Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Vaulting over the low wall that separated one street from another, Zeri grimaced as her eyes fell on the four thugs huddled around the shop. She knew she’d heard something; she just hoped it had been a stray getting a bit too aggressive.

The light from the streetlamp flickered dully, but it was bright enough to catch the glint of metal on the brutes’ waists—and the oversized spectacles of Old John, the district’s oldest shop-owner as he peered out from behind the door.

“Hey!” she yelled, stepping onto the street. “Didn’t anyone tell you to respect your elders?”

All five of them looked towards her, though John was the quickest to react. He slammed the rickety wooden door shut in the faces of the men. Even across the street, Zeri could hear the locks clicking into place.

She scowled at the clear display of terror. The door wouldn’t be an obstacle to these gangsters. She could have beat it down and she was half the size of the skinniest thug. When they knocked, John hadn’t had a choice; if he didn’t answer, they would have knocked it down and walked in anyway. The thugs knew that, too. That’s why they didn’t react to the door slamming at their backs.

The leader of the cabal, or so she assumed judging by his central position, gave one look at her before chuckling. It sounded like boulders crushing against one another. It sounded nothing like the high-pitched squeak she knew her own voice made. Gods and Aspects, Zeri couldn’t wait until she hit her twenties. That’s when she’d finally stop sounding like a child. She was sure of it. Just like she was sure she’d hit her growth spurt in a year when she turned eighteen. She wouldn’t be this small forever.

“Bit late to be out all alone, girl,” the thug said once he’d stopped laughing. He smiled at her, and, when his cheek stretched, the steel mandible welded onto the left side of his jaw flashed in the streetlight.

Her eyes reassessed the group. Prosthetics weren’t cheap. Most couldn’t even finance them themselves—and the ones who tried to make their own prosthetics needed more than a single replacement before they were done.

The man to the right stepped forward. His eyes glinted with sleaze. “Why don’t you let us walk you home, eh?” He opened his arms wide as if expecting her to come rushing into them.

Zeri shifted her feet and made sure that her shoulders stayed broad and steady. “The only way you’re going to be walking tonight is away,” she returned.

Her words earned another round of laughter. “You hear that?” the sleaze gasped to his friend, putting a hand on his shoulder. “She’s sure got a bit of feistiness to her.”

“I’d hope so,” the third man said. He waved in her direction. “It’d be a shame if someone with hair like that was a shrinking violet.”

“Wow!” Zeri smirked. “Someone’s been reading. But try to keep with words your pals can understand, alright?”

Then, when she saw the anger building in his face, she pulled her contraption of a gun from underneath her jacket with one hand while the other twisted the nozzle of the cord and let the bioelectricity begin to charge.

The thugs weren’t as stupid as they looked. That wasn’t saying much. Everyone in Zaun had seen a gun pulled on someone before. They knew better than to freeze.

She rattled a shot off before they could disperse. It sent the rightmost thug crashing into the ground before he could pull his weapon from his belt. Zeri only had time to see that he wouldn’t be getting back up before she had to dart away from their retaliatory attack.

The leader might have been a behemoth, but he was fast, too. Zeri squeaked as she ducked under his grasping hand and skidded away from the butcher knife he clutched in the other hand. Her gun was still charging so, when she pressed the trigger on him, all that shot out were a few errant sparks, not enough to even singe his heavy coat.

“Dammit,” she groaned, shaking the weapon in an effort to generate more juice. Why can’t you ever work properly?

“What is that?” one of the men asked. “Some sort of energy gun?”

“Looks like a scrap experiment,” the leader answered. He smiled crookedly. “And she’s no engineer.”

Two of them converged on her and Zeri got lost in the exercise of avoiding their strikes—or most of them, at least. She could feel the sting of cut skin where she’d been too slow to dodge and the bruises that were beginning to form along her forearms from continued blocking. The movies always made these things look so easy! They never told you that it would hurt when you blocked a punch!

Her gun vibrated in her palm. Zeri didn’t look at it before thrusting the muzzle forward and jamming it into the leader’s stomach. She pressed the trigger and held it until his legs buckled and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

“You bitch!” the last man said as he swung his knife at her. Zeri leaned away before it could slice open her eye and hit him on the side of the head with the butt of her blaster. When he dropped to the floor, she almost followed him but caught herself on her knees, bent over and panting for breath.

Zeri looked at the three bodies, all still except for the slight convulsion still running through the leader’s limbs. Then she looked at the last thug. He hadn’t spoken a word since she’d arrived and, looking at him now, Zeri realized how young he was. His eyes were wide and panicked, and his skinny arms trembled. He sprinted away from her the moment her eyes landed on him.

“And don’t come back!” she yelled at his retreating back. “Tell whoever you’re working for that this place is off-limits!”

 Her eyes fell to their blades and Zeri felt a brief burst of relief that she’d accurately judged what they were carrying. She didn’t want a repeat of that time she’d had a gun pulled on her. That had been too close of a call.

But, as she looked back to the worn wooden door of the shopkeeper, Zeri knew that she’d do it all again. She was never going to be anything big, but she could always help her community. She had to, because nobody else would. Zaun was a hard place to live, but it was her home and she’d do whatever she could to make it better, even if it meant that she had to spend her evenings prowling around the neighborhood to keep everyone safe.

Clap!

Zeri flinched at the sound of flesh smacking against itself. Was there someone else here? Her spine stiffened as a second clap echoed across the street. Or had they just stumbled across this?

Zeri glanced at her fingers, numb from the expenditure of energy, and tried to channel another spark. The neon light fizzled between her fingertips. She’d have to improvise then.

The clapping was getting closer. When she judged that they were ten feet away, Zeri whirled around and leveled her blaster at them. She hoped the gun looked threatening enough to dissuade another confrontation.

“I’ll shoot,” she warned, even before she could point the blaster at her target.

It was a good thing she’d spoken so soon. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to get the words out.

There were a lot of monsters in Zaun. They lived in the shadows; they lived in the cesspools; some even lived in the abandoned mines not too far from Zeri’s home. Everyone knew to avoid those areas. Just like they knew that, if the monsters decided to leave their homes, you didn’t get in their way.

The worst monster in everyone’s mind wasn’t the most vile. It wasn’t the one with the darkest legend. It was the one that couldn’t be avoided. It was the demon that could show up anywhere without a hint as to her intentions. The one that could turn your world on its head with less than a second of notice.

Zeri had never seen Jinx in person, but you didn’t need to witness her antics to recognize Zaun’s monster. The blue hair alone, braided with bullet casings and the tips dirty with grime would have been enough. The manic eyes that glowed in the dusky fog would have told you that this wasn’t a normal person. The too wide smile, full of jagged, impossibly white teeth, and the pink tongue that flickered over them would have told you that this was a predator staring at its prey. It told you to run.

“So,” Jinx chirped, planting her hands on her waist and cocking a hip to the side. “I hear you’ve got a message for me.”

“W-What?” Zeri croaked. She took a step back as Jinx advanced on her and firmed her arms, keeping her blaster trained on Jinx with as much steadiness as she could. The girl didn’t pay it any attention.

Jinx waved a hand down the street. “Well, you sent Chuck off to, what was it, tell whoever he’s working for that this place was off-limits?” Jinx snorted as if the thought was ridiculous. She leaned towards Zeri and smiled conspiratorially. “Why don’t we cut out the middleman and you can just tell me to my face?”

Zeri gulped as her mind connected the dots. She glanced at the three bodies strewn across the street. “These are your men,” she whimpered.

Oh, Janna. I’m going to die.

What the hell were Jinx’s men doing all the way down here? This was mining territory, the rock bottom of Zaun. There was nothing of value down here. Not even the minerals and ores they harvested stayed with them for long. The chembarons spirited those straight up to their warehouses before anything could happen to it.

“Eh,” Jinx shrugged. “Technically they’re Sevika’s, but that’s semantics. They do what I tell them to, so that makes me the boss too, right?” She chuckled. “Boss two, get it?”

Zeri’s back hit the wall of a shop. “Ha,” she muttered faintly. “Yeah, funny.”

Her eyes roved across the street, looking for an escape. If Jinx noticed her panic, she paid it about as much attention as the gun waving in her face.

Wait, when did she get so close?

One moment, Jinx was in the middle of the street, and the next, her hand was pushing the barrel of Zeri’s blaster to the side as she invaded Zeri’s personal space. She hadn’t made a single sound. Zeri hadn’t even seen her move.

Zeri’s breath was coming out in quick bursts. She felt like she was about to faint. Her arm shakily tried to raise her blaster, if only to put something between her and Jinx, but the demon kept it pinned to her side as if Zeri had the strength of a baby.

“You don’t want to do that,” Jinx said brightly. Her grin razored and she winked at Zeri while her other hand reached over her shoulder to pat the end of her rocket launcher.

It’s the same smile, Zeri realized, darting between the painted shark head and Jinx’s face.

Jinx continued, “you might have won against those slobs, but Fishbones would gobble your little gizmo up.” She blinked. “What’s its name, by the way?”

“Huh?” Name? What name? Zeri’s brow furrowed as she tried to parse Jinx’s nonsense.

“You’re blaster, duh.” Jinx made it sound as if Zeri were stupid for not understanding the question. “You’ve got to name them! How else will you be able to know who’s speaking?”

Jinx patted her rocket launcher again. “This one’s Fishbones.” The mini-gun on her hip, “Pow-Pow.” She pulled the pistol from its holster on her thigh, “and Zapp—”

Something inside Zeri snapped, unable to take Jinx’s continued presence. The woman was too close, and she kept talking and Zeri was scared.

It was the biggest spark she’d ever seen, flashing to life between with the sound of a thunderclap. The discharge blinded her, filling her vision with white and making her head spin. If she hadn’t been leaning against the wall, she was certain that she’d have fallen to her knees.

“Shit,” she muttered, rubbing her forehead. When the ringing in her ears stopped and color returned to the world, Zeri lifted her head and looked around her. Everything felt stiff, like her body had been drained of fluid. Her bones felt like they were scraping against her muscles underneath skin that was entirely too tight. Her eyes fell to the fourth body sprawled across the street.

“Shit,” she repeated, staring at Jinx’s twitching form as the smoke wafted off her skin. Jinx’s skin was deathly pale and so translucent that Zeri could see the veins and arteries underneath. Then, because her mind couldn’t think of anything else to say, she repeated the words. “Shit, shit, shit.”

Did she just leave Jinx there for someone else to find? Did she try to dump her body somewhere? Oh god, what would happen if anyone found out what she’d done? Zeri’s eyes darted around her looking for a solution. That was a lot of electricity. Probably enough to power a factory for a day. Certainly enough to kill a human.

“Ugh.” A moan escaped the charred body of Jinx, and Zeri gasped as the woman’s eyes opened. Jinx pressed her arms underneath her and sat up, smacking her lips. “So that’s why they say it tastes like peanut butter,” she mused.

She’s not human. Zeri was sure those were going to be her dying thoughts as Jinx pushed herself to her feet, seemingly no worse for wear except for the fraying strands of hair. The myths are true. She’s an actual demon.

“S-Stay back!” Zeri stammered, pointing a finger at Jinx and willing another spark to form. Her fingers didn’t even tingle. She was out of juice. “I’ve got a lot more where that came from,” she lied, trying to hide the quiver in her voice.

Jinx peered at the finger in interest. Then, she raised her own digit and touched it to Zeri’s. A single charge of static leapt between their fingertips. Jinx raised an eyebrow and stared at her.

Zeri tried not to flush.

“Hey, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Jinx consoled her. “Everyone gets performance issues every so often.”

Jinx raised her hand to Zeri’s face. She flinched as the woman’s fingertips brushed against her cheek, red hot against her skin.

When she brought it back between them, there was a smudge of blood on her thumb. Jinx licked the digit clean, never once taking her eyes off Zeri’s own.

Don’t tell me she actually drinks people’s blood. Zeri didn’t want to believe that rumor. It was too far-fetched even for Zaun, a juvenile fantasy made up to instill fear in children. Zeri had always thought it was absolutely ridiculous. Now, having seen that all the other rumors about Jinx were true, she was too frightened to doubt them.

“Hm,” Jinx hummed. “How’d you get your powers, kid?”

Zeri’s brow creased in confusion. “What?”

“Janna’s tits,” Jinx sighed theatrically. “Can’t you have a conversation?”

Conversation? Jinx wanted to have a conversation? And she was claiming that Zeri was the one not following along. She had to be dreaming. This was too surreal to be reality.

“I don’t know,” she answered with a shrug because, the sooner she got through this nightmare, the sooner she could wake up. “I’ve had them for as long as I can remember.”

“It’s not shimmer,” Jinx said. She put her thumb back in her mouth. “Though it does taste like battery acid.” Her eyes screwed up. “Actually, the taste isn’t that bad. Better than what they’re serving down at the Last Drop, nowadays.”

Zeri swallowed and stayed silent. She didn’t know if that was a compliment. She didn’t want to know.

“It’s probably a mutation,” Jinx continued, still smacking her lips. Zeri could see her tongue swirling around in her mouth as it pressed against her cheek and slid over her teeth. Jinx broke eye contact and looked around the street. “You live around here?”

Zeri nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak.

“Figures,” Jinx turned back to her. “Your mom probably got a bit too close to radiation when she was carrying you.” Jinx looked her over. “You don’t have, like, a sixth toe or anything do you?”

Zeri shook her head.

“Shame,” Jinx said. “I’ve always wanted to see what one of those would look like. Do you think you’d get an extra pinky or big toe?”

Was she supposed to answer that? “Uhm, I do—”

Jinx clapped her hands together, completely ignoring Zeri’s attempt to speak. “Well, it was fun meeting you…” Jinx tilted her head. “What was your name again?”

“Zeri.” She immediately kicked herself. Why did I say that?

Jinx grinned. “Nice meeting you, Zeri. I’ll see you around.”

Zeri blinked. In the half second it took for her eyes to flutter closed, Jinx had made it halfway across the street. By the time Zeri ran her hands over her body to make sure that she hadn’t been stabbed, Jinx was already scaling up the side of a building, silhouetted by the lanterns lining the street. The flickering lights cast long shadows of her across the pavement that twisted like a nest of snakes. Once she reached the top of the building, Jinx paused to look at her. She lifted an arm in farewell. Even in the darkness, Zeri could see the glow of Jinx’s eyes as they locked her in place.

And then, she was gone, as if she had never existed in the first place.

Zeri fell to the floor, unable to even lean against the wall any longer. Had all of that just happened?

The bodies of the thugs were answer enough. Zeri stared at them as her mind went into overdrive. She’d seen Jinx. More than that, she’d met Zaun’s most infamous inhabitant. And she was still breathing.

She’d fried Jinx, and she was still breathing.

She’d fried Jinx, and Jinx was still breathing.

“I need to wake up from this nightmare,” she muttered, head nestled between her knees.

It had to be a nightmare. Because, if it wasn’t, that meant that her nightmares were safer than reality. At least there, she was free from Jinx.

The gates glowed golden in the light. The cerulean backdrop, broken only by jagged skyscrapers, made the gates even more blinding. Lux had never seen something so bright—not anything fashioned by the hands of man, that was.

Piltover endeavored to be a land of progress. Lux felt that the city had learned perfection, or at least was coming close to mastering it. There was no other word to describe the flawlessness of her surroundings, the immaculate tidiness of some architect’s inner vision made a reality.

Standing before the gates in nothing but her woolen traveling clothes and a rough patchwork of assorted furs to keep her comfortable on her journey, a sense of inferiority rose within her.

What am I doing here? This isn’t a place for me.

Anxiety strummed down her spine like an errantly plucked string. It vanished almost as soon as it appeared, and Lux chuckled. A place for her? There didn’t exist a place in all of Runeterra for her.

She pulled a slip of paper from her pocket and carefully unfolded the worn paper. She didn’t belong anywhere in Runeterra, but this place would accept her. That was all Lux could ask for.

It had been a difficult decision to leave Demacia and her family, but Lux knew that it would have been worse to stay. She may have decided to side against Sylas and his rebellion, but she was still a mage. That alone would damn her despite what her blood or what her actions said. She could feel it even as she rallied the men to push Sylas out of the city. If Garen hadn’t been beside her at the time, they wouldn’t have listened to her; they might have even treated her like the enemy.

You could never stop being a mage, after all.

Lux had known at that moment, surrounded by the countrymen that she’d fought and bled for that she wasn’t wanted, that her service would never be recognized. It was why, when everyone was still in the tumult of celebration, she returned to her room, gathered everything she could put into a single bag, and slipped out of her estate while the guards were too worried about drunken revelers stumbling into the Crownguard manse than anyone leaving the estate on their own two feet.

By the time anyone realized she was gone, Lux would be too far for them to catch her. Did it matter that they’d call her a traitor or a deserter? No. They would have harbored those thoughts, anyway. And if they want to go searching for me in the Freljord, then I wish them luck. She shivered at the thought of staying in that tundra for an extended period of time. Sylas had fled that direction. He’d prove more than enough of a decoy for her own escape.

Deciding that she’d spent enough time dallying, Lux grabbed her satchel from where it rested against the nearby tree and slipped into a group of travelers making their way to the gate, melding into the collective with all the ease of someone used to being unseen by others.

The inside of Piltover was no less grand than its exterior. She almost stumbled at the sheer radiance of the place. She would have, if someone hadn’t jostled against her. The streets were lined with freshly cleaned cobblestones; the buildings reflected the sun’s rays, bathing every nook and cranny with light; everyone around her bustled with genial energy as they went about their lives in the City of Progress.

You can explore later, she reminded herself, clenching her hands into fists. But first, you have to make connections. Worry about being overwhelmed after you have a roof over your head.

. . .

Lux checked the slip of paper again as she stopped in front of a large estate. It certainly looked like the house of someone wealthy enough to finance shipping ventures between Piltover and Demacia. She stared at the house’s portico from the street, taking in the wicker seats and ferns growing in the corner. Along the front of the house, someone had tried their hand at a flowerbed, to varying degrees of success. By which, Lux saw that they were very successful at growing weeds and not very good at tending their garden.

You’re stalling.

She inhaled a breath and steeled her resolve. The worst they could do was turn her away. She didn’t have to worry about anything worse than that.

Lux almost hoped that someone would stop her as she walked up to the door. Didn’t they see how absurd this was? Some foreigner in traveling furs knocking at the door to one of Piltover’s most well-established families? Alas, the streets were empty in this part of Piltover, and none of the neighbors came bursting out of their homes to stop her. Lux stepped onto the porch unmolested.

Her knuckles rapped against the solid mahogany. Lux shifted her balance as she waited for someone to answer. Her mind was instantly filled with doubt.

Maybe they’re away, she thought, glancing at the afternoon sun. I’m sure they’re busy. Maybe I should just go, and come back in the evening when—

The door swung open, and a broad-shouldered, pink-haired woman filled its frame. She couldn’t be more than a handful of years older than Lux. She did not look like a Piltovan elite. Not in the slightest.

“Yeah?” she asked, crossing her arms and leaning her shoulder against the door frame. She did not look particularly impressed to see Lux. “Can I help you?”

Lux blinked. This was not what she was expecting. “Yes, um… this is the Kiramman estate, correct?”

The woman’s shoulders tense and her eyes gained a measure of steel. Her eyes reassessed Lux. When she spoke, her voice had lost its casual tone. “Yeah. Why do you ask?”

She swallowed at the sudden indifference coming from the woman. “I have—that is—um, my family once had relations with the Kirammans and—” she fumbled with the slip of paper in her hands as she tried to gather her thoughts.

The woman suddenly snorted. “Spit it out,” she said, her voice still gruff but now tinged with a drop of amusement.

Lux gulped and composed herself. She swallowed her embarrassment. “I’m looking for somewhere to stay,” she said. “And my family and the Kirammans have long been close business partners. I was hoping that I might be able to speak with the head of the estate and inquire as to the possibility of—”

“I’ll get Cait,” the woman interrupted. She looked Lux over again. “And stop with the formal talk, Cait gets enough of that at work, already.”

She turned and walked back into the house, leaving Lux standing at the threshold, uncertain whether the open door was an invitation or if she was expected to wait outside.

Before she could come to a decision, the woman returned, with a second in tow.

The frown on the newcomer’s face wasn’t promising. “Really Vi?” she asked, her voice distinctly Piltovan. “You just left her on the doorstep?”

Vi shrugged. “The door was open. That would have been enough of an invitation for me.”

The woman—Cait, Lux suspected—shook her head before turning her attention to Lux. “Vi said you were looking for somewhere to stay?” she asked.

“Yes.” Lux dipped her chin. She frowned when her eyes came back to meet Cait’s. “Are you the head of house? You look a little…”

“Young?” Cait finished, as if she could tell that Lux didn’t know how to phrase her question. “My parents found the city too… overwhelming for them in the past few years. They’d decided to retire early.”

“I can imagine.” Lux smiled. She fidgeted in an attempt to loosen the stiffness in her shoulders. People this high up could tell when you were uncomfortable. “Piltover seems like an entirely different world than where I’m from.”

Cait pursed her lips. “Yes, it certainly does possess its unique features.” She glanced at Lux’s shawl. “You’re from Demacia?”

“Yes.” Lux extended her hand. “Luxanna Crownguard, but call me Lux.”

Cait’s grip was firm, and the underside of her hand was full of callouses, another surprise that Lux hadn’t expected. “Caitlyn Kiramman,” she answered before waving her other hand behind her. “And this is my wife, Vi.”

Lux detached her hand from Caitlyn’s and offered it to Vi without hesitation. “A pleasure to meet you.”

Vi’s oversized hand engulfed hers and squeezed once before pulling away, a jovial smile playing at her lips. “Likewise.”

When she regained possession of her hand, Lux reached into her knapsack. “I have some of House Crownguard’s recent transactions with the Kiramman family if you’d like to use those as my recommendations.”

Lux had been around politics enough to know that nobody did anything for free, especially the ones with money to lose. She had to prove that she was an asset to the Kirammans and showing the proof of profit between their families was a conventional method. Not that the recommendation would hold up if Caitlyn decided to contact the Crownguards directly—but that was why she’d taken the reports in the first place. Numbers on a sheet couldn’t tell Caitlyn anything about her fugitive status.

“Those won’t be necessary,” Caitlyn said, pushing the papers back towards Lux without a single glance at their contents. “My family is pulling out of the merchant business. My parents will be the last to organize ventures.”

Her hand stilled at the meaning behind Caitlyn’s words. If the Kirammans didn’t have a mercantile business, they didn’t need to maintain relations with distant clans. They had no reason to put up with her.

“Oh,” she said, blinking away a bout of dizziness. “I wasn’t informed of that.”

“They’ve been slowly diminishing their ventures,” Caitlyn confessed. “I wouldn’t expect many to realize the reality unless they’ve kept a keen eye on their ledgers.”

Lux nodded glumly. “I see.” She looked over Caitlyn’s shoulder into the house. It really was nice. The manifestation of decades of successful business. “I’m sorry for bothering you,” she said, turning away from the home and heading towards the patio steps.

“Where are you going?” Vi asked.

Lux tilted her head as she looked back at her. “I don’t want to be a burden,” she said. “You’ve no reason to put me up if you don’t have anything to benefit from the action.”

She still had a handful of coins in her purse. She was sure she could find a hotel to stay in until she found some way to earn more. In the worst case, she could leave the city and camp in the wilderness for a bit. She’d have the entire summer and most of autumn until it got too cold. Maybe when that happened, she could go to Shurima—or perhaps Bilgewater. Both were markedly worse than Piltover. One of them was controlled by Noxus, the other was run by brigands and pirates. A Demacian heiress, even a disgraced one like her, would always be looking over her shoulder in places like that.

