Chapter Text
There was no other way to describe the precinct other than it being a frazzled, unorganized mess no matter the hour. But unlike normal people, Caitlyn Kiramman thrived in that environment. She didn’t know if it was always having to sit in her mother’s lap and be quiet in her arms during council meetings, but she always saw prosperity in chaos. It was why she was grateful to live in a city like Piltover. It was full of more failures than successes, but those failures didn’t stop the people from dusting themselves off and throwing themselves into their next ridiculous experiment.
But the successes, however, were what put Piltover on the map. The manufacturing and technical advancements were top tier. And after learning that at a young age, Caitlyn realized that for the people who weren’t into Piltover’s industrialism, they would flounder, scrambling amongst themselves and hoping something would come along to hold their interest. Unfortunately, she fell into that category of people.
Her parents thrust her into every topic known to man: math, the sciences, art, music, and even home economics as a last resort. And while performing highly in those subjects, Caitlyn always just saw them as something to do. They didn’t excite her; they didn’t get her waking up the next day too eager to do anything else but be fixated on those past and future achievements. What did, though, was the sound of a rifle. That sound was all it took for her to realize that so long as her hands could hold one, she would be set for life.
Her parents thought it was just a hobby, entertaining it at first but growing a little more forceful with their push for her higher education. But once they heard about Caitlyn signing up for the enforcer Academy, they instantly sat her down and announced their disapproval. But by that time, Caitlyn was fully invested, and she was also a grown woman who could make her own decisions no matter her parents’ beliefs.
It sucked to not have their support, but Caitlyn pressed forward and continued the path to her dream. An enforcer. A top-of-the-line officer in charge of keeping the people safe, investigating the rough areas that everyone except for a few people chose to acknowledge. There was a thrill to the chase, the danger, that no one else aside from those who sought it out could understand. And Caitlyn just so happened to be one of those people.
Though she was fresh out of the academy, she proved herself through her skills. Insecure people would’ve suggested that she couldn’t have possibly made it without her status as a councilor’s daughter, but they didn’t know her story. And so here she was. At the precipice of greatness.
“Kiramman!” Someone shouted, snapping Caitlyn out of it. The noise and chaos that she sank into, flooded her ears again. She saw a lieutenant standing beside the Chief’s office with his arms folded. “The hell are you standing around for? Everyone’s been waiting on that coffee.”
“R-right, coming!” she said and scampered forward. She held the coffee tray and donut box close to her chest, paranoid that even spilling the tiniest drop would engulf the precinct into flames. Don’t fuck with an enforcer and their caffeine in the morning.
But also, she was swimming with nerves. It was her first month at the precinct and she could not afford to mess anything up, especially when she had so many eyes on her. Most specifically Marcus. She had no idea why he was constantly on her case, but it was clear that he did not like her. But even his attitude toward her would not affect her mood. Today was an exciting day. She was going to be in a closed-door meeting with the Chief and her special ops team. Well… briefly (and delivering coffee and donuts no less). But still! That was better than nothing. And she could tell from the looks of the other rookies that they were jealous.
She kept her chin high as she passed them and walked up to the chief’s door. Her superior opened it and let her walk through, swiftly closing the door after her as she entered.
“I’m telling you, if you just give me a few more weeks—!”
“I’m done waiting, Marcus. This team has been at it for months now and you haven’t gotten a single thing from that group!” Grayson slammed her hands on her desk. Caitlyn jumped, effectively spilling some of the coffee in the carrier onto her hands. She bit her lip to refrain from whimpering out loud.
“We have Sevika! She’s detained and all we need to do is make her squirm,” Marcus said, slamming his own hands down and standing up. The other enforcers in the room, apart from Caitlyn, sank lower in their chairs, mumbling under their breaths, and clearly not wanting to get into this fire crackling debate.
“And how do you suppose we do that?” Grayson asked. Caitlyn noticed that her accent grew heavier the angrier she became. “Are you going to force your way in there and beat her down until she hopefully spills Silco’s whereabouts?”
Caitlyn couldn’t help but grow a little excited at the mentioning of the leader of the Nation of Zaun. She was standing in on a high-profiled case. She officially had bragging rights. The other rookies were going to be begging her for information, and she could hold it above them all like one of those Hextech claw machines. They already couldn’t stand her. She’d piss them off further.
