Chapter Text
An air of tension filled the bridge of the Morning Star as it drifted cautiously towards its destination.
A new customer who they hadn't interacted with before had contacted them with a generous offer. A risky proposition to take an unsolicited proposal from an unknown party, but they didn't seem obviously suspicious and the amount of credits they offered was worth the risk if the job proved legit.
Part of that risk was the fact that while the job itself was allegedly simple and straightforward, getting there would involve the Morning Star - one of the most infamous smuggler ships in several solar systems - to cross over into galactic quadrants owned by the law-bound Piltis, one of the few galactic super-powers who could rival Demaxcia, with a love for the letter of the law down to the last sub-paragraph. So law-loving, in fact, that although they could rival Demaxcia, Demaxcia had nothing to fear from them so long as they kept to their own side of the universe.
A known criminal ship like the Morning Star passing through Piltis space would be like waving a flame to a flock of moths, if moths were heavily armed battleships ready to deploy heavy ordinance while reciting various laws, bylaws, state statutes, and unwritten but agreed upon rules of etiquette that the offending flame had broken and violated.
The gambit the crew had come up with after much debate on whether to take the job at all was to make sure they were carrying no illegitimate cargo, and they were approaching the border of Piltis space at which they would be subjected to security checks.
"Easy," Yasuo said, trying to keep the crew's nerves calm. For this plan to work, everything had to go perfectly. Which meant Malphite had to keep his temper and Jinx had to keep from doing something impulsive. "Easy. Any minute now."
"Incoming transmission, Cap'n!" Jinx declared.
"On screen," Yasuo said.
Jinx bopped a button with her organic arm, and the screen blinked and showed the Piltis officer they had been waiting for, a woman with a rough-face and stern gaze like she'd seen more than a few rough scrapes for a supposed imperial officer.
"Attention, crew of the Morning Star," the officer said with a practiced harshness to her voice. "You are about to cross over into Piltis space. Turn back now or be subjected to inspection that we both know you won't pass."
Yasuo cleared his throat. "We are aware that this is Piltis space and we have prepared our ship. We are ready for your inspection, officer."
The officer raised an eyebrow.
"This ought to be good," she muttered. "Open your hangar doors and prepare to receive my contingent."
Yasuo nodded, cut the transmission, and exchanged nods with the crew.
They gathered in front of the door where the officer would step through, all of them nervous about whether the plan would succeed but also taking steps to tamp down their anxiety. Malphite held Jinx's shoulder while Jinx fiddled with one of her contraptions, rapidly assembling it and taking it apart again. Yasuo remained focused on his mission.
The door opened with a pneumatic hiss, and the officer stepped forward.
The screen had failed to convey just how large and muscular this woman was. Jinx wondered if she'd been cut out of marble the way her muscles poked through the heavy dark fabrics of black and brown uniform. She looked like she could arm-wrestle the giant Malphite and win easily.
Her hair was a neon-green color, parted to one side and partly shaved on the other, and both her eyes and a tattoo depicting the Roman numeral for six - "VI" glowed with a matching green color.
"I'm humoring you, Morning Star," the officer said. "We know what kind of ship you are. You really think you can pass a Piltis inspection with your reputation?"
"I assure you, we are not carrying any contraband on our ship," Yasuo said.
The officer raised a disbelieving eyebrow.
"Currently," Yasuo added. "We are not carrying any contraband currently."
The officer nodded. "Uh-huh. Sure. I am Legatus Vi of the VIth Imperial Legion of Piltis. I will be responsible for conducting your inspection and deciding whether or not you will be allowed into our airspace or shot down out of the sky. Let's start with ..." Vi's eyes scanned through the room, but she froze in place like someone just dropped a glacier on her head when her eyes spotted Jinx.
"Powder?"
"Powder?" Jinx asked. "You want powder? Sure thing. Do you prefer gun, or baking?"She pulled out, miraculously and against all logic, a bag of gunpowder in her robot hand and a canister of baking powder in the other.
"Powder!" Vi exclaimed, rushing forward and pulling Jinx into a bone-crunching hug, causing Jinx to drop both of the containers.
"Yasuo," Jinx squeaked out. Jinx squeaked out weakly as the officer's strong arms came around her - and goodness, this officer had to be the buffest woman Jinx had ever met "Help. She's getting her Imperial cooties all over me."
