Fantastic
Heimerdinger knew that at least one of the girl’s reactions to their next mission would be… unpleasant. That didn’t stop him from calling Lieutenant Vanderson and Lieutenant Kiramman into his office the day they bot back from leave and handing them over their assignment.
“Kidnapping? What the fuck, Heimerdinger?”
Vi had read the first two lines of the report before she slapped down the brown file in a rage. Caitlyn continued to read, ignoring the pilot’s outburst, soaking up the information as she silenced out the argument between Vi and the commander.
“Lieutenant Vanderson, please, watch your language,” the commander replied bluntly. “You’ve got your orders, and how I expect them to be carried out. Don’t make me court martial you.”
Heimerdinger was growing impatient with Vi’s erratic and disobedient behaviour, and had been for the past few months. He thought the pilot had too much to say for herself. She was an intelligent young lady, and a mighty fine aviator, but the commander always thought she needed a reminder of where she sat on the pecking order.
“Well, excuse my tongue,” Vi drawled sarcastically, staring daggers at Heimerdinger before turning to Cait. “You’ve got nothing to say about this?”
The other officer didn’t take her eyes away from the paper. “It was my suggestion, actually,” she responded in a monotone voice.
Vi gaped at her in shock. Her lips curled into a snarl. “’Course it fuckin’ was,” she snapped. Without another word, she grabbed her mission briefing and stormed out of the office, slamming the door shut loudly as she went.
Heimerdinger exhaled out of his nose as he watched Vi leave before settling his gaze onto the detective. “Thank you for taking the time on your leave to review the intel, Kiramman. I was able to feed your findings back to our ops team, and they did some more digging on this Mr Deckard. He’ll be at a restaurant on Loan Street tomorrow evening.”
“Yes, sir, I can read,” Cait said blankly, lifting up the file in her hands.
Heimerdinger ignored her and continued. “Yourself and Lieutenant Vanderson are to pose as his private security detail. His normal goons have, ah, unfortunately fallen ill.”
Cait took a moment to glance up at Heimerdinger over the top of her paper. He was smiling slyly, like he knew something she didn’t.
“Who else will be there? You’ve mentioned a second extract crew here, but not said who.”
“Yes.” Heimerdinger cleared his throat. “That’ll be infantry soldiers most likely, but nothing you need to worry about. Your job is to detain the target with the help of Lieutenant Vanderson and hand him over.”
Cait placed the file into her lap. “Will that be all, sir?” she asked innocently.
The little man gave her a nod, to which she stood up, gave a brisk salute, and exited the office.
As she made her way back to her accommodation block, Caitlyn mulled the assignment over and over in her head, homing in on every little detail she’d need to account for. It seemed straightforward enough; Cait and Vi were to go in, eliminate the guards by the door, get Deckard comfortable and relaxed before detaining him. They’d then hand over Deckard to an extraction crew and make their way out of Zaun somehow.
Working with Vi, however, was going to be a whole other kettle of fish. Sure, they’d crossed paths since Cait had been on base and she’d been helpful on more occasion than one, but actually going on a mission together? That was something not a single one of her textbooks had taught her about, let alone how to prepare for.
Stuffing the thoughts of Vi back into their respective little box in Cait’s mind, she slid her room key into the lock and began to turn.
The door sprung open before Caitlyn had the chance to fully unlock it. A messy mop of ginger hair appeared in the doorframe, followed by a sickly sweet rot-your-teeth smile. “Welcome back, gorgeous,” Maddie beamed as Cait pushed past her to get back into her quarters.
“I thought I said I wanted you gone by the time I got back, Lieutenant Nolen,” Cait replied flatly.
“Oh.” Maddie’s shoulders sunk at the official use of her title, but advanced on Cait nonetheless, placing a kiss onto the taller officer’s left cheek. Caitlyn’s eye flinched at the contact as Maddie added, “I made us coffee.”
“Thank you. You can leave now.”
