Did you really think Lux could spend so many years as a spy without meeting any of her league opponents? Of course not! So with a little artistic license, here's a mostly old-canon based AU in which Lux's adventures as an infiltrator bring her to Noxus, Ionia, Zaun... And more! Lux and ensemble. I'll add new champions featured in every chapter, so read it through or skip to the chapter with your favorite!

Feel free to review to request your favs!

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Chapter 1: Ekko

There was a thick, heady scent in the air and clouds of blue and gray smoke billowed densely against the ceiling. Even after refusing one of the strange, glowing things the Zaunites passed around like cigarettes, Lux felt lightheaded and floaty from the smog that filled the room. She could almost forget what had brought her here.

What was a Demacian doing in Zaun, anyway? So far, no one had even second-guessed her identity. Getting in had been a joke. A state without firm governance couldn't expect to protect its borders, and Lux doubted she was the only infiltrator on this block, let alone within the city.

She was supposed to be getting ahold of a particularly elusive bit of tech- "by any means necessary", they'd said, so here she was. (Well, within reason. They weren't Noxian. They never really meant 'by any means'; that had been her first lesson.)

And so, Lux had been to enough parties in the last two weeks to make up for every year of college Demacia had taken from her. Tonight, she thought it might finally pay off.

"Heeeey! Helloooo, Runeterra to Lila, you there?" Somebody had thrown an arm over her shoulders. Lux blinked at the slim, dark-skinned boy, still dazed from the smoke. "Are you always such an airhead, or am I boring you?" He made a playful, pouty face and Lux giggled. He couldn't have been older than thirteen, but carried himself with all the swagger of an accomplished techmaturgist- and, well. That was fair.

"Noooo." She drew the word out, pursing her lips, painted bubblegum-pink, "You're not boring, I'm just thinking."

"You do too much of that," He grinned from ear to ear and shook her by the shoulders. "You know, you make this weird face when you're thinking, like some-"

"Hey, um, Ekko?" One of the younger kids, barely as tall as the couch they were sprawled on, had leaned up to tap her target on the shoulder.

"Ajuna! Hey, hey! You've met Lila, right?" Ekko was nearly manic with excitement and Lux tried to turn, twisting until she was sitting on his lap. She giggled harmlessly, leaning her chin against his shoulder to look at Ajuna. "Hiya."

"...Hi. Are you guys, uh…?" He looked a little sheepish, as if he'd walked in on something he shouldn't have.

"Best friends? Oh yeah. But not like you and me, 'Juna, don't worry." He held out a fist and, apparently recognizing the gesture, the younger child tapped his knuckles to it with a grin. (Fascinating.)

The room was getting noiser, Lux noticed absently, though the smoke had started to filter away (as best it could in Zaun).

"So did you get the stuff?"

"Mmhm. Well, Vi got it, me 'n Jinx just brought it here." Ajuna smiled sheepishly again, holding something with both hands behind his back.

(The two older girls were somewhere off by the door, chatting with a growing crowd of teens and passing something shiny around the group.)

"Well hand it over!"

That would have sounded very rude where Lux came from, but people hardly used 'please' or 'thank you' here. They barely even asked for things. Friendly inflections and bold-faced grins were meant to their message clear. The younger child tossed a tiny jar into the air effortlessly into Ekko's palm.

Lux peered at it skeptically, still couched in the inventor's lap. He wound his arms around her to open the jar, squeezing her playfully, and quickly kissed her cheek before he twisted off the cap. Lux blushed (something she didn't have to fake- she hadn't actually been kissed, before leaving Demacia) and slid onto the couch beside him when he pulled back his arms.

"Aww, don't get all shy on me. C'mere, I'll do you first." He winked in a way that a fourteen year old shouldn't, and Lux thought absently that she might have not caught the joke, a year ago.

"I dunno, Ekko..."

"C'mon, nobody died from it yet! ... And if you did, I'd turn it back. Promise." Oh, right. The reason she was here.

Lux wasn't worried about a bad trip, she wanted to be clear for the mission!

(...but refusing might just as easily jeopardize it, and it did look so cool...)

"Okaaay! Okay. Just a little." She looked shyly through her lashes at him in a carefully practiced way, and stuck her arm out cautiously. He reached with two fingers into the jar (like a miniature version of what the cooks would store their jam in, but this didn't look at all safe to eat...) and took her hand into his, massaging it into her palm like lotion. It glowed faintly as it dissolved into her skin and Lux felt lightheaded, simultaneously watching and trying to unravel the effects. Was there magic in this? It was definitely toxic... What constituted a safe dose?

"You've got to be kidding me! You're thinking too hard again, doofus." Lux glanced away from the boy's hands on hers and found herself staring through a haze of blue at him, colors hanging in the air like the fireworks she'd seen over Piltover.

"Wow, you're really a lightweight, huh?" As he let her go to rub the same strange mixture on his arms, her hand fell into her lap. She felt a very sudden wave of loss, as if he'd slapped her instead of letting go.

"Ekko, wait..." She felt a sob rise in her throat for apparently no reason and reached for him again. His features lit with shock and golden lights crackled around his head (gold, gold and blue, like home, why couldn't she go home?) as the aura around Lux turned purple.

