Chapter 7

"So... that's what would've happened?" Jayce asked skeptically, looking at the old, timeless man next to him. Zilean shook his head.

"It already has happened," the timekeeper said. "But you asked me to change it."

"I don't really remember that," Jayce answered, staring down at the glass ball. Caitlyn had died? At that moment, when he'd been watching her walk across to the Noxians, he just wanted to reach into that past and grab her by the arm, away from danger.

"Of course you don't," Zilean answered, "That thread of history has been changed."

In fact, Jayce didn't remember anything at all except waking up in the timekeeper's spare room with one hell of a headache. "So... what happens now?" he inquired. "I don't know when it is, or what occurred."

Zilean turned to face the confused Piltover protector. "Jayce, you're not going to like what you're about to hear," he began cautiously. "It's not easy to change history."

"But at Kalamanda-" he interrupted, suddenly fearful of where Zilean was going with this.

"Stopping time is different," the old man said. "Forcing an entire event not to occur used up most of my abilities. To the point that my life force is being drained."

"Why?" Jayce whispered. Another death on his hands.

"This was my own choice, young one," Zilean replied sternly. "You don't need to feel guilt about this. In the meantime, I'm still alive, but my magic is dwindling quickly. I must give you details of this time before I pass."

Jayce sighed heavily, and then nodded. He wouldn't have Zilean's death be in vain. "Do you know what will happen next?"

He shook his head. "No, the new future is yours to shape. At the moment, we're in a time stasis bubble. I will warn you: I do not know where in the current time thread you will reemerge into."

"You can't control that?" Jayce narrowed his eyes.

"Do you not understand how complex the time-space continuum is?" Zilean suddenly stared into Jayce's eyes with a soul-piercing glare. "I have risked everything for you to make right what is happening in Valoran."

Jayce winced, realizing his insensitivity. "Sorry," he mumbled. "Please continue."

The old timekeeper sighed deeply. "All I know is that you have been captured by the Noxians. More than that, I cannot guarantee. You could be on the road with Diana, or in the hospital with Akali. But the one thing that will not have happened is Caitlyn's death."

Jayce breathed out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "I understand."

"I can feel my time running out," Zilean inhaled deeply. "Please, you must succeed. There will be no redo if you fail."

"I know," Jayce looked him straight in the eye. "For Piltover, for everyone, I won't let Noxus continue with their blasphemous ways."

"Good luck, Jayce," Zilean gave a small smile, until his form starting shimmering and he slowly faded out of sight. At the same time, the room they were in begun dissolving, collapsing around the dying man as his life ended in unison.


Jayce came to in the Noxian High Command room. He groaned and peered at his surroundings, dazed. Jayce was seated in a metal chair, his wrists handcuffed behind his back, his ankles to the front legs of the chair. Looking up, he noticed Swain glaring down at him condescendingly.

"Commander Jayce," he boomed. "You have been charged with munity against the High Command of Noxus. How do you plead?"

"Wait... what?" Jayce looked down at his clothes; he was not wearing his usual jacket and baggy pants, but a Noxian military uniform. "No... no way..."

"You have been caught helping Piltover rebels escape!" Swain yelled, furiously boring into the confused prisoner with his eyes.

Jayce raised his head defiantly. "You know what? You can go eat your own bird shit and die in hell. I regret nothing."

Swain's eyes practically bulged out of his sockets. "Very well, Jayce," he retorted. "The High Command hears your plea of guilty." Lights illuminated the seats next to Swain, and Jayce gasped at the figures there.

Katarina, Draven, Darius, and Talon were there as usual, but the presence of Xin Zhao was unprecedented. So too was Shen, whose steely gaze focused coldly on Jayce. "Your punishment is to spend the rest of your days in The Fleshing arena. As you know, you will be pitted against other warriors until you die. You should find solace in that you're continuing to serve Noxus, despite your betrayal. Guards."

With that, the door banged open, and who else was there to take him to his new home in the gladiator pits than Vi? She wore the usual expression of Noxians; a hostile glare dominated her face, but it was so good to see her alive again that Jayce didn't care. "Wait, you're a guard?" Jayce whispered.

"What the hell, Commander," Vi spat the title with indignation. "I'm the warden. You're the one who got me into this position, remember?" She unlocked Jayce's ankles from the chair surprisingly quickly despite her gauntlets, but kept his handcuffs on his wrists.

