#zaunrising

Summary: Zaun is on the verge of breaking. Amid sirens and smoke, you fight alongside Vi to defend your people. But between the bruises, blood, and the bond that’s only grown stronger in the chaos, something deeper starts rising to the surface and neither of you can shove it down anymore. Pairing: Vi x Reader Word Count: ~1,200 Warnings: Violence, blood, minor injury, romantic tension, battle setting, emotional suppression

The street was on fire again.

Not literal flames this time but the noise, the smoke, the yelling it might as well have been.

You wiped sweat from your forehead with a cut-up sleeve, heart pounding too fast to think straight. Then, through the haze, you saw her.

Vi.

Covered in grime, blood on her cheek (probably not hers), jaw clenched like she was chewing on rage.

“You good?” she shouted over the chaos, swinging a pipe over her shoulder like it was just another extension of herself.

“I’ve had better nights,” you muttered, panting, “but yeah. Still standing.”

She smirked. “That’s all that matters right now.”

Another explosion cracked through the alley behind you a flare burst, not close enough to kill, but close enough to rattle your ribs. Vi didn’t even flinch. She reached for your hand, pulled you behind cover like it was the most natural thing in the world.

You didn’t let go.

The air down here always smelled like rust and electricity, but tonight it was worse panic thick in every breath. The streets had turned into a battleground. Kids were fighting, old friends turning on each other, and no one knew who the enemy even was anymore.

Except you and Vi.

You two had always known what you were fighting for: each other, and the ones who couldn’t fight for themselves.

“I’ve got your back,” you said, ducking behind a broken vent wall.

She looked at you not a glance, but a real look. Like she needed to know you meant it.

“You always do,” she said, voice rough. “But tonight… I need more than that.”

You frowned. “More?”

Before she could answer, a scream rang out a young voice, too close. You both spun around.

Two enforcers, backed into a corner by some half-masked chem-barons. Wrong place, wrong night. Vi didn’t hesitate she ran toward it, fists first. You were right behind her.

You fought like you always did in rhythm. Her blocks, your swings. Her takedowns, your follow-throughs. Not perfect, but enough. Always enough.

You took a hit to the ribs that knocked the wind out of you. Vi caught you before you could hit the ground.

“You okay?” she asked, breathless, eyes wide.

“Yeah,” you wheezed, blinking fast. “Just… let me catch my soul real quick.”

She laughed short, shaky, but real. Then she pressed her forehead to yours for a second. Just a second.

“You scared me,” she said, so low you barely heard it.

“I’m right here.”

“I know. That’s the problem.”

Later, when things had quieted not safe, but quiet you sat with her on the broken steps behind an abandoned chem-lab. Her knuckles were split. So were yours.

Neither of you talked at first.

Then she said, “I can’t keep pretending I don’t feel it.”

You turned your head.

“The way I look at you during fights,” she added, eyes locked on the horizon. “The way I check if you’re breathing before I even check myself.”

“Vi…”

She shook her head, suddenly looking mad at herself. “I don’t get to want things. Not down here. Not when everything’s falling apart.”

“You do,” you said, gently. “You get to want something for yourself. You get to want me.”

That made her look at you.

“Because I want you too,” you admitted, voice barely a whisper. “I just didn’t know if it was okay to say it. If it would mess everything up.”

Vi gave a quiet, almost tired laugh.

“Everything’s already messed up,” she said. “Might as well have something real in the middle of it.”

And then she kissed you.

Not soft. Not slow.

Desperate.

Like she’d been waiting for the world to end so she could finally do it.

You kissed her back.

Later, the riot would start again. The smoke would come back. The sirens, the blood, the noise all of it would return.

But for a moment, you weren’t just part of Zaun’s war.

You were part of Vi’s heart.

And for once, that felt like enough.

A/N :Here the last character of Arcane -> V. I. Hope u like it. Have a good reading! Lot of love !! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

It's gonna be the first one and there are two other imagines!

“And what is there left to help with?” The tall, steely eyed lioness of Zaun took a long moment before turning her gaze from the now ruined Last Drop, to the mage standing close by. She sounded, at best, tired. At worst, that particular kind of resigned and practically defeated within someone who nonetheless… would simply never stop. As far as she knew, her, well what had they been anyways? Jinx, that brat. Silco, still cleaning up his messes. Isha, a random snot-nosed child she’d known for little time indeed. The Last Drop, just a building really. They had been her family, and now as far as she knew, they were all gone. Dead. With The Last Drop, their home, burned to the ground. She couldn’t even return home and mourn properly. Not with it in this condition, and with her having been cursed with being on the Council in Piltover when really it should have been Ekko, she’d never have the time to rebuild it. If she even could manage it, or face it. It’d be a building of ghosts, and memories now, and no matter how it was rebuilt she’d never stop looking upstairs for Silco, or towards the bar or jukebox for Jinx. For a moment, pain entered her voice. One slight moment of vulnerability as her eyes stayed on Elise. “It’s all gone.” At this point she wasn’t sure if she was continuing on purely to honor her family's memory, and try to achieve their collective dream of a Free Zaun, or if she wanted it herself as well. Whatever Zaun became from here on out, it’d be a Zaun she wasn’t sure she’d fit into at all. Her family was gone, and in a way, her Zaun was gone as well. One long slow breath before she waved around them. “If you want to help, Elise, go help.” Zaun was still Zaun, and there would always be people to help

Empty wasn't the right word, though it described the scene. No, it was quieter—like the air's softness after a thunderstorm or the ringing in the ears after an explosion. It was not right for this place. It turned it into a carcass, a great whale that had sunken to the bottom of the sea, ready to be torn apart by the environment it had once thrived in. To be broken down into resources for redistribution and fought over until the last rib was picked clean. A place with so much memory deserved better.

