Chapter Text
“Mylo… Mylo, MYLO! You need to wake up! Please…Mylo please.”
The voice was warped by its owner’s hysteria and Mylo could barely make it out over the throbbing pain in his head but, eventually, he recognised it.
“Let me sleep little man.”
A sob of relief left Ekko at the grumbled reply, and rather than fuck off like Mylo had wanted he renewed his attempts to shake the older boy awake.
“Thank gods you’re alive Mylo, I need you to get up and help me carry Claggor. I can’t carry him on my own. Please.”
“I said-”
“Mylo PLEASE!”
Finally bothering to crack his eyes open, he immediately regretted it, slamming them shut as pain lanced through his head like a sledge hammer.
Did the Enforced come back for round two?!
It was another moment before he tried to open his eyes again.
slower this time so that the light wasn't as blinding.
This… this wasn’t the last Drop, this wasn’t home… what were they doing here?
“Little Man what happened?” Mylo asked, uncertain as to whether he actually wanted an answer.
But instead of responding or doing anything useful the brat chose to ignore him in place of trying to dragging.... something. No, not something. He was dragging Mylo, or more accurately his arm. Irritated, he tried to shove the Brat off but Ekko barely seemed to notice his resistance. It didn't take long for Mylo to give up and just go along with Ekko's efforts in the hope of getting answers.
Once he stopped resisting, it was mere moments before he staggered up onto his own two feet.
The area around them was an absolute wreck.
Had another one of the factories suffered a misfire and blown up again? Had they been caught in the explosion?
His attempts to organise his thought were cut short by Ekko.
“Can you walk?”
“I guess but-”
“Great, help me grab Claggor, we need to go.”
Impertinent Brat
“Ekko wait! What-”
“We don’t have time Mylo!” the younger yelled, cutting him off.
Again.
He crossed his arms and scowl down at Benzos Stray and watched as instead of crumpling under his glare the gutter rat squared his shoulders and glared back.
That was new.
“Silco will be back any minute to finish you off. Now you can either help me try and save Claggor or you can sit here and wait to die like a coward.”
With that Ekko turned towards- towards Claggor.
Claggor who was slumped over against a crumbling wall.
Claggor, who wasn’t moving.
Mylo didn’t think before stumbling forward to help Ekko drag Claggor up off the ground, only to barely keep his legs from collapsing underneath the extra weight of his brother.
There was no way they were going to make it out of here.
Not without help.
He needed- they needed Vander, Benzo, maybe Vi… Hell, he’d even accept the help of that useless little jinx if it got them out of here.
He wanted to ask Ekko where everyone else was, but something told him he didn’t want to know the answer.
Not when Little Man had tear tracks running through the soot staining his face.
Not when something in his mind told him that he should be grateful not to remember what used to exist in the gapping black hole that was the last few hours.
So for once in his life, he shut up.
Looking back on that moment, Mylo doesn’t think he’ll ever work out how they manage it but, eventually, they were able to drag Claggor away from the burning husk of a building he woke up in.
Not to the Last Drop or even Benzo’s shop though.
“It’s not safe.” Is the only thing Ekko says when he asks, and Mylo doesn’t ask anything else.
Can’t, with how the words seem to clog his throat and choak the air from his lungs.
Vi or Vander should have found them by now.
The fact that they haven’t…
The fact that Little Man still hasn’t mentioned any of them.
Not even Powder who they all know he’s besotted with for some reason.
Mylo can’t.
He just can’t.
So, he doesn’t ask, and they keep stumbling along as he tries to swallow the dark feeling that might be grief before it can consume him.
It’s silly.
He doesn’t even know what he’s grieving for.
But as Vander once told him emotions aren’t logical, and sometimes all you can do is accept them and move on.
Eventually they make it to Ekko’s safe space and its-
“Incredible.”
For once he isn’t even being sarcastic, there’s simply no other word to describe it.
The walls are as dinged up and grimy as the rest of the undercity, worse than some places given how old and forgotten this area clearly is.
But none of that matters once Mylo catches sight of what was hidden within.
That’s a Tree.
