The Fall: 22. Echoes

Echoes

-Fancy meeting the boss, kid? -said the woman that had once been his childhood friend with an irritating tone.

-Sure, I guess that you Pilties can't get a job done without that overseer's hand telling you to do so. -said Ekko again.

Just as he expected, his face was punched into the wall. He had already gone through this way too many times. Always trying to find a way to fix what had happened in Zaun.

...

The city was a living chaos, now more than ever.

Viktor had died, but the Pilties hadn't had enough. They would raze the whole place, and the kids would go down with it. That is, unless he did something.

Of the original twelve, only three remained; but while the years passed by, a place like Zaun always gave birth to more orphans and those scared children always needed their help. Ekko and Mine had been bringing the orphans from Zaun in turns, always taking care of them while living hidden in the outskirts of Piltover. None was the one in charge of finding them out and contacting both Ekko and Mine, but that ended with the last few battles.

The sky looked different the day they received None's last letter.

...

From I,

IX and XII, XXXI and XXXIV are bringing you my last piece of writing.

Chaos reigns in Zaun; Viktor has manipulated the government itself and we're being forced into the military. Every single soul is forced into it; women, children, even the elders. It is said that Singed's latest modification of Shimmer is being tested on those who don't look strong enough to fight. I guess that you understand why this will surely be my last letter for you, friends.

Don't forget what we've been fighting for. This is not the Zaun we praised, Viktor is not the herald that was supposed to make our lives better. The corruption that has taken control of our homeland does not represent the lifestyle we defend. That's why I need to ask you one last thing.

Keep Zaun alive. This war is already lost, Zaun has self-destructed itself and ruined its own roots. Broken-hearted, I can only tell you to let this place fall, and bring Zaun to Piltover. Teach our ways to those Pilties, make them realize that we were right. Show them that we're not their enemies, but their rivals instead. The children you're taking care of are the future of Zaun, make sure that you don't forget that.

With best regards,

None

...

His footspets echoed thorugh the empty streets of Zaun. Ekko ran as fast as he had ever done it, rushing through corpses and ruins. Not even then he realized what None had meant; Zaun had already killed itself, but that meant nothing to Ekko. The mural, their hideout, their past. The place where the original twelve had met for the first time. I's ability to be ignored when he wanted to go unnoticed, II's handcrafting techniques concerning techmaturgy, III's thirst for vengeance, IV's lack of purpose, V's way of being trusted by everyone, VI's irritating voice, VII's innocence and goggles, VIII's illness,  IX's egoism and self-centered hate, X's pigtails, XI's plan. He was XII. He was the one with the dream.

And that dream had't died out, not even after being witness of what was happening to their homeland. While running he started to hear voices; loud as they were, it was difficult to understand them. Still, he managed to notice Viktor's tone on that voice. The one to blame's words were as irritating as they had been the day that half the crew was lost. Back when Viktor was known as VIII, he had been the one to force them back, leaving II, III, V, VI and VII to rot down in Zaun's underground mazes. And he was now the one that would let the rest of them dying for a cause that no one defended but him.

-The shimmer didn't work as expected Singed. -he could hear Viktor say.- These beasts couldn't stop an organized army like the on of Piltover.

-Did you really expect them to do so? -asked Singed.- I already told you that the only thing they'd bring would be chaos.

-You should have explained yourself better.

-I already explaioned myself better when we tried it out with your old orphan friend, and here you have the results.

Only then Ekko realized; the screams of agony, mixed with moans and deep groans that could be heard over their conversation. He needed to know what had happened to None; with nothing to stop him from doing so, he slightly moved towards the alley. Once he saw what was there, he wished he had never left None alone at Zaun.

-This guy and Dr. Mundo's experiments are nearly the same. -said Singed while his finger pointed towards None's last remnants.

-Whatever, leave them to rot now. -ordered Viktor.- We'll get to the old lab, subjects III and VII are our only hopes in this war. I'll tell Twice that we're on our way, You'd better get going.

