Author's Note:

Heyo guys. This is my first fic ever. I've been meaning to write a fic for years but I never completed a single chapter until now. Plot bunnies were abound and I could just never manage to put words to text. However, Arcane was a pretty amazing show and I just fell in love with the world and characters and my muse decided to cooperate with me long enough to crank out a full chapter. So, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Arcane or anything related to League of Legends. It is the property of Riot Games and I'm just writing a fan piece on it.


Chapter 1: Big Brother Mode

Mercury was caught outside. Rain mixed with the mud that he was face down in and for a second he could almost believe that he could drink the mud and quench his parched throat. He didn't even remember how he got into the mud puddle to begin with. Was it an argument? There was always arguing in the Lanes; the Zaunites tended to be the argumentative sort. They were different from the Pilties who argued with words and figures and "who owned what property". Zaunites were well versed in the dialogue of the fist and occasional blunt object.

Mercury sighed and pushed himself up. Pain flared and he hissed. He held his right side and found it to be much more tender than it was a scant ten minutes before. Evidence toward an argument, the type that did not have a peaceful resolution. He tried his best to stay out of those. He was fast, both in running his body and running his mouth. If he got into a scrap, he could usually get away with convincing the other party to walk away. If that failed, then he always employed the secret technique of getting his ass the hell out of there. It worked a good majority of the time. He chuckled to himself, it looked like it didn't work that time.

Mercury washed the mud off his face with a water-filled bucket he found nearby. He looked around to make sure the coast was clear and then drank some of the water from the bucket. Yum, rain water. He eyed the inside of the bucket. He spied a dirty sock. Gross, dirty sock rain water. He shrugged. He had ingested worse in his life, sometimes even intentionally.

He was quick to move along, passing through alleys and streets. Trash and refuse littered the ground and he was half tempted to be a good samaritan and throw some of it away but Vander was expecting him and Mercury prided himself on never being late.

As he navigated the streets, people tended to give him a wide berth. Teens were a menace everywhere but a lone teen in the Lanes? The moment he looked at someone, their hands found their purses and grabbed on like it would disappear the moment they let go. To be fair, they weren't exactly wrong. Had he been in slightly better shape, he could have their pouches, jewelry (if they had any) and even their fake teeth with them being none the wiser. However, a bruise that was surely forming on his side firmly dissuaded him of that notion. And further besides, it had been years since he had practiced pilfering people of their pocket's contents. Heh, alliteration. He'd read about it in a book once.

The distrustful gazes also gave him a gauge on how far away from his destination he was. The farther out he went from home, the less friendly people tended to become. And it wasn't exactly as if the people in his neck of the woods were eager to share their recipes with each other either. But at home, he got along decently with just about most people.

His feet led his trail automatically. The clouds had dispersed and all that remained as evidence of there being such weather were the puddles and the smell of rain. The twists and turns of the city quickly blurred past him. He knew the Lanes better than any urchin out there. For some, the Underground was a maze, a labyrinth of dark corners and questionable odors. For him, the Underground was a body and Mercury was a surgeon who knew all of its components. The businesses and seedy practices were the bones of the city which somehow kept it sturdy. The inhabitants were the lifeblood of the city. The streets were veins carrying blood all the way back to the Heart of the Lanes, which was where he arrived. The Last Drop.

Mercury opened the creaky doors to the bar. The folks inside looked up from their drinks to regard him for a brief moment before glancing back down. Yup, just like he left it. Slightly out of touch music playing from their jukebox, patrons wildly drinking and seedy business deals abound. He made his way to the counter at the back and sat down, legs crossed, on a rickety stool, his stool. Home, sweet home.

And there was Vander making his way back to the counter. He looked to have been settling a dispute between a few of the patrons. The Hound of the Underground got through the crowd in front of the counter quite easily, owing both to his size and his presence.

Mercury waved at him. "Hey there, old man. I see the place hasn't imploded since I was gone."

Vander grunted and got to serving a customer, filling his tap with some green liquid of strange viscosity. He cast Mercury a sidelong glance. "You're calling me old? You've got whiter hair than Old Jenny." It was true, atop Mercury's head sat a shock of short, white hair. "You've been gone a day. I've run this bar myself for decades. I can handle it."

