A/N: obviously, I shifted around some people's locations at the time of the starting changed scene (most notably Jinx not being in the same room while hiding in the roof), but everyone was close to where they were in canon, maybe up to an hour earlier or later. The two shimmer addicts at the end are a weird personal thing that I'll keep adding to the end. Feel free to ignore them.
--
The Enforcer was panicking, and trying to stifle that panic by brutalizing the Undercity dwellers around him. Grabbing a random prostitute by the neck, yelling at her to get back in her home and stop disrupting order in spite of having done nothing, it was the type of thing that made people hate Enforcers, that made people hate Vander for trying to work with them, that made Silco hate having to show them mercy in order to keep his little kingdom safe. Well, that mercy hadn't kept him safe, had it?
The distorted drawing of Silco's face on the nearby wall letting Jinx no how much he appreciated her, and imploring her to not make the same mistakes that he had, more than confirmed it. So, she pulled out a grenade. She called it Harold. Harold fell to the ground, too far away to actually kill the Enforcer, but more than close enough to knock him and the random woman he was harassing to the ground. Leaping to the same ground, Jinx grabbed the downed man and smashed the butt of a pistol into his forehead. "Why did you do it?" She asked. "Do what?" He shouted back, but Jinx knew full well that Silco's death was the single most important thing in the world and therefore the thing that everyone knew about. Anyone trying to talk about anything else was obviously lying, just as this man was obviously lying about not knowing about the plan to kill her father. His other face, the purple one that was much uglier than his normal one, more than confirmed it. Because we could. Because he was a threat. Because he was strong. A real man of Zaun. Unlike you.
So while the Enforcer's more human-looking face, the 'real' one as everyone else called it for some reason, expressed only confusion at her accusations, she glared at the purple one, felt its mockery and callous disregard for the most important man in the world's life, and bashed both faces in, again and again and again. Pretty soon his 'real' face was just as purple as his honest one, and then it turned more red and gooey. The prostitute was screaming. "I know who you are! Get away from me, you psycho!" She didn't like that word. Sevika had called her that before, but she could get away with it because she was important to Silco. This woman wasn't. Silco's face practically confirmed it as he merely frowned in her direction. So, Jinx shot her. There was no need to be brutal here, after all.
--
Viktor really did not want to spend what could very well be his last moments listening to political bullcrap. Even in his short life, he had seen enough politicians, worked for enough politicians, to full know full well that they didn't change anything. It was through science that real progress was made, and he really wished that his old friend would remember that. But no, Jayce had to spend their time together, barely any time at all after learning that his days were numbered without a major breakthrough in Hextech, telling him about how Councilor Whatshisname wanted to do this or that to the Undercity and how he was going to word his messaging to the populace and how they might have to restrict research on Hextech until they could be certain that it couldn't be used for weapons…that last one caught Viktor's attention.
"What are you saying, Jayce? You think you're saving the Undercity when you're talking about…". "Just temporarily, until the political situation dies down…" "The political situation will never die down! Hatred between the Council and the Lanes was there when I was young, and will be there long after I die, which I might remind you might not be that far away!" Jayce was taken aback, looking over his friend's condition. "You're right, we can't stop it, but we do have to control it." Viktor sighed. "Control what? Are you letting Heimedinger's fears get to you? People can kill each other just fine without science, and I don't see why we should stop ourselves from curing the problems politics creates. How many has the Council killed? Do we ever consider banning them until further research can be conducted?" Jayce seemed genuinely confused by this line of questioning. Was Viktor's friend really this naive? Refusing to believe or dwell on that, Viktor instead went ahead with a recent insight, "it wasn't intentional, but when I bled on the runes, they reacted. I think we can do more work with organic matter."
Jayce looked like he wanted to say no, to put a stop to this. Was this really the kid who once snuck into a lab and stood up to two Councilors to prove that theories held water? What made him such a coward? Luckily, he didn't say no. "Remember to rest, Viktor. This disease is no reason to kill yourself early." Having no intention of doing so, he waved off his agreement.
--
When Vi had asked what those street rats had meant about Silco's place blowing up, they were more than happy to let her know. It meant that Silco's place had blown up. Vi had thought that she was ready to see this place again, to see anything outside her prison cell, really, but staring at the smoking ruins of what was once the Last Drop, was once her home, it did things to her. Things that required an inordinately tight grip on the nearby railing to deal with, as her breath grew rapid, her heartbeat rose, and everything she remembered about the place assaulted her mind at once. Growing up, seeing her parents die, being taken in by Vander, being raised by Vander, learning about life from Vander and every act of kindness, being betrayed by Vander when she learned that he actually made deals with the Enforcers, seeing Vander die, blaming Powder, slapping Powder, strangling Powder…Caitlyn showed you the picture of the drawing,Vi thought, Powder's still alive. You can fix things. Unless she was in the Last Drop when it just…but no, she refused to accept that possibility.