-What should we do about him? -asked Singed, feeling bad for what had been a poor, scared boy.

-Free him. He'll be a decent distraction.

In a split second, Ekko was in front of Viktor. Half an instant before that, Ekko was back at his position. It had been less than a second, but he had stared at his face. Had he noticed? What had he meant with "subjects III and VII"? Ekko couldn't tell. And he didn't have time to find out.

-BOOM, BABY! -shouted an irritating female voice from the darks.

Suddenly, dust covered everything. He could feel the presence of two more people around, and the consumed energy could be felt in the air. The voice had been familiar to him, but he couldn't tell only by that.

-Got him Jayce! -shouted the same voice again.

Then he realized. It was VI.

When the dust faded out he saw them both. VI was holding Viktor up in the air with a single hand, her gauntlet covering all of the Viktor's trunk. Does she realize who he was?

-What are you waiting for? -asked VI to her companion. -Singed won't take long to wake up, finish this now Jayce.

The man had a scary look on his face. Ekko knew that VI's companion found no pleasure in doing what he was going to do, but the boy could see in that man's eyes that he knew he had to. Shocked, he witnessed how his cannon suddenly transformed into a hammer, and the man accomodated it in his hands for it to fit a correct position. And then VI's companion smashed Viktor while she held him up.

Another cloud of dust rose, and this one took longer to fade out; when it did, nearly nothing had changed. VI's body was laying in the floor near a wall, but she was fine. Her gauntlets had small remains of blood and flesh, and the place was covered with the remnants of what had once been a half-human half-machine person. 'Rest in piece, VIII.' thought Ekko. It took him long to realize what was truly happenind. Singed had covered it all with some kind of adhesive, and both VI and her Piltie friend were stuck on it.

-Are you Ok Vi? -asked the man, unable to see her because they were stuck in opposite directions.

-I always am boss! -answered VI.

Had she kept her name? If so, did she remember anything at all about their shared past?

A falling wall caught Ekko's attention. None's moans were louder than ever, and the stones that had once held him back were now falling to pieces. One of them fell infront of him, and only then he realized where he was; he had failed to defend the mural. Luckily, he always had another chance. He was called Ekko for a reason.

But luck was not with him that day. His Z-drive had been hit by a piece of the mural, making it useless. He had failed to defend those he had loved, and he had failed to keep their memorial through the years. Then he heard the screams.

Vi's ally was shouting the void out in pain while what had once been None was crushing his arm. The hammer, probably pulverized by the hulk that None now was, was nowhere to be seen. But Vi was still fine.

Avoiding the zones where Singed's adhesive covered the floor, Ekko got to Vi and freed her without a word. He carried her towards the inner side of the mural, what had once been their home, and walked towards None. That was when he saw Mine with the children and he realized that he had fucked it all up.

A scream drowned in chaos while Zaun  burned down to ashes.







_________________________________________________________________________________
Special thanks to /u/Xecelee and his post in Reddit's /r/leagueoflegends for making my investigation job about Ekko way easier than it would have been.

The Fall: 12. Farewell, my friends, pt. 3

Farewell, my Friends, pt. 3

Quinn could not calm down. The execution was something she was clearly against, but she could not disobey Garen. Not now, not during these days.

Also, the weather didn't help at all; the storm was lasting way longer than usual, with lightnings causing several fires around the city. The climatic anomaly had taken more than thirty victims, and that was without counting the casualties of the governments repression system that were hidden behind such an unnatural incident. To add up, Valor was nowhere to be seen.

She couldn't understand how Lucian was so calm. While she and Vayne shivered nervously, Lucian was nearly falling asleep besides the platform's small stairs; with his gun at his feet, he used Senna's as a pillow by laying it on his knees and his head on it. Meanwhile, countless citizens gathered in the square; they had come to see Poppy's execution.

