The retreat from the docks was a chaotic blur of adrenaline. Ekko guided them through a maze of alleys and secret passageways Caitlyn never could have imagined existed. Finally, after a descent that felt like it lasted forever, they reached the entrance to the Firelights' refuge.
For Vi, it was a return to a familiar sanctuary. For Caitlyn, it was like stepping into another world. She gasped, her eyes sweeping over the incredible sight of the Firelights' hideout. Moonlight filtered from above, a massive tree grew defiantly at its center, and a makeshift but vibrant community bustled around it. She saw children playing, people repairing equipment, Firelights patrolling on their hoverboards. It was a beacon of hope in a place she had only ever known as a cesspool of crime and despair.
Heimerdinger, who had followed them with surprising agility, stood at her side, his wide eyes filled with awe. His mind, which had catalogued millennia of architecture and civilization, struggled to process the improvised wonder before him.
"Extraordinary!" he murmured, his voice brimming with genuine amazement. He turned to Ekko. "You say all this happened within your brief lifetime? How did you achieve so much, so quickly?"
"You'd be surprised what you can accomplish when your life depends on it," Ekko replied, his tone free of boasting, merely stating a fact.
"It's beautiful," Caitlyn whispered.
The warmth of the moment shattered with harsh reality. "If your people had their way," Ekko said, his gaze hardening as he turned to Caitlyn, "this would be rubble and ashes."
The accusation hit her. "It's a misunderstanding," she said, stepping forward, desperate to bridge the chasm of distrust. "The Enforcers… they believe you work for Silco."
"A misunderstanding?" Ekko shot back, his voice rising with restrained fury. He stepped toward her, his small stature doing nothing to lessen the force of his anger. "Your people hunt us like animals in our own homes. And Silco pays them to do it!"
Caitlyn was bewildered. "That can't be… you're wrong."
"'You're wrong,'" he repeated, his voice a dangerous hiss. "Say it again. I dare you."
"Ekko."
Vi's voice cut between them, low and firm. She stepped between the young leader and the cadet, a human shield. "Enough. She really believes what she says. She's lived her whole life in a gilded cage. She's not your enemy. She's… ignorant."
The insult, though likely true, stung Caitlyn, but she held her ground. She met Ekko's eyes, not with Piltover arrogance, but with a newfound empathy.
"Ekko," she said softly, earnestly. "What they did to you is wrong. You have every right to be angry. I wouldn't blame you." She paused, her gaze sweeping over the community he had built. "But… this is our best chance to clear the air. This city… all of this… needs healing. More than I ever realized." She glanced at Vi, then back at Ekko. "Please. Let me help."
Heimerdinger, who had been watching the exchange with great interest, decided it was time to step in. "Anger is an understandable reaction to injustice, but it rarely produces a constructive solution!" he declared, his small voice ringing with unexpected authority. "The young woman is right. Communication is the first step in repairing any failing structure, be it a bridge or a society."
The professor stepped forward, his presence calming the tension. "I myself am here for a similar reason. After my… forced retirement from the Council, I realized I could not sit idly by while the rift between our two cities grew into an abyss." His gaze landed on Ekko, filled with admiration. "I came to offer my help to the people of the undercity, hoping to share knowledge and foster understanding. Now, I see I have stumbled into something far greater."
Heimerdinger's sincerity, combined with Caitlyn's plea, seemed to disarm Ekko. He let out a long sigh, the fury in his shoulders dissipating into heavy weariness.
"All right," he said at last. "We'll talk. But not out here."
…
Ekko led the group into his planning chamber, the same room where Vi had confronted him earlier. The chalk map still dominated the table, a silent reminder of the war they were fighting.
Once gathered around the table, the atmosphere shifted. Vi leaned against it, arms crossed. Caitlyn, calmer now, took the floor. She was the only one who had spent time with Jinx and Kaen—she was their main source of intel.
"All right," she began, her voice steady, commanding attention. "We need to understand what we're dealing with." She looked from Ekko to Heimerdinger. "I'm the only one who's been with them. I heard their plans."
She took a moment, organizing her thoughts, then laid it all out. The theft, the workshop conversation, their shared obsession with the "art" of chaos. And finally, she got to the most crucial part.
"They plan to return to Piltover," she said, seizing everyone's attention. "Tonight."
"For what?" Ekko asked, eyes locked on her. "To steal more Hextech? To attack the Academy again?"
