Disclaimer: I obviously do not own anything from Harry Potter or League of Legends. Everything involved is the property of their creators. I am simply humble writer attempting to further his skills with worlds and characters that he loves.

Part Two - An Unfortunate Fall

Ten Years Later

The streets of Piltover were bustling with activity as three people struggled to make their way back to the residential districts. After a lot of pushing, prodding, and no small amount of apologies for stepping on toes, Jayce, his younger brother Hadrian, and his new friend Caitlyn managed to escape the mass of shoppers in the market district to Crossroad Boulevard. It was a patch of street located directly at the bridge gate with three separate directions leading out. One obviously led to the market, another to the bridge that led to Zaun, and the last to the residential district where if Hadrian was lucky, his mother had not noticed his absence.

She didn't like him leaving the house without her or another grownup with him. Internally he huffed. Jayce was practically a grown up already so being out with him should be fine. By the gods he had made it into the academy three years before the average applicant! He didn't know what that meant exactly, or why it was important, but it made his mother smile so he was proud of his elder brother.

As they walked he gave a shy glance to the girl with dark blue hair walking beside them with arms as laded as their own. Caitlyn was the daughter of the wealthy noble family that had sponsored Jayce into the academy. She was young, curious about the world, and had started up a friendship with her families new sponsoree almost immediately. Unknown to her however, she had also gained the crush of the boy's younger sibling.

Regardless, that morning Jayce had decided he wanted to start working on a new experiment and needed fresh supplies. Thus he had gone to his sponsors to requisition the funds necessary for the purchases. Hadrian, as always, stuck to his brother like glue. When they arrived at the massive mansion and got the bill of credit Caitlyn had insisted on tagging along. She wanted a chance to see the city without her parents or guards clouding the experience as she was sure they always did.

After that they'd made their way to the market, made the purchases, and arrived in the here and now.

"Jayce?" Hadrian puffed under the weight of so many bags. "How much longer until we get home?"

The boy in question, close to a man now, glanced down at his beloved younger brother and saw how much stress he was in. He should have noticed sooner, or taken more bags before the boy could grab them. Hadrian was only eleven after all. Immediately he stopped, put his bags down and sat on the curb, patting the spot next to him. "Why don't we take a break Hadrian? I sure could use one. How about you?"

The younger boy smiled, but tried to brush it off. He never wanted his big brother to see him as a burden. If that happened he might stop letting him tag along with him. "I mean if you're tired then sure." He shrugged and immediately fell into place beside Jayce. He blushed lightly when Caitlyn took the seat next to him. Hadrian didn't know why the older girl made him feel the way he did. There was just something about her. She was only a couple years older than him, yet seemed so wise. And her curiosity drove his own to shame. In a way she awed him. Perhaps that was it?

"So…" he said to break the silence (Hadrian hated silence) "What's this experiment for Jayce?"

The older boy smiled and pointed to the matching stone inlaid wristbands the two of them wore. "I've discovered that these rocks give off a level of energy that matches no other source we have. I think it's magic."

Hadrian gasped with wonder, and Jayce grimaced internally. He and his mother had never told him where he came from or the events of that day in the snow. They figured it would be better to wait until he was older. "My experiment will monitor and try to recreate that energy. I hope that over time I'll discover a way to use it to enhance the lives of all our citizens, from Piltover and Zaun." Seeing he had the attention of both his companions now he raised his hands for dramatic effect. "Just imagine it! The tools, the medicine, all the ways life could be improved when powered by magic. That is what this experiment will hopefully provide."

Caitlyn had a contemplative look on her face. "This sounds like a lot. How long will the experiment last?"

This question caused a visible deflation in their defacto leader. "It's probably going to take years. But good science always takes time. The trick is to make sure it's time well spent."

Hadrian wasn't quite sure he understood everything the other two were talking about but he nodded his head anyway. Beyond anything else he knew his brother was smart, so if he said something it was probably true. Suddenly a commotion began behind them at the gate. There was smoke, and cracks sounding off, and screams. Something was happening on the bridge. Something bad. It was all making Hadrian a little uneasy, but Jayce was curious, and so was Caitlyn. Everything happening was so different from what she experienced behind the walls of her home after all. The two looked at each other, nodded, and took off toward the commotion.

"Come on Hadrian!" Jayce called, "Let's see what's happening."

The boy jumped quickly to his feet and raced after his brother. Sure he was scared by what he was hearing but if his big brother thought it was safe enough to get closer who was he to think otherwise. So together they ran through the gate, onto the bridge, and into the smoke. The screams were louder here, as were the now unmistakable sounds of combat and gunfire. Jayce had thought it was just another protest from the citizens of Zaun about their living conditions but now he could see it was a full on assault.

He knew they needed to get back but with all the smoke and chaos it was impossible to see the way. So he grabbed Hadrian's and Caitlyn's hands. picked a direction at random and ran. He ran for what seemed like hours, but was probably just minutes but finally the smoke began to thin and he could finally see the gate they had just left. He put on a final burst of speed, only to trip over a body that just seemed to appear out of nowhere. His momentum carried him over to the rail, Caitlyn fell over and hit her head enough to daze her, but worst of all, his speed combined with his grip and sudden stop sent his brother over the edge! As the boy screamed he tightened his grip for all he was worth, trying to haul him up. He couldn't do it though. He had spent the last several years in academia instead of in the family forges. He didn't have the strength to pull up his brother with only one hand, and he needed the other to hold his own place on the rail.

