I am returned once more!

Finals were killer and I took a few weeks just to myself. I've also taken up some new hobbies that have eaten into my time. However, a bulk of the time in between updates that was dedicated to this fic was just rewriting the scenes. I recognized that there was some character development and some narrative throughlines that I just had to incorporate rather late into the process and so I needed to completely revamp some scenes. Overall, it has led to a product of which I am proud.

Without further ado, enjoy!


Chapter 7: The Power to Understand

Jayce hadn't slept in days. His eyelids felt as though they were going slam shut like shutter doors in shops after closing. Each breath felt like a battle. Every waking moment was a kind of soft agony. Still, he did not rest.

He had been beside the man's bedside in the ward since his admission. Viktor had been beside Jayce for the first night. The second night, Viktor had left to go back to his home. Jayce understood. The third night he had been joined by a concerned Caitlyn. The fourth night, he had passed out from sheer exhaustion. When he woke up, Caitlyn was gone and he was alone again with the stranger. He had not gone to sleep since then.

He looked down at the unconscious man laid in the hospital bed in front of him.

Jayce didn't know the stranger's name. When they took him to the hospital ward and searched him for any identification, they came up empty. They had assumed that he was Piltovian judging by his clothing but there was no report of a missing person matching the man's description. As far as Jayce and the Academy knew, they were looking at a ghost.

The stranger was stripped from his ruined clothes and put into a set of hospital garments. Jayce's eyes flitted to the young man's legs. Or rather, lack thereof. There was a conspicuous emptiness where his legs were supposed to be. The bottom of his gown went over the stumps of his legs and then fell flat against the bed, almost like the entire gown was empty rather than there being a man within it.

The legs had to be amputated. The doctors and nurses that arrived on the scene could not even begin to attempt to fix the damage and sheer trauma that the man's legs had endured. Even Jayce, a complete stranger to the medical field as he was, could tell with a single glance when the man fell through the source that his legs were just… unfixable. There was no other word for it really. The bone shards and rough tearing at the thighs and near the pelvis proved that any chance of reattachment were non-existent. So they performed an amputation on both of the legs.

Jayce didn't know what they did with the severed limbs and to be honest the thought of any option made him quite ill.

The doctor who took control of the case looked grim when he told Jayce that the stranger's chances of survival were slim at best. The blood loss and physical trauma is something that would kill even the healthiest of young men, the doctor said.

Yet, a week later, the man somehow continued to draw breath.

It was a medical marvel-an honest to god miracle. The whole of the medical department of the Academy had come to gawk and poke and prod at their newly found, death-defying patient in their hospital wing.

It was also… superhuman, the rate at which the man was healing. Not too long ago, the white-haired man had a hideous burn on his face that would have surely left him noticeably disfigured and now Jayce only saw a light red scar from where the burn used to be. All of the deep lacerations that the man had suffered simply vanished overnight. The broken and fractured bones mended over the course of a few days, far and above outpacing the normal healing rates of a young man.

How did he survive that much blood loss? What could have caused that physical damage? How long would it take for him to recover? These were the questions that were passing between the medical staff of the Academy and to be frank, Jayce would also like to know the answers.

Was it perhaps the amputations of the legs which allowed his body to focus its healing on other parts? Well, the medical department threw that theory right out the window because they had detailed literature on the effects of amputation and they had all reached a consensus that amputation didn't give a "boost" to healing the rest of the body. If anything, it hindered the healing process greatly-which was why amputations are the definite last resort.

Jayce had his own theory that he didn't share with anyone else, not even Viktor.

On that day, when the man had fallen out of the sky, Jayce saw blue shards of what he thought was one of his missing magic crystals stabbed into the man's palm. The material had somehow absorbed into his palm like ice melting into a patch of soil.

It was insane. Maybe it was the stress of the moment playing on Jayce's mind. After all, people were known to "see" impossible things under very stressful situations.

But it looked too real. The angles of the crystals that he saw were far too sharp to be a mere muddled hallucination and the blood in the palm of the man was very real. Could there be another explanation?

If Jayce was to assume that it was indeed a shattered hex crystal embedded in the palm of the mysterious man, perhaps… the hex crystals were somehow a part of the man's miraculous healing process? Maybe the hex crystal was related to how the man had just appeared out of thin air.

Jayce all of a sudden felt like he was back at the beginning of his research, when he first began studying how to manipulate the crystals. It had been all so… nebulous. How were you supposed to control magic? How did you even begin to narrow down what it is and isn't capable of? How could you extract and elicit specific responses and phenomena from the crystals? The possibilities were so vast and so numerous that Jayce felt like he could do practically nothing at all. It was like he was buried underneath a mountain of potential.

And… there was another thing Jayce was buried under. Questions.

What if it was his fault? What if it was Jayce's experiment that caused this to happen? What if it caused the torn legs, the hideous burn, the inexplicable coma? Even despite his best efforts to make sure his research was safe, what if it wasn't enough? And what if Jayce just ruined this man's life forever? Crippled him, disfigured him, damn near killed him? Jayce's life's work, something which was meant to improve the world and heal it, destroying someone instead?

These questions had dominated every thought of his mind.

Doctors and nurses had flitted in and out of the ward to keep observing the patient's status. Jayce had been there for so long that he had begun to be treated less like a guest and more like another fixture in the room, like a painting or a potted plant.

Being a constant presence by the man's side allowed Jayce to observe the healing process in full. Jayce saw the ugly burn slowly fade into a smooth, light red scar. He saw the cuts slowly stitch themselves up, in real time. It was fascinating, if in an extremely morbid way.

Recently, Professor Heimerdinger and Councilor Medarda had been in near constant meetings with the rest of the Council. Jayce imagined that they were furiously deliberating on the extent of his trespass and just how much they needed to strip from him in order to present him as an example to the rest of Piltover and the Academy. Or, if he was really lucky, he had Councilor Medarda or even Professor Heimerdinger-though he very much doubted that one-arguing for Jayce.

