Act II: We said we're going to conquer new frontiers
Ambition tearing out the heart of you
He hobbles past the heaped bodies of Zaunites, broken and twisted by the Shimmer and the fighting. The roads are slick with blood. It is far more difficult to navigate the mess with his cane than he can ever show, and Jinx is not with him to help.
Still, he manages to make it to the end without humiliating himself. What he finds there is well worth his time. Thousands of Enforcers, trapped in pits, each lined with green stinking slime and held at gunpoint.
An anxious Zaunite approaches him in absolute distress, at odds with their success tonight.
"They killed a hundred of us, Silco! Them and their damned hextech weapons!"
"But we stopped them. For every one of us, we trapped ten of them."
"They can afford to lose thousands! We can't afford to lose a hundred!"
"Today, we proved to them that we can win, regardless of the weapons and technology they throw at us. This is a victory."
He regards the chokepoint. It is a narrow route, only one way in or out. This pleases him.
"The Topsiders will not dare use this route again."
"They will! They'll figure out our defences, plan better…"
Silco turns away. He has no time for this mindless chatter.
"Strip the Enforcers for weapons and armour."
He spies Jinx in a corner, eyeing the prisoners with distaste. He cannot remember the last time she had looked so alive, so filled with purpose. She is slowly finding her strength again and he could not be prouder.
"Jinx."
"Uh-huh?"
"Ten officers to the watch tower. Now."
Silco lights a cigar and blows smoke rings in the air as she lines them against the wall. He sits quietly and observes them, contend to let the silence prey on their fears. Until an officer wilts, his legs buckling under pressure.
"You know what I want."
He nods at the last officer in line. Jinx aims her gun at him.
"You're not gonna break me, you're not..."
Jinx fires her gun and moves on to the next. And the next. And the next. Each gunshot louder than the last.
They break down and tell him everything he wants by the sixth gunshot. Names, places, headcounts, weapon caches, locations of Hextech crystals, deployment points, tactical plans, dates. He remembers them all.
Jinx lines her shot after they are done. The officers hold up their hands in a vain attempt to shield themselves.
"You promised!" The officers scream in terror. "Please! You promised!"
He takes his time to hobble over, to raise his hand and close it over the barrel of Jinx's gun.
"That's enough. Release them. Jinx, come with me."
She lowers her gun and obediently scampers after him.
"Why? They're our enemy." Her voice so soft that only he can hear.
"They are only our enemy when they defy us. They are no longer our enemy when they are on their knees, begging."
"But they'll come back with bigger guns. They'll fight us again!"
"Perhaps. But now the Topsiders know the price of our mercy. And any information they are willing to share is far more important than a few lives."
They emerge from the watch tower. He stops in front of the thousands of prisoners still held at gunpoint. He nods at the Zaunites, who step away from the pit. Jinx cocks her head to one side, utterly confused.
"You're gonna release all of'em?"
"I need them to send a message on our behalf."
He flicks his cigar on a patch of slime, lighting a green flame which flows along the thin trail of green slime. The flame inches along the trail before rapidly ballooning as it joins larger rivers of the slime, snaking around the sides of each pit, then faster and faster, down, down, down into the pits themselves, encountering larger and larger puddles, gathering momentum before exploding into a firestorm...
Burning the prisoners alive.
The air glows a bright green, momentarily blinding him. The heat pushes him away, he takes an involuntary step back as the green glow temporarily imprints itself in his eyes. He can hear the screams of the dying, smell burning flesh in the air mixed with the sick cloying scent of vomit (someone near him has thrown up, he is sure). And soon, the footsteps of retreating Zaunites punctuate the air, overwhelmed by it all.
But not him. He stands his ground until the green glow recedes, until he can safely resume his place by the pits and watch the fires tear the Enforcers apart, as their bodies crumble to ash.
Someone offers him a mask. It is Jinx, equally enraptured by the flames. He takes it, tosses it in the direction of the officers who were spared in the interrogation. Most are on their knees, stunned into silence. One of them collapses (a newly promoted officer who did not have the stomach for war?). The final one screams, charges at him. He turns back to look at the flames, unimpressed. A stray bullet finds the charging officer and cuts him down before the officer can embarrass himself.
