The following hours in the workshop turned into an exercise in domestic surrealism. Caitlyn Kiramman, daughter of one of Piltover's noble houses and a promising Enforcer cadet, found herself relegated to the role of inconvenient furniture—bound and stranded in the personal madhouse of her captors.
As a trained Enforcer, inaction was not in her DNA. She tried logic.
"Listen," she said, her voice resonating with an authority that sounded absurd as she sat on the floor. "You're making a serious mistake. Keeping me here will only worsen your situation. If you release me now, I can testify that you cooperated. I could reduce your sentence."
Kaen, who was in the middle of teaching Mylo's dummy the basic chords on his bass (holding the instrument against the lifeless mannequin), looked up."Reduce our sentence?" he repeated, his voice flat. "But we haven't been convicted. In fact, we haven't even been formally charged. Your logic is flawed. You're trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist yet. It's like buying an umbrella in the middle of a drought."
Caitlyn blinked. "But you will be charged. You're criminals!"
"I'm an artist," Kaen corrected. "She"—he pointed at Jinx with the bass neck—"is a pyrotechnic engineer. We're entrepreneurs. Your captivity isn't a crime, it's a… forced artist residency. You're here to expand your cultural horizons."
Frustrated, Caitlyn tried force. She waited until Kaen was distracted and Jinx was on the far side of the room. With a quick motion, she pushed with her legs, attempting to topple a stack of scrap boxes to create a distraction.
Before she could finish the movement, a hand gently pressed down on her shoulder, stopping her cold. Kaen stood over her, having moved from the far end of the room in absolute silence and impossible speed. His strength wasn't crushing, but immovable.
"Please don't mess with the space," he said, his voice flat. "The chaos here is carefully organized. If you start knocking things over, you'll ruin the artistic feng shui."
After that failed attempt, Jinx, laughing, swapped Caitlyn's ropes for metal chains. They weren't painful, but they were undeniably more secure.
The dynamic between the two girls began to shift. With Kaen's strangely validating presence, Jinx stopped seeing Caitlyn as an immediate threat. Instead, she became a curiosity. A little Piltie pet.
She sat across from her, juggling the Hextech gem, the blue light dancing in her eyes.
"So," she would begin, her tone a mix of mockery and genuine childlike curiosity. "The Enforcer. Is it fun? Pointing your stupid rifle at people?"
"It's keeping the peace," Caitlyn answered stiffly.
"Peace?" Jinx laughed, a sharp sound. "Up there, maybe. Down here, that's called oppression." She paused, the gem stilled in her hand. "Why was she with you? Vi?"
"I already told you," Caitlyn said, trying to find common ground. "She came back for you."
"Liar!" Jinx snapped, her mood flipping in an instant. "She came back for you! And for this!" She raised the gem. But the anger didn't last. It vanished as quickly as it had come, replaced by a crooked grin. "Do you like it? She… she used to like blue."
As this bizarre interrogation went on, Kaen played the role of madhouse host. At one point, he disappeared and returned with two obviously stolen rat skewers. He offered one to Caitlyn.
"Eat," he said. "A well-fed hostage is less prone to despair and therefore less noisy. Besides, you need to try the local cuisine. It's… rustic."
Caitlyn stared at him in horror. "I am not eating that."
Kaen shrugged and ate both himself.
"That brown jacket," he said, eyeing her critically. "It has potential. But it needs more… personality. A few graffiti smiley monkeys, maybe some shoulder pads made of rusty gears. We could give you a makeover."
Caitlyn just shut her eyes, wishing the floor would swallow her. But she realized that without this idiot, Jinx probably would've already tested one of her bombs on her. He was the anchor keeping Jinx afloat in a sea of relative sanity. Kaen was a shield.
------
It was during one of Jinx's breaks from tinkering with the gem that something new happened. She was sitting near the couch, the gem in her hand, while Kaen stood staring at the wall as if in a trance.
Suddenly, Kaen hissed, bringing a hand to his temple. Thin purple veins lit briefly under the pale skin of his neck before fading away.
Caitlyn watched him, confused.
"Dead Fish?" Jinx asked, noticing his strange reaction.
"The hum," he murmured. "It's louder."
It was the same sensation he'd felt in Singed's lab. The pulse. It was calling him, and Kaen's body—some biological antenna—was receiving the signal. And Jinx's gem, so close, seemed to amplify it. The crystal's energy seeped into him, stirring latent adaptations beneath the surface.
"What hum?" Jinx asked, moving closer.
"Up there," he said, vaguely pointing toward Piltover. "Something… is calling. Like a song, but without melody. It's… I need to see it more closely."
Jinx stared at him, her mind racing. Silco had ordered her to turn the gem into a weapon. But Silco had also hidden the truth about Vi. The loyalty that had once been absolute was fractured now by anger and resentment. Why should she rush to make a weapon for a liar?
And now Kaen, her strange partner in chaos, was being pulled toward a mysterious hum. Helping him sounded way more fun than following Silco's orders.
"I'll help you," she said, a mischievous smile forming. "I owe you one."
"Mmm…" he considered. "Fine. I accept your offer. Anyway, it's repayment for helping you steal the gem."
"That's what I said!"
From her spot on the floor, Caitlyn listened to their absurd plan taking shape.
"We can't go back through the lift shaft," Jinx said, sketching an improvised map in the dusty floor. "The Pilties will be watching it. But I know a route through the old aqueducts. It comes out right under the Academy district."
"Sounds damp and unpleasant," Kaen remarked. "Perfect for a stealth adventure. I'll need a disguise. My current outfit is already compromised."