“My family’s business isn’t retired yet,” Caitlyn spoke up as Lux dipped her head. Something in her voice made Lux pause. “Even if it were, there’s no reason to let the relationships we’ve cultivated over the decades go to waste.”

Lux stilled. She could feel Caitlyn’s eyes on the back of her head. “You’ve traveled all the way from Demacia—and I’m terribly out of date as to the recent happenings of the area. It would be a shame if I let you take that information elsewhere.”

She was offering an exchange, housing for information. It was just about the best Lux could get. Still, she winced. There wasn’t anything good that she had to say about Demacia’s recent history, especially the reason why she’d left in the first place.

“You’re too kind,” she tried, turning to smile at Caitlyn. “But I can’t take advantage of your hospitality like that.”

“Please,” Caitlyn sniffed. “If anything, I am the one to benefit from this arrangement. The house is much too large for myself and Vi alone. A third presence would be most welcome, I think.”

Caitlyn nodded her head at Vi and, before Lux could find a polite way to decline, said, “take her bag and show her to one of the guest suites, dear. I’ll call Jericho’s and get in order in for tonight.”

“Jericho’s?” Vi smirked. “You want to throw her in the deep end?”

Caitlyn shrugged one shoulder, looking over Lux’s clothes again. “I suspect it’s been a while since she’s had anything with a bit of kick to it.”

Lux didn’t know whether she should be concerned or not. While it was true that she’d been living off of cured meat, hardtack, and dried herbs ever since she’d left her home, the way Vi spoke about Jerico’s made it sound like she was being cautioned.

Still, so long as they were willing to take her in, Lux couldn’t complain. “It’s no issue,” she said brightly. “I’ve always wanted to try foreign cuisine.”

The chuckle that escaped from Vi’s lips was not at all heartening. Nor was Caitlyn’s amused smile. “It’ll be a new experience, if nothing else,” Caitlyn said.

Chapter Text

Lux stared dubiously at Vi as she held out a pastry. Her eyes darted from Vi's outstretched hand to the frosted treat. Should she accept it? After what she'd been served the night prior, Lux was wary of anything this city had to offer her.

Vi smirked at her hesitation. "Don't worry, Lux. This cupcake will be a piece of cake compared to Jericho's!"

Caitlyn interjected before Lux could answer. "Vi, let's not overwhelm Lux with the cities'... breadth of cuisine just yet. Remember, she's still adjusting from her time on the road."

Guiding Lux through the bustling streets of Piltover, Caitlyn and Vi led Lux through all the grandeur of Piltover. Lux's eyes widened in astonishment as she witnessed the technological marvels that adorned every corner. She couldn't help but gawk at the sleek machinery, the gleaming contraptions that seemed to defy the laws of nature. The entire street seemed to crackle with an electrifying ambiance. Lux felt like she’d stepped into a world decades in the future.

The air seemed to change as the group stepped into the precinct. Without the bustle of the crowd to overwhelm her, Lux could finally breathe and spend more than a moment wondering at the gleaming mechanisms. Though, that was not to say the precinct was empty. It, like the rest of Piltover, bustled with activity, but whereas the street they had walked through pulled at her like a current, the enforcer’s home was more efficient, sharper, brisker. Everything moved with purpose. The polished badges glinted under the glow of the overhead lights. The rhythmic cadence of footsteps echoed through the hallways. Lux’s eyes darted from one detail to another, taking in the meticulous paperwork spread across Caitlyn’s desk, the well-organized shelves lined with case files, the still atmosphere that permeated the room. She couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the dedication that went into maintaining order in the city. Awe at Caitlyn for running the city so flawlessly.

Lux glanced at a box filled with various mechanisms whose purpose she could not even begin to fathom. "How do you know how to use all of these? They look so complex."

Vi shrugged, a mischievous grin playing on her lips. "They're not as difficult as they look. Everything's pretty much intuitive once you get the hang of it."

Caitlyn chimed in as she grabbed a folder from her desk. "Though, it does help to read the instruction manuals. Something Vi tends to forget."

Vi waved her off with a playful scoff. "Who needs to read when I've got you to tell me what to do?"

Lux couldn't help but smile at their playful banter. A sense of camaraderie bubbled low in her stomach. Or at least she hoped it was camaraderie. The last time, it had been Jericho’s. Enough complaining, she rebuked herself. Honestly, be grateful that you got any food in the first place, Lux.

If the technology within the precinct had seemed advanced, her first sight of the academy rendered Lux awestruck. The sprawling building stood as a testament to knowledge, its towering architecture reaching for the skies. Just as Lux tried to process the magnitude of the academy, Vi caught sight of a familiar figure amidst the sea of students streaming over the sidewalk and between buildings. Her voice rang out, slicing through the commotion, as she called out to the man who had caught her attention. "Jayce! Over here!"

A tall, broad-shouldered man with a shadow of stubble turned towards the sound of Vi's voice, a hint of surprise lighting up his features. A smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he made his way towards the trio, the crowd of students seeming to part beneath his confident strides.

"Jayce!" Vi called out again, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes as she greeted him. "Fancy running into you here!"

Jayce's smiled warmly at the group. "Vi, Caitlyn, what a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting to see all of you here."

Caitlyn stepped forward, accepting a hug from Jayce. When she moved away, she waved an arm in Lux's direction. "Lux, this is Jayce, one of Piltover's councilors. Jayce, meet Lux. She's recently arrived in Piltover."

Jayce extended a hand towards her. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lux. Welcome to Piltover. I hope you find your time here  enjoyable."

Lux shook his hand. She found it easy to put a smile on her face. "Thank you, Jayce. I'm still trying to take in all the wonders of this city, but it's been very accommodating so far."

Vi stepped forward. "So, what brings you to the Academy? Not snooping around for any new ideas, are you?"

A faint blush spread across Jayce's cheeks. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "No. I was actually planning to meet Mel here once she finished with her meetings."

Vi let out a hearty laugh. Her eyes gleamed with mischief. "Ah, the great Jayce Talis, following after everyone's favorite councilor! Who would have thought that all it would take to get you out of your forge was a pretty face?"

Jayce chuckled, a mixture of embarrassment and affection evident in his voice. "Mel’s an incredible woman, and I'm lucky to have her. I’ve certainly followed worse things around when I was younger."

“It must be worth it, too.” Vi winked at him. “I couldn’t imagine spending as much time bickering with the rest of the Piltie Council as you. Councilor Medarda must be very convincing every time your tenure is about to run out.”

Jayce sputtered. His blush stretched down his neck and underneath his collar.

Caitlyn sighed. "I would have thought that after dating Mel for so long, you would have learned not to blush so easily, Jayce."

“Mel must be saving those lessons for later,” Vi added, barking a laugh.

Lux had lost the ability to follow the conversation. Vi’s earlier words kept circling around in her head.

“Did you say Medarda?” She asked, feeling faint.

I must have heard that wrong. There couldn’t be Noxians here. Piltover’s traded with Demacia for decades now, during the conflict with Noxus even. If they had any sort of grasp on Piltover, Demacia would have known. We’d have had to find trading partners somewhere else.

Jayce frowned. His eyes searched her face. “do you know her?”

“Not Mel, no.” Lux shook her head. “But she is a Medarda? She’s from Noxus?”

Jayce hadn’t stopped staring at her, but he shrugged at her question. “It’s complicated.”

“Mel didn’t have the greatest childhood,” Vi added. “So, she came to the city of shining towers like all the rest of us unhappy children.”

“The rest of her family must not have liked that,” Lux said. Especially not the Medarda’s. They were the worst a Noxian could get. No honor. No pride. They were a clan of scavengers content to pluck the badges of the fallen from their corpses and sell them to the highest bidder. The only good thing Lux had to say about that clan was that the rest of Noxus was as wary of them as everyone else. They’d never rise to power. They were too weak to seize it themselves and the rest of Noxus knew better than to take a corpse-thief as a partner.

Jayce winced. “You could say there’s a bit of bad blood between them. But, after Mel’s brother died, I think Ambessa—that’s her mother—has become more tolerant. She’s not threatening to drag Mel back to Noxus every time she visits, at least.”

Why would she? Lux thought, glancing over Jayce’s shoulder at the gleaming skyscrapers. She must have stumbled across the crown jewel of Runeterra. A parasite like Ambessa Medarda wouldn’t fail to notice how much having a relative here would benefit her.

“Janna’s tits, that lady drives me crazy!” Vi groused. “Every time she comes here, she acts like she runs the place. Did you know that the last time I saw her, she thought I was a bellhop?”

“Perhaps if you bothered to wear the uniform I supplied you…”

“Wait.” Lux stared at Jayce with mounting horror. “You mean she actually comes to Piltover?”

The Medardas might not be Noxian royalty, but they weren’t insignificant. If Ambessa visited Piltover regularly, she almost certainly had spies in the city. She’d be receiving reports, waiting for an opportunity to solidify her hold on Piltover.

Lux wasn’t safe here. She had to leave before anyone could realize who she was. Demacians brought high prices in the Noxian market. Demacian nobility…she didn’t want to think about how much some Noxians would pay to have her. She’d prefer to face the Demacian mobs or freeze to death in the Freljord than be dragged to Noxus in chains.

“Lux?” Caitlyn put a hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright? You look a little wan.”

She attempted a smile. “I’m fine. I’m just a little tired.” She forced an airy little laugh, the one she’d performed hundreds of times during events back home. “Travelling must have taken more out of me than I’d realized!”

Caitlyn pursed her lips. Her thumb rubbed a circle over Lux’s shoulder as if searching for any signs of deceit hidden underneath. Lux could feel her mask breaking by the second.

“Jayce! There you are.”

Lux turned away from Caitlyn as someone joined her group, finally allowing her face to loosen. The new arrival must have been Mel Medarda. Tall, ebony-skinned, and beautifully decorated in gold that glittered along her body like stars in the sky. Lux could see why Jayce was so taken with her. Just watching Mel waltz towards them made Lux feel awkward. She eyed Mel’s perfectly braided hair with envy. She could feel the roughness of her own hair as it rubbed against her neck. Not to mention the dark streaks that had stubbornly refused to leave her locks. It would take more than a single shower for her appearance to recover from a month of traveling across Runeterra. Even then, she doubted she’d ever look as perfect as Mel did.

Mel looked at her once. Her eyes blinked before her entire face shuttered into a plastic expression Lux had seen too often in the mirror to miss. She knows who I am.

“Mel!” Jayce hugged her before pulling away, though a hand stayed wrapped around her waist. “We were just talking about you.” He waved in Lux’s direction.

“Oh?” One of Mel’s eyebrows rose. “All good things, I hope.”

Lux swallowed as Mel turned her attention back onto her. “Oh!” The Noxian’s eyebrows lifted in faux surprise. “I can’t believe I forgot!” She turned to the aide that Lux had only now realized was at Mel’s shoulder. “Lavinia, I had intended to go through last quarter’s financials when I got home. Could you run back to my office and get them for me?”

The aide nodded. “Of course, madam.”

“Don’t call me madam.” Mel smiled at the woman. “You’ll make me feel old.”

She bowed. “Of course.”

“Financials?” Jayce’s smile had dimmed. “I thought we were taking the night off. For once.”

Mel patted him on the shoulder. “It won’t be long,” she promised. “We’ll still have plenty of time to ourselves tonight.”

She turned back to Lux. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I got your name.” She extended a hand. “Mel Medarda, head councilor of Piltover.”

To her credit, Lux only briefly hesitated before grasping Mel’s hand. “Lux.”

When she didn’t elaborate, Mel tilted her head. “Just Lux?”

Lux’s eyes motioned towards the rest of the group. She plastered a smile on her face. “Luxanna is a bit of a mouthful.”

The edge of Mel’s lip turned up. “Well then, Lux. It’s a pleasure to meet you. What’s brought you to Piltover—and how did you acquaint yourself with our sheriff so quickly?”

She opened her mouth to respond, a thousand excuses already on her lips, and only a handful of them remotely true. She was interrupted before she could give one voice.

BOOM!

The ground quaked as something akin to a thunderclap rattled in Lux’s ears. It was so loud that her vision seemed to swim with the reverberations. No. It wasn’t the sound causing the reverberations. The world was shaking. In the distance, one of the gleaming spires stretching towards the sky lilted sideways before gravity took it in its grip and hurtled it to the floor. A second, muted, trembling rumbled under her feet as the building crashed to the ground.

“What was that?!” She cried, looking at the rest of the group in panic. What was that? It was louder than even the artillery Demacia used to fight on the frontier—and it had to be more potent, too. She doubted even the strongest Demacian cannon could level a building with a single charge.

None of the others looked the least bit surprised. Caitlyn had even donned a look of resignation.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” She asked Vi.

“Her or Ziggs got another manic thought in his head, though he only ever gets those because of Jinx.” Vi sighed. “So, yeah. I’d bet that it’s her.”

Caitlyn nodded. “Shall we, then?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m right behind you.” Vi unclipped the gauntlets she had strapped to her belt. Dropping them to the ground, the mechanisms within whirred to life, lighting up and making the equipment expand. Before they’d even finished, Vi plunged her hands into them and hefted the armored fists into the air. Her fingers wriggled experimentally before falling still. “Do you think she’ll take us through somewhere I can actually use these?” She asked, throwing a smirk at Caitlyn.

“We can only hope. But you know Jinx. I doubt she pays half as much attention to where she leads us as she does actually getting us to follow her.”

“I’m sorry,” Lux interrupted. “But I feel terribly out of place. Are these sorts of acts normal in Piltover?”

“Eh,” Vi shrugged. She glanced toward the rising pillar of smoke. “You get used to it.”

Lux followed her gaze. She did not think that she would get used to seeing buildings collapse. Certainly not buildings as sleek and new as those in Piltover.

“If it makes you feel any better, we only really have one actual criminal,” Vi tried when she saw that her initial reassurance hadn’t landed.

Mel placed a hand on her shoulder. Lux startled at the contact and almost wrenched herself away. “Why don’t I take Lux back to where she’s staying? I can explain to her the…eccentricities of Piltover’s criminal underground.”

“Yes.” Caitlyn nodded. “That would be for the best. Take her back to my residence. She’s spending her stay with Vi and myself.”

Mel nodded her head. Lux could almost see the triumph in the back of her eyes. She bowed her head to Jayce. “I’ll be only a minute,” she said. “How about you run to the café we planned to visit and get us a table. I’ll join you after I’ve dropped Lux off.”

“I could walk with you,” Jayce offered. “It’s no problem.”

“Oh Jayce,” Mel shook her head. “You wouldn’t want that.” She rubbed her hand over Lux’s shoulder as if they’d been friends for years. “I’ll be taking Lux back through High Street. It’s almost certain that we’ll want to stop and do a little window shopping. To say nothing of what we’d choose for conversation!” She laughed lowly. “Entirely inappropriate for someone like you to listen in on what we have to say.”

Jayce looked between them uncertainly before shrugging. “If you say so. I guess I’ll see you at the café.”

“I’ll head straight there,” Mel agreed. She placed a kiss on Jayce’s cheek. “You’ll hardly be kept waiting.”

Lux felt her hope drain out of her as Jayce stared back at Mel with tender eyes. Vi and Caitlyn had already left. She’d be alone with the Medarda.

It’s only my second day in Piltover. How did everything go wrong so quickly?

…

Lux waited until they turned the corner before speaking. “You know who I am.”

Mel scoffed. “Any Noxian worth their salt would be able to recognize a Crownguard.” She dragged a desultory eye over Lux’s form, taking in her woolen traveling clothes and the snarls of blond hair trailing down her back. “You haven’t even tried to disguise yourself.”

Mel led her to a nearby carriage, waving at the driver as she approached. “Get in,” she told Lux, all but shoving her towards the steps.

Lux didn’t want to obey, but she didn’t see any other option. She could run, of course, but what would that get her? She’d have to return to the Kiramman’s to retrieve her belongings and Mel would almost certainly be able to arrive sooner than her. To say nothing of the sway she no doubt held with Caitlyn and Vi. Lux wasn’t naïve enough to believe that anyone she’d met in Piltover would side with her over Mel. Resigning herself to her fate, she climbed up the carriage steps and slipped inside, taking a seat on the edge of the bench.

Mel joined her a moment later and the carriage soon stuttered into motion.

The Noxian was not slow to begin speaking. “It was a mistake to come to Piltover, Lux. Demacia is too far away to help you.”

A chuckle built in her throat. “You say that as if I’d get help in the first place.”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

Instead of answering, Lux raised one of her hands. She concentrated on the wild sensation that was always pressing against her veins. Snapping her fingers, a flicker of luminescence came to life in the palm of her hand before fizzling out. She met Mel’s gaze. “I might be a Demacian, but Demacia doesn’t want people like me.”

Mel regarded her. “You’re an exile, then.”

“For lack of a better term.”

“And you decided to come to Piltover…”

Lux shrugged. “Where else could I go? I thought Piltover would be safe. I certainly didn’t imagine that Noxus would already have its claws in another prospective city.”

She would have thought they’d wait to conquer Shurima before moving on to their next target. Or that they’d be more eager to try their luck colonizing Ionia again. Lux knew that nothing stung empires like Noxus more than being defied. Resistance would only make Noxus’s retribution bloodier.

“Technically, Piltover isn’t affiliated with Noxus in any capacity.”

Lux scoffed. “I’m sure. They’ve only implanted one of their clans within Piltover’s government.”

“Not everyone from Noxus agrees with how they act,” Mel rebutted, lines forming at the corners of her eyes. “Some of them want nothing more than to leave that place behind and start fresh—to live a life where you don’t have to constantly be thinking about who might betray you or how you might curry a little more favor and rise in the social hierarchy.”

Lux leaned against the back of her seat. “Not having to look over your shoulder? That must be nice.”

“The way you act, one would think that you’ve never had to practice vigilance. Do you know what could have happened if someone else had learned you’d left the walls of Demacia?”

Considering she was alone in a carriage with Mel Medarda, Lux had a fairly good idea of what that would have looked like.

Mel exhaled a breath. “I know you don’t trust me,” she said. “And you’re entirely correct to do so. But I do want to help you. If Noxus brings war to Piltover, they’re bringing war to my city.”

Lux shifted in her seat. “It wouldn’t come to that. Even if Noxus does send people after me, Demacia won’t respond. They don’t have any reason to help me.”

“Quit that,” Mel snapped. “You’re a Crownguard. Your brother leads the Dauntless Vanguard. Even if your family doesn’t come to your aid, Noxus would never pass up on the opportunity to strike a blow to them and the rest of Demacia. Exile or not, the people of Noxus won’t care. They’ll bray for your blood all the same.”

The carriage ground to a stop, giving Lux a reason not to answer. The driver rapped his knuckle against the carriage. “We’re here,” Mel said. She grabbed Lux’s wrist before she could exit the carriage. “For your own sake, don’t come near me while you’re here.”

“Is that a threat?” Lux frowned.

“No.” Mel shook her head. “I truly don’t care about your presence in Piltover, but my staff is full of spies. If they learn of your true identity, they’ll send word to Noxus in a heartbeat. We won’t even know that they’ve discovered you until the airships start landing—if we’re lucky. I’m sure you’re well aware that Noxus has more subtle ways of incapacitating their targets than open combat.”

Lux swallowed. “I’ve heard of assassins like Katarina, yes.”

“If only that were the standard.” Mel shook her head. “Du Couteau would play with you. She’d give you a chance to fight back, make a spectacle out of it. The true threats are the assassins you haven’t heard about. They’ll cut your throat and leave you in a gutter without a word.”

“You make it seem like I shouldn’t sleep at night.”

Her attempt at lightheartedness didn’t move Mel’s expression. “It may be safer if you didn’t.”

The carriage driver knocked on the carriage again. Lux yanked her hand out of Mel’s grip and pushed the door open. “I guess Piltover’s not as safe as I thought it was. First, there’s some criminal on the loose toppling buildings and now you’re telling me that I’m not even safe inside the sheriff’s own home!”

She didn’t wait for a response. Climbing down the steps, Lux waved thanks to the carriage driver and made her way into the Kiramman estate. Only once Lux closed the door behind her, did she allow her expression to fall.

This was supposed to be the beginning of her new life! She was supposed to have left Demacia behind. Instead, it had followed her like a hound on the scent. Lux had lived her entire life with the shadow of Noxus hanging over her shoulders. At any moment, Noxus could decide to break the tenuous ceasefire between them and Demacia. Everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before the fighting picked up again, they just wished that it wouldn’t happen in their lifetimes, or that Noxus would remain satisfied picking fights with the rest of the world. Now, Lux didn’t have the protection of Demacia. If Noxus wanted her, they wouldn’t need to send an army; they wouldn’t need to spend months strategizing. Her only protection was her obscurity, and Mel’s recognition of her already threatened that.

Chapter Text

The sun had set by the time Caitlyn and Vi returned to the house. Lux was incredibly thankful that she was no longer alone. Not only had she begun to worry about them—an entire day spent chasing a single criminal!—Lux was also beginning to grow restless. After spending the first hour or so hidden in a corner with her sword at the ready in case Mel proved herself a true Noxian, Lux had tried to pass some time exploring the Kiramman home. However, the near immediate onset of guilt that came from letting herself into any room without a lock made the exercise exceedingly brief. Instead, she’d returned to the parlor and browsed the bookshelf on display for anything of interest—a history of Piltover, perhaps. Or even a recent magazine or journal. Lux hated wandering into the unknown. She’d had so little experience to prepare herself with it after spending all her life within the walls of Demacia.

“You’re back!” Lux jumped to her feet as the people responsible for giving her board walked through the doorway. Thankfully, the back of the sofa obstructed their view of the sword she’d held in one hand. Lux tried not to glance down at it, though she did wonder how she’d explain why she’d decided to bring it into Caitlyn’s parlor.

Vi raised a paper bag in front of her. “We brought dinner too.” She laughed as the color faded from Lux’s face. “It’s just burgers this time. Nothing to upset your delicate Demacian stomach, princess.”

Lux did not consider cured meat and hardtack a delicate diet! She wasn’t the one at fault for having a body that knew when it was ingesting chemical waste. Nevertheless, she joined Caitlyn and Vi at the counter and accepted the greasy meal.

Between bites, she asked, “did you apprehend the criminal?”

“Nah, Jinx got away,” Vi answered through her mouthful of food. “Again.”

“Again?”

Vi made to answer, but Caitlyn cleared her throat. She looked pointedly at Vi and the half bite of hamburger pressed against the inside of her cheek. “Jinx is an…elusive criminal,” Caitlyn answered. “Most days the best we can hope for is to limit the amount of collateral damage she causes.”

Limit the amount of collateral damage? Lux blinked. “You make her sound like a natural disaster.”

Vi made a choking sound that Lux belatedly realized was laughter. Caitlyn pursed her lips. “That is one way to describe Jinx, yes.”

“Is it truly so difficult to catch her?” Lux couldn’t help but be reminded of Sylas and his recent uprising. The Demacian army would never allow a threat to society like this Jinx to continue causing trouble. They’d root her out and drag her kicking and screaming to the gallows, if they’d even wait that long before dispensing their idea of justice.

“Oh, we’ve tried.” Caitlyn slumped across the counter. “We’ve tried everything. Setting traps, following her back to Zaun, going into Zaun…one renegade faction had even sought to take justice into their own hands, outright meeting Jinx’s antics with unrestrained lethal force.” Caitlyn grimaced. “I wish we could say that those…vigilantes are serving their time for abusing their positions as enforcers. Unfortunately, all the state could do for them was arrange for the funeral service and pass their pensions onto their immediate family.”

“What Caitlyn is saying,” Vi spoke up, not sounding somber at the, presumably horrendous, deaths of her once-coworkers, “is that there’s not a person on Runeterra that could catch Jinx. She can vanish in the wind faster than Janna herself.”

