Crescendo, Chapter VIII:

More than enough to do

The sun had not yet risen over the streets of Zaun, it was somewhere between late at night and early morning. The night life of the city had come to a close and even most of the gangs had called it a night, and it wouldn't be until in an hour or so that the early risers would begin to roam the lanes. It was by far the most peaceful time of the day in the lower city.

Vi stood in silence before the mural in honour of her little sister, illuminated by two lanterns bathing it in a soft blue light. It was almost the same depiction she had seen at different walls in the lower city. Jinx standing tall, lifting a blue signal torch, her blue hair – in contrast to other drawings- not pulled into two long braids behind her, but cut short and with a long pink streak. Vi's eyes focused on the torch she was holding. People liked to read into itand see it as a sign of Zaun's freedom from oppression, sometimes replacing it with a blue flag. For Vi it was a reminder of a promise she once gave. A promise to find her sister if she needed her, to be there for her no matter what. She lost track of how many times she had broken that promise. A tear rolled down her cheek and she angrily wiped it away as footsteps slowly approached from behind her.

"You pick the worst times to meet, you know that?" She chuckled quietly at the annoyance in the newcomer's voice.

"Good to see you, little man."

Ekko came to a halt next to her, a tired look on his face. She didn't look any better she supposed. The last few weeks had beenfull of work. And a lot to deal with. She nodded towards the mural.

"Didn't know they made one here as well."

The young man gave a small shrug. "Figured she'd have liked to be close to him." he said while pointing over his shoulder towards the statue of her adoptive father. She couldn't help but smile.

"She would have loved it. And so would he." Ekko nodded to himself slowly, before looking over at her, concern in his eyes.

"How are you holding up?" She gave a joyless laugh in response.

"About as good as everyone else I think. Been keeping myself busy trying to help where I can. What about you?" He gave a small shrug before answering.

"Pretty much the same, honestly. Gods know there's more than enough to do."

"How are things down here?"Her friend moved his hand in a so-so gesture.

"The invasion only really hit Piltover, so there's not a lot of repairing to do. We've been taking down the checkpoints and trying to dismantle what's left of Silco's empire. There are still skirmishes between the chembarons though, they are trying to regain their power aggressively. Then there's all these weird magical awakenings." Vi nodded, that had been an issue in Piltover as well. In the two weeks since the battle more and more people had developed magical abilities. While that didn't sound too bad, many of the affected panicked and ended up hurting themselves or others. She had spent most of her time knocking some poor souls unconscious before they could accidentally explode themselves and bringing them to the academy, where the remaining scientists tried to make sense of it all.

"How many cases did you have here?" she asked her younger friend.

"Hard to tell, there were many that we couldn't help in time and probably a few that we never learned about. Maybe about two dozen?" That was comparable to the numbers in Piltover then.

"You know you can send them to the academy as well, right? Sevika made sure to remind them about welcoming affected people from the lower city." Vi had her reservations about Silco's former right hand being part of the council, but she had to admit the woman had done a good job as Zaun's first council member so far.

"Yeah, we did send a few over. Most of them refused though." She didn't have to ask why. Relations between the upper and lower city had improved, fighting a common enemy side by side. But now that common enemy had disappeared, and people down here hadn't forgotten the weeks of suffering under Pilover's martial law.

"I talked with Cait about giving a formal apology. She agreed it's the right thing to do, but she's still busy putting out fires left and right and wants to take the time to get it right." Ekko took a deep breath and nodded.

"That's good. I'm worried that people might get impatient if things don't change fast enough or if they feel like the lower city's being left behind again. If the upper city doesn't show efforts to improve things down here it'll just be a matter of time before the next Silco rises up."

A long silenced stretched between the two of them. She knew that Zaun expected Piltover to take the next step towards them after everything that had happened, and rightly so. She just didn't know what she could do to help the situation. These weren't exactly problems she could punch her way through.

"I assume you heard about the council's decision to strike a deal with Glasc Industries?" The young firelight shook his head in frustration at the question.

"I heard about it, alright. People down here can't believe the council would side with one of the people that exploited us for years. Why would they think it's a good idea?" he looked at her accusingly and she sighed before answering.