“If we could just get someone to go in undercover,” Grayson said.
“In where? The prison?” Marcus looked at her incredulously. “That’s ludicrous. My men are handling this.”
“You forget your place, Marcus. These are my men. Don’t get cocky.” Grayson’s words sliced through the air, offering no room for argument, though Caitlyn could see in Marcus’s eyes that he wanted to. He folded his arms and waited for her to continue. “You’ve had your chance to prove yourself, and so far, you’ve failed. I’m taking over this case effective immediately. From here on out we’re doing things my way.”
Caitlyn stared in awe, slightly blushing. She always did have a bit of a crush on Grayson. She was so headstrong and fearless, and amazing with a gun. She was the one who inspired Caitlyn to join the enforcers at the age of 15, though it led to a lot of closed-door meetings between her and Caitlyn’s mother. But so far, Grayson was proving herself to be everything Caitlyn dreamt she would be. Everything Caitlyn wanted to be.
“Kiramman, when you’re done playing statue can I have my coffee?” asked Marcus, looking irritated.
Caitlyn blinked when Grayson met her eyes and then quickly began to distribute the coffee. She went around the table, setting everything out, along with the box of donuts. She noticed how everything went quiet around the room, and it induced some heavy-onset anxiety.
“I’ve got an idea,” Grayson said, cutting through the tension. When Caitlyn looked over, she noticed Grayson hadn’t stopped staring at her.
Marcus looked in-between them, calculating, and then deducing.
“No. Absolutely not,” he started. And then he and Grayson started another round of arguing back and forth. Voices raised, curses were shouted, and fingers continued to point in Caitlyn’s direction. And all Caitlyn could do was stare in perplexity, anxiousness, and excitement.
The boat ride into Stillwater was bumpy, cold, and putrid. It was a few hours out from Piltover, and a few hours too many with Marcus breathing down her neck.
Caitlyn ended up playing a game with herself of how many times she heard “recon only” come into the one-sided conversation. She lost count after seventeen. Her mind had too much else going on to allow Marcus any of what little brain space she had left.
It was a case of wrong place, right time. She was a fresh, new face in the precinct, after all. No one would suspect her since she hadn’t really set her feet on the field yet, and definitely not in the Undercity. Any one of her fellow rookies could’ve been chosen for this role. Marcus even named a couple (mainly anyone besides her), but Grayson had the final word, and her final word was ‘Caitlyn.’
It was a simple mission. Go undercover as a prisoner, find Sevika and her gang, and get information on Silco’s whereabouts. This Sevika person was apparently his righthand in everything, brought down by Grayson as a scapegoat, allegedly. Caitlyn wasn’t given much information beyond that, only her true task at hand.
But goodness was it a huge task. She thought for certain she would pass out in that room as she watched the screaming match between Marcus and Grayson go on for, what felt like, eons. But there wasn’t much time for anything other than those spur-of-the-moment feelings, because Grayson had to bring her up to speed, and quickly. Caitlyn had never been in her office for longer than two minutes, and then suddenly she was spending the past week beside Grayson. She told Caitlyn about Stillwater, how only the lowest, scummiest people in the world were there, how getting caught would lead to imminent death.
“This won’t be easy, Kiramman,” Grayson said. She continued to say it up until Caitlyn departed from the city a few hours ago.
No, it wouldn’t be easy, however, this was the job, wasn’t it? Nothing about it was easy. And this was her first huge case. She needed to prove herself, or else it would give Marcus the ammo he needed to kick her off the force. No pressure.
She inhaled deeply as they ascended the staircase and immediately regretted it. It smelled like everything retched she could think of combined. In fact, she accidentally gagged. Marcus glared daggers at her.
“Remember what I said,” he told her as they entered the elevator and headed down. They’d just finished getting her “processed” at the front entrance of the building. Most, if not all, of the guards were in on the mission and shouldn’t have caused any issue to Caitlyn. Marcus turned to her and made her stick out her arms so that he could put the cuffs around her wrists. She was already in her prison get-up. A sleeveless top and some loose, stained pants. Marcus put the cuffs on as tight as they would go. “This is recon only. Find Sevika, get her to talk, and don’t make yourself look too obvious. Got it, princess?”
Caitlyn held her tongue, familiar to hearing that nickname throughout her years in the academy. She nodded. “Yes, sir.”