And when it is done, he signals the Zaunites to leave the ashes in the open, to heap what remaining bodies onto barricades and form a natural blockade.
One of the Zaunites brushes past him, the one who initially greeted him in a panic. He stops the Zaunite, nods at the work the rest of the men are doing.
"That is why they will never come this way again."
We promised the World we'd tame it
He studies the map in his office. Hides the deepening worry within him. They should have returned hours ago. They should have returned hours ago. They should have returned...
His door opens. And Jinx pokes her head around. Already he can sense the lightness about her. The smile lurking beneath the surface. He doesn't bother hiding his relief.
"I was worried, child. Come in."
She drops a leather pouch on his desk. Peeking from its depths are nine Hextech crystals. He takes one and holds it against the light. Disbelief.
"There was only supposed to be one."
"I found more."
The leader of the raid team bursts into the room in panic.
"We lost her, Silco! We looked..."
And he finally notices Jinx with them.
"Where the hell were you!"
"Your plan wouldn't work. So, I went alone."
"Silco, you know this cannot stand!"
He interjects, because the raid team's eyes are on him, and he is expected to do so.
"You cannot make this decision in solitude, Jinx. You were not in charge."
"You make decisions alone all the time."
The leader of the raid team interrupts.
"Silco knows what he is doing. You don't!"
"I came back with the crystals! You didn't."
He intervenes before both sides can do further damage.
"Enough! Jinx, you should have consulted me before you did this. That will be all."
He can sense the leader bristling. No doubt annoyed at his light-handed approach with Jinx. But he would not derail her recovery. Not for anything. He waits until the door is closed before addressing Jinx again.
"You should have told him."
"I thought you said we couldn't trust anyone."
She steps back shyly. Clearly waiting for his reaction. And what else could he say? She had recovered so quickly, had far exceeded his expectations.
"We will have a discussion about the chain of command later. But you did good, child."
She giggles. Tackles him into a hug. He stumbles backwards.
"Thanks, Silco."
He presses his forehead against hers.
"Of course."
Jinx warps onto his desk. Sits there, like the days of old, and plays with the crystals as if they were marbles.
Shaking Hands With A Hurricane
"They aren't happy with how you're handling her, Silco."
"They always find a reason to complain."
"She's jumped from a mumbling automaton to a pyromaniac in weeks. Surely even you can see that."
"And can the rest of them perform as well as her?"
He did not remember Sevika being so bold when she was still working for him. Power was changing her.
"I need you on top of the barons, Sevika. I cannot fight a war on two fronts."
"I am handling this, Silco. But she isn't making it easy. And that's before the delay in the Hextech weapons."
"Each baron will receive one weapon to protect their interests, on the condition that weapon usage will be prioritised for acts of war. I do not see why that is so hard to understand."
"You promised them weeks ago and they haven't received anything!"
"Jinx needs time to create the weapons."
Sevika gestures at Fishbones behind him.
"What's there to create? She's already made one right there!"
"No one can have that! That's Silco's!"
Jinx warps from the rafters to protectively stand in front of Fishbones, all glares and pointed elbows.
"I made it special for him!"
"And a rocket launcher in a cramped city like Zaun…surely you see how impractical it can be, Sevika."
"Try telling that to the barons."
"I'm sure you will find a way to inform them."
"And what're you going to do with the two extra?"
"I will keep the other crystal. Naturally."
"You're still missing one…"
Jinx suddenly warps towards Sevika. Her skills have drastically improved. He observes the both of them, notes how Sevika barely moved, how, as much as he had expected it, he could not follow what had happened.
"Silco! Call your brat off …" It is only then that Sevika notices the missing container of Shimmer on top of her metal arm is replaced by a glowing blue orb, protecting…
A stolen Hextech crystal.
The metal arm transforms itself into something larger, more powerful. He leans forward, intrigued. She clenches and unclenches her fist. He can feel (there is no better word) the power emanating from the arm, hear the crackling of energy, see the faint beams of blue.
"The rest of the barons will have their turn, Sevika. After you have had yours."
He reaches for an unlit cigar, and she takes the cue, lights it for him with her new metal arm.
