It hadn't been a long time since Vi went to Zaun, although the situation was different to the one she now found herself in. It was during a job that later led her to Urgot. She never went back to Zaun because she wanted to, there was also a problem that force her to do so. The problem she had now was solving the mess she was in. She needed to find out what Renata did to Caitlyn and so many others, why did they all suddenly work for her?
"Are you sure no one will see us?" Asked Jayce breaking the silence. Jayce went to Zaun a couple of times when he was younger, but he never quite liked it. He still had the idea of Zaun that most Piltovians had, it was a dangerous place filled with criminals. His time in the council also affected the way he saw Zaunites.
"We are close, so you don't have to worry anymore" Vi tried to sound confident but she was scared. She knew Renata had a way of controlling people and Ekko was her last hope. If Renata found a way to get him then she would be out of ideas.
As they entered a tunnel, the sound of engines appeared. Jayce activated his hammer, he needed to be ready for what was coming at him. Vi on the other hand dropped her gauntlets, she was hoping the firelights were still good. Jayce saw what Vi did and he turned off his hammer.
Then a group of 4 firelights appeared and stopped in front of them, they were all on their hoverboards and with at least one weapon. The one in front of them took off his mask, it was Ekko. She was expecting him to look angry, their relationship hadn't been the same since she joined the enforcers. However, the reaction she got was the opposite, he was happy to see her.
"Vi, it's great to see you. Listen things here are bad, can you contact your girlfriend? We need all the help we can get" he said while giving her a hug. Vi was happy to see him receive her like this, but her heart dropped when he mentioned Caitlyn.
"She… won't be helping us anytime soon. It is a long story, we can tell you once we get to your hideout" Vi said. Ekko looked at her and knew what she meant. He cursed and got her on top of his hoverboard. He knew that Renata had taken control of the council but was expecting the enforcers were still free. Now he needed to think of a new plan if he wanted to stop Renata.
During the rest of the way there Jayce asked all kinds of questions. He was interested in the way the hoverboards worked, how high they could fly and more. Even though he was his charismatic self, not even one of the firelights talked back to him. He was loved in Piltover, everyone called him The Man of Tomorrow and he was seen as one of the biggest celebrities there. However, in Zaun it was the opposite. He became well known after the enforcers increased their involvement in Zaun and was seen as the man who gave the enforcers their new weapons. He didn't give them the weapons directly, but he did build them and gave the order to use them.
When the door to the hideout opened both Vi and Jayce were surprised by the view. It had been years since the last time Vi saw it, now it was much bigger and looked even better. Jayce had in is mind the idea that Zaun was a dark place and he couldn't believe what he was seeing. A giant tree, even Piltover had few trees as big as that one. It also had room built around it.
"Ekko, this is amazing. How many changes did you make to this place?" Vi said to Ekko.
"We made a few changed since the last time you came here. Heimer gave us some ideas before he went back to Piltover," said Ekko. He sounded sad while saying the last part.
"How long did it take you to make this?" Jayce couldn't believe his eyes.
"Hey, Vi. Tell me what happened to your girlfriend, the piltie" Ekko asked Vi, ignoring Jayce. Jayce could tell they didn't like him. He knew people in Zaun didn't love him, but this reaction was certainly worse than what he expected.
"They did something to her, to all the enforcers. I think it was Renata"
"Yes, it was her. This is what she has been doing in Zaun too, it has to do with the things she sells. She gives it for free and then some people just start to obey her, even if they used to oppose her. I don't know how but it brainwashes people, makes them do whatever she wants them to. We saw entire towns turn against each other" Ekko said to Vi. He looked angry when talking about Renata, he had already fought her before she took over Piltover and knew what kind of person she was.
"Wait, that means she has control of the council in Piltover too. That is why they made her a member" Vi needed to sit down, things were worse than she thought. She was expecting that Renata was paying and blackmailing people, this would've been bad but much easier to deal with. The idea that she was brainwashing them was terrifying, it also made her worry more about Caitlyn.
"We have a girl we saved from an entire community that was turned against each other, her name is Zeri. 3 days ago, some firelights used a flare to call others but by the time we got there it was too late. All we saw left was Zeri fighting alone, the rest of the people were kidnapped by Renata. We took her here, although she didn't want to." Ekko said with a heavy heart. Zeri wasn't with them, she was in a room laying in the bed they gave her. She hadn't moved since she got here and only ate the food they brought to her.
"Wait, what happened? You say an entire community was kidnapped?" Vi couldn't believe what he was saying.
"Zeri said half of the town stared to fight each other and then the people that work for Renata appeared. She tried to save them, but the enemies outnumbered her. We got her out of there against her will. We told her to stay but she went back, we don't know what happened next. She came here and hasn't spoken since. You should've met her, she used to be a really sweet girl" Vi stayed silent for a few minutes and so did Jayce. They both knew things were bad, but this was more than they could've ever predicted.
