Silco, Sevika, and Powder rode the carriage in an uncomfortable silence that was periodically punctuated by the sound of the wheels on the uneven Undercity cobblestone roads.
Powder was sitting next to Silco, holding her stuffed rabbit and leaning on his left arm. She was looking with apprehensive curiosity at Sevika who sat across from them. Clearly a question was on her mind but she dared not ask yet.
Sevika was staring out the window moodily, leaning on her good arm – the other hanging limp at her side, hidden beneath a cheap poncho. She could see Powder's faint reflection in the window and the girl's stare was starting to get on her nerve. With a look of annoyance on her face, she turned back to face Powder.
"What are you looking at?" said Sevika rather aggressively, intimidating the girl and making her instinctively lean further into Silco's arm.
"Now, now." said Silco patronizingly. "Be nice, Sevika." His tone and eyes suggested it was an order, not a suggestion. To help clear the air, he changed the subject. "How's your new arm?"
"Hmph." Sevika didn't answer and went back to looking out the window. Truth be told she was relieved she didn't wake up with some abomination attached to her. But it wasn't her style to voice her pleasant surprise at the metallic arm she'd been gifted. Singed assured her the functionality and responsiveness would improve with time as well, and even promised to teach her how to maintain it herself. It'd taken all her effort to not sound too grateful when she thanked the doctor, and she wasn't about to repeat that with Silco, especially since they tricked her in the first place.
"Can I see?" blurted out Powder eagerly, no longer able to hold back.
Sevika turned again and considered saying something rude, but seeing the look on Silco's face she reconsidered. With an annoyed sigh she pulled back the poncho covering her left side to reveal a bronze mechanical arm. It was a rather crude contraption, a mess of gears, wires, and grease that jerked as it moved instead of smoothly like a regular arm. With some effort and focus Sevika willed it to raise up and held it in place in front of Powder.
Powder jumped up and over to Sevika's side to get a better view of the arm. "Whoa," she said reverently, as her eyes explored every nook and cranny of the prosthetic.
Silco watched Powder with a subconscious smile on his face, but it quickly faded as the carriage slowed to a stop and he saw the signature silhouette of a Piltover enforcer's helmet slide into view on the other side of his window.
"Show's over," muttered Sevika as she quickly covered the arm with her poncho again.
The enforcer tapped the glass with his baton while looking slightly upward through the window of the tall carriage. Silco took his time cranking the window down, and turned his head just barely to the right to greet the man.
"Is there a problem, officer?" he asked politely yet with an obvious inflection of derision.
"Security checkpoint," stated the Enforcer, matching the derision with his own contempt, audible even through the thick mask on his face. "I'm going to need you and your friends here to step out of the carriage for a weapons sweep."
Silco had anticipated the crackdown intensifying after Grayson and the other enforcers' deaths. In fact he needed it as a timely reminder to the people of the Undercity. To wake them up from the comfortable servitude they'd slowly grown accustomed to since Vander helped establish an uneasy peace. The people of Zaun were becoming soft, but the heavy handed tactics of the enforcers should help remind them that these Topsiders weren't their benefactors or friends, but their oppressors. He was counting on enforcers like these to drive the people straight into his arms.
What he hadn't counted on however, was some fresh eager recruit not having been filled in yet on the VIP's of the Undercity. The coins slipped to Marcus and the other higher ups were of no use here against the blissful ignorance of a self righteous idiot unaware he was about to bite one of the hands that fattens his superiors.
Silco sighed. "You don't know who I am, do you?" He turned his face fully to the enforcer, revealing the scarred left half of his face and distinctive dark eye.
Startled, the enforcer took a step back but his voice grew louder. "I don't care if you're the king of Demacia! Either you get out of the carriage right now or I'll - " But he never got to finish his threat. Another enforcer, drawn by the commotion, clearly recognized who Silco was and had approached to intervene.
"That's enough private!" The second enforcer, clearly of higher rank, said authoritatively. "Back to your station. Let them pass." He motioned for the other enforcers blocking the road ahead to let the carriage through.
"B-but sir!" protested the first enforcer, looking back and forth between his superior and the carriage slipping away.
Powder leaned out of the window to glare at the passing enforcers. She blew a rude raspberry at them, causing one of the enforcers to shake his head in helpless disapproval.
"Jinx!" Silco jokingly chastised her. Powder turned back to him and the two shared a quick laugh at the expense of Piltover's finest. She hopped back into the seat next to him and nestled her head into his arm. He smiled, lifted the arm and wrapped it around her in a warm embrace. He looked down proudly at her and as if bragging, looked over at Sevika and said, "Quite the troublemaker, isn't she?"
