The name hit Jinx like a punch to the gut. Powder. For an instant, her façade cracked. She shrank into herself, a fleeting vulnerability that turned her back into the little girl who had always clung to her sister. Her hand holding Zapper trembled, the gun lowering by a few inches.
Her wide blue eyes locked onto the silhouette emerging from the mist. The fighter's stance. The unmistakable pink hair.
"Vi…?" she whispered, the question barely audible, a fragile sound filled with years of longing.
But the ghosts in her head would not allow that moment of peace.
("It's a trap!") Mylo's voice, always venomous, hissed in her ear. ("She abandoned you! She left you to rot!")
("She never came back for you.") Claggor's voice, deep and disappointed.
The vulnerability on Jinx's face shattered, replaced by a hardened mask of scorn. Jinx straightened, and a sharp, brittle, utterly deranged laugh burst from her lips.
"Powder!" she mocked, her voice now loud, sharp, and venomous. "Still playing ghost games, Vi? How nostalgic! But you're late to the party. Powder went down the drain a long, long time ago." She raised Zapper, aiming straight at her sister's heart. "I'm Jinx!"
The tension on the dock grew so thick it could be cut with a knife. Vi took an instinctive step forward, her face a mixture of pain and desperation. "Powder, please…"
"Don't come any closer!" Jinx screamed.
"Vi, wait!" Ekko grabbed Vi's arm, stopping her. His gaze was fixed not just on Jinx, but on the tall figure who had moved to stand casually by her side.
Kaen Vexis. He had no history with these people. He carried none of the weight of their shared past. His loyalty was simple, indivisible, and entirely with the girl holding the gun.
He physically stepped between the two groups. Not in an aggressive way. He simply moved forward, placing himself slightly in Jinx's line of fire, his back to her, facing Vi and Ekko, as though moderating a heated debate in a social club.
"Well, well," he said, his monotone voice an absurd counterpoint to the deadly tension. "I hate to interrupt such an emotional family reunion, but there are some rules of etiquette we should follow. Did you bring snacks? Because the atmosphere suggests this is going to last a while."
Vi stared at him, bewildered. "Who the hell are you? Get out of my way!"
"I am Kaen Vexis," he introduced himself with a small bow. "The unofficial manager and chief artistic collaborator of Jinx. It is my duty to ensure that all her social interactions occur in a safe and creatively productive environment." His gaze swept over Vi and Ekko. "I understand there's a lot of history here. Drama, betrayal, abandonment… classic material for a fine ballad. But could we please resolve this without resorting to pointless violence? At least not until I've prepared a suitable soundtrack."
"What the hell are you talking about!?" roared Vi, losing her patience. She wanted to run, to cross the space between her and her sister, to shake her, hug her—anything.
Ekko, ever the strategist, placed a hand on Vi's shoulder, holding her back. "Vi, wait. We can't go in blind. And Jinx is armed."
"I don't care!" Vi growled, trying to shake him off. "It's Powder! I have to talk to her!"
"Vi, calm down," Ekko insisted, his grip firm.
It was then, in her attempt to move forward, that Vi's gaze shifted and finally landed on the hooded figure tied and gagged behind Kaen and Jinx. Her eyes widened. The fury and desperation on her face transformed into pure, unfiltered shock.
"Cupcake?"
The concern in her voice was unmistakable. Her focus changed instantly. She had a clear target now, one she could understand, one she could fight for.
"You," Vi hissed, her gaze now fixed on Kaen, all her fury concentrated on him. "What have you done to her?"
Kaen turned slightly to glance at Caitlyn, who was doing her best to look threatening despite being tied up. "You mean my cousin Brunhilda from Noxus?" he asked, his tone one of genuine confusion. "She's in the middle of her 'Empathic Restraint' therapy. She's made great progress. Before, she wouldn't even make eye contact. Now, as you can see, she's far more expressive. Interrupting her now could cause irreparable psychological damage."
That was the last straw. The absurd logic, the casual disregard for Caitlyn's safety, the sheer, shameless insolence. Vi had no patience for games.
"I'm going to kill you," Vi growled, her voice a low, guttural snarl.
She broke free from Ekko's grip and lunged.
No more words. Vi moved like lightning, her bandaged fists flying at Kaen. Ekko shouted a warning, but it was too late.
Kaen saw her coming. And for the first time that night, a genuine, empty, exhilarated smile spread across his face. "Ah," he said, as Vi's first punch flew toward him. "The dance begins."
Vi's fist sliced through the air with piston-like force, a hard strike honed by years of punching the walls of her Stillwater cell, designed to break bones and end fights. It was aimed directly at Kaen's jaw, a blow that should have sent him flying off the dock.
But it didn't connect.
