Killing Is a Cycle (Script)

NETFLIX BUMPER

Cut to black. "Breaking Free" plays.

CUT TO: INT. LEBLANC'S DOMAIN

Fade in on LeBlanc's domain. Chains fly through the shot, restraining Mel. She screams and struggles. Gold light begins to emanate from her. She breaks free of the chains and the entire space is immersed in her light. She appears in a ruined space, her body now covered in gold markings. She looks around to ascertain her surroundings before noticing the markings.

LEBLANC: Drink the moment, Mel Medarda.

Mel looks at an empty throne at one side of the room.

LEBLANC: There is no time like your first.

The camera pans. As the throne passes behind Mel, LeBland appears in the throne.

MEL: I'm one of you? A mage?

LEBLANC: We each have our own expressions. Yours is quite rare.

LeBlanc gets up and walks into the light as she talks, revealing she has disguised herself as the girl Mel saw Ambessa kill in her season one flashback.

LEBLANC: An empath. Attuned to the ethereal. Able to sense others' inner selves and bend their magic. A conduit and a mirror.

MEL: What does that make you? Even now you hide your true face behind illusions.

LEBLANC: Truth is the greatest illusion of them all.

LeBlanc returns to her shadow form.

MEL: I think beneath that mask you're scared. I can see through your tricks. That makes me a threat.

LEBLANC: For the gifted, arrogance is the ultimate threat. Your power has merit.

She walks behind a totem and emerges disguised as Kino.

LEBLANC: But should one want you dead, a simple blade would do nicely.

MEL: Where is my brother?

LEBLANC: Regrettably, his fate wasn't among your mother's lies.

She disguises as Ambessa.

MEL: You killed him.

LEBLANC: I gave Ambessa every opportunity to atone for her transgressions. She chose pride over progeny.

She disguises as Mel.

LEBLANC: But you need not bear her crimes.

MEL: The test. This whole charade. You want to recruit me.

LEBLANC: Your talents developed quickly. It's no coincidence. The Arcane is waking up.

MEL: What has my mother done?

LeBlanc begins to fill the room with visions.

LEBLANC: A calamity is approaching, rivaling even the ancient Rune Wars. Ambessa sits at the helm, blinded by her thirst for legacy. Our efforts to divert her course have foundered. We can't afford another failure.

MEL: This is what you see in me? A silver bullet?

LEBLANC: I see salvation of your city, countless others beyond.

MEL: She's my mother. For all her faults, she has always done what she thought was best for the family.

LeBlanc returns to her shadow form.

LEBLANC: Your brother thought so too, until he uncovered her secret. Your birth, the entire course of your life, was no accident. She hid you because you are that which she covets most: a weapon.

She dispels the visions and re-disguises as the murdered girl.

LEBLANC: Today you've been born into a new family, from which you'll find there is sadly no return. Those untouched by the Arcane fear us.

LeBlanc holds out a necklace.

MEL: What is this?

LEBLANC: A welcome to your future.

Mel hesitantly reaches out and takes the necklace. The scene fills with light as she puts it on. Cut to a shot of a bird flying in the sky.

LEBLANC: (Voiceover) The world is a perilous place for a solitary mage, sister.

Mel walks away from the ruins.

TITLE SEQUENCE

CUT TO: EXT. VIKTOR'S COMPOUND

Cut between many shots back-to-back. Cut to a close-up of Rictus's corpse. Ambessa watches as he is buried upright. Singed hooks Vander up to several tubes. Ambessa takes Rictus's weapon from a soldier. Singed approaches Viktor in a cocoon-like ball, drawing out a liquid with a syringe.

SINGED: (Voiceover) I regret that I couldn't save him. His injuries were too severe.

Ambessa dons Rictus's rune links.

AMBESSA: (Voiceover) We do not lament a warrior's death. We avenge it.

She plants Rictus's weapon above his grave. Cut to her approaching Singed's apparatus.

AMBESSA: What of their Herald?

SINGED: The blood should sustain Viktor for a short while. Beyond that, it is up to his own will.

AMBESSA: You promised a cure to death.

SINGED: An outcome dependent on Viktor's survival.

Ambessa walks over to look at Viktor's cocoon. Viktor's voice suddenly echoes from within.

VIKTOR: Doctor. Your ingenuity deserves praise.

The runs on Viktor's followers begin to glow.

SINGED: Viktor.

VIKTOR: I am…

We see back and forth between the material world and the world as Viktor sees it as he talks.

