Work Text:
Vi woke up slowly, forcing her consciousness to the surface through the thick fog engulfing her mind. She wasn’t really worried about it, as that was how she woke up most days anymore. What Vi did get nervous about was the fact that she didn’t recognize anything around her, anything but the blue-haired girl sitting at a vanity a few feet away.
“Looking good sis.” Vi was on her feet before she even thought about it, her hand around Jinx’s throat, cutting off her sister’s air supply.
“Shut up.” Vi knew she looked like shit, she didn’t need to be told that. After all, Powder Jinx was the one who put her in this position. But she didn’t, Caitlyn had tried to shoot her through a kid and Vi could let that happen.
Jinx wheezed under her hand, clearly trying to force out words, but Vi didn’t want to hear them. She couldn’t take any more tricks from the monster wearing her sister’s face. She’s still Powder, even if she goes by Jinx, still her little sister, still Powder. Vi was ready to end everything there and then, finish the fight Caitlyn started. It won’t bring Caitlyn back. Because she left she left she left she left she left-
As a tear slipped from Jinx’s eye, Vi caught a movement out of the corner of her eye, a flash of blue in Jinx’s broken mirror. Vi whipped around, eyes wild as she tried to locate the source of the reflection. “Caitlyn?” Caitlyn didn’t answer. She never did.
Vi had been seeing her everywhere, in the crowds at pit fights, in the faces of the guys who hit on her, behind the enforcer flags in the lanes, and, most recently, in every reflective surface. She couldn’t escape the judgmental eyes of her ex-partner.
Realizing what happened, Vi groaned, running a frustrated hand through her hair. “Why don’t you just go away?”
“Vi?” Powder’s Jinx’s timid voice brought Vi back from her pointless search. Seeing her little sister Jinx on the ground, her neck covered in the black grease that decorated Vi’s hands and body made the brawler just want to collapse. She couldn’t do this anymore. “What was that?”
“She won’t go away.” Vi wasn’t sure why the words got so stuck in her throat, she wasn’t even sure why she said them at all. Vi was sure Jinx would laugh, call her crazy, and demand a fight, but she was surprised when her sister’s Jinx’s features softened, giving her a look of understanding.
“A flash in the mirror?” Vi nodded to the question, turning her eyes away from Jinx. “You see her anywhere else? In crowds? Alone? Maybe in the shadows?”
“All of them.” Vi was sure it was a bad idea to tell Jinx this. It was almost certain that the demolition expert would use it against her, so why was she telling her? “It doesn’t matter. She’s not real. I checked.” Vi didn’t say just how many times she thought the Caitlyn she saw was real, how many times she ran after her ex-partner only to run into some confused guy, asking her why she was calling them Caitlyn.
The worst part of Vi seeing the sharpshooter everywhere was Vi didn’t know what version she might encounter. Sometimes it was the kind one from before the council meeting, the one who understood her and just wanted to help, the one Vi fell in love with. But sometimes it was the Caitlyn from the tunnel, her cold eyes boring into Vi and demanding she put back on the badge or telling her to fuck off. The uncertainty was starting to crawl under Vi’s skin, making her itchy and causing her alright high anxiety to spike even further. Finally, Vi gave in to the desire to rest, sitting down on the ledge she had been passed out on a few minutes earlier.
A soft rustle next to her told Vi Jinx had moved to sit next to her. The pit fighter knew she should shove her sister Jinx away she needed to stop thinking of Jinx as her sister, she isn’t, Powder is gone Powder is gone Powder is gone- but she couldn’t drag up the energy to do so.
“Ew, how much have you been drinking?” Vi looked up to see Jinx wrinkling her nose just like Powder used to , probably from the smell of booze and Vomit that had been clinging to Vi for almost two weeks.
“Enough.” Vi could still taste the cheap bourbon she drank before her fight, whether that was the taste from drinking the booze itself or from vomiting it up, Vi had no idea.
“That can’t be healthy.” Vi shrugged at Jinx’s observation. If she was drunk enough, she didn’t have to think about her lost little sister, or Caitlyn, or the rest of her fucked up life. “So, Hat lady’s been haunting you, huh?” Vi might have snapped back at that, but all the fight was drained out of her. It wasn’t like she could fix anything by fighting now.
“Something like that.” Powder Jinx hummed in contemplation.
“Appearing in mirrors and in crowds, kind of sounds like how I first started seeing Mylo and Claggor.” Jinx’s tone sounded casual, but Vi could feel the pink eyes on her, tracking her, seeing how she would respond. But all Vi did was mull over the words. She remembered the way Jinx spoke to no one when they first met, the way she heard things Vi didn’t. It had scared her. Even more so when she saw the creepy look-a-like dolls that were supposed to be their brothers.