Once again, Nolen deflated, but gathered up her belongings anyway, abandoning her now empty mug on Caitlyn’s kitchenette counter. She pulled the detective into a brief hug, one which Cait didn’t reciprocate. “See you soon,” she purred, before scurrying out of the door.
Once last night’s mistake had exited down the hallway, and Caitlyn had a chance to check her bedsheets and realise just how much of a mistake it was, she slammed her palms into her eyes and groaned loudly.
Ever since Vi’s return, Maddie and Cait’s encounters had… shifted in dynamic. Cait found herself closing her eyes much more. Imagining other things happening while they fucked. Picturing a certain mullet-sporting pilot’s head between her legs as opposed to Officer Nolen’s.
There wasn’t just a feeling of dread after their hook-ups anymore. It was a deep, churning feeling of guilt in the bed of her stomach, betrayal, denial. After the last night in Piltover, nothing felt like it could be the same.
Caitlyn left Maddie’s coffee to go cold and flopped back on her bed. She shuffled through the mission briefing, burning the words into her mind, trying to distract herself with anything but the thought of Violet and last night’s scandal.
***
“Extract, Eagles One and Two in position. Clear view of exterior. Over.” Vi’s scratchy voice, muffled by the thin black balaclava she’d pulled over her face, sounded over the radio in Cait’s earpiece.
“Copy, Eagles One and Two. Stay frosty. Extract out.” The extract team responded curtly and Vi peered down her binoculars at the two black vans parked just a couple blocks down from Jericho’s Oriental.
Caitlyn and Vi were positioned opposite the restaurant, lying prone in wait, bellies tucked flat against the cold hard concrete floor of the warehouse. It was a perfect vantage point; they were a good couple floors above the ground, only one way in or out of the room they’d commandeered, and had a birds’-eye view of everything coming up and down the street in front of them.
Vi heard Caitlyn inhale and exhale slowly next to her. Her breath lifted up the fabric of her mask slightly, but apart from that she lay still, single eye trained strictly down the scope of the sleek gunmetal grey sniper rifle she’d set up as soon as they were in position.
The way Caitlyn handled herself around guns, Vi had noticed, wasn’t just routine. It wasn’t something that had been drilled into her during training, or taught to her by some bored instructor, it was something entirely different, something new.
It was pure passion.
Vi had been itching to get up and moving not even half an hour into their stakeout. Their uniform, while tactical and useful with its gun holsters and knife straps and ballistic shielding, was ridiculously uncomfortable, however Caitlyn hadn’t budged an inch since they’d settled.
In fact, you could barely tell the sniper was still alive apart from the occasional steady breath she’d take, and even that seemed to be calculated and prepared.
Vi peeked down the lens at the restaurant intently. The doors of Jericho’s had just swung open, and two men walked out, with one fishing in his jacket pocket and producing a small pack. He slid a cigarette out of the box and stuck it between his lips before strolling off to the side to take his smoke break.
“Two tangos out the front,” Vi muttered quietly to Caitlyn.
“I see them,” Cait responded, unmoving, finger hovering steadily over her trigger. “Targets acquired.”
Vi nodded, keeping the two men in her sights, ready to give the kill order when a crackled voice spoke over the radio.
“Eagles One and Two, vehicle approaching from the north. Hold your fire. Over.”
Both officers whipped their sights around to see a dark SUV barrelling down the street in front of them, windows tinted. The car pulled up outside the restaurant and sat idling for a moment before the passenger door popped open. A single large figure, dark-skinned and riddled with muscles, stepped out.
“Oh, fuck,” said Vi exasperatedly.
Caitlyn stared down at the figure as she greeted the non-smoking guard soundlessly before entering the building. A single bead of sweat formed atop her eyebrow as she pressed down on her earpiece to talk into the radio, steadying her shaky breath as best as possible.
“Extract, be advised, Ambessa Medarda has just entered the building.”