A Tree.
A Real Tree.
In Zaun.
For a moment Mylo forgets every bad thing that seemingly led to this moment and just takes in the wonderful impossibility in front of him.
He’s seen tree’s before ofcourse.
In Piltover.
Horrid little things stylised into clinical geometric shapes. Their growth and wildness forcibly tamed and perfectly controlled so that they didn’t look out of place alongside Topsides ever marching Progress. There were just dozens of the things running down all their streets and pathways. With perfectly straight trunks and perfectly trimmed leaves.
He’d never said it, too scared of the others making fun of him for it, but he’d always wondered how the Piltie's had managed to make something so full of life look so soulless and fake.
This tree is nothing like that.
Its trunk is thick, full of warps and twists, gnarled in some areas and puckered from long healed wounds in others.
Its taller that the Last Drop and even a few of the smaller factories, definitely taller than any Piltie town house.
Its Wild, Mylo can’t help but think.
Its wild and free in a way that is entirely Zaunite and abhorrence to the Pilties and their precious conformity.
Mylo may not be an egg head like Ekko or Powder, but he knows that for a tree to be that bigger it had to be decades maybe even centuries old. That’s older than any Zaunite ever reaches.
It’s a survivor like the rest of them.
“Ekko… how did you find this.”
the younger shifts uncomfortably under his gaze as he drags a first aid kit out from... somewhere and began messing around with it.
he doesn't look at him as he answers.
“I didn’t. Powder did. We used to come here and play whenever you and the others decided we were too little to tag along.”
And just like that, the cold feeling was back.
Why was he using past tense?
“So, when do you think the others will get here?”
“Mylo…”
The pity in Ekko’s voice was strong enough to choak on.
He ignored it.
“I mean it can’t be long now, right? Hell, I bet they’re hiding somewhere ahead so they can scare the crap out of us and-”
“Mylo they’re gone.”
No.
“Don’t be an idiot Little Man. Gone? They’re not gone Ekko. They can’t be. Vi, Vander, Benzo? Sure, maybe Powder’s weak enough to get taken out but we all know Vi would never let anything happen to her.”
“You really don’t remember anything?”
“Remember what? There’s nothing to Remember Because NOTHING HAPPENED!”
He was screaming by the end of it, loud enough that Claggor flinched slightly in his sleep, the movement causing the dirt around him to shift.
A part of him felt guilty over troubling his brother, but a larger part didn't care, too focused on glaring at Little Man. His eyes daring the younger to disagree.
But things really had changed, because once again Ekko didn’t back down.
“They’re dead Mylo. I watched them kill Benzo. I saw them dragging Vander's corpse away!”
“But you didn’t see Powder or Vi so you don’t know-”
“The flames were already beginning to die out once I got there. They probably- the must have grabbed Vi and Powders cor- they must have grabbed them before coming back for Vander and you guys.”
Ekko began falling apart as he said it and Mylo knew that he should try and do something. Anything. But emotions were more the girls or even Claggor's thing than his and he didn’t- he’d never been good with words.
Not that it mattered because-
“You don’t know though. If you didn’t see them, they might not be dead.”
Sure, that meant Vi had left him and Claggor for dead but he’d forgive her so long as she came back.
She’d certainly forgiven him more than his fair share of screw ups.
“Mylo…”
“No Little Man. We wait it out and see if they turn up. You said Powder found this place, right?”
the Brat hesitated a moment before responding; “Yeah.”
“Then she’ll know exactly where to take Vi.”
He tried to inject Vi’s confidence into his words, but he doubted it worked. Vi was just better at this kind of thing. Just like Vander…
“…”
Ekko scrunched up his face at that, like he didn’t believe him but wanted to.
That was enough for now.
He couldn’t wait for Vi and even Powder to make the little twerp eat his words once they turned up.
Leaning down to pick his brother up again, he winced as every muscle in his body protested the movement.
Tomorrow was going to be awful.
“Lets just go and get Claggor fixed up. You have anything we can use in that kit?”
“What? Oh, yeah. Powder recently restocked it, and there should be some rations around here somewhere just in case.”