“She can topple a building like an aspect, too.” Lux shuddered. She could do that as well, of course, but that wasn’t her. That was her magic, a gift from whatever aspect thought it amusing to impart a fragment of their powers on poor, unsuspecting Demacians. Besides, Lux might have the potential to cause mass destruction but that didn’t mean she could do anything else with her magic. Even Sylas had proven more dangerous than her, despite him having no inherent power of his own.

Caitlyn grasped her hand over the counter. “Don’t be too worried,” she tried to assure Lux. “I understand that learning about someone like Jinx is upsetting, but her presence is a recurring part of life in Piltover. If you wish to stay here for an extended period of time, you better get used to hearing her name mentioned.”

“What makes her so special?” Lux asked. She still had Sylas in her head. Herself too.

Caitlyn and Vi shared a look. “Jinx is the result of…peculiar circumstances, shall we say. While still human, I fear she is not entirely so. Not anymore.”

Lux leaned forward, trying not to show the consternation she felt. “What do you mean by that?” Then, before she could stop herself, “are you saying that she possesses magic?”

“No.” Caitlyn dismissed her question without hesitation. “Jinx is the product of science, not fantasy. The best we can tell, she was created in a lab, her extraordinary abilities cultivated through experimentation.” She glanced furtively at Vi. “Experimentation and exploitation.”

“Not that it would matter if that bastard did stick some magic into her,” Vi said. She dropped the remains of her burger onto the counter and leaned her head against her hand. “Jinx is still a genius—and she’s got her hands on hextech. That’s as good as any magic. Easier to use, too I imagine.”

Lux supposed that Vi was correct, after a fashion. Use typically denoted a semblance of control, and learning how to control one’s magic took years, if not decades, to achieve. Piltover had outdone itself in discovering new ways to harness magic and turn it to their own designs.

When Demacia had discovered what they had done, the nobles had nearly caused a riot. Magic, blatantly promoted in Runeterra! Accessible to all! It was unbelievable and, if Piltover wasn’t halfway across Runeterra, Lux could imagine that her former home would have made more physical complaints to Piltover than they had. Not even the mages themselves had approved of hextech’s creation. The ones Lux had been able to talk to, that is. They claimed that Piltover was taking the aspect’s gifts for themselves, that they were profaning the world’s gods with their brazenness. It had taken everything that Lux had not to point out Sylas’s hypocrisy. He’d already worked himself into enough of a furor from simply hearing about hextech. He didn’t need to be compared to it, as well.

“Hextech,” Lux mused. “That’s a dangerous tool to be putting in the hands of just anyone. Do Piltover’s criminals typically use the city’s creation against it?”

Caitlyn winced at the accusation. “No, thank goodness. Under most circumstances, hextech—true hextech—is kept highly restricted. Anything in the public market is a watered-down facsimile.”

“It wouldn’t matter, anyway,” Vi cut in. “Even if your average crook got his hands on a bit of tech, he’d have no idea how to use it. Jayce made his little invention way too complex for the everyman to understand. Anybody who tries to tamper with it is just as likely to blow themselves up as anything.”

“Except for Jinx,” Lux reminded her. How horrifying! A criminal who is not only physically superior to the rest of the population but smarter too—and seemingly intent on causing mass destruction! How had news of this monstrosity not exceeded Piltover?

Caitlyn must have sensed that her attempts at consolation were having an ill effect. She turned the conversation to a different subject. “If you are curious about hextech, we could get you enrolled in a few courses at the university.”

“Really?” Lux blinked in surprise. “You would allow someone like me to learn how hextech worked?”

Caitlyn raised an eyebrow. “Someone like you?”

“A foreigner,” Lux elaborated. “An outsider, someone who could take your secrets and bring them back with me to Demacia.” She wouldn’t of course. If Lux had her way, she’d never step foot on Demacian ground again. But Caitlyn didn’t know her sentiments.

“Oh.” Caitlyn’s forehead creased as if she hadn’t considered that. “No. The university teaches merely the theory of hextech, all information that’s readily available should anyone have the desire to go looking for it. The creation of hextech itself, even if one had a complete understanding of hextech, is impossible.”

“It’s like an exhibit,” Vi tried to add to the explanation. “You get to see the finished product, maybe even prod at it a bit, but you won’t be making hextech. That’s reserved for our resident builder-boy.”

Caitlyn pinched the bridge of her nose. “I do so wish you would come up with less juvenile nicknames.”

“I mean, you already vetoed ‘Piltover’s Talis-man.’” Vi shrugged. “You should have known it would only be downhill from there.”

“Yes, because it was clearly mistaken of me to assume you would call him by his name.”

While the couple bantered back and forth, Lux considered the offer. Her initial reaction had been to dismiss it outright. She had no place in a university. Especially not when she knew there were Noxians around. All it would take was an errant glance and she’d be discovered, never mind if someone checked the course registry. You just had to tell Caitlyn your actual name, didn’t you? And now she couldn’t very well ask that Caitlyn enroll her under an alias. It would draw undue suspicion.

But she couldn’t live her life in fear of being discovered, could she? Lux had left Demacia because she didn’t want to hide who she was. Besides, Piltover’s university is renowned across all of Runeterra. If there was anywhere I could be safe, it would be there. Noxus wouldn’t dare attempt to attack her while she was inside what was arguably Piltover’s most valuable building. They wouldn’t risk losing the favor of the city they’d spent so long trying to build ties with.

Then, there was her pride. Who did these scientists and theorists think they were, believing that someone born with magic wouldn’t be able to understand how they’d made their inventions? It was too complex, they claimed? Lux didn’t believe it for an instant. She knew magic. She may not be able to control it very well, but she could feel it running in her veins. There was simply no way a few mundane tinkerers could have stumbled their way through making hextech without Lux being able to follow.

“I’ll do it,” she said, nodding her head in confirmation. “That is, if it’s not too much of an issue.”

“Of course not.” Caitlyn smiled at her. “Piltover is a place of empowerment, Lux. Don’t let anyone here ever tell you otherwise.”

Vi snorted. “Caitlyn’s just glad you won’t be spending all your time here.” She winked at Lux. “You should have heard her on the ride back. She was having an absolute meltdown thinking that you’d be all alone here, with nothing to do—unless you found her collection of steamy romance novels that she hides around the house.”

“I do not!” Caitlyn swatted Vi’s shoulder, an embarrassed blush rising on her cheeks.

Lux giggled at their antics. It was nice, she thought, to be able to sit around a meal and talk with one another, without any shadows hanging over you. She’d always been on edge in Demacia. Now, hardly a full day had passed, and Lux could already feel a kinship with these two that had eluded her the entire time she’d been in Demacia.

Zeri wheezed as the thug slammed his fist into her stomach. She returned with an elbow before staggering out of range. One of her organs—she couldn’t tell which—felt like it had lodged itself in her throat. She glared at the thug opposite her and wished, not for the first time, that she was the least bit intimidating. It would be so much easier to scare off guys like these if she wasn’t a foot shorter than them and half their weight.

The leather of her glove creaked as she clenched her hand into a fist. Raising her arm, Zeri reached inside of herself, looking for the spark that she knew was bouncing around there somewhere. All she had to do was find it.

There! The spark arced off her thumb before dancing over her fingers. Zeri allowed herself to smirk at the thug. “I told you that you’d regret messing with me!”

Without another word, Zeri splayed her fingers in the thug’s direction and pushed…whatever it was that she had into the air. The lightning cracked like a whip as it shot between them. The man tried to dodge, but Zeri doubted anyone was quick enough to avoid lightning. Not even Jinx could move that fast! Zeri forced herself to remember that Jinx was within touching distance when Zeri had unloaded on her. She’d also brushed off getting hit with enough voltage to keep the lights on for a year as if it were nothing.

Her opponent shrieked as the lightning shot through his body. His limbs spasmed, even after he collapsed to the ground. Walking over, Zeri checked his pulse. Still breathing. That was good. She’d have hated dragging him out of the street. Zeri shook her head and stood up. She brushed the dirt from her clothes, releasing a sigh as she finally let her muscles relax. Crime around the neighborhood had been on the rise in the past few weeks. Zeri didn’t know why there were suddenly more hooligans snooping around at night, but she dealt with them all the same. The few that she’d tried to get talking hadn’t given her anything, and Zeri knew she didn’t have the stomach to force it out of them—not that she’d have the ability to in the first place. Her lightning didn’t really have an in-between. Most days, she was happy that she got any of it at all.

She delved into the pockets of the man’s coat, withdrawing anything of value. Her hands returned a few coins, a cartridge of deathsticks, and some lint. Zeri slipped the coins into her own pocket. She’d leave them on the counter at the local supply store—the one run by some of the miner’s wives. They’d know what to do with it, whether to spend it on food or coal, medicine or clothes.

The movement pulled at her stomach and made Zeri wince. Already, her skin had bruised a deep purple. She scowled at the unconscious man. Guess I won’t be wearing any of my crop tops around the house for a while. Mom would kill me if she knew about this. Zeri had tried to keep a low profile when she was out here. The recognition simply wasn’t worth it. Nobody in the community would appreciate knowing some teenage girl was responsible for keeping them safe. Some, like her mom, would think it was too dangerous and the men would have their pride stung and think that her actions implied that they weren’t good enough.

Shaking her head to rid herself of those thoughts, Zeri patted down the legs of the man. Her eyes lingered on his boots. They were nice boots, made of hard leather and capped with steel. They were sturdy boots, better than anything she’d seen her dad wear when he came back from the mines. He’d been complaining about his boots, too, saying that the soles were starting to wear through. Her grandma had tried stuffing them with newspaper, but it was little comfort.

Again, she wondered why someone like this was spending his evening lurking around her neighborhood. He wasn’t impoverished, he didn’t have a reason to be here. Not unless he liked causing trouble for the hell of it—but Zeri didn’t get the feeling that was right. He hadn’t been swaggering about when she saw him, and he hadn’t responded to her taunts, either.

Her hands grappled with something in his pocket. She pulled out the handle of a compact knife. Ejecting the blade from the sheath, Zeri ran her finger along the edge, wincing as the sharpened edge bit into her finger with barely any resistance. This definitely wasn’t a run-of-the-mill hoodlum.

Why didn’t he use this earlier? Zeri glanced between the knife and the man. There weren’t many conclusions she could come to. There were only a few reasons he wouldn’t want to risk hurting her too badly. Why wouldn’t he want to cut her up? Zeri suppressed a shudder. Maybe that was why he was down here. He thought he’d be able to find some stray girls that nobody would notice if they went missing. He’d take them back into Zaun proper, where he could cash in on his findings.

So caught up in her deductions, Zeri failed to notice the new arrival before it was too late. The first indication she got was when the metal pipe crashed against the side of her head. Zeri toppled to the floor as spots danced in her vision. Her eyes refused to focus, and her fingers clawed feebly at the ground. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was, only that nothing made sense and that everything refused to stay still.

Someone’s foot rolled her onto her back. Zeri blinked past the daze hanging over her eyes. The world still refused to come into clarity, but she could at least make out the shape of her attacker, could see the snarl on his face as he leered down at her. “You think you’re all that, do you?”

He slammed his foot into her ribs. Zeri could have sworn they creaked. She gurgled in pain and curled into a ball. Not that it helped much. Her assailant’s foot broke past her defense and wrenched another groan out of her as it collided with the bruise already covering her stomach. Her insides felt swollen. She didn’t think they could take another hit; if they did, then surely something would burst.

Zeri did not know her own body, because she did survive another kick, though she almost wished that she hadn’t. Agony coursed through her as the man hit her with enough force to send her rolling. Her arms shook as she tried to pick herself up, to get to her feet so she would be less of a sitting duck.

“You bitch.” The man swung his pipe at her, lashing it across her cheek and sending Zeri back to the ground. “When the boss said to come down here, we didn’t think that we’d have to deal with a freak like you!” His next kick didn’t hurt as badly. Zeri almost felt light. Her head swam, but that was a good thing, she thought. It separated her from the pain. She didn’t want to keep feeling. She wanted to stay here, in this dreamy cocoon of muted sensation. She could almost close her eyes and believe she was sleeping.

Something inside her told Zeri that was a very bad idea. She didn’t know why. What was wrong with taking a nap? When she tried to think, her head throbbed. It would only be for a minute, she thought. I’ll get right back to—what was she doing again? Zeri couldn’t remember. She frowned as a tremor went through her. She was…she was in Zaun, right? Of course I'm in Zaun, she retorted to herself. I’ve never left Zaun all my life. But what was she doing in Zaun? Zeri wracked her brains, fighting through the icy fog that rebuffed her attempts at remembrance. She was…she was fighting someone! Yes, that was it. She’d just dealt with some trafficker and then she’d been blindsided. Was she still being attacked? Zeri suddenly realized that her eyes were open. Her head lolled against the ground. Her lungs were on fire; something was poking against them every time she breathed.

Zeri forced herself to blink. Her eyelids grew heavier with each flutter, but she pressed on. The rush of blood in her ears slowly faded away and Zeri came back to her body.

“Well,” a voice said from somewhere nearby. Zeri tried to strain her neck towards the sound, but it spasmed and she abandoned the attempt. “You look like shit.”

Zeri rolled onto her stomach. She almost screamed as her weight fell onto her abused torso. But at least now she could see the person speaking. Or rather, she could see their feet. And the blue twin-tails that trailed behind them.

Those are nice boots, too. She thought lazily. I wish I had a pair like that.

“Hey, kid,” Jinx said, “you still in there? Chuck didn’t rattle your brain too much, did he?”

“Urgh.” Zeri tried to shake her head, but the streetlamps started swirling around her. She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her head against the ground as she counted to ten. “You should see the other guy,” she said.

Jinx laughed. It sounded like nails against a chalkboard to Zeri. “I knew there was a reason I liked you!”

She pressed herself onto her forearms, wincing as pain shot up her body and along her spine before jamming itself into the base of her skull. Zeri dug her fingers into the back of her neck and tried to relieve the tension. It had little effect. “You only knew I existed a week ago.”

Wait. Zeri blinked. She looked around her. The first thug she’d taken down was still sprawled across the ground, but the other one… “Where did the other guy go?”

Her stomach began to knot as she turned her attention to Jinx. Something in her brain started churning, finally coming back online now that it wasn’t being knocked around. She gasped. “You knew him, didn’t you?! Have you been sending these guys down here?”

“Well, yeah,” Jinx replied cheerily. She dropped down next to Zeri, sprawling her legs out in front of her. “I mean, have seen what you look like when you fight? I’ve seen wet cats with more technique than you. Starving, desperate cats.”

“What the hell!” Zeri snarled in Jinx’s face. “Don’t you have any idea how hard it is for everyone down here? What do you think you’ll accomplish by making their lives even more miserable?”

“What will I accomplish?” Jinx pointed at herself as she tilted her head in confusion. “This is all for you, Sparky. What were you hoping to get out of brawling with a bunch of lowlifes? Other than a bunch of broken bones, that is.”

“I can handle them just fine,” Zeri sniffed.

Jinx was unimpressed. “You know that you’ve got a bump the size of a goose egg growing out of your head, right?”

“No thanks to you!”

Jinx shrugged. “You should have learned how to dodge better.”

“He hit me from behind!”

“Duh.” Jinx released a breath of exasperation. “This is Zaun we’re talking about. When don’t they do that?”

She opened her mouth to respond, but Jinx had a point. That didn’t mean Jinx was in the right, though! Zeri crawled onto her feet, only barely swaying as the world swam. Jinx stared up at her with bottomless eyes. Zeri scowled back at her.

Something must be wrong with me, she thought. I’m glaring at an urban legend. A monster of Zaun. She could kill me a hundred different ways before I even realized what’s happening. Jinx’s teeth gleamed in the murky light. Zeri couldn’t find it in her to be scared. “Stop sending people down here,” she said. “We have it hard enough down here. We don’t need you making things worse.”

“Gosh, haven’t I heard that before!” Jinx made a nagging gesture with her hands. “You always ruin everything! Blah, blah blah…all you’ll ever be is a Jinx! Blah, blah…nobody ever wants you around!” Jinx bared her teeth at her. “Making things worse is kind of what I do.”

“Then do it somewhere else!” Piltover, for example. Or Shurima, or literally anywhere that wasn’t here.

Jinx snorted. She picked herself up with unnatural spryness. “How long have you been doing this whole hero thing, Lightning-Buns? It can’t have been too long. Boy Wonder would have sniffed you out by now if you had.”

“Who?” Zeri was having a hard enough time following Jinx’s conversation. Never mind all the damnable nicknames. Lightning-Buns! Really! Zeri was trying to do something respectable. She didn’t deserve to be mocked like this!

Jinx waved her hand. “You know. The Firefly. White dreads. Wears a mask. Pretends to be all serious and broody. Thinks he’s better than everyone else. Am I ringing any bells here?”

Zeri shook her head.

“Ah!” Jinx snapped her fingers as if she’d just remembered something important. “That’s right. He keeps his base over on the other side of Zaun.” She clicked her tongue. “Typical hypocrite, setting up shop that close to Piltover. He’s probably never even been down to mines. Won’t stop him from taking anything they find down here for his own, though.”

Zeri’s head throbbed. “He sounds like fun,” she said with as much deadpan as she could muster. “Why don’t you go bother him instead.”

“It is fun to get him riled up.” Jinx scratched her chin as she delved into thought. It was honestly surprising. Zeri didn’t think Jinx was capable of sustained thought. It seemed too serious for her. Too still. Jinx’s face rippled as her skin pulled into a toothy smile. “But you’re funner!”

Suddenly, Jinx had an arm around her shoulder. Zeri would have tumbled to the ground if Jinx didn’t keep her upright. “Besides,” the maniac continued. “I’ve always been a fixer-upper. You can ask Fishbones! When I first found him, he was nothing but a bunch of scrap. Now he’s the talk of the town!”

Zeri shoved Jinx off her and stalked away in a storm of anger. “I’m not some toy for you to amuse yourself with!” She spat. “Zaun isn’t your personal playground. It isn’t a game! Not to everyone else living down here.”

“Oh, stop complaining,” Jinx responded. “We’ve all got to get our kicks in somehow. It’s not my fault everybody else gets in my way.”

It most definitely was Jinx’s fault. “Stop sending your men down here,” Zeri said. She glowered at Jinx when the woman tried to get close to her.

Jinx tilted her head but stopped trying to approach her. “How else are you going to learn how to fight?”

“I can fight just fine!” She’d been doing perfectly well before Jinx showed up. Her neighborhood was so far down that nobody of consequence ever came down here. She didn’t need to be like the pit fighters to make a difference. She just had to be better than the average hoodlum. And she was.

“Oh please.” Jinx scoffed, crossing her arms, and looking down her nose at Zeri. “A stiff wind could blow you over. Honestly, it’s kind of pathetic watching you flail about as if you know what you’re doing.”

Zeri growled. “I’ll show you pathetic.” She lunged at Jinx, forgetting in the moment that the woman across from her had a body count in the hundreds.

Let it not be said that Zeri was a slow learner. She realized her mistake the instant she threw her first punch. Jinx didn’t even look at it as her body leaned out of the way. Zeri, having thrown all of her weight behind the blow, went hurtling past her. She tripped on one of Jinx’s outstretched feet and crashed into the ground. Hot lances of pain spiked through her as her bruised and battered flesh scraped against the rugged asphalt.

Before she could force herself to her feet, Jinx dropped on top of her, planting herself between Zeri’s shoulder blades. Her feet came to rest on either side of Zeri’s head, and her long hair fell in front of her face. Zeri strained her neck to meet amused tourmaline eyes. “I told you that you looked pathetic.”

Perhaps Zeri was not as good of a learner as she thought, because she immediately swiped at Jinx. It wasn’t even a proper punch, either. Her hands curled into claws, and all she wanted to do was rake them against Jinx’s pale flesh. She wanted to prove that he was capable, that she could make a difference.

“Stop that.” Jinx leaned away from the desperate attack and banged her fist against the back of Zeri’s head. “Janna’s tits, girl. Do you even know how sad you look right now?”

“Get off of me,” she growled, trying not to think about how the asphalt was digging into her cheek. She could already feel where it had cut her. This is going to be impossible to explain to Ma and Pa. But she had to find an excuse. Anything would be more comforting than telling them she ran into Jinx. They’d have a heart attack if they knew that.

“That’s better,” Jinx cooed once Zeri stopped writhing underneath her. She patted Zeri’s, relatively, uninjured cheek. “Are you ready to talk like civilized adults, now?”

“You don’t even know what that word means.”

Jinx laughed. “Sure I do. It’s what we call the Pilties!”

Nevertheless, Jinx rolled off of her. She didn’t offer Zeri a hand to help her up, but that was expected. Nobody in Zaun gave out kindness for free. For what felt like the fifth time that night, Zeri staggered to her feet. She watched Jinx warily. A numbness was beginning to seep into her bones. It made thinking difficult. She kept forgetting why she was still out there. Only the animal part of her brain, the one whose sole desire was survival kept talking to her. Run, it said. This is a predator. You’re their prey. Zeri didn’t want to be anyone’s prey. She ground her teeth against the advice and stared down Jinx. You’re going to die, it sighed. We need to do something. Don’t just stand here waiting to react! A still prey is dead prey.

“Okay!” Jinx clapped her hands. “Now that we’ve finally got that out of our systems—”

Zeri took the opportunity to dive at Jinx. She’d taken her down once, hadn’t she? She could do it again. She’d prove that Jinx couldn’t boss her around. She’d show the world that she wasn’t its plaything!

The two of them slammed into the ground, Zeri on top of Jinx. She didn’t hesitate to claw at Jinx’s face with wild fervor. She had to end this quickly. She couldn’t let Jinx get the upper hand. All Zeri had was the element of surprise. The moment she let up, Jinx would take back control.

Jinx’s eyes stared at her with merriment. It infuriated Zeri, and she put even more force into her attacks. Jinx began to giggle as she writhed underneath her.

She’s not even trying to defend herself. Zeri didn’t let her anxiety stop her. Jinx was crazy. Everybody knew that. She shouldn’t be trying to understand her actions. Bracing her arm against Jinx’s throat, Zeri drove her fist into the woman’s temple. The thud that followed seemed to ring in Zeri’s ears. Jinx was still staring at her. She was still grinning. Zeri pulled back her fist and did it again.

“Wow,” Jinx said, a yellow bruise just beginning to rise on her face. “You are feral!”

“Shut up!”

Zeri’s next hit caught Jinx underneath her eye. Her fist scraped against Jinx’s cheek before sliding off. She could feel the skin stretch beneath her fist, could feel the hard bones of Jinx’s face as they endured Zeri’s onslaught. Jinx kept cackling.

She’s not human, Zeri realized. The myths are true. She might look like a human. She might talk like a human. She might even be made of flesh and blood like us. But Jinx is not human. She couldn’t be. There wasn’t a shred of humanity in Jinx’s eyes. Zeri was staring into pools of infinite madness.

Zeri planted her fist on the ground, heaving with exertion. Her lungs were on fire, and her ribs groaned with every exhale. She glanced at her hand. She didn’t dare give Jinx the benefit of seeing her beaten. If only my lightning wasn’t so finicky! That was the only thing she had left that could possibly subdue Jinx. It wouldn’t come to her. Every time she searched for it, the feeling fizzled away. It was like it was scared of Jinx, unwilling to show itself in her presence.

“Whew,” Jinx said. She brought a hand to her cheek and wiped off a smudge of blood. When she pulled her hand back, her skin was perfectly smooth. “Who knew you had so much pent-up energy!”

Zeri stared at her in horror.

Jinx sighed. “I guess we’ll call this one a draw.”