The elevator came to a screeching halt on the 40th level. The lights flickered through the hallway. There was a guard waiting for them as they stepped out.
“Get the princess situated,” Marcus ordered. The guard nodded and grabbed Caitlyn by the arm, forcing her to walk.
“Ease up a little,” she whispered to him.
“Shut it, rookie. And don’t give me orders,” he said, sneering at her.
They walked down the dim-lit hall, the lights continuing to go in and out. The cells were separated by long, thick, and crumbling walls. And the deeper they walked through the hall, the colder it became. Caitlyn noticed that as she passed most of the cells, they were vacant.
“Did you guys clean house recently?” she asked.
“Why are you talking to me, inmate?” the guard said, making his voice louder and deeper. He shoved. “Keep your mouth shut and move forward.”
Caitlyn’s brow twitched. She knew that they had to keep up this act, but this guy was a little too comfortable in his role.
They approached the near end of the hall where Caitlyn heard pounding noises and heavy breaths. It came from the very last cell, where the guard just so happened to escort Caitlyn to. The pounding turned out to be fists going into the wall. A woman with red hair, a back full of tattoos, and muscles that dwarfed both of Caitlyn’s arms combined stopped in her movements. She didn’t turn at first, but she cracked her neck, as if preparing herself.
“Relax, mutt,” the guard told the woman. “I come in peace. I even brought you a toy to chew on.”
“E-excuse me?” Caitlyn whirled around, her heart racing. “What are you talking about?”
“Meet your roommate.” The guard turned his key into the cell lock and opened it. Quickly, he unholstered his gun and pointed it at the brute stranger. “Don’t try any funny shit,” he warned, then he started pushing Caitlyn inside.
“Hey! What’s the deal? There are plenty of empty cells we just walked by,” Caitlyn argued as the cell door closed behind her and he locked it.
“This ain’t no spa day, princess. Have fun.” He walked off, whistling as he did.
Caitlyn was fuming. Fucking Marcus. This had to be his last-ditch effort to make sure she knew that he was still in charge. Damn him!
“There’s only one cot and I don’t plan on giving it up anytime soon,” the woman behind her spoke for the first time.
Caitlyn turned, her heart still racing. It was her first time seeing the state of her new living quarters, and there wasn’t much to look at. There was a cot, with the thinnest looking blanket. The walls were barren, though there were several caved-in areas like the current wall the woman went back to beating into. Sweat dripped down the middle of her back, her skin stretched over taut muscles that twitched. Caitlyn was both mesmerized and fearful.
“So you’re saying I should sleep on the floor?”
“Feel free to get creative if you want.” The woman kept punching.
Caitlyn crossed her arms and tilted her chin up. Muscles and tattoos regardless, she was not going to let this person push her around.
“I propose we take turns. Maybe flip a coin? That’s only fair.”
“There’s no such thing as fair in here. Let me guess, you’re new to this whole prison thing?”
“No, I’m not.”
“I’ve never seen you around here before and trust me when I say I’ve been in here for a long time.”
Caitlyn panicked a little. She needed to turn the conversation off her quickly. “How long have you been here for?” she asked.
“You should really take a girl out to dinner first before you ask her prison timeline.”
“I’m more into the charming type, and you’re far from it,” Caitlyn retorted before she could think about it. The woman stopped punching the wall and turned. Her face was still covered in shadows, but then she walked forward into the small amount of light they were given. Caitlyn swallowed hard. She had a couple inches on the shorter woman, but that was negated by her hard expression, the tattoos and piercings on her face and neck, and the sweat dripping down her face despite her not looking tired at all. In that moment, Caitlyn had no doubt the woman indeed had been in here for a while.
“Sorry to disappoint,” the woman said, stepping closer to Caitlyn. And it took everything in Caitlyn to not move back.
“What’s your name?” she found herself asking.
A sarcastic grin appeared on the woman’s face. She started circling Caitlyn. “Matilda,” she said after reaching Caitlyn’s face again.
“What’s your real name?”
“You’re the one asking all of the questions. Shouldn’t you tell me yours first?”
“I thought there was no such thing as fairness in prison?”
“Ah. You’re catching on swiftly, Cupcake.”
Caitlyn narrowed her eyes.
“It’s Caitlyn, actually,” she said, fed up. Her eyes roamed over the woman’s face. She had Undercity written all over her. “Let me guess, you go by Six or something?” she asked, referring to her face tattoo.
