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By the riverbank, the air was thick with the scent of ozone and the heavy, rhythmic thuds of Dr. Mundo's pursuit. The team moved in perfect synchronization, executing a flawless kiting strategy. Every time Mundo threw a cleaver, they were elsewhere; every time he lunged, a Hextech blast or a grappling hook pulled his target away. He was a force of nature, but nature was clumsy.
"Now!" Chen roared.
The coordination was surgical. Vi lunged forward with Cease and Desist, her uppercut sending Mundo skyward. Before he could land, she followed up with a Vault Breaker, slamming her fists into his chest to drive him back toward the ledge.
In the same heartbeat, Camille's hookshot retracted, pulling her through the air in a blur of gray and steel. Her kick caught Mundo squarely in his center of gravity, staggering him right to the edge of the canal. Finally, Jayce stepped forward, his Mercury Hammer crackling with maximum charge.
"Thundering Blow!"
The hammer connected with a sound like a thunderclap. Mundo, for all his regenerative might, was sent flying into the churning Pilt river.
"Caitlyn, open the floodgates!" Chen screamed.
A blue flare streaked into the sky. High upstream, the heavy mechanical gates groaned open, releasing a massive wall of white water. Mundo bobbed in the current, his giant purple hand reaching toward the shore. "No! Mundo still has... patients!"
But the torrent was absolute. The current swept the Madman of Zaun out toward the open sea, where he would drift as a purple buoy for the foreseeable future.
Chen slumped against a railing, his "mummy" bandages soaked in sweat and river water. Camille landed beside him, retracting her hooks with a mechanical click.
"Not bad," she said, her eyes tracing the retreating flood. "You possess a tactical mind that the Council lacks. Efficiency over ego."
"I couldn't have done it without a professional," Chen replied, trying to catch his breath.
Their moment of respite was shattered by the staccato rhythm of gunfire from the bridge above. An Enforcer sprinted toward them, gasping for air. "Sheriff Caitlyn! The Shimmer Warriors are making a final push! They're trying to hold the Hexgate towers!"
Chen locked eyes with Caitlyn. He saw the resolve in her gaze—the badge wasn't just a piece of metal to her anymore. "Let's go back," Chen said, his voice hardening. "It's time to finish this."
"To deal with Silco directly," Camille added, "it will cost you extra."
"Charge it to the Kiramman estate," Chen quipped.
With Mundo gone, the Shimmer Warriors were merely elite soldiers. Against the "Pinduoduo" lineup—augmented by Jayce's hammer, Camille's precision, and Jinx's resupplied rockets—the defense crumbled. An hour later, Chen stood at the base of the Hexgate pier, watching the remnants of Silco's dream turn to ash.
Sevika stood on the ramp of a Bilgewater airship, her shimmer blades buzzing. She looked at the bloodied and broken line of her warriors and then at the pale, exhausted Silco beside her. "It's over, Silco. We have to withdraw."
Silco leaned against the hull, his mismatched eyes reflecting the fires below. "Everything I built... years of work... gone in a single afternoon."
Chen rode his hoverboard up to the level of the boarding ramp, hovering just out of Sevika's reach.
"I want to talk to him," Chen said.
Silco looked at him with a bitter, hollow smile. "Talk? What is there left to say, lapdog? You stand with the nobles who treat us like vermin. You ruined Zaun's one chance at respect."
"Silco, Shimmer could have been a miracle," Chen retorted, his voice steady. "It could have been medicine. It could have been fuel. But you used it as a leash. You claim to love Zaun, but look at it! How many people are emaciated, displaced, or dead because of your 'vision'?"
"Sacrifice is the price of a better future!" Silco snarled. "Zaun is a monster because Piltover made it one!"
They stared at each other—two different ideologies, two different versions of a better world. Chen knew Silco couldn't be "washed" clean of his crimes, but he admired the man's conviction. Silco was a warlord, but he was a man who truly loved the mud he came from.
The Hexgate began to hum, the airship vibrating as the teleportation sequence initiated. Chen had no strength left to fight Sevika.
"If you swear never to return," Chen said, "I'll let the wind take you to Bilgewater."
Silco didn't answer. He simply looked toward the horizon.
Suddenly, a high-pitched whistle tore through the air. BOOM!
A rocket from Fishbones smashed into the side of the airship, detonating just feet from Silco. The ship jolted violently, the explosion engulfing the deck in blue and purple flame. In that exact microsecond, the Hexgate triggered. Whoosh. The ship vanished into the sky, leaving only a trail of smoke.
Chen turned. Jinx was standing on a nearby ledge, the rocket launcher still smoking on her shoulder. She was smiling, but her eyes were wet. "Look! I hit it! I finally killed Silco!"
Chen slumped to the ground, his health bar finally stabilizing. He looked at the chaos, the Council in the distance, and the bridge that still divided the world in two.
"Is it over?" Jinx asked, sitting beside him.
"No," Chen said, standing up with a newfound resolve. "Piltover needs a reform. Zaun needs a revolution. This was just the tutorial."
At the southernmost tip of Runeterra, in the blighted, Void-scarred wasteland of Icathia, an old man floated amidst the ruins. Two massive, glowing clocks hovered in his hands.
Zilean, the Chronokeeper, had watched the river of time a thousand times. He had seen every branch, every ending where Icathia fell and the Void consumed all. He had searched for a variable—a single thread that didn't follow the predetermined path.
He stopped. His eyes, glowing with the light of centuries, widened.
"Impossible," Zilean whispered. "The self-repairing power of the timeline... it's being bypassed. A variable has appeared in the Twin Cities. A soul that does not belong to the weave."
He turned his gaze north. "I must see this for myself. Perhaps this 'Chen'... is the key to saving my people."
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