Chapter Text
Piltover and Zaun were connected by thin threads. They were untidy in their freshness, unfamiliar after the recent fire of war, and almost physically tangible. It seemed that any moment, the precarious balance would be shattered again, and a new skirmish would begin, extinguishing the two cities in an endless struggle. The air still carried the scent of war and the desire for revenge, but it was overshadowed by another smell. It was like rotting meat in the scorching sun. Like dirty, raw insides. Something rotten and dead was moving in the seams. It looked like a mush of maggots eating a decaying body. Something eerie and quiet, hiding in the shadows of the outskirts.
Everyone felt its presence, but they didn't fully understand it. They thought it was a consequence of the war. No one paid attention to the rumors when they spread through the cities. No one paid attention to the corpses. So many people died in the war that no one noticed the disappearance of a few more.
And then it was too late.
ᡕᠵデᡁ᠊╾━
Viktor stood knee-deep in the dirt of Zaun's strees, holding a damaged iron part in his hands and raising his head high, looking at the ruins. He was looking up, right at the remains of a Piltover that had been blooming and listening with gold. Raindrops are streaming down his face, washing away the dirt and blood caked under his neck. He thought about his and Jayce's abandoned lab, thought about the hospitality of the Talis family house, and thought about how quickly the infection had started. He regretted that he had not paid attention to the rumors about an incurable "illness" that had begun to spread through the city shortly before the outbreak of full-scale panic and the urgent evacuation of the uninfected. All this went unnoticed until the massacre filled Piltover and people began to migrate en masse in a hurry to escape the bitter fate of flesh eaters.
Viktor remembers with heaviness how his partner promises to come back to him. Jayce promises that he won't leave and will definitely make it back after helping his mother find a safe haven among the evacuees. He promised that he would return and then go with Viktor to the same safe place where he sent his mother. He winces, remembering pure horror in Jayce's eyes, saying fearfully, "I need to find my mom. Don't worry, I'll be there soon. Don't go out: there's food here and it's safe here. Wait for me, Viktor. I'll be there soon." and then he remembers crying alone, afraid that Jayce wouldn't show up. He remembers leaving because his partner didn't showed up.