"I can't believe it's you!" Vi broke the hug and gently brushed a hand along Jinx's cheek. "After all this time ..."
"Whoa, lady." Jinx pushed away Vi away. "My name is Jinx."
"What?" Vi asked. "That's not ... I didn't mean ..."
Vi looked at Jinx with concern.
"You don't remember me?"
Jinx cocked her head off to one side, the way a confused dog often does, then shook her head.
"Nope!"
"Powder," Vi said, "it's me. You really don't remember me at all?"
"Look, lady," Jinx said, "you can have all the existential crises- se-ses-ses you want on our ship, but you have to call me Jinx while you do it, mmkay?"
Vi frowned, then her lips curled into a soft smile. She pulled up a tablet and checked something off with her stylus.
"Morning Star, you are cleared for travel through Piltis airspace," Vi said.
"What - just like that?" Yasuo asked.
"Just like that," Vi answered. "As a matter of fact, not only are you cleared, but I am offering my personal invitation to you and your entire crew to join me for dinner this evening. Please come. I would be delighted to have you over, and ..."
Vi looked at Jinx with the kind of look that only proud family members can deliver.
"My sister and I have a lot to talk about."
Vi gave Yasuo a salute, then turned and left through the door she came in from.
"I'm sorry, did she say sister?" Jinx experimentally stuck a pinky finger into her ear to see if maybe she misheard and needed to clean her ears out. "Did anybody else hear that? Did she say sister?"
"That she did," Yasuo said. "Although having dinner with imperial officers isn't my first pick of how to spend an evening, Legatus Vi seems convinced that you are her sister, Jinx, and while that may or may not be true, I can think of a few ways having a familial connection to a force as powerful as Piltis could be leveraged to our benefit and make our lives much easier."
His eyes fell on the can of baking powder Jinx had dropped, and he picked up and inspected it, frowning as he did.
"Jinx?" Yasuo asked. "I think I know why your cookies keep coming out the way they do."
"What's wrong with my cookies?" Jinx asked.
The real answer was that she burnt them to a blackened brick that could be used as building foundations, but the rest of the crew had been too polite to say that to her face. After all, on the rare occasion where she did bake, it was an impulse done out of love for her crew.
Yasuo turned the can towards Jinx. "This is baking soda ."
Jinx's shoulders sagged and she stared at the can in utter disbelief. "Ooh."
The Morning Star followed Vi's ship to the planet and touched down outside a giant complex that looked out of place and out of time, shaped like a medieval castle with walls made of stone and brick, towers that reached ridiculously high into the sky, and crenellations as far as the eye could see.
"Stick close with me, guys," Vi told the Morning Star crew as she and they dismounted their respective ships. "This place is kinda big, so it's easy to get lost if you don't know your way around."
The crew followed her inside, still going with Yasuo's lead.
What an odd thing. Vi seemed to transform into a completely different person after mistaking Jinx for this Powder person. Before, she seemed a living embodiment of what the rest of the galaxy took Piltis to be like; stern, harsh, ready for battle and obsessed with upholding the law. Now she seemed casual and friendly like they were good drinking buddies.
They entered through a wall and into a courtyard, where a woman flanked by impressive automatons with giant axes was waiting for them.
"Legatus Vi!" shouted the woman, a tall, dark and handsome type with long flowing hair and a typical Piltis stern expression that looked out of place on her beautiful and lady-like face. Like Vi, her eyes and a tattoo of a Roman numeral glowed on her face from some cybernetic alteration, but her numbers were colored blue and the numeral was a three located on her forehead. "Would you care to explain to me why you have not only not detained the known criminal crew of the Morning Star, but have gone so far as to invite them into my home!?"
"Tribunus Caitlyn Kiramann," Vi said, bumping her fist into her palm in a strange salute, "one of the crew happens to be my sister. I know they have a reputation, but I was hoping we might ... overlook that for just a little bit so my sister and I can catch up and that we might let them join us for dinner?"
"Your sister?" the Tribunus asked, her face and her voice softening with a contrast even sharper than the change that had gone through Vi.
Vi placed a hand on Caitlyn's shoulder and escorted her over to Jinx.
"Powder," Caitlyn said, offering her hand. "It's so nice to finally meet you and put a face to all the stories. Vi has told me much about you."