Dark times bring dark thoughts to people's mind and dark needs to their hearts. They were not mean or evil; they were just scared. Propaganda and missinformation had widely spread a feeling of insecurity that had deeply digged its way through the Demacian hearts and infected every feel with hatred and misstrust; that was the only explanation she could find, the only way to justify their actions. Poppy's death would be a bless for them; the execution's duration was time that they wouldn't be using to try to face their own problems, the execution's reasons were the nonsense that helped them to find someone who blame for their misfortunes and the spitting they were giving to and old friend like Poppy was no more than their desperate wish for something to change.

...

Something woke Lucian up again. ¿A noise? ¿A step? No, it was different this time. People were silent. Even Garen was staring at the skies. They all looked charmed, as if a witch had forced them into an hallucination or something like that. ¿What were they looking at?

It took him a bit longer to realize; the air was glowing lightly. Small lights floating around, as minuscule as you might see the stars, but at the reach of his hand. Time felt slower around him; he could feel more than ever. The air through his lungs, the wind trying to wave his hair. The weight of Senna in his hand, the lack of something deep in his heart. And then the gust came.

Most people fell to the ground. Those who were not lucky elevated to the skies and fell onto those that were besides them seconds ago. Even Garen was lying in the ground, his sword soaked in blood and nailed on the ground, with a small hand laying at its side. Lucian felt his kings anger for short; once he realized Poppy was not there, he smiled to himself and run out of the square. He knew that Garen had seen his face; without a head to chop off, he'd look for someone to blame.

He had to leave the city.

The Fall, Prologue: Dr. Veles Kozim's daily log

Prologue: Dr. Veles Kozim's Daily Log

Extract from Dr. Veles A. Kozim's daily log:

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 2nd day of the 1st lunar cycle:

Some peasants have brought me a strange man tonight. I can't really describe it without feeling foolish; it all seems so fantastic, as if it had been taken right away from one of those old mythology books. A man whose never-ending white beard reaches his own feet, a godlike being that floats instead of walking, with long hair that sometimes covers his whole face, as if mocking the laws of physics, defying gravity just like the man itself does. He wears an old linen robe, with a harness attached to it that holds a giant clock to his back.

I am unable to communicate with him; whatever he speaks, it's not from these days. I might be able to decipher his words, but first I need to dust off my old history books and take a look at the archive.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 4th day of the 1st lunar cycle:

After long nights of work and some short conversation tests with the subject, I have given up in trying to communicate with him. His language is unknown to me, I have only been able to recognize some city names; that suggests that his origin is here, in Runeterra. He mentioned Piltover, Shurima and, as funny as it may seem, Bandle city. Fairy tales talk about a city inhabited by the so-called yordles, some primitive living beings that are supposed to have developed both music and technology cooperating with humankind.

Note: A curious detail is that the subject is starting to recognize me. In short, he calls me Velkoz.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 8th day of the first lunar cycle:

Today is a big day: this man will be my discovery, history books will be rewritten when I publish my notes. Tired of hearing him call me Velkoz, I got to look for the name at my database. Some archives mention an enormous wandering eye known as Vel'Koz whose thirst for knowledge brought him to Runeterra. Sadly, I can't find more: all the books referring those days are unreadable, and strangely the hex-archives are corrupted.

At least now I know of what he might be talking about. I'll be studying the old languages, in a few days I'll be able to understand his never-ending speech.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 16th day of the first lunar cycle:

I developed a machine able to translate his words instantly; it was difficult for it to capture his voice and translate it on the fly, mainly because of that strange accent of his, but that was a small problem that was fastly solved. After the needed calibration, everything went as it should. A lot of information has been collected and compared with the archives, even though I haven't been able to maintain a proper conversation with him. Now, where should I start?

His name is Zilean. Having an unknown origin (at least for me), I can confirm he lived here, in Urtistan, during the war periods of the 113th and 114th century before the End of the Royal Dinasty. He was in charge of the clock tower, the only building that still remains from those days.