Jayce found that he didn't care much.

The door in front of him swung open, toward Jayce, and he tiredly lifted his head to meet the person who walked in. It was Professor Heimerdinger.

The diminutive yordle trided in, hands clasped behind his back.

"Ah," Heimerdinger said, "I thought I would find you here."

Jayce absent-mindedly nodded a greeting.

"I've heard… that you've been here ever since the incident, is that right?" the yordle asked from the door frame.

"You would be right, Professor."

A beat passed in the conversation. The muffled sounds of conversations in other rooms filled the gap in their dialogue.

Heimerdinger turned about, suddenly, and said, "Walk with me."

"Professor?"

"Come along now!" The professor swiftly left the room to the right.

Jayce felt tired, incredibly so. He almost didn't want to move at all. He wasn't comfortable, it was just that… the effort required to move seemed almost insurmountable.

However, his legs had a will of their own and he found himself leaving the hospital room and following the Council member. Jayce quickly caught up with Heimerdinger.

Leisurely, they walked through the hallways of the Academy. Jayce usually never tired of taking in the scenery of the Academy's interior. The walls stretching alongside them held elaborate and magnificent ornamentation. The lighting implements overhead of them-the chandeliers and light bulbs-were shining with lights that seemed at once brilliant and warm. Paintings and art pieces were not used sparingly.

Today, Jayce's eyes fell to the ground and he paid the illustrious halls no mind.

"Quite remarkable, isn't it?" Heimerdinger asked from Jayce's side.

Jayce turned his head. "What is?"

"The rate at which that young man is healing. You would never think to look at him now that he was something more resembling a piece of charred, composted meat just a few days ago!"

"I suppose so, Professor."

Another beat passed. This time, the silence was a lot more strained.

They left through the doors of the main building and exited to the outside of the campus. Jayce reflexively put his hand in front of his eyes to shield them from the sun hanging high in the sky; he had been inside for so long that his eyes weren't used to such an abundance of natural light. When he blinked a couple of times and his vision adjusted, he beheld the sight of the Academy's campus.

It was a wide space that resembled a park, with vast swathes of green grass dotted with small trees and with pavement creating walkways which crossed each other at many points-each leading to another building in the Academy. Students hurried along the walkways to get to their next classes, some were even cutting across the grass in a mad dash.

The buildings of the Academy themselves were as grand and magnificent as ever. They towered into the sky and yet their size did not sacrifice any level of detail or complexity on their surface. Intricate golden gilding and colorful metals adorned their outer walls. Windows were not just solid panes of glass but rather complex tapestries of interwoven wires and frosted and clear glass.

"I apologize, that was rather callous of me," Heimerdinger said.

"No, it's just… you were right."

"Hm? Right about what? I'm right about a lot of things." Heimerdinger chuckled briefly. "Wrong about a lot of things too."

"You were right about my technology. It's too dangerous. It's behavior is undefined. I could have-" Jayce clenched his fist. "I could have killed him."

Heimerdinger's humor faded swiftly and he sighed. They had been walking across the pavement for a few moments now, a soft wind gently blowing over them. Jayce closed his eyes briefly and savored the feeling. After being inside for the past few days, the outside nourished him in a way that he missed deeply.

They continued their walk until Heimerdinger stopped in the middle of the square, where all of the pavements connecting to the different buildings of the campus joined together into one large roundabout-which the students and faculty of the Academy referred to as the Round. Benches dotted the perimeter of the Round at regular intervals-of which there were about a dozen benches-all affording an excellent view of the centerpiece enclosed within the Round.

It was an enormous tree. Its massive trunk stretched ever upward and Jayce had to crane his neck to look up at its verdant canopy, which loomed well over the boundaries of the Round. Its innumerable leaves and branches casted a great shadow, though Jayce spied sparse amounts of sun rays which managed to sneak through the leaves and branches and cast light onto the ground.

However, it wasn't the size that most people would remark upon. It was the feeling of age that the tree gave. The tree's roots were thick and dug into the earth as if to sup from it greedily. Its bark looked gruff and defiant against the passage of time. Every aspect of the tree seemed to say, I will outlive even these stone walls that you have built.

Everyone in Piltover called it the First Tree. Not that it was the first tree in existence-that would make it an instant holy relic, Jayce imagined. Rather, it was the tree around which the Academy of Piltover, the heart of the city, was built. Everything, almost quite literally, stemmed from the tree.

The yordle looked away from Jayce to gaze wistfully at the First Tree. Without a word, the professor took to one of the benches of the Round and sat upon it.

Heimerdinger patted the spot beside him on the bench. "Sit with me."

Still confused, Jayce sat down beside him. Heimerdinger clasped his hands together on top of his lap and took a long breath.

Jayce anticipated Heimerdinger to say something. Perhaps some words of condemnation. Maybe some harsh rebuke. Jayce deserved it, after all. Heimerdinger warned him and what did Jayce do? He had caused a catastrophe. And so, Jayce braced himself.

And yet… Heimerdinger said nothing. The yordle next to him was quiet and just staring up at the First Tree with a serene look in his eye.

Jayce became confused. What was Heimerdinger's goal here? Was he waiting for Jayce to say something first? Was he waiting for Jayce to admit fault before tearing into him?

Anxiety crept up Jayce's spine. He took a shuddering breath. Fine, it was fine. Jayce needed to say it anyway.

"It was… it was all my fault," Jayce said.

Heimerdinger kept his gaze upon the First Tree and said nothing.

Jayce gritted his teeth and spoke further. "I was too arrogant. I was too hasty. I… I should have listened to you. And I could never…"

Jayce choked up. His mouth rebelled against him and refused to let him say the words that he wanted to say the most. Why? Jayce cradled his head in his hands and felt tears of frustration spring into his eyes. Why couldn't he say the words?