“What?” Zeri croaked. “What are you talking about?”

There was no such thing as a draw in Zaun. You either won or you didn’t. And Zeri, despite her best efforts, obviously wasn’t going to win against Jinx. The demon had already healed, for Aspect’s sake! It was as if Zeri hadn’t even been hitting her for the last five minutes. She, meanwhile, didn’t think she could stand up without help. It took all her strength not to pass out as it was.

“Well, since you tried so hard, I’d feel bad if I didn’t try to do the same.” Jinx dangled a cylinder in front of her face. Its metal jaws shook violently. Zeri discovered that she could force herself to her feet. Everyone who’d spent time in Zaun—or even Piltover for that matter—knew what was in Jinx’s hand. Zeri was halfway across the street before she realized she’d even moved.

Just as the grenade’s shaking got to the point that Zeri thought its screws were about to fall out, Jinx tossed it into the air with a breathy whoop. The explosions sent gusts of heat against Zeri’s skin, and she had to shield her eyes against the flashing lights. The shockwave sent her stumbling back to the ground. Even after it had finished, she could still feel the aftershocks trembling underneath her fingers. Or maybe it’s my fingers that are trembling. She didn’t think she’d be able to tell. She couldn’t even see properly without having spots gather in the corner of her eyes!

“What the hell was that about!” Zeri scowled at where she thought Jinx was. “You could have gotten both of us killed with that!”

Jinx smirked, somehow already on her feet despite being directly below the blast. She didn’t look the least bit disheveled. “Thanks for stating the obvious.” She tapped her chin. “It would have been funny if that’s how I get done in, though…Can you imagine? Mad Bomber of Zaun, killed by her own bombs in some tiny street nobody’s ever heard of. What a way to go!”

Zeri stared at Jinx. Something is seriously wrong with this…what should she even call Jinx? She’d already established that Jinx wasn’t human. It seemed an understatement to call her a mere woman. Zeri’s head pounded. She rested it against the asphalt. These were questions she could find answers to later. After she got some rest.

Except, how am I going to get home? She couldn’t very well head straight there. That would mean leading Jinx right to her family. Zeri shivered. She didn’t want to know what someone like Jinx would do with that kind of information. It was already bad enough that she’d taken an interest in her. Zeri would not let Jinx rope the rest of her family into this madness. Speaking of Jinx, Zeri craned her head in search for her. Dammit, why’d you let her out of your sight? Was her tossing grenades around not enough to warrant a little vigilance?

“Jinx?” The street was empty. The only evidence that Jinx had been here at all was the warped casing of her grenade and some soot from where the explosion had scorched the ground. Zeri sat up. She swiveled her head, taking in every shadowed alleyway and overhang. Jinx wasn’t here. She’d vanished without a sound.

Zeri fell back to the ground. “I guess it really is just a game to her, after all.” It seemed that Jinx would come and go as she pleased. Zeri only hoped that Jinx would grow bored of her soon enough and leave her alone. She didn’t need the attention of someone like Jinx hanging over her. More importantly, her neighborhood couldn’t afford the price that Jinx’s presence would cost. Zeri could see it already as the lamps flickered, and mortar began to dust the ground beside the buildings. Jinx brought destruction with her wherever she went. Zeri wanted her as far away from her home as possible. Unfortunately, that’s what everyone in both Zaun and Piltover pray for. It didn’t stop Jinx from doing what she wanted. If anything, it only made her want to ruin their lives even more.

Chapter Text

Now that Zeri knew Jinx was behind the influx of men lurking around her community, she took pains to take them down as hard as possible. There was no more warning, no more yelling across the street or from the rooftops. The moment Zeri saw someone who fit the description of Jinx’s men, she acted—and it was easy to identify them, considering how well they dressed compared to the people who lived here.

Zeri hated that she was learning. Her gun couldn’t malfunction on her if they didn’t realize she was there. They couldn’t fight back if she hit them hard enough before they could defend themselves. Acting as she was made everything seem more real. Zeri had wanted to help her neighborhood. She wanted to be a hero, like the people in the books her mom had read her when she was little. She’d even felt like one, too, when she first started. The flashy moves, the added swagger. Zeri felt like she was on top of the world every time she got into a fight and came out on top. Now, the joy was gone. She didn’t feel a rush of exhilaration, didn’t feel like pumping her fist or whooping in delight. Zeri scavenged the bodies and went back to keeping the streets safe. She hated every moment of it.

It didn’t matter how Zeri felt. She’d gotten her home into this mess. It was her responsibility to make sure Jinx and her men didn’t make life any worse for the people living here—and they would if Zeri didn’t stop them. The first thing she’d done when she realized that Jinx had taken an interest in her had been to pull away from her nightly escapades. She’d stayed in her room, believing that, if Jinx couldn’t find her, she’d get bored and leave the place alone.

The next morning, Zeri went to the scrapyard and saw firsthand the destruction her negligence had wrought. Windows had been broken, doors hung crookedly from broken hinges. Someone had raided the community pantry and spirited away with the emergency stock of food. That was the worst of it. The crime was purely malicious. There wasn’t a market for stolen food, and Zeri knew that the men she’d seen weren’t going hungry, not like the people who they’d robbed.

It was all the district could talk about. Some gang had it out for them, they’d whispered to one another with shifty eyes. There was no reason to make life more difficult for people in Zaun without reason. Especially not a poor, diminished place like their mining district. Every time Zeri heard the whispers, the guilt in her stomach grew. This was her fault. They hadn’t targeted her home. They’d targeted her. Only, Zeri hadn’t stepped up to the challenge. She’d allowed them to burden the people she was trying to protect.

Zeri rubbed at a bruise underneath her rib as she sat atop a roof. It was getting harder to keep her family from discovering what she was doing. If not from the smattering of bruises that always seemed to be waiting for her under her clothes, then surely they’d notice how much quieter she was nowadays. Zeri was simply too tired to be the same energetic girl they’d known all their lives. She tried to keep her energy up. Nothing helped to get others through tough times more than an upbeat atmosphere. Her father wouldn’t have to worry about whether he was doing enough if she was smiling and kept everyone laughing. They could all pretend that everything was alright down here.

Whatever game Jinx was trying to play with her threatened that illusion. She’d almost cried out when her grandmother had gripped her forearm too tightly while Zeri was helping her up the stairs. Even then, she couldn’t hold back a groan—and Gran noticed, too. She didn’t say anything, but Zeri saw how her face fell. How useless she must have felt, thinking that she was burdening Zeri and the rest of the house! No matter what Zeri said, or how much she tried to prove that she didn’t mind helping her with whatever she needed, the old woman’s eyes hadn’t changed. They watched Zeri with the patience of someone who’d already come to their own conclusions, of someone who accepted that they were a burden.

“Ugh,” she groaned, glancing along the street. “Where are those punching bags when I need them?”

She didn’t like how quiet it was. The whole night had been slow. Everyone knew that meant trouble in Zaun. Only dead things kept the silence. The stillness made her hair stand on end, more than it usually did at least.

Someone dropped down next to her. Their boots clicked against the side of the building, sending bits of dust to the ground. It was the only indication that the person gave her. No footsteps. No clanking bits of metal. Not even a shadow. It was as if the person had simply bled into existence beside her. Zeri couldn’t react before they had their arm wrapped around her shoulder.

Not that it would have mattered. Zeri didn’t know why she even put up a struggle in the first place. Maybe she really was looking for a punching bag to take her anger out on. And who better than the cause of her misery?

“Hey, that tickles!” Jinx giggled as Zeri drove an elbow into her side. She grabbed her arm and shifted it behind her back so that Zeri’s hand wrapped around her waist in a parody of an embrace. Zeri attempted to grab Jinx’s gun from its holster, but she couldn’t wrench her hand free from Jinx’s grasp.

“What do you want?” she growled. The temptation to throw her other hand at Jinx’s face was almost overwhelming, but what good would it do? If anything, Jinx would only be more amused at her spite. Zeri wouldn’t give her that pleasure.

“I was looking for you!” Jinx smiled as if she were being perfectly reasonable.

A distant voice in the back of her head noted how strange it was that she’d adapted to Jinx’s presence in her life so quickly. Some part of Zeri knew she should be quivering in fear, but it was pressed down by weary resignation. Not too long ago, she had trembled at just the thought of Jinx, never mind having the demon’s arms wrapped around her like a vice. Perhaps this is what it felt like to come into adulthood in Zaun. You realized that you were nothing but a toy to the real players down here. If Jinx wanted to kill her, there was nothing Zeri could do to change that. The only thing she could do was make her satisfaction as little as possible. That way, she’d at least keep her dignity when she died.

Zeri scowled and turned her face away from Jinx.

“Oh, don’t be like that!” Jinx squeezed Zeri closer to her. “We’re going to have some fun tonight!”

She scoffed. “I doubt that.”

Jinx ignored her. “Come on!” Zeri was forced to follow along as Jinx scrambled to her feet.

“Where are we even going?” she asked, trying to break out of Jinx’s grip. She could walk on her own two feet, thank you very much!

“There’s going to be a bit of a ruckus a few districts away. Some gang’s going to hit one of the mines. They’ve been snooping around it for the last few days—probably thought I wouldn’t notice them wandering out this far!”

As if the miners don’t have enough hardship, Zeri thought. The chembarons already exploited them. If there was sunlight in Zaun, the miners wouldn’t get the chance to see it. They spent more time underground than above, and all for a pittance of what their hard work wrought from out of their granite tunnels.

A growl built in the back of her throat. “What do these guys want with a mine?”

The answer was obvious, of course. They wanted the metals without any of the work it took to unearth them. Typically, the chembaron in charge of the mine kept a security detail around the valuables until they could get shipped away from the source, but disputes weren’t unheard of, either from groups of opportunists or jealous chembarons trying to profit off of their rivals’ losses.

“And let go of me, dammit!” Zeri squirmed in Jinx’s grip, just barely remembering to leap as Jinx dragged her over the ledge of one rooftop and onto another.

“You sure?” Jinx asked. She looked at Zeri without slowing down. “We’re on a bit of a time crunch here.”

“I can run on my own,” she growled.

Jinx shrugged. “Suit yourself.” She loosened her grip on Zeri.

“See,” Zeri groused as she found her footing, keeping pace beside Jinx. “I told you I could keep up.”

Jinx laughed. “You think this is fast?”

Before Zeri could respond, Jinx began pulling away. It was insane, Zeri thought, how someone as lithe as Jinx could move that quickly with both a minigun and rocket launcher strapped to her—and whatever else she was carrying. But then again, Zeri shouldn’t have been surprised. Of course, it was insane, it was Jinx.

When they stopped, Zeri had to bend over and gasp for breath. Jinx had taken her through two entire districts, never once slowing down. Zeri’s heart was pounding and her lungs fluttered as she took great gulps of dirty air.

“You didn’t tire yourself out too much, did you, battery-pack?”

Zeri raised her head to glare at Jinx through her sweaty locks. “That’s not my name, and you know it.”

“Eh, I was never good with names.” Jinx shrugged. “What good’s a name, anyway? It’s not like you get to decide what it is. Better to make your own, I think.”

“Well I, for one, like my—”

“Shh!” Jinx clapped a hand over Zeri’s mouth. “Look,” she whispered, pointing to the distance.

Zeri followed the direction of her finger, though not before sending one last glower at Jinx as she tried to remove the woman’s hand from her mouth.

At first, she didn’t see anything. Then, from the smog that always hung in the distance of Zaun, a dozen or so lights appeared, bobbing in the air like a swarm of moths. They were people, she realized as they drew nearer. And they were riding in on some pretty fancy tech.

Her eyes lingered on the boards beneath their feet. “What are those?”

“They’re lame, if you ask me,” Jinx responded. She cracked a smile. “Which you did.”

Zeri blew out a breath.

“Do you want one?” Jinx’s eyes took on a manic glint. Zeri would call it mischievous, but she didn’t think mischief was supposed to raise your survival instincts.

“I’m not a thief.”

“But I am!” Jinx reached over and ruffled one of Zeri’s buns. She could feel the static as it clung to Jinx’s fingers. “And if I give it to you, you wouldn’t be the one stealing.”

Did Jinx have no idea how ethics actually worked? Zeri was raised in the slums of Zaun and even she knew the difference between right and wrong! A spark of actual electricity leapt from the end of Zeri’s hair onto Jinx’s hand, where it hissed against her skin.

“On second thought,” Jinx said, shaking her hand in front of her, “better keep the fancy toys away from you. Wouldn’t want it to short-circuit when you’re a hundred feet in the air.”

Zeri decided to bring the conversation back on topic. “What are they doing here?”

Jinx blinked. “You can’t see ‘em?” She pointed at the entrance to the mine. “There. In the shadows. They’ve got a lookout.”

If Zeri squinted, she could just make out the figure. His clothes were matted with dust, and his face and hair were covered in a layer of soot. He watched the approaching gang with wary vigilance.

“There’s been some whispers going around about this place,” Jinx continued. “Apparently one of them got the bright idea to cut out the chembaron in charge.” She shrugged. “Probably thinks he’s more entitled to all the stones down there than his boss.”

A miner’s revolt. Zeri pursed her lips. It wasn’t completely unheard of; everyone had their breaking point. However, she couldn’t remember a single time any of them had succeeded. You didn’t challenge a chembaron. If they couldn’t make a profit out of you, they made you into an example for everyone else.

“Is that why these guys are here?” Zeri nodded towards the new arrivals. “Come down to make sure nobody breaks the status quo?”

“Something like that,” Jinx replied. She kept an eye on the group. “Probably got word straight from Piltover. It’s not like them to come this far into Zaun by themselves.”

Straight from Piltover? Zeri returned her attention to the group. Is this some old Piltie’s gang? She couldn’t imagine any true Zaunite working for the Pilties, not if it meant they played a part in keeping Piltover’s boot on their throats.

Something hardened in the back of her mind. Zeri turned to Jinx. “What are we going to do?”

“That’s the spirit!” Jinx slapped her on the back. She pointed at the lurking raiders. “You still got enough charge in your batteries?”

“What?”

“You know…” Jinx made a gun with her fingers. “You’ve still got some juice to squeeze out, yeah?”

Zeri blinked. She looked down at her hand. “I mean, I guess?” She looked back to Jinx. “Though, it’s always been kind of finicky. I can’t really shoot anything out on demand.”

As much as it embarrassed Zeri to admit that—and to Jinx of all people!—it would be considerably worse if the madwoman who’d dragged her here had decided to throw her into the fighting without knowing how unreliable Zeri’s powers were.

“Ah, you’ll be fine,” Jinx dismissed with a wave of her hand. “Stress is good for things like this. Nothing gets the blood pumping like the threat of having your noggin cracked like an egg!”

That was not at all reassuring.

“Anyway,” Jinx continued, oblivious to how poor she was doing in her reassurance. At least, Zeri thought Jinx had meant it as reassurance. “If you get into too much trouble just scream and I’ll send some help your way.”

“Help?” Zeri looked around the rooftop, then the alleys. Did Jinx bring backup? It made sense, she supposed. You’d have to be insane to think you could walk into a turf war like this by yourself and still come out on top.

“Yep!” Jinx’s sharp teeth gleamed in the lamplight. She dangled a string of grenades between them. They all had cartoon faces scribbled on the metal. “Good ole Chomper’s never let me down! Well, except for that one time… and then there was before…” Jinx began to mumble to herself.

Zeri shouldn’t have expected anything different. Jinx was insane.

“Anyway!” Jinx clapped her hands together. It sent the grenades banging against one another in a series of dull clinks. Zeri flinched at every one. “You should be fine. Those Fireflies are a bunch of wusses anyway. If they didn’t have all that tech, they wouldn’t even be worth mentioning in Zaun.”

Zeri could understand that, at least. She was no stranger to having the rich and spoilt flaunting their wealth in her face. If these Fireflies were really like that, then Jinx was right. She wouldn’t have a problem knocking them down a few pegs.

“Just don’t tussle with that one.” Jinx pointed at one of the Fireflies, masked like all the rest but undeniably the leader. He didn’t wear anything that indicated as much, but it was clear from the way the rest of the group kept glancing at him, waiting for orders, that he was the one in charge.

“That’s the Minute-Man himself,” Jinx said before smirking. “Though he’s only ever been able to make it a few seconds. Don’t mess with him, he’s out of your league.”

Zeri bristled. “What do you mean?”

She could hold her own against a common thug! Especially one who got handouts from some rich Piltie.

“Aw,’ Jinx patted Zeri on the head. “Don’t you look cute when you’re all angry.”

Zeri swatted Jinx’s hand away. “Don’t touch me!”

“Boy Wonder isn’t like the rest,” Jinx continued. “Hell, he even gave me a run for my money a few years ago—though that was before I was really Jinx, back when I was still a little mushy on the inside.”

A little mushy? Zeri didn’t believe it. She couldn’t imagine someone like Jinx ever being any different than what they were now. Thinking of her as a little girl was wrong. It made Jinx seem like a human, it made her relatable. Jinx wasn’t relatable. She didn’t live in Zaun; she haunted it. As all demons did.

“Ooh! They’re getting ready to make their move.” Jinx grabbed Zeri by the arm and dragged her to the edge of the building. “Looks like it’s showtime, Zappy.”

“Zeri.”

“You’re gonna need something more snappy than that,” Jinx scoffed. “How else are these guys going to remember you?”

“I don’t suppose it would be the lightning I can pull out of myself.”

“Bah,” Jinx waved a hand. “Don’t tell me you want to be one of those silent, brooding types. They are so lame, always sucking the fun out of everything!”

She grit her teeth. “Some of us aren’t out here for fun—”

Acting as if Zeri wasn’t there, Jinx hefted her minigun onto her hip and shouted, “Hey! What’re a bunch of Fireflies doing all the way down here?”

As the madwoman opened fire, Zeri considered pushing her off the edge of the building. Jinx probably wouldn’t even notice until it was too late. Not with the rattling of her gun and the handful of targets she’d decided to shoot at to distract her. Zeri decided against it, if only because one of the men on hoverboards was already flying at them, and Zeri, despite being fed up with Jinx’s antics, at least knew whose side she was on. These guys were here to disrupt lives. She could think about pushing Jinx off a tall building after they’d saved the mine.

The Fireflies scattered, taking to the air on their hoverboards. Some flew towards cover; a handful of them bore the risk of the open street and hurtled themselves towards the mine. The rest met Jinx’s fire head on. Zeri thought she heard one of them shout as Jinx’s bullets found their mark, sending a woman plummeting off the edge of her hoverboard. Her eyes tracked the corpse as it sunk through the air before crashing against the ground, its limbs flopping with limp lifelessness. At least she didn’t feel the fall, Zeri thought cynically. Her eyes lingered on the body. What did the person look like underneath that mask? She shook her head. It didn’t matter. People died every day in Zaun. She didn’t have the time to wonder about what could have been.

Especially not when people were bearing down on her. Turning back to the fight at hand, Zeri barely had time to register that one of the men was headed towards her before they were within striking distance. She hadn’t realized until now that she was part of the fight, or how fast their hoverboards could go when they put their mind to it.

She definitely didn’t squeak as she ducked under his bat.

Rolling away, Zeri glanced at the rest of the fliers. Four of them had made it to the building, including the one Jinx had pointed out as their leader. He’d already dropped off his hoverboard and was strafing towards Jinx, some sort of cudgel held low at his side.

Stupid, Zeri thought. Jinx will fill you full of holes before you’ll ever reach her.

She shook her head and forced herself to find the man who’d attacked her. He’d brought his hoverboard back around and was preparing for another pass. Her eyes tracked his movement. He’d be on her before she could bring her blaster to bear. All Zeri had was her itinerant lightning. Praying, she raised her arm and hoped that, for once, something would go right for her.

Jinx was right, she realized with detachment, pointing a finger at the rapidly approaching assailant. Stress really does make this easier. She could feel her nerves straining under her skin. It almost didn’t seem real. This couldn’t have been how her life was supposed to go, being dragged around the underbelly of Zaun by one of its monsters. All Zeri wanted to do was keep her family safe, but Zaun wouldn’t allow that. It would never let anyone be happy down here, not without making sacrifices. The electricity grew with every thought. Her hand began to shake as she kept it aimed at her rapidly approaching target. A snarl erupted on her face. Why can’t everyone just realize that we’re hurting each other? Why does it have to be me? I’m just a kid. I shouldn’t have to be responsible for this!

A shock ran down the length of her arm. It left a trail of prickling shivers in its wake. Then, reaching the tip of her outstretched finger, the current bled through her skin, sparking once in the open air before streaking towards the Firefly with a sharp crack.

Her attacker took the sudden response in stride, angling his hoverboard upward to block the tongue of lightning with hardly a stutter. He’d probably used that move a hundred times before to shield himself from gunfire. Unfortunately for him, this wasn’t gunfire. The lightning struck the board with enough force to halt the board in midair. Then, as its blades whirred in exertion, the lights alongside the board cut to black. The man toppled to the ground without the board to keep him upright, landing hard on his back. Zeri didn’t let him recover and jumped onto him. She smashed her fist into the side of his mask before planting herself on his stomach.

His grappling was better than most people she’d fought in the streets and back alleys of Zaun. He was even able to grab hold of her wrist for a moment, but Zeri had too many advantages. She got another strong hit in before he could capitalize. She felt the mask crack beneath her knuckles—not that it affected him much. With the shock from his fall wearing off, he caught the next blow, and this time, his fingers wrapped around her hand like a vice. Zeri almost felt sorry for him.

By now, she was just about bursting with energy. Zeri was an open circuit and, the instant he grabbed onto her, his body was flooded with electrical charge.

“Shit,” he hissed, pulling his hand away. “Who the hell are you—and why are you working with Jinx, of all people?”

“I am not working with Jinx!” Zeri smashed his head into the ground for the insult. “I’m just protecting Zaun!”

A laugh fell from his mouth. “Next to Jinx? Fat chance of that.”

Zeri scowled down at him. “She dragged me into this!”

He deflected her next punch and sent a jab toward her face. Leaning back, Zeri watched it fly by her cheek. She tried to hit him again, but the momentum had shifted. Pushing himself upward, the man used his greater weight to push her off of him. Zeri could see he wanted to reverse their positions, but he was wary of keeping in contact with her.

“Besides,” she snarled, rolling off of him before he could gain any more leverage. “I’m not the one trying to exploit the workers down here! Who do you think you are trying to make Jinx the bad guy in this situation?”

“What are you talking about?” The man pulled back and stared at her. “We aren’t exploiting anyone.”

“Then why in Janna’s name were you about to hit that mine?” Zeri pointed to the entrance for emphasis.

He crossed his arms. “This is why Ekko hates vigilantes,” he growled. “They never know what they’re doing.”

“Hey!” Zeri shouted. “You can’t say I don’t know anything when I’ve been kicking your ass to the mire and back.”

He scoffed. “We didn’t come here to start a fight—” he looked over her shoulder towards Jinx. Zeri didn’t need to follow his gaze. She could feel the roof shaking from the explosions. “That was someone else. Two someones.”

Zeri frowned. His words weren’t making sense. “There’s no other reason to be skulking around the mine at this time of night unless you were planning something.”

“Look,” the man’s tone came out briskly as if he were lecturing her. “Obviously you don’t know anything that’s going on. No—” He cut her off before she could respond— “Let me talk. There’s been rumors about this mine, word that they might go on strike against their masters. We—the Firelights—wanted to make sure they didn’t do anything too extreme. That they didn’t end up bringing collateral damage to the rest of Zaun.” He clicked his tongue. “Fat lot of good that did us.”

“What do you mean?”