"Uh huh, uh huh," Mercury nodded. "I totally believe you. My faith in you is unshakable, unquestionable, nigh unbreakable!"

"The first thing that you said to me somehow makes me doubt that."

"Pfft. Nonsense!" Mercury scoffed.

Vander let out an exasperated sigh. "I don't know why I put up with you. Here, start wiping down the counter." The older man threw Mercury a brown towel.

"It's because you love me." Mercury began to scrub at the dark spots on the counter. Beer stains from the unsteady hands of drinkers and bloodstains from when the people got a bit too rowdy were no match for the strength of his elbow grease.

"The only thing I love are my kids and my bar. And I don't have any kids."

"So you're saying that the Fearsome Four and I aren't your kids? Oh Vander, it's kind of cute how you would deny that even though everyone this side of the continent knows." Mercury flashed him a grin.

Vander grumbled. "Shut up and get to work."

Mercury raised his hands in surrender, a smile still firmly planted on his lips. "Okay, okay, I'm working."

He started pouring drinks for other customers. "Hey Dan, hey Jules, hey Maki, how you guys doin'? Good? Awesome! How are the kids?"

Each of the guests had regarded him with a slight smile. Mercury always made sure to give them his business smile. Just the right amount of friendliness and energy. It was a delicate balance, finding the appropriate smile. It was especially difficult in his line of work. Sometimes people come by to mope about and bemoan their life. Sometimes they came by to crash cups together for celebration. He was their bar keep-or at least one of them-and he made sure they felt comfortable including him in whatever conversation they wanted. Bar keeps were the brick wall for people to talk at when they just needed to get something off their chest. That or bar keeps were the sponge to soak up all of the interesting details of their lives. His business smile served him well as both brick wall and sponge. It also kept people coming back for more drinks so it was good for business as well.

Mercury also made sure his attire matched a disarming character. He tucked in a white button up into blue slacks. His shirt was slightly muddied from the rain and dirt. His sleeves were rolled up; it could get inconvenient to have full sleeves while working the bar at times. Black suspenders hugged his shirt to his frame, accentuating the lean muscles that he had gotten from running all over Zaun. He wore brown boots, roughly tied with fraying laces. His footwear was worn and almost falling apart. He had to get new ones soon. Good running boots were hard to come by in Zaun; there was always a demand for them and never quite enough supply.

Had Mercury been in more pristine clothing, he could pass for a Piltie. Smart clothing was rare to come by in the Lanes, not so much in the upper city. It had taken quite a bit to save up for a decent wardrobe. It was also hard for him to deliberately dirty up his clothing after he got it; intentionally making expensive things dirty almost physically hurt him. However, if he wore his clothes as they were, then he would be sneered at and bowled over. Clean clothes usually meant that the person wearing them didn't spend that much time rolling around in the streets and were marked as easy prey. Rough clothes gave character in Zaun. His combination of Piltie aesthetic and rough Zaunite background usually led people to drop their guard around him. Too dirty to be from topside and too clean to be another street rat.

The Last Drop was his home and his work space. In fact, it was the only place that he could stand to be still in. He had been there most of his life, far before Vi and her sister ever got there. Vander had picked him up when his parents got killed by some guy that was more attached to his parent's money than his parents were. The older man gave him a room, some food, and Mercury had been at the Last Drop ever since. He hardly even remembered his parents anymore. Just flashes and traces of weary faces and cramped rooms. Since then, he had started working at the counter since he was twelve, serving and not drinking of course.

One time, Vander had caught him trying to drink a bottle of particularly strong stuff. Mercury thought that Vander would take it out of his hand but instead he let him try to take a whole swig. "Only if you can handle it," he said. There was a sly grin on Vander's face. Being a twelve year old, the arrogance of youth found him and he decided he would down the whole bottle just to spite the old man who doubted whether the boy could "handle it". Lo and behold, barely past the first sip, Mercury felt his throat burning, his chest undergoing massive heaves that might have been considered coughing, and his ears assaulted by the roaring laughter of the devil known as Vander. He never brought alcohol to his lips after that.

