Chapter Text
Vi knew this mission might be dangerous, no actually, it is dangerous. With Claggor and Mylo injured from the last one, she really isn't sure if she could take Powder out. Little man told her there was a really good place in topside and they could get a huge profit out of it..
Violet sighs. She really really wants to do this. Is powder up for the job? Maybe she should just go alone. If they go together, Can they get out of it? Will it go smoothly? What if they got caught by the enforcers? What if-
"Vi! Look! I'm ready now. Can we go?" Powder snaps vi out from her thoughts. The little girl's eyes sparkled under the dim light. It's almost impossible not to say no while looking at her. She was holding onto her satchel, clearly ready for the trip.
With a sigh, vi stands up from the couch, her eyes never leaving her little sister. "Listen pow-pow, I think I should do this alone.." Vi's voice suddenly got softer towards the end of her sentence. Powder tilts her head, not hearing her older sister properly.
"You know what? I think you're ready. Come on." Vi ruffles powder's hair, smiling. Powder couldn't contain her happiness.
And so, the two of them set out on their journey to piltover, jumping from roof to roof. Albeit, Powder was a bit scared at first but she quickly catches on and with Vi's help of course, they got to their destination pretty quick.
Vi knocked down the balcony door easily. As they walked in, powder can't help but feel amazed by the apartment. It was rather small though..
The dim, cluttered interior of the apartment was a maze of strange contraptions, glowing blueprints, and piles of scrap metal. The heart of the chaos sat in the form of an experimental tools, its core pulsing faintly with the eerie light of a glowing crystal. Vi and Powder crouched near the entrance, their eyes darting around the room, both nervous and excited.
“Vi, look at this place!” Powder whispered, clutching her satchel. Her wide eyes sparkled with curiosity as she scanned the odd gadgets that were all over the place.
“Yeah, looks like a Piltie’s dream,” Vi muttered, her tone laced with disdain. She wasn’t as intrigued as her sister. They had been on this risky mission for a reason—one that didn’t involve gawking at shiny inventions. “Grab what we need and let’s get out of here.”
Powder went into another room, much organised than the other. She hesitated, her gaze drawn to the glowing crystal at the heart of the device. “Do you think it’s safe?” she called out to Vi
“Probably not. Which is why we’re not touching it,” Vi snapped, her tone softening when she saw Powder flinch. “Just stay close, okay? We can’t afford to mess this up.” She grabs some intriguing looking gadgets, putting it inside her bag
As Vi rummaged through the piltie's belongings for valuables, Powder couldn’t resist inching closer to the crystal. It thrummed with a hypnotic energy, drawing her in like a moth to a flame.
The moment her fingers brushed its surface, the device let out a sharp, high-pitched screech. Powder yelped, stumbling back as the room was suddenly engulfed in a blinding blue light.
“Powder!” Vi shouted, leaping to shield her sister as the device exploded. The force threw them both across the room, shards of glass and metal raining down like deadly confetti. The apartment was in shambles, smoke curling from the wreckage.
***
a few hours before
Jayce had got some new equipment for his lab and he's more than excited to try them. New theories pop up into his mind; formulas, equations.. all that could possibly make magic happen.
It's nice that Caitlyn offered to help him out with the stuff but due to some shenanigans, she had to rush back to the kiramman estate to do stuff? Jayce doesn't really knows what she does.
As the young man arrived at his apartment, he could hear some rustling inside. Shit. Is it a critter? Or an intruder? Nonetheless, he has to get inside. Putting the box down, he immediately
Jayce stumbled through the broken door, coughing from the smoke, his heart racing at the sight of his ruined apartment. His eyes immediately locked onto the two girls, bruised and coughing amidst the debris. Fury flickered across his face, but it was tempered by worry.
“What the- who are you? And the hell did you do?!” he shouted, storming toward them. His voice cracked with a mix of anger and panic.
Vi scrambled to her feet, positioning herself protectively in front of Powder. “Hey! We didn’t mean to—”
“Mean to?!” Jayce gestured wildly to the wreckage. “You destroyed my work! Do you have any idea how dangerous—”
Powder whimpered, clutching her arm where a shard had grazed her skin. Jayce’s tirade faltered as he noticed the blood trickling down her forearm. His anger gave way to a grudging sense of responsibility.
“Let me see that,” he muttered, kneeling beside Powder. She recoiled, but he gently took her arm, examining the wound. “You’re lucky it’s not worse. And you,” he said, glancing up at Vi, “look like you took a hit too.”
“We’re fine,” Vi insisted, though she winced as she shifted. Her fiery gaze locked with his. “Just let us go. We’ll leave, and you can go back to… whatever this mess is.”
“Mess?” Jayce’s brows furrowed, but the desperation in her voice gave him pause. He sighed heavily, standing and running a hand through his hair. “You two are coming with me. I’m not letting you bleed out in here.”
"Okay, we're sorry here's your things-" Footsteps could be heard approaching. Shit. The enforcers are here. Vi and Powder are cornered. Jayce had already seen them and it's useless if they escaped now.
***
The council chamber loomed above them, an oppressive space where every word felt magnified. Jayce stood before the council, flanked by Vi and Powder, who looked small and out of place in Piltover’s authority.
"Your reckless actions nearly cost lives. You’re lucky we didn’t strip you of everything." Councillor salo sighs, clearly uninterested
“What was in your lab that caused the explosion? And.. Who are these… individuals?” Councillor Medarda asked, her sharp gaze pinning the sisters in place.
