I smell the cauldron boiling under the green light of my home... The scent is perfect as they begin to blend into a deep green. I have to maintain this temperature lest I want the magic to leak out! I take a handful of casks and put them in. I counted 5. For 5 brilliant subjects loyal to the sewer king! Subjects that SHOULD be loyal! This will be good for now. I'll make more eventually, but time is running short for me. I put 4 of them on my back and 1 of them on my crossbow for safety measures. Just in case they wanted to reject MY peaceful and ultimately better offers. Now it's only a matter of finding just where they are.

"Roachmen!" I shout frantically, clawing on the walls heavily for one of them to pop out. By my command, one did. It simply looked at me for the cracks. I swipe him in my hand quickly and wrapped him in a fist. "You.. You saw him, yes!?" I ask. "Tell me where he went... My first subject!" The roach squeaks frantically as it tries to escape. "Hm.. What? He's with the Goopy One?" My hand loosens in disbelief. The roach roams free, but stays on my fingers. "So.. he was telling the truth.." I look into the potion deeply. I turn to see ZAC's little trash-bag bed in the corner of the lair with some of his weird posters from the surface. The bed wasn't made and it's an utter mess. Dust and rat bones piled all over the place and my test potions leaked on some of his famed "heroes". Usually he would be one to clean things up...

"What.. what day is it? How many had past?" I ask.

The roach peeped. I step back. "A week... A WEEK!?" I shout in disbelief. "He... He left me!" I pause for a moment. "He's trying to take MY subject away! MY plague rat!" I try to think of the many excuse he would've had. Nothing came up, all that came up was the potions.. The hard work that was put it. The hard work grows heavy in my beady eyes. I never slept for days! I've always slept when ZAC introduced it to me, but NOW I worked every hour, every minute, EVERY SECOND; it MUST work! It's all in my grasp, but he took it away! I look back at my beloved work with my sweat and tears and cackle at its glow. "Hehe.. Heh.. He's my friend.. My subject. He wouldn't do this to me! HE CAN'T! He's mine! yes? MINE! Hehe..HAHAH! Even if he did.. I can just get him back. I can get him back with MY creation!" I huff, feeling my voice crack. The roach looks at me suspciously I see it in his small eyes!

"SHUT UP! This.. this is for the greater good! They'll be better with ME as ruler! ME under their helm! Those two have NOWHERE TO GO! They just don't realize it yet.. They don't understand it.. but they will eventually.." I pat the potions on my back as I giggled. "Now.. do as your sewer king commands: tell me.. where did they run to?"

Click!

The lock's broken. I took my green key-shaped hand out of the keyhole and transformed it back to a normal looking hand. I walk in, feeling the fresh green air blowing across my head. It always feels nice to go in here to take a break, but I shouldn't stay here for long; someone's waiting for food back at the house. I look over the numerous exotic fruits and vegetables as if it was a grocery shop. I held the apples, dragon fruits, durians.. all of them and held it to my nose. Scratch likes soft fruits; his teeth are pretty misshapen, and he likes sweets like me. Let's just hope he doesn't barf the food out like next time. Any fruit I found is put into a bag I carried on my arm. Apples.. Oranges.. some lettuce and broccoli for health...

As I continue collecting, I always find myself distracted by the cultivair's beauty, both inside and outside. The plants were always exotic and interesting, containing all forms of colors I can never imagine and the cultivair is positioned on a small cliff above the city of Zaun. I press myself on to the glass dome and watch the sparkles of yellow and green sprinkled across the depths of the canyon underneath Piltover. Within those lights, I hear pleasant street music and heartwarming conversations and family reunions after a hard day's work. I could smell the foods from all walks of life: Demacia and Noxus and Ionian..

CRREEEAK!

I freeze in my tracks. The door's opened again. I quickly went to the nearest pipe that supplies the plants the water they need. I move through the cracks into the pipes. I hear the thud of the bag of fruits as I transition in. It's bound to be found. It's impossible to shove foods in a pipe.. I look through the cracks, spying on the bag of fruit closely. I hear footsteps on the grass as well as some grunts, but no shadow and no figure found. The rustling of grass became louder and louder. I need to leave. Find another cultivair. I wiggle towards the exit, but I found something crawling in my skin, a bug.