"No," Caitlyn shook her head. "It's stranger than that. The man, Kaen, feels something. He calls it a 'buzz.' He says it's coming from the Academy, and he's obsessed with finding the source of that signal. That's his mission."
Vi and Ekko exchanged confused looks. It sounded like Shimmer-junkie madness. But Heimerdinger froze. His normally lively, curious face went pale. He stroked his mustache, his genius mind connecting dots at terrifying speed. The buzz. The biological resonance. The Academy district.
"A buzz," the yordle whispered, barely audible. "A Hextech resonance on a biological level…"
"The Hexcore…" he breathed, the word dropping into the room like a stone in a pond. He gripped the table's edge to steady himself.
Ekko and Vi stared at him, baffled.
"The what?" Ekko demanded.
"Viktor's creation," Heimerdinger explained, his voice taut. "A new form of Hextech. One that doesn't just provide power—it learns. It evolves. I warned him. I told Jayce it was dangerous." He turned to Caitlyn, eyes wide with horrified realization. "It's a radical theory! Dangerous! Viktor… what has he done?"
The danger was suddenly much bigger than theft or a pair of criminals. The Hexcore, a technology Heimerdinger had feared, now had some unknown biological component interacting with it from afar. And that biological component was heading straight to the source.
"They don't understand," Heimerdinger said, his voice trembling with centuries of knowledge. "This isn't just a heist. It's an uncontrolled fusion. If that young man makes direct contact with the evolving Hexcore… the outcome is unknown. It could trigger a chain reaction. It could be… an unimaginable catastrophe."
The room went silent. The mission had changed. It was no longer about family disputes or Zaun's struggle. It was about preventing an unthinkable disaster.
"Then what do we do?" Vi asked, her frustration hardening into cold determination. "We can't let them reach that lab."
"We must act, and quickly," Heimerdinger said.
The group looked at one another. They were no longer just a brawler, a resistance leader, an Enforcer, and an exiled scientist. They were an alliance.
"My Firelights and I will stay here," Ekko declared, slipping into the role of general. "We can't leave Zaun unguarded. Silco's still out there. If Jinx and Kaen return, or if Silco makes a move, we'll be ready."
"I have to go to Piltover," Caitlyn said, her sense of duty sharp as glass. "I need to warn Jayce. The Council. My mother. They have to know the true nature of the threat."
Vi stepped to her side. "I'm coming with you," she said without hesitation. "Piltover's where the problem is. And it's my best chance to find Powder… Jinx… before she does something she can't come back from."
"And I…" Heimerdinger said, his voice surprisingly firm, "I must go with the young ones. I must go to Viktor's lab."
All eyes turned to him, startled.
"I am the only one who could possibly understand the true nature of the Hexcore," he explained. "I have seen nations destroyed by a single seed of uncontrolled runic power. I've seen this power in the wrong hands. It corrupts, consumes, and razes civilizations. I must try… to reason with him. Or, if necessary, dismantle it."
The plan was set. A defense in Zaun, a warning in Piltover, and a direct scientific intervention.
Vi and Ekko met at the hideout's exit. They weren't arguing anymore. They looked at each other with the mutual respect of two soldiers heading to different fronts of the same war.
"Be careful up there, Vi," Ekko said. "It's not your turf."
"You too, little man," she replied with a small, bittersweet smile. "Keep them safe."
He nodded. "Always."
A few minutes later, Vi, Caitlyn, and Heimerdinger emerged from a forgotten maintenance tunnel in Zaun's upper levels. Before them, across a gulf of fog and steel, stretched the great bridge to Piltover.
Their path was blocked.
A barricade of Enforcers, larger and more fortified than before, guarded the entrance. The City of Progress was sealed. And they were on the wrong side.
…
Meanwhile, crouched in Piltover's shadows, Kaen Vexis cradled Jinx in his arms, a scene ripped straight from the cover of an absurd romance novel. The night wind whipped his silver-white hair and her long blue braids. The window above seemed like a tiny square of distant darkness—an impossible target for anyone not powered by a cocktail of Shimmer and an ego the size of a planet.
"My number one fan," he murmured, his voice a low whisper heavy with promises. "The show must go on."
And he jumped.
It was an explosion of contained power. His Shimmer-boosted legs tensed and launched him upward in a perfect parabolic arc. Smooth, silent, absurdly graceful. For an instant, they seemed to fly—two anarchic silhouettes etched against the ordered architecture of the Academy.