The wind stopped and left him alone. The sun grated harshly against Jayce. The peals of laughter passing students stung him. Everything seemed to be… too much for him. Jayce just wanted to be alone.

He heard Heimerdinger sigh from his side. "My boy, I believe I have told you before, yes? That I have made mistakes. Many, many more mistakes than actual successes. It comes part and parcel with being a scientist, an engineer, or, indeed, an intellectual of any kind. You will fail, fail, and fail again."

Jayce looked at Heimerdinger who was staring straight back at him. The professor had a far more serious expression on his face now. His eyes, normally round and brimming with curiosity, were now sharp with wisdom that could only be achieved with advanced age.

"Mister Tallis," Heimerdinger began, "As scientists, we hold-implicit in every one of our actions-a gravity that not many others have. Politicians may enact laws, kings may declare wars, peoples may change borders, but scientists? Scientists shape the world. We push boundaries, venture into the unknown, and explore the very fabric of our reality. We don't just seek to know but to understand. And, Jayce, the power to understand is a grave one indeed.

"When we first harnessed electricity from a bolt of lightning, we unlocked a new age of technology and progress. Can you imagine it, Jayce? Can you imagine that feeling of stripping power from the very heavens themselves? We powered our cities, lit up our roads, warmed our homes. And once we knew and truly understood the nature of electricity, we made marvels and terrors that made even lightning bolts seem puny in comparison. We built contraptions that could wipe out cities. We built weapons that could annihilate countries. We built and shook the world. Once we understood electricity, we neutered the wrath of the heavens.

"You can see it now, can't you, Jayce? You can see the sheer power that we possess. Rulers wield their scepters and order kingdoms but men of science wield their pens and order nature. This is what it means to study science. Far from the common view of drab and sanitized procedures, we instead elevate our species into heights far greater than previously thought.

"And-even more than elevating-our discoveries have the potential to tear us down. For with every good we must accept the evil. Once a door is opened, it can never again be closed. I believe that you understand this concept now at a far higher level than most of your peers."

Jayce nodded haltingly. He had never seen the yordle so quietly passionate before. There was an intense storm behind Heimerdinger's eyes that was raging fiercer than even the most brutal tempest.

"We toe a fine line, Jayce," Heimerdinger looked down at his interlaced hands. "Once we took the power from that first lightning bolt, it has led us inexorably down a path of fantastic progress and terrifying power. Every minute of every day we present the world with the option of innovation or destruction. Sometimes, the powers that be make the wrong choice," Heimerdinger frowned fiercely. "It is by this nature that the mistakes that we make have dire consequences."

Jayce looked down at his lap. He felt heavier than ever. Every word that Heimerdinger had just said felt like a brick upon his soul. Who the hell was he, an upstart scientist, to try to revolutionize and break the world open? What right did he have to shove everyone into the future when none of them could ever fathom the dangers it could hold?

Jayce and Heimerdinger quietly absorbed the sounds surrounding them for a moment. Jayce listened to the rustling clothes of students rushing past. He heard the whistling of the wind through the leaves of the First Tree. He paid attention most of all to the slow thumping of his own heart.

Heimerdinger rested his hand up on Jayce's shoulder. "My boy, you have an incredibly gifted mind matched with an equally hardened work ethic. Before the Academy had seized your research, I gave it a look over. And Jayce, what I saw was nothing less than extraordinary. Your application of geometric analysis and integrated rune theory to the Roimann Categories was simply marvelous. Your research method was impeccable and your papers were flawless. There was no doubt in my mind that if anyone could manage to extract the secrets of magic, it would be you."

Jayce furrowed his brow. "What? Then… why? Why did you stop me from continuing my research if you knew I could do it?"

"Because once a door like that is opened, it could never again be closed. If just electricity could raze kingdoms, how far could magic bring us back?" Heimerdinger spoke with a slightly haunted look in his eyes. "I was… frightened. Yes, frightened by the possibilities before us. And so I wanted to keep that door closed the most."

A silence echoed between them. Jayce thought about the dangers of his research. The ones that he had turned a blind eye to. The ones that he was too afraid to confront.

Heimerdinger sighed, "But I forgot myself."

Jayce looked to Heimerdinger, still mulling over his own hubris.

"Science doesn't wait upon the whims of any one person. Curiosity doesn't halt itself for anyone. Progress must be made for that is its very nature. If it wasn't you, then it would be someone else. Goodness knows I barged my way through my research without consideration for others in my youth. Some called me a 'mad scientist', hah!" Heimerdinger chuckled.

"Professor-" Jayce started.

Heimerdinger cut him off, "It must be you."

Jayce's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

"Just as there is an evil for every good, there is a good for every evil. Where I looked at its potential to do harm, you looked at its potential to do good. I tried shore off any avenue toward destruction but you attempted to build upward toward a new age of enlightenment and healing. A new age of connection.

"And most of all, Jayce, you possess the most important thing that anyone should have. You possess the capacity for remorse. You possess the ability to reflect. And that, my dear boy, is something precious, believe you me.

"So you see, Jayce, it must be you who leads this new development in science. I recognize that you and Viktor both had vital roles to play but I imagine that Viktor would rather stay out of the limelight. He's a tinkerer, as you know, with hardly the disposition for the stage or the politics. Therefore, it should fall upon you to make sure that this technology, this science, this development, is undergone responsibly. Progress can't be stopped but it can be guided and I know you would guide it to helpful ventures, rather than harmful ones. This is something that I would only trust with you."

Jayce was shocked. Heimerdinger looked at Jayce with nothing but stout resolution and Jayce was shaken. He had never anticipated his mentor to be on his side like this. Maybe… was there a chance? Was it okay for him to feel… proud?