"Are you alright?" Caitlyn asked. "I won't pretend to be good with these sorts of things, but if you think talking about it will help…". "Thanks, cupcake, but this is something I have to deal with. Now, do you remember what else they told us, about where to find Silco's right-hand woman, the 'sane one,' whatever they meant by that? Because I doubt whoever's doing damage control here is going to let us anywhere near that place, and I think she's our best bet." Caitlyn rubbed her chin in thought. "Well, if her boss just exploded, then I doubt she's playing cards at the usual spot. In fact, I would suspect that she would want to contact as many of her associates as possible and try to bring some order to a chaotic situation. So, it seems to me that we should be investigating wherever several big shots are suddenly meeting." "Hmm, not bad, cupcake."
--
The very last thing Sevika needed was another complication. With the day she had been having thus far, that of course meant that the next bit of news she heard about was potential Firelight activity. "Give them a false lead. Make a target for them far away from the chem barons," she ordered some men that had come into Silco's employ with her and thus she knew she could trust. Well, mostly, but that was better than anyone else. Hoping that they could accomplish that, she invited Renni into their little impromptu room and had her take a seat.
"What's going on, Sevika? The entire Undercity seems to be in a panic." "Silco had some secretive meeting with the Enforcer's sheriff and now his office is a smoking ruin. I've got some people picking through the wreckage to find out if he's dead or alive, and some others trying to keep any would-be onlookers out, and we need to figure out what to do if the worst comes to pass without making him angry if it turns out that the worst didn't come to pass." "Why me?" "Because Finn is an idiot and none of the others have your ambition. So how about it? Are you ready to act as the temporary leader of the chem barons until our illustrious leader recovers from his little accident?" Renni's eyes narrowed. "Will the others accept me? I don't want a bigger target painted on my back. I definitely don't want a target on my son's back." Always with the damn children, she thought, how much could have been avoided if Silco just let the girl die on that fateful day? And now I have another would-be doting parent…"you'll have to make them accept you. I will have your back, which should help." She was clearly suppressing her nerves, but ultimately going along with Sevika's suggestions. Good. Hopefully the woman could stop a baron war.
"Did Silco leave any methods for keeping the chem barons in line? Anything that could help me deal with them?" Sevika thought about it, but could only think of two things, one of which Renni already knew about and the other probably being useless. "He would remind them of everything he'd already done for them, and how much he could take away. Maybe he'd even try to appeal to their 'Zaunish' patriotism, hell if I'd know. He also kept a bunch of canisters of air from the worst parts of the fissures," Sevika shrugged in response to Renni's clear confused look. "He had some spiel planned; you know him, he could make the craziest suggestion sound reasonable, like he was doing you a favor when he stabbed you in the back. If you think you know what was going through his mind, then be my guest, but I doubt that it will help." "Bring them to me," Renni told her after a few seconds of thought. "I can't figure it out either, but it's better to have a gun you don't fire then need a gun and have nothing." "Reasonable. Now, we have to think about what we're going to do after the barons are in line. I still don't know what happened, but I saw one of the uniforms. An Enforcer, maybe even the damn sheriff, died in that explosion." Renni, who had just about gotten to the point where her nervousness was under control, let her face drop again. "We'll need someone to blame. What about that Jinx girl? If Silco is really gone, then we can finally stop entertaining her…" glad that Renni came to the same conclusion that Sevika did on her own (as much as she despised it, the rise of Zaun was supposed to prevent the need for things like this), a misconception had to be cleared up. "If Silco is dead. If. We don't want to be too hasty." Sheepishly, Sevika added, "also, I don't know where she is."
--
Ekko got word that Silco had made the explosion to cover his escape from some uppity chem baron and was now hiding out in a barely secured new shimmer plant, alone, vulnerable, and with a month for a district's supply of that damn drug. It was the most convenient situation Ekko had ever heard of. After years of fighting for a better life for the Fissure folk, he knew full well when something was too convenient. Knowing that Silco had a lot of emotional attachments to the Last Drop, he thus knew that the man wasn't going to blow it up just for an elaborate trap to catch some Firelight bugs. Something had genuinely gone wrong, and now this story had been made up to keep Ekko and his followers from exploiting that fact. He was somewhat impressed at how quickly they set it all up.