"What about your family? You haven't said anything about them" Vi knew about Ekko's family, although she had never met them. He had mentioned them a couple of times, he liked to keep them as a secret. They didn't know Ekko was doing any of this and always thought he was just hanging out with friends or working with someone. Vi only knew what Ekko told her about them, their love for him and how they hoped Ekko would go to The Academy of Piltover one day. The rest was a secret Vi didn't even know what they did for a living.
"Renata took them, I don't know where they are" Said Ekko. He went home a week ago and they weren't there, he hadn't seen them since then. Renata left a shot letter there saying she wanted to meet him. He tried to infiltrate into Renata's base, but it didn't work. He thought that with the Z Drive it would be enough to defeat her. However, after hundreds of tries he knew this wasn't the case.
Vi spent some time thinking about what Ekko had told her. She needed to think of a way to fix this but had no ideas. All the people she knew and trusted were enforcers, none of them was reliable now. She knew a couple of people in Zaun, but they were mostly old friends of Vander and they wouldn't join her against Renata. On top of that, she knew nothing about how Renata was manipulating people. She needed to speak with people and there was only one that hadn't spoken with her yet, that was Zeri.
"Ekko, where is this Zeri? I'll see if I can speak with her" Vi asked him.
"She is in the room upstairs; I don't think it will go well though. I already tried, more than once" said Ekko while showing her the Z-Drive. Vi sometimes forgot Ekko could travel back in time and that meant he knew, and experienced things others hadn't. He tried to speak with her many times, but she never spoke about what happened to her, not even once. The conversations usually made her sad and angry, it always ended with her screaming at him to leave her alone. Ekko now knew she needed more time until he could have a conversation with her.
"Then I'm out of ideas. What do you have in mind?" Said Vi.
Jayce was listening to the conversation and got closer to them. He was tired of waiting and wanted to act.
"Why can't we just go where Renata is? We have hextech and those hoverboards, they don't stand a chance against us" said Jayce while picking up his hammer. He fought against Zaunites before and won easily, he didn't enjoy it but there was no way out. Besides, he was planning on finishing Renata directly, without involving civilians.
"It won't work, she is stronger than you think. They have new and better weapons, you can thank your friend Viktor for that. He started to work with her when you destroyed his laboratory. They even have some missiles that detect heat, no hoverboard can get close to her without activating them" There was bitterness in Ekko's voice, he also emphasized the word "you" in that sentence. Unlike many in Zaun, Ekko didn't like Viktor but that didn't mean he agreed with the things Jayce did to him.
"Give me a break, you think it's my fault he joined her. He brought it on himself, he was the one that- "
"Calm down ladies, can we concentrate on what matters. What do you have in mind Ekko? We can't go where she is, but is there anything else we can do?" Vi was angry at both of them. She didn't know much about Viktor and didn't care either. All she cared about was their next move and doing it as fast as possible.
"There is a small town in the Sump level, one firelight that went there said it looked good. Most towns that work for Renata have goons of her coming and leaving, this one didn't have any. He only looked at it from far away, so we don't know how good that information is. Still, it is our only choice" Ekko said while looking at Vi. He was still angry at Jayce but not enough to risk annoying Vi.
"How low in the Sumps is it?" Vi went to the Sumps once and she knew the air there only got worse the lower you went. It gets to a point where almost no one can't breathe, even those who lived low enough developed breathing diseases at an early age.
"We'll need some helmets, I have some but I still need to fix them. First, though, I need to see someone else. I've been in contact with Jinx for the past few months and- "
"You what?!" Vi screamed. She wasn't just annoyed anymore, she was furious. She couldn't believe what Ekko was saying. "I've asked you for her hundreds of times and you always said you didn't know where she was. Why did you lie to me?"
Vi had been looking for Jinx with the enforcers for years and all this time Ekko could've told her. So much damage could've been avoided if he said where she was, they could've gotten her the help she needed. She felt betrayed by him, this was her sister they were talking about. Ekko knew how much Vi cared about finding her and never told her about this.
"Why would I? So that you could lock her in Stillwater?" Vi was surprised by this response. She knew Ekko and Powder used to be friends, she thought that ended when she turned into Jinx. She had killed several of his friends and Vi thought he still hated her for it.
"Ekko, she is a criminal. Did you forget what she did? She blew up the council, for crying out loud!" Jayce said. He was also angry, almost as much as Vi. His reasons were different to her, he hated Jinx and didn't want her to work with them. All he could think of when he heard her name was the actions she made and Mel, who died thanks to her attack at the council. The attacked that later lead to the militarization of the enforcers.
"She murdered people I cared about too. Even if you don't like her, she knows people that can help us. I'll remind you that she worked for Silco, many of his people are still alive and don't work for Renata" Ekko was right about that. Jinx knew many in Zaun and most she met thanks to her time spent with Silco. However, he also thought of her as a changed person and not the same girl that killed her friends.