Jayce shook his head quickly. No. There was no way it was okay. The proof of that was lying in the building that he just left. How could it ever be okay when there was a man crippled because of what he had done? Responsible? Jayce almost wanted to laugh at the irony.

"Better the devil you know?" Jayce said sarcastically.

Heimerdinger chuckled lightly, "Something like that."

Jayce snorted. "I'm sorry, professor, but the fact of the matter is that a man lies in a hospital cot without legs because of my work. I'm not this kind of wise leader that you're imagining. I'm just a fool."

"Does he? Lie without legs because of you, I mean. Are you absolutely certain that it was your machine that did this?" Heimerdinger asked.

Jayce didn't respond.

"Perhaps you are a fool," Heimerdinger shook his head. "But, you are no more a fool than the wisest man because even the wisest man makes mistakes."

"Does the wise man storm ahead against the warnings of his mentors? Does the wise man recklessly endanger lives? Does the wise man's mistakes maim someone?" Jayce said quietly.

Heimerdinger was quiet for a moment before speaking again, "I don't know. But what I do know is that the wise man strives to do better than he did before. The wise man admits to his faults and rights wrongs. I believe that the wise man is willing to be responsible."

"And what is responsibility to the wise man, Professor?" Jayce shot back.

Heimerdinger considered his response for a moment. "Responsibility is… responsibility is the willingness to care about someone. Responsibility is the willingness to care for someone."

"Are you asking me to be responsible, Professor? For who?"

"I believe that the least anyone should do is be responsible for themselves. To be willing to help themselves. And especially… to be able to forgive themselves for their mistakes."

"Why would you ask me to do that, Professor? It's not like I could just wave away what just happened. It's not like it would give that man's family any good explanation."

"No, you can't and no it wouldn't. But, Jayce, to forgive is not to forget. You made a mistake. So did I. I should have been there to temper your resolve and to be a firm hand to guide you. Instead, I made a rash choice. I was impulsive when I should have been patient. Punishing instead of forgiving. But that is now past. And yordles have long memories. And I will make sure that I will never forget what happened. Not to dwell on it but rather to build upon it with the knowledge of the consequences.

"You have the obligation to become better. We have the obligation to become better, together. To make sure that we don't make the same mistakes. And the first path to becoming better is to forgive yourself. If you wallow in guilt such as you are, how will you ever truly improve?"

Jayce contemplated for a moment. Responsibility for himself? Forgiveness for himself? Was this mistake that he made really forgivable? It didn't feel like it but… Perhaps? "Do you… do you really think that I could improve? That I could be better?"

Heimerdinger laughed lightly. "My boy, if we couldn't forgive even some of our most disastrous mistakes, if we couldn't grow, then I think that this world would be a far less beautiful place."

The wind whistled, this time far more gently. All was quiet.

"I… think it will take some time for me to come to terms with what happened."

"Yes. Sometimes these things take time. But Jayce, what we must recognize is that all of our journeys start with that first step. Don't be afraid of how much you must do. Be inspired by how much you have grown."

For the first time in days, Jayce smiled. "I've got quite a lot of growing to do then."

"Ho ho!" Heimerdinger chuckled. "Yes, we have a lot of growing yet to do."

Jayce casted his gaze back toward the building which held the recovering man. If… no. When you wake up, I'll be waiting for you, Jayce thought. I hope that I'll be better by then. So that you can forgive me.


Dimly, he felt like he was falling. He had been falling for so long that the feeling had lost all meaning. For all he knew, he could have been rising.

Actually, he didn't know anything at all. He was in that realm between consciousness and unconsciousness. That stage right before you fell asleep, where all memories and sensations just… slip away.

So, it wouldn't be appropriate to say that he was falling or flying. It would be more accurate to say that he was drifting. Yes. He was drifting in some inscrutable void that wasn't a void. He was drifting in an impenetrable silence that was not a silence.

He couldn't see. There was nothing to see. He couldn't hear. There was nothing to hear. He couldn't feel. There was nothing to feel. He couldn't remember… There was nothing to remember.

There was nothing.

Time passed.

Seconds brushed by him like they were late for work. Minutes hurried along without even giving him a chance to greet them. Hours ran by faster than he could ever comprehend. Days became a blur. Weeks became negligible. Months were instant.

And yet, everything seemed agonizingly slow. No, not agonizing. He didn't have the presence of mind to feel the full brunt of the passage of time. All he could feel was the impression of it. It was like swimming through molasses. In that void that was not a void, in that silence that was not a silence, he was sluggishly floating in a stream of time.

Then, a light shone before him. Blue, dazzling, it blinded him. And, he could think. Sensation filtered back into his body.

He saw. That was the first thing-he saw that blue, incredible light.

He heard. His heartbeat in his ears, his own steady breaths, he heard it all.

He felt. He could feel his arms, his fingers, his skin, his face, warmth, and coldness. There was one other thing he felt, separated from all of the others. Pain, most acutely he felt pain, though it was not physical.

He remembered… Yes. He remembered. His name was… Mercury.


Two arms grabbed him from underneath his own and hoisted him into the air. The arms had belonged to his mother who had a serene expression upon her face.

"My little Mercury," she said sweetly.

Mercury giggled and played with his mother's hair. It was a deep black that flowed like a stream from her head. It felt like silk in his hand and he adored it.

His mother laughed and brought him in for a tight embrace. Mercury snuggled into the crook of her neck. She smelled like daisies.

"Mercury. You have to promise to be a good boy," his mother whispered into his ear. "Okay?"

"Okay!" Mercury said.

"My little Mercury, you always have to remember, promises are the most important things a person can make. If you break your promises, then you'll be a very bad boy. You don't want that, do you?"

Mercury shook his head furiously.

His mother had Mercury pull away from her slightly before putting her fist in front of him with her pinky finger extended. Mercury's head tilted in confusion.