"We should have kept'em all. Now we gotta make weapons for all of them. And we only get one extra for ourselves."
Jinx's sullen voice, amongst the tinkering of her tools in the rafters.
"We could have. But wars are never won singlehandedly."
"But you said it's us or them."
"Sevika will keep them in line."
"What! She couldn't get a buncha bunnies in line if she tried!"
"Sevika will be your biggest ally. Never forget that."
"You're my biggest ally."
She will be your biggest ally when I am no longer here, he wants to say, but cannot bring himself to.
If it can be lost, then it can be won (II)
He watches from a distance as the monsters leave Jinx alone, as she inches back to strength. He teaches her how to lead, encourages her to start with the smaller raid teams, cheers her when she is victorious, tells her to do better when she fails. And if the other Zaunites complain to him, he chooses not to hear most of them, only publicly admonishes her during Council meetings when absolutely necessary. For he is already burdening her with lessons on leadership while she is still recovering, and he does not expect anyone else to understand.
Still, he sees the voices holding her back in moments when he knows she can do more. And so he gently broaches the subject again weeks later after a botched raid and a subdued dinner. He will help her fight it in the only way he knows how.
"Sevika is planning a raid at the Kiramman's tomorrow night."
"Kiramman's?"
They both know who might be waiting.
"But Kiramman's her girlfriend. She might be there."
"You do not have to go if you do not want to."
He sees relief in her face as she nods.
"But will you help Sevika with crafting the bombs? She relies on you for your expertise in this."
"Sevika relies on me for everything."
She considers his request as he rolls his sleeve up. As he assembles his syringe and inserts the vial of analgesic. He sees less hesitancy in her eyes now, and he is so pleased.
"Yeah. I can do it. Not like the other bozos can do it better."
She takes the syringe in his hand and pricks him.
He cannot explain why he feels no relief next. Or why his body crumples beneath him and the ground comes rushing up faster than it had any right to.
"Silco? Silco!"
Her voice is distant and far, her face peers at him through a tunnel. He reaches for her. But his hands and feet are shaking and he cannot control them. Or was it his head that was shaking? His hands and feet that were still?
"I'm gonna take you to the doctor."
He can hear her fear, even through the haze.
"No...no...no..."
"But you're sick!"
He can hear the patrons downstairs. Half of Zaun is in the Last Drop for drinks. None of them can see him like this.
"Appearance...can't show...weakness..."
He doesn't remember anything after that. Only that he wakes in his office, panting. It is dawn, he can see the first light of day spilling onto his desk. Jinx had placed him back in his chair (or was he on it all along?). Sandwiched him between the desk and the chair to stop him from falling.
She remembered what he said about appearances. His lessons were getting through.
He is so proud of her.
But then he hears her soft cries, sees her curled up in a ball on his desk. And he realises just how fragile her recovery truly is.
"Jinx?"
His voice is weak and reedy. But her head snaps up, her eyes wide.
"When can you start crafting the bombs for Sevika?"
She launches herself at him then. His chair rolls back, smacks into the window behind him.
It hurt. Everything hurt.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
"It's okay. It's okay."
"It was me again! I did it wrongly! I..."
"I assembled the syringe. Not you."
But nothing is sinking through.
"Please don't send me away. Please. Please. Please. Please."
He laughs, though it comes as a painful wheeze.
"You're my daughter! I would never send you away."
But she continues to shake and sob and beg, and he holds her until they both fall asleep, broken and exhausted.
He leaves her a note when he wakes, instructs her to immediately start crafting bombs for Sevika. The war efforts had brought out her strength before, and they will do so again.
He hobbles to the door (he has to see Singed, and he has to see Singed now), turns back to see her curled up on his chair, under his coat, behind his desk. It suits her, and he will do everything he can to realise his dream for her.
But she has to vanquish the voices and stay strong.
All You Need Is Time (II)
"How long do I have, Singed?"
"We still don't know so much about the human body. The cocktail of analgesics you are imbibing is..."
"How long!"
"Weeks. A month at most."
He rages against the world in front of Vander's statue. Furious at how it is treating Jinx.
If it can be broke, then it can be fixed (II)
The roof of the New Drop is his favourite place in Zaun. He is invisible in the darkness, nobody hears him.