“Close.” The woman took a long pause, her eyes traveling up and down Caitlyn’s frame. When their eyes met again, Caitlyn held her breath. “It’s Vi.”
Caitlyn remained skeptical, but she nodded. “Okay, Vi. I’m not sleeping on the floor.”
Vi leaned forward, their faces coming a few inches apart now. “Then stand.”
Bumping Caitlyn in the shoulder, Vi retreated to the bed.
Huffing out an annoyed sigh, Caitlyn turned, ready to argue. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Vi remove her shirt. She stood there in her night pants and nothing else. Her back tattoo stretched along the length of her entire upper back and down her spine, and Caitlyn stared longer than she intended to. It was only when Vi got underneath the thin sheet and turned on her side facing Caitlyn that she looked away.
Folding her arms, she stood there awkwardly. Only five minutes in Stillwater and she’d already lost her first verbal prison spat. She could hear the ghosts of Marcus’s mocking laughter echoing from down the hall.
After assessing every dirty corner, she went and stood up against a wall, leaning her back onto it, and crossing one foot over the other. She stood right across the small space from Vi, and Vi continued to stare at her, analyzing her. Though she may have lost the battle tonight, Caitlyn wasn’t a pushover. She glared right back at her. It could be a stare down all night if Vi wanted it to be. After all, Grayson said to keep her eyes wide open and never turn her back on a person from the Undercity. Plus, she still needed to figure out a game plan anyway. How could she get close to Sevika in this enormous prison?
She bitterly accepted that maybe after tonight Marcus would get serious and move her closer to Sevika’s room.
Then again, why on earth would Marcus want to make any of this easy for her? Knowing him, he was probably determined to spite Grayson and prove to her that he was right about Caitlyn being out of her depth.
She chewed on her bottom lip, lost in thought for a while. It caught her off guard when she heard the deep sound of breathing. Looking over at Vi, she saw that she was fast asleep. Caitlyn found that absurd. How could someone as intimidating and ferocious as her be able to fall asleep so easily with a stranger now occupying the space she’d been living in for allegedly a long time?
Unless… Unless she didn’t see Caitlyn as a threat at all.
That realization pissed Caitlyn off. If the first person she met inside this dingy prison wasn’t afraid of her, then what did that say about her undercover skills? Would this even work at all?
Sinking down to the floor, she put her knees up to her chest and sulked for a bit. Her stomach growled, and she realized she hadn’t eaten anything since that morning. She’d been too wrecked with nerves, and now it was coming back to bite her.
It was in the pitch darkness that she allowed those seeds of doubt to seep through her consciousness. What if Marcus was right? What if she had no business handling such a vital mission? What was Grayson thinking?
She shivered from the cold air wafting through the cell. She may as well have been naked from the lack of warmth her clothes provided. And she tried not to think about the shadows of bugs making their way across the floor. How could anyone live like this?
With so many thoughts and questions running through her head, she didn’t even realize she’d fallen asleep.
Caitlyn startled at the sound of an alarm going off. She jumped to her feet, discarding the blanket draped around her shoulders.
Wait, what?
She looked down at the ground and saw the white sheet circling around her feet. Confused, she looked over at Vi, who was on the ground doing pushups. She kept her eyes trained forward as she pushed and pulled from the ground, not acknowledging Caitlyn whatsoever.
“What sort of game are you playing at?” Caitlyn asked, placing her hands on her hips.
“No game,” Vi said, standing up.
“It’s funny how I don’t believe you,” Caitlyn said.
“Your teeth were chattering all night and it annoyed me. Oh, and you’re welcome, by the way.”
The alarm from before went off again and Caitlyn jumped.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“It’s time for our morning shower,” Vi said. “So much for totally being here before, right?”
Caitlyn stammered as she tried to come up with some kind of retort, but she could only watch Vi grab her extra set of clothes along with a towel. The guard from last night came and unlocked their cell.
“Move it, ladies.” He threw a set of clothes and a towel at Caitlyn. “For you, princess.”
Caitlyn didn’t move at the same pace as Vi, who bumped past her to walk out of the cell. The guard held his gun on her the entire time, scowling. Clearly he was at least intimidated by Vi from all of his threats to shoot her at any given moment. Caitlyn had to wonder if he stepped a little too close to the cell one day with his taunting and Vi gave him a good scare.