"Well, then," Ekko smiled at the informant. "This operation is too big to put in one man's hands. I'll have some of my boys here check it out, and you can go with them." His eyes opened wide like he had just gotten a brilliant idea. "Hey, why don't I have Ian over here," pointing out one of the Firelights, "pretend that he found out you were a traitor, and that we're bringing you out to show Silco's men what would happen if they tried to pretend to be on our side and led us into an ambush. It will be so much more intimidating than going for stealth, and, after all, he isn't protected, right?" Ekko put a hand on the informant's shoulder. "Don't worry, of course, we're just putting you in the position where it looks like you'll be handled as a traitor. Since you're not leading us into an ambush, the threat won't really be carried out. It's just a silly little psychological game to play with any future spies."
Ian nodded in understanding and held a gun to the informant's back as he asked the man to lead the way. It was disappointing. He really didn't like using violence to get his way, but Piltover's Enforcers and Silco's goons had forced his hand way too many times to let such silly sentimentalities hinder him. Dismissing that thought, he put his hand on his chin and started to ponder where he should be going. Clearly somewhere far away from where the man had tried to lead them. Furthermore, the chem barons would certainly be trying to find out what happened, assuming they didn't already know, which would probably mean an emergency meeting, and considering how little Silco's supposed band of 'Zaun nationalists' actually lived among the poor people they claimed to rightfully rule over, enough that they could avoid the problems Fissure folk suffered from the mere location of their existence, it would have to be somewhere up high, where the air was less polluted. Clean air, higher up, comfortable, large enough to hold all the chem barons, while also being secure and out of the way. Narrowing it down to two possible locations, he gathered the followers who hadn't gone with Ian and leapt onto his hoverboard.
--
Deivid hadn't become an Enforcer for the 'right' reasons. He hadn't originally joined the force because he wanted to protect the city and safeguard the rule-of-law. He had become an Enforcer because he didn't do well in academics, was great in physical pursuits, and thought it might be something he could be good at. Thus, it shocked him, not when he saw the bribes and the excessive brutality, because on some level he had been expecting that, but when he realized how much it disgusted him. He hadn't done this for the right reasons, but had anyone else? Hell, had anyone not joined for even worse reasons? But he said nothing, feeling sick as he escorted his boss, the sheriff, into the Undercity, then went to 'search the general area' while Sheriff Marcus 'looked into an important matter.' And now he was standing over a smoking ruin of a building, fighting with 'respected staff' (read: goons) of the establishment trying to stop him from doing his job before they could do their own investigation.
Had he had his companions beside him, this would have already been resolved, but no, apparently he was the only one to react to the explosion who lived (that tattered, burnt Enforcer's uniform was something he already felt would haunt him), and now he had to deal with Undercity dwellers with a chip on their shoulders in regards to Enforcers trying to stop him from doing his job. "Listen, citizens, I just want to know what happened. Sheriff Marcus was present at the location of the blast…" "And you can have your investigation once we find out what happened to our loved ones! You Enforcers don't get to do whatever you want!" Some non-human screamed. "Yeah," another sneered, "and if he was at the center of that blast, you're not going to find him. Kabooms like that don't leave much to find."
That was exactly what he was afraid of, and why he was so frustrated that these Fissure freaks wouldn't let him look. That earlier tattered uniform hadn't looked like his, but then Deivid saw the bit of cloth, with the markings of the Sheriff, fluttering calmly on the side of a bit of rubble. He was most definitely in the explosion. It would be silly to think he was still alive. Deivid knew that he had to let topside know about this immediately, but he still had no idea what had actually happened. Why did Sheriff Marcus get blown to smithereens? Did the gangs attack? But then why would they destroy their own hideout? Was it inter-gang warfare? Who should be punished for this? "Alright, you goons, if this is how you want to play it, then I'm coming back with a lot more Enforcers who are going to be a lot less nice than I am." That did seem to concern them, but the sight of the person they were trying to intimidate into going away, well, going away made it hard for them to be anything but gleeful.
--
Deivid didn't have to wander for too long before he ran into another Enforcer, but not one that could help him. The man's face wasn't in a state to help anyone. "What the hell…" he asked out loud, quickly giving his deceased co-worker a once-over. Identifying him as Harald, the bastard who always cheated when they played cards, he noted the details of the murder and filed it away as another massively important thing to report to Headquarters. A woman had been shot next to him that he didn't recognize at all. He really needed to find the nearest communications hub, especially when he stumbled on another dead Enforcer's body, this one covered in purple and blue spray paint. You'll all pay, it unhelpfully informed him.