Mercury called toward Vander across the counter. "Speaking of kids, where are the little runts?"

No sooner had those words come out of his mouth did he spy the kids coming through the door. Vi led the pack followed by Mylo and Claggor side by side with Powder taking the rear. They looked… well they looked beat as shit. Bruises were forming on their faces and they clasped their arms and hands in soothing motions. They had just gotten out of a fight and judging by the looks on their faces, Mercury saw that they weren't exactly happy with the outcome.

Actually, there was one member of their merry quartet that wasn't injured and that was Powder. However, she looked far more meek and timid than she normally did.

They hurried toward the back room and stepped quickly down the stairs, almost knocking some of the customers over on the way there. It looked like they took a job and it didn't go their way.

Mercury raised an eyebrow and looked at Vander. "You want to? Or should I?"

Vander gave a withering sigh and rubbed his temples. "Hah… you go first. They need to hear from someone only a little bit older from them first. I'll come down in a bit. Watch the bar when I get down there."

Mercury gave a salute. "Aye aye, sir."

The teen finished serving his last patron, wiped down the counter once more and headed toward the back.

When Mercury reached the door, he paused. He had to take inventory of the situation. He had been indisposed for the earlier part of the day so he didn't have any clue as to what they had been up to. Probably a tip from Little Man. He sighed to himself. Mercury loved the kid and Ekko might have been the awesomest little dude (white haired guys had to stick together) but the kid didn't know a good job from one that could go up a rat's crack. He shook his head and set his face. He switched to Big Brother Mode and opened the door.

The back room was the four's living space. Beds were made and a small space was in the middle sort of as a common area for all of them to mill around and pass the time. He hadn't been in the back for a while. It was his room before Vi and Powder showed up but when they arrived, he moved to a different side room to give them space. The four were sitting in chairs, sulking.

Mylo was the one seated closest to him at the door. He actually reminded Mercury a lot of himself when he was Mylo's age; the kid was always running his mouth and full of sarcasm. However, Mylo's sarcastic remarks always packed a little bit of venom with them. Mercury had the same issue and it had gotten him into trouble just as good as he was at getting out of it. However, where Mercury had always relied on his tough legs, Mylo relied on his nimble hands and fingers. He was the only one of their group who knew how to handle a lock pick with any sort of real authority.

Claggor sat to Mylo's left. Between the two younger boys, Claggor was the more responsible one. He was always the voice of reason in their group. Soft spoken and clear, he tried to defuse situations as calmly as possible. That didn't mean he couldn't handle himself in a fight. Mercury was certain that Claggor could take a couple hits to his goggled noggin and still swing back just as hard.

Powder sat in between Claggor and her sister. The young girl was usually a spritely little thing. She was always tinkering with her toys and making them a little bit more than play things. Little traps and bombs were hanging above her bed and although none of them worked yet, she had a work ethic that was exceptional even amongst kids in Zaun. He was sure she would get them to work eventually, although he had to be sure that she didn't test them in the Last Drop.

"Alright, alright." Mercury took a seat opposite of Vi. He sat straight, he always sat straight, so he was quite a bit taller than everyone else at that moment. He was the tallest anyway, a couple inches taller than Vi, but with the way the rest were slouching it was even more pronounced.

Mercury crossed his arms and eyed each of them. "What happened?"

Mylo and Claggor avoided his gaze. Powder practically crawled in on herself. That left only Vi. Yeesh, it must have been pretty rough.

Mercury raised an eyebrow. "Violet?"

The pink haired girl stared across at him with grey eyes. Violet was the second oldest amongst everyone in the room. Whenever he wasn't around, the rest of the group defaulted to her for leadership. He was only a few years older than her so it was usually quite hard to get her to listen to him. It was sad to him; only a few years ago they were as thick as thieves. They had a small age gap so they got along well. Now she got into her head some notions of "independence" and "maturity" and "Mercury, do your own damn chores". Very sad indeed.

"We had a job," she said. Mercury waited a second but quickly realized that she wasn't going to offer more on the subject without some input from him.

"Oh? What kind of job? Styling? Redecorating? Someone must have been real unhappy when you showed 'em." He made a face and pointed at the scratches and bruises on Vi's face.