The Firelight threw his arms around him. “Look around us, girl! Do you think a little miners’ rebellion could cause this much trouble? They might have set a few buildings on fire, maybe raided some supply stores, but at least they’d know not to waste anything! Now that Jinx showed up…”

Zeri blinked. She let herself look around the area. A building across the street had collapsed. Another was on fire. The lookout at the entrance to the mine had been joined by a few other miners, and the Firelights that had gone down there now stood at the entrance, facing out towards the violence. She grimaced.

And then there was the laughing. On the other side of the roof, Jinx danced away from a cudgel strike. She snapped a jab into the man’s face before spinning out of range. One of her hands reached down to her belt and withdrew a grenade. She tossed it haphazardly in the direction of another Firelight waiting to fly at her. He swerved away from the grenade, but it still detonated too close to him, unbalancing him and almost sending him falling to the ground below. He wasn’t the only one affected. The blast blew apart a corner of the building, sending the rubble careening into the street.

Zeri grimaced. This was a nightmare. It was exactly what she didn’t want to happen to her own home. And she had been a part of it.

“You see.” The man didn’t sound smug, but his words stung all the same. “Wherever that psycho goes, people suffer.”

Jinx noticed she was staring. She winked at Zeri before jumping away from the Firelight leader. “Sorry, Ekko but I’ve got to dash. It’s been fun though!”

“No you don’t,” Ekko said. He tried to reengage her. “You can’t just leave when you want, Jinx. We aren’t done yet.”

“Oh Ekko,” Jinx giggled. “You’ve known me long enough to know that I can do whatever I want.”

She pulled a remote from one of her pockets. “You want to know what happens if I press this button?”

Nothing good, Zeri imagined. Ekko didn’t ask. He was already turning away, sprinting towards the edge of the roof. “Lydia,” he barked to a nearby Firelight. “Evacuate the mine. Jinx has already been down there. She’s rigged the—”

“Gosh, you’re so boring,” Jinx groaned. “Tell ya what, let’s make a game of it.”

“This isn’t a game,” Ekko snarled, but he was already leaping off the building, hoverboard in hand.

“It sure seems like one!” Jinx called after him. “Hopefully you’ll make it out this time!”

Jinx turned to Zeri and the Firelight she had been fighting. She winked. “I’ll give him a bit of a headstart this time.”

“What the hell is this!” Zeri stormed towards Jinx. “I thought you said we were protecting this place!”

“We are!” Jinx nodded enthusiastically. “Someone’s got to keep the Fireflies from getting new territory.”

Zeri wanted to pull her hair out. “Blowing up buildings is not protecting people!”

Jinx blinked. She tilted her head. For a moment, Zeri thought that she had somehow gotten past the insanity hanging over her eyes. “Does that mean you didn’t have fun?”

“This isn’t about fun,” Zeri seethed. “This is about making sure that these people have something to live for, Jinx.”

Jinx scoffed. “Every Zaunite knows that if they want something, they have to pick themselves up and get it themselves. We don’t give out handouts down here.”

Slap!

Jinx’s head jerked to the side with enough force that she almost stumbled. Zeri stared with wide eyes, her gaze darting between her hand and the growing red mark on Jinx’s face.

“Ha!” Jinx slung an arm around her shoulder. “Even your slaps tingle! My face hasn’t felt this numb since that one time the doctor needed to pull a tooth.”

“This isn’t something to joke about.” Zeri shrugged Jinx’s arm off her and crossed her arms. “Whatever you think this is, I am not one of your pets, Jinx. Stop treating me like one.”

Zeri would not let Jinx boss her around. She’d rather die than be someone’s plaything. She turned away from the maniac and headed towards the fire escape. She was done for tonight.

“Aw, Zeri!” Jinx started after her. “Don’t be like that. I was just trying to show you a good time!”

“You don’t need me to have a good time,” she answered. “And I don’t need you to ruin my time either.”

 She placed her foot on the rung of the fire escape and began to climb down. “Why do you Firelights always ruin everything?” Jinx muttered.

“Us?” The Firelight responded incredulously. “We aren’t the ones blowing up buildings. That’s all you, you crazy—”

“Shut up! You’re doing it again!”

Bang!

Zeri couldn’t suppress a flinch as the gunshot echoed down the streets. This wasn’t her problem. She didn’t want anything to do with Jinx. Reaching the ground, Zeri walked through the street without a single glance behind her. She didn’t know if Jinx would follow after her. In a way, it didn’t matter. Jinx was a myth, she was as much a part of Zaun as anything. It was Jinx’s world, and she was just living in it.

Zeri grit her teeth and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her coat. It was a terrible feeling to realize how small you were in the world, how powerless you were in comparison to others. how easy it would be for someone to take your life—to take everything you care about—and toss it away without a second thought. But Zeri had survived so far. She was stubborn; she wouldn’t fold under the pressure. Her parents hadn’t given up. They kept fighting even after all these years, clawing just enough out of Zaun’s barren ground to keep living. She wouldn’t be the one who failed.

And if she was, she’d go down swinging. Zeri knew that there were some monsters in Zaun that you simply couldn’t beat. That didn’t mean she had to kiss their boots. She’d give everything she had to keep her family safe, even if that meant going against nightmares like Jinx. Besides, people died every day in Zaun. Dying didn’t make you a failure. It was how you used your life that mattered, not how long you kept hold of it.

Chapter Text

Zeri watched the last bit of her soup in her bowl as she swirled her spoon through its contents. It was good—everything her mom made was good—but Zeri just didn’t have the stomach for it tonight. Something was hanging over her ever since she left Jinx on that rooftop.

Two months, and every night Zeri sat up waiting for some sort of retribution to come. By now the wait had become more maddening than the times Jinx had dropped into her life. Or maybe those memories had just faded with time. It didn’t feel right to Zeri that a world without Jinx would be more foreboding than one with her.

“Zeri, honey, are you feeling alright?”

“Huh?” She pulled herself from her thoughts and forced a smile onto her face. “Yeah, I’m great, mom!”

Her brow furrowed in worry, making the stress lines already present carve deeper marks into her face. “Are you sure? You’ve been a little quiet these past few weeks.”

Her dad scoffed from beside her and waved his spoon in front of him. “She’s just tired.” He glanced at her. “Anyone would be if they spend all day and most of the night in the scrapyard.”

“We’ve talked about this,” Zeri groaned. She dropped her spoon onto the table. “I don’t mind spending more time sifting through scrap, especially if it means you don’t have to spend all of your earnings taking care of me.”

Her dad’s forehead pulled tight. “I’m your father. It’s my duty to provide for the family.”

We’ve had this conversation before, too. “I’m your daughter, and it’s my responsibility to take care of you—and that means pitching in to help make ends meet.”

Zeri didn’t like lying to her family, but it was better that they thought she spent her nights out an in empty scrapyard instead of prowling the streets. She’d feel guilty about it, but, when all was said and done, she made more pawning off whatever she took from the thugs than what a pile of rusted metal and some fried circuit boards would get her.

“You’re still taking time to study, right?” Mom changed the subject as she stood and began collecting their plates. Zeri scooped the last of her soup into her mouth before offering hers. As much as she wasn’t hungry, she knew better than to let it go to waste.

“Of course,” she chirped. “Those exams won’t know what hit them!”

The way her mother’s mouth lifted at the corners made the guilt of lying worth it. Besides, it wasn’t like she was ever going to make the cut, anyway. The only reason the Pilties let Zaunites into their schools is because they promised years ago and the chembarons would throw a fit if Piltover started erasing its laws. Piltover has to let the undercity scum in, even if they only ever take the bare minimum.

Zeri wasn’t even sure she’d show up for the exam. Whoever organized it likely already knew who they were going to pick. It was the same thing every year. Piltover might be required to select applicants from Zaun, but they never let anyone in who didn’t already live on the uppermost layers. Crusters, as the rest of Zaun called them, the people who could still see the skyscrapers of Piltover and spent every day commuting into the shining city. They were only Zaunite in name.

“All this work,” her gran said, leaning back against her chair. “You need to take some time to rest, darling. You’re almost eighteen, too!” She shook her head. “Live a little for yourself, Zeri. Life’s only going to take up more of your time.”

Zeri’s lips quirked. If only she knew how I really spent my time down here. She doubted that anyone in her family would be quite as eager to see her with more time to spare.

“That’s right!” Mom interjected, dumping the dishes into the sink before turning on the faucet. She turned around, smiling excitedly at Zeri. “Your birthday’s next week already!”

That look. Zeri felt another twinge of guilt shoot down her spine. “It’s no big deal,” she shrugged. “It’s not like I’m suddenly going to grow five inches overnight or anything.”

“Your eighteenth is important,” her mom rebutted. “It’s when you can finally call yourself an adult.”

“I’ve been an adult for a long time now.”

Even if they didn’t know she was risking her life for the community at night, her work in the scrap heap would have been enough to qualify her. You didn’t send children to go scavenging through rusted metal and toxic waste by themselves.

Her mom ignored Zeri’s words. “What should we do?” Her fingers tapped along her arm. “How about those lemon bars you like?”

“You don’t need to do that.” Zeri bit back a wince. Fruit was a luxury this far into Zaun. They couldn’t afford to waste money on something as trivial as her favorite dessert.

“Oh c’mon,” her mom continued with a smile. “We have to celebrate somehow.”

“We don’t have to.” Zeri looked to her dad for support. He’d know how to deal with her mom’s inclination to outspend what they had. “It’s just another day.”

“Your mother’s right,” he said slowly, turning his full attention onto her. “If you’re going to call yourself an adult, Zeri, you have to learn how important it is to find a little light in life. It would be unbearable otherwise.”

Zeri frowned. “I don’t need a break more than anyone else—if anything, I should be doing more work.” She smiled. “I’m still young and fresh after all, not an old bones like you.”

“And you’ll stay looking young and fresh if I can help it,” her dad replied, chuffing slightly. “Don’t be in a hurry to grow up, darling. Time’s something you can never get back once you’ve spent it.”

“I’d rather spend my time if it meant you didn’t have to give up as much as yours.”

He sighed. “You worry too much, Zeri. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. And if we’re both trying to sacrifice ourselves for one another, none of us are going to find any happiness.”

She crossed her arms. “Sounds like you know what to do, then.”

“Oh no you don’t.” Her dad rolled his eyes. “I’m the one in charge of this family. That means I’m the one responsible for making everyone happy.” He stared her down. “You might be stubborn Zeri, but you inherited that from me. You’re not going to change my mind about this.”

“I inherited it from you and Mom,” she answered, tightening her jaw. “That means I’m twice as stubborn.”

He raised an eyebrow. Zeri stared back at him. He sighed.

“You’re old enough to know what you want, I suppose,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to do anything for your birthday. You might not need the festivity, but some of us do.” He pointedly looked over her shoulder, at her mom.

“It doesn’t have to be anything big,” Zeri agreed, hopping to her feet with a smile. “I’d be happy to just sit around the table, maybe pull out some of the old board games we have stashed away.”

His hand glided over her hair as she hugged him. “Head up to your room, darling,” he said. “Let the rest of us figure out how to celebrate your birthday.” He pulled back enough to look her in the eye before whispering, “and don’t worry about whether we can afford it or not. It’s not that bad for us yet—and your mom needs things like this to plan around every so often.”

Zeri squeezed him harder. “I just don’t want to be a burden.”

“You’ve never once been a burden to us.”

Her mouth curved. “Like you’d tell me if I was.”

She pulled away and started up the stairs before he could respond. It wasn’t worth it to get into that argument—and her dad had a point anyway. Just because they were celebrating her birthday didn’t mean she was the only one it was for. If giving her mom something to look forward to would make her happy, then Zeri would go along with it. So long as it didn’t end up hurting them in the long run, at least.

Zeri stepped into her bedroom and closed the door behind her. She glanced out the window. Should I head out tonight? It had been quiet for so long that Zeri could almost convince herself that nothing was going to happen. She could probably spend tonight on something else. Maybe even try to study for the upcoming exams. Maybe this year was the one where they actually looked at the scores.

Her fingers tapped along the wood of the window, and she noticed that the latch had broken, its rusted metal almost completely severed. Zeri frowned at the broken mechanism. The wind must have finally taken it past its breaking point, which wasn’t unusual down here where everything was recycled in one way or another. Zeri pulled the windowpane down. She’d have to find a way to fix it later, if only to keep the smog from filling up the house.

“Sorry about that.”

Zeri yelped, spinning around and breaking the latch completely as she hurtled the broken bit of metal toward the new voice. It sailed over Jinx’s head before bouncing off the drywall.

“Jinx!” Zeri immediately cursed herself. What was she doing, yelling Jinx’s name out loud? What if her parents heard her? What if they came to investigate and found Jinx in Zeri’s room? What would they do? What would Jinx do?

“What are you doing here?” she hissed, stepping closer to the girl.

Jinx’s eyes took in her surroundings with lazy appreciation, not moving an inch from her sprawling position on top of Zeri’s bed. “This is a pretty nice place you’ve got,” she said. Her hand rubbed up and down one of Zeri’s quilts. “Is this what the happy rural life looks like?”

Zeri wanted to shake her. She settled for a defeated sigh instead. “What do you want, Jinx?”

 Jinx drew her eyes to Zeri’s own. The indolent smile she’d worn receded. “I messed up.”

“What?”

Jinx blinked. For a moment, Zeri almost thought she looked hesitant. That was impossible, of course and, when she looked again, all signs of uncertainty had vanished—if they were ever there in the first place.

“I just wanted…I wanted to help.”

“Help?” Zeri felt stupid for doing nothing but parroting Jinx’s words back at her, but that was all her mind was capable of comprehending.

“Yeah.” Jinx nodded. “I saw you out there, picking fights with everyone who looked at you wrong, and I saw a bit of me in you.” Jinx laughed suddenly. “I thought it would be fun! Having someone else like me.” She looked at Zeri with wide eyes. “It was a little fun, wasn’t it?”

Zeri dropped into the chair beside her desk. “You saw yourself in me?”

I don’t know how to process this. Is that a compliment? Is Jinx calling me crazy? Even in Zaun, one didn’t want to be compared to deranged terrorists with a penchant for explosions and no concern for collateral damage.

“I guess that will teach me.” Jinx’s lips quirked into a grimace. “I should have already known that you can’t make people be like you.” She laughed again. “I tried to make myself be like everyone else when I was little, you know? It never changed the reality.” Jinx shrugged. “I’m a Jinx. Nobody wants to be a Jinx.”

“You were trying to make me like you?”

Jinx shrugged. “Well, I told myself that I didn’t care if you liked me or not—Janna knows nobody liked me when I was your age. All that mattered was that you got strong enough to survive down here.”

Zeri frowned. “Why do you care whether I survive?” Jinx was responsible for hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths. Why was Zeri any different?

“Aren’t you listening?” Jinx smirked bitterly. “You reminded me of myself.”

Zeri recoiled. “I’m nothing like you!”

She helped people! She wanted to make Zaun better; all Zeri ever tried to do was make life easier for people.

Jinx nodded. “You’re not a Jinx,” she agreed. “But I wasn’t always a Jinx, either—actually,” she tilted her head. “That’s a lie. I only ever thought that I wasn’t a Jinx.”

“You don’t run around blowing up entire districts because you want to help people,” Zeri scoffed.

“I didn’t always do that,” Jinx protested.

“Then why did you stop?”

Jinx shrugged. “First, I thought that the best way to keep my people safe was to make sure nobody could hurt them.” Jinx swallowed. “Then when I was the one that hurt them, I didn’t have anyone left to keep safe. It’s a lot harder to care about what happens to those around you when you don’t care about anyone around you.”

“And now you just keep doing it?” Zeri could admit that Jinx was painting a sorry picture of herself, but it wasn’t anything special in Zaun. “Do you even care what happens to those miners you almost blew up?”

“Why should I?” Jinx asked. “They were going to get exploited one way or another.”

“Then you should have helped them!”

“Ha!” Jinx laughed. “You think I should help? Haven’t you been listening? I can’t help. All I ever do is make things worse.”

I can’t believe I’m going to say this, Zeri thought. “You aren’t a bad person, Jinx. If you actually tried to help—if you paid any attention to the welfare of everyone in Zaun, you could do a lot of good.”

Jinx snapped her fingers. “There!” she said. “That’s why you remind me of myself. That’s just what Powder always used to think. But I know better.” Jinx glided off the bed and stood in front of Zeri. “What do you think I was trying to do with you?” she said lowly. “You were my latest scheme to help.” Jinx patted Zeri’s shoulder. “I hope you got more than a couple bruises out of it.”

“Hold up,” Zeri said, shrugging Jinx’s hand from her shoulder. “You thought that you were teaching me? All you did was beat me black and blue in the streets—no, you didn’t even do that! You let your goons do it instead.”

Jinx’s head drew back as her eyes furrowed. Despite her anger, Zeri couldn’t help but think how much she resembled a cobra rearing back to strike. She even had the same mesmerizing eyes.

“Huh,” Jinx said after a few seconds of tense silence. “Maybe I wasn’t the one to fail, then.”

“What do you mean?” How could Jinx not be responsible?

“It was how I learned,” Jinx answered. She moved away from Zeri to sit on the edge of her desk. “I had an older sister when I was little—back before the Pilties got her,” she revealed. “We’d get up to all sorts of trouble. The only way she ever learned anything was when someone else beat it through her skull.”

“You had a sister?” Why hadn’t Zeri ever known about this? How could everyone in Zaun know about Jinx, know her story, and not know that she had a sister?

Jinx nodded. “Yeah,” she breathed, staring at the ceiling. “She used to be everything to me. I always wanted to be just like her, would have done absolutely anything to get her approval.” Jinx chuckled. “She was the one to first call me Jinx, you know.” Jinx’s eyes drifted to the side of the room. Jinx frowned, her eyes darkening with emotion but when Zeri followed her gaze, all she saw was empty plaster. “Well, one of the first,” Jinx said. “She was the first person who mattered, though.”

“And now she’s…”

Zeri didn’t want to voice her thoughts. It was obvious what had happened if Jinx talked about a sister who wasn’t in her life anymore.

“Now she’s living with the Pilties,” Jinx answered with a scowl. “She’s too high and mighty for us lowlifes.” She suddenly looked fully at Zeri. “I thought I could have done better,” she said, her mouth twisting into a shallow smile. “Vi never understood me. She didn’t even try to understand.”

Jinx’s hand tapped along the wood of the desk as her face grew agitated. “I tried so hard to be just like her,” she spat. “And when she left, and I had to grow up by myself? Was she happy? No! She just wanted her little Powder back. It was never about me. Always her. Never me.”

Zeri took a step back. Her head moved from the window to the door. This was not a place she wanted an emotional Jinx.

Jinx came back to herself enough to pin Zeri with a stare. “I thought I was better,” she said. “I saw you and I thought that I knew. You looked so much like me.” The barest smile softened Jinx’s face. “You had your broken gun and oversized clothes. It was just all so familiar, and I thought about how much I would have wanted someone to help me when all I had were ghosts.” She threw her head back and giggled. “I only forgot that I can’t ever help anyone! I’m a Jinx! Everything I touch turns to ash.”

Zeri swallowed. She’d never seen this side of Jinx. Never seen the open heart of her mania. It felt wrong, to see her so vulnerable. Zeri didn’t like it one bit. But, worst of all, she recognized her own reaction. Looking at Jinx, Zeri didn’t feel scorn or fear. She felt sympathy. This wasn’t the urban legend. The person across from her was just another human who’d been hurt by the world.

Before she’d even realized what she was doing, Zeri stepped up to Jinx. “You don’t ruin everything,” she said.

“You just haven’t been around long enough.”

“Oh, come off it,” Zeri sat down next to Jinx. “Sure, you might be the most disruptive thing to ever happen to Zaun, but the place has hardly gotten any worse over the years.”

A hint of a smile reached Jinx’s mouth. “I bet you’ve never been high enough to even see the bridge to Piltover. How would you know if Zaun’s gotten any worse?”

“I might not have gone up, but people haven’t been surging down, either.” Zeri stared at the side of Jinx’s face. “We’re all rats down here, Jinx. If Zaun were going down, they’d be fleeing deeper into the city. That hasn’t happened. It hasn’t happened despite your actions.”

“Geez.” Jinx rubbed the back of her neck. “This is starting to sound like a pep talk.”

“Maybe that’s what you need.” Before she could stop herself, Zeri continued, “Janna knows your sister didn’t do a good enough job with you.”

Suddenly the full weight of Jinx’s attention was on her. “What did you say?”

She tried not to quaver under Jinx’s stare. “Understanding goes two ways, Jinx.” She took a breath. “And if we are as similar as you think, then I know that it couldn’t have been your fault. Big sisters are supposed to look out for their siblings, not manhandle them into replicas of themselves.”

That was the light of Zaun, the hopeless dream that the people who came after you would have a better life. Nobody worth being called family wanted anyone aspiring to be like them. They should want better. And, as terrible as she was, nobody was better than Jinx. She was a legend made flesh. So much so that Zeri hadn’t even realized that she was flesh and blood until the woman was all but raving about how much of a failure she was.

“You don’t know Vi,” Jinx said lowly, threateningly. “You’ve never even met her.”

“I don’t think I’d want to,” Zeri answered. “If she chose to leave you for Piltover, she isn’t worth meeting.”

“She had her reasons.”

Zeri raised an eyebrow. “Reasons more important than her sister?”

Jinx’s eyes flashed and, for a moment, Zeri thought she had overstepped. Jinx swallowed and the emotion passed. “Stop talking about her.”

“You wanted to prove her wrong,” Zeri said. “You wanted to prove that you aren’t a Jinx.”

A growl rumbled from the base of Jinx’s throat. Her eyes darted around the room wildly. “I’m warning you, Zeri.”

“You don’t want a sister,” Zeri pressed on boldly. She refused to break her stare. “You want to be a sister. That’s why you wanted me to be just like you—you wanted to do what your sister couldn’t.”

It was admirable, in a way. Zeri never would have expected Jinx to care about others—not that she actually did. Jinx wanted a sister entirely for her own purposes. It was all about Jinx. Zeri was just a lucky benefactor.

The muscles of Jinx’s neck were tense as she gritted her teeth. “Go on, then,” she bit out. “Call me delusional. Call me a Jinx. Call me my name.”

“You won’t hurt me,” Zeri answered despite her pounding heart. “You’re callous and antipathetic to the suffering around you, but you won’t hurt me. You would have already done so if that were the case.” Zeri took a breath before placing a hand on Jinx’s shoulder. “Sisters don’t try to hurt each other.”

Jinx blinked. “Sisters don’t hurt each other,” she whispered softly. Her eyes focused on Zeri with intensity. “You’re not saying…”

“I’d have to be crazy,” Zeri acknowledged. Jinx’s eyes glinted. “But then that would only make me more like you.”

Suddenly, the stillness was broken. “You’re cra-Zeri than me!” Jinx cackled, pulling away from Zeri in her mania, her mask of vulnerability shattered in an instant. Or maybe it was just another one of the faces Jinx wore when nobody could see her.

A laugh escaped from Zeri. She hit Jinx on the shoulder. “Don’t ruin the moment.”

“Haven’t you been listening,” she retorted. “All I do is ruin things!”

Zeri pushed her off the desk, smiling ruefully as Jinx’s body thumped against the floor. “Not everything,” she said. Zeri sobered. “You know that I don’t want to be like you, right?”

Jinx’s laughter receded, though she made no effort to rise from the floor. “Yeah, nobody wants to be like me.”

“That’s not it.” Zeri poked her with her foot in remonstration. “But you can’t be trying to make me into a copy of yourself, Jinx. We aren’t the same person.” She stared down at her. “I’m not going to be lobbing grenades into the streets of Zaun and I’m not going to try stirring up trouble for the hell of it.”