"Because the city is in ruins and the power used to run and finance the city in the past years has ceased to exist. The council is trying to find a solution-"

"So they turn to a chembaron? They are the reason things in Zaun ever got this bad." He paused for a moment to drag a hand across his face. "Why would she even want to work with Piltover? She hates them just as much as Silco did. Did Sevika agree to this?" Vi gave the boy a moment to calm down before replying.

"From what Cait told me she's not too happy about it, mostly 'cause she thinks upper city is gonna rip us off again. What can you tell me about Renata Glasc?" Ekko looked at her in confusion.

"Not more than anyone else in Zaun, why?"

"Cause I've been locked away in prison for seven years and have no idea who she is." Vi deadpanned.

"Oh right, sorry." Ekko slowly stepped towards the mural and sat down against the wall, Vi sitting down next to her friend.

"As far as I know she started out as some small business partner from one of the chembarons when we were kids. Her business boomed when Silco took over and the demand for shimmer increased hundredfolds. She always kept in the back though, didn't want to be seen as a chembaron but instead as a business woman. Like that would make her any better." The young man laughed dryly. "I'm not sure about the situation now, but with Silco and Smeech gone, and the other two ripping each other's empires apart, she can pretty much take over."

"I can't imagine she'll be worse for the lanes than Silco."

"I'm not so sure." The brawler gave a questioning look, so Ekko continued. "Silco was a tyrant, sure. But his obsession with creating an independent nation meant that he always had to deal with Piltover and their enforcers. If Glasc manages to pull the upper city on her side and claims she just wants to do business, who's to stop her from doing whatever she wants. That 'business' is still shimmer, Vi. People die from it or it's side effects every day down here." The young woman nodded somberly, she had seen what shimmer could do to people when Silco let it run rampart.

"I'll try and talk with Cait again, maybe she can get the council to change their mind." she tried. If the threat of another uprising in the lower city didn't affect their decision, nothing would. Vi shook her head for a moment in frustration, before gathering her thoughts.

"Any news about Reveck?" The face of her friend was answer enough even before he started talking.

"He left his old hiding place. We looked through half of Zaun, but in the current chaos it's hard to focus on the search. I hate to say it, but it would be a lot easier with some of your enforcer friends helping us."

"Hah, they wouldn't get far right now. Best case scenario the people would just chase them back over the bridge." They both chuckled quietly at the idea. After a moment, Ekko spoke up hesitantly.

"One of the firelights did tell me about some shimmer residue he found, deep within the sewers." Vi turned to him wide-eyed.

"Of course! He couldn't hide anywhere within the city so he went even further below. Did you check it out?" His expression seemed conflicted, which didn't make any sense. This could be the first real lead they had on the bastard since he disappeared weeks ago.

"He didn't exactly tell me about it as much as I peaced it together from his incoherent screaming. He was shouting about how death was coming for us all, about how it was roaming down below. Right before he died from the gunshot wound through his stomach. That was three days ago. We didn't check it out since then, people are too scared."

Vi swallowed hard at her friends stony-faced expression, the tear rolling down his face being the only sign of emotion.

"I'm sorry." It was all she could say as she pulled him into a small hug. Ekko gave a shrug as he wiped away some tears.

"Not the first time I buried a friend. Gotta keep trying to help the ones I still have." His hesitation started to make sense.

"You're worried I'll head down there." she stated, to which he gave a small lopsided smile.

"You wanna tell me that's not exactly what you're going to do?" She slowly pushed herself off the ground, looking down on her friend.

"Seems like the right thing to do. No matter if it's Reveck or not, if there's something down there that's hurting people then I have to check it out."

"When did you become so much of an altruist?"

She looked up at the mural for a moment, images of her sister sacrificing herself to save her life.

"About two weeks ago."

Ekko stood back up to face her, staring her down for a moment before shaking his head with a sigh.

"Fine. But we need more information first." Vi raised an eyebrow at the young man.

"We?"

"You think I'm gonna let you go down there on your own after what I just told you?" She couldn't help but smile.