As she walked out of the cell and followed behind Vi, she noticed a thick red line on the ground, indicating that a guard shouldn’t step any closer to the cell unless they were asking for it. She found herself smirking at her theory being confirmed.
“What are you smiling for?” the guard asked.
Caitlyn quickly fixed her face. “Nothing at all.”
“Good, then walk faster.” He shoved her forward.
Showering wasn’t a thing Caitlyn allowed herself to think about before entering Stillwater. She’d showered in public before during her days in the academy, but that was amongst people she knew and trusted… for the most part. She at first thought to keep her head low as she walked into the bathroom and into the showering area, however, she knew that would’ve made her an easy target. She held her head high, even amongst the whistles and talks of ‘fresh meat’ amongst her fellow female prisoners.
Keeping her eyes trained on the wall, she didn’t allow herself to meet another person’s gaze as she stood under the lukewarm spray and shivered. She tried to imagine her large bathroom, the smell of her favorite lavender soap, and her cherished essential oils as a source of comfort and to help her forget about her current predicament. But there was too much chaos around her — too much noise. Too many moans.
Her eyes snapped open, and she looked to her left when she heard someone getting slammed up against the wall beside her. The two women were a tangle of limbs, bodies flush against one another, hands roaming over skin, shoving between thighs. Then, when the larger woman had the smaller one pinned to the shower wall and forced into submission, she bent down and lifted a leg over her shoulder and shoved her face into the woman’s awaiting pussy.
Caitlyn turned beat red and looked in the other direction as the woman being pleasured cried out passionately. She hadn’t realized who she’d been standing next to the entire time.
Vi’s eyes were closed as she tilted her head back, letting the water hit her face and drench her hair. She pushed her fingers through it. And with her arms raised, Caitlyn caught a full view of her breasts, her nipples stiff and pierced. Though Caitlyn’s mouth was open and filling with water, it never felt so dry. Her eyes lowered to Vi’s abs, and she caught a brief patch of hair between Vi’s thighs before she shifted her weight onto her other leg.
“See something you like?”
Caitlyn’s head snapped up, and her heart raced when she met Vi’s eyes. There was a smirk on her lips as she returned Caitlyn’s curious gaze with one of her own, unabashedly admiring Caitlyn’s naked body. The sound of the moans to the left side of her became a soundtrack to Caitlyn’s ears. And the water didn’t seem so cold anymore. She finished the rest of her shower quickly and left before Vi did.
After getting dressed, she was headed back to her cell when she saw the guard she was quickly growing familiar with standing near the wall beside the bathroom. No one else was in the hall except for them.
“Hey, what’s the deal?” she asked him in a whisper-hiss. “I need to be close to Sevika’s room. And what’s with not putting me in my own room? I assure you that Grayson won’t be happy if you guys are deliberately screwing with my mission.”
The guard rolled his eyes.
“You’re as close to Sevika as you can get without raising suspicions. She has plenty of allies in here who could easily tip her off.”
“Okay, so then how do I get close to her?”
“It’s your mission, princess. Figure it out. Also, maybe look alive the next time you shower.”
“What does that—”
“All right, inmates, back to your cell,” the guard spoke up quickly. When Caitlyn felt another person’s presence behind her, she turned and saw Vi approaching them, fully dressed now. However, the image of her under that showerhead still sat perfectly on Caitlyn’s membrane. She looked away and started her trek back to their tiny, shared room.
She couldn’t let herself get distracted anymore. This first day was an adjustment, but Caitlyn had to make plenty of adjustments before in her life. She could do this. What mattered was finding Sevika and getting the information she needed. After that, she would leave this hellhole home away from home for the Undercity and never look back.
Caitlyn refused to meet Vi’s gaze for the rest of the morning. They kept their short distance, Vi punching things and mumbling to herself, and Caitlyn trying to figure out her next plan of action. They got served raw potatoes for breakfast in their cells, and though Caitlyn’s stomach begged to be fed, she couldn’t force herself to look past the molded parts of her “meal.” She ended up giving hers to Vi, who ate it with pleasure.
That was when she realized that lunch was undoubtedly her next big bet. A sea of prisoners would be there, and Sevika had to be one of them.