Jayce hesitated, glancing at the girls. "I was trying to create magic--" Powder’s eyes darted nervously, before she cut jayce's sentence and blurted out something she didn't think of “AND we're cousins!”
There was a beat of stunned silence. Councillor Kiramman arched a skeptical brow. “Talis's cousins? From where, exactly?”
Vi stepped forward, her voice trembling. “From.. his dad's side. Really far away. We came to visit Jayce, and—”
“And stumbled into one of his experiments,” Powder finished smoothly, continuing up on the lie. “We didn’t mean to cause any trouble. Honest.”
The council exchanged dubious looks. “House Kiramman has no record of your existence,” one member said flatly.
“To test the veracity of this claim,” Medarda interjected, her tone deceptively sweet, “we propose a… solution. Let them stay with you, Jayce. For one month. If they’re truly family, it should be evident.”
Jayce paled. “A month? With them?”
“Do you object?” Medarda’s eyes gleamed with amusement.
Jayce glanced at the girls, who both looked at him with a mix of pleading and defiance. “Alright." He replied.
"But, we are still skeptical about your.. magic. So, you will be banned from experimenting with anything of the sort for a whole year" heimerdinger speaks, his voice was laced with a cartoony bubble. Jayce couldn't believe it. He wanted to decline but he knew it would be useless. Fuck.
***
It's only been a few days and the arrangement began with awkward silences and unspoken tension. Jayce tried to repair his crystals while the girls tiptoed around his apartment, Powder’s curiosity often getting the better of her.
“Don’t touch that!” Jayce barked one morning as Powder reached for another contraption.
“I wasn’t going to break it!” she protested, sticking her tongue out at him.
Vi smirked from her spot on the couch. “Relax, Piltie. We’re not here to wreck your life any more than we already have.”
Jayce groaned, rubbing his temples. “One month,” he muttered. “One long month.”
Jayce decided that the girls are better off staying at his mom's house, for now. His apartment was filled with things that could possibly explode things and he doesnt want that happening again.
***
Jayce stood amidst the wreckage of his apartment, the destruction a grim reflection of the turmoil inside him. The once-vibrant space, filled with his ambitions and dreams, now lay in shambles. His work—the crystals, the experiments, the sleepless nights—was gone, snatched away by a single catastrophic mistake.
The council’s decree echoed in his mind: No experiments for a year.
A year without his life’s work. A year of stagnation.
He clenched his fists, his shoulders trembling. His breath misted in the cold air leaking through the shattered windows. Beyond the edge of his balcony, the bustling streets of Piltover stretched below, a kaleidoscope of lights and life. But it all felt so far away. So unreachable.
Jayce shuffled closer to the edge. His thoughts were a whirlwind, each one more crushing than the last. What was left for him now? The crystals had been his everything—his purpose. And now they were just shards scattered across the floor, and some are with heimerdinger. Who knows when he'll get them back.
A soft gust of wind tousled his hair as he gazed down at the cobblestone road. His heart pounded. Maybe… maybe this was the solution. A way to escape the unbearable weight of failure.
“Hey, Piltie!”
Jayce froze, startled by the sudden voice. He turned his head slightly to see Vi leaning casually against the balcony door, her arms crossed. Powder was right behind her, clutching her satchel with wide, curious eyes.
Vi grinned wickedly. “If you’re gonna jump, at least make it entertaining. Do a flip!”
Jayce stared at her, utterly dumbfounded. “What—what is wrong with you?” he sputtered, stepping back from the edge.
Powder giggled uncontrollably, covering her mouth. “Vi! You’re gonna make him mad!”
“Too late for that,” Jayce snapped, running a hand through his hair. “What are you two doing here? I left you at my mother’s house for a reason!”
“We got bored,” Vi said nonchalantly, shrugging. “Figured we’d come check on our dear ‘cousin.’ Good thing we did. You looked like you were about to become street art.”
Jayce threw his hands in the air, exasperated. “This isn’t a joke! Do you have any idea how—”
He was cut off by a soft, measured voice.
“Am I interrupting?”
The three of them turned toward the door to see a slender figure standing in the shadows of the hallway. Viktor stepped forward, his cane tapping softly against the floor. His sharp features were illuminated by the faint light, and his expression was calm, though tinged with curiosity.
Jayce blinked, trying to place the man. He vaguely remembered seeing him around the Academy but had never spoken to him. “Who are you?”
“Viktor,” the man replied simply, holding up a leather-bound journal. “I believe this belongs to you.”
Jayce’s eyes widened as recognition dawned. His journal—the one the enforcers had confiscated. “How did you—”
“I saw it in their possession and took the liberty of retrieving it,” Viktor said, his tone neutral but tinged with a subtle smugness. “Your theories are… intriguing.”
Vi, leaning against the doorframe, raised an eyebrow. “So, what? You just decided to waltz in here like you own the place?”
Viktor’s gaze flicked to Vi briefly before returning to Jayce. “I assumed you would want this back. Am I wrong?”
Powder snickered, watching the chaos unfold. Jayce was shouting, Vi was wearing her signature smug grin, and Viktor remained the calm eye of the storm, unflinching in the face of the madness.
Finally, Jayce groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I can’t believe this is happening. I don’t even know you!”
“Not yet,” Viktor said with a faint smile. “But I suspect we may have more in common than you think.”
Jayce sighed heavily, his gaze shifting between the two chaotic sisters and the mysterious newcomer. For the first time in days, a flicker of something other than despair stirred within him—curiosity.
This was quite the mess.