Vi shot back, "A real job. The job that you would have run a few years ago."

"Ah." Mercury put his hand down. "A job that involves explosions?"

"No!" Violet shouted. Then, she sat back a little.

"W-well, actually yeah," she sighed. "Yeah it involved an explosion. Singular. But it wasn't supposed to. How did you know?"

Mercury chuckled, "Lucky guess."

The soot in their hair told him. Kids rarely got far in the Lanes if they weren't quick to observe or quick to throw a punch. Mercury preferred to be the former. He had been distracted with customers when they walked by earlier but since they were all sitting still together, he was able to put his eyeballs to use and his mind began working.

Their clothes were dirty and torn in some spots so if he had to guess, they made a quick getaway after they got caught with the explosion and they took the dump pipes, which had also sorts of gross and sharp stuff. He had done the same thing when he was about Mylo and Claggor's age.

Mylo cut in, "Well it's only because Powder here jinxed us. Again." Mylo gestured toward the blue haired girl.

Powder scowled and shot back, "Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

Their bickering was usually amusing to the oldest but it wasn't the time for that. Mercury interjected, "Order! Order! I call you guys to order!" The two quieted down after that, though they pointedly refused to look each other's way with a huff.

Mercury shook his head and carried on, "Alright, there was an explosion. Fine, you're all walking well enough after an explosion, thank goodness. No one got killed in that thing. Now, how 'bout those bruises? I know those kinds of bruises. They're scraps. Got one right here."

Mercury unbuttoned his shirt to point at his side. There was an area on his side that had started to turn an angry purple.

"Tsk, gotta get ice on that." He buttoned his shirt up again. "Now, who was it?"

Claggor, ever the honest one, responded, "It was just a couple of kids. They were after our haul. Powder got away but…"

Powder whispered, "But I threw away the bag."

Silence hung in the room for a couple seconds. Damn, Mercury thought to himself. It was even worse than he thought. The job had gone wrong for them in every way it could have. They likely drew attention to themselves, got into a fight, and they had nothing to show for it. No wonder they were beating themselves up. And great, now they were looking at him for any kind of approval or disappointment. He had his thinking face on so it was blank but kids generally took a blank face to be a bad thing.

Mercury smiled and crinkled his eyes, releasing the tension building in the room. "I'm glad you guys are alright. That's the only thing that matters."

They all sighed in unison.

Quick! He had to make them feel better! They were bruised but if they had lost the fight, they would have been beaten a hell of a lot more. Thus, they won and Mercury had to boost their ego.

The white-haired teen asked, "You guys laid them out though, right?"

Mylo perked up and shouted, "Of course we did! Who do you think we are?"

Success! Mercury laughed. "That's what I like to hear, you numbskulls!"

Mercury reached across to the seats on the other side to grapple Mylo into a noogie. Mylo yelped and struggled to wrest the taller teen off of him.

"Ah no! Save me, you guys!"

"Oh, no! You're not getting away that easily! Show me those skills that put 'em down, eh?"

"Noooooo!"

Powder giggled, Claggor relaxed, and Vi simply gave a soft smile. Mercury rapidly had Mylo in a hold on the floor, legs wrapped around Mylo's waist, one arm wrapped around Mylo's neck and one arm vigorously rubbing his fist on the top of Mylo's head. Mylo was attempting to wrest Mercury's arm from his neck but Mercury would be damned if he let a runt like Mylo make him fail his Older Brother Duties. Namely Duty 6: giving younger siblings scalp rendering noogies.

Mercury was glad that the dark air around them was dispersed. Mercury always made sure that the four of them were happy, or at least content. Life in the Lanes was hard enough, everyone was bitter and tired all the time. Being a bar keep, Mercury was intimately familiar with the atmosphere everyone was trapped in down in the Lanes. That's why he made sure that the kids would never have time to find bitterness.

"What are you guys just doing there?! Save me!"

"Look, Mylo! Your companions have betrayed you! Hahaha!"

"How could you guys?!"

Vi shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry Mylo, it's out of my hands. I'm no match for him. We'll get something nice for the funeral."

Claggor nodded solemnly. "We'll give you a nice haircut."

