait particularly enjoyed hookups; they were messy, very much against regulation, and always left her feeling a bit queasy. But like anyone else, the young detective had needs, and Maddie let her do anything to her within reason without asking too many questions.
Their encounters had begun in the first couple of weeks of trade school. An occasional make-out session in the janitor’s closet, muffled sex in the showers when everyone else had left, even sneaking into the classrooms late at night to release pent-up frustration. But that’s all it was. Sexual frustration.
Caitlyn didn’t even like Maddie that much. Sure, she was sexually attracted to her, and Maddie was quite an attractive young lady by today’s standard, but she didn’t like her. She was a pushover and people-pleaser and would kiss the ground at Cait’s feet if the detective asked nicely.
There was only one person who Cait liked, and her opportunity with said person was ruined a long, long time ago.
Vi still played on Caitlyn’s mind daily. Her laugh, how she carried herself, the energy she filled a room with so effortlessly. And sometimes, with her hands down her pants and the other cupping her mouth, Cait remembered how good Vi treated her on their last night, what she felt like inside her, how her muscles rippled and tensed with each stroke.
It always made her wonder how the pilot felt about her. If there was anything of their relationship left to salvage, or if it was just a memory from a past life, feelings of happiness and warmth replaced with anger and resentment.
Working a case so close to the Air Corps meant their paths would eventually cross over again at some point. Reflecting on their interactions over the past couple of days, Caitlyn wondered if she even wanted that again.
Caitlyn found her way back to her accommodation block and strode straight for her room, nodding a couple of greetings at her fellow officers before finally getting back to her room and closing the door shut behind her.
Her quarters were just how she kept all her rooms: neat, organised, everything in its place. Cait liked when things fell into place just as they should. No mess, no muddle, nothing out of the ordinary. Which is why she hated the situation with Vi so much. It was a flaming dumpster-fire of a shitshow.
Without thinking too much into it, Cait pulled her phone out and typed “M” into her contacts. She hit the first name that bounced to the top and listened as it dialled once, twice…
“Caitlyn?” Mel’s groggy voice said down the phone.
“I fucked Nolen again.”
Silence from the receiver.
“Why did you do that, dear?”
Caitlyn just shrugged. “I wanted to.”
Mel sighed heavily. There was shifting on the other end, a sound of cloth rubbing against itself. “You need to be careful what you tell me on the phone, Caitlyn. I’m a councillor now.”
“I know.” Cait folded one arm across her chest and held her bicep. “You’re still my friend.”
Silence again, then finally, “How was it?”
“Okay. I guess.”
“Okay, then, what’s the deal? Is it just sex?”
The breath hitched in Caitlyn’s throat as she confessed to her friend. “I had to work with Vi yesterday. I’m working a case involving her air squadron.”
“Oh.” Mel clicked her teeth. “Oh, dear.”
“Yes.” The detective sniffed once before changing the subject. “How are you, anyway?”
“Oh, you know,” Mel said casually down the phone. “No rest for the wicked. Your mother misses you, you’re all she ever talks about outside of Council meetings. You really should come visit us all.”
“Yeah, I know.” Cait breathed airily. “I’m sorry. Heimerdinger doesn’t like giving out day passes anymore.”
“Well,” Mel trailed off, a hint of childish play in her tone, “next time I catch him in a meeting, I’ll see what I can do about that. And then you’re all going to come home, and we’re going to go to the Last Drop, and we’re going to get wasted like we’re 18 years old again.”
Caitlyn chuckled dryly at the mental image. “I would like that, actually.” Suddenly, her phone rang again, this time from a no caller ID. “Got to go Mel, duty calls.” She dropped the line on her friend and picked up the other phone call. “Hello?”
“Detective Kiramman?” Heimerdinger’s uptight voice filled Cait’s speakers.
“Sir?” she responded nervously, taking a seat on the edge of her bed.
“How quickly can you get to my office?” he asked in an assertive, this-isn’t-an-option tone.
“As soon as you need me, sir. Why?”
“See you in fifteen minutes.” The line went dead and Caitlyn stared down at her blank screen.
Fifteen minutes later on the dot, she was sat in Heimerdinger’s office, watching patiently as the small commander paced up and down behind his desk. His eyebrows were furrowed as he remained deep in thought, running his fingers through his moustache and beard.
