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"Vander? (Y/N)?" Vi looks at her parental figures in disbelief, Benzo trailing behind them with a sour expression.

(Y/N) grits her teeth as she stares at her daughter, "We don't have much time." She spits out and takes fast steps towards the teenager before gripping her shoulders gently.

"How did you find me?"

"We're proud of you." Vander ignores her question and comes up behind his friend, his face stern and demanding. "Always have been." He cups the side of Vi's face.

The pink haired girl reaches up and grips his wrist in her much smaller hand and looks between her guardians. "I'm sorry, I..this is the only way to protect the others." She blinks, her eyes burning from the coming tears. (Y/N) shakes her head. "No." The older woman says softly, and presses her forehead against the girls.

"You kids are more valuable than any dumbass deals we've made, okay?" She feels her daughter tense, but she nods none the less. (Y/N) looks up at the sound of barking, the enforcers drawing near.

"Vander!" Benzo says sternly, and looks straight at his friend with a broken expression, avoiding (Y/N)'s gaze. Vander quickly grips Vi's shoulders. "You've got a good heart, don't ever loose it, no matter how the world tries to break you." Vi catches his gaze flicker to the women by his side before he shuts his eyes tightly with a sigh.

"Protect the family." Vi grunts as his hands grip the side of her face, and he gently but firmly pushes her backwards towards a storage room, tucked in the back part of the shop. (Y/N) watches with a pained expression but doesn't make a move to stop him.

Vi yells as Vander gently pushes her into the room and she hits the floor with a slam, but he doesn't close the door. Instead he turns to (Y/N), a small smile on his face as he watches her mouth turn in confusion. "What are you-?" The woman quietly asks, but is cut off as her friend gently cups her face and presses a kiss to her temple.

Vander smiles down at her, "Keep them safe." He says, and with a rough tug, he pulls (Y/N) by her shoulders and shoves her into the room, causing her to slam into Vi and the two girls fall to the ground with surprised yells.

(Y/N) shoots to her feet as Vander slams the door behind her before resting his head against it, biting his tongue as he listens to her slam her fists against the wood with such force that splinters begin to shoot out from either side. "Open the fucking door Vander!" She screams, her voice panicked.

Vander stays quiet and turns his head as Grayson and Marcus enter the shop, their attention strained on the door. Marcus makes his way around but stops as Vander steps infront of him. "Are you gonna let us make the arrest or not?" He questions with annoyance, and his head perks up as he watches Vander take a match from his pocket.

"You'll oblige a doomed man one last smoke." He brings his pipe to his lips and gently inhales before exhaling with a bored expression. "Won't you?"

Grayson looks up at him with wide eyes, her expression shocked before she moves infront of her companion and stares up at Vander. "I'm not putting you away, Vander."

"Council needs  its pound of flesh." He counters, already accepting what he needed to do. Grayson shakes her head gently, her tone soft and pleading. "Without you down here, it all falls apart." She watches as he takes another puff.

"(Y/N) is still here, she'll have Benzo to handle things." He smiles gently at the thought of his friend. "They may not have my devilish charm, but Benzo runs a tight ship." He turns to Grayson as she scoffs. "I cannot allow (Y/N) to get close with Piltover buisness again." She says roughly, her respect for the woman showing. "Certain people will want her back up-top, it's only a matter of time."

Vander shakes his head. "She'll be okay, that's why Benzo will be there to keep her in line." Said man frowns deeply at his friend, and flinches as the storage room door continues to creek and get slammed into by the two occupants.

"Vander no! You can't do this!" Vi's muffled shout is heard, before (Y/N) slams into the door once more. "Vander what the FUCK!"

"You won't be coming back for a long time." Grayson makes sure he knows exactly what he's getting into, and Vander nods. "I know." He lifts his wrists up, and Marcus quickly restrains him, before tightening the cuffs for good measure.