Powder chipped in, "Oh, and we'll make sure your nose hairs are all trimmed."

"Agggh! You damn traitors!"

"Despair, Mylo! Despair-!"

The door opened and it became quiet of a sudden again. Heavy footfall entered the room and Vander came in view of Mercury and the rest.

Vander took in the scene. Mercury and Mylo looked like a mess of body parts strewn together. Vi, Powder and Claggor were audience members. He thought he spotted coins changing hands between Vi and Claggor. He closed his eyes and mumbled something oddly like, "...give me strength…"

Vander sighed, "I'm not even going to ask."

"Good, you shouldn't," Mercury said. There was a cheeky grin on his face as he released Mylo. Mylo scampered away to the other side of the room, far away from Mercury.

Vander addressed the room, "Alright, everyone out 'cept Vi. I need to talk with her."

Mercury turned his head toward Powder, Claggor, and Mylo. "Right, you heard the boss. Let's get outta here."

Claggor and Powder hopped out of their seats. Mylo nodded but kept a respectful distance from Mercury, it appeared that Mylo was nervous of his brotherly affection. The three followed him out but not before Powder turned back to look at her sister. Vi nodded her head and Powder nodded back before she followed the boys.

Once out of the room, Mercury looked at his charges. The boys looked better. Roughed up but they weren't beating themselves over the head. Powder, though, still had a small frown on her face. Mercury let his smile slip from his face. Powder must have taken the job harder than he thought.

Mercury regarded the two younger boys. "Mylo, Claggor, I'm gonna have a chat with Powder real quick, yeah? Just stay here for a moment."

They gave hums of agreement. Mercury took Powder's hand and motioned toward the roof of the bar. "C'mon, Pow." She nodded.

Mercury led Powder up the steps to the roof of the Last Drop. As they ascended the stairs, Mercury took note of the blue haired girl. Her steps were slow and trodden. Her head was down and there was a dark look on her face. When they ascended to the top, Mercury said, "Alrighty, Pow-Pow. Let's take a seat, yeah?"

Powder nodded once more and they took a seat at the edge of the roof. Mercury took in the sights from their vantage point. Street lights stood tall but many had their bulbs broken or they were dim. The infrastructure in the Lanes didn't have much upkeep. Electric wires ran between buildings and alleyways in haphazard crossings and elevations. Signs had graffiti which may or may not have been obscene. Gaps in the streets were bridged by rotting planks of wood. Yep, it was the Lanes which he was familiar with.

"Got something you want to get off your chest, Powder? You don't look so hot and trust me, bottling stuff up ain't gonna make you feel better."

"I'm a screw-up," Powder said. Her head hadn't lifted since they came from the backroom.

Mercury looked at her softly. He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him. "Don't say that Powder. Never say that you're a screw-up."

"But I am! I'm bad luck! Everytime I go with them, I mess something up," Powder cried. She looked up at him. Her eyes were wide and welling up with tears. "I'm just a jinx."

She looked away from him and toward the city. Mercury could feel her trembling. He pulled her in tighter and pursed his lips. What to say, what to say. It had been a while since he had a one on one talk with the young girl. She had always felt insecure and it didn't help that Mylo kept taunting her. He had to have a talk with him soon.

"Powder… you screwed up." He felt her go still before her trembling returned. He could feel her hiccuping and he took a minute to compose his thoughts.

"I know." Powder seemed so small.

"But… you're not a screw-up."

Powder looked up at him again. "What?"

"You heard me." Mercury gave her his most reassuring smile. It was gentle. It pulled at the corners of his lips and revealed just his front teeth. He used it when the kids were younger and were scared at night. "You're not a screw-up. You just screwed up, there's a big difference."

Mercury made a widening gesture with his free hand. He wiped some of the tears streaming down her face away.

"Listen Powder," Mercury continued, "everyone screws up. You, Vi, Mylo, Claggor, even Vandor and I. We all screw up. We're all gonna keep screwing up cause that's what makes us who we are. We make mistakes and we grow from 'em."

Powder responded, "I know, I know. Everyone screws up. I get that. But… no one screws up as much as I do. Everything around me just fails o-or breaks! Nothing I build works. Mouser, Ruffle, nothing."