The echoing words, just as tired as the embers that had long since died out, fit the remains. What is left... A ruin and the survivors. Survivor. Empty chairs and empty tables. And ashes.

The mage was familiar with the ghosts and determined to help Sevika chase them away until she could manage them alone, however long that might take. Still, the question went unanswered, and Elise let the silence stretch.

Mourning was not a thing to be rushed.

Long, slow steps were the only response to her words, though they did not move away. Instead, step by step, the lioness stood less alone, a pale shadow inkling into her space. There was no 'if' in her mind. She wanted to help. All of them, or as many as she could, but right now... A scarred hand came to rest against Sevika's arm.

"I am not going anywhere." The words snuck out, soft as cotton and drifting through the air. It hurt to see her like this. War left no victors, yet not everyone was left alone. No family, no home, no– Sympathetic anger was not the solution here either. Time and patience. "Not without you."

Another step brought her in front of the other woman, and she tried so hard to keep the softness on her face, the burning empathy out of her eyes. It wasn't pity; it never was, but the raw emotion was not easy to place. So, it was pushed aside for now.

"Come." A soft push, a guiding hand. "We can return tomorrow. See if anything survived the fire."

The smile on Jinx’s face reached her eyes, and judging from the hint of wary fatigue in them, as though waiting for the next shoe to drop, this was likely the first time in quite some time she’d truly smiled. All the same, it was indeed a smile, and she gave a little nod, pushing her tea cup out towards Elise. “Sugar sounds good, not often get that down here. Least not the good stuff, and not much of it.” She was more used to sweeteners put together from sweet candy mushrooms, and a bit of sugar to help make it taste more like the “real” stuff the Pilties got. If Elise was going to offer, though, Jinx wasn’t about to object. “Never really got to have tea parties.” Glancing around for a moment, Jinx relaxed ever so slightly. “This is nice.” Attention moving fully to Elise, those shimmer infused eyes gazed at the mage. A predator's gaze, even if one currently at rest and largely hidden. “How’s things? What’ve you been up to?”

It was good to see the younger woman actually smile for once.

"Yes, in that regard, magic has its advantages." Though she was pretty sure her talents weren't supposed to be used to steal sugar from a commerce pier. "For a city that condemns magic, people have surprisingly few countermeasures." The words flowed idly as she put down the sugar jar and a spoon for Jinx.

Tea was the sort of habit that was easily sustained, yet having company over for tea was rarer than the mage would have liked. Of course, it also became more of an event when guests were over. While she would often indulge in a cup or two, she seldom put out the accompanying spread of treats.

"I have not been up to much. The skirmish down by…you know, the big green mural with the lady and the flowers? I forget what the street is called, but it left a few stragglers in need of mending." They had all been children, young folk brawling over what little resources they could scrape together. "But other than that, things have been relatively quiet. I even had the time to study some of the plant life. What about you? Blown anything fun up?"

There was no smile on Silco’s face. If there was any expression, it was a somber, quiet one. An adult tired of the complaints of children, and yet one who was called upon once again to step between those who as far as he was concerned should know better. All the same, in his dark ruined eye there was a strange gleam. That fiery orb seeming a touch brighter than normal, or perhaps it only seemed that way due to his blue eye seeming colder. Another difference was Sevika’s presence, the strong woman who was Silco’s right hand standing behind him and to one side. Close enough to step up, and in if need be, but with no sign of intending to do so unprovoked. In this moment Sevika was not a threat, and seemed as composed as ever with her shimmer fueled arm at a standby. She was, however, a warning. For as friendly as Silco had been to the new foreign chem-baron, that could change if need be. “Are you finished?” Before The Table, before he had nearly died, before things had changed, Silco would have been more measured in his response. Now, however, he found his patience lowered. It was a dangerous thing, patience sliding away reminiscent of when he’d been a young man, but with the self-control and consideration of an older man with years of experience. There had been Silco, who worked with Vander and had crawled out of the mines. Silco, betrayed, and who had found power in the shadows that allowed him to pull Zaun upwards into something new. Zaun, the Enterprise, on the way to the Free Nation of Zaun. Now, however, there was a different Silco. Exactly who he was, and what he was capable of, was something many had yet to see. One thing however was for sure. He was still one of the primary powers in Zaun with Sevika still standing by his side. “If I was here to “rush along negotiations”, on her behalf, it would not be only myself and Sevika standing here.” Voice quiet, and controlled, this was clearly not the sociable Silco that had visited Elise more than once. This was the Eye of Zaun who be it through information, shimmer, strength, or any number of things ran far more than most thought he did. “No, I am here to ask a very simple question, Elise.” This new chem-baron had a weakness, but it was one Silco could respect. She cared for her people, or at least cared enough about what they could do for her, that it might as well be the same thing. Certainly, she cared more than most other chem-barons, and that created a kind of loyalty. Loyalty, which by its very nature, would go both ways. A weakness of a sort because it’d guarantee certain behaviors, but it was also a strength as it’d make it harder to turn her people against her. Sad, really, that Elise was what Silco had originally hoped the chem-barons would be, and she wasn’t even a Zaunite. Still, she also wasn’t a Piltie, and if a yordle could be a chem-baron… well why not? “How far are you willing to go, to get your people back?"