"Where's Caitlyn?" he asked her, compliantly allowing himself to be led away.

"What, the head of the Piltover resistance?" Vi spat. "That cupcake sucker will fall into our hands soon enough. She would've already if you hadn't help her escape from Demacia," she shot a murderous glare at him. "If I didn't think you had a shred of manliness in you, I'd say you were crushing on her."

The two of them walked through the dark halls of the High Command palace, until they descended some stairs and came to a huge, bolted metal door. Vi pressed a button on her gauntlet, and the doors slid open to reveal tiny holding cells, each with a door in the front and back. The front one was the usual cage door, but the back one looked like a stone slab that could slide up to reveal another passageway.

As the Vi marched Jayce past the other cells, he noticed the gaunt, haunted look that accompanied most of the prisoners. They looked at him as he passed by, but turned their heads away when he peered at them with curiosity. Finally, they reached the end of the hallway, and Vi pressed a different button on her metal fist, and the door opened.

She shoved him inside roughly, and said, "Listen, Jayce. You're one of the only guys around here that I can respect. The Fleshing? You'll be able to survive it, but sooner or later, they'll have a 'showcase'. You know the ones I'm talking about, the ones where Draven comes in and beats the shit out of you, making you suffer and keeping you alive while the crowd goes wild. You may as well walk up to him and shove his axe into your heart. I don't know why you betrayed us, but it doesn't matter. I just wanted to say that I wouldn't enjoy watching you die."

Jayce chuckled just a bit. "Vi, you've still got more Piltover in you than you think."

She stiffened. "Just because I used to work with Caitlyn... how dare you..." Her demeanor changed so swiftly it was almost instantaneous. She shut his door and refused to look at him again as she headed down the hallway and out the holding cells.


It was as Vi said. Jayce, allowed to wield his hammer (it was more powerful than his original, but at the same time more unstable), easily survived his first few rounds of The Fleshing. One day, however, as the back door to his cell opened and he walked out into the brightly lit arena, there was no one there except him and the crowd. That could only mean...

"Ladies and gentlemen," Vi's voice echoed around the arena. "Say hello to our favorite gladiator, our strongest, most handsome... DRAAAAVEN!"

A wildly loud roar of praise erupted from the stands, as another door on the other side opened, and Draven appeared with his axes raised, grinning broadly and waving to the crowd. "DRAVEN, DRAVEN, DRAVEN," they chanted.

"Oh good, I can kill this asshole again," Jayce muttered. He looked to his right, and a stand rose up with a case. He clicked it open, and grabbed his hammer, glaring at his swaggering opponent. Just as he was about to charge, something clicked in his mind. Something was wrong about the hammer... he glanced down at the arcane crystal-powered drive, and realized just how unstable it was.

Jayce then looked at the arena walls, and realized... everything here is made out of that Icathian stone, he recalled. Prone to... heat. He turned around and began firing blast after blast out of his changed cannon, much to the confusion and hullabaloo of the crowd.

"He can't even aim!" Draven chortled, advancing toward Jayce with his axes whirling.

He paid the executioner no mind, and instead walked up to the wall. Jayce hovered his hand over the spot, and nodded with satisfaction before transforming his weapon into a hammer. With all of his strength, Jayce pounded his hammer against the wall, shattering the crystal within and blowing the entire section away in pieces. A huge cloud of dust billowed from the wreckage, spreading across the arena.

"Wait, he's not allowed to do that!" Draven growled, rushing closer towards his prey. He ran straight into the dust haze, searching in vain for his quarry.

"I don't think so, big boy," came a very welcome voice. Jayce staggered towards it, hardly able to believe that it had worked. As the dust dissipated, Jayce found himself staring at the form of Caitlyn, her mouth turned down in a frown, brow scrunched together with concentration as she aimed her rifle at Draven.

"C-Caitlyn?" Jayce stuttered.

"Not now, Noxian," she replied straightforwardly. "First, to take care of this one." She raised her gun to shoulder height, took aim at the stumbling Draven, and shot. Draven, hearing the blast, threw himself onto the ground, looking around through the residual dirt fog.

"Blast it, you distracted me," she glared at Jayce. He raised both his hands up into the air, feigning submission.

"I'm sorry, my queen," he bowed. "Do let me make it up to you."