"This is the most important kind of promise that you can make, Mercury. It's called a 'pinkie promise'," his mother explained. "No matter what, don't break these promises or else demons will eat you!"

Terrified, Mercury nodded his head as fast as he could. His mother laughed melodically.

His mother said, "Wrap your pinkie around mine."

Mercury did so.

"Now, once you shake your hands with your pinkies like this, the pinkie promise is done!"

Mercury made an 'o' expression. "What did we promise, mom?" he asked.

His mother smiled with endless love, "We promised that we'll be together forever."


"Listen up, Mercury!" Mercury's father said to him.

They were in one of their small rooms again. They moved often through the Undercity. Mercury didn't understand why, his parents said it was something about them trying to 'find jobs', whatever the heck that meant. His parents usually looked tired whenever they said that so he didn't think that it was a great thing.

Mercury wanted to never 'get a job' in his life!

Mercury was seated in his mother's lap on their shared bed. Mercury couldn't recall a single night where he didn't sleep in the same bed as his parents. They just couldn't find a bigger place for them all to stay. That was fine with Mercury though, their family was a-okay the way it was.

His father's long, white hair bobbed up and down animatedly as he talked to Mercury. His father moved a lot in general-that was part of what made his dad really fun.

"Your mother and I were thinking of having another kid!" his father said boisterously.

Mercury's eyes widened in astonishment. He was going to be a big brother soon?

His mother slapped his father on the shoulder. "Artaius! I thought we weren't going to tell him yet!" She then whispered-though Mercury could still hear her, "I thought we were only going to have another one if we managed to find a good job."

"Now's as good a time as any," his father laughed. "And that's because I have managed to land a great job that pays well and has great hours! All because of my excellent people skills, if I do say so myself."

"Oh really," his mother drawled. "'Excellent people skills'."

"Yes, madam!" his father drew closer to his mother. "After all, I managed to fish you out from across the river, right?"

"Against my better judgment," his mother giggled. They shared a chaste kiss.

Mercury whispered, "So… we're gonna be an even bigger family?"

His father smiled down at him. "Yep! So, I'm gonna start teaching you the Older Brother Duties that I had when I was growing up."

"Wow! That sounds so cool!" Mercury said, his eyes practically sparkling.


Mercury's father held up a fistful of coins to an amazed Mercury.

"Look at this, Merc. We're gonna be eating good tonight!" Mercury's father said.

Mercury's eyes glistened with excitement.

His father had just gotten back from his job working wherever he did. Mercury didn't know all the details. All he knew was that once his father had enough money saved up, they were going to live in a place that was more than just one room.

"So," his father continued, "Where do you wanna go eat, you two?"

His mother spoke up from beside his father, "Oh! Maybe we can go over Bravi's."

"That's a little bit far from here but if Merc wants to…" his father winked at him.

Mercury grinned and nodded his head. "Yep, yep, yep! Let's go!"


The knife was soaked in red. It was all so red. His dad's favorite jacket had a red spot right over his heart that was slowly getting bigger. His mom's white shirt was dyed red all over.

His parents were lying on the ground in front of him. Past them was a man in a blue coat who was counting the coins that he took from his father's pockets. He was the one who was holding the knife which was soaked in red.

They were on an empty street, late at night after eating dinner at Bravi's. They had been having such a good night. Why did this happen?

"Tough luck, kid," the man said to Mercury. The man turned around and walked away. He walked casually as though he hadn't just destroyed Mercury's entire life.

Mercury's legs lost all of their strength. He crumpled to the floor in a heap. What? What had just happened?

"Mercury?" his mother gurgled on the ground.

Mercury crawled forward desperately to his mother. "Mom! Mom! Please don't die! Please don't die!" he weeped.

"Promise me you'll be good, okay?" she asked.

Mercury nodded his head and wiped away his tears in a hysteria. "Yes! Yes! I'll be good. I'll be good so just please don't go!"

He was blubbering now, a mess of tears and spit. His chest heaved and crushed itself so much that it hurt. His heart was beating so fast that it felt like he was going to die.

"I love you so much, my baby boy. No matter what. No matter where," she whispered.

His mother smiled a red smile. She reached daintily up with one hand and gently brushed aside his hair. She pulled his head gently toward her and laid a kiss upon his temple. Then she laid back and stared at him. She stared for a long time.

She never stopped staring at him.

"M-mom?" Mercury said.

Her eyes were glassy and she didn't respond to him.

Mercury spoke louder, "Mom! Mom, please!"

He shook her but she didn't respond. He crawled over to his father instead. "Dad! Dad, mom's not waking up! What do I do? Please tell me what to do!"

His father didn't wake up either.

"What do I do?" he screamed into the night.

No one answered.


Hours passed before someone came upon them. A looming shadow enveloped Mercury.

He turned around to look at who was casting the shadow. It was a giant of a man. His arms were huge and he was way, way bigger than Mercury. Maybe he was even bigger than his father. He had a scary looking face but oddly enough, Mercury didn't feel scared by him. Maybe it was because of the giant's kindly looking eyes.

The giant offered his hand to Mercury. "C'mon, kid. Let's find you a place to stay."

"Mister, I can't leave my parents alone like this. That would be too sad," Mercury said numbly.

The giant had a sorrowful look upon his face. "Don't worry, kid. I'll make sure they're taken care of. You can trust me."

Mercury stared at the giant's outstretched hand for a long time. The man didn't retract it or seem to waver at all. He just patiently held his hand out.

Mercury took the giant's hand. The giant pulled Mercury up to his feet before being hoisted into the air and carried into the giant's arms.

Mercury all of a sudden felt like a current of exhaustion had gone through him. "Mister, what's your name?"

The man answered, "Vander. The name's Vander."

"Thank you, Mister… Vander," Mercury muttered before his eyes closed and he fell into unconsciousness.