“Why am I here, sir?” asked Caitlyn abruptly.
Heimerdinger took a seat in the grand leather chair in front of her and threaded his fingers. “One of our helicopters was shot down yesterday. Another was severely damaged in battle.”
“Who-“ Caitlyn caught her breath. A deep pit opened in the bed of her stomach. “Which pilots were shot down, sir?”
“It’s not Lieutenant Vanderson. Her and Lieutenant Lanes’ choppers were the ones fired upon, however.”
Relief washed over Cait in a heavy wave and she exhaled slowly. “Okay.” She sat up again, posture perfect as always. “What does that have to do with me, sir?”
“There are some… interesting financial records coming out of Zaun,” he explained slowly, as if tasting each word before expelling it. “The paperwork will find its way back to you eventually. “We have evidence to suggest Noxus is building a weapon of sorts, and we are curious to see if they’ve begun live testing yet.” Before Cait could say anything else, he added, “I’d like you to speak to Lieutenant Vanderson when you get the opportunity to, as well.”
“Sir?” she protested.
“Do you know why land regiments were installed during the Great War, Detective Kiramman?” Heimerdinger trailed off.
“I’m not sure I follow, sir.”
The commander continued. “When the war first began, Piltover struggled with recruiting soldiers and officers into the ranks. There wasn’t much to fight for; they were disconnected from each other. So, the land regiments were created. Each town had its own regiment, and recruitment boomed, because the people they struggled to persuade to join up before were now fighting alongside their neighbours, their friends, their family.”
Caitlyn opened her mouth to interrupt, but Heimerdinger raised a hand to silence her. “I’ve heard your transcripts with both Vanderson and Lanes. Lanes’s was straightforward, he seemed reluctant to answer some questions but it went pretty well from what I can interpret. Vanderson’s was different. You have an unsolved quarrel with her.”
“Commander Heimerdinger, I don’t-“
“I want you to go and see her,” he cut her off, placing his elbows on the arms of his chair and sinking back. “I can’t have fighting within my own ranks. There’s enough bloodshed happening out there, we don’t need hostility on base, too.”
Suddenly, his gaze shifted to a framed picture on the wall. Caitlyn followed his eyeline, and saw he was staring fondly at a picture of a Piltover Military Academy cadet class intake – their Piltover Military Academy intake.
Even through the grain and distortion of the aged photo, Caitlyn could just about make out Vi sitting front and centre, a steely, determined look on her face. In the back row stood Cait, looming a head taller than the rest of her peers.
“You and Violet were some of the finest cadets I ever had the pleasure of mentoring,” he said softly, formalities dropped. “You shouldn’t be fighting each other. You should be fighting for each other. God knows that’s how it would’ve been in any other universe.” He pulled a Post-It note out from a draw under his desk and scribbled a few words on it elegantly before handing it to Caitlyn. “This is her block and room number. Find out what you can about the attack, and sort out whatever squabble you’ve had with each other. That’s an order.”
“Sir.” Caitlyn stood up, crunching the Post-It up in her hand, a sudden spike of adrenaline digging into her heart. She saluted the commander, spun around on her heels, and headed off to correct her mistakes.
***
Vi sat at her desk, various medical supplies strewn haphazardly across the surface, dressed simply in boxers and a baggy T-shirt when she heard a faint knocking on her door.
Muttering incoherently to herself, she limped over to answer it, wound still hanging out as she was interrupted during a change of her dressing.
She swung the door open and flared her nostrils as she caught sight of who it was.
Ocean met storm.
“Can I come in?” Caitlyn Kiramman asked timidly.
“Fuck off,” Vi growled. She started to push the door close.
Caitlyn slapped a palm against the wood, holding the door back open with force Vi didn’t even know she possessed. She stared at Vi, putting on her best poker face, teeth gritted against each other. The pilot just stared back dumbfounded.
Every neurone in her brain was screaming at Vi to repeat herself, release a string of swearing that would put a sailor to shame. But she just stared, like she was 18 years old again, and Caitlyn was just swinging by for a study session.
Her heart sung over the chorus of rationality and she stepped back with a gruff to let Caitlyn in. “Thank you,” the detective replied, striding into Vi’s quarters.