But he sees and hears everything. The Lanes, the pumping heart of Zaun, the streets, once nothing more than pathways, had long since morphed into thoroughfares under his rule, roads branching out of it like arteries. The people, its lifeblood coursing through the streets, the chatter, the sounds, the air, reminiscent of the mines, his youth. The city he loves so much, the technological and economic advancement he has carefully shepherded in.
But now it is on fire, a blur of colours and motion as his body betrays him again and again. The world had saw fit to render him conscious tonight, so he can only watch as Zaun rumbles around him, a fissure quake of his own making. As the ticking clock grows louder and louder until it is the only thing he can focus on.
And as the days turn to weeks, it was the helplessness which eventually got to him. All his life he had fought, but now his autonomy could be taken from him at a moment's notice. He was weak, any person who could not control his body was weak. And the voice grows louder and louder until it overwhelms him, until it is the only thing he can hear. And he is a boy again, a boy who only knew how to run in the wake of life's cruelty.
Weak, WEAK, WEAK!
And now he is in the waters, but there is no peace. Only fire.
Blinding pain in his forehead and he knows he has smacked into something. Something warm and sticky flows into his eye, obscuring his already clouded vision. He wants to wipe it away, but his hands refuse to listen. And unbidden, he can feel the tears rising in his eyes, the lump in his throat. He was no longer a boy, so why was he crying now?
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was supposed to buy time. I was supposed to protect Jinx. I was supposed to lead Zaun's war efforts. But I am only…
WEAK!
Someone drifts into view. Blue braids, pink eyes. His daughter lifts him up, as she has been doing for quite some time now. He hears something pierce through the cacophony of voices screaming at him.
"…it's..."
She disappears. No. Don't go. Please don't go.
WEAK!
Reappears with a bottle. Liniment. His addled mind somehow recognises it as liniment.
WEAK!
A stream of liquid on his head, this one, more painful than the last. Someone steadies his head, bringing back memories of something he cannot pinpoint, and then everything burns, enough to knock him out.
Weak.
But her voice breaks through and he can finally hear what she is saying.
It's okay. It's okay.
If it can be fused, then it can be split (II)
The weeks turn to months, the months turn to a year, and he still stands. An agonising, weakened stand on trembling knees and shaking legs.
But a stand. And more importantly, his stand, daring the world to take him down.
A stand which reflected Zaun's efforts much more than he would admit it. Battered, broken, taking more losses than any of the chem barons would have dreamed of. But still fighting. Still standing toe to toe with Piltover.
Then winter arrives and an unofficial ceasefire begins as the annual blizzard takes hold of Piltover. Both sides had fought to a bloody stalemate, but this suited him more than Piltover. Lasting until winter gave him time to think. Regroup. And with Singed's revised formula for his analgesic, his convulsions go from a certainty after the analgesic to a probability every few days. He could represent himself in the council meetings again, instead of relying on Jinx and Sevika, remind Zaun of how much their victories owed him.
He prods the brush on his makeup kit, proceeds to conceal the scar on his forehead with foundation. It is easy work compared to the glowing scars around his dead eye, and his forehead smoothens itself within seconds.
"You should leave it and say you got it while fighting!"
Her voice drifts from the rafters, amidst the soft tinkering of metal.
"And who should I say I fought, Jinx? The roof of the Last Drop is not a worthy opponent."
"Just say some Topsiders ambushed you again."
"The first ambush made me a symbol of Piltover's cruelty and overreach, anything else would make me look weak. The truth can be a weapon, but only if wielded carefully and precisely. In this case, the exaggeration serves nothing and no one."
He snaps his makeup kit shut. Maybe it was the sleepless nights, the aching shoulders, the burning feet, the neck which refused to listen to him (even now he isn't sure if it would listen), but the world momentarily spins, and he grips the edge of the table to steady himself.
And Jinx warps to his side to support him. She had never folded, never heard voices after that day in the office. Instead, she learned to read his signs, taught herself what to do next. He wondered if she had visited Singed in private to discuss his condition, decides that he does not want to know the answer.
"Is it gonna happen again? You better sit down or something. I'll go talk to him."