“But it’s so fun!” Jinx whined. Seeing Zeri was unmoved, Jinx continued. “Fine,” she huffed. “No excitement for you.”

“You’re enough excitement by yourself.”

“Aw!” Jinx was beside Zeri with her arm slung around her shoulder before Zeri realized she’d even moved. “Keep saying stuff like that and I might blush!”

Zeri shook her head as she fought back a smile. How did this even happen? she wondered. Jinx was not a person anyone wanted near them. To most, she wasn’t a person at all. She was a demon, a monster, something spawned from beneath the ground of Zaun itself and sustained through chaos and suffering.

But they didn’t know Jinx. They’d never seen past her actions. She doubted they’d be able to recognize her for who she was rather than what she did.

What she does, Zeri corrected. She wasn’t foolish enough to think that Jinx was only misunderstood—Zeri was only foolish enough to believe that she was misunderstood.

Knock. Knock.

“Zeri?” Her mom’s voice sounded through the door. “Is everything alright? I thought I heard something fall.”

Her eyes darted from Jinx to the door. “No, everything’s fine!” she squeaked, jumping to her feet. “I—um, I was just playing with some scrap!” She rummaged through her desk drawers, pulling out bits of metal and tossing them onto her bed. “Something must have fallen off, is all!”

“Really?” The doorknob turned. “What are you working on?”

Jinx raised the broken window latch in front of her face.

“My window!” Zeri said. “It needs a bit of fixing. The wind or something must have broken it.”

“And you can do that with what you have?” The door began to creak open. Zeri met Jinx’s amused eyes and jerked her head toward the window. The message should have been clear. Get out. Jinx displayed a terrible lack of pace as she moved around the room.

“Do you need me to take a look?” Her mom continued. “If it’s something delicate, I could talk to the other wives, and see if they know where to get a replacement part.”

“You don’t need to do that!” Zeri grabbed Jinx by the arm and all but shoved her towards the window before launching herself at the door. She grabbed the handle and pulled it open just wide enough to stick her head through to smile at her mom. “I’ve got it completely under control.”

She stared back dubiously, her lips pursed in consternation. After a beat, or three if you went by Zeri’s heart, she sighed. “If you can’t fix it, let me or Dad know,” she said. “The last thing we need is you getting sick from fumes because you were too stubborn to ask for help.”

“Me? Stubborn?” Zeri laughed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Her mom stared at her a moment longer. “Don’t wear yourself out, Zeri,” she said. “Families exist for a reason. Nobody in Zaun can survive down here completely on their own.”

Chapter Text

The sun poured golden light over the city as birds trilled beautiful songs from their perches in the trees. Lux wondered how she ever could have thought that Demacia was one of the most advanced societies in Runeterra. She’d always known that she’d been inside a cloister, hidden from the world and paraded about in disguises almost good enough to fool reality. There was no going back to that life.

Even if Lux could go back, it would never be the same. Demacia lived in the past. It fought against change with obstinate determination, mercilessly rooting out anything that didn’t fit in its perfectly cultivated worldview. Anything that didn’t fit their carefully pruned ideals was uprooted like a weed. Once, Lux had thought herself one of those weeds. But Piltover had proven that there wasn’t a perfect moment, that you shouldn’t hold onto the past with an iron grip and uncompromising certainty. There was only progress.

She stopped along the sidewalk to gaze at her surroundings. Parks melded smoothly into storefronts and towering glass spires, their reflective surface catching the sun’s rays and distributing its warmth across the street. Vendors hawked their goods from shaded awnings and, behind her, the university stood in all its venerated majesty.

Not for the first time, Lux felt the sting of inferiority. I don’t deserve to be here. What had she done to warrant such a perfect outcome to her life? Lux had broken every rule that had been set on her. From birth, she’d been in the wrong. Why, then, did the gods deem her lucky enough to succeed?

Lux loved Piltover. The city was a dream. A dream where she had friends, and hobbies she didn’t have to hide. This is what life should feel like. There were no masks, no carefully considered opinions. Lux wasn’t the Crownguard daughter, not the pearl of Demacia. She was just Lux. She was just another person, living her life to the fullest.

Stopping at a bench, Lux sat down to gaze at the crowd moving along the street. The sun warmed her skin and Lux basked in its glow, tilting her head up to catch the light. A rumble joined the ambience of her surroundings, building until, with a flash of light, a distant hexgate opened, allowing an airship into the sky above her. Lux’s eye followed the ship lazily as it gradually drew closer.

Some part of her couldn’t help but consider the military advantages Piltover possessed. They were so far ahead of the rest of the world that it would be a trifle to expand, should they want it. Lux used to worry about her brother going to war, terrified that he’d be caught off-guard in the melee. All it would take was one lucky arrow, shot between the plates of his armor, or an opportunistic soldier emerging from the chaos to take him by surprise. Garen would never see it coming. No amount of training would have protected him.

Piltover tipped those scales to the point of breaking. Piltover’s war machines could flatten an army before the first sword was drawn. They wouldn’t even have to leave their ships. And, if they did—Lux had watched Caitlyn as she practiced. Piltover’s weaponry would scythe through an army before they could enter the field.

And all of this is from what I’ve been able to see.

If Piltover decided to apply itself, Lux had no doubt that its war engines would prove more terrible than she could imagine. Talis had taken the potency of magic and molded it into something capable of precision. And he’d made it available to everyone. Mages weren’t necessary in the future. They would be a thing of the past.

Lux shook the thought from her head. Piltover wasn’t like that. They weren’t an empire—and even if they were, they were composed of merchants and scientists. They didn’t want more land. There was no reason for them to consider turning their machines towards warfare.

The airship had drawn close enough for Lux to make out the details. It was smaller than most, though no less beautiful. Its sleek design argued for an aesthetic appearance rather than one of functionality. Its hull had been carved from dark wood, bordering on black, and a crimson sail with a golden insignia blew in the wind. Paddles rowed ineffectually from the side, as if they were at all responsible for the ship’s movement across the sky. If Lux didn’t know any better, she would have assumed that the ship had been designed for the seas.

Her eyes returned to the sail. The ship was unlike any she’d seen in Piltover.

Because it’s not from Piltover. The blood drained from her face. Lux recognized the insignia.

The Medarda crest waved in the breeze, its blazon taunting her with its bloody colors.

Relax, she told herself, fighting to keep her breathing under control. They aren’t here for you. Lux rose to her feet, quickly throwing herself into the crowd of people moving along the street. She kept her head down as she cast furtive glances at the sky. She could almost feel Noxian eyes on her, scanning the crowd from above in search of the stray, vulnerable, Demacian.

You’re being paranoid. Lux knew she was. That didn’t mean she could control it. Noxians had been her sworn enemy for more than twenty years. The only thing keeping them out was the vigilance of Demacia’s vanguard. Now, after everything she’d done, Demacia wouldn’t move an inch to help Lux, even if they knew she was in danger.

She cut across the street and rounded a corner to place a handful of skyscrapers between her and the airship. In front of her, the crowd slowed to a halt at an intersection, waiting for the signals to change. Lux swayed from side to side. The street was too full. The bodies pressed around her. Everywhere she looked, Lux saw openings closing around her. If anyone found her here, she’d be a sitting duck. But what could she do? All Lux had was her anonymity—and causing a scene would only draw more attention onto her.

Unless you want to rely on your magic, she thought bitterly. Maybe level a building or two and cause a couple dozen deaths.

Her nails dug into the palms of her hand hard enough to break skin. If only she’d never outed herself as a mage—never had to out herself. She could still be living that perfect lie in Demacia, where the threat of Noxian assassins stayed relegated to her nightmares.

She glanced at the sky again. The airship had vanished, and Lux could almost convince herself that it had never been there in the first place. But Lux knew better. She could never unsee it, not when the same image had been lurking behind her eyes for weeks, haunting her both in her dreams and outside of them.

“It’s always the nightmares that come to life, isn’t it?” she mumbled to herself as the signal changed and the pedestrians finally began moving again. “Why can’t any of the good dreams ever come true?”

A weight hung over the table while they ate. Lux wondered how Vi and Caitlyn hadn’t noticed it yet. She could hardly keep her fingers from drumming against the wood. Would they realize what the Medarda’s arrival meant? she wondered. Or will I have to tell them—will I tell them? The thought of sneaking out one night and leaving the two of them in ignorance hadn’t left her mind. They’d already given her so much. It wouldn’t be right to give them any more of a burden.

But would it be any better if I said nothing? How would Garen have felt, when he discovered that she’d fled Demacia? Was that for his own good, too?

“Is the  food not to your liking?” Caitlyn asked. Her eyes, flicking from Lux’s plate to her face.

Lux tried to hide her wince. “It’s great,” she said, plastering a smile onto her face and forcing her eyes to brighten. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind is all.”

“I bet,” Vi said. “How’s your time at the university treating you? Is it as fancy as everyone says it is?”

“Oh, yes.” Lux nodded her head politely. “It’s so much more than I ever thought possible. I’ve heard about Piltover University while in Demacia of course, but I never imagined that it would be so…”

How could she describe the ingenuity that had integrated itself into her life? When she’d first arrived at Piltover, she never could have fathomed that humans could be capable of creating these feats of engineering. Now, they didn’t even phase her. Lux’s entire world had been altered and, now that she looked back on it, she realized that she didn’t even have to words to describe how she’d changed.

“I get that.” Vi leaned back in her seat, a soft smile on her face. “When I was a Trenchie, I used to think that Piltover was nothing special—just a bit more polished than what was down in the sump.” She shook her head. “Living with all their gizmos really changes the way you think though, doesn’t it?” Vi’s eyes grew distant. “If only the rest of us could have had this opportunity,” she murmured. “Maybe things would have been different.”

Lux had stayed in their home long enough to know when Vi was reminiscing. She turned to Caitlyn. “What about you two? Is there anything interesting going on in the city?”

“Not any more than usual,” Caitlyn answered. “Though I fear a storm may be brewing. Piltover has been calm for longer than usual, and that never bodes well for when the criminal element finally decides to resurface.”

“You almost sound as though you don’t believe crime will ever go away.”

A huff passed through Caitlyn’s lips. “It is never so easy as that.” Her eyes flicked towards Vi, “and especially not when the situation is as volatile as ours.”

That was another marker Lux had learned to recognize. Jinx. The madwoman was a sore topic for the two enforcers. Lux could understand why. It would be as if Sylas had never left Demacia after his rioting, if he’d instead decided to lurk in the shadows and jump out at anyone who he caught unaware.

Jinx terrorized the people of Piltover. Her every success was a failure of Caitlyn and Vi to act as the city’s protectors. That she’d apparently been doing it for years, practically for Caitlyn’s entire tenure as sheriff would turn anyone bitter. Much less when the perpetrator was as…garish as Jinx. She didn’t just break Piltover. She broke its pride.

That was perhaps worse than any damage she could do to the city. Buildings could always be rebuilt. Reputation took longer to recover—and if your reputation is having been made a fool of and constantly outsmarted for years, the damage would be near irreconcilable. That nobody could catch Jinx, along with the fact of Caitlyn’s flawless handling of every other aspect of Piltover’s criminal underworld, was the only thing keeping the sheriff and her deputy from being laughingstocks. Lux wasn’t sure anyone would even take the job if Caitlyn stepped down. They could hardly survive Jinx’s forays into their city, much less having to deal with her themselves.

“But that’s enough of that,” Caitlyn said. “I spend enough time making sure Piltover doesn’t fall apart. I would prefer to keep some level of separation between my life and work.”

Lux was only too happy for that. The less Caitlyn spent talking to her about the law, the better. She’d much rather learn more about her new friend and the rest of Piltover. Yet, despite the joy she gained from listening to Caitlyn, Lux could feel her anxiety as it coiled at the base of her skull. She could pretend that everything was alright. She could even persuade herself that nothing was wrong for a little while. It always came back to her.

Eventually, it got to be too much.

“I saw a new airship arrive. Was it from Noxus?”

“Ah, yes.” Caitlyn nodded, her lips pressed thin. “I’d nearly forgotten about that. It seems that the elder Medarda has decided, once again, to grace us with her presence.”

“Bloody hag,” Vi groused as she rolled her eyes. “She struts around like she owns the place.”

“The Medarda’s are vital in keeping our relations with Noxus stable,” Caitlyn argued, though there was no heat in her voice. “If all it takes to maintain that is allowing her a few personal concessions while she stays here, it is a small price to pay.”

Lux’s stomach churned. “Does Noxus really have that much influence here?”

“I suppose that depends on what you would consider influence,” Caitlyn answered, sending a look in Vi’s direction when the woman opened her mouth to speak. “They have no direct control over Piltover, if that is your concern. However, Noxus makes up a considerable portion of our trade. Piltover would survive without them, but their absence would significantly diminish our growth.”

“Spoken like a true Piltie,” Vi snorted. “Always keep progress on the horizon.”

“I will not gainsay the benefits of structure, Vi. Noxus, for as detestable as they are in many aspects, provides Piltover with a near guarantee of continued prosperity. Making the occasional accommodation of one of their nobles is a small gesture to make.”

“Whatever,” Vi groused, leaning her elbows onto the table. “It’s not like I’ve never had anyone like Medarda speaking down to me.” She rolled her eyes when Lux looked at her. “You’d almost think all these nobles took lessons on how to be assholes in their free time.”

Lux didn’t know whether to laugh or give a defense. She’d seen her fair share of people acting as if they were inherently more valuable than those around them. Yet, Lux also had the consciousness of mind to acknowledge that she was a noble too. She’d never worked a day in her life, had never truly known hardship until Demacia kicked her out. She had no place pretending that she was like Vi.

How she wished that she could be like Vi.

“Medarda won’t stay long then, will she?”

“Not likely,” Vi answered. “She typically hangs around for a few days, traumatizes some of the staffers into quitting, then heads back to Noxus and leaves us to deal with the clean-up. I reckon she’ll be gone by the end of the week.”

“And in any case,” Caitlyn added, “you should have nothing to worry about. While Medarda’s arrival may require more work on the part of Vi and myself, she has little regard for the general populace. If you hadn’t seen her airship, I believe that you never would have noticed her presence in Piltover.”

Lux hoped that was true. “I’ll try to keep her out of my mind, then.”

“Just hope that you don’t walk in on her with one of her boytoys.” Vi shivered. “Then there’ll be no hope of getting that woman out of your head. I swear, the last time I saw that, it haunted me for weeks.”

Caitlyn swatted her shoulder. “There’s no need to spread your nightmares to our guest.” She rose to her feet.

“You’re heading off to bed?” Vi questioned. Her eyes lingered for a moment on Caitlyn’s legs. “So early?”

“It was a long day.” When Caitlyn looked at Vi, her eyes were no less dark. “I can only hope that the night will be just as long.”

She spared a glance at Lux. “I’ll be up for a while longer,” Lux said.

Caitlyn nodded, her eyes already returning to Vi. “Just remember to turn the lights off when you do decide to retire.”

Her hand trailed over Vi’s shoulders as she brushed past her towards the master bedroom. Lux could barely keep her amusement from spilling out at the way the touch made Vi go rigid. These two, she thought fondly. How do they ever get any work done if this is all it takes to set them off?

Her gaiety drained away after Vi plodded after her partner. It was so easy to forget about herself when Vi and Caitlyn were around. They filled the room with their personalities. Unlike her. Lux sighed and fell onto the couch, idly reaching for one of her textbooks.

Does anyone else notice how little I contribute? They had to, surely. That or they didn’t realize Lux was in the same room as them. She just ghosted through life, part of the background. A treacherous thought came to her mind.

Does anyone even miss me in Demacia? Do they even care that I’d left?

She couldn’t convince herself that they did. Not after learning what she actually was underneath it all. They couldn’t have been anything other than exuberant that she’d chosen to leave their country. Demacia didn’t house mages, no matter who their parents were. Lux was just doing her country one final duty before she left it forever.

Lux blinked, staring at the book in her hands. Her fingers had pulled it open, and her eyes had been following the lines, but she hadn’t read a single word. She wiped a hand over her face, massaging beneath her eyes. Maybe she should turn in for the night. Tomorrow would be better. The sun would always rise tomorrow; Lux could put her past behind her and start fresh. And every day that she put between herself and the past was another step away from that life and towards another. Hopefully it would be one that was more accepting of her. And if it wasn’t, all she asked for was that it refuse her because of something she was responsible for. If the world was determined to hate her, Lux wanted to know that it was because she chose to make people hate her, and not because she had the temerity to be born.

The wind rattled against the house, sending creaks rumbling around her. Lux stared out the window into the darkness. Movement flashed in the corner of her eye, and Lux turned to look at the staircase leading up the second floor, her face already smoothing into something more friendly as she anticipated Vi having forgotten something—in the weeks she’d spent here, Caitlyn had never left any of her belongings laying around the house.

Lux’s mouth dropped open. Vi wasn’t standing at the top of the stairs.

The figure at the top of the stairs was draped in black, an ivory mask concealing their face. Lux knew what she was looking at the moment she saw him. She’d been plagued by thoughts of people like him all afternoon.

Realizing that he’d been spotted, the assassin rose from his crouch with feline grace, not a sound escaping his movement. He descended the stairs before Lux could remember to breathe, a dagger gleaming in his hand as he pulled the blade from its sheath.

Lux froze. Terror wrapped its icy fingers around her throat, squeezing until she could do nothing but stare as he approached. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a voice screamed at her to run, to fight, to move , but she was paralyzed.

Lux felt herself break. A million thoughts flooded her within an instant, too fast to understand. Her assailant recognized the shift. He was so close she could almost see the way his eyes hardened, the way his legs tensed in preparation before he launched himself at her, the razor point of his dagger gleaming in the light as he thrust it straight into her heart.

Except he never made it that far.

A second figure crashed into him, their shock of pink hair all Lux needed to identify her savior. Vi hauled the assassin to the floor. One hand sent the dagger spinning into a corner. The other grabbed him by the throat before she drove a fist into his mask. The man tried to grapple with her, wrapping his arms around her forearms before she could pull them away, but Vi was too strong. She heaved herself free and hit him hard enough that a crack split the air. A piece of his mask slid to the ground.

“Still fighting?” Vi huffed from on top of him. “Damn, I’m almost impressed.”

Lux winced as another fist careened into his face. “Now, do you want to tell me who sent you while you’ve still got a full set of teeth or do you want to wait until a few get knocked loose, first?”

Caitlyn stepped into Lux’s line of sight. “Don’t be too hard, Vi dear.” She scowled at the man still struggling on the floor. “We can’t very well interrogate him if he’s speaking through a straw.”

Vi growled, but she lowered her fist. “You’ve got the cuffs?”

Caitlyn strode forward, and Lux just then realized that she was carrying a pair of handcuffs in one hand and a pistol in the other. She handed them off to Vi, who wasted no time snapping them around the would-be assassin’s wrists.

Vi kicked the man as she rose to her feet. Caitlyn clicked her tongue at the action, but didn’t reprimand Vi. If anything, she looked like she wanted to join in. “Come on, then,” Vi growled, grabbing the man by his arm and hauling him to his feet. “The constable’s on the way. Let me show you the front door—you know, the way civilized people enter buildings.”

Before Vi could shove him out the room, the assassin looked in Lux’s direction. Through his mask, she could see the hate smoldering in his eyes. It was almost enough to draw a gasp out of her.

She was so foolish, thinking that she could have ever been prepared for something like this. She wasn’t a soldier. She didn’t spend her life training, not like Garen. Lux hadn’t even seen anyone properly die, much less been the one that had to force a blade between their ribs.

“You’re shaking.”

Caitlyn’s hand squeezed her arm, the movement just enough to pull Lux from her thoughts. “Let’s take a seat Lux,” she soothed. “I’ll get you a glass of water—unless you’d prefer something else?”

“N—No,” Lux rasped, forcing herself to relax. “Water’s fine.”

She glanced at the pistol Caitlyn had set on the counter. “Does this happen often?”

Caitlyn’s lips quirked sardonically. “Not as much as it used to.”

Lux shivered. “How do you deal with it?”

How could Caitlyn and Vi live their lives without succumbing to constant paranoia. Were they just that confident in their own ability? Lux couldn’t comprehend what that would have felt like.

Caitlyn merely waved her hand, though her eyes never stopped observing Lux. “We’re not completely defenseless—and I don’t just mean Vi’s and my own ability to fight.” She nodded to the window. “There’s a security system around the entire lot. If anyone trespasses, a call is sent to the precinct—and my own personal device.” Her lip curled. “Usually, the threats are dealt with before they reach the house, where a second system is in operation. This intruder must have been particularly elusive.”

 Lux swallowed. She took a hesitant sip of her water. “I didn’t know…”

“It’s nothing to worry about, really,” Caitlyn assuaged her. “I knew the dangers that came with being sheriff long before I accepted the position.”

“How often do they make it into the house?”

Something flashed in the back of Caitlyn’s eyes as she pursed her lips. “Prior to this, there’s only been one intruder who’d made it inside the house—but she is something of a unique case.”

“What do you mean?”

Caitlyn drew her eyebrows together and didn’t answer immediately. Lux could see the deliberation in the set of her jaw. “It’s nothing for you to worry about—no, you would sleep much easier if I didn’t tell you the stories about that individual.” Something resembling a smile formed, though Lux thought she could see some bitterness in it. “After those incidents, it became much easier not to lose sleep over threats to my wellbeing.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

Caitlyn drummed her fingers along the countertop. “You know the saying ‘face your fears?’ There’s some merit to that, Lux. And nothing can compare to the monster that I’ve already faced in my past. She makes things like this newest attempt look like child’s play.”

Oh. Lux understood. She understood that she was the weak link, just like in Demacia. Nobody else had trouble dealing with these things. They shrugged it off like it was nothing—because it was. Lux was the one making a mountain out of a molehill.

She swallowed. “It does get easier, though? With time?”

“Oh, Lux.” Caitlyn folded Lux’s hand between her own. “You shouldn’t have to worry about things like this. Just enjoy your life. Let me and Violet handle the rest.”

The genuine warmth in her expression was enough to make Lux wince. She slipped her hand out of the sheriff’s grip and stood up, only just remembering to put a smile on her face. “Thank you, Caitlyn. I’m going to try to go to bed now.”

“By all means.” Caitlyn rose to her feet. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask—and that includes Vi, too. Despite how she may act at times, she does know how to deal with things like this. Perhaps more than most, all things considered.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Lux dipped her head in acknowledgement. All she wanted to do was throw her bedsheets over her head and cry. Just when she thought she could escape her old life, it came back to haunt her. Now she was trapped. It was Demacia all over again. She was living a lie, and all it would take to shatter everything to pieces was a single person recognizing her secret.

Even if I told Caitlyn about who I really was, it’s already too late. Noxus was already on her trail.

Lux hid her hand from Caitlyn’s sight as it trembled into a fist. She knew what she had to do.

Despite what Caitlyn said, things didn’t get better with experience. If anything, the thought of giving up her second life broke Lux more than when she left Demacia. Whatever god had written her destiny must be laughing at her right now. They’d dangled everything she’d ever wanted in front of her, only to make her give it all up again. Distantly, she wondered if the Demacians thought she deserved this for abandoning them. It sounded like something they’d praise the Winged Protector for making her pay.

Lux could never stomach that goddess. It seemed that she didn’t have a very high opinion of Lux, either.

Chapter Text

“Okay Zeri, you’ve been beaten around enough that I can actually start trying when we’re training.”

A shiver ran through Zeri at the words. What did Jinx mean, she was going to start trying? The last two weeks had been nothing but her getting knocked around until her entire body was one big bruise. She glanced into the alleyways nearest to her and Jinx, half expecting a couple of her gangsters to emerge from the shadows.