Enough was enough. He couldn't just 'report' today's activities and let the higher-ups handle it. Something had to be done, and fast. The situation in Undercity had been allowed to fester for far too long, and while he intended to be the good little Enforcer and file everything to the proper authorities, he had no intention of sitting back and let them stonewall and mutter and ultimately do nothing again. If his next word to headquarters didn't result in immediate action, then he was going to take matters into his own hands.
--
Jinx, after thinking about it, realized that Silco obviously wasn't dead. Besides the fact that she was still talking to him regularly, which didn't prove anything as Milo and Claggor still sometimes felt the need to tell her things after having been dead for so long, she had kept up the regular injections. So long as she did that right, he wouldn't leave her. He had promised. Unlike Vi, he kept his promises. Unless he was dead like Vi. But that would make him another promise-breaker.
What about Sevika? She thought. The woman respected Silco, in spite of being so annoying and naggy in virtually every other way, so she had to be doing something about his death, right? Not death, he promised. Well, she had to want to know where he was hiding too, right, and thus she stopped on her quest to single-handedly exterminate every single Enforcer in the city and went to find some of her men. Before she could see any of them, however, she noticed some Firelight being led by a homeless man. It was a pretty silly sight. The stronger person with the gun should be doing the leading.
Now, she was confused. Claggor reminded her that Silco would want to know about any Firelight activity in his territory, and wouldn't she want to show him how much of a strong and good girl she was whenever he actually came out of hiding? Milo told her that finding Silco should be her highest priority, not dealing with whatever local gang issue had arisen. Silco would want her to prioritize. Fending off another of the headaches that had become all too common since her father's death (going into hiding), she decided that Claggor was orange and Milo was blue, so she was going to listen to Milo today and leave the pair alone, until they spoke up.
"You're sure you can lead me to where Silco's hiding?" The Firelight didn't really sound like he believed the man, but Jinx really wasn't concerned about body language right now. "I told you," orange Claggor shouted in pride. "Of course," the man was sweating and shaking as he said it. He should be, as he had apparently betrayed Silco, and everyone knew what happened to traitors. Nothing good. Sometimes it was Jinx herself that happened to them. If I follow them, I can find where Silco is hiding, then I can show him how strong I was in his absence!
--
Unbeknownst to one another, Caitlyn, Vi, and Ekko all had the same thoughts in regard to the sight of the chem barons' secret meeting place. It was shockingly unsubtle. One of the tallest buildings in the Undercity, with that strange green glow that almost screamed that something evil was going on inside, the first of the three wondered how the Enforcers had never investigated the place while the third wondered why they never managed a hit there. Vi was completely unsurprised that power players in the Lanes could be so abashedly unsubtle in their crimes and get away with it, so she invested her mental energy to finding a way to sneak in. Caitlyn did get to the point where she could follow along, while Ekko eventually came to the same conclusion, once more absolutely unaware of the other two's existence, nonetheless their identical thoughts.
--
Two shimmer addicts sat on a street corner, knowing that begging would get them nowhere and thus ready to begin one of their favorite pastimes, debating political philosophies that they had no ability to enact. "Do you think they wanted Silco gone, upstairs?" "Yes, of course, but they didn't do it. It seems to be some random terrorist. Or maybe an Enforcer who grew a conscious at the last moment." They both shared a chuckle at the absurdity of that last possibility. "You think these things are random?" "What, do you believe the conspiracy theorists that there's some massive, secretive group is in charge of everything?" "Of course, except that they aren't secretive at all. We call them the elites, the only mistake most people make is assuming the elites in Piltover, Zaun, Noxis, and whatever other country you can name aren't working in lockstep." "You're being silly. They're not competent enough to do that. Listen, my friend, I will tell you the truth. The world isn't run by an all-powerful secret tyranny. No, it's the exact opposite, we secretly live under anarchy. No one in charge can stop the insanity of the world, and all of these laws and political maneuvers are just attempts we take to avoid facing the true horrors of that reality. You could have the best laid plan, and then have everything screw up at the last second because of some random lunatic who stabbed a key piece in a random rage." "That's a cope; if it were truly random, then how come the same people keep benefiting over and over again? Order flows from the top down, and we can feel it crushing us." "Order comes from people trying to control their own lives." Looking at his shriveled arms, he noted, "look where trying to do that got me." The other, whose health was in an equally miserable state, could only agree to that last sentiment. "You think that this was a freak accident, while I don't think there are accidents. We'll have to see how things play out, I suppose."