***Note: First of all: Thanks to all of you for sticking around and patiently waiting for me to finish this chapter. I had a rough time deciding how this will play out... I hope you like it! Second: I appreciate every review I get. And I heard the cries for smut. This is M-rated for a reason ;-). Third: Thanks again to Soojimasu for Beta-reading and giving constant inspiration and input. Have fun reading! All Characters belong to Riot Games. Blablablayaddayaddayadda***

Chapter 3: Broken

Tristana walked quietly towards the training grounds. The air was brisk, the early morning sun slowly melted the first frost of the year away from the mostly leafless trees. The steady clink of her metal-booted footsteps echoed back from the walls of the buildings lining the relatively small street she was wandering down, casually resting her bazooka on her right shoulder. Bandle was quiet at this time of day, especially on weekends. But there were no holidays for a zealous Megling Gunner and League Champion, so she decided to get some training done while no one else was using the military grounds. Maybe some laps to get warm, some aiming practice and by the time her less experienced colleagues would show up she would already have a serious head start.

Approaching the gate, Tristana frowned. She was just searching her pockets for the entrance key as she saw that the gate was not locked. Did someone forget to lock it last night? No, the last one to leave yesterday was herself. And she was definitely sure to have this gate locked. So this would mean...

Who would have the eagerness to come to train on an early Sunday morning, combined with the guts to risk meeting her here? Everyone knew that she was not at all a morning person. Most yordles knew to retreat on sight from her before 10 am. So who would try to contest her peaceful training time in the morning? Then it dawned on her. There was only one person that she just couldn't and wouldn't slaughter mercilessly.

As she turned around the corner to the cross-country-track she found her suspicion confirmed as a crème-coloured blur bolted around on the obstacle course.

Teemo continued hopping over barrels, sliding under barbed wires and rapidly changing directions. Of course he did not miss on the fact that he was not alone any more, the loud clonk of a large, heavy object being rested against the wall made it more than obvious that Tristana had finally arrived.

Of course Teemo knew better than to react in any way, let alone stop training and go greet her. Getting a gauntlet shoved into his face before his first morning coffee was not really what he was aiming for. Careful not to get sloppy with his reactions, the swift scout started thinking about the annoying rumours about Tristana and him. Yes, they did have some very successful missions together and got paired quite frequently lately, especially for difficult missions. But that was just because he was the best scout Bandle had to offer and her fire power and mobility were unrivalled in the Megling Commandos.

If he was asked how Tristana was like, he always said that she was the one person he would trust on a mission like that. Mainly because that was the only real thing he could say about her. Not that she was a horrible person or something, no... she was just no real person all together. She having a love interest in him was completely out of the question, because Teemo never really saw her out of the training grounds, missions or league matches. "That girl lives for her Bazooka" was the most common thought he had about her.

He couldn't let the public know that she was a gun nerd whose only hobby was training. He was just too polite to say something like that. That's what he thought, at least. Subconsciously it was less of politeness and more of his own secretiveness that made him say those nice sounding but completely empty sentences all the time. Deep down inside himself he was glad about the rumours. They prevented that his true... nature was exposed to all of Valoran.

Tristana had started doing laps a while ago. Annoyed by running circles all the time, glancing over to the cross-country track every once in a while, she saw Teemo leaving the obstacle course and walking towards the rest rooms. She did a little dash and then jogged over to take his place before he could return. Looking over his shoulder, Teemo could see Tristana had started her first of probably many laps around the obstacles. Without his wide smile wavering even once, he thought of how annoying he found her sometimes and then walked right past the toilets to finally get his coffee.

Hours later, Teemo had gone home after a literal bucket of coffee and some blow darts at the shooting range, Tristana had finally finished her "warm-up", as she liked to call it. Just as she walked over to the shooting range, getting excited to finally be able to shoot stuff, which brightened her mood remarkably, she heard someone call out her name. She turned around to see Teemo running towards her.