***
“You can’t go down there,” Vi said breathlessly as she checked over her equipment from the umpteenth time.
They’d both slunk away from their previous vantage spot, shrinking into the darkness of the warehouse room, shaking their heads in disbelief as they ran over their next moves together.
The mission had just got ten times more fuckin’ complicated.
“I know,” Caitlyn said back, monotone, her arms crossed over her chest. Her rifle sat by her side, leant up against the wall.
“Okay.” Vi breathed out slowly. “Okay. I’ll go down, and just carry on as planned. Once Deckard’s ready for extraction we’ll get him out together. Okay?”
“Yeah.” Caitlyn stared down at the ground, eyes unflinching, running her thumb and fingertip over themselves in a circular pattern as she listened to Vi’s words. “Be careful.”
“Always am, Cupcake.” Vi grinned manically, eyelids creasing at the corner, before yanking off her balaclava and dropping it on the floor next to her. “Take care of those guards for me, will you?”
Vi slipped out of the room, heavy footsteps thumping against the floor, until eventually going silent. Caitlyn took the opportunity to slide back into her prone position and poised her sniper rifle down at the two grunts positioned outside of Jericho’s.
Moments later, a small dark mass darted across the street, hidden in the shadows before ducking behind a dumpster. “Whenever you’re ready,” Cait heard a voice in the radio tell her, a barely visible set of eyes looking up at her from the ground.
Caitlyn didn’t need to be told twice. She cocked her rifle back, zoned in on the first guard, and squeezed the trigger.
The goon’s body hit the deck with a crumpled thud, and before the second smoking guard could react, he met the same fate. His unfinished cigarette dropped to the floor silently, fumes still billowing from the red-hot tip.
“You’re an alright shot, Cupcake,” Vi quipped. She smiled to herself before switching off her radio and stuffing the earpiece into one of her pockets.
“I’m an excellent shot,” Caitlyn replied, seemingly to no-one, as she watched Vi get swallowed up into the darkness of the restaurant’s doors.
Jericho’s was practically empty inside. That was the first thing Vi noticed as she entered the dimly-lit building. Tables had been laid out neatly, cutlery set, menus set flat against cotton tablecloths, yet there was no-one there. No waiters, no barkeep, no hostesses, no… nothing.
Apart from the two figures huddled around a tucked-away table right in the back corner. As Vi neared, she got the opportunity to soak in the appearances of Piltover’s most wanted for the first time.
Deckard was small. Like, a lot smaller than what Vi had imagined him to be. He had a weasly, ratty face, with tatty blond hair and uneven teeth and cold steely eyes. For someone who was supposedly the drug kingpin of Zaun, his reputation did not precede him at all.
Ambessa, on the other hand, was a mammoth of a woman. A thick-cut, robust older woman with mountainous shoulders and boulders for fists. Her shark eyes remained locked on Deckard as he rambled away, occasionally barking out a laugh.
The pair looked ridiculous together, like Ambessa could switch up in a second and snap Deckard’s twig-like body in half with little effort. That wasn’t Vi’s concern, however.
She needed Deckard alive, and that meant having to go through Ambessa if need be.
Swallowing her fear, Vi strolled up to the table to meet her “boss”. “Mr Deckard, I’m with your security detail, I’m filling in for Turner and Morris,” she said flatly.
Deckard barely flickered his eyes at Vi, whereas Vi was working her hardest to keep her gaze on anything but Ambessa. “Oh, right,” he said lazily, flicking his wrist towards the entrance. “Those knuckleheads. Just stand by the door and look busy.”
Vi took a step back, but Ambessa’s cold voice cut across the table. “Nonsense, Dane,” she crooned, settling her eyes on Vi. “Come sit with us, child. We’re all friends here.”
The pilot’s eyes flicked between Deckard’s and Ambessa’s momentarily. With the power dynamic clear between the two, she eventually settled in the seat across from Deckard, ignoring the daggers he was staring straight into her skull.