The figure shoots at the very pipe I was in. I jump out, hearing the water begin to burst behind me in a spray of water.

"There you are.. I figured you would be here.. Of all the places.." Twitch growls.

I turn my head to look forward. I see the rat's pink eyes glaring at me with hate and his crossbow pointed directly at my eyes. Behind him lies the mansion that owns the cultivair and whose shadow envelops the city. "What are you doing here Twitch?" I ask. "I'm just getting some food. I know how much you hate fresh fruits, so it can't be that reason."

"Don't you toy with me goop!" Twitch shouts. "I KNOW you have what I need!" He paused. "Listen to the sewer king.. Tell me where he is!?"

"Why should I, pal?" I respond. "He's not your weapon."

"No.. He's my SUBJECT! And I want my subject with ME! Where else can he go? HM?"

"I don't know about you, but anywhere that's not around you would be nice."

"Oh really?" Twitch huffs as he puts his crossbow up and points to something behind me. "So you think that he would be safe over THERE! In the surface!"

I turn around, looking back at the yellow and green sparkles in the darkness.

"The roaches tell me of the surface all the time.. Of murder.. Of experimentation.. Of monsters.. and Scratch would be better off there!? Hmph! You know it... You've seen it.. You've felt it! He's netter with me.."

I didn't move. I couldn't move..

I barely hear the sound of his footsteps as the plague rat approached closer to me as my mind was preoccupied by what was between those lights.

"Listen.." Twitch grumbles in a much softer, worrisome voice. "These humans.. They're murderous creatures with no control. ALWAYS stealing from ME and you.. Always playing you the puppet! But I can fix it when I rule.. Yes.. I have the potion to do it! For them to listen to me.. For them to obey me.. My future subjects won't steal! My slaves won't falter! Won't leave! Not when Twitch makes the rules! Everyone's safe.. Subjects need rulers to follow.. I just need this first step.. I need my new subject to be safe and obedient.. Where is he?"

I look back at the glimmers in the darkness and imagine the happiness and joy around it. For it to be taken away... For Scratch to be taken away..

"No..." I growl.

"What!?"

"I said.. no pal. And that's the last I'll hear of it. He's not something for you to use. Seems like rulers need subjects to obey, not the other way around." I pick up my bag across the fields of grass. I didn't even give the rat a glance; I already imagined his pitiful face. it makes me angry thinking about it. I held way too long at hope for the little guy. "Just go back to your millions of roaches and play king there, okay? I'm not playing your sick game anymore." I begin to head out to the door.

"This isn't a game! I AM the sewer king! You're.. you're my subject! What the surface considers 'friends'! I-I have more of my obedience potion.. I can get you too! We can be friends again!" I stop, but only slightly before walking my path again, resisting the urge to punch him. Seems like the definition of "friends" is foreign to Twitch, but suddenly, I hear the familiar metal rustle coming off his back. The strings whirring back to release the arrow. I turned around.. "T-then if you won't let me take this first step with me... then let the sewer king do it himself!" The arrow fired, but only pierced through the outer layer of my skin. I could feel the serum trying to pull through, but it's nothing more than another delusional experiment.

I couldn't control myself. I rushed to Twitch and slammed him on the glass dome. The rat begs me to stop, tries to command me to put me down, but none of it worked. His arms squirmed tirelessly in my hands as I looked down at the nervous cowardly wretch as he closed his eyes in fear and agony. There's something cathartic seeing him this way. He sees everything as objects and weapons and tools and things to be used. My hands grew attracted at the throat where he breathes. I feel the air going through rapidly and rapidly as my fingers held it. "Seems like your potion didn't work pal.. If you think I'M gonna be a weapon, you have another thing coming.."

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The security alarm of the entire facility goes off. All my anger dissipated to shock as I look up and see the flashing lights of the chem baron's mansion go off. My hands drop Twitch to reveal cracked glass where I pressed him on. I press my hand on my handiwork on this faint mirror, feeling the blunt and brash damage I've caused as Zaun glimmers from behind with what little light it had. I look back. Twitch is gone. Blight light rays and the clanking of augmented feet take his place. I turn back to the glass, feeling the frailness of it... How fast it could shatter.. No. I'm better than that.

I seep through the cracks, leaving the fruit behind and never turning back.