"We can make you a new one! With more snack pockets!" Jinx exclaimed, thrilled.
Caitlyn stared at them, incredulous. They were planning another raid into Piltover with the same seriousness and excitement as two children planning a trip to a candy shop. And she was there, their only audience, a prisoner of their madness. If only she could break free… she could warn everyone. She could stop them.
But for now, all she could do was watch, listen, and wait for an opportunity, trapped in the strange and chaotic orbit of a white-haired gremlin and a girl with bombs.
-------
Vi (who had been stopped from her reckless action by Ekko) was a storm inside. The image of being dragged away from the tower, leaving her sister and the confused Caitlyn behind, replayed in her mind. Every passing second was torture.
She found Ekko in the planning room, an elevated platform near the base of the great tree. A chalk-and-metal map of Zaun sprawled across a large table. Small carved figures marked Silco's goons, patrol routes, and key locations.
"I've been thinking," Vi said, her voice tense and straight to the point. She leaned over the map, her bandaged fists pressing against the table. "Silco. He's got her. He knows where she is."
Ekko looked up from the gear he was cleaning. "Vi…"
"So, what's the plan?" she demanded, her impatience palpable. "We can't just sit here. She's in danger."
"The plan is not to die," Ekko replied calmly, setting the gear down. "Silco isn't Vander. You can't just kick down his door."
Vi straightened, her frustration boiling. "I don't plan to kick the door. I plan to punch through it and beat Silco until his one good eye pops out and he tells me where Powder and Cupcake are."
Ekko sighed, the sound of a weary leader, not a boy. "That's suicide, Vi. The Last Drop is a fortress. His thugs are everywhere, all pumped full of Shimmer. You'd go alone and die. And you wouldn't help your Enforcer friend at all."
"And what do you suggest we do?!" Vi snapped, slamming the table. "Wait? Draw more pretty maps while Silco keeps filling Powder's head with poison?" She leaned close, her face inches from his. "Or have you gotten so used to hiding in your tree that you've turned into a coward, little man?"
The accusation struck Ekko, but he didn't flinch. His gaze hardened. "I'm not a coward. I'm a leader. And unlike you, I think about all these people"—he gestured at the Firelight camp—"before throwing myself into a fight I can't win. That's what you don't understand. It's not just about you and your sister anymore. My choices carry consequences for all of them."
It was their old childhood dynamic, magnified to a deadly scale. Vi, the unstoppable force. Ekko, the calculating brain. But now, the consequence of recklessness wasn't Vander's scolding—it was death for the people who relied on him.
Vi backed away, anger clashing with the truth in his words. She ran a hand through her hair, frustrated. "Fine," she muttered. "Fine, you're right. So what do we do? I can't leave them with Silco."
"We won't," Ekko said, his tone softening. "But we can't go in blind." He turned to the map, strategy taking over. "The white-haired guy. He's the key. He's not one of Silco's usual thugs. He's new. And he was with her. If we find him, we'll find Jinx."
"And how do we find him?" Vi asked. "We know nothing about him."
"Someone does," Ekko said. He called over two Firelights, who approached with silent respect. "Go to the Lanes. Ask about a new guy. Silver hair, violet eyes. Don't be obvious. Just listen."
As his scouts left, Ekko and Vi turned back to the map.
"While we wait," Ekko said, "we need to understand what we're dealing with. This guy… he wasn't normal. I saw it. The way he split that hoverboard—it was like he was made of iron."
---------
The hours that followed were agony for Vi. She watched Ekko organize his people, watched the community he had built. It was impressive. And it only made her feel more guilty for the years she had wasted in Stillwater.
Finally, the scouts returned.
"Not much," one of them said, a girl with burn scars on her arms. "No one knows where he came from. They call him 'the Musician.' They say he's crazy."
"He showed up a few days ago," the other added. "He's been scamming people for food and gears, selling scrap he calls 'art,' and provoking Sevika without getting a scratch."
"Nothing about Silco?" Ekko asked.
"No. He doesn't seem to work for anyone. He acts on his own. People are both afraid of him and find him amusing. He's a weirdo." The first scout paused. "But there's something else. Several witnesses to the 'fight' with Sevika say that Shimmer doesn't seem to affect him the same way. It's like his body… handles it."
Ekko and Vi exchanged a look. Shimmer—the drug that had destroyed so many lives and powered Silco's empire, the very substance the Firelights fought against every day—didn't seem to be a problem for this stranger. That didn't just make him dangerous. It made him terrifying.
"So we've got a bulletproof, Shimmer-proof lunatic who's my sister's new best friend," Vi said, her voice dripping sarcasm. "Great. This just keeps getting better."
"It means he's the centerpiece," Ekko said, his mind already working angles. "Jinx trusts him. If we can get to him, maybe we can get to her. Or at least separate them."
Vi's frustration was about to boil over again. She needed to do something, not just plan. Her eyes swept across the dusty map.
They landed on a faded section—an abandoned warehouse district that hadn't changed in years. A memory surfaced. A punching machine. The sound of her friends' laughter.
"The old arcade," she whispered. "Our old hideout."
Ekko followed her gaze, his own memories stirring. "It's been years. It'll be abandoned."
"Exactly," Vi said, her voice urgent again. "It's the only place she might go. Where no one would think to look." She turned to Ekko, the spark of her old determination back in her eyes. "I'm going there. I have to see."
Ekko considered it. Risky, yes. But it was a calculated move. A tangible lead in a sea of uncertainty.
"Alright," he said. "But you're not going alone. I'm coming with you."