It was exactly how she’d expected. So messy, but so lived-in, so… Vi. She took a moment to soak in her surroundings before turning to the pilot. “Do you know why I’m here?”
“I hope it’s not a booty call, because my leg is busted and I don’t like sloppy seconds,” Vi quipped, slinking back down into her chair at the desk.
Caitlyn ignored the comment. Instead, her eyes fell on the medical equipment in front of Vi. “May I?” She pointed to the gauze pads and bandages before looking down at the other girl’s raw swollen cut.
Hesitancy flicked before Vi’s eyes, her gaze hard and steely. Finally, she softened. “Be my guest,” she grunted, spinning the chair around so Caitlyn could take a better look at the wound.
The detective got to work and snatched up a roll of bandages and gauze pads from the table. She pressed the gauze pad over the angry graze, which Vi flinched at at first, but slowly relaxed into. Her hands worked nimbly, wrapping the bandage tight across Vi’s thigh, trying to ignore the happy trail above Vi’s boxer waistband which flashed every time Vi shifted and her shirt lifted up.
Oh, and the fact she was sitting there in nothing but her boxers.
Happy with her work, Cait stepped back and sat on the edge of Vi’s bed, pushing every deep dirty thought she’d had in the small timeframe to the back of her mind. “Heimerdinger sent me,” she confessed.
“Really?” Vi huffed. “Why?”
“I need to ask you some questions about the attack. It might be relevant to my case. And also… he wanted me to check up on you.”
“I’m okay,” she said gently, watching her hands as he played with her own fingers. For someone who’d been just shot at, she seemed scarily relaxed.
“That’s not what I mean, Violet.”
The pilot’s gaze snapped up at the use of her full name, eyes settling on Cait intensely. “Oh. Right.”
Caitlyn brushed a couple of stray strands of thread from her knees. “Are you okay if I ask you some questions about what happened?”
Vi grunted a response. Typical.
She pulled out her phone and set up a makeshift audio recorder, placing the device between the two on Vi’s bedside table before asking her first questions. “Have you been in dogfights before, Lieutenant Vanderson?”
Vi frowned in protest at the sudden switch to a professional manner. “Yes I have, Detective Kiramman,” she retorted, crossing her arms over her chest in a sulk.
“Was there anything different about this one?” she asked, leaning in to speak into the microphone better.
The pilot shrugged and caught her eye. “Not really. Just, standard stuff, you know? They shoot us, we blow them up, you know.”
A flash of realisation spread across Caitlyn’s face. “How many helicopters were there attacking you, Lieutenant?”
“Three.”
“And how many fired missiles at you? Like, actual missiles?”
The penny had dropped in Vi’s mind too. “Only one of them. The first we caught off-guard, the second fired but we released flares, and the third-“ she swallowed as she recalled the events. “We were right in the third’s crosshairs. If he wanted to fire on us from that range, he could’ve, with a missile. But he didn’t. Bullets are more effective close range; it was like he was waiting for us to come to him.”
Determination glinted in the detective’s eyes. “Was that the helicopter that fired at you, too? How you got that?” She pointed to Vi’s thigh.
“Yes.”
“Where’s the chopper now?” Caitlyn sprung up suddenly, taking her phone with her as she made for the door.
“In the engineering bay, what-“
“Will you show me?”
Vi stared at the expression on Cait’s face. She looked excited, almost ecstatic, like the pieces of the puzzle were finally coming together.
In her right mind Vi should’ve told her to go on her own. She should’ve told her to take her little Corps of Justice buddy instead, leave Vi in peace to rest her leg.
Instead, she briskly nodded and pulled on a pair of grey sweatpants. “I’ll lead the way.”
***
The engineering bay was reasonably close to Vi’s accommodation block, and even closer to the main runway. It made sense to put the fixers next to the squadron who were always breaking shit. It was a huge, dull, grey building, complete with doors big and burly enough to allow aircraft to come and go, the Piltover flag flying proud on the highest point of the roof.
Vi fished about in her pocket and produced her ID card. She scanned it at the small entrance to the right of the looming double doors, letting Caitlyn in first before following and shutting the door behind them.