"My name's Jinx, actually," Jinx said, though she wasn't so rude as to refuse the handshake. "And the only reason we're staying around here instead of blasting off to where we're supposed to be is to get this whole Powder-Jinx thing sorted out. The only reason." She gave a sharp glare at Yasuo, letting him know she did not approve of his plan to try and use her to get in good with the Piltis commander.
"Are you certain that this woman is Powder, Vi?" Caitlyn asked. "She seems much more ... acidic than the girl in your stories."
"Positive," Vi said with a nod. "Nobody else has eyes like that. I'd know those eyes anywhere. Hair's a little different, though."
Jinx allowed herself a slight chuckle and ran a hand through her braid to show off.
"This situation is ... unorthodox," Caitlyn said, "but in light of what you've told me before, Vi, I will make the arrangements to allow Jinx -"
"Powder," Vi corrected.
"Jinx," Jinx added, correcting Vi's correction.
"This woman and her crew," Caitlyn said, glaring with annoyance at both of them, "to use our facilities without being arrested. I will file out all the necessary paperwork. Until then, Jinx, you and your crew may be permitted to explore the grounds, so long as Vi agrees to escort you where you wish to go. If you have any trouble, come find me and I will make my best effort to straighten it out."
Caitlyn waved her hand to dismiss the robot guards, then left herself.
"Isn't she great?" Vi asked after both Caitlyn and the guards were gone.
"I don't know," Jinx said, "seems a little stuffy for my tastes."
Vi chuckled. "That's just because she's on the job. Just between you and me, she's a lot more likable when she's off the clock."
"If you say so," Jinx said.
"Come on!" Vi wrapped an arm around Jinx's shoulder and pulled Jinx close. Jinx felt like she'd just been yanked through a roller coaster. "I'll show you to your room."
"I have a room?" Jinx asked. "I just got here!"
"You'll be bunking with me," Vi said with a grin. "Just like when we were kids!"
"What about them?" Jinx asked, pointing over her shoulder to the rest of her crew.
"Oh right. They're your friends, yeah? I'll try to be nice to them. Come on, all of you!" Vi gestured with her whole arm. "Time to get everyone to their rooms. Dinner is no later than 7:30PM sharp so be presentable by then!"
Vi escorted Yasuo, Malphite and Sona to their rooms. Sona made a request to be allowed to share a room with Yasuo and while it had taken a bit of interpreting of her sign language from Yasuo to communicate with Vi, Vi saw no reason not to grant the request.
Jinx disliked the experience. It was like Vi was putting her friends into boxes one by one and cutting Jinx off them so she could have Jinx all to herself.
"And this is where you'll be sleeping!" Vi said proudly, opening the door to a room that was spacious for one person but a little cramped for two. A double bunk bed had already been set up, however, as though Vi had been waiting for this day.
Jinx went up to the bed, placing a hand on its post. "Do you really sleep in a bed like this?"
Vi blushed and bashfully rubbed at her neck. "I may have told Cupcake that I was hoping to find you. And ... she might have slept in the top bunk whenever I started feeling really lonely."
"Cupcake?" Jinx asked.
Vi's eyes widened. "Oh, that's my name for the Tribunus. But don't tell her I told you that!"
Jinx grinned and chuckled, then climbed up onto the top bunk. "Your secret's safe with me."
Vi smiled, then frowned.
"What is it?" Jinx asked.
"Do you ... really not remember me, Pow-Pow?" Vi asked.
Jinx shook her head. "Nope."
"Not one thing?" Vi asked.
Jinx shrugged. "Well, maybe you just weren't worth remembering."
Vi looked like she might shatter into pieces on the spot, and Jinx winced and cursed at herself. She knew she sometimes struggled interacting with people, and Yasuo had warned her several times that she needed to work on her people skills.
"Wait, listen, I'm sorry," Jinx said. "I ... didn't mean that how it probably came out."
"No, no, it's fine," Vi said, waving a hand to assure her. "I was ... pretty mean to you before we got separated. But you really don't remember anything?"
"Nope."
"Not Vander?" Vi asked. "Claggor? Mylo?"
Jinx hoped Vi didn't notice the flinch she made at the name of Mylo. Why was that name significant?
What was her body remembering about Mylo that her brain somehow wasn't?
"No," Jinx said. "Tell me more about Mylo?"