Below, his brother's luminescent green eyes pleaded with him, "Jayce!" he yelled, "Jayce please! Pull me up!"

Tears fell from the older boy's eyes at the desperation he could literally feel rolling off of Hadrian, and at his own helplessness. "I can't!" He yelled back, and suddenly a light source caught his eyes. An enforcer was running toward him, helmet light blaring and he had seen them. With fresh hope and a smile he turned back to the younger boy. "Just hold on Hadrian! Just a little longer!" He truly believed that the enforcer would be their salvation. Sadly he was only partially right.

The Zaunites were climbing the barricades and moving at speed. Enforcer Bran had been sent back to close the city gate as a last line of defense in case those barricades fell completely. As such he didn't have time to stop. But he saw to children that were clearly from the upper city and made a decision. Without slowing down he scooped up the girl, grabbed the boy around the waist, and ran as hard as he could toward the lights of Piltover.

The last thing Jayce saw before the railing covered his view was the look of utter betrayal in his brother's eyes as his hand seemingly pulled away from him. Hadrian had fallen into the abyss, and it was all his fault.

THE NEXT DAY

Silco wasn't exactly sure why he was trudging through the deeps of the Zaun caverns. He had been having a rather uneventful morning of seeing to the enforcement of his territory and assigning different people to be assassinated when the strong urge to take a walk had fallen on him. Now here he was in the middle of nowhere. A place so deep that the light of day could not penetrate. He could only see by the light of a small flash stick clipped onto his blazer.

Dimly he wondered if that was why he'd come here. He had been on the bridge the day before. Standing shoulder to shoulder with his brothers and sisters as they tried to force their way across the bridge to Piltover. For generations they had been told that they were citizens of the same country, but they never got to enjoy any of its benefits. If they could not have that then they deserved independence. They only wanted their piece of the pie.

In his mind the battle was not over. Vander had lost his stomach in the carnage and pulled his people back too soon. Silco slammed a fist into the stone wall beside him in rage. They could have won. The enforcers were wavering, the barricade had almost fallen. One last push and they could have had their freedom, but no. Vander had to fall on his conscience. As powerful as Silco's forces were he knew they couldn't win on their own so he too had been forced to abandon the field.

It was as these thoughts were swirling in his mind that Silco became aware of something strange. There was another light source, not even twenty feet away. He quickly extinguished his own to see it more clearly, and when he did he began to run. The light was a swirling mass of arcane fire surrounding a young child that couldn't have been more than eleven, and he was hurt. Blood completely coated the right side of his face. The fire was keeping him suspended five feet or so from the ground.

When he finally arrived in a flurry of fear and worry Silco didn't know what to do. Magic was clearly at work here and as skilled as he was at most things, the kingpin was no mage.

He needn't have worried The moment he was underneath the child the light gave out and dropped him. The older gangster fell to his knees as he caught the poor boy in an effort to keep him from any further harm. Once he had him he was able to look him over. The child had unruly black hair, a jagged scar that bridged the right side of his hairline to the top of his nose, and blood was pooling from a new scar that crossed his right eyebrow over the eyelid into his cheek. In that brief overview Silco was able to sum up three things about the child. First, aside from the wound to his eye he seemed otherwise uninjured. Second, the wound was fresh so he must have gotten it within the last twenty four hours. He looked up and came to his third conclusion. The boy was on the bridge with them. He must have marched for freedom as they had and either fallen or been pushed. He probably hit his head on a rock on the way down, causing the new wound.

It was as these thoughts were flowing through his mind that the boy opened his eyes and took the older man's breath away. The left eye was a green so luminescent that it appeared to be glowing. The right however was another story. Something about the injury must have permanently damaged the cornea because his iris was blood red while the whites had turned black. It was startlingly similar to his own eye and the damage that Vander had given it.

He said nothing, just stared back up at the strange man before him. It got to the point of being rather awkward, seeing as he was a grown man holding a child in his lap, but damn it he was worried for the kid's health. "Who are you child? What happened to you?" He asked softly.

In response panic finally started to settle into the child's face. He began to hyperventilate, so Silco pulled him into a tight hug. "Breath. That's it, just breath child. Do it with me if that helps, listen to my breathing. In. Out. In. Out." This continued for a few minutes until the mystery boy settled down again. Then he actually spoke.

"I don't know sir." the boy said as he clutched his head in apparent pain. "I can't remember. I know my name is Hadrian. I remember… a face? I think?" He frowned. "He was holding me over the railing of a bridge and he dropped me." His lip began to tremble at those words and he looked into the strange man's eyes. "Who was he mister? Why did he drop me?" The hardened gangster felt his heart go out to the boy. It sounded much like he had been betrayed as he himself once had been. And more than likely he was alone now, again as he had been.

"I can't say for sure young Hadrian. I didn't see it happen. But do you remember anything else? Who your parents are? Where you live?"

The boy shook his head in the negative and Silco sighed. He'd found this boy, so in the end he was his responsibility. He stood back up and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Would you like to come with me then? I have food back home and I'm willing to share."

Hadrian smiled up at the man with the strange eye. "You seem like a nice person mister, and I don't know where else to go, so sure. By the way, what's your name?"

"Silco. Call me Silco."