Vander winces at the pinching of his wrists and listens as Grayson turns to stare at the back of his head. "Why?" She asks, still very much confused at what his angle was. Why would he give himself up after all this time?

"It's the only way."

———

From within the storage room, (Y/N) continues to try and break the door down, with Vi watching her with a pained expression. "Why would you guys do this?" The teen asks. "It was supposed to be me!"

"You seriously want to argue about this now?!" (Y/N) shoots her head back to snap at her, her eyes wide and nostrils flared in anger. "I'm trying to keep you kids in line but you-!" She cuts herself off with a frustrated sigh and shakes her head.

Vi watches as she presses her face into the door, her throat dry and cracked from all the yelling and screaming. "What am I gonna do..?" She hears (Y/N) whisper to herself, and the girls anger quickly turns to guilt. Vi slowly reaches a hand up and touches her guardian's shoulder, and squeezes it as a silent apology, but also as a way to let her know that she wasn't alone.

A loud scream catches their attention, and they both turn their heads to the small half moon shaped window that rested just above their line of sight.

"What happening?" Vi asks with worry, her grip on her parents shoulder growing tighter as (Y/N) goes infront of her to look outside. Slowly, the two make their way towards the window, and watch as an enforcer shouts orders towards someone.

"Hey! Stop right there!" His yells are frantic as he looks around, and a beat of silence follows after. The two girls watch, but their faces move in horror as something slams into him, and the man is dragged away, his blood splattering all across the window and lighting the room up with a dark red.

'What the fuck what the fuck?!' (Y/N)'s mind is racing as more shouts of pain and fear ring through her ears. She glances behind her and brings Vi under her arm, the girls head tucked into her neck to shield her from the sight.

She grips her daughter close, her hands turned cold and heart beating uncontrollable fast against her chest.

She hears a voice, and strains her ears as she tries to look through the window, almost completely blind due to the thick red covering her line of sight. She hears a thump and then a yell, 'Vander' she knows his voice all too well, and squints her eyes to see what was happening.

"Stubborn till the end." Another voice that she had so long forgotten strikes her ears, and (Y/N) lets out a small gasp as she makes out the face of the one person she swore she would never see again, the one person she and Vander fought day and night to keep away from their kids.

Vi looks up at the gasp, and both girls watch as a creature, almost human but not quite, stalks towards Vander. "No..no!" Vi yells out, and presses her hands against the wall to try and see better. Her father was on his knees, his gaze unfocused as he stared at the body of his friend, Benzo, gone in an instant.

The creature stalks closer, its grotesque arm curling into a fist as it stares down and Vander. (Y/N) hits her fist against the glass with a yell, just as the beast raises its arm and strikes him square across the face, his body immediately going slump at the force and falling to the side. Vi screams from beside her mother, both their faces pulled a desperate cry for help.

Tears stream down their faces as Vander falls infront of the window, his back to them. The creature bends down and grips a fist full of his hair before beginning to drag him away, following his master without another word.

(Y/N) watches as an enforcer, Marcus, stares wide eyed at the scene he no doubt was apart of. She looks up and stares at Silco, her head clouded as  she watches him walk away as if he didn't just massacre an entire squad of enforcers and kidnap his longtime friend.

Vi sinks to her knees beside her, whimpering and crying uncontrollably. It takes all her energy to look away from the scene and bend down to scoop her into her arms. (Y/N) holds her close, almost in a death grip as she listens to her daughter's pained cries and screams.

Tears threaten to spill from her eyes, but she doesn't allow them to, she can't let herself be vulnerable when her oldest daughter just watched another parent get taken away from her, without anything to do.

They both stay there, gripping eachother closely and refusing to let the other go. They were the only things anchoring eachother down so they don't spin out of control, and (Y/N) refuses to let the girl feel alone when she needs her mother most.

———

In Piltover, a tired Viktor and Jayce sit, surrounded by an endless pile of equations and paper as they go back and forth about their new so called 'Hextech' dream.