Ambessa rest both elbows on the table as she poured herself a small glass of wine from a bottle laid out in front of her. “Deckard was just telling me how well our distribution is going over the border.” She finished topping herself up before offering a glass to Vi.
Vi raised a hand apologetically. “No thank you ma’am, I’m on duty.”
Ambessa smiled sickly. “That’s the right response,” she replied before looking back over to Deckard.
Deckard cleared his throat before continuing. “Business has never been better. We’ve got clients requesting shit from all over. Including their precious army, would you believe it?”
Ambessa shot the druglord a look. A look Vi picked up on instantly. Still, he continued.
“There’s no plans to stop there, either. We wanna expand international, baby. All over the globe. Everyone wants a piece of the pie.”
“How are you getting the drugs into the army?” Vi asked as non-conspicuously as possible.
Deckard opened his mouth to respond, but Ambessa cut him off. “What did you say your name was, dear?” she hummed.
“Matilda, ma’am. But my friends call me Tilly.” Vi thanked her lucky stars that Heimerdinger had given them the courtesy of creating aliases, and was even more thankful she’d checked over her own just before heading out.
“Well, Tilly,” Ambessa droned, swirling her wine around in her glass, “what’s your stance on the war? Do you believe my actions are justifiable?”
Vi just shrugged. “It’s not my job to have an opinion, ma’am.”
“Oh, but you must have a view on it. Everyone does.” She leaned closer.
“Well,” Vi responded, relaxing her shoulders, “between you and I, I think Zaun needed reform way before Noxus got involved.”
Ambessa barked out a laugh and slapped Vi heartily on the shoulders. “See?” she boasted. “Even its own people are unhappy. Something those Pilties will never care about.”
Ambessa’s hand felt heavy on Vi’s skin, like she was trying to push the young lady down. Instead, she stood up from her seat and smiled. “Let me go check on our appetisers,” she said with a slick smile before disappearing into one of the side entrances.
Deckard and Vi sat in silence for a good few moments. Tension ran thick in the air as he eyed Vi up and down, gaze wandering all over, scowling as he did so. Vi shifted uncomfortably in her seat and carried on staring at where Ambessa had slipped away previously, feeling Deckard’s glare burn a hole in the side of her face.
“Do I know you from somewhere?” he suddenly came out with, words slow, lips curling as he spoke.
Vi snapped her attention back to him. Under the table, her fingers went to the knife strapped strategically to her thigh. “I don’t know, you do?” she snarled back, her voice covering the faint click as she unclipped the flimsy bit of fabric holding the blade in place.
Deckard just stared. Vi stared back, their eyes ablaze against each other, either person waiting for the other to make the first move.
A sudden crashing of commotion in the kitchen broke the standoff down between the pair. A moment later, the heavy door swung open violently, and Ambessa’s giant frame appeared in the light. She was clutching a smaller squirming figure by the hair and thrust them into the faint lighting of the restaurant. “Seems we have an unexpected visitor,” Ambessa growled.
Vi’s mouth dropped in horror. Caitlyn stood in front of the huge general, a revolver pointed to the back of her head.
Cocking the gun’s hammer, Ambessa pushed the barrel harder into Cait’s skull. “One of you needs to start talking now, or I’m going to cut off your girlfriend’s finger and feed it to you.”
Vi saw the look in Cait’s eyes and didn’t hesitate. She whipped her ballistic knife out of its holster, brought it up high, and slammed it straight down through Deckard’s palm on the tabletop.
Deckard shrieked out in pain as Vi kicked the table at him, sending the druglord tumbling to the floor with his hand still attached to the wooden surface by the blade’s hilt.
Using the distraction Vi caused, Cait spun around and swatted the revolver out of Ambessa’s hand and landed a clean sidekick straight into her gut before sprinting over to retrieve her target.
“Meet me at the RDV!” Vi managed to exclaim, before dropping her shoulder and barrelling straight into Ambessa, sending them both toppling into the kitchen.