Time felt like one slow crawl across a line. Or maybe it felt like that because Caitlyn kept forcing herself not to look in Vi’s direction even when she felt Vi’s eyes on her several times throughout the morning since they came back from the showers. Caitlyn did find it easy to lose track of time, though. They didn’t have a window, and there was no change in light throughout the day. It remained dark except for that tiny line of light that came through the bars from the old lantern across from them. When the alarm sounded for lunch, Caitlyn breathed a sigh of relief. She walked out of the cell first, passing Vi, who continued to wear that obnoxious smirk.
The cafeteria looked like it had seen better days. It was all grey walls and unflattering lighting. Chatter amongst the prisoners sounded like a blended hum throughout the room. Oddly, Caitlyn found it refreshing. To be in a cell with just one person all day made those empty silences last longer. Caitlyn would sit around hoping she would hear anything, even if it meant listening to Vi’s labored breathing as she did her fiftieth exercise of the day. Caitlyn found herself wondering if that was how Vi coped with the silence.
Vi immediately headed for the lunch line, leaving Caitlyn there to look around. She decided to take her time as she walked across the room, surveying every person’s face. She’d seen an image of Sevika and had it burned in her memory. She quickly zoomed over every person’s face she passed and moved on to the next. Unfortunately, none of them were Sevika.
The food she received looked even more depressing than the potato. It was some sort of yellow mush, carrots, and her rotten fruit of choice, along with a carton of day-old milk. Frowning, she went and sat beside Vi at a table. They were by themselves.
“What are you doing?” Vi asked as she peeled her orange.
“What’s it look like? I’m eating, obviously,” Caitlyn said. But rather than eating, she made a sour face at her food.
“Yes, but why are you eating with me? I have a reputation to uphold here.”
“A reputation?” Caitlyn raised a brow in amusement. “Oh, so what, you’re too cool to sit with other people at lunch?”
“More like I prefer not to be bothered with small talk and people who annoy me. No offense, Cupcake, but I already have to look at you more than I want to in that crammed space.”
Caitlyn scoffed and got up out of the chair. “Offense taken,” she said and stomped off. Whatever. It wasn’t like she needed Vi or anything to be comfortable. She was on a solo mission, after all.
She sat down at an empty circular table in the middle of the cafeteria, which for some reason hadn’t been occupied. The minute she sat down, she noticed how everyone within that area went quiet. She kept her head down and quietly sipped her day-old milk, wincing at the warm taste of it. What the hell was everyone’s problem suddenly? And why were people staring? And pointing? And laughing?
Caitlyn was uncomfortably reminded of her academy days. She sat alone most of the time and kept to herself, listening to the whispers about her and ignoring the insults. Was that what was happening?
A group of five people came in from all directions and sat down at the table. One man sat right beside Caitlyn, the other four, three men and one woman, sat on the perpendicular ends. That left one spot open on the opposite side of Caitlyn.
“Well, who do we have here?” Caitlyn tried to not look taken off guard when Sevika took the final seat. She pulled up her chair, the back facing the table and sat in it backward. “You’re a new arrival, I’m guessing?”
Unlike trying to save face in front of Vi, Caitlyn swallowed hard and nodded. “Yes.”
“Of course. You’d have to be to have some kind of nerve sitting at my table.”
Caitlyn looked around at the group, and then around the room at the people looking over their shoulders to watch.
“I wasn’t aware that we had assigned seating here,” Caitlyn said.
Sevika chuckled. “Get a load of you. What’s your name?”
Caitlyn noticed a few of the guards eyeing them closely, their hands tightening around their weapons. She looked back at Sevika.
“Matilda,” she said calmly and got up. “Look, I don’t want any trouble.” She tried to walk away, but then Sevika got up and blocked her path. She ushered for the other people at the table to remain seated.
“Some part of you must want a little bit of trouble if you ended up in here of all places,” Sevika said. She put her hand under Caitlyn’s chin and forced their eyes to lock. “Come on, tell me your name, sweetheart,” she murmured.
The sound of a tray slamming against the table caused Caitlyn to pull away and look behind her. Vi was sitting in the seat Caitlyn previously occupied. She started shoving whatever the yellow mush was into her mouth and eating casually. Then she looked up when she realized everyone at the table was looking at her.
“Oh, sorry. Was I interrupting something?” she asked. Looking to Sevika, she offered a cocky smile.