"Mylo?" Vi asked. "He was a good kid. A little mean, but you kinda had to be to survive growing up where he did. He ... picked on you a lot." Vi sighed.
Jinx nodded like she understood, then faked a yawn and rolled over onto her side on her bed.
"Well, if it's all right with you, Legs-a-tist, I've had a long, confusing day, so I think I'd like a little nap-nap before din-din, okay?"
"That's not how you pronounce ..." Vi began, but she shook her head, smiling with gratitude at having her sister back. "Okay. I'll come get you when it's time for dinner."
Vi closed the door, and Jinx tried to relax, but she couldn't.
Too many questions were swimming through her mind.
Who was Vander? Claggor? And especially Mylo? Was Vi really her sister, or was this some elaborate ruse to lure her and Yasuo and the rest of the Morning Star crew into a trap so Kayn could get his hands on Sona? Why did Vi keep calling her Powder?
What happened?
Jinx gave another sigh and closed her eyes.
She never achieved sleep.
Vi might have softened up when she realized that Jinx was seemingly Powder, but she was still a Piltis officer through and through. She went through the rooms and collected Yasuo and the others, making sure their group was ready to start marching towards the dining room at 7:15 and gave them clear orders to march in lockstep with her in such a rhythm and pacing that they would arrive at the dining room no later and no sooner than exactly the prescribed time of 7:30.
Caitlyn was already sat down, and there was a waitress in the room carrying a bottle of champagne in her hands.
"Welcome everyone," Caitlyn said.
Vi and the others took their seats, with Vi encouraging Jinx to sit next to her and sitting down herself in such a way that she was in between Caitlyn and Jinx.
"I hope the food is to your liking," Caitlyn said, giving polite smiles to all of the crew.
Malphite immediately began shoveling food into his mouth with his giant hands, chewing loudly and making a mess of both partly chewed chunks that flew out of his mouth and spittle.
Yasuo bowed his head and put his hands together in apparent prayer, and Sona signed a thank-you over to Caitlyn.
"You're welcome," Caitlyn signed back to Sona, to Sona's delight.
"Malphite," Yasuo said, "we are guests here. Manners."
Malphite made a grunt of confusion, then nodded. His manners consisted of finding a napkin, tying around his neck as a bib, then proceeding to eat in the exact same messy way he had been doing before.
"I'm sorry about him," Yasuo said.
"It's fine," Caitlyn said. "It's almost charming. In a way." Caitlyn's mouth twitched, and Jinx could tell she was screaming internally at Malphite's sloppy eating behavior and was just being polite.
Vi and Caitlyn went to their food with the amount of diligence and deliberation Pilties were known for.
Jinx's plate went untouched.
"Powder?" Vi asked. "Aren't you gonna eat?"
"Not hungry," Jinx said, pushing her plate away.
"Pow-Pow, please," Vi said. "You should eat. It's not like it was ... before, anymore. We don't need to preserve every scrap. It's fine if you want to take it to your room, but ... you should eat."
"Oh, please," Jinx rolled her eyes. "I've been living on a spaceship with a bunch of criminals, smuggling Aurelion Sol-knows-what to all manner of other, worse criminals to make ends meet! What would you know about preserving scraps living this big fancy palace with your sweetheart over here?"
Caitlyn blushed.
Vi slammed a fist on the table, causing silverware and plates to clatter.
"What is your problem, Powder!?" Vi shouted. "All I've done is try to be nice and make you feel welcome, but you keep acting like I'm this ... total stranger who's out to get you!"
Jinx stood up from her seat.
"You want to know what my problem is? It's that right there! You ARE a total stranger to me!" Jinx said. "I don't know who Powder is! I don't know who Vander or Mylo or Claggor or anybody else that you think the two of us are supposed to know is! And my name is JINX!"
Vi growled and clenched her fists. Then, just before it looked like she might hit Jinx, she sighed.
"Why?" Vi asked, her eyes growing watery. "Why don't you remember anything?"
"I don't know!" Jinx threw her hands into the air.
Caitlyn managed to get both of their attention by loudly clearing her throat.
"If I may be so bold," Caitlyn said, "I believe I may have a friend who can help with this situation, if Jinx is willing."
"If it'll get Miss Legs-a-tist here off my back, sure!" Jinx said. "Take me to your friend, Triple Bus."