“Hey! Eyes on me, Zippy!” Jinx snapped her fingers for emphasis.

Zeri took a step backward as a precaution.

“What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to fight , duh!”

Zeri rolled her eyes despite herself. “Obviously,” she drawled, rocking onto her heels. “But how ? Do you want me to just start throwing punches, or are you actually going to tell me what it is I’m supposed to be improving?”

“Hm…” Jinx stroked her chin. “That’s a good question.”

A sigh began to build within Zeri. “Jinx…”

Jinx was suddenly in front of her, her vision filled with unnaturally white teeth and glowing pink eyes. She barely had the opportunity to duck before Jinx’s fist sailed over her head. She couldn’t do anything when Jinx’s boot lodged itself into her side.

Zeri rolled across the ground before coming to a stop. “Don’t you know that experience is the best teacher?” Jinx crooned. “You can never let your guard down, Zeri.”

She hacked out a cough before pushing herself to her feet with a shake of her head. “How could I forget?”

“That’s the spirit!” Jinx cheered. “Again!”

Jinx leapt at Zeri, swinging her arms with wild abandon. Zeri tried her best to weather the storm, swatting away Jinx’s flailing limbs when she could and trying to shift herself so that when Jinx did hit her, it only glanced off her. The smile was the worst part. It didn’t waver for an instant as Jinx wailed on her, and, if Zeri’s cheeks weren’t already red, they’d be burning in humiliation. She’s not even trying, she thought.

“You’re fast!” Jinx chirped between a series of jabs before striking Zeri across the face. Her head whipped to the side from the force, and she just barely managed to keep herself from tumbling.

Zeri rubbed her jaw, wincing at the tenderness underneath her fingertips. “Not fast enough.”

“It’s your feet.” Jinx poked her foot against Zeri’s shin. “You can flex that stomach of yours all you want with your ducking and diving, but you’ll only be tying yourself in knots if you don’t keep your feet moving.”

“Where am I supposed to put them?” Zeri shifted into her fighting stance, and tweaked her starting position a few times, moving her feet marginally wider after she glanced at them.

Jinx flapped a hand at her. “Don’t be so self-conscious. Just go with the music!”

“What music?”

“ The music!” Jinx grinned. “Can’t you hear it? It’s like those snazzy action movies—the ones with all the explosions.”

Zeri looked around the abandoned street. “Jinx, you’re making that up.”

She stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry. “That’s what you get for not having voices in your head!”

Zeri clamped down on the urge to sigh. “Yes, I’m the one at fault here.”

“Enough yapping!” Jinx clapped her hands together. “You got an edge?”

Zeri raised an eyebrow. “Yeah.”

Who didn’t carry one in Zaun? It could be anything from a machete to a serrated scrap of metal, but everyone down here knew the importance of having something that could cut on hand. It wasn’t even that they needed it for protection, though nobody would ever hesitate to pull theirs out if they felt threatened. Zaun was a living scrapyard. You never knew what you might find down here or when it would be necessary to cut your way out of—or into—somewhere.

“Let’s see it.”

Zeri reached into her pocket and pulled out a box cutter, running her thumb along its worn edge. The thing wasn’t the shiniest or even the sharpest, but Zeri didn’t need it to look pretty. All she needed was something that could cut. The blade hardly extended four inches. It wasn’t anything like the edges she’d seen dangling from the belts of some Zaunites. They’d probably laugh at her if this is what she used to defend herself.

“Nifty,” Jinx said, glancing at it. “You know how to use it?”

“It’s pretty simple,” Zeri drawled. She flicked the blade out of its sheath. “You put the sharp bit against what you want to cut and let the edge do all the work.”

“Fine,” Jinx huffed, though she was smiling. “If you’re going to be sassy, I’ll stop holding your hand.”

“Holding my—”

It was pure instinct that had Zeri swiping her edge in front of her as Jinx appeared within her personal space. The blade shot past Jinx as she leaned out of the way, her hands still down by her sides. “Keep your elbows in,” Jinx said. She slapped the outside of Zeri’s arm.

“Good,” she added as Zeri held the stance. “Now keep that edge between the two of us.”

Jinx prowled to the side, and Zeri turned with her. She darted right before cutting back. Zeri stumbled backward, off balance. “Keep your feet,” Jinx demanded. She lunged forward and Zeri tried to twist to the side. She raised her edge to drive Jinx off but hesitated. Jinx didn’t want her to actually stab her, did she?

Jinx’s fist slammed into her face. “What part of keep that between us didn’t you understand?” Jinx’s smile grew. “Or were you bluffing when you said you knew how to use that?”

Zeri growled as the sting faded. The embarrassment lasted longer. What was she doing, thinking Jinx couldn’t handle something? Without any further thought, Zeri lunged forward.

“Better!” Jinx cackled, stepping back to avoid Zeri’s charge. Her hand batted the knife away as Zeri swung it at her. “But stab !” she continued, not treating Zeri with anywhere near the appropriate level of sobriety.

The metal handle bit into Zeri’s hand as she clenched it, thrusting forward at Jinx’s bare stomach. Dizzily, some thought in the back of her head wondered how Jinx could always draw these reactions out of her—and everyone else she’d ever come across. It had to emanate from Jinx, somehow. There was no other explanation other than her mere presence being the cause of everyone else’s mania. Maybe it was just as simple as realizing that Jinx had too much crazy in her to keep to herself. She couldn’t hold it all in, so the people around her had to carry the excess.

“Stop dilly-dallying,” Jinx broke into her thoughts before dancing past the blade and pinching Zeri’s nose. She darted back before Zeri could rightfully plant her knife between her ribs. Steam had to be coming out of her ears, now. She could feel them burning, could fear that fire spreading down the back of her neck. It needed an outlet. Her eyes locked onto Jinx and Zeri pounced again.

“Hold still,” she growled, ducking underneath Jinx’s swatting hand. She whipped her knife at Jinx’s leg, but that too flowed away as if it were nothing more than smoke. “I’m trying to stab you!”

“Emphasis on trying,” Jinx answered. She grabbed Zeri by the wrist and pulled her forward, kicking a foot out to trip Zeri. “You’re spending too much time trying, ” she continued while Zeri picked herself off the floor. “This is like everything else in Zaun—get in and get out before anyone realizes you were there in the first place.”

“This isn’t a heist.”

“They call it taking a life for a reason.”

Zeri pulled back and regarded Jinx. She flipped her knife in her hand. “You can’t keep treating euphemisms literally.”

Jinx smirked. “Who’s going to stop me?”

Zeri hunched her shoulders and shuffled to the side. She watched Jinx’s feet, prepared to move if Jinx tried to take her by surprise. “I’ve been hearing whispers,” she began. “Some of the nearby mines…there’s talk of rebellion brewing.”

A new leader—Zeri hadn’t heard who they were yet, but too many people were talking for it to be a coincidence. Rumor was they’d built an entire community inside one of the mines, and were just now setting their sites on the outside world. Zeri didn’t know what to make of it. Change happened often in Zaun, that was nothing to blink at. But what she heard from her sources, whoever this was had grand plans, big enough to upset the chembarons’ hold even. That was the foundation of Zaun. You didn’t mess with the chembarons, because when one of them falls, so does their entire bloc.

“What about ‘em?” Jinx asked. Her gaze locked onto Zeri. “You want me to blow ‘em up or something?”

Zeri grit her teeth. “I want to know more about what’s going on. Surely you know what happens in Zaun. You’ve got voices in your ear.”

“More in my head, though,” Jinx laughed. Her eyes didn’t change. “And I only listen to those half the time.”

“Jinx…”

“You care too much,” Jinx waved her hand. “Why should we care about a few riots? They aren’t anything new down here.”

“Maybe that’s the problem. Why can’t we ever do anything to change that?”

“Because Zaun is rotten to the core,” Jinx answered. “You can’t change something that’s already so far gone—all you can do is either stick with it or cut it off.” Her posture shifted, and Zeri knew that Jinx’s patience was running thin. “That’s the whole point of this—“she gestured between herself and Zeri—“so that when Zaun blows up in your face, you won’t be crushed by the rubble.”

Again with the literalism. Zeri let it roll past her. In this case, it might be true. “But what about everyone else?” she asked. “Are we supposed to let them suffer for it too?”

“That’s how Zaun works,” Jinx said. “Everyone for themselves, Zeri. Nobody else is going to stick their neck out for free.”

Zeri jabbed her knife in Jinx’s direction. “That’s wrong.”

Zeri was proof of that. She’d been risking herself for months just to make her neighborhood that bit safer. She couldn’t be the only one in all of Zaun to be doing that. They wouldn’t be recognized, but the people down here weren’t the lowlifes that Piltover made them out to be. Nobody could survive down here completely alone.

Well, almost nobody. Zeri eyed Jinx. Those that did—they didn’t realize that the people around them couldn’t do the same as them. They didn’t know that it was all but impossible to rely entirely on yourself for everything. It was hard to even see them as people; they were forces of nature.

But they were people. Even if they failed to recognize themselves as such, they were people, too.

Zeri swallowed her hesitation. Jinx had tried to show her that she was more than the myth people had made her into. “You wouldn’t be helping me if you really believed that, Jinx. Why can’t you do the same for the rest of Zaun?”

“Ha!” Jinx barked. “The rest of Zaun doesn’t want my help.” Her shoulders heaved. “How many people down here do you think wouldn’t run screaming at the sight of me? They made their decision. They decided that I wasn’t worth their attention, that I was better off being Jinx than—”

Jinx cut herself off, stopping the words before they could escape her. Her eyes were sad as she shook her head. “The right thing doesn’t exist down here. Zaun doesn’t care about you. It won’t remember you unless you carve your name in it. That’s the only way to exist in Zaun. You take everything you can and hope that when you cobble it all together, it’s enough for you.”

Are you really the villain they make you out to be?

Zeri knew what Jinx was. She knew what the woman in front of her had done, and she knew that there were at least twice as many atrocities that she didn’t know about. But could that have all been prevented if Zaun had given Jinx something different to work with? If they had switched places, would Zeri have turned out any different than Jinx? If she didn’t have her family to support her, if she hadn’t been raised in one of the quieter neighborhoods of Zaun, relatively unscathed from the greater dangers of the undercity—what would Zeri have been like if she’d been dealt a different hand?

Zaun didn’t deal in fairness. All you could do was cobble together whatever scraps it handed you and hope you didn’t fall apart. Jinx had done more than survive; she’d reshaped herself into something the city couldn’t ignore. She could disrupt the entire city if she wanted to; she could probably take Piltover with her if she truly put her mind to it. But was it enough? Zeri’s eyes ran along Jinx’s form, taking in the pale arms covered in tattoos and the dangling belts of ammunition. She was a palimpsest of what the city had written onto her. Who was beneath it all? When you cleared the rubble away, what kind of person existed underneath Jinx’s many masks? Zeri thought that she’d seen that person before. It was what made Jinx’s contempt for any type of improvement in Zaun so irritating to Zeri. Jinx should have wanted to see everyone’s life made easier. Jinx knew what it was like to be a sumprat surviving down here. Now she had the ability to make a difference. She could make Zaun better for everyone.

But she didn’t.

“Alright, enough moping around,” Jinx said. “Let’s get back to stabbing each other!”

It was clearly a defensive tactic, but Zeri couldn’t do much to combat it. Not when she was too busy combatting the blade intent on carving her up. When did Jinx even grab a knife? The thought joined the others in the back of Zeri’s mind as she focused on not getting herself torn to shreds by Zaun’s premier madwoman.

She wanted to believe that there was something real between herself and the people she was living with. Lux felt the weight of that belief on her shoulders as she walked into the kitchen, her fingers gripping the banister like a safety rail.

Vi was the first to notice her arrival. She raised her half-eaten slice of toast in greeting. “Morning, sunbeam. You get back to sleep alright?”

No. She’d lain awake listening to every creak that groaned through the house. Lux smiled. “It took a few tries, but I got there.”

“That’s the spirit.” Vi winked at her. “Stay around the two of us long enough and you won’t even bat an eye at some of the things that pass through.”

“It’s certainly not boring,” Lux allowed.

She could almost see Caitlyn’s lips twitch at the statement, and it suddenly hit her how easy it could be. All she had to do was keep her mouth shut and let everything fade into the background where it could be forgotten.

But that wasn’t fair, and if she did that, Lux would have to remind herself of how much of a coward she was every time she looked at Caitlyn and Vi. And what if they got hurt? Lux’s chest tightened at the thought. If something happened to them, Lux would be the reason for their pain—it would all be her fault. More than it already was.

“I have to tell you guys something. About last night.”

One of Caitlyn’s eyebrows rose at Lux’s tone. She shared a look with Vi before returning her attention to Lux. “What is it, Lux?”

There was no backing out now. “The person who broke in last night—they weren’t a regular criminal, and they didn’t break into your house because of the two of you.”

“You’re claiming that they did it for you.” Caitlyn cut to the point Lux was making. “Why would you think that?”

“You know I’m from Demacia,” she began. “But I don’t think you really know who my family is. They aren’t just merchants. They’re Crownguards, tasked with protecting the king from every possible threat.”

“Like a medieval secret service?”

Lux nodded to Vi’s question. “In a way. Everyone in my family has some role in ensuring the king’s continued safety.”

“What was yours supposed to be?” Vi leaned forward on her elbows, a playful glint in her eye. “Are you some sort of spy?”

“ Vi ,” Caitlyn interrupted with a glare. “This is not a joking matter.”

“Fine,” she sighed, slumping backward. “By all means, take the fun out of it.”

“You accused her of spying on us.”

“Spies are cool!”

Caitlyn pinched the bridge of her nose. “This isn’t one of your action movies, Vi.”

Vi threw Lux a wink. “You sure? Because sometimes it feels like one.”

They were getting distracted. Vi was doing this on purpose—and Caitlyn was allowing it. Lux saw the actions for what they were. The two were offering her an out. All she had to do was be quiet and let the conversation fade away.

“I was supposed to marry the king,” she said. If they didn’t execute her for being a mage, that was.

Vi frowned. “I don’t think you’re supposed to take the line about serving your country that seriously, Sunbeam.”

“I wouldn’t have had much choice,” Lux answered. “There is only one royal line in Demacia and, with Jarvan III dead, the pressure to secure the succession became unbearable. When it came down to prospective brides,” she shrugged. “The Crownguards were the only feasible option.”

Vi sobered. “That sounds like it would suck.”

Lux snorted. “That’s one way of putting it.”

“Yet, it seems you did have a choice,” Caitlyn interjected. “Unless Vi and myself have been hosting royalty all this time…”

“No,” Lux swallowed. “I couldn’t stay in Piltover knowing that I didn’t have any power to control my own life. I ran away instead.”

Caitlyn appraised her. “You refused a life of opulence and luxury because it wasn’t your decision?”

Lux met her gaze. “If Demacia ever would have offered me luxury, it would have come as a gilded cage.”

Caitlyn raised an eyebrow. “Even if the alternative placed you within constant threat from Demacia’s enemies?”

“If I fall to Noxus, it will be by my own fault.”

“Damn,” Vi muttered. “You’re more metal than I thought, princess.”

Lux glanced out the window. “It’s only going to get worse from here,” she said before rising to her feet. “I need to leave. Now that Noxus knows that I’m here—”

“You don’t need to go anywhere,” Caitlyn cut in. “In fact, there isn’t anywhere in Piltover that’s safer than right here.”

“You haven’t dealt with Noxus,” Lux rebutted.

“I think I have,” Vi returned. “Or didn’t you see me wipe the floor with that guy?”

It hit her, then. Vi and Caitlyn didn’t understand. They never would. And why would they? Neither of them had grown up with stories about Noxus and its assassins. They didn’t know to fear every long shadow or to frown at the wind during dark nights. None of their nation’s heroes had cut their teeth on the battlefield; none of the leaders in their fledgling history had been cut down and hung up as reminders of Noxus’s savagery. Their maps had only ever shown growth and progress. They’d never seen the canvas eaten up by the Noxian scourge or witnessed the land burn in the wake of their conquest.

Caitlyn and Vi didn’t know that Noxus stopped at nothing to achieve its goals. They didn’t realize that it didn’t matter how many bodies fell, only that Lux’s eventually did.

Lux forced herself to smile at Vi. “Maybe you’re right,” she said, leaning against the wall. “I guess I’m just spooked for no reason.”

“You’re in safe hands,” Vi answered. She flexed her arm in mock vanity. “Whoever sent this guy will think twice before sending another hit out.”

“And in the meantime,” Caitlyn picked up. “Should we learn anything from the first culprit, Piltover will apply pressure from our side.” She shook her head. “Honestly, sending assassins to a foreign capital? It’s an international scandal waiting to happen!”

Lux knew who’d devised the hit. She’d already been warned of it, after all. The only one who would be surprised by the results of the interrogation—if there were any results to begin with—would be Caitlyn. Not because she’d discover who was behind it, but because she’d learn that Noxus didn’t care about upsetting other nations. They did what they wanted and took what they pleased.

Lux crouched in the dim glow of her room, her eyes fixed on the narrow strip of space beneath the door. She’d already examined the windowsill for any alarms, but she’d be the first to admit ignorance on the subject. Demacia’s security manifested in men and steel. Lux was in completely foreign territory in more ways than one.

She hesitated as she climbed onto the windowsill. The cool night air pressed against her face. It reminded her of the nights she’d spent wandering Piltover, marveling at its strange beauty, its hum of industry mingling with its bursts of life. Lux forced herself through the open window. The ground came up fast, and she landed with a muted thud, crouching low. Every muscle in her body was taut as she waited for a sign that she’d been discovered. Only the distant sound of insects greeted her ears. She pushed herself forward and away from the house before she lost her nerve, vanishing into the night.

If Caitlyn and Vi never understood her actions, then they could count themselves lucky. Lux knew that staying with them would only bring trouble. She didn’t leave Demacia only to burden someone else with her presence.

Lux fled her country to escape the burden placed on her.

Now, she fled the only home she’d ever felt a part of to ensure that she didn’t pass that burden onto Caitlyn and Vi.

Maybe I’ll see them again, she thought. Once this has all blown over, I’ll come back. Maybe we can all laugh about it, too.

But she knew better. This wouldn’t blow over anytime soon. Noxus had caught her scent, and they’d be circling Piltover like vultures. They wouldn’t stop until they had her, and if she stayed, Caitlyn and Vi would be caught in the crossfire.

Lux exited the back of the Kiramman estate and found herself on a lonely street, its path illuminated by lamplight. Above her, the stars shown in all their wonder.

Lux didn’t want to leave Piltover. The months she’d spent here had been the best of her life.

Her steps slowed as she wandered, her path weaving aimlessly through empty streets. She let the quiet envelop her, but it didn’t soothe her as it once had. It felt oppressive now, a reminder of everything she was leaving behind. When the road forked, one path leading toward the edge of Piltover’s forests and the other toward the yawning bridge, she hesitated. She stared at the trees for a moment, the idea of their shelter tempting. But no—she couldn’t hide in the wilderness. It would be too easy for rumors to spread, too easy for Noxus to find her among the trees.

Instead, she turned toward the bridge. Even at this hour, she could see barges drifting along the river below, their lanterns swaying faintly in the breeze. The idea of boarding one of them, of disappearing into the current and letting it take her far away, tugged at her.

If only it were that easy.

If Lux could board a ship and leave all her problems behind, she’d do it in a heartbeat. Yet, where would she go?

Noxus had its fingers in almost every civilization across Runeterra. She could try to avoid detection in Shurima or Ionia, but it would only be a matter of time before they discovered her. If she wanted to make an actual life for herself, she needed to find a home that wouldn’t be built on quicksand. She needed to live outside of Noxian reach.

Lux had thought that Piltover would suffice. She hadn’t realized that Noxus was already planting their own within its government. It would only be a matter of time before Piltover became a puppet. If it wasn’t already.

Lux continued down the street. She’d already been through her options. None of them were pleasant.

The Freljord may accept her, assuming she could find one of their tribes before freezing to death, but she’d only be exchanging one threat for another. The same went for the wilderness of Ixtal.

Bilgewater was an option, she acknowledged, but it was a poor one. Nobody went to Bilgewater to start a new life unless it was to become a pirate or a brigand. And she, a Demacian noble with nothing but a handful of years half-heartedly training with wooden weapons, would only ever be seen as a prize to be bought and sold. She might not fall into Noxian hands, but the alternative could very well be worse.

Lux coughed as she kept moving, the air thickening with every step. It clung to her skin, acrid and heavy, its bitterness crawling down her throat and scratching at her lungs. Her eyes burned, tears forming at the edge of her vision. The smell was worse. It was the kind of stench that lingered, that got under your skin and stayed there. Lux’s fingers curled into fists at her sides, and she forced herself not to gag. She could almost imagine the earth beneath her boots rotting, exhaling its decay into the night air, as if someone hadn’t properly buried a carcass and its wretchedness was seeping out of the soil to poison everything around it. 

Towers jutted upward at impossible angles, their shapes twisted and asymmetrical, their surfaces glinting with oil and grime. Smoke poured from countless stacks, belching into the sky and blotting out what little light remained. Even the stars above her were now absent, their brightness blotted out by her new surroundings. 

Lux’s hands trembled as she clutched her cloak tighter around herself. For a brief, painful moment, she thought of Caitlyn and Vi. Of the warmth they’d shown her, the safety they’d offered, the way they made her feel like she wasn’t just a weapon or a name. I’ll come back, she promised herself.

Lux sucked in a breath and steeled her resolve.

The dark specter of Zaun loomed before her eyes.

Chapter Text

Inns, Lux imagined, were supposed to have a universal charm to them. She had never stayed in one herself, but she’d passed plenty of Demacian inns on her way to festivals or distant towns. They all looked the same: tidy exteriors, glowing hearths, and the soft hum of conversation drifting through open doors. It didn’t seem like something that would change much, no matter where you were.

The only clue Lux had that the grimy structure before her was meant for lodging was the neon sign flickering weakly in the fogged window, its buzzing letters cutting jaggedly through the grime. Every part of the building seemed to sag inward, like it was trying to disappear into itself.

She kept her head down and scurried through the doors before any of the bystanders noticed that she didn’t belong. Already the stumbling figures and jeering whistles that surrounded her were beginning to grate on her frayed nerves. Almost since the moment she’d stepped into the undercity, Lux had felt as if someone was watching her, their invisible gaze pinned to her back no matter how many turns she took. Only now that she’d stepped into the inn could Lux slowly let that paranoia fade out.

Lux didn’t know much about Zaun, but she hadn’t been told a single good thing about it. Especially not at night.

I should have waited until morning.

Staying in Piltover had softened her. That city was always lit up, if not from the sun then by the regularly stationed lampposts. Lux could get lost in Piltover and, so long as she continued walking, the roads would eventually lead her back to a familiar destination. No doubt that was by design. Piltover was the City of Progress; its moniker was Efficiency and Innovation. It was nothing like the labyrinth of haze beneath its feet.

The inside of the inn wasn’t much better than its façade. The low ceiling and narrow room were illuminated by a single overhead bulb, casting a pale yellow light that only highlighted the filth instead of hiding it. The air stank of stale smoke and old sweat. A few patrons hunched over a card game in the corner, their faces shadowed by the plumes of their cigars.

Lux pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders.

At the counter, a man leaned lazily against a warped podium, chewing something dark. His gaze lifted as she approached, then slid off her as if she weren’t worth the effort of focus.

She swallowed back her nervousness. “Um, hi,” she began to smile at him before dropping it at his lack of reaction. “I’d like to rent one of your rooms—if you have one available.”

He chewed on something before pushing it into his cheek. “You can pay? Crowns only.”