VIKTOR: …grateful. The world I now see is more… lucid than ever.

In the real world, he speaks through Huck, while in his view Sky helps him up.

AMBESSA: You can inhabit your followers?

Viktor's followers speak in unison.

FOLLOWERS: We are one. This is the Glorious Evolution.

Sky comforts Viktor in his world.

VIKTOR: Or it could have been. I sense my twilight approaching.

A version of the anomaly floats in his hand before he sees a vision of the hexgate.

VIKTOR: An anomaly festers beneath the Hexgates. I believe it has the capacity to complete the doctor's transformation.

AMBESSA: This will allow you to evolve others?

FOLLOWERS: In theory. But Jayce's attack has done its work. I do not have the strength to overcome the defense he will raise against me.

AMBESSA: I will deliver you to this anomaly, if you agree to empower every soldier I bring you.

VIKTOR: I will evolve all those willing.

Sky watches as Viktor begins more thoroughly inhabiting his followers. In the material world, Ambessa and Singed watch as the followers begin to hover in the air and glow. Cut to black.

CUT TO: INT. HOSPITAL

Vi sees and hears memories echo in her head.

CAITLYN: Vi?

Vi sees Caitlyn standing above her.

CAITLYN: Vi? Vi?

Vi stirs in bed.

JAYCE: Come on.

In her memory, Jayce walks over to them.

JAYCE: We need to get out of here.

Vi continues to stir. She sees Isha and Vander. Vander snarls. Jinx runs forward.

JINX: No! Isha!

Isha points her gun up and prepares to fire. Vi groans as she begins to come to.

LORIS: Shh. Easy there.

She slowly opens her eyes. She thinks she sees Vander sitting next to her bedside before she realizes it's Loris.

LORIS: Took all of three docs to patch you up.

Vi sits up.

VI: Loris?

LORIS: Wasn't sure you'd pull through. Thank that thick noggin of yours.

She gasps in pain and pants.

VI: Where are the others? Cait? Jinx?

LORIS: Jinx. Caitlyn wanted to be here to tell you herself.

VI: Loris. Spit it out.

CUT TO: INT. CAITLYN'S WAR ROOM

Cut to a shot of a map. Five models of Noxian ships face a drawing of Piltover. Caitlyn and Maddie stand next to the map.

MADDIE: Maybe we can negotiate.

CAITLYN: Not with Ambessa. I saw it in her eyes. She will burn Piltover to the ground for my betrayal.

MADDIE: You can't blame yourself.

Maddie reaches for her hand, but Caitlyn pulls back.

CAITLYN: I don't need consolation. I need a plan.

They both turn as Vi bursts in.

VI: Arrested?

Maddie approaches Vi.

CAITLYN: I can handle this, Maddie. Check on my father?

Maddie walks past Vi and closes the door, listening to their conversation briefly.

CAITLYN: Vi.

VI: She saved your life.

CAITLYN: If you will just calm down for one—

VI: Even knowing you'd never have done the same for her.

CAITLYN: We'll never know, will we? You didn't let me in on that part of your plan.

VI: Clearly the right call, since you still can't trust her enough not to shove her in a box.

CAITLYN: Trust? You believe I'm so daft I can't recognize a contingency? She wasn't there for my benefit. You didn't trust me to follow through.

VI: Can you blame me? How long were you sidled up with that shifty, self-serving war pig? She oinked poison in your ear, and you just ate it.

CAITLYN: I know! The only thing Jinx cared about was getting you to safety. Then she just surrendered. I didn't even have time to think before they hauled her off. She's being held in the bunker while I… While I decide what to do. I was waiting for you to recover.

VI: Cait, she's changed.

CAITLYN: We can't erase our mistakes.None of us.

VI: Who decides who gets a second chance?

Vi leaves.

CUT TO: INT. PILTOVER DUNGEON

Cut to a shot of an elevator descending to Piltover's dungeons. Cut inside to an enforcer standing guard. Caitlyn enters with a tray of food. The enforcer stands up straight and nods before leaving. Caitlyn approaches a cell on the other side of the room. She sets the tray of food down and slides it under the door, where it bumps into another, uneaten tray of food.

JINX: If you're here to kill me, make sure to finish the job.

CAITLYN: Vi thinks you've changed.

JINX: She can't accept what you and I know. There are no happy endings.

CAITLYN: Is that all you have to say for yourself?

Jinx doesn't respond.

CAITLYN: There won't be a trial. I'm giving you this one chance to account for your actions, all the pain you've caused. No amount of good deeds can undo our crimes.