"Where is she? I want to go too, let me speak with her" Vi said to Ekko. She was still angry but wouldn't pass on the opportunity to speak with her sister. All Vi heard of Jinx were insults and all she saw was her running away after destroying something. She never got a chance to say anything to her.
"I don't think that is a good idea… let's just say she is not ready to see you" Ekko said, trying to be as nice as possible. He thought about having Jinx meet Vi several times, but he never got the idea across her without she getting angry at him. From her point of view Vi was only a traitor and she didn't want anything to do with her.
"Can I go?" asked Jayce. Ekko was surprised by this, he couldn't understand. Why would Jayce want to go with him?
"Why do you want to see her? Wasn't she a criminal?"
"I just want to ask her some questions, that's it"
"Then you can come if you want, I don't think she even knows you" Ekko couldn't tell Jayce intentions, but it didn't matter. He had the Z-Drive and could go back if he did something to her. Besides, he would talk with her eventually. It was better to do it now and not delay the inevitable.
Jayce went towards his hammer and got ready to pick it up. He didn't know what Zaun was like and he wanted to be ready for the worst. The last time he went was when he destroyed one of Silco's shimmer production facilities. Then he only heard of the city from reports, and he stopped receiving them once he left the council. This meant he knew nothing about Zaun besides the worst parts of it.
"Leave that, you won't need it" Ekko said when he noticed what Jayce was doing.
"What if someone attacks us?"
"I already have my weapons. Besides, if you bring it Jinx will attack you too" Ekko knew Jinx better than anyone. He visited her several times in the last months, he was the only person Jinx would tell where she was moving next. She never stayed in the same place for too long, she said the places became haunted. Ekko knew better than just believing the first thing she said, she was probably too paranoid and no longer felt safe there.
He decided to talk with her again after Heimerdinger went back to Piltover. The professor changed the way he thought about many people, especially those in Piltover. He opened his eyes to how ignorant the people up there were, Ekko used to think they were just evil and didn't care about Zaunites. Some of them were evil, but most were just ignorant and didn't know better. This also made him see Jinx with new eyes, especially after her suicide attempt when they fought in the bridge. He started to think of her as a victim of her circumstances. He liked to think that her bad behavior was mostly learned from Silco and she wasn't deep down like that.
He first spoke with her when they ran into each other, they mostly met in the scrapyard. Then he tried to see her more and asked her where she lived. This changed the way they met and Ekko started to visit her at her own hose, or what was her house at the time. Some of the places she lived in were abandoned factories, the scrapyard and she once lived in small floating house. She seemed to like being close to the river for some reason.
With time their relationship got better but it wasn't the same as before. She no longer attacked the firelights and even apologized to Ekko about the things she did to him. This was progress and he was happy that she was getting better. However, some bad things about her didn't change and Ekko didn't know if they would ever dissapear. She never stopped building weapons and using them against Piltover. She didn't have a plan or goal now, she just liked the chaos her weapons caused. She also still hated Vi, Ekko thought that this was the reason she attacked Piltover in the first place.
Ekko and Jayce began to walk along the river, almost nobody was there. The level of toxicity in the water of the river was well known in Zaun and very few actually spent time close to it. There were some old factories, most were built before the discovery of Chemtech. This meant those factories had to rely on other technologies for energy, such as watermills or steam. The last time Ekko saw Jinx she was in one of these factories and he was hoping she was still there.
"Jinx is not alone, she has a… friend" Ekko said to Jayce. Jinx never said what Ziggs was to her, she seemed to think of him as a pet more than anything. Ziggs didn't seem to like that, but he stayed with Jinx anyway. "It is a Yordle, don't get scared if he appears out of nowhere. You may even know him, he says he used to work with Heimerdinger"
"I heard of some new apprentices he had but I never met them. I left the Academy and lost contact with him" Jayce left the Academy shortly after Viktor did, the place became hell when he left. He didn't agree with Viktor choices, but he was right about the place being unfixable. Everyone, from the students to the teacher, were ready to stab you in the back if it was good for them. Working with the Ferros had some disadvantages, but at least his coworkers betraying you wasn't one of them. It also reminded him too much about the friend he lost, it was depressing.
"This is the place" Ekko stopped walking in front of an old factory. It had a watermill that no longer moved. He then pulled the cord of the Z-Drive, after doing it his face changed. He was now angry and looked a Jayce like he just did something terrible.
"Is there something wrong?"
"Yes, this time you stay here and wait for me to leave. Don't ask her loaded questions, ok? You'll just upset her" said Ekko while entering alone. Jayce did what he said, although he didn't understand what happened. He didn't know about the Z-Drive and that Ekko could travel back in time, so for him this didn't make any sense. How did Ekko knew about the questions he wanted to ask? What made him angry?