The lights flickered on automatically, illuminating the hangar. Various storage boxes were gathered around a large mass in the centre of the room, covered in drab tarpaulin. Wires snaked from a single laptop left perched on one of the boxes into the covered object, the screen flickering occasionally. A handful of tools ranging from simple spanners to heavy-duty drills had been left discarded from the previous work crew.
“That’ll be the chopper,” Vi stated, pointing to the mass. She walked over and pulled the coverings off, revealing her and Ekko’s helicopter, its hind still battle-scarred with bullet and shrapnel holes. The pilot leant on her good leg, the other still giving her trouble. She’d previously struggled to get down the stairs of the accommodation block, and Cait had offered to help support her, a proposition which Vi accepted reluctantly.
Caitlyn joined Vi, staring at the damage intensely, her mind racing as she replayed Vi’s words in her head. “Can we get to the cockpit?”
“Sure.” Vi hoisted herself up onto the wing, wincing at the intense pain in her thigh, before popping open the canopy and extending a hand out to help Caitlyn up. Caitlyn accepted the help, their hands lingering on each other’s a second more than what would be deemed “professional” once they were both standing over the cockpit.
The detective scanned the interior of the helicopter. Her eyes grazed from the entry wound to where the bullet had sliced Vi’s leg and embedded itself into the interior wall, picturing the trajectory in her mind. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a pair of latex gloves before slipping them on.
“You keep gloves on you?” Vi asked incredulously.
“Always,” Cait chirped before reaching into the cockpit and pulling the round out of the wall. Its casing glinted in the hangar lighting, shiny and metallic, up to the point where it impacted the interior and crumpled. She twirled the bullet between her fingers, rotating it fully to stare at the tip, her eyes widening as she noticed the slightest purple hue coating the surface.
“Freeze, fuckers!”
Vi’s head snapped around and she nearly lost her balance on the wing of the Apache. Cait turned slowly, dropping the round into the seat of the cockpit, hands raised in surrender.
A tall, tan man stood by the laptop, rifle raised to the two of them, eyebrows furrowed in anger. His face was obscured by a white dust mask which rose and fell steadily in time with his ragged breathing.
“You think you can come in here and just- what the fuck?” The man ripped his mask off and dropped it to the floor in defeat. “Sprout?”
Vi’s eyebrows shot up. That face was the last one she’d be expecting to see today.
“Jayce!” Cait squealed, sliding down off the helicopter and sprinting over to her friend. Jayce chuckled, face still distorted in disbelief, as he wrapped powerful arms around the detective in a strong hug.
“What? Cait, what are- why are you here?” he stuttered, still fazed in incredulity.
“I could ask you the same thing, Mr Talis,” Caitlyn quipped jokingly. She looked up in admiration at Jayce.
Jayce clicked the safety onto his rifle and slung it over his shoulder. “They had me on the front lines,” he explained. “Once I was out of officer training. Transferred me here last week. Sorry for pointing a gun at you, just- habits, you know?” He offered a weak smile before waving at the pilot. “Hey, Vi. Good to see you.”
“Hey Jayce.” She gave him a warm grin in return.
“Um. Anyway.” He cleared his throat. “You spoken to Mel recently?”
Vi looked at Cait, who just nodded. “This morning. Why?”
“Look, I don’t know what you talked about, but she’s pulled some strings and- just look at this.” Jayce produced his phone and flicked to his email app, showing the pair his inbox.
It was filled with multiple alerts of day pass issues, a long list of messages with the subject line LEAVE APPROVED.
Vi had left her phone back in her room, so she glanced over to Cait’s as she checked her inbox to see the exact same thing. “Damn,” was all Caitlyn mustered up.
“Yeah.” Jayce beamed excitedly, flashing a big white smile at the pair of them. “She’s planning something for when we’re all back. Like old times, huh?”
“Yeah. Like old times.” Cait shot a glance at Vi, who stared at the ground, before giving Jayce a wry smile.
“Cool.” The man nodded, a few strands of hair falling down his face. “Well, I’ll leave you two to whatever it is you were doing. I don’t know if I wanna know.”
A steady blush crept up Caitlyn’s neck and tinged her cheeks as she watched Jayce disappear out of the exit, chuckling maliciously to himself.
Once their friend was out of earshot, Vi rounded on the other girl. “Like old times, huh?” she repeated distastefully.
Yet again, Cait ignored her quip. “I need to take you to Viktor,” she stated.