Most people would call Elise a trusting individual who wore her heart on her sleeve. She wasn't a politician or a liar. Most people would be wrong. One had to be a liar to look a parent with a dead child in the eyes and tell them everything would be okay. And she had seen far too many failing institutions to trust any of them. Perhaps that was why she walked into the room alone. Because while there was no reason to believe Silco was here for blood, the little voice in the back of her mind insisted otherwise, and she would be damned if someone else's blood was spilt over this. So Elise sat there with her empty, pleasant smile, eyes sharp and drifting from Silco to Sevika.

"Yes." Was that a rhetorical question? Most likely. Elise didn't care. The mage held no pretence that Silco didn't deal with his own garbage-can of issues every day, but as far as she was concerned, he was here to help, or he was in the way. And the thought he was here to help felt delusional. She was an outsider; she got it thrown in her face every time she tried to deal with this sensibly. Why would he choose to help an outsider?

Though Silco's arrival was a relief. No matter why he was here, it would shake things out of the frustrating stagnation. She didn't have the resources to go into the other territory and get her people, but her own territory was well-protected. The other chem-baron couldn't force their way to the valuable water. Despite all of Zaun's technology, this was a siege.

"What do you propose?" It was the first time Elise moved, and she could feel it in every muscle. Residual energy dispersed like an anxious breath escaping through gritted teeth. Leaning forward, her fingers drummed against the table.

"I can't just go in and get them. There are too many people for me to get them out safely." And while she could survive the gunfire, they wouldn't. "And I am not throwing fifty people at a problem when half of them won't return." There were plenty of people who wanted to volunteer, even after they had discussed the odds and chances. The loyalty was heartwarming. But it was also dangerous. Sooner or later, they would try to rush the territory despite her insistence not to. They weren't of the temperament to wait things out.

Legs folded up underneath her, Elise glanced across the papers before her. Age could be a burden, but at the moment, she was thankful for her long life. Trade and politics were not something she had ever had formal training in; however, over the years, she had attended enough courts to, at the very least, consider herself well-versed in the basics.

"Hm?" Silver eyes glanced towards the door as it opened. "Is everything alright?" From what she remembered, there weren't any meetings today. However, the younger man didn't look to be in such a hurry he was bringing bad news.

"I-ehm… Yes, Mis-Elise." The mage couldn't help a friendly smile appearing on her face. She didn't like titles, but it was hard to do away with social customs. "You have a guest. The eye of Zaun."

"Oh." Standing, Elise pushed aside the papers before walking to the other. "Well, we should probably not keep him waiting." Gesturing towards the door, she followed after the young man.

The house she'd taken up residence in was large; one could even call it sprawling. It was needed since she wanted her patients close while still having the space for business. It was the most ostentatious thing she had acquired since becoming the de facto leader of the area. In the beginning, she had been operating out of a warehouse, but one of her people had pointed out that she needed proper meeting rooms. Thus, she had directed funds to buy this house, a former gambling den. Many rooms still had the original decorations, with elaborate wallpapers and polished wooden floors. Now, most of them were filled with beds and medical supplies.

The room she kept most meetings in was decorated with a blue sky and a pale wooden floor that was probably supposed to give the illusion of a cloud. Personally, the mage had always thought the ivory wood was more reminiscent of bone. Turning to the young man, she dismissed him before entering the room.

"Welcome, Silco. I hope the journey here went well." The pale mage greeted with a soft smile. "I wasn't aware you wanted to talk; if so, I would have gladly gone to your territory." Elise couldn't help but reach out, checking the wards she had put on her home. She couldn't sense any changes. "But no matter. What can I help you with?"

To no one's surprise, Elise is a hygienic person. It is necessary for her work, her own safety, and others'. In a pinch, she can disinfect using magic, but the ritual of actually washing up before tending to a patient feels normalizing in a way she can't quite articulate.

So she learnt how to make soap from scratch.

From; Thematic Headcanons

hc + 🚗 for a transportation-themed headcanon

Old hc: Elise hates, and I mean, hates driving in cars. However, this actually counts for most motorized vehicles. Preference-wise, she will take boats and trains over more...free reign transport like scooters and cars, but ideally, she would walk, ride, or sail everywhere. And airplanes are a matter of life or death if she is on one.

hc+⏳ for a time-themed headcanon

🫂

From; Hug my muse