Jinx, in his arms, let out a startled cry that quickly dissolved into manic laughter. The wind roared in her ears, the city sprawling beneath them in one glorious heartbeat.
They landed on the narrow window ledge with catlike softness, a nearly inaudible impact that barely rattled the glass. Kaen touched down without so much as a wobble. With Jinx still in his arms, he slid the window open one-handed, slipped inside, and set her gently on the lab floor.
Then he vaulted in himself, spinning unnecessarily and finishing with a theatrical bow.
Jinx was still catching her breath, her heart hammering with excitement. "Okay," she admitted, grinning uncontrollably. "That was… pretty fun."
The maintenance lab was a chaotic paradise of Piltover order. High-end tools hung neatly on wall panels, shelves crammed with brass and copper spare parts. To a Zaunite, it was like stumbling into a dragon's treasure hoard.
While Kaen focused on following the signal, Jinx's attention was instantly hijacked.
"Oooh! Look at this!" she squealed, darting to an open crate full of tools and gadgets. "I could make so many pretty bombs with these!" She started rummaging, eyes glittering with greedy glee.
Kaen sighed—the sound of a weary mission leader. He walked over and gently grabbed her by the back of her top. "Agent Jinx, focus," he said, voice flat and spy-like. "Looting comes after we locate the source of the sonic anomaly. That's phase two of the plan."
"Now, we resume Operation Cat-Shadow Protocol," he added, dragging her toward the lab door.
They slipped into a long, pristine corridor. Polished marble floors reflected the dim glow of security lamps, creating an endless mirror effect. It was utterly silent.
The spy game resumed, but this time Jinx was fully committed to the act. Kaen began tiptoeing with exaggerated stealth, and Jinx mirrored him perfectly, syncing her steps with his. They crept forward, two ridiculous shadows in a silent dance, stifling sinister, mischievous giggles.
"Hehehehe," they whispered in unison, their laughter an eerie echo in the hush.
They passed glass-walled offices and dark classrooms full of neat desks and chalkboards. At one point, their shared giggle echoed louder than intended. At the end of the hall, an elderly security guard—who must have dozed off in his chair—jerked awake. He glanced around, wide-eyed, at the empty corridor.
"H-hello?" he called, voice trembling. "Is someone there?"
Jinx and Kaen flattened against a wall, holding their breath.
The guard rubbed his eyes. "Too many meat pies before bed…" he muttered to himself. He shook his head and slumped back into drowsy posture.
Jinx and Kaen exchanged a look, their eyes gleaming with shared amusement in the dark. They continued onward, their comic purpose renewed—two ghosts wreaking silent havoc in the sacred halls of knowledge.
…
Their trek through the hushed corridors carried them deeper into the heart of the Academy. The "buzz" in Kaen's mind worked like an invisible compass, growing stronger, clearer, pulling at him with an almost physical insistence. It was no longer background noise; it was a vibration in the very air. Jinx felt it too now—not as sound, but as a tingling across her skin, like static before a storm. It guided them through a labyrinth of halls to a more isolated wing of the building, one dedicated to advanced research.
At last, they reached a dead-end corridor, ending in a pair of massive polished metal doors with no handles or locks. The buzz was undeniably behind them.
"Target in sight, Agent Jinx," Kaen whispered. "I can feel its energy. Definitely a super-spy nest."
Jinx pulled a set of lockpicks from one of her countless pockets. "Okay, give me thirty seconds and—"
Before she could touch the door, a soft click echoed and the doors slid open on their own, retreating into the walls with a hushed whisper.
They froze for a moment, waiting for an alarm or ambush. Nothing. Just the steady buzz.
Jinx blinked.
"It's an invitation," Kaen said, his flat voice tinged with genuine awe. "It was waiting for us."
They stepped inside, and the doors closed behind them, sealing them in a dim chamber lit only by a single central glow. The sight that greeted them made them stop cold.
The buzz hit like a physical wall. It was almost audible now, a deep vibration resonating in Kaen's chest and making the hairs on Jinx's neck stand on end.
The place, which Kaen expected to be as neat and pristine as the rest of the Academy, was in a state of feverish chaos. Piles of books lay scattered on the floor, many opened and annotated. Entire chalkboards were covered top to bottom with complex equations and rune diagrams. On one table lay an empty syringe stained with unmistakable Shimmer residue. Next to it, an open leather-bound tome on Zaunite alchemy, its yellowed pages scrawled with notes.
It was the shrine of a man on the brink of discovery—or total collapse.
