Chapter Text
What is the price of independence?
The Monster Inside All of Us will try to answer that question. This is a portrait of a country, ripped apart by civil war and desperate for peace. But this is also an intimate story of a father and a daughter, coming of age in a time of war. The Monster Inside All of Us is Arcane (Season 1) meets Andor, and is my way of resolving the Piltover/Zaun conflict in the show while bringing the conclusion of the story closer to the game.
I have chosen to centre this story around an AU version of Silco. He remains my favourite character in Arcane (so I am biased!) but he also remains the most politically inclined character in the story, and who better to explore a revolution than the character who has made revolution his core identity? He is, however, a deeply AU version of the Silco we know (an extension of an AU Silco in The Monster You Created (Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43674855)) and there are key differences. This version of Silco separates from Arcane’s Silco shortly after season 1, episode 3. Jinx and him are in Piltover on business when violence erupts between both countries. Piltover immediately shuts their borders with Zaun and Silco and Jinx are unable to return. Wrong time, wrong place, as they say.
They grow to love each other fiercely, united by their shared trauma of being strangers in a country which wants nothing to do with them. Yet, Jinx is exposed to some form of therapy in Piltover and she is far more stable than the Jinx we know in Arcane. Silco is not entirely the Silco we know either. He is still a kingpin, but he is also a father, one who does not drip poison in her ears, and who is far less possessive of his daughter. Yet, he twists her in other ways. He enables her worst impulses and is a role model of violence. He brings her into his life of crime as if it were a family business. And she embraces this life. Because Silco is her father and he is above all things.
Vi is aware of this and is horrified by what has happened. Yet when Jinx offers to break her out of Stillwater Hold, she takes it. Because she knows this is her only chance to reach out to her sister and break Silco’s grip on her. The sisters are bonded here, a tie far stronger and far more stable than season 1 of Arcane.
This story now opens a decade after season 1, episode 3 and is aligned with season 2, episode 1 (including the character arcs of Caitlyn, Jayce and Viktor), with some differences. Open warfare between Piltover and Zaun has ground to a halt. Zaun is completely overrun by the chembarons. Silco and Jinx are still stuck in Piltover. Vi is on the run from the Enforcers. Yet, opportunities will open for them very soon, and the fate of Zaun will come down each of these characters.
In writing the story, as it has been with Andor, some fantastical subplots from the show (the arcane) have been truncated or removed entirely to retain focus on the Piltover/Zaun conflict. Viktor does not have the quasi-God like powers he has in the show. Warwick is infinitely killable. Ekko’s Z-Drive does not play a crucial part in the endgame and references to Felicia have been removed entirely (a personal story choice).
This story has 4 acts which I have further divided into chapters for readability. One new chapter will drop every Saturday, and this story is scheduled to run through the summer.
I hope you enjoy this! I learnt a lot thinking through the themes here.