But that was what Vi was doing now, wasn’t it? Seeing someone who wasn’t there, talking to them, hearing them. Vi didn’t say anything in response to Jinx. She couldn’t. What was there even left to say?
“You ever…” Jinx paused as though considering whether or not to say what she was thinking. “Hear her?”
Vi wished she could say no. While she always saw Caitlyn, she only heard her on a few occasions. Sometimes the voice accompanied a vision, and sometimes Caitlyn was just a voice. Vi might have been able to brush it off, but the Caitlyn that spoke was always the mean one. The Caitlyn that left her in that tunnel alone and scared.
That Caitlyn always just reminded Vi of what the real Caitlyn thought. Called her a monster, said she was worthless, that she should have left her in Stillwater. At least, Vi was pretty sure that was what Caitlyn thought.
The memories had started blurring together with Vi’s imagined version of Caitlyn. She was starting to question if she ever actually knew what Caitlyn thought. Maybe she had only ever been the mean version of her and Vi had just never noticed.
“What does she say to you?” Jinx was still trying to sound casual, but Vi knew her far too well for it to work.
“Nothing that isn’t true.” And it wasn’t. Vi was worthless. She had only ever gotten in Caitlyn’s way. The fight with Sevika, the tea party, and even their final confrontation with Jinx, Vi had messed it all up.
“No, Vi,” Jinx was now in front of her, her unnaturally bright eyes locked on Vi. Why does she seem to care so much? “What does she say?” Vi sighed, she had already come this far, so why not tell Powder Jinx everything?
“She shouldn’t have let me out. All I did was wreck everything. That I’m a monster and-“
“A jinx?” Jinx interrupted Vi, making the brawler look over her sister again, in a new light. When she had first seen Powder after getting out of Stillwater, her sister had asked her if she was real. Initially, Vi thought it was just disbelief at seeing her alive after so long, but what if she really wasn’t sure if Vi was there? What if Powder had been seeing something that looked like her the same way Vi was now seeing Caitlyn? What horrible things could her image have said to her little sister?
“You’re not a jinx.” The whispered words sounded weak, even to Vi’s own ears. Her sister Jinx just shrugged.
“Maybe to this you.” Vi wanted to vomit, and for the first time in several weeks, she was sure it had nothing to do with booze.
“I-“ Vi started to speak, maybe to apologize, maybe to cry, Vi wasn’t sure. She never got to find out as Jinx moved forward and wrapped her in a hug.
It took only a moment’s hesitation before Vi wrapped her own arms around Jinx. Her heart pounding hard in her chest reminding her that the person in her arms was, in fact, her sister. Nothing could change that. Not an illness, not a name, not even years apart. Jinx was her sister. Forever. And Vi resolved to never forget that again.
The fleeing thought ran through Vi’s head that this could be the happiest she’d been in years.
“But that’s not why I dragged you down here.” A part of Vi was sad her sister hadn’t just wanted to make up, but a bigger part of her was amused that Jinx waited until her hand was forced to set up their reunion. It was just like something Vi would do.
“What happened?” Vi pulled back out of their hug to look at Jinx.
“It’s Vander.” Jinx’s words froze the blood in Vi’s veins. Was Jinx seeing their dad? As though Jinx read her thoughts, she added, “he’s alive.”
“Pow- Jinx,” Vi corrected herself before she could use the wrong name. “Vander’s gone. We both saw it. Is this like-“
“He’s real, Vi!” Jinx didn’t quite yell, but it was a close thing. “I know the difference.” The words sounded almost embarrassed, and Vi’s heart cracked in her chest. With everything that had happened, the least Vi could do was hear her sister out on this.
And even if it wasn’t real… well what did it matter anymore? Vi had no intention of leaving her sister again anytime soon, mutual madness or not.
“Okay.” Jinx's eyes snapped to her’s, her face filled with hope. “Let’s go get him.”
Jinx smiled broadly, practically radiating happiness. “Well, there is one other thing before we go.” Vi raised an eyebrow, signaling for Jinx to continue.
The demolition expert moved just out of sight and came back out, her hand clutched around the much smaller hand of the kid who saved her in the tunnels. “This is Isha.” Jinx took a deep breath. “While you were out wasting time with enforcers and getting beat up, I got us a new little sister.”
When the little girl smiled, Vi knew she was wrong. This was definitely the happiest she had been in a very long time.