The idea of replacing Silco?
The Firelights might be able to hit Silco's cargo shipments and wipe out weeks of his business at a time.
But with Shimmer backing him, ordinary weapons could barely do any damage to his people at all.
That was the main reason the Firelights kept ending up at a disadvantage whenever they clashed with Silco's forces.
In other words, even if Silco stopped shipping Shimmer out, Shimmer was already feeding him more than enough power inside Zaun alone.
On one hand, he profited from Shimmer.
On the other, he used it to empower his men.
That was the real foundation of the empire he had built.
It was precisely because he didn't care about Shimmer's side effects on the human body that it had spread so wildly through the Undercity.
If Shimmer disappeared, then the Lanes would go right back to an era of every gang fighting every other gang.
Ekko fell into thought.
If Silco ended up turning on the Chem-Barons, then it was only a matter of time before the Firelights grew stronger.
And if they could bring Heimerdinger over, then a leap in the Firelights' technology would be a massive boost to their overall combat capability.
Off to the side, Caleb was still casually flipping his coin around, not bothering Ekko while he thought.
"Come on, come on, let me try this board..."
Caleb stepped onto one of the Firelights' hoverboards.
"Whoa—ahhh!"
Even with his body strengthened, the speed of the thing was completely ridiculous. Caleb wiped out face-first.
"Hahahaha...!" The children in the distance burst out laughing. "He's even worse than me! Hahaha..."
"Caleb... that really doesn't sound like a name from the twin cities..." Ekko frowned deeply. "Where the hell is he from?"
...
Ambessa was reclining comfortably in a bath while a servant poured in more warm water.
Jayce stood awkwardly on the steps some distance away.
"Do they teach military history at your Academy, Mr. Talis?"
Ambessa drained the wine from her glass and asked the question as casually as if they were making small talk.
"Please, call me Councilor Talis." Jayce glanced around uneasily, but faced with a Noxian warlord, he had to emphasize his position.
"As for whether they teach it or not... I wouldn't know." He looked at her for a second, then quickly looked away again.
"General Somen Palek of Elenia used to train by fighting blindfolded. His reasoning was that a person isn't defined by appearances."
Ambessa removed the cloth covering her eyes and looked straight at Jayce.
"I still have official business to handle, so if you'll excuse—" Jayce turned to leave. Being here made every inch of him uncomfortable.
"The threat facing the Undercity is real, and you, as its leader, have failed to act."
With a single sentence, Ambessa struck directly at Jayce's weak point and made him turn back.
"Piltover may not be Noxus, but we are nowhere near as helpless as you think."
Jayce gave a faintly disdainful smile. In Noxus, might made right. Of course she had no way of understanding Piltover's devotion to progress.
"The problem lies with the Council. With what's underneath the surface."
"You are not capable of handling this crisis." Ambessa delivered the judgment flatly.
"Do you know what the success rate is for senior researchers at our Academy?" Jayce asked, then answered his own question. "Three percent."
"We've never been afraid of failure. The reason this is called the City of Progress is because we never stop pushing forward."
"Thank you for the advice, Lady Medarda, but I still have an entire city to govern."
With that, Jayce turned to leave again.
"Wait."
She stopped him once more.
Ambessa rose from the bath, and Jayce hurriedly looked away.
Only the Noxian bodyguard remained completely unmoved.
"I know what my daughter sees in you." She stepped forward and laid a hand on Jayce's shoulder.
"And I hope you do succeed, Jayce. I hope you let the whole world share in hextech."
"But if you cannot accept reality for what it is..." Her words seemed to carry the thick scent of blood from some far-off battlefield.
"Then you'll end up just like General Palek—"
"Blindfolded, while your enemies butcher you to death."
Water ran down Jayce's forehead. It was hard to tell whether it was steam or cold sweat.
...
"We're leaving."
Ekko slung his hoverboard across his back, placed the Hextech gemstone into a canister, hung it from his body, and called out to the others.
"Coming." Caleb opened his eyes and slowly pushed himself up, stiffly working his body loose.
For the past few days, while copying Hextech gemstones, he had barely slept at all.
"All set." Caitlyn efficiently assembled her rifle and loaded in two rounds.
Vi rewrapped both her hands with fresh bandages.
The fish-man struggled to move the cover off a pipe, and the group slipped out of Zaun by boat in silence.
"The bridge is quiet tonight."
Aside from the glowing firelights drifting in the air, the silent bridge held nothing but the sound of the wind.
"Let's go." The hoverboard on Ekko's back gave off a ghostly green glow in the dark.
"I can't abandon her again." Vi stopped walking.
"You can't change her," Ekko said quietly.
"Then I still have to try." Vi lifted her head, her eyes full of resolve.
"Just don't get yourself killed." Ekko stepped forward and pulled her into a hug.
"That I can't promise," Vi replied with a grin.
Caitlyn's eyes were full of reluctance too. Once the two of them let go, she stepped forward and hugged Vi tightly.
"We're both pretty honest, Cupcake," Vi whispered. "Thanks for coming all this way."
In the distance, Jinx lowered the binoculars in her hands and muttered in frustration to the voice beside her:
"Shut up! They're just hugging goodbye."
"She wouldn't do that. Not this time."
She kept murmuring to herself.
"Listen, go find your sister. Leave this side to me."
Caleb didn't step in for a hug. He just bumped fists with Vi.
Vi nodded, then, under the others' gaze, headed back toward Zaun.
The three remaining figures had only gone a few steps and still hadn't shaken off the sadness of the moment when a blast of searchlight cut through everything.
"Stop right there!"
A commanding voice rang out ahead of them.
Several Enforcers already had their guns raised and aimed at the three of them.
"Damn it, what are they doing here?" Ekko muttered.
Caitlyn lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the glare and barely made out the figure of her superior, Marcus. She quickly held up her badge and shouted:
"Sir! I've got evidence!" Squinting hard at the colleagues and superior in front of her, she yelled, "Silco is the one behind everything!"
Marcus pushed down the weapon one of the Enforcers was holding and stepped forward.
"Let me see it."
"What?" Ekko clearly didn't want to trust a topsider. A lot of Firelight losses, directly or indirectly, had come at the hands of the Enforcers too.
Caitlyn only nodded silently.
"Damn it." Reluctant as he was, Ekko still opened the canister holding the Hextech gemstone.
Caleb's hands trembled slightly.
The blood in his whole body was surging faster and faster.
It was the result of adrenaline flooding his system.
He already knew what was about to happen.
Ekko sensed it too.
He snapped the canister shut in one sudden motion.
A gunshot tore across the night sky, and Ekko dropped to the ground.
"Don't move!"
The Enforcers raised their weapons again, aiming at the two still standing.
Marcus picked up the Hextech gemstone Ekko had dropped and pointed his gun at the panicked Caitlyn.
"I warned you not to get involved!" Marcus's expression twisted with pain and conflict.