PROJECT: Incarnation

A deal | 33

Three murders in a span of two weeks. Concerning? Definitely.

Despite their declaration about wanting peace, the PROJECTS had turned out more violent and dangerous than ever before. There was no reason to trust their word now. Three of the most prodigious scientists of Piltover had been killed in cold blood, even though Theodore Corona's death hadn't been confirmed as a murder yet. But Caitlyn knew it had been them, there was no other way. And by "them" she referred to PROJECT: Vayne and PROJECT: Fiora. The partners in crime.

This partnership was quite unexpected, to say the least. Vayne was known for working alone. However, it hadn't been this case. No matter. The damage had been done and the perpetrators needed to be found and punished.

The motive? Probably revenge of some sort; The three deceased scientists had been involved with the PROJECT program. These initials were completely out of control, as it seemed.

The TPA had investigated both crime scenes. There was no doubt it had been the two of them that had put the scientists out of their misery, at least in the case of Jeffrey Corleone and Ronald Cole. It had been implied that Vayne had murdered Corleone, something that she didn't deny, as the surveillance proved. It didn't really matter though. She was charged with terrorizing two innocent citizens and her partner, Fiora, with their murder. Therefore, they were both criminals.

Caitlyn had come to the conclusion that the two PROJECTS were still hiding in Piltover. There was absolutely no way they had managed to flee back to the industrial area; they would have been seen. So they focused their investigation back into the city and the area they had to search was vast.

It was a miracle that they had managed to escape that night. Vayne had been knocked out and Fiora had to carry her around. And even if PROJECT: Katarina had been on their trail, they still managed to run away. Caitlyn was highly concerned. They weren't not dealing with regular humans but with super humans that had the instinct to kill when necessary. It made her wonder what would happen if Vi one day decided she had enough and she'd join the enemy forces. Or maybe that would never happen, she couldn't quite tell. But even the thought was rather scary. Imagine having to deal with a brawler like Vi. Imagine the toll, physically and emotionally.

Which brought her back to what Riven and Shen had advised her to do. Though, Caitlyn wasn't exactly sure how to approach such a sensitive matter. She could simply ask, of course, but it wasn't guaranteed she'd get a satisfying answer. Yet, she got nothing to lose. After all, she was dying from curiosity herself.

Caitlyn and Vi had been spending a lot of time together lately. Sometimes it felt like Vi didn't stick around just to crack the case and her flirting was more obvious than ever before, even Caitlyn could tell. Vi was comfortable enough to be this carefree around her but the sniper wasn't sure if she would be comfortable enough to answer as personal questions as the one she was planning on asking.

Guess she only had to find out.

Patrolling around Piltover was a common thing for the two of them since there weren't many clues to where the wanted PROJECTS had headed. They usually walked in silence or it was Vi mostly doing the talking and Caitlyn merely listening. This time, however, it was different.

"I have a question," she said.

"Go ahead and let's see if I can enlighten you or not," Vi responded with a smirk.

"It's rather personal. You don't have to answer if you want," Caitlyn informed her. "Why did you choose to become a PROJECT?"

"Choose? Can't say I had much of a choice," Vi reminisced. "In fact, I didn't actually have a choice, despite how it was presented to me. It was either take the gauntlets before they fell into the wrong hands or perish."