“What happened to our deal, Vi?” Sevika asked, folding her arms, and walking by Caitlyn. “Wasn’t I clear?”
“Yeah, yeah. I stay at my table and out of your way, and we don’t have a problem.” Vi waved her hand flippantly while using the other to stuff a spoonful of carrots in her mouth. “Only problem with that is you didn’t take my roommate into account.” She pointed her spoon in Caitlyn’s direction.
Sevika turned and looked at Caitlyn, who’d been wide-eyed since Vi sat down. She had no idea what was happening or why it was happening.
“Roommates weren’t a part of that negotiation,” Sevika said, looking back at Vi.
“Well, they are now.”
“You think you’re in any position to give me orders?” Sevika walked up to Vi and grabbed the man sitting beside her by the back of his shirt, forcing him to get up. “Don’t fuck with me.”
Vi got up, stuffing her hands in her pockets, remaining casual in her posture.
“I think there’s been a huge misunderstanding here,” Vi said, her voice going soft. “Really. I know that you’re the big man in charge here now, and I wouldn’t ever want you to think you’re not. So, come on, truce?” Vi stuck out her hand.
The entire surrounding area went quiet, watching in bewilderment at the display. Even Sevika’s crew’s mouths dropped open in shock.
Sevika’s eyes narrowed, flickering down from Vi’s hand to her face. Scoffing she turned her head to say something to the group, only for it to come face first with Vi’s swinging tray. Food flew into the air and Sevika stumbled. She caught her footing for a moment, but then Vi shoved her to the ground and started pounding on her. For every blink, Caitlyn saw Vi’s fists fly at least three times.
Sevika’s crew stood up, all jumping in to pull Vi off. But that movement set off something amongst the rest of the people in the room. Several more people got involved, and after that, Caitlyn found herself standing in the middle of a prison riot.
It felt like hours had passed by the time Caitlyn finally saw her cell again. Not long after the riot started, the guards immediately swarmed in with their weapons, targeting anyone within their reach. Caitlyn ended up being pushed into a wall by one enforcer and told to stay put as they got everything else under control. Alarms sounded, batons fused with Hextech were used, and at one point the sprinkler system went off, showering everyone for the second time that day.
The prison went under lockdown, and the lights in the hallway switched from the monotonous white to flashing red. A guard led Caitlyn into her cell. She tried to ask him a million questions before being told to shut up and wait there. He left the cell door open and ran off.
Caitlyn nervously paced around the cell, biting her thumbnail. That couldn’t have gone any worse. Her cover hadn’t been blown, but she somehow managed to get Sevika’s eyes on her when it was supposed to be the other way around. And what the fuck was up with Vi getting in the middle of it? She just made the situation worse. There was no doubt that once Marcus heard about this, he would be laughing his way to Grayson’s office in a heartbeat. And then what? Would they pull her out of the mission? Demote her back to the academy for more training?
She stewed on all of the ways she was profoundly screwed until she heard the sound of yelling and struggling. Vi finally arrived, drenched, and fighting against an enforcer who had her hoisted over his shoulder. Caitlyn got up just in time as he slammed Vi down on the bed and then backed out of it quickly before Vi could get up and take a swing at him. She cursed and spat at him, gripping the cell bars as if prepared to rip them apart. The enforcer laughed it off and walked away.
“What the hell was that?” Caitlyn asked, once they were alone.
Vi whirled around and marched forward. Caitlyn backed away until she had nowhere else to back into. Vi slammed her hand into the wall. She breathed hard in Caitlyn’s face, a drop of water dripping down her nose.
“I should be asking you that. What the fuck were you thinking sitting at that table? Everyone knows that Sevika claims that spot.
“Excuse me if I’m unfamiliar with the prison seating chart.”
“This isn’t a fucking game!” Vi punched the wall beside Caitlyn. The sound of it crumbling forced a gasp out of her, but she quickly recovered and turned defensive.
“Maybe if you hadn’t told me to get lost, none of that would have happened! And why do you even care?”
“That would’ve ended so much worse if I hadn’t stepped in. You have no idea how powerful Sevika’s word is here. You don’t know the people she has outside of here. Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
Vi was yelling now, which led to shaking. And that shaking reverberated across her body. Caitlyn looked to her left at Vi’s trembling arm, and then back to Vi’s face again. She was angry, that was certain, but there was something else about her reaction that had Caitlyn’s heart racing. She raised her arm, unsure of what she was doing until her fingers brushed against Vi’s cheek. They both froze, staring intently at one another. Vi’s brows folded inward, confused but also curious, and Caitlyn noticed that her breathing had calmed down. Vi searched Caitlyn’s eyes, then her eyes flickered down to Caitlyn’s mouth.