He had never been so reliant on Jinx. He had never been prouder.
A hard knock on the door. An enforcer's voice drifts through.
"Sir? A councilman is here to see you."
He closes his eyes tightly, rubs his temples. He knows this cannot be the start of another convulsion. Because Singed had told him that the convulsions were caused by the analgesic, and he had limited those to brief sojourns to the roof of the Last Drop.
"Watch from the rafters. Give nothing away."
Jinx warps away. He lights his cigar, picks up a document he had been trying, and failing, to read for the past hour.
"Come in."
Someone bursts in. Annoyed at having had to wait.
"Silco! There's a friggin' emergency and I can't find Sevika or Jinx, and I don't know what you're doin' always hidin' here…"
He silences the councilman (really no more than a boy) with a quiet glare. His reputation still meant something. Good.
"Do I look afraid?"
"N…No, sir."
"Then what do you want?"
"We saw her! Vi and her girlfriend and a buncha Enforcers! Headin' for the plants again!"
He rises, pushes the documents away from his desk to reveal a map of Zaun, replete with flags.
"Show me where."
The councilman marks their last known location with a trembling hand, continues his inane patter about strategy and tactics.
But he feels Jinx's eyes on him. He briefly glances up, notes her shaking hands, her bright pink eyes. This was not a sign he was familiar with. Worry creeps up again. She had not been hearing voices for weeks now, he did not want her regress. Not now. Not when she was doing so well.
"Sir?"
He returns his attention to the map. Traces two routes for the boy.
"Take two teams, fill them with Shimmer and intercept the Topsiders here. Do it now."
The councilboy nods and nearly runs out of the room. Leaving them alone. He straightens his desk, picks up the document and continues reading it. He lets the moment hang in the air, then -
"Only go if you are ready."
"When will I be ready?"
"When you can shoot her without hesitation."
Jinx warps to his desk and sits there for a moment, hugging her knees. He senses fragility and turns away to give her some privacy. But he also senses something new – a deep reserve of anger.
"There's no rush, Jinx."
He ignores the ticking clock in his mind.
"But she put all those voices in my head. Used me to hurt you. And cause o' that you gotta hide on the roof when you break. And. It's. All. Cause o'. Her."
She punches the fleshy part of her thigh, punctuates each word in her last sentence. He pulls her hands away before she can hurt herself, but this time, he can feel the fury radiating from her.
"Do you still hear those voices?"
"Sometimes. When it's quiet."
And now he is concerned. He notices the glimmer of tears in her eyes, and she angrily wipes them away before he can comment.
"You should have told me."
She looks away, angry at her weakness.
"If I kill her, do you think the voices'll go away?"
He thinks of Vander, of how the world taunted him. Until he told it to stop. Until he planned and waited and plotted in the shadows.
"Yes."
Jinx takes her gun and warps away.
It's all under control (II)
"She shot up half the district, Silco! Her and her goddamned rocket launcher. And she missed Vi!"
He leans back in his chair. He never expected her to take the red head out the first time. But Jinx had learned to shoot at her. And for now, that was enough.
He did not expect Sevika to understand.
"I will compensate them."
"It's not that, Silco! We have a way of running missions, and she is out of control!"
"I will speak to her."
Sevika storms out, leaving him to make notes, annotate the map. He waits for a moment, knows that it is important for Jinx to come to him.
"I didn't mean to shoot everything else, Silco."
She warps onto his desk, suitably chastised by her failure. He takes a document and turns away to give her some privacy.
"But it was harder than I thought."
"I know. But you must be careful, Jinx and show restraint in the future. Restraint in itself can be power. Exercise it carefully and men will follow you."
Silence, and he knows Jinx is digesting his words carefully. And then...
"Silco?"
"Mmm."
"Can I go after her again the next time they see her? I promise I'll be more careful."
He smiles at the window ahead of him. A milestone!
"Of course, Jinx. You can pursue her anytime you want."
Silence. He half turns in his chair, did he overdo this? But he is greeted by Jinx chewing her bottom lip, thinking hard.
"I think I need a better gun."
"Then make yourself another gun. My resources are at your disposal."
"Including the spare Hextech crystal?"
He doesn't hesitate.
"Of course."