Mercury wasted away. His heart stopped hurting a while ago. It just felt numb.

What was the point of doing anything anymore, he thought to himself. Why bother? He just wanted to forget. If that could take away the numbness, he wanted to forget.

Vander had given Mercury his own room and generally left him to his own devices.

Mercury never really left his room. He stayed in his bed most days. He just couldn't find the energy to do anything. Everything felt so… difficult to do.

It was dark in his room. There was a thick blue curtain that stubbornly refused to let any light into the room. Mercury didn't summon any energy to open the curtain.

The door to the room creaked open, pouring in artificial light onto Mercury's face. He closed his eyes to block out the light.

"Hey, kid," Vander said. He had a small plate of what looked to be some baked vegetables and a small amount of meat. It was one of the most decadent meals that Mercury had seen in years. Normally Mercury just ate boiled vegetables with his parents.

His parents…

Mercury slowly turned on the bed, away from the door. He heard Vander sigh from behind him.

"Hey, Mercury," Vander said softly. "I know that you're hurting right now. In fact, I'll bet that it's hurting so much that you can't even feel anything else."

Mercury said nothing.

"But kid, if you just stew in the dark here, if you just stay stuck in your head, then trust me, you are gonna end up in a much worse place."

Mercury finally responded, his voice barely above a whisper, "Vander?"

Vander fell quiet behind Mercury, as though he hadn't expected the boy to speak. "Yeah, kid?"

"Have you… have you felt like this before?"

A moment of silence passed before Mercury felt a weight press down on the corner of the bed. Vander said, "Yeah. Yeah I've lost some people too, kid."

Mercury closed his eyes. "Does it ever stop hurting like this?"

"After a while, it won't hurt. Not all the time like now. But it'll ache on some days. And you won't ever stop missing them. But… after a while, it'll start to feel better."

Mercury kept his eyes closed and didn't respond to Vander's words for a few minutes. But still, Vander didn't leave the room. They just stayed together in the dark.

"Thank you," Mercury said.

"For what?"

"For being honest." Mercury opened his eyes and turned his head away from the wall to look at Vander. "Thanks for staying too."

Vander looked back at Mercury and nodded. "Of course, kid. Of course."

Mercury slowly shed his blanket and sat up on the edge of the bed next to Vander. Mercury's head only came up to Vander's shoulder, he noticed.

"Let's get you outta this room, kid. You need some light. Now, I won't promise that you'll be alright as soon as you step out, but it's better than nothing." Vander slapped his hand on Mercury's shoulder and jostled it a little.

Mercury looked up at Vander for a moment. For a man so big, Mercury thought, he was surprisingly really gentle.

Mercury smiled slightly, "Okay."


"Hey, Benzo," Mercury said quickly from behind the counter.

Mercury was on his second day of serving as a bartender. Vander had given him the crash course on how to work the machines and mix drinks and such the day previous. The rest would be, as Vander put it, a 'trial by fire'.

And a trial by fire it was. His first day happened to be the start of the weekend and so he was absolutely inundated with orders already. So many customers were giving orders it felt like his brain was already steaming up and his skull was about to burst.

Vander was beside the young teen, cool as a goddamn cucumber. The older man was more amused if anything.

"Damn, Vander. Already got the little squirt working?" Benzo remarked.

Vander said, "Relax, they're going easy on him."

The sad thing was, Vander was right. Mercury could almost feel the pity that each of the customers were giving him. They thought that he wouldn't notice them asking him for the easy drinks to serve up instead of their usual complicated ones.

Mercury grit his teeth. He would show them all! He would be so good at this job, they were gonna have to shut down every other bar in the city just so that people could see him in action!

A fire lit up inside him and he quickly served a glass of Noxian Knockout to Sevika, one of the first customers of the day. The woman nodded to him.

The fire inside distracted him from the aching dark that he ignored.

While Mercury was distracted, Vander and Benzo laughed together.

Benzo chuckled, "Your kid over there's a bartender who doesn't even drink. What kind of a lark is that, Vander?"

"If the kid can handle it, he can handle it," Vander said.

They laughed together again and the tips of Mercury's ears burned as the entire bar joined in on the pair's humor.


Benzo laid the staff onto Mercury's hands.

Mercury was awed at the heft and craftsmanship of the piece. It settled into his grip comfortably and it shone beautifully. The bulb at the end was polished and reflected the interior of Benzo's shop in a distorted gold.

Benzo smiled and said, "Here you go, Merc. This type of staff is called a caduceus, a sort of symbol of healing."

Mercury, still appreciating his gift, replied, "Benzo, I love it."

"I'm glad, kid. I figure, if anyone could get any real use out of it, it would be you. Vander's already got his own things and I'm best left with knick-knacks and gadgets. You though, I think you'll be able to help some people or bash some brains in. It's honestly up to your discretion."

Mercury looked back up at Benzo and asked, "Do you have any paint?"

"Yeah, I do. What for?"

Mercury looked down at the caduceus, turning and rolling it in his hands, imagining different patterns and details he would put on it. He imagined wings.

Mercury thought, A symbol of healing, huh?

Could it heal him?


Mercury brought down his staff like a club again. And again. And again. His staff impacted the helmet of another enforcer. The enforcer's skull made an all too unpleasant crunching sound.

That made it another one. Another person whose life he had ended.

At first it was hard. When they walked across the bridge and broke into the line of enforcers, he found his staff weighing like a sack of bricks. It felt like it was almost impossible to even lift. The moment that he first impacted into the face of a nameless enforcer, however, it became lighter.

Each time he swung, he hit something. Each time he hit something, his staff became just a little bit lighter. And the lighter it was, the easier it was to swing.

Before too long, it became weightless. His staff was lighter than air. Thus, Mercury moved and didn't stop moving. He didn't think about anything. He didn't want to think about what he was doing. Everything became blank. Until now.