Vi landed atop Ambessa in a heap, still slightly dazed at the impact, managing to drive a fist into what she hoped was the larger lady’s kidney before scurrying around the counter in the centre of the kitchen.
Ambessa stirred, shifting to her feet, grunting with effort as she rose. “Dirty little sumprat,” she snarled, running her hands along the metal surface of the kitchen top as she rounded on Vi.
Vi thought about her chances taking on Ambessa in a fight.
Thought twice.
Then, she did what Zaun taught her to do best.
She ran.
Her legs pumped furiously as she sprinted out of the kitchen, kicking Ambessa’s pistol as she went, eyes focused entirely on the double-door exit she came in through. A single bullet whizzed past her head, embedding itself in the wooden doorframe as she slipped outside, steering right to head off towards the extraction team.
She could see them down the road, bundling Deckard into their black van, arcs of blood spraying from the open wound on his hand. Oops, Vi thought to herself as they loaded him up and slammed the van doors shut. Within a second, they sped off into the night.
“Cait!” Vi shouted, fishing frantically in her pockets for the second set of car keys for the van right next to it. She chucked the keys at Caitlyn, who caught them mid-air.
The van made a cheery chirp as it unlocked. The detective slid into the driver’s seat, followed by Vi, who slammed into the passenger seat, chest heaving with effort. “Fucking drive!”
Cait didn’t need to be told twice. She shoved the van into first gear and slammed it out into the road, engine roaring as it bolted down the road.
The noise of a second engine revving aggressively behind them drew closer and closer. Vi saw in terror a pair of headlights gaining on them in the rearview mirror, belonging to the same SUV that Ambessa had arrived in just moments before.
The van was fast, but the car was quicker, ramming its front bumper into the rear.
The first ram sent a jolt through the driver’s cabin.
The second rattled Vi and Cait’s bones in their body.
The third sent the van spinning out by its tail, skidding frantically and doing a full 360 before impacting with a lamppost on the driver’s side.
Ringing erupted violently in Vi’s ears. Thick smoke billowed from the engine bay, obscuring their outwards view, blinkers ticking as the hazard lights pathetically turned themselves on.
“Cait?” Vi groaned, tilting her head over to look at the other officer.
A deep gash ran across Caitlyn’s forehead, oozing dark, treacle-like blood. Her neck hung limp against the seatbelt, eyes closed, crimson liquid pooling and dripping into a puddle on the seat next to her.
“Cait, we need to go,” Vi said urgently. She grabbed Caitlyn’s arm and swung it over her shoulder, shifting the girl’s weight onto her as she staggered them both out of the cabin of the van. They ducked down a side alley, Vi struggling with both their masses in her exhausted state, dragging them both along by their heels as she desperately fought to get them out of the sight of Ambessa.
“Kiramman!” she heard the general roar at the top of the alley, followed by a loud crack.
Caitlyn cried out in pain and tensed up into Vi, shaking. A warm trickle begun flowing down Vi’s knuckles on the hand supporting Cait’s waist. The pilot flinched, awaiting a second shot, thinking of Powder and Vander and the boys and Ekko in her last fleeting moment.
Instead there was nothing. Pure, unadulterated silence, interrupted only by the girls’ shallow breathing as they made their escape.
***
“We’ll be okay for the night here,” Vi softly told Cait as she used her other shoulder to barge open a rusted steel door.
They’d slunk around the backstreets of Zaun for what felt like hours, ducking at any voices or sign of movement, hiding in the shadows as the town drunks passed by rambling incoherently. It had been a long time since she’d been there, but Vi still knew the place like the back of her hand, navigating the alleys effortlessly before she finally found what she’d been looking for.
Vi lowered Cait gently against the wall and allowed her to sink down, her shoulder swearing a trail of blood as it went, before feeling about blindly in the dark and switching on the lightswitch with success. Thank fuck for old backup generators.