“Yes, that’s fine.” Lux fumbled for the pouch at her belt. Her fingers clumsily untying the string before she plucked out a handful of golden coins. She offered it to the man.

“How much would it be for…” Lux hesitated as she plotted out her next destination. “Um, three days?”

The man had already swept the coins from her hand. He pressed his fingernail into one of them. “This will do,” he answered, not taking his attention from the money. He groped behind him for one of the keys hanging on the wall before tossing it to her. “Don’t break anything.”

Lux looked at the key, flabbergasted. She turned it over in her hand. “What room am I?”

“Third floor. Last door on the left.”

Her fingers curled tightly around the key as she moved toward the dim staircase at the end of the room.

This is the life you chose when you decided to leave Demacia , she reminded herself.

Piltover had been the exception. She shouldn’t have gotten so attached to it.

The door groaned as Lux pushed it closed, the knob rattling in her grip like loose teeth. She twisted the deadbolt, but it resisted, rusted nearly to uselessness. With a hard shove, she forced it into place, though she doubted it would keep anyone out. Shafts of light slipped past the bottom of the door, exposing the line of ragged splinters.

Lux tried not to pay too much attention to the door, though there wasn’t much else she could focus on. A battered end table sat next to the mattress shoved into the corner of the room. The sheets did nothing to disguise the mattress’s lumps, visible even with the miniscule amount of light breaking through the grimy windowpane. Lux decided not to peer beneath the sheet, if only to preserve her sanity. She convinced herself that it couldn’t be worse than the ground she’d slept on during her journey to Piltover.

The prospect of bugs and dirt hadn’t bothered her then. It shouldn’t bother her now.

Leaving her knapsack on the bed, she moved to the bathroom and turned the handle on the faucet. Brackish, cloudy water pattered against the basin.

Lux began to feel like she’d been overcharged but, truly, she didn’t know how much the golden coins she’d pilfered from Caitlyn’s countertop were actually worth. She’d never had to learn the rates, not when Caitlyn and Vi had set everything up for her. 

“Maybe the forest would have been better,” she mumbled to herself, twisting the faucet off. Yet, she couldn’t have lived in the wilderness forever. It simply wasn’t sustainable. Even if she did learn how to survive without the help of civilization, Lux knew that she would be in a state of constant panic. Nothing she did would ever be meant to last. Every rustle of leaves would trigger her paranoia. She’d end up running herself into her own grave.

Someone pounded on her door. Lux watched the frame rattle from the force. Her mouth pulled into a frown. Placing a hand on the wood, she brought her eye to the peephole. Two men stood in the hall, both of them wearing dark clothes. The larger of the two brought his fist up and knocked on the door again.

“Open up,” he called. “We know you’re in there.”

“Don’t sound so threatening,” his partner hissed. Lux watched him step forward. “Mac—our friend down at the bar—sent us,” he said. “We need to run you through a few things since you’re staying here.”

Lux hesitated,  glancing at the room behind her. Unless she wanted to jump out the window, the door was the only access point.

“What do you need?” She asked, pulling the door open just enough to show her face between the crack. She put on her most polite, inoffensive expression. “There isn’t a problem, is there?”

“I wouldn’t call it a problem,” the larger man answered. He leaned against the frame of the door and crossed his arms before smiling at her. “You wouldn’t mind letting us in to have a little chat though, would you? It doesn’t look that good with all of us hanging around in the hallway, you know?”

He did not quite wait for her approval and simply moved. Lux stumbled back as he pushed through the doorway, his friend closing the door behind them as followed in his wake. He stood off to the side, fiddling with the end of his sleeve. In the darkness of the room, Lux couldn’t tell whether it was dirt or shadow that dusted over his nails. Given what she could see of the man, Lux couldn’t discount that it was both.

“Mac was right,” he said, his eyes raking over her. “She really is a pretty one.”

“Makes you wonder what she’s doing down here with us,” the first chuckled. He turned his full attention onto her. “Okay dearie, listen up. You’re obviously not from around here, so the two of us are going to have to bring you up to speed.”

As he stepped towards her, shadows played across his face and Lux’s pulse began to quicken. She stepped back. Her hand brushed along her waist—but no, she’d left her sword in its sheath; and she’d left that on the bed behind her. There had never been a need for it in Piltover. Nobody carried anything even vaguely threatening in the city. It made others uncomfortable; it made you seem violent.

Her fingers twitched. There was always that option. Lux could almost feel her magic, thicker than blood in her veins. But if she opened herself up…Lux didn’t know if she’d be able to close it again. The only reason she’d been able to stop the first time was because she’d expelled all her energy in that single explosive burst. It was the only way Lux knew how to use her magic.

The man across from her chuckled. “No need to be so frightened, doll. All you have to do is give us what we want and we’ll be on our way.”

“And what do you want?”

“The same thing you do, I suppose.” One of his teeth was metal. It shone in the back of his mouth when he smiled. “The only reason spoiled girls like you come down here’s to get a taste of what it's like on the other side. Partying, drugs, booze—” he shrugged. “All the dirtier bits of life that ole Progress Town’s too sanitized for.”

“That’s not why I’m here at all!”

“It’s too late to back out now,” he said before lurching forward to grab her. Lux darted back. She turned to dive towards her bag, but the man was too quick. His hand clamped around her shoulder and hauled her back. A second arm snaked around her waist, pulling her flush against him. Lux thrashed in his hold, but he was too strong. Her panic began to mount and, with every breath, it felt like spots danced across her vision. She couldn’t think. Any moment the pressure building within her would burst.

At least it’s better than the alternative, she thought. It was almost enough to calm her. Almost.

“You know the routine, Charlie.” The man’s fingers curled over the hem of her trousers. “You get first dibs on whatever goods she toted down here while I get the first round.”

His breaths puffed against the back of her neck and, no matter how much Lux struggled, she could not escape him. He was simply too big, too experienced in holding people against him like this. His hand began to delve lower, brushing against her skin. Lux could feel herself falling farther away from her body and, for a terrifying moment, she wondered if her magic would even respond or if it were just as catatonic as her. Lux had never wanted to see the cause of such destruction until this very moment.

“Well, isn’t this quite the party!”

The newcomer’s voice snapped Lux back to reality. Her vision cleared enough to look their way. A woman sat on the ledge of Lux’s windowsill. The window itself had been dislodged from the frame and was nowhere in sight. Her hair was braided in twin tails, one of which waved behind her in the open air. On anyone else, the woman’s hair would have been their defining feature. It was lightning blue, almost luminous in its brightness. However, what captivated Lux’s attention was not her hair. It wasn’t even the assortment of bullet casings woven into her hair.

It was the woman’s eyes.

Set into a face as pale as Demacian marble, they glowed like jewels catching rays of light. With every flicker, a new shade of pink iridescence burst to life. It was beautiful; it was supernatural; it was beyond the mere human.

Along with all the tales of magic and its wickedness in Demacia, there was no shortage of malignant creatures. Her mother had loved to use those mythical beings as cautionary tales. From vampiric imps who would siphon your dreams to nomadic hags waiting for you to stumble on them to the conniving sprites that would tempt you to walk off a cliff or drown yourself in a river. Lux was certain she’d heard of almost every iteration ever spoken about in Demacia.

This was the first time she’d actually seen one.

The woman could be nothing else. She sat with a perfect stillness; time itself seemed to freeze in acknowledgment of her presence. Lux could feel an energy in the air, pushing against her skin as it set her teeth on edge and raised the hairs on her arms. It was as if nature itself were demanding that Lux pay attention to this being.

“Help!” she cried, taking advantage of her captor’s sudden stupor. “Please, they’re going to—”

“Yeah yeah,” the woman dismissed. She leaned her back against the edge of the window. “We all have eyes, toots.”

Lux felt the rumble of laughter that came from the man behind her even as tears began to prick at her eyes. “This really is our lucky day,” he husked. “Not often that you cross paths with her and walk away from it.” His fingers dug into Lux’s skin. “Well, I suppose not everyone will be walking away from this hale and hearty.”

“No,” Lux murmured. She tried to pull herself free again, but it was no use. The man was infinitely stronger than her. She’d never thought it possible that she’d fall into this kind of situation and, now that it had happened, her body was in shock, her mind refusing to do anything other than churn uselessly in her head.

“Stop this!” Lux demanded, her voice weak but defiant. “I know the sheriff of Piltover—you won’t get away with this!”

The thug holding her laughed, his hand trailing down her body in a way that made her skin crawl. “The enforcers don’t care what happens in Zaun, girl. The sheriff’s already cut her losses with you—if she ever knew you in the first place.”

Lux’s gaze darted back to the window as she squirmed in his grip, hoping that the woman would take pity on her and intervene. The windowsill was empty. The woman was gone.

He was still chuckling when he moved between Lux’s legs and forced her onto her stomach. His hand pawed at the back of her pants, fumbling with the belted loop. “Can you believe this one, Charlie,” he chuckled. “Thinks she’s some big deal Piltie. Best friends with the sheriff—even calls her by name!”

Lux was expecting a similar level of derision in response, but Charlie didn’t answer. His silence caught her assailant off balance too. “Charlie?” he asked. She felt him turn his attention away from her; Lux did the same.

“Huh.” The woman had left the window and was holding Lux’s unsheathed gladius in front of her face. Blood dripped from the end of it onto the bed sheet, and Charlie’s body lay at her feet. “Why would you even want something this long? It’s so much harder to stab people with it.”

She waved the gladius in front of her without the slightest degree of discipline. If Lux could have viewed the action at any other time, she would have winced at the woman’s form. Her hand was too high up the hilt, and her wrist was entirely out of position; she held the sword too far away from her body and, when she did angle it away from her, her arm was outstretched, removing any chance of properly thrusting the blade.

Blood continued to drip lazily from the sword as the woman waved it around.

“What the hell!” the man on top of her yelled. “Why the fuck did you do that, you bitch?”

The woman blinked at him. “Because I’m crazy. Duh.”

“I can’t believe I actually thought you wouldn’t mess tonight up,” the man blustered.

He pushed himself to his feet, his face an angry splotch of purple. “But that’s just your shtick, isn’t it? You just love to ruin everyone else’s lives with your little delusions.”

“Yep.” The woman popped her mouth. She looked at Lux. Then back to the man. “Are you going to tell me how much of a Jinx I am, now? Because I totally don’t get that speech often enough.”

The bear of a man surged towards her. The woman swiveled around him. She sighed. “You can’t really blame me, you know,” she said. “It’s everyone else that still hasn’t learned that I’m bad luck.”

“Maybe you should realize when you’re not wanted!”

She laughed. “That’s funny coming from you. Out of the two of us, I think I know who the Piltie prefers.”

“Shut up.” He spun around.

“Ugh,” the woman groaned. “You could have at least tried to be interesting.”

Lux watched in a stupor as, between one moment and the next, the woman pulled a claptrap of a pistol from her waistband and shot the man between the eyes, her ears ringing from the crack of the discharged shot. For an instant, a red mist hung in the air before he dropped to the floor, joining the second corpse.

Bile threatened to escape Lux at the blatant murder but she pushed it down. That could have been her.

“Well!” The woman spun her gun around her finger before tucking back into her waistband. She turned her eyes onto Lux. “Let’s hope that you’re more interesting than those other guys.”

“What the hell is going on in—” Mac, who really was the man Lux had paid for the room, abruptly stopped speaking as he arrived at the doorway, his eyes frozen on Lux’s possible savior and likely demon.

“What are you doing here?” Mac demanded, his voice gruff.

“You know me,” she shrugged before moving to stand beside Lux. One of her braids trailed over the back of Lux’s leg like a serpent, coiling over her calf with icy coldness. And Lux, like a hare under the gaze of that predator, was frozen in place, too terrified to even turn her head. The woman reached down and ruffled Lux’s hair. “I love collecting shiny things.”

For the first time since he’d arrived, Mac looked at her. She finally saw what should have been apparent the first time, that she was nothing but an object to him. “You can have her,” he said. “Just get out.”

“You hear that, Blondie?” she crooned, stooping down to speak into Lux’s ear. “You’re all mine!”

What have I gotten myself into? A shiver ran down her spine, and Lux could hardly keep herself from quivering. It felt as though she was going to come apart at any moment. It had felt like that ever since the Noxian had shown up at the Kiramman estate. Now after tonight and everything that had almost happened to her, having this woman whispering into her ear was almost enough to break her.

“It’s a good thing I got to you when I did, too,” she continued, her hand still threading through Lux’s hair. “Zaun just loves to gobble up pretty little things like you. Now Come on!”

She grabbed Lux by the arm and hauled her to her feet. Lux stumbled as her legs were suddenly underneath her, the hand fastened around her arm the only thing stopping her from collapsing as she was pulled out of the room she’d paid for and into the suffocating night air of Zaun.

The streets blurred around her. Truthfully, Lux didn’t remember how they’d gotten there or whether anyone had noticed them. Her mind was still too foggy to properly register her surroundings. It was as if everything were underwater, and the murkiness of Zaun’s lightless evening only furthered her disorientation.

“Who even are you?” she asked after being dragged through a series of haphazardly winding streets. She was lost. She was going into shock. The least she could have in return was the name of the person who had saved and summarily abducted her.

The woman stopped so quickly that Lux almost collided with her back. It was only as she spun around that Lux caught herself, frozen by the intensity of the woman’s gaze. “You don’t know?” she asked, looking Lux up and down for any sign of duplicity. A sudden laugh shook the woman’s frame. “You’re not a Piltie at all!”

Lux sniffed. “I’m not. And if anyone had taken the time to actually ask me any—”

“I’m Jinx.” She stuck a hand out. “Stands for Jinx.”

What else could it stand for? Lux stared at the offered hand. A name like Jinx left nothing in doubt. There was nothing else that it could hide, no connotations hiding behind it. Not that it would be at all possible with someone like Jinx. The name was too perfect, like it had been designed for her.

For her and Lux. After all, what could be more ironic than having a different kind of magic save her when she needed it most? No matter what she did, the arcane always inserted itself into her life.

Wait. Lux’s mind screeched to a halt . Jinx. Pieces began to fall into place. The men’s reactions; Jinx’s confusion at not being recognized. In Piltover, there had only been one consistent cause for upheaval. Only one reason for disruption in an otherwise perfectly orchestrated day.

Lux did know who Jinx was. Caitlyn had returned to her estate seething with failure too often for Lux not to learn about her. She’d just never imagined that the criminal who haunted Piltover’s dreams could resemble the woman in front of her.

She’d imagined someone like Sylas. A cynical plotter. Maybe someone with an acerbic tongue, if they were feeling playful. Yet, their hardness is always shown underneath it all. People would recognize immediately that they were dealing with a killer. Never would Lux have thought that Jinx would be so…vibrant.

Lux could not deny that Jinx was a murderer. She’d seen her kill two men without the slightest bit of hesitation. Yet, none of that so much as touched Jinx’s demeanor. She was a veritable war machine and Lux had mistaken her for a mischievous fairy, something that was harmless so long as you knew not to offer it too much.

And now she was holding her hand out, waiting for Lux to introduce herself.

“Ah,” Jinx laughed again. Her eyes had grown harder since Lux had last looked at her. Or maybe she’d simply not recognized it in the first place. “I guess it took a minute for the gears to turn in that head of yours.”

Lux tried not to let the panic show on her face as her eyes darted around the alley. She needed a way out. If she could get away, she might be able to make it back to Piltover. Caitlyn and Vi wouldn’t even realize she’d been gone. And Jinx wouldn’t dare follow her into the sheriff’s home. Lux would be safe. At least for the night. She could figure out what she was going to do later. She was in danger now.

“So,” Jinx said, still smiling widely at Lux, “you said you knew the sheriff? What’s Top-Hat up to nowadays?”

Lux didn’t answer. She was already running, her feet pounding against the cobblestones as she sprinted down the street. She cut through alleyways at random, her only thought to lose Jinx, to escape before it was too late. Lux’s breath came in ragged gasps as she turned a corner and ducked into a branching alleyway, pressing her back against the wall. Any moment, Jinx would run past the alley—if she was even following Lux at all. All Lux had to do was hide out for a handful of moments before making her way back to the topside. Then, she could put this nightmare behind her.

“Wherever you wanted to go, I can guarantee this is the wrong way.”

Lux’s heart sank at the sound of Jinx’s voice. She looked up and, sure enough, there she was, sitting on the rooftop of the alley. She didn’t even look winded as she kicked the back of her boots against the wall. Jinx smiled down at Lux like some predator from the canopy.

All at once, Lux’s legs gave out. She collapsed to the ground and curled her knees to her chest. Tears prickled at the edge of her vision. “What do you want from me?” she whispered brokenly.

“Oh jeez,” Jinx said, hopping down from the rooftop. “The old hag didn’t do me that dirty, did she?” She snapped her fingers. “Darnit, I knew she still held a grudge for that time I crashed Sera’s concert!”

Jinx sighed theatrically before sitting down beside Lux. “In-laws, am I right? They’re always out to get you.”

For a second— a third? —time that night, Jinx turned Lux’s world upside down. She blinked as the new information assaulted her traumatized mind. “Pardon? Did you say in-laws?”

It couldn’t be…

“Figures,” Jinx grumbled, peering at her from the corner of her eye. “Of course, Cupcake wouldn’t want people knowing that.”

Lux’s eyes widened. “You’re related to Caitlyn?”

“Unfortunately,” Jinx replied, rolling her eyes dramatically.

The absurdity of it all crashed over her like a tidal wave. Unbidden, Lux felt a laugh begin to bubble out of her. It came again, then again, building into a wave of helpless laughter that echoed through the alleyway.

This time, tears did fall from her eyes, but Lux barely noticed.

“Blondie?” Jinx leaned over her.

Lux waved her off as another giggle hiccupped out from her. “I’m fine,” she eventually managed.

In no way were her words convincing. Lux could only imagine what she looked like, back against the wall and blubbering like a maniac.

“Cool,” Jinx said. She grabbed Lux by the arm and hauled her to her feet. “You’re not going to run away again, are you?”

Lux shook her head. She was too frazzled to even protest as Jinx pulled her back into the street. “It wouldn’t do me any good, anyway.”

She realized that while she was sitting in the alley. Even if she had managed to lose Jinx, Lux would still be alone in Zaun with no knowledge of how to get back. And, if her recent experience at the inn was any indication, there wasn’t a soul here she could trust. Everyone down here would look to exploit her for their own gain.

If she was going to put her life in the hands of someone else, Lux couldn’t think of a better person than someone related to Caitlyn Kiramman.

That was why she was always so hesitant to condemn her, Lux thought. Jinx is family to her and Vi.

Lux hadn’t heard a single good thing about the Zaunite while she’d been topside. People shuddered at just the mention of her name. When they did speak of her, it was more akin to describing an eldritch horror than a woman, than someone who couldn’t be much older than Lux was.

Besides, she rationalized, Caitlyn’s been dealing with Jinx for years.

If she was as much of a monster as everyone thought, Caitlyn would look much worse than she did. Lux hadn’t noticed a single scar or blemish on the woman. Coming from Demacia, that spoke more to Lux about the sheriff’s relationship with Jinx than anything else.

She could still remember the despair that had torn through her when Sylas had toppled her brother. He wouldn’t have stopped because of his relationship with her—if Sylas had ever been genuine in his friendship in the first place. If Lux hadn’t stepped up to defend her brother, Sylas would have taken him from her.

Caitlyn and Jinx were nothing like that. They had been playing a game of cat-and-mouse for years and, as far as Lux knew, Jinx had never been caught. Lux knew that Jinx didn’t have an issue killing, either. She chose not to hurt Caitlyn.

Lux hoped that would extend to Jinx caring about her.

Mentioning her acquaintance to Caitlyn had likely been the only thing to save her from those men. If Jinx didn’t know about that, she would have left her to suffer the consequences of her actions. 

“You might have gotten away if something more interesting had popped up,” Jinx said, pulling her from her musings.

Lux scoffed. Her arm was still securely in Jinx’s grasp, and the woman showed no indication of letting go any time soon. Though Jinx’s words did bring up an issue that needed addressing.

“What are you going to do with me?”

Despite her newfound comfort, Lux knew that Jinx wasn’t simply going to ferry her back to Caitlyn. Neither of them may have had the intent to cause grievous harm to one another, but that didn’t mean they were beyond conflict.

And there was more than a little conflict between her and Caitlyn. One of them was objectively in the right; the other was a self-proclaimed manic who wouldn’t so much as blink at the opportunity to shed blood.

It was hard for Lux to reconcile what she knew—what she had seen with her own eyes—with the girl tugging her along. The Jinx holding her arm was entirely carefree and she carried a light in her eyes that was almost childlike in its fervor. She didn’t look anything like the criminals Lux had seen in Demacia.

Jinx didn’t look like anyone she’d ever seen before at all.

“I told you ,” Jinx whined. “I like collecting shiny things, and you’ve got to be one of the shiniest things to ever show up down here.”

Lux frowned. “Should I take offense to being called a thing?”

“Eh,” Jinx shrugged. “You’ll get used to it.”

“You could at least try to call me by my name.”

“What does a name even mean?” Jinx asked. “Who cares what someone else decided to call you?”

Lux did not know how to respond to that. She tried the more direct route. “My name is Lux.”

“Short for Luxury,” Jinx responded, nodding along.

“No, it’s short for Luxanna.”

“Luxanna? That doesn’t sound right at all.” Jinx’s nose scrunched. “Who would ever call their kid something as pretentious as Luxanna ?”

“You can just call me Lux.”

“Yeah sure, Luxie.”

Lux opened her mouth to respond. With what, she didn’t know. Possibly to correct Jinx; maybe even to insist that the criminal show the tiniest shred of decency when interacting with her—Lux was more than a bauble for Jinx to play around with.

However, the sound that emitted from her, rather than coming from her mouth, came from her stomach. Lux stopped and held a hand to her belly in mortification. She hadn’t had the stomach to eat anything the day prior, her body still too distraught by the Noxian assassin’s appearance. And, even if she could have forced herself to eat, the guilt of knowing that she’d be leaving Caitlyn and Vi’s home would have made anything she put past her lips taste like ash. She’d already abused their hospitality too much; she couldn’t have borne taking more from them.

“Geez, Luxie, what kind of animal do you have hidden under there?” Jinx cackled as her eyes flashed in amusement.

“It’s nothing,” Lux mumbled. She stared at her feet and wished that the ground would swallow her whole. “I just haven’t eaten in a while. I’ll be fine.”

The last thing she needed was Jinx thinking that she was some spoiled princess. Lux could deal with a little hunger. It was trivial compared to the rest of her issues.

Fortunately, Jinx didn’t hold it against her. She dismissed Lux’s words with a wave of her hand. “It’s no problem, Luxie. We can swing by Jericho’s before heading back. You know Jericho’s right? Vi isn’t so much of a turncoat to abandon Zaun’s finest.”

Memories of her first meal in Piltover flashed behind her eyes. She could still feel the way her throat had burned after biting into Jericho’s famous concoctions. She’d been forced to eat it then, lest Caitlyn and Vi thought her ungrateful. Every bite had seared the inside of her mouth and left tears pricking the edge of her vision, but she’d endured, even if her palate had been tortured to the point that she hadn’t been able to taste anything for a day.

One encounter with Jericho’s was more than enough for Lux.

“No!” she shouted, stopping abruptly in place. She cleared her throat. “I mean, surely there’s somewhere else. I don’t want to be a bother—and besides, Jericho’s must be busy.”

One look at Jinx, and Lux knew her excuse had fallen flat. She could see the amusement in those unnaturally pink eyes.

“Oh Luxury,” Jinx crooned, sidling up to her. “I’m going to have so much fun with you down here. If you think Jericho’s is too much…” she chuckled. “Just you wait. You haven’t seen nothing, yet.”