"Well, if you insist." He rolled his eyes as she continued. "I could ask Cait about the sewers later today. Her family helped build the ventilation system, maybe they were involved with the sever system as well. It could give us an idea of where to start."

"Good idea. I'll ask around if anyone's been down there recently or heard anything. Maybe I can give us at least a clue of what's down there. We can meet back here tomorrow to discuss the plan."

The brawler simply gave a thumbs up and, with a last glance at the mural, slowly made to leave, when Ekko called back to her.

"Hey Violet." she turned back, surprised at hearing him say her full name, and saw him look at her with a complicated expression on his face.

"It was good to see you again." She shot him a lopsided smile before beginning to walk off once again.

"Anytime you want, little man. You know where to find me."

With these final parting words she rounded the corner and began to walk back towards the bridge of progress, her mind swirling with all the things she needed to take care of.

When the battle ended and all the puppets had fallen to the ground lifelessly, everyone had thought it was over. Then, a few days later, the first people developed magical abilities, usually accompanied by severe pain, confusion and fear. It soon became clear that something the two scientists did during their final moments caused some kind of "magic pulse" as the academy eggheads described it, that awakened dormant magical abilities within people. The vast majority of the affected people had no idea they even had abilities to begin with, or thought they were nothing more then helpful little tricks. Now, the city that once tried to control and harness magic was threatened to being overrun by dozens of powerful mages that couldn't control their abilities. Within days fear began to spread, and people began to demand these mages be exiled from the city. Vi shook her head angrily at the thought. As if these poor souls asked for any of this.

In order to both calm the public and save the awakened from themselves, the council decided to send the enforcers in Piltover to try and subdue any newly awakened before they could cause harm to themselves or others. Since Vi was technically still an enforcer, Cait had asked her if she wanted to help. She didn't fully know why she agreed. Maybe she thought herself partially responsible for what happened. Or maybe she just needed something to distract her so she wouldn't go crazy.

What had started as a peaceful attempt to subdue some hurting individuals quickly turned into fullblown battles against powerful mages that had lost control. She lost count of how many innocent people she had to knock out this past week, just to ensure they wouldn't accidentally kill anyone.

As she reached the bridge of progress her mind wandered to what Ekko had told her earlier and it sent shivers down her spine. Was this another consequence of whatever happened with Viktor and Jayce? First people began to develop magic abilities, then they rose from the dead? Or – as she remembered how Vander had been changed – could this have been Revecks doing after all? From what Caitlyn had told her, he had been obsessed with the idea of reviving his own daughter. Could this be another of his experiments? There was also the option that this wasn't anything but the manic muttering of someone on their deathbed and the past weeks had made her far too paranoid. Vi rolled her shoulders as she couldn't shake the feeling of unease. She would have to check it out either way, if only to make sure the next apocalyptic event wasn't brewing underneath them.

She had crossed the bridge a few moments ago and was walking through the busy early morning streets of Piltover. It had surprised her the first time she saw how many people were on the streets this early in the morning in the city of progress. In comparison Zaun had always seemed like more of a night owl.

As she squeezed past a cart carrying construction material for some of the destroyed areas, a scream tore through the crowd. It was a scream of pain and panic that Vi had heard many times recently.

Oh, don't fucking tell me...

Without a moment of hesitation she began rushing towards the source, even as more shouts and screams rose up and the crowd of people tried to get away from the commotion. As Vi pushed through the crowd the air seemed to get colder with every step she took to the point where she could see her breath. It didn't take long for her to find out why, for when she reached the cause of the commotion she saw a man kneeling in the middle of the street, screaming at the top of his lungs as he quickly disappeared from view with large, sharp shards of ice beginning to rapidly grow outwards from his location, covering him entirely. Closely around him she could vaguely make out the shapes of other people who seemed to have been too close at the moment of awakening and were almost fully encased in ice. Multiple others appeared to have been partly caught and were now unable to run, shouting for help or screaming in pain from the frostbite. It was chaos.