She smiled and waved, being thankful of him knowing her well enough to let her alone this morning. She really did like him, which was the main cause why she got mad when someone brought up the rumours about them being a couple. For her, this was wishful thinking.

When he was close enough for her to actually see his face, her smile vanished. He looked distressed. Alarmed, even.

Finally he reached her, slightly panting but looking her straight in the eye. No smile. "What's wrong? Didn't you go home some time earlier?" Tristana asked cautiously.

"I was home, preparing some food when a message from HQ came in. There's a blimp on its way here from Piltover. It will reach Bandle tonight."

"A blimp? What's the rush? Who's coming from Piltover who can't afford the 3 days a standard ship takes?"

Teemo shrugged. "Only thing I know is that we are ordered to enable a fast landing and a transport from the landing spot to somewhere in central Bandle. No more intel on that."

Tristana frowned deeply. "So why did you have to let me in on this so urgently?"

"Because we will be the ones responsible for the transport. We should report to HQ right away to get more information on this. We have to know where we're going, after all!" Teemo allowed his smile to return for a moment. "You ready to go?"

"Do I have a choice?" Without waiting for an answer she turned around and jogged away towards the Headquarters.

Teemo stood there for a second, wondering if she just didn't care or if she really was so dense that she didn't see what this was. The fastest way from Piltover to Bandle. A transport from the landing spot to somewhere in central Bandle. As fast as possible, but absolutely safe. There were no political problems between the two city-states. There was only one possible reason for someone to be rushed from the City of Progress to Bandles centre. How could she not see that?

Piltover, 2 days earlier_

Heimerdinger hurried down the white corridors towards the intensive care unit. He had to see this himself. He always needed to make sure of things himself. When his personal assistant had told him what was going on he took off instantly to get here and see with his own eyes.

He stopped in front of the door. Taking one deep breath, he opened it and stepped in. Some humans were lying in beds, wired to machines that beeped just a bit too loud. In the far corner of the wide room, a bed held something else. Heimerdinger trembled a bit, walking silently towards the bed. Connected to various machines, a drip slowly infusing something into his right arm, an oxygen mask over his muzzle, was an unconscious Ziggs.

A doctor stepped next to Heimerdinger. "Can I help you with something, Mr. Heimerdinger?" "What is wrong with our Dean of Demolitions? My last piece of information was that he reported sick about a week ago. I sent someone to look after him yesterday, just to get him back to work. He tried fake illnesses once or twice in his time at the academy…"

"To be completely honest with you: we do not know what happened to him. He has an extreme fever and is heavily weakened. He is nearly comatose most of the time, but sometimes he has fits and mumbles unconnected words."

"Words like..?" Heimerdinger asked, curiously.

"We couldn't really understand. A nurse is quite sure she heard 'Bandle' and 'Sorry'. And we had the impression that he sometimes cries in his sleep. We couldn't make sure, though, because he gets extremely violent when someone tries to take off his goggles for some reason. We tried it only once. He bit a nurse in the arm so hard he drew blood and then blared something along the lines of 'don't take him from me!'."

Heimerdinger's mind was racing. He processed everything the doctor had said, but there was one thing missing... "What is his perspective?"

The doctor said nothing at first, looking at the yordle in the bed. He looked so small, so vulnerable. "I can't say too much about that. But one thing is sure: as long as we can't find what makes him ill we can't do anything. And we have already tried anything that makes remotely any sense. Believe it or not: medicinally, this yordle is completely well."

Heimerdinger just looked at the doctor, thinking about what he just heard. "Doctor, do you think there is any possibility to get him to Bandle Central?"

"The hospital in Bandle?" The human looked at a sheet of paper. "I don't think he could take a 3-day ship cruise to Bandle."

Heimerdinger looked a bit shocked. He would never have imagined that it would be so bad already. "But you probably can't help him here. How long do you think the trip could be for him to not..." The old yordle's voice crackled. He couldn't say it. He had to do anything in his power to make Ziggs well again.