Mercury stayed quiet for a moment. Powder was articulating her thoughts and it was important for her to work through what she was feeling. Mercury had experience with bottled up feelings. It never went well when he just kept it all inside.

"I-it's just, y'know, everytime I try something it goes wrong. Like today! That guy was chasing me and I tried to use Mouser but it didn't do anything," she whispered. "It just failed. Like me." The girl drew her knees to her chest.

He listened to her silently. It was tough for him. Listening to her talk that way. No kid should ever talk that way. He sighed to himself, he should have been at that job.

Mercury kept his eyes to the horizon and of course saw Piltover, the golden city, the City of Progress. It was always there, in view of every Zaunite like the sun except it didn't have the decency to disappear at night.

He smirked to himself. He recalled a funny story. He nudged Powder a bit and she looked up at him. He pointed and drew her attention to the lights and glamor of Piltover.

"You see that city, right over there? Piltover?" he asked.

She nodded, confusedly, because duh, everyone knew Piltover. One could barely walk ten steps in the Lanes without hearing about enforcers or the Pilties.

"Well," he drawled, "apparently one of their founders was this guy who failed. A lot. Like a lot a lot. Like he failed so much that people were practically begging him to stop. 'Ah, oh no. Please! Everything is exploding! You have to stop!'"

Mercury mimed people running around with their arms flailing in the air. He mimicked explosions with his hands and made the sounds with his voice. "'Ahhhh! Everything is burning! Why is everything burning?!'"

Powder giggled at that. He chuckled too and stopped his miming. He wrapped his arm around her again before turning his attention back to the city and his eyes became thoughtful again.

"But still, he managed to build that. I don't like Piltover. I don't respect it. But I do admire it. The vision behind it. Progress. It's a beautiful looking place, even if it does make my eyes tear up 'cause it's so bright."

Powder looked at him before mumbling to herself, "I guess."

Mercury addressed her again. "My point is, if a guy that managed to screw up so many times and so badly built Piltover… rich, posh, Piltover… would you still call him a screw up?" Mercury looked at her again.

Powder considered his words. She rocked her head back and forth as if to slide the loose words into an available slot in her brain. Then, she stopped and smiled at him. Loose words locked in. "Okay, maybe I'm not a screw-up."

"No, madame, you are not."

She paused for a moment and a frown took over her face. Mercury let her continue. "But… maybe I am bad luck. Mylo says that it's only the jobs that I'm on that things just… go wrong."

Mercury hummed to himself and pulled Powder just a little bit closer to nestle into his grip. "Hmm, maybe, maybe not. Who knows? Some people are lucky, some people are unlucky. I think I'm kind of a lucky guy."

"Really? Why's that?"

"Cause I get to be with you guys! You guys are my whole world, you know."

Powder giggled again.

Mercury pouted, "What? What's so funny?"

Powder replied, "Yeah, we know. You won't stop telling us."

Ah yes, Older Brother Duty Number 2: annoy your younger siblings with how much you love them.

"Hmm, maybe I need to tell you guys more so that I remember that I told you guys." Mercury winked at her. "I'm a pretty forgetful guy sometimes."

Powder squinted her eyes at him. "Really? You only say 'I'm a forgetful guy sometimes' when it's convenient for you."

Mercury gasped in afrontation. "Oh my goodness… When did you start talking back to 'Big Brother Mercury'?" He pinched her on the cheek. "And when did you start using big words like 'convenient'? I thought you were only, like, eight?"

Powder fended off Mercury's hand from her face. "Nyeh! I'm nine and a half! And Vi said that I should 'talk back to anyone who gives me lip' and you, sir, are giving me lip!" Powder punctuated the last words of her sentence by jabbing her finger into Mercury's chest.

They stared at each other for a beat before bursting into laughter. He found it to be nice to laugh like that. He hadn't heard Powder's laughter in a while. He found it to be endlessly adorable. Slowly, the laughter began to peel off and dissipated into the night and they began to lean into each other again.

"Y'know, Powder. Maybe you are unlucky but you know what? I really like unlucky things."