Kaen didn't dodge. He did something far more infuriating. At the last second, he shifted his head slightly to the side, an almost imperceptible movement, and Vi's fist whistled past his ear, grazing only a strand of his silver-white hair. At the same time, his hand shot out, not to strike, but to place his open palm against Vi's back as her own momentum carried her forward. With a gentle push, he redirected her trajectory, sending her stumbling awkwardly ahead.
"An energetic start," Kaen remarked, his monotone voice an absurd contrast to the violence of the moment.
Vi recovered with a growl, spinning on her heels to unleash a flurry of hooks and jabs. She was a whirlwind of fists. Left, right, left. An unrelenting assault, each strike meant to incapacitate. For anyone else, it would have been overwhelming. For Kaen, it was a dance.
He moved with unnatural fluidity. Every time Vi threw a punch, Kaen's hand was there—not to block, but to guide. He deflected a hook with the back of his wrist, redirected a straight punch by nudging her elbow, and ducked under a cross with an inhuman smoothness. He turned Vi's strength against her, making her spin, stumble, and miss. It looked less like a fight and more like a puppeteer manipulating a furious marionette.
"You can do it! You can do it!" Kaen chanted in his monotone as he parried another punch.
"SHUT UP!" Vi roared, launching a low kick at his knee.
Kaen lifted his leg, letting Vi's instep crash into his shin. The sound was a dull CRACK, like wood striking metal. Vi recoiled, limping, a strangled cry of pain in her throat. The kick had hurt her more than it had him.
"Pff…" Kaen snorted, barely suppressing a laugh.
"Damn it! Stop moving and fight!" Vi shouted, massaging her aching foot before charging again, her frustration mounting with every missed strike.
"But we are fighting," Kaen replied, redirecting a left hook that spun her around. "I'm just leading the dance."
While Vi and Kaen were locked in their strange duel, the standoff between Jinx and Ekko exploded. Seeing Vi attack, Ekko knew diplomacy was over. He lunged forward.
Jinx, jolted from her trance at the sight of Vi engaged in an impossible fight, reacted instinctively when she saw Ekko move.
"You!" Jinx hissed, raising Zapper and opening fire. "Always sticking your nose where it doesn't belong!"
Ekko, who had been about to join Vi's fight, was forced to dive aside, bullets shredding the spot he had just occupied.
He moved with the agility forged by years of rooftop surfing through Zaun. Running, leaping, sliding, using the dock's barrels and crates for cover, his slim, agile body moved with lethal purpose.
"Stop hiding, Ekko!" Jinx shouted, chasing him with her shots. "Come out and play!"
"This isn't a game, Jinx!" Ekko's voice rang out from behind rusted scrap as he hurled one of his Firelight discs. It ricocheted, forcing Jinx to leap back and giving him a precious second to close in.
To keep him at bay, Jinx pulled out one of her grenades. She hurled it, and it exploded midair into a massive cloud of sticky, electric-blue paint, coating the surrounding area. Ekko emerged from the haze, his mask smeared blue, but unharmed. He used the smoke screen to press closer, his staff now in hand.
It was a repetition of their childhood, their games of chase in the Lanes—but now the bullets were real, and the stakes were life and death.
Meanwhile, on the periphery of both fights, Caitlyn was waging her own silent, desperate battle. Chaos was her only chance. She was seated on the ground, her hands bound tightly behind her. The chains' metal was cold and unyielding. She looked around frantically. The dock was littered with debris. Bits of metal, rusty nails, sharp edges.
She shuffled backward, moving awkwardly, until her back pressed against a jagged piece of metal protruding from a broken wooden plank. The metal was corroded, with a sharp, serrated edge where it had snapped. Perfect.
With contorted, painful movements, she began to saw the chains against the sharp edge. The sound was a low, grating screech, almost inaudible above the roar of battle. It was slow going.
From the relative safety of his boat, Heimerdinger watched everything with growing alarm. His scientific curiosity had been entirely replaced by horror. He saw Caitlyn's desperate struggle. His instinct to protect the innocent warred with his instinct for self-preservation. With yordle stealth, he slipped over the side of the boat, out of the fighters' line of sight, and began inching toward her, producing a small wire cutter from one of the countless pockets of his vest.
Back in the center of the chaos, Vi's frustration had reached boiling point. The empty smile on Kaen's face, his monotone remarks, the way he treated her like a child throwing a tantrum… it was driving her mad.
Vi was panting, her body bruised from her own deflected strikes. Frustration consumed her. She stopped a few feet away from him.
"Why?" she panted, more to herself than to him. "Why are you with her?"
"Because she's my number one fan," Kaen said, his face expressionless. "Besides, this is more entertaining than anything I've ever seen on TV."
The sheer indifference of his answer broke something in Vi. With one last scream of fury, she lunged—not to punch, but to change tactics. Instead of another flurry of strikes, she feinted a right hook and then ducked low, diving to tackle him, to turn the fight into a dirty brawl where her brute strength could finally overwhelm him.