Loud footsteps and the clinking of metal forced their gazes away from each other. Vi turned and Caitlyn looked over her shoulder. A large man walked into their line of vision, his baton banging against the metal bars. Caitlyn recognized him as the guard that she and Marcus first met who sat at the front desk.
“Heard you got yourself into quite the mess, Pinky,” the guard spoke, his voice deep and ominous. He unlocked the cell and forced it open.
Vi’s back straightened. She widened her stance in front of Caitlyn, almost as though she was trying to shield her.
“And? What about it?” Vi asked.
The guard snorted, then gargled and spit onto the floor of their cell. He stepped inside.
“You,” he said, pointing at Caitlyn. “Get out here.”
Caitlyn pressed herself further into the wall, afraid. But why? She knew that he knew who she was. And then she realized that the same could not be said for Vi, who was just a prisoner in his eyes.
“Why?” Caitlyn asked.
“Don’t ask questions. Get out here, now!” he barked.
Caitlyn released a shaky breath and came out from around Vi, who grew even more tense. Slowly, she walked forward until she came in front of the enormous guard.
Grabbing her by the shoulder, he pushed her out of the cell. There was another enforcer outside of it who immediately closed the cell door, locking the other one and Vi in there together. Caitlyn rushed forward.
“What’s going on?” she said. Then she watched in horror as the large guard raised his baton and started beating Vi with it. The noise that left Caitlyn’s mouth sounded nothing like herself. She threw herself up against the cell, screaming, tears filling her eyes as she watched the guy throw the baton aside after having his fun and then reverting to his fists and knees. Vi tried her best to fight back, but she was already bleeding from the head from the first blow.
Caitlyn’s voice went hoarse as the beating went on and on, tears rolling down her cheeks. Once she started banging on the cell bars and hurting her wrists so much they started to bruise, the other guard finally took her by the shoulders and slammed her against the opposite wall.
“Get ahold of yourself!” he hissed into her ear. Caitlyn could barely hear him as she looked over his shoulder at the horrific scene playing out in front of her. “Why the fuck are you getting so emotional over some Undercity trash? Stay out of it and keep your head low for the rest of the night.”
He let her go and Caitlyn slid down onto ground, covering her mouth and burying her face into her knees as she listened to Vi’s cries grow weaker with each hit. It felt like an eternity of uselessness.
When she finally heard the cell door open again, she raised her head, the tears still freely falling. The large guard cracked his neck, a disgustingly pleased smile on his lips as he walked out. He stopped in front of Caitlyn and looked down at her, then he winked and walked off. The other guard forced Caitlyn back onto her feet and then pushed her inside of the cell again. When the door closed and locked, and the sound of the guards’ footsteps became quieter, Caitlyn sunk down to the ground again. That sliver of red light from the hall entered the room, slicing against Vi’s still body. For a second, Caitlyn thought she was dead, but then she heard Vi groan.
“Vi,” Caitlyn choked out. She crawled over and put her hand on Vi’s back. Vi was face down on the ground, and Caitlyn was almost too scared to turn her over. But the thought of Vi suffocating terrified her more. Carefully, she rolled Vi around until she was on her back. A gasp, followed by a cry, left her mouth. “Vi!”
Vi’s mouth and nose had blood pouring out of them, along with several smaller areas on her face that were cut open. Caitlyn placed her hand on Vi’s cheek. Then, without thinking about it, she shifted Vi so that her head fell into her lap. Her eyes remained closed, but she continued to groan.
“Please open your eyes,” Caitlyn pleaded. A tear drop fell onto Vi’s cheek, mixing with the blood and falling down Vi’s face. Vi didn’t speak, and Caitlyn started crying again, as if she really stopped in the first place. She couldn’t process what just happened even if she wanted to.
A hand touched her face, and she opened her eyes. Her heart stopped when she saw a peek of Vi’s powder blue eyes and a partial smile on her face.
“Heh. You’re not so bad, Cupcake,” she whispered, and then she passed out.