Sevika grunted with semi-approval and observed the two. She tried to dismiss the nagging thought in her head reminding her she'd seen similar scenes already long ago. And she knew all too well how that turned out. It'll be different this time she told herself, she'd make sure of it herself if she had to.
The Last Drop tavern was dead quiet, though it was crowded with the kind of people to raise a ruckus. Sevika had silenced this gathering of hoodlums simply by walking through the door. They glared at her as she looked back at them with a smirk on her face, daring any of them to start something. Finally someone in the crowd shouted at her.
"You've got a lot of nerve coming here after what happened!"
"Save your breath. If you've got a problem take it up with him," retorted Sevika, nodding back at the other two currently walking in.
Some of those in this motley crew jumped up upon seeing Silco walk in, as if ready to lunge at him, and froze only when they noticed the girl at his side, who most recognized as Vander's adopted daughter Powder.
The three walked to the empty bar and sat down on the stools. Silco and Sevika paid the glaring gang behind them no attention but Powder looked back nervously. Vander had kept her and the rest of the children insulated enough from the more unsavory enterprises that she wasn't familiar with the group staring daggers at them. For the first time in her life, she felt threatened inside The Last Drop. She gripped her stuffed rabbit tighter.
Silco tapped his fingers casually on the bar top while looking around. "Ugh, where's the bartender when you need him?" he complained mockingly, turning as he did so, directing the question to those behind him. The glares he was receiving had reached murderous levels, yet Silco simply shrugged off the silent reception, got up, and walked leisurely around to the other side of the bar. With the ease of someone familiar with the layout of the bar, he grabbed a glass and a bottle of liquor all without taking his eyes off the crowd. "Guess I'll help myself."
The large man who had shouted at Sevika earlier finally snapped, and had to be held back by those around him. "You bastard! I'll kill you, you hear me Silco you're dead!"
Silco drank nonchalantly as Sevika turned and swept up her poncho, revealing her metal arm, curled and ready to unleash a cold hard fist into any punk who dared step forward. The surprise of seeing something so unexpected brought silence back to the tavern, interrupted only by the whirrs, clicks and occasional hiss emanating from Sevika's coiled arm.
Silco finished his drink and slapped the glass down on the table with a loud thud. "An eye for an eye," he said with sudden venom. "Don't pretend like most of you don't know who did this to me!" He was angrily pointing at the left side of his face. "But I settled that account with him," he added with finality. "So stow your petty grudges, I'm here to talk business."
"We do business with men, not monsters," declared a woman in the group.
Silco smirked. "Better to be a monster with loyalty, than a man without." He pulled a blue cylinder out of his pocket and tossed it to the crowd. It bore the signature aesthetic of a pneumatic mail canister for official enforcer business, and standing out distinctly on it was the seal of the sheriff of Piltover.
"Oh, you didn't know?" said Silco with feigned surprise and acting as if all this was simple gossip. "Friends in high places tell me Vander was getting along just famously with Sheriff Grayson."
Silco paced back and forth behind the bar, like a predator stalking his prey as he stared intensely at the rogues' gallery. "You think his inaction was all part of some masterplan?" ridiculed Silco. "It was just a matter of time before he sold us all out. Handed the Lanes over on a silver plate to those Topsiders." Silco paused, yet was still fuming. "All to keep the comfortable life he'd built up for himself."
Continuing his rant, Silco turned and kept pacing. "And who pays the price if not the rest of us? Why should we, the sons and daughters of Zaun, endure these enforcers on our streets?" Nobody answered his rhetorical questions, but he could tell from their expressions that more than a few were starting to see things his way.
"Vander became complacent. He tried to take the easy way out, just like the night he tried to kill me. He didn't have what it takes anymore to fight for the respect we deserve. But I still do." Nobody could deny the look of determination on Silco's face was earnest. "And we'll make a handsome profit while we're at it."
Silco poured another drink and lifted his glass as if in tribute. "I thought of him as a brother once, but the Vander I knew died long ago. I did what was left of him a service."
As if on cue, the door opened and another sizable group streamed in slowly. The new thugs were clearly part of Silco's gang, and they came armed, ready for a brawl. They spread out along the wall, and eyed their competition coolly.
Silco drained his glass in one gulp, set it aside, and exhaled while looking down at the bar. "Those of you who remember what we're fighting for can stay. As for the rest," Silco looked up coldly. "Get out of my bar."