Then it hit him. "A blimp! The Academy is currently working on faster versions of blimps. We could use one if the prototypes and bring Ziggs to Bandle central in about 18 hours! Would that be fast enough? He needs his home. He needs doctors specialized on yordle medicine."

"I'm not entirely sure, but 18 hours might be fast enough. Provided that we could take as much medical machinery with us as he is currently strapped on. And it's hard to admit, but we can't do any more than we already did here." the doctor said with a slight nuance of spite in his voice. He didn't really dislike yordles in general, this Heimerdinger was just getting on his nerves. But he was right; the only real way of saving Ziggs was getting him to Bandle. They left the room shortly after, hurrying their ways to prepare the transport of the Dean of Demolitions.

Bandle, today_

"To Bandle Central? It's a transport of a sick person? Why would anyone come from Piltover to Bandle of all places to get better medical treatment?" Tristana basically shouted at the secretary who was in charge. Teemo stood behind her and didn't change his facial expression at all.

"Please calm yourself, ma'am. Let me give you every detail first!" the secretary replied coolly, emphasizing the word ma'am just enough to make it a tiny bit offensive. Teemo secretly admired how fearless this person was to put the volatile Megling Gunner in her place like that.

After hearing all the details, Teemo's normally everlasting smile slipped a second time that day. Ziggs being in a condition Piltover's finest medics couldn't even understand was even worse than anything he had imagined beforehand. Tristana turned around to face him. "We have to tell Rumble!"

"What? Why?" Teemo was now seriously confused.

"He and Ziggs were best friends before Ziggs left. He needs to know about this condition or he will never forgive us if he couldn't help! What if something happened? He would blame us forever! Did you forget that encounter 3 weeks ago?" Tristana explained.

No, Teemo remembered. Rumble standing on the cliff over the Junkyard, staring at it forever. Tristana insisting on checking on him despite Teemo's doubts. The tear strands on Rumble's face. Tristana telling him all she knew about Rumble afterwards. "I see your point. Then we have no time to spare. You go check on his workplace, I don't know exactly where that is. But I know his apartment building. Let's split and get him to a meeting at the hospital, I'd say. We have to clarify some things with the staff there, anyway."

And so they departed. Tristana rushing through the busy city centre towards the industrial quarters, Teemo hurrying towards the district where Rumble lived. Tristana reached Rumble's workplace first. She listened closely. No sound came from inside. She knocked at the door, shouting out his name. It was locked. She peered through one of the small, dirty windows. The workshop looked like it hadn't been used in a while. What would Rumble do other than tinker around on his mech? She had a really bad feeling about this now.

Teemo reached the door to Rumble's apartment. "Rumble? It's me, Teemo! We need to talk!" He knocked on the door. It swung open. Why would someone leave his door open? Cautiously, Teemo stepped in. "Rumble?" The air was bad, too warm and smelled of sweat and faeces. "This is bad... What's going on here?" Teemo thought. The door to the bedroom stood ajar. Slightly scared now, Teemo sneaked over and knocked again, peeking through the entrance. "Rumble..? RUMBLE!" Teemo's face slipped a third time that day and turned to a grimace as he saw him. That moment, he heard Tristana call out for him. "Tristana! Up here! I need your help RIGHT NOW!"

Somewhere above the ocean, a shiny blimp hovered away from Piltover. It was packed with as much medical equipment as possible, a doctor, a pilot and a severely ill yordle. Ziggs mumbled into his oxygen mask. It was only one word over and over again. But the engines were too loud for anyone else to hear. Ziggs clutched the goggles that someone had taken off of his face and had put it on his chest. His fever-ridden mind clutched them as well. The memory of a happy, smiling Rumble, giving him a box for his 18th birthday. Ziggs opening it and found a pair of elaborately manufactured goggles in it. He looked up from them and just stared into the golden eyes of his best friend. "So you can properly look at explosions!" Rumble laughed. Ziggs instantly hugged him tightly. He hadn't taken off these goggles since.