The enforcer whose life he had just extinguished collapsed to the ground in a mess of blue cloth and red blood. Their mask fell away, revealing a young face, perhaps a woman in her twenties. Her eyes were bloodshot and glassy. Her nose was leaking blood. Her mouth hung open, as though she couldn't believe that she had just died.

Then, Mercury looked down at his staff. The resplendent white wings that he painted on the shaft of the caduceus were covered in dust and grime. The bulb of the staff was dented hideously with tufts of hair and bits of helmets embedded in the metal. Most of all, there was blood on his staff. It made it all so red.

The symbol of healing became red.

Mercury blinked and looked around. He eyed rubble from weapon impacts. Fire from miniature bombs. Smoke and dust lingered in the air. But most of all, there were corpses.

They littered the ground like common pieces of trash on Undercity streets. Some of them were lying face down against the asphalt. Some of them were propped against the railings of the bridge. Most were lying facing upward to an inky black night.

All of them were bloody and red.

All was quiet. Nobody made a sound. Only the smoldering flames and crackling embers broke the silence of the night.

Mercury stood there for a long time, wanting to disappear.


"Dear friend, across the river," a small voice sang over the smoke and the fire. "My hands are cold and bare. Dear friend, across the river. I'll take what you can spare."

It was a sad song that brought Mercury back to life. It was a lullaby that any mother worth her salt would know. It was a lullaby that his… mother knew.

The song continued, "I ask of you a penny. My fortune it will be. I ask you without envy. We raise no mighty towers. Our homes are made of stone."

Mercury looked for the singer. He moved away from the corpses and the death that he wrought and searched for the little girl who sang so beautifully.

"So come across the river and find…"

Mercury then found them. There were two girls. They were terribly small. The taller girl had pink hair. The shorter one had blue hair. They looked incredibly sad to Mercury.

The two girls looked at him warily. Mercury saw Vander coming from the other side of the bridge, evidently having spotted the two children as well.

Mercury looked back at them. When Vander stood beside him, Mercury offered his hand to them.

They looked at him skeptically at first before the younger girl with the blue hair-Powder as he would soon come to know-took his hand. Mercury set down his bloody staff and used both hands to lift the young girl off of her feet and into his arms. He briefly saw Vander doing the same with the older girl.

They walked away from the bridge, enveloped in smoke, and back to Zaun.

The child in his arms quickly stilled and Mercury felt her steady breathing against his chest. He looked down at her face. Her eyes were closed. Her face was dirty with soot and ash. But still, it was precious.

Mercury moved one hand to brush her hair away from her face but stopped before he made contact. He looked at his hand-outstretched to the young girl's face-all covered in blood. How could he dare to make this girl as bloody as he was? He couldn't. He wouldn't.

Mercury hurriedly retracted his red hand away from the young girl's innocent face. He grit his teeth.

Never. Never again, he thought.

He turned his head to give one final look at the bridge left in ruins. He gave one final glance to the staff that he left standing against the railing. He turned his head back and trudged away.

That night, he made an oath.


"Merc! We should go stargazing!"

"Hm? What's with the sudden interest in the night sky, Pow?"

The last of the customers in the bar had left a short while before, leaving only him and Powder on the main bar floor. It was one of those rare days where Vander had decided to take a break day and left the operations of the day to the teen. He-of course-managed the whole day just fine and there were hardly any complaints or grumbles from even the most irritable of patrons.

The rest of the kids were at the arcade and Powder said that she had gotten bored of beating Mylo at one of the games so she decided to head home early. So, at that moment, it was just him and her.

Powder bounced in her seat a little with an immutable twinkle of wonder in her eyes. "I heard from one of the customers about constellations and stuff! They said stuff about how, like, the sky looks like someone spilled a bunch of paint all over it. Please, please, please, can we go? It sounds so cool!"

Mercury gave her an amused smile. Kids were often like that-hearing about something new and immediately demanding to see whatever it is that caught their fancy.

"Of course!" he said. He ruffled her head a bit. "We'll get everyone else, even Ekko and Benzo, and we'll all watch the stars together. It'll be a bonding experience."

Powder pumped her fists and jumped out of her seat, whooping in joy. "Yes, yes, yes!" She pushed her face right up to his. "Can we go tonight?"

"Not tonight, I'm afraid." Mercury shook his head. "Rain clouds are gathering. Gonna be pouring soon. No way to see your paint spill then. 'Sides, I'm going out early tomorrow, gonna run some errands for a few days. I need my beauty sleep, y'know?"

"Pooey," the young girl deflated and stuck her tongue out at him. "You look alright to me."

Mercury gasped and covered his face with his hands. "Powder! You're making me blush!"

"Stop it!" she giggled. She adopted a curious expression. "What are you getting, anyway?"

Mercury chuckled and put his hands down. He gave an exaggerated look to the left and the right, though they both knew that nobody was there. He leaned in toward Powder and she leaned in as well, sucked in by the mystery.

He cupped one hand and around her ear and whispered with utmost gravity, "...It's a secret."

"No fair!"

Mercury leaned back and laughed heartily. It was just a lot of fun to mess with her. He had to get in his pranks while she was still this gullible.

Powder tried to keep a stern face, she really did, but Mercury saw her lips twitch at the corners. She looked so precious trying to stay mad at him, he couldn't help but laugh even harder.

Mercury found that kids could only stay "upset" like that for so long so it was no surprise when Powder's poker face broke and she began giggling along with him.

It was a melodious sound, the laughter of a child. It sounded like bells ringing clearly. Or maybe it sounded like stars twinkling. Mercury wouldn't know. In a big city like Piltover, he had never seen the stars in the sky. If they were going to go stargazing, they would have to travel a bit.