"Hey, hey! It's okay, it's just the shimmer, it does that sometimes. I promise." He grasped her hand in both of his, hope leading first in his expression and then manifesting as green bolts beside his ears. He pulled her in until the strange, dancing lights turned pink and she rested her chin against his shoulder, nevermind the ridiculous dangling earrings that had come with her disguise. "Shh. C'mere. If you start crying, they'll never let you live it down." He whispered, laughing breathily into her ear. She closed her eyes against the blur of colors and felt his pulse against her chest, an entirely unfamiliar euphoria setting in. For the first time since she'd left Demacia, she actually felt happy.

Sure, it was a drug-induced, synthetic kind of happy, but who could tell the difference in this town?

They came back to earth slowly, the last of the party to disburse. Lux had fallen asleep with her lips on the Zaun boy's collar and, when she pulled back, was embarrassed to find a little drool. He woke like a dog, all but leaping off the couch as if he hadn't earned the same vicious headache that Lux did. Maybe it was a tolerance thing? Or maybe he was always this energetic.

Lux, for one, was ready to curl back up on the spot. But she knew she was running short on time- falling asleep hadn't been part of the plan- and if she didn't check in by noon, her handler would think something had happened.

He was belting the target device over his shoulder again, having left it beside him on the couch before they fell asleep. Lux glanced around the room, masking focus with a lazy yawn. "You in some kinda rush?" She slurred the words deliberately, slowly sitting herself up straight. She couldn't afford to spook him now.

"Yeah- I gotta catch up with Ajuna. He's always getting into trouble without me." Ekko grinned again and broke eye contact to do up the buckle.

He really was charming- he'd do so well if she could bring him home. Have him schooled properly, raised in a good home…

"It doesn't really look like he's the one in trouble, now, though."

"Huh?"

She'd barely given Ekko enough time to look back up. The gun she leveled at his chest had been made here. She hadn't dropped her accent. She wasn't supposed to be a Demacian spy- just another no-good, Zaunite thief. Just like all the others in this city. Right? Right.

"It's okay, you can go." Lux tilted her head towards the door, tight, synthetic curls (a pain to do up for this gig, but very "in" this year) bouncing almost comically with the motion. "Just leave the tech, and I'll let you go."

"Woah, Lila... c'mon, you don't even know how to use it." He put on a placating tone, holding his hands out in front of him as if he were approaching a wild thing.

She sort of felt like a wild thing.

"I don't need to know to sell it, pretty boy." It was tough to force the insult through her teeth. All for the show. She was not a Demacian. Not a Demacian!

"...you really think I'm pretty?"

For a second, Lux wasn't sure how to respond. Ekko slapped one hand against the dial on his glove. Lux shot, just once, and her ears started to ring. She watched blood drip through his shirt and then- and then nothing.

No blood, no gunshot, she had seen it but not seen it. It had never happened, but it had, she knew it had, and she was staring dumbfounded at a hole in the wall as the Zaun boy's heel shot out the door.

A month under cover down the drain.

The Demacians were never going to believe this.

"You wouldn't have believed it if you'd seen it, Audric. He was there- I shot him, even, can you believe it? I actually shot someone- and then- poof! Like it never happened! I've never seen magic like it! Isn't that the most amazing thing you've ever heard?"

Lux was pacing around the small, midlevel apartment, shedding pieces of her disguise as she went. An earring flew here, one clipped in extension there. Her hair was losing bulk by the second.

"...you weren't able to retrieve the device, I take it." Her handler was a short, unremarkable man. Perfect in a spy, really. He sounded weary, as if he'd been up all night to wait for her.

...well, he had.

"Well- well, no, not exactly. I'm sure I could have gotten it with magic, but I know that wasn't authorized, and I really did think the gun would be enough." She pulled a lone, ripped-up glove off her left hand (unmanicured for this particular event) and tossed it on the counter. With a sniff of disgust, Audric brushed it into a drawer.

"We've been through this before, Lux- if you aren't sure, simply ask. It would save so much time-"

"I was sure!" The mage frowned. "How was I supposed to know he could walk away from a loaded gun?" She challenged.

"...This would have been an instance where I might encourage you to make chase."

"So I could get a million people involved in a street fight in the middle of the morning?"

Audric sighed heavily, "I am not trying to start an argument with you, Luxanna... What is that on your hand?"

She was sliding several salvaged metal rings off her fingers when he asked. She stopped abruptly.

"...the rings?"

He looked suspicious. "Come here."

Lux glanced sheepishly at Audric. He began to tap his foot. Like a petulant child (not far off- she'd only just turned 14), she trudged across the room.

"Let me see that..." Lux braced herself. "Were you high?!"

His grip on her wrist loosened abruptly as he avoided touching the still… shimmering substance on her palm.

"...it was for the mission." She mumbled sheepishly, still feeling very much like she'd been caught doing wrong.

"When? Before you think you shot the boy?"

"What? No! I wasn't- that isn't fair, Audric, I know what happened." Her face turned red. "That was hours before, I swear!"

It was going to be a long day.