Vi skidded to a halt and threw herself to the side as an icicle roughly the size of her arm threatened to impale her, before trying not to slide off her feet on the street that continued to freeze over. She needed to stop this guy as fast as possible. Half sprinting, half sliding over the ice, she rushed towards the wailing awakened, dodging the icy blades as quickly as she could. He made no effort to stop her in her advance, too preoccupied with his own agony to even notice her. As she got closer however, more and more shards seemingly grew from the ground at random. Vi had to leap to the side, push herself off the side of another icicle to try and readjust her direction or leap over the newly appearing shards, significantly slowing her down.

When she got within 5 meters of her target she could feel her lungs burn from the icy air every time she took a breath. She leapt from one shard to another, ignoring the cuts to her hands and shins as she slowly climbed through the giant ice cage the man had created. She narrowly escaped impalement a handful of times, inching towards the mage, before after what felt like minutes she finally caught sight of him again. He still cowered down in the middle of his fortress. His screams had mostly subsided, replaced by pained gasps and whispers, as he no doubt tried to regain control over himself. Vi hopped down from the last wall of defense and landed in front of him, finally causing him to look up. The pain and confusion was etched into his face, as frozen tears clung to his cheeks and steam rose up from his entire body. His eyes were glazed over and seemed to stare right through her.

"Please ... M-make this stop!" he whispered. Vi hesitated for just a second, before raising her fists in a protective position in front of her face and stepping forward, prepared to deliver a blow to the poor guy's temple. As much as she wanted to calm him down and resolve this peacefully, that would take time. Time that the people currently freezing to death around them didn't have.

Sorry buddy, this is for your own good.

As her right fist impacted with his head she prepared for the all too familiar pain, but still recoiled in surprise when her entire arm shook like she just hit a brick wall. His skin looked to be covered in a protective layer of ice, thick enough to negate the impact of her punch. Pulling her aching arm back,she noticed small cracks in the shield however. It almost looked like a cobweb stretching out from the side of his face. With enough force she might be able to break through it.

Here's hoping I don't break him in the process.

Dodging around newly growing icy daggers, Vi started to feel her movements becoming slower. The adrenaline had kept her from feeling the intense cold too much, but it didn't shield her body against it. If she didn't take this guy down quickly, she might pass out from hypothermia soon. Unfortunately for him, she couldn't afford to hold back.

Her fists impacted his ice shield once, twice and a third time. Shards of ice sprayed from the impacts and her involuntary opponent stumbled back, his mouth opening in a silent cry. Just as Vi made to continue her barrage however, she felt a wave of fatigue wash over her.

Calm.

The word echoed through her mind. She unclenched her fists and lowered them to her sides. Yeah, she should calm down, shouldn't she? Blindly charging this poor man wouldn't help anyone, they should both just calm ...

Wait, what was she thinking? No way could she stop now. She looked back at the mage, whose eyes seemed to have somewhat refocused and raised a fist again.

Calm down.

Vi dropped to her knees as all the energy seemed to have been pulled from her. With great effort did she look at her opponent, just to see him fall on the floor, eyes almost fluttering close. Was somebody helping her, or attacking both of them? She tried to force herself back onher feet, but to no avail. The cold had already weakened her, and whatever this was had robbed her of any ability to fight back. Despite these thoughts, she couldn't help but feel strangely calm. Whatever it was, she was sure it was going to be fine.

Rest.

Her eyelids began to close, despite her best efforts to keep them open. Her face met the floor rather unceremoniously, as the world around her began to fade away. The last thing she saw before consciousness left her was a slim silhouette entering their former battleground, framed by long flowing pink hair.


Authors Note:

Hello again and thank you for reading all the way through chapter eight. I thought it was about time to give Piltover and Zaun some attention, but don't worry, we'll be back to Jinx and friends soon enough. I tried my best with the conversation between Vi and Ekko, rewriting it multiple times, but as it turns out writing naturally flowing conversations isn't exactly my strong suit. Guess I'll keep on trying until I improve! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and I would love to hear your opinions. Have a great day and I'll see you next chapter! Also obvious disclaimer, I do not own Arcane, League of Legends or any of their characters, they belong to Riot Games.