“What? Why? Viktor?” Vi shook her head and scoffed. “What is this, a fuckin’ reunion?”
“Stop being a smart-arse and come with me now, Vi,” Caitlyn snapped. Her patience was growing thin, hanging by a bare thread.
Vi just rolled her eyes, which riled Cait up even more. “Whatever,” she grunted. Despite her childish protests, the pilot proceeded to follow Caitlyn out of the hangar.
***
“You are lucky you bled so much, Violet. The transfusion administered to you might have just saved your life.”
Vi sat slumped in an uncomfortable metal chair, head rolled back, dark spots swimming in front of her eyes as she listened to Viktor’s voice drone on. “Isn’t that the point of a transfusion?” she responded weakly.
Viktor chuckled airily. “Yes, however the loss of tainted blood from the initial wound as well as the introduction of clean blood into your system has made the compound barely traceable in the samples I’ve collected from you.”
“Brilliant,” the pilot retorted sarcastically. “Mind explaining what the compound is?”
Viktor shot a glance to Caitlyn. “Can she know?”
The detective nodded almost instantly. “She can know.”
Viktor sighed and pushed away from his microscope. They were sat in his office within the research labs, various medical machinery and assorted scans littering the already cluttered tables. The scientist got up from his seat and pulled a purple vial from the freezer next to his desk.
“Detective Kiramman – Caitlyn – has been providing me with small samples of this substance over the last few months,” he explained, propping the magenta liquid into the light. “At first, there wasn’t enough to perform an in-depth analysis, but now I have been able to assess the compound entirely. It has a chemical structure similar to that of MDMA, the party drug many know and love, but its effect on live subjects has been… disastrous.”
Vi looked up at the small sample Viktor held between his fingers. “Is that what Leonard had in his system?”
“An educated guess? Most definitely, but I would not be able to confirm without examining his body, which I imagine is currently in a ditch somewhere in the Noxian desert.” Viktor strolled to his desk, tapping a few keys on his computer before swinging its screen around to show the girls. It was a grainy video of two rats in a single clear box, and Viktor paused the video briefly. “One of these was administered a synthesised dose of the substance. I will let you guess which one.”
He un-paused the video. It was clearly sped up, the rats’ movements jagged and distorted, until one began to writhe around on the floor of the cage in clear agony. Vi muttered a curse word in a low voice as Cait continued to watch the video, staring intensely at the two subjects.
The left rat suddenly got up from the ground and rounded on the other rat in its cage. It appeared bigger than before, and even through the low-resolution clip, you could see the slightest hint of pink in its crazed eye.
It didn’t take long for the rat to pounce on its partner, ripping into its throat and neck with ferocity, splattering bloody tissue and sinew up the glass walls of the cage.
“Jesus Christ, Viktor,” was all Vi managed to say.
“That is not all,” he muttered defeatedly.
The final stretch of the observation came. The lone rat in the cage, still standing in the crimson remnants of its slayed prey, began bashing its head down into the ground. The sight was almost comical playing in double speed, but not a single person in the room was smiling.
Eventually, the rat slumped to the ground. Twitched once. Twitched twice. Then, lay still.
Viktor spun his monitor screen around and clicked off of the video once it reached the end. “I have conducted a multitude of these experiments, all under different conditions. Each one reaches the same conclusion: death.”
Caitlyn shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense. The suicides I’ve been investigating, none of the soldiers hurt anyone before killing themselves.”
“Yeah, and Leonard just attacked Ekko and I, he could’ve blown his brains out at any point if he wanted to.”
Viktor nodded in agreement and leant his elbows on the table. “I believe it is a matter of dosage,” he concluded, pushing his glasses up his long nose. “Those administered with a small dose simply take their own lives; however, anything more than that, and they simply lose their mind.”
“What’s the dosage?” Cait asked quietly.
The scientist breathed through his nose. “From what I can tell, the lowest dosage for a human to just hurt themselves is about the equivalent of a teaspoon. Anything more than that, and…” He gestured to the computer screen.
Caitlyn frowned. A deep, dark, unsettled feeling sunk in her stomach, a black hole swallowing her tight. “Does Heimerdinger know?”
Viktor gave her an uneasy smile. “Is that not your job, Miss Detective?”