"What? Why?" Powder tilted her head in confusion. "Nobody likes unlucky things."

Mercury responded, "Well, it's the unlucky situations that really make you prove who you are. It forces you to be exactly yourself, all of your skills brought to the fore, all of your personality, all of your charm, all of your soul. It forces you to improvise and luckily for me I'm a pretty quick guy."

Mercury gave Powder a smirk. "I thrive in unlucky situations. You might say I'm at my best when everything else is at its worst. Maybe you'll be my 'unlucky charm'. My own personal jinx." He poked her in the chest. "Bad luck doesn't have to be a bad thing."

Powder smiled softly to herself. "Yeah, maybe bad luck doesn't have to be a bad thing."

"Listen to me, Powder," Mercury said. Her head tilted to face him and he looked at her wide, grey eyes. "Sometimes, it'll feel like the whole world is out to get you. Like everyone wants to be your enemy. That's fine. Everyone has enemies. But you should never, ever, ever be your own enemy. You got that? I could never forgive myself if I ever let you think that way."

Powder thought to herself for a moment. She straightened herself and with a resolute voice said, "Okay. I'll never be my enemy. Whatever that means."

The older boy held out his pinkie finger to her. "Pinkie promise?"

Powder laughed. She clasped her own pinkie with his and gave their hands a shake. "Pinkie promise."

Mercury ruffled her short hair. The door to the roof opened behind them and they saw Vi come out from the bar.

"Hey there, you two." Vi took a seat next to Powder. She groaned and leaned into her younger sister.

"Hey, yourself. Vandor gave you a dressing down?" Mercury asked.

"Like you wouldn't believe. Ugh, why won't he just take the fight to them? They call him the Hound of the Underground but lately he's more like a… like a… ugh I don't even know!"

"Trust me, Vi. What we've got right now, it's way better than the alternative," Mercury said. His voice turned dark and low. "Way better."

Mercury had been there when Vander had picked up the two sisters. It was devastation and heartache, the war between Piltover and the Undercity. The image of fire and dust never quite left his mind. While he didn't exactly agree with Vander's truce with the enforcers, he couldn't disagree with it either. He just put his faith in the older man. He owed Vander his life, after all.

Vi sighed in frustration. "It could be better though! Hmm, but… he has a point. We've got to be more careful."

Mercury nodded sagely.

Vi wrapped her arm around Powder, shuffling off Mercury's arm. In retaliation, Mercury wrapped his arm across Powder and then Violet. Vi valiantly attempted to shake him off but gave up after a few moments. Vi knew Mercury never gave up on his brotherly affection.

"Heh, I always win."

"Shut up, Mercury."

"Never!"

"...Weren't you gonna get ice?"

"Ah shit, you're right… Eh, I'll get it later. I'm too busy enjoying present company."

They heard Vander holler from inside the building. "Damnit, Merc! I told you to watch the bar!"

The sisters looked at Mercury. He chuckled sheepishly.

"Oooor I guess I'll go get some right now."


Deckard was a street urchin, he knew this. He had grown up around gangs and running around the streets. People didn't last as long in the streets as he had if they didn't know the rules. And the first rule was don't mess with the big guys. They said run, he said how fast. They said swim, he said please don't kill me. That sort of thing. And in front of him was the biggest guy he had ever seen.

The man in front of Deckard was huge, though not in terms of actual, physical size. In fact, Deckard was sure that if he had a few more years, looking more unlikely by the second, and if he got the proper food (heh, even more unlikely) then he would be able to match the man's height. However, it wasn't his height or bulk that made him big; it was his presence that was enormous. Even at that moment, with Deckard held to a chair by three of the man's goons and the guy at the other side of the room, Deckard felt like he was suffocating. Not just from the cudgel pressed against his throat but also from the weight of the man's attention.

Silco turned his eye, his red and wicked eye, toward Deckard and he was terrified. Slicked back hair and a sharp face stared at him, assessing him, judging him. Even though he wasn't much taller than Deckard, at that moment he seemed to tower over the trapped street rat.