They were in a managerial office of sorts, an old, cold room with metal filing cabinets shoved haphazardly against the wall and a single rickety desk positioned in the corner. A double sofa sat in the middle of the office, overlooking the rest of the compound, and Vi took a moment to glance out.
Rows of dusty leather boxings bags circled a single square ring, decorated in green and purple stitching and lettering. Old banners hung from the ceiling inscribed with years and dates Vi couldn’t make out from the distance. At the end of the warehouse there was an old-school style gym, complete with a ragtag ensemble of freeweights and various other machines.
It wasn’t just any old gym Vi had dragged Cait to. It was Vi’s old boxing gym, the one Vander dragged her to when she was younger, the one Vi had spent most of her youth fighting and volunteering at.
As nostalgic as it was to be back, there was no time to reminisce. Vi hovered over Caitlyn, her breath wheezing and laboured, and shuffled around in her pockets for the small first aid kit she’d packed with her.
Unloading the pack, she tended to Cait’s shoulder first, placing a gauze pad tight against the shredded skin. The other girl winced at the pain but remained still. Luckily, the bullet had just grazed her shoulder, and from an initial inspection it looked as though nothing had lodged itself into the skin at all. It would need a proper look over once they were back at base, but for now, they had to work with what they had.
Next, she wrapped a clean bandage across the gauze, fingers working quickly as she wrapped around once.
“I’m sorry,” Caitlyn mumbled, batting big doe eyes up at Vi.
Vi shook her head as she went for a second wrap. “It’s not your fault you got shot.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about, Vi.” She placed a weak hand on the other girl’s knee.
Vi took a deep breath. She knew this conversation would come around in time eventually; she just hadn’t prepared for that time to be when they’d both just been shot at. “I hated you,” Vi said quietly. She tied the bandage off on Cait’s shoulder before pulling out a wipe to start at the gash on her head. “You left me, twice. And then you came back. I didn’t know how to feel. So, I started to hate you.”
Caitlyn flinched, and Vi couldn’t tell if it was at the sting of the antiseptic or at her words. “I put my work first, Violet. It’s what I always did. But I realise now, that- that things are more important than that. You’re more important than that. To me.”
Vi finished placing the plaster over Cait’s wound. Instead of pulling her hand away, she let it linger, dropping her palm down to Caitlyn’s cheek where she cupped the skin.
Cait swallowed a lump in her throat. “Do you still hate me?” she whispered.
A half-smile tugging at the corner of her lips, Vi tilted her head. “Don’t ask stupid questions, Cupcake.”
The air between their faces tingled with electricity as their eyes met. Ocean met storm in a powerful, raging tempest.
It was Vi who closed the distance between them. She pressed her lips softly into Cait’s and closed her eyes.
The events of the last couple hours disappeared from both their minds. For the moment, it was just about them, Violet and Caitlyn, the detective and the pilot, 18 years old again and yearning for each other.
Cait’s skin tingled under Vi’s touch, her soft embrace holding all her fragile parts together. Arcs of lightning surged everywhere, spooling out across her body, full of warmth. Like slipping full-bodied into a hot bath.
Kissing Vi was exactly how Caitlyn remembered it to be. Exactly how it was when they’d kissed for the first time. She was soft and gentle, cradling Cait’s face up as she continued to nip at her lips like she was dying and they contained the cure.
Cait wanted to whine and groan in protest when Vi eventually pulled away. But, the stern look on the other girl’s face warned her otherwise. “You need to rest,” she said firmly. “Doctor’s orders. I’ll take first stag.” Vi pointed to the couch next to her.
Rolling her eyes but flashing a smile, Cait staggered to her feet, and Vi swooped in to help her over to the sofa. She dropped down, Vi plopping right next to her, and didn’t hesitate to place her head against the girl’s strong, broad shoulders.
“Thank you, Vi,” Caitlyn managed to say.
“Goodnight, Cait.”
But, before the detective could respond, she’d slipped into slumber.