"That's still not how you say - oh forget it," Vi said, huffing and placing her chin on the table, slumping over in defeat.
"It's late," Caitlyn said as she brought a party consisting of herself, Vi, Jinx, and Malphite, who had insisted on coming along if Caitlyn and Vi were going to bring Jinx that far away from where they had parked the ship.
"So my friend may need some persuading before he helps us," Caitlyn continued as they approached a tower with crenelations, but with glowing blue lines running through it.
Caitlyn knocked on the door. "Jayce! Are you up? I need your help with something!"
The door opened, and a thin and pale man with bags under his eyes and leaning on a crutch who Jinx, for some reason, took an immediate liking to, answered the door.
"Jayce has already retired for the evening, but I would be happy to assist you, Tribunus," the man said. "What is the nature of the assistance you need this evening?"
"Thank you, Viktor," Caitlyn said. "This is Jinx. She's the sister of Vi, the Legatus serving under my command. Or so we think, but she claims to have no memory of her relationship to Vi. I know it's something of a long shot, but I was hoping you and Jayce might have something that could restore her memories? If she really is Vi's sister."
Viktor looked at Jinx over, then cracked a wide grin that Jinx recognized as an expression that she often wore herself - the look an inventor gets when the perfect opportunity to test out their latest and also craziest invention.
"You're in luck," Viktor said. "I may have just the thing. Follow me."
Follow him they did, and he brought them to a device with a bar stool and an arch hanging over it, with two large pads hanging down from the arch. Various measurements and displays that most of them weren't technically inclined enough to understand, and even Jinx's tech know-how could only really interpret about half of them.
"If Miss Jinx will have a seat," Viktor said, gesturing to the stool.
Jinx obliged him, sitting down. Malphite made his worry known with a concerned groan, but Jinx waved at him to assure him.
"So, what's the prescription, Doc?" Jinx asked.
"Simply sit still and try not to fidget," Viktor said.
As if in stubborn defiance to his request, one of the fingers on Jinx's mechanical hand lifted up.
"Too much," Viktor amended his instructions. "Mneno scan beginning three ... two ... one."
Viktor hit a button, and Jinx was bathed in green light. The large pads began to circle around her.
"So what is this machine supposed to do, Viktor?" Caitlyn asked.
"Ah, so glad you asked! It scans the subject's brain for abnormalities," Viktor said. "Jayce doesn't think such a device would actually be useful, and I've had no luck trying to convince him. What use is that, he says? Bah."
"Unfortunately, Viktor, I'm inclined to agree," Caitlyn said. "I fail to see how this would help Piltis or its people. Not to mention, what are you considering as 'abnormalities'?"
"You don't think a machine that can detect if you have tumors would be useful? Or other diseases of the brain?" Viktor asked.
"My mistake," Caitlyn said, nodding in contrition.
The machine beeped.
"It's done!" Viktor said. "Now we just need to look at the results ..."
Viktor went over to one of the machine's many displays. He looked at it thoughtfully, nodding and muttering to himself.
"Interesting, interesting."
"Well?" Vi asked. "What do we know?"
"One moment," Viktor said. "I have a theory, but I need to confirm it."
"How long will that take?" Vi asked.
"Not long, if I can find where I left my ultraviolet flashlight," Viktor said.
Vi was about to despair, but Viktor found the flashlight in question.
He turned it on, aiming it at the sides of Jinx's head. Jinx flinched, the light getting in her eyes since Viktor hadn't given her enough warning. The ultraviolet light exposed tiny, thin lines all across the back of Jinx's head.
"Just as I thought," Viktor said. "Surgical scars."
"Which means?" Vi asked.
"Yeah. Which means?" Jinx asked.
Viktor set the flashlight down and looked gravely at Vi.
"Have you figured out why she forgot me?" Vi asked. "Forgot Vander and Mylo and Claggor?"
"Ah, that's easy; she didn't," Viktor said.
"What?" Vi, Caitlyn and Jinx all asked. Malphite added a confused grunt.
"What I mean to say is this, Legatus," Viktor said. "The presence of these surgical scars is indicative of one thing and one thing only. At no point did Jinx ever forget you. An expert on brain chemistry committed an alteration to the portions of her brain responsible for memory and recall. Or, to phrase it in layman's terms ... her memories of you were not forgotten. They were erased ."