Chapter Text
“Alright, what have we got?” Vi asked Ekko as they walked up to the apartment block.
“Threats mostly, but it looked like someone tried to actually kill him today.” Ekko looked up at the sun. He still wasn’t used to such direct sunlight, even months after the peace between Zaun and Piltover had been established, “The threats were sent to a male omega by the name of… Viktor, no last name, and because some of them contained threats against his son, Miro, he called the police. Nothing was done, until today, when someone tried to shoot him as he left the apartment.”
Viktor.
The name rang a bell.
“How many threats has he received?”
“He didn’t say.” Ekko flipped through the notes, before scoffing in disgust, “He’s from Zaun originally… probably why the police didn’t help him when he first called.”
Probably.
Despite the peace, the old prejudices still held strong. Hell, if it weren’t for the Captain of Enforcers dating a Zaunite, they probably wouldn’t have ever been able to sign up and try to change the way everything was run on the inside.
Vi was sure her girlfriend probably wouldn’t appreciate Vi telling her that’s why they could never break up.
They entered the apartment where a thin, practically gaunt looking man was sat at the table, a crutch resting beside him as he patiently spoke to another officer.
“Mister Viktor?” Ekko cut in, not missing how Viktor glanced over at them and instantly looked a little brighter, clearly recognising them as fellow Zaunites.
The white hair and the pink hair was a dead giveaway.
“We’ve got it from here.” Vi stated to the sergeant, “Make sure someone makes moulds of the wall where the bullet entered.”
“…Yes Ma’am.”
Respect would come at some time, Vi was sure.
As the officer left, Vi and Ekko took a seat at the table, seeing a child playing quietly on the sofa.
“My name is Violet, and this is Ekko.” She introduced them, leaving out the titles for the moment, “We’re the ones who are going to be leading the case from now on.”
“Viktor.” The man softly replied, an odd accent in his voice that the pair recognised from the lower end of Zaun, where several immigrant families lived.
“We hear that you’ve received several threats, and that today, those threats were acted on.”
“Hm.” Viktor glanced over at the child, who seemed oblivious to whatever was happening, “I do not mind the threats. They are nothing but empty words, and what can words do to me? The bullet, however, was a surprise.”
“Do you still have those letters?”
Viktor nodded, slowly getting to his feet, grabbing the crutch, and limping over to a nearby desk.
“Mama?” The child looked up at the movement, calming when Viktor muttered something soothing in his native tongue, fetching the notes from the drawer and handing them over to Vi.
It was the usual stuff she’d seen sent to Zauns who had settled in Piltover.
‘Go back to where you came from.’
‘You don’t belong here.’
‘Leave or else.’
And then she saw something very interesting. “What is this note referring to?” She held up the note in question, “He will never take you back?”
Viktor winced a little, hands worrying at the metal of his crutch, “I assume… it’s referring to my ex-husband. He decided that he didn’t want a child and was unwilling to see reason because of it.” he scoffed, “Foolish of these notes to even assume I’d want him back.”
There was a hint of longing in his voice though, his eyes automatically darting over to the toddler.
“You don’t think it’s him sending the notes?”
“Unless he has started referring to himself in the third person, which is possible I suppose, then no.”
Vi caught Ekko’s eye, as her partner nodded minutely.
They needed to speak to the husband.
“We need his name.”
Viktor hesitated for a few moments, before answering. “Jayce… Jayce Talis.”
………………………………………………
“I didn’t know that Councillor Talis used to be married?”
Vi shrugged, “I knew I recognised Viktor’s name somewhere…. He was the co-founder of Hextech, the silent partner behind it all. Him and Jayce were the IT couple in Piltover.” She frowned, “I don’t remember anything about a divorce though? As far as I remember, one day he was there and the next he wasn’t.”
“He just disappeared?”
“… I need to speak to Cait.”
“Now?”
“Not for that!” Vi rolled her eyes, “She’s Talis’s best friend, she’ll know exactly what happened and if he’s been acting oddly recently.”
………………………………………………..
“Why do you need to know about Viktor?” Cait asked, glancing between the both of them, “Why are you digging up the past like this?”
“Why do you say it like that?” Vi leant in a little closer.
“…Viktor died. A few years ago.”
“D-Dead?” Vi glanced at Ekko who looked just as shocked as she felt, “How?”
“There was an accident in the labs…. An explosion. We never found any of his remains.” Cait shook her head, “Jayce was devastated… he’d gone to a Council meeting that day. For months he blamed himself, thinking that if he’d just stayed, then he might have been able to save him.”
“That’s…. impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because we’ve just spoken to Viktor.” Ekko frowned, “And he looked very alive to us.”
“Do you have a photo of him?” Vi asked, when Cait gaped at them both, “Maybe this is a case of an imposter getting caught out and threats being sent to him because of that?”
Cait nodded, clearly hoping that this was the case, reaching into her drawer, pushing aside some documents, before finally happening upon a golden frame with a photo inside. “Jayce gave me this for safe keeping.” She whispered, “I don’t think they were even dating in this photo.”
She handed it over to Vi, he took and examined it.
The man who everyone knew as the ‘Man of Progress’ had never looked happier, mouth open in a laugh as a shorter, much skinnier man laughed along with him, bracing himself against Councillor Talis as he did so.
“Yeah... it’s definitely him.” Ekko muttered, looking over the photo, “He said...he said that Talis knew he was pregnant and got rid of him because of that?”
“Pregnant?” Cait lowered herself back into her chair, looking shell-shocked, “No we-we would have known. Jayce would have known. He- he wanted so desperately for him and Viktor to have a child.” She shook her head, “No... we would have known.”
Vi looked at the picture again. Trying to conjure up the image of the child in her mind. Whilst the toddler did mostly favour Viktor, she could also see a little bit of Talis in him.
“I don’t know what’s going on.” She whispered, “But there’s something... off about all this.”
“Jayce- “
“- Don’t tell him anything.” Vi sighed, “Someone told him that Viktor was dead, and someone told Viktor that Jayce never wanted to see him or his unborn child again... and it was probably the same person. Who told Jayce about the explosion?”
“… Councillor Medarda.”
Shit.
Things just got a whole lot more difficult.