But the most striking thing in the room, resting on a workbench, was the source of the glow and the sound.
The Hexcore.
It was more unsettling—and more alive—than Kaen had imagined. A hexagonal sphere of dark polished metal contained a core of energy pulsing with a sickly light, a swirling fusion of Hextech blue and a deep, familiar Shimmer violet. It no longer looked like mere machinery. It looked almost organic. Tendrils of dark-purple crystalline substance, like veins, spread out from the core, crawling over the metal plates, corrupting their clean design. It floated a few inches above the workbench, its hum now an audible vibration filling the room with unstable, erratic energy. It was the undeniable source of Kaen's "buzz."
Jinx gaped. Her own creations were chaotic, but this was something else entirely. This was technology that looked alive. Terrifying. And the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.
While Jinx's attention was fully captured by the Hexcore, Kaen's gaze was drawn elsewhere—toward something on the floor, half-hidden in the shadow of a desk.
"Agent Jinx," he whispered, his spy persona flickering back. "We've got a man down. Possible crime victim. Or death by too much math."
Jinx tore her eyes from the Hexcore and followed his gaze.
They crept closer. There, sprawled on the floor like a discarded doll, lay Viktor.
Kaen recognized him instantly as the frail man he had bumped into in Zaun. But the figure on the floor no longer seemed so frail. His face was pale, his breathing shallow, clad only in underclothes that revealed a thin torso. But his right leg—
It was a masterpiece of horror. His flesh had been replaced by something new. A deep violet tone, streaked with glowing veins of energy that ran beneath the skin like living circuits. The texture was a smooth, uncanny fusion of flesh and metal, faintly glowing over the mutated surface. It was a grotesque, beautiful fusion of biology, alchemy, and arcane science.
Jinx crouched and, with childish curiosity, poked his cheek. "Is he dead?"
Kaen knelt beside her, inspecting him with mock doctorly seriousness. "Preliminary diagnosis: severe exhaustion, possible science overdose, and questionable fashion choices for an unconscious genius." He gave Viktor's cheek a couple of light taps. "Hello? Hello? Any dying genius in there?"
Viktor only let out a faint groan.
Kaen studied the mutated leg for a moment. "Though I have to admit, that leg is an upgrade. Very stylish. Really brings out my eyes."
As they were leaning over Viktor, Kaen felt the pull of the Hexcore intensify. He stood up and slowly approached the pulsing orb, as if drawn by an invisible force. The hum in his head stopped being background noise and turned into a voice. Or rather, into a chorus of whispering voices in his head.
"Wait, Orianna…"
"The spring will still be here when you return…"
"It was a mistake. It was a mistake!"
The hallucinations. The same ones he had experienced in Zaun. But this time, they weren't just sounds. They were… fragments of memory that weren't his, flowing from the Hexcore directly into his mind. The Hexcore, with its newly-born awareness and its connection to Zaun's science through Shimmer, was trying to communicate. It was reading him, recognizing Singed's biology in him, and responding with the only fragmented memories it could find: the memories of the original Kaen.
Sensing his proximity and his biological resonance, the Hexcore reacted violently. The purple veins across its surface began to pulse faster, the inner light shining with a blinding intensity. Its hum turned into a sharp, erratic scream. It was like an excited, frightened puppy finally meeting its owner.
The sudden change startled Jinx, snapping her out of her curiosity. The power radiating from the orb was immense. She pulled away from Viktor's body and rushed toward Kaen, her amusement replaced by genuine alarm. He was simply standing there, motionless, his violet eyes wide and fixed on the Hexcore, lost in the trance.
"Hey! Earth to Dead Fish! What's happening!?"
She grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him hard. "Kaen, snap out of it!"
The physical contact, the urgency in her voice, pulled him out of the trance. Kaen blinked, the chorus of voices in his head fading back into the hum. He shook his head, disoriented.
"Well," he said, his monotone voice sounding a little tense. "That thing has a lot to say."
Jinx looked at him, her face a mask of concern. "Are you okay? You started glowing again!"
"I'm fine," he reassured her, though his mind was still reeling. His gaze lingered on the pulsing Hexcore, which now seemed to have calmed, its glow settling into a slower rhythm, as if waiting.
Slowly, ignoring Jinx's muffled protests, he pulled free from her and stepped toward the workbench. The air around him crackled with energy. He stopped in front of the floating orb—the heart of all this madness.
And he reached out his hand.