For a moment, it was just the two of them laughing together, like nothing else in the world mattered. And to be honest, nothing really did matter except for the bellyaching humor and the fuzzy warmth nuzzled within his chest. Mercury thought to himself, if only this could last forever…

Their laughter faded; no humor could be sustained indefinitely. But the warmth of the moment remained, like the memory of a cozy fire even after it had gone out.

Mercury went back to cleaning bottles, wiping the counter, and finishing all of the other preparations for closing down the bar. It was a familiar routine which he had ingrained after years of practice. In fact, he was only a few years older than Powder was now when he had started operating behind the counter. A few years had gone by just like that, huh? He tried to imagine Powder learning how to operate the bar but found the image just too incongruous.

He snorted. Powder trying to serve drinks would be disastrous, no two ways about it; Powder trying to do most things was disastrous. That's what made her Powder. It was one of her more endearing traits, he thought.

Mercury cocked his head. He tried to imagine what Powder would be doing at all when she would grow up. He found that he couldn't find a clear image in his head about future Powder at all.

"Hey, Powder."

"Yeah?"

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Mercury asked.

The blue-haired girl furrowed her eyebrows and contemplated his question deeply. Or, at least, as deeply as she contemplated most things. She was a bit of a free spirit, he supposed.

Powder hummed. "I don't know! I haven't really thought about it."

Mercury nodded. He had thought so. Some kids were more concerned with what lay directly in front of them or around them, not thinking too deeply about what lay beyond. Powder was in that camp. Her sister Vi was in the other camp, the kids who thought perhaps a little bit too much about what was in the future or in the past.

There was just silence for a moment.

Powder asked, "What about you, Merc?"

"Hm?"

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Mercury furrowed his eyebrows. He had been expecting the return question and yet it still caught him off guard. What did he want to be? The question… ached at him more than he expected. "I… I guess I don't really know either, Pow-Pow."

She tilted her head."Really? But you're already almost grown up! You'll be just like Vander soon!"

Mercury chopped the top of her head with the side of his hand. "I take offense to that. I'm a very young person at heart. I'm not that old."

Powder rubbed the top of her head slightly and gave a non-committal hum.

Mercury had finished the last of the arrangements for the bar to be ready to be left for the night and so left from behind the counter and sat next to Powder.

They sat in a companionable silence.

He thought more about her question. "Being there for you guys has always been enough for me. If you guys are happy and well, then I'm satisfied."

"What about when we're gone, when we leave? You're gonna have to do something, right?"

"Oh, I don't know. I've been an older brother for so long, I'm not sure what I would do if I didn't have to be on older brother duty all the time."

"What about before you met us? What did you want to be?"

Before them… What did Mercury want to be before he met the kids? What kind of a person was he before he met Powder and Vi? What did he want?

Mercury frowned slightly and turned away from Powder, "I don't… remember."

That was a lie. He didn't want to remember.

"Oh," Powder said quietly.

Silence returned between them and Mercury let it overtake his mind slightly. He didn't want to think about before he met the kids. He just wanted blank thoughts.

Blank thoughts. Blank thoughts. Blank thoughts. Blank-

"Merc?"

Mercury blinked slowly. "Yeah, Powder?" He turned his head to face hers.

"Are you happy?" she asked.

Mercury was caught off guard and took a few moments to respond. What a strange question. He plastered on a wide smile. "Why wouldn't I be happy? I got you guys!"

Powder looked down at the counter and rubbed her hands together in an almost nervous manner. "Sometimes, when you think no one is looking, you look really sad," she whispered.

"Do I really?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "Whenever someone talks with you though, you look really happy. But whenever you're alone, you look sad."

Mercury didn't have anything to say. What could he say? Ah, sometimes kids were too observant for their own good.

Mercury patted the top of Powder's head. "That's just my resting face. Guess I'm not as charming when I'm not trying, huh?"

Powder looked unconvinced. Mercury wasn't convinced either.

Powder said, "Merc, you could go anywhere in the world, even Vander said so. If you're not happy here, maybe you would be happy outside of the Lanes, right?"

"You tryna get rid of me or something, Powder?" Mercury pushed her lightly on the shoulder and smiled fondly. Kids were often like that as well, earnestly trying to solve other people's problems. "I'm fine just where I am."

"Are you sure? With how much you could run, I bet you could go anywhere in the world."

"I'm-"

The door to the Last Drop jingled open and in stepped Vander and the rest of the kids. Vander's arms held some bottles of alcohol and what looked like a thick leather bound book. The other kids were discussing amongst each other animatedly, something about who would win in a swimming competition.

Powder's head snapped toward the door and she grinned widely. Their conversation quickly forgotten, Powder leapt off her chair and rushed straight toward her sister to chat.

Mercury sighed exasperatedly and rested his cheek upon his open hand. He took in the scene. He saw Vander attempting to wrangle control of the kids using stern words. It wasn't very effective. Powder had managed to offend Mylo and Claggor in some way-Vi of course supporting her sister-which led the boys in a chase against the girls.

Mercury's lips quirked up. "Yeah… yeah, I'm sure," he said to no one in particular.


So, Jayce is feeling a certain kind of way and what is this? Heimerdinger being supportive? Yeah, Merc arriving in Piltover in not the most expected way is going to have some consequences. And it is my duty as this story's captain to guide you through the ripples that this will have. New relationships and friendships abound!

Also, there is some depth and nuance that I wanted to explore with Mercury and his psyche which required a little bit of backstory. He has some issues which he needs to work out. Hopefully the incorporation wasn't clumsy and I'm pretty pleased with how some of the scenes turned out.

Where's the Zaun gang, you might ask. Well, that's a great question which will have answers soon. For now, I wanted to focus on our Piltovian friends and explore new territory with them.

Thanks for your patience and thanks for 300 follows! I am incredibly thankful to each and every person who has given this story a chance and has enjoyed it so far. Please, please, please leave a review as it gives me helpful feedback and some definite encouragement.