Jayce slumps against a box, no doubt filled with small gadgets and gizmos he had been working on and examines his new partner, he watches as Viktor rambles on about his ideas for how to handle the gemstones power and his gaze quickly flickers downwards, and settles on a small pocket-watch dangling form his hip.

The young inventor has noticed upon their first interaction that Viktor quickly limped towards the Enforcer questioning him before holding said pocket-watch outwards, almost as if he was pleading with her to take it or return it.

"Who does that belong to?" He brings himself out of thoughts with the question and gestures to the watch. Jayce watches as Viktor's expression softens before he runs his fingers along the edges of the watch, before pressing down on its top and letting it spring open.

Jayce's interest only increases as he sees a picture within the pocket-watch, it was of a much younger her Viktor, 'must be him as a teenager' he thinks and examines the picture further. Viktor was smiling brightly in the photo, small dimples poking out his cheeks as his attention is drawn to his side, where another individual stands.

It was a shorter female, her (H/C) hair framing her face almost perfectly while she raises one hand to give the camera a peace sign. Her eyes were closed but her expression was bright and cheerful, it looked like she was in the middle of a laugh, and the younger Viktor looked almost enamored by her.

Between the two was someone Jayce most definitely recognized, Professor Heimerdinger. He looked no different, it was like he was just a copy paste of himself today. His little hands were behind his back, and a small smile was prominent by the upturn of his mustache.

Viktor smiles, "This was taken shortly after I was accepted by Professor Heimerdinger to be his assistant." He says softly, and Jayce watches with big eyes and quiet hums indicating he was listening. "He already had a pupil who had been working alongside him for the past two years before I joined, and it was her idea that we take this photo to commemorate the day."

He lets out a small laugh at the memory. "She was always laughing and cheerful. Right here was the moment she said something so sweet it took me a minute to compose myself for the picture." Viktors cheeks turn a light pink, and Jayce smiled at the puppy dog eyes his partner was giving the picture.

"What did she say?" The black haired boy asks, and waits for a reply.

Viktor sucks in a breath before speaking, "'I feel most alive when you are here', the same words I got inscribed later on this watch." His eyes go low as he remembers his friend, someone he held so dear to his heart that she occupied every waking thought, even after all these years.

Jayce nods along with the story before speaking up once more. "What was her name? And what happened to her?" He's asking his questions as if he was a child asking his parents the most interesting things, but Viktor didn't mind.

His hair bounces as he nods before closing the watch. "Her name is (Y/N), where she is though I don't think I'll ever know, I lost her when the under-city raided the bridge into Piltover." He looks outside, and the wind brushes softly against his cheeks. "She always visited the Under-city but left for it entirely after the war, I haven't seen her since."

———

Hours had passed, and neither (Y/N) nor Vi moved from their positions. The younger of the two stayed curled in her mother's arms, her breathing slowed but cheeks still stained with traces of her cries.

(Y/N)'s eyes were red and her cheeks were puffy. She sniffs quietly and hugs her daughter closer with a tired sigh, still refusing to let her go.

The sound of the door catches their attention, and they both look up and rub their eyes. Tue small head of a familiar boy peeks through before he sees them. Ekko's gaze is unfixed, his eyes red from the crying he no doubt had been doing before he found them.

He dosent hear as (Y/N) calls his name, but looks up when he hears her stand up and take a step towards him. She opens her arms for him, Vi at her side. He stumbles down the steps leading to the room before sprinting towards the woman and slamming himself into her chest, his arms clinging to her back.

"I saw everything." He whimpers, his voice even quieter than what it usually is. "B-Benzo..they.." (Y/N)'s grip on him tightens as she listens to him, letting him cry into her shoulder.

"What about Vander?" Vi gently asks, reaching up and running her hand across Ekko's head.

The boy sniffs. "They took him." He mumbles, and (Y/N) looks down at him before glancing to Vi.

"Where?"

——