It was a smart move. But Kaen saw it coming. This time, he didn't deflect. He waited. Just as she was about to collide with him, he prepared to incapacitate her, to end the game.
That's when the buzzing hit him.
Kaen suddenly stiffened. His empty smile vanished. He clutched his temple, his violet eyes flying wide open.
It wasn't buzzing. It was a scream. A silent scream resonating directly in his skull. It came from Piltover, so loud and clear it drowned out everything else. The sounds of the fight, the voices, the entire world faded away.
...
In Viktor's lab, the scientist in his undergarments, his leg now etched with self-inflicted arcane runes, had injected himself with a dose of Shimmer. Singed's science surged through his veins. The purple serum fought against the disease ravaging his cells. With a trembling hand, he cut his palm and pressed it to the pulsing Hexcore. The orb reacted instantly. A blinding light erupted, pure arcane energy flowing into Viktor, rewriting his biology, fusing magic and science into a new and terrifying form of life.
The reaction was cataclysmic.
On Zaun's dock, Kaen Vexis screamed. Not a cry of pain, but of pure overload. His body arched backward, his violet eyes blazing with a light so intense it looked ready to explode. Fine veins of pure, crackling purple energy spread beneath his skin, racing along his arms, his neck, his face. His body, a creation of adaptive science tuned to unnatural frequencies, received the Hexcore's signal as a direct command. The Hextech gem in Jinx's pocket flared brightly in response, radiating palpable heat.
An invisible, immensely powerful shockwave burst from Kaen.
Vi, about to grab him, was hurled backward as if struck by an invisible battering ram, crashing near Ekko. Ekko, who had just dodged another of Jinx's shots, was knocked down by the same force.
Jinx stumbled back, shielding her eyes from her partner's glow. "Kaen!" she screamed—unconsciously, for the first time, using his name, a note of genuine panic in her voice.
Kaen staggered, collapsing to his knees like a puppet with its strings cut, landing heavily, his body trembling uncontrollably as the purple arcs of energy faded.
The shockwave had overturned Heimerdinger's boat, pushing it several meters from shore. The distraction was all Caitlyn needed. With Heimerdinger's help and one final tug, the chains finally gave way, snapping with a metallic crack.
She was free.
She got to her feet, her mind racing. She scanned the scene: Vi dazed, Ekko repositioning, Jinx running to Kaen's side, completely uninterested in the fight. And Heimerdinger, stashing his tools.
"Vi!" Caitlyn shouted.
Vi and Ekko scrambled up, dazed. They saw Caitlyn, free, running toward them.
"Vi, we have to go! Now!" Caitlyn cried, grabbing Vi's arm.
Vi was torn. She looked at her sister, now kneeling beside the white-haired boy, then at Caitlyn.
Jinx, oblivious to everything else, knelt at Kaen's side. "Hey, Dead Fish! What's wrong with you? Get up!" She shook him, her face a mixture of worry and panic. But he only groaned, his eyes unfocused. "What's happening to you? What did they do to you?" she screamed at the air, her anger hunting for a target.
Vi looked at Jinx, vulnerable. She tried to run to her, to comfort her. But…
"Don't come closer!" Jinx screamed, raising Zapper.
Vi froze, hurt by her sister's rejection.
"Powde—"
"Vi!" Ekko urged, spotting Enforcers on the bridge reacting to the chaos. "We're out of time! We have to move!"
Vi hesitated, looking at her sister one last time, the pain of retreat plain on her face. But then she saw Caitlyn, bruised and exhausted. Ekko was right. She grabbed Caitlyn's hand.
The decision was made for her.
"Let's go!"
They ran. Vi, Caitlyn, and Ekko, with Heimerdinger's help, disappeared into Zaun's fog.
The dock was silent, except for the soft sound of water and Kaen's ragged breathing.
Jinx watched her sister and the Enforcer girl all escape. Rage and abandonment warred against her worry for Kaen.
But before she could fire, Kaen coughed. All her focus snapped back to him. "Don't… don't worry," he whispered, his voice a rasp. "Just… a system overload. I need… to reboot. Beep-boop… bip… bip…" he tried to joke.
Jinx, kneeling beside him, brought her trembling hand to his shoulder. The fight, her sister… all of it faded away. The only thing that mattered was the strange, exasperating person who hadn't abandoned her. Her entire world shrank to the figure beside her.
"Hey," she whispered, her voice losing all its hardness, turning small and unusually soft. "Kaen… don't worry. I… I'll get you out of here."
And in the silent mist, under the gaze of the broken moon, Jinx, with a strength she didn't know she had, slid her arms beneath him and helped Kaen to his feet. He was heavy, but she lifted him anyway. Supporting him on her shoulder, she began dragging him toward Heimerdinger's empty boat, which had drifted back to the shore. She helped him aboard and, with trembling hands, started the small engine.
The boat drifted slowly from the bank, disappearing into Zaun's thick fog, carrying the two away from the battle, toward an uncertain fate.