But there's more; this man is supposed to be an old magician. I must further my investigations, since making this information public would bring back the endless debate between historians regard the existence or not of magic in Runeterra. I can't shed light onto this mystery without more proof.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 24th day of the first lunar cycle:

Not sure if it's because of the full moon or not, but I've been able to talk with Zilean as a normal person would; he understands our language and is able of talking it fluently. After some short psychological tests he agreed to take, I have not been able to reach any conclusive results. I have asked him to stay here with me, offering him a bed, whatever he needed to eat and my huge library; instead of answering, he just laughed at me. It took me a long while to get him back into our conversation, but when he did he talked me about his disease, chrono-displasia.

To sum up, I was standing besides the only known immortal man on earth; no need to eat or sleep. But the problem is that chrono-displasia is not immortality, but eternal life instead. Let me explain the difference between those two concepts; for getting into it we'll have to first settle some basics; it's easy to compare life and a piece of rope; a linear entity, a begginning and an end, with some knots around and it can be cut somewhere in between so that it ends before.

An immortal man is quite similar; the main difference is the lack of end. The rope has a start, but no matter how much you pull you'll never get the end of it in your hands. As immortality hasn't been studied because of an obvious lack of test subjects, we can't confirm if there's a way of "cutting" the rope for giving it an earlier end.

Now we get to the icing on the cake; eternal life. Explaining something we can't conceive is not easy, but I will try my best; the eternal can't be conceived like a rope; it exists always. It has no start and it never ends, because time is for them something they can roam around. There's not a rope, but an infinite set of them, each with its own knots. Cutting one would make no sense, since the eternal being is also living the other infinite lives at the same time.

Chrono-displasia could be explained as an uncontrolable eternity; having the chance of living every single moment, they can't choose which to live; the being can phisically be at 2, 10 or a million lives (or instances of a same life) at the same time while only processing one. That means that, while he's talking to me, he's also talking in an infinite amount of parallel existences even if I'm not there.

There's so much to learn from him.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 3rd day of the second lunar cycle:

Zilean's screams woke me up. I haven't been able to sleep; he keps on talking, he won't stop no matter what I do. He talks about a lot of things. He's been cursing at someone called LeBlanc, yelling at her, bringing her to book; he talks about something that shouldn't have been done, that bringing the prince back to life was foolishness. He's talked about the Royal Dinasty, about how it all came to an end. "Immortality is a punishment, not a tool, my dear sister of condition." is all he says now. He repeats it endlessly.

Before falling into that state of ecstasy,he talked about Noxian politics, the Demacian decadency, Bandle City's sudden disappearance, the Ionian genocide and the Shadow Isles burning during the last time the Black Mist was seen. He said that the shard of the monolith was back home, that Shurima's rise and fall was already written. The Freljord shall burn on the icy hearts they were asking for.

I have to check all these data and more. I have it all recorded. The truth shall be unveiled.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 5th day of the fourth lunar cycle:

Zilean stopped talking. He just stares at me now, saying nothing. My questions receive no answer. I need him to explain what he was talking about cycles ago.

1342 years after the End of the Royal Dinasty, 6th day of the second lunar cycle:

No news from Zilean. He's still there, absently sitting in the bed I laid him upon when he started screaming. I definitely need help. I don't know how the Institute of Wisdom will take my words. Just in case I don't come back I have programmed the release of these notes; the world shall be given the truth, no matter they want it or not.

End of the extract.

Dr. Veles Aristmosis Kozim planned on making this, his archive and the recent records public.
Everything has already been solved and no information has been leaked.
Zilean has been confined to the deepest cell in Zaun's Mental Institute.
Dr. Veles A. Kozim has been 'accidentally' executed.
The truth won't reach the daylight while I live, no need to worry about that.


Yours faithfully,
LeBlanc