The blonde kid rarely felt regret. It was a rather useless emotion in his life, a hindrance really. If he had the time and energy to regret, then he had the time and energy to run away from bigger guys trying to take his stuff and run after smaller guys and take their stuff. So Deckard regretted very little in his life. However, at that moment, he regretted ever running away from his old folks. He was certain that his life would end very soon.

"You were supposed to follow them and not interfere. Was I somehow unclear?" he asked. His voice sent shivers up Deckard's spine. It was too relaxed, all the more menacing. To be honest, it scared the piss out of Deckard. Everything about Silco exuded cold calculation, as if he were factoring in just how much each person in his sight mattered to his ultimate goal. Just how much he could use them. Just how expendable they were. Deckard realized he was looking quite expendable.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! They didn't have Mercury with them so I thought-" Deckard cried.

"Now, people are asking questions. Prying questions. About you. And I'm not quite sure that's a risk I'm willing to take." He sounded pretty damn calm for someone seemingly worrying about a risk.

Deckard had to grovel, beg, or find some damn excuse or else he would find himself on the other side of the glass in the water with chains around his feet. "The kids! It was them! They caused the explosion in Piltover. The enforcers are up in arms looking for 'em!"

Silco had been prepping his eye needle before he paused at Deckard's words. "Oh? That was them?" Silco almost seemed to smile to himself. Damn, Deckard didn't want to imagine the guy smiling.

"Vander's in trouble," Silco muttered to himself. The older man strided past him. "Smartest thing you've said, boy."

He ordered the goons, "Get him a meal."

The guard holding him removed his cudgel and he took a gasping breath. Shit, he was alive somehow. They hauled him out of his seat and escorted him out but not before he heard Silco address the other man in the room. It was the alchemist who was fiddling with strange concoctions the whole time Deckard was practically shitting his pants.

The last words he heard before he exited the room were: "Our timeline has moved up."

The guards threw him outside on the floor. It was still wet with puddles from the rain and he got soaked. That was fine, he would rather be wet and bruised rather than wet and dead.

The man with the cudgel regarded him. "The boss will contact you when he requires your services. Be there. Oh, and here's your meal," he sneered.

The goon behind him laid a small plate of beans on the ground next to where they tossed the blonde teen. They entered back into the building and slammed the doors shut.

Deckard just laid on the ground for a while. He was breathing quickly and shallowly, his heart was beating a thousand miles a minute and his hands were shaking. Shit, he barely got out of there. He sat up and took the food and ran away to a nearby alley before leaning against the wall and vomiting. Why the hell did he ever get involved with Silco?

Silco was a goddamn monster. No, wait, that wasn't right. Monsters were mindless. Monsters were insane. He was scarily intelligent and scarily rational. It would have been better if Silco were a monster. Hell, he would have been fine with the red eyed man being a psycho, at least then he knew that it was just some sort of bad luck and he knew to not have expectations with psychos. No, Silco was neither of those things. He was a demon and Deckard knew exactly what to expect from demons: the worst.


Author's note:

So this chapter is mainly introducing the new character I've added and laying the groundwork for future interactions. I felt that there was a character dynamic missing in the main Zaun group. Vander was the dad, Vi was the older sister, Powder was the younger sister, Mylo was the delinquent brother, Claggor was the responsible middle child. However, there was no one to bind the whole group together. Thus, Mercury was created as the Big Brother to the group. He's an intermediary between Vander and the kids as well as a protector to the rest of the group.

About Mercury. Is he gonna change the course of the show? Well, I always found that having a fic which adds a new character who basically adds nothing of substance to the plot and characters was kind of boring. So yeah, he's gonna change the course of the show. The show is very character driven so if there was a new character, obviously he's going to shift the story in a new direction. Is he going to have powers or a special skill set? Hmm, you'll have to wait and see!

I don't want to diminish any character's importance in their relationship dynamics. Vi is still going to be Powder's most important person and vice versa. However, I wanted someone who could add some new perspective. What is that perspective? Well, I guess I have to write well enough for you guys to tell me!

If you've stuck this far, thanks for reading. Leave a comment, review. Constructive criticism is much needed! I'm still fleshing out my writing style and I need to know what works and what doesn't. If you flame, at least make it funny. Thanks all and I'll hopefully crank out the next chapter soon enough for y'all.