She bangs on the cell door.

JINX: Do what you came here to do.

CAITLYN: Hating you… I've hated myself. I just don't have the energy for it any longer.

Caitlyn turns to leave.

JINX: I didn't know your mom was there. It probably wouldn't have made a difference, but… I didn't know.

Caitlyn stays for a beat before walking away. Cut to a close-up shot of Jinx's face.

CUT TO: INT. COUNCIL ROOM

Cut to a shot of a bird landing somewhere in Piltover and cawing. Cut to an establishing shot of the main tower. Mel, hooded, walks through the streets. Cut inside. Jayce circles the inner ring of the Council table and flashes back to the day the room was destroyed. He sees Shoola walk past in a daze, the bodies of Hoskell, Bolbok, and Cassandra, and Viktor unconscious. His hammer glows. He gasps and turns as Mel enters, grabbing his hammer. Mel removes her hood.

MEL: Jayce? What happened to you?

He takes a moment to respond.

JAYCE: Doesn't matter.

MEL: Something happened to me too.

JAYCE: You're the reason we didn't die in the attack.

MEL: Apparently so.

JAYCE: How long have you known?

MEL: It started then. Feelings I couldn't explain. But this… I still don't fully understand.

JAYCE: Why just me? Why not save all of them?

MEL: It wasn't a decision. One moment you're addressing the Council, and the next we're standing in rubble. I didn't have any greater awareness.

JAYCE: How can I know you aren't lying to me?

MEL: Why would you think I am?

JAYCE: Because you used me, and Viktor, for Hextech. You called us "investments."

She walks towards him as she responds. Images of the anomaly flash in his mind, muffling her words.

MEL: Two brilliant young inventors who shared a penchant for impossible surprises. Carrying magic from myth to machine. Rallying the hope and hearts of a nation. You were a wise investment.

Jayce suddenly uses his hammer to fire at a nearby pillar, blowing a chunk out of it. One of Viktor's followers, now transformed like one of the beings Jayce saw in the alternate timeline, approaches. As the conversation occurs, the shot cuts back and forth between the real world and the world as it looks to Viktor.

VIKTOR: Allow us a moment of civility, Jayce. We must talk.

JAYCE: Viktor. How did you get in here?

Jayce walks forward.

VIKTOR: You once benefitted from my knowledge of this place.

JAYCE: That was a long time ago.

VIKTOR: Had you given me the chance, I would have shown you the merits of my work. Our work.

JAYCE: No, this is your obsession. Everything you've done to these people, you did alone.

Jayce swings out at Viktor with his hammer. Viktor dodges away and moves quickly around the room as he dodges Jayce's attempts to blast him.

VIKTOR: Perhaps. But I'm alone no longer. I now speak with all their voices.

JAYCE: Say what you came here to say.

VIKTOR: Somehow I think you already understand what must transpire to complete my mission. I would prefer to do so in peace. The Noxian has other intentions.

MEL: Mother?

Viktor leaps next to Mel. Mel puts up a shield against him.

VIKTOR: The Arcane stirs within you.

Viktor begins reaching through Mel's shield. Jayce blasts him while he's focused. Mel collapses.

JAYCE: Viktor, for all our sakes, stay away from the Hexgates.

Jayce charges Viktor. Viktor easily deflects the attack.

VIKTOR: Your mind has become rigid, Jayce. Fear clouds your judgment. This chain of events started with you.

Jayce attacks again. Viktor leaps above his hammer and puts Jayce in a headlock.

VIKTOR: In my confusion, I was unable to reconcile this. But I now understand. The Glorious Evolution is destined. Let us instead do this once again as partners.

JAYCE: My partner died in this room.

VIKTOR: It was my sincere desire to avoid this.

Jayce slams Viktor back into the table. Viktor grabs him again. Jayce hits him with the hilt of his hammer. They fight for a moment before Viktor manages to take the hammer out of Jayce's hand. Viktor sees something glowing. While he's distracted, Mel uses her power to peel the hammer out of Viktor's hand and force him to let go of Jayce. Jayce picks up his hammer. Mel and Jayce pin Viktor between their respective powers. Jayce's leg brace breaks as they manage to destroy the body. It appears to cry as it falls limp on the floor. Jayce looks at the arcane surging in his veins. He catches Mel as she briefly faints. In the world as Viktor sees it, he lies on the floor. Sky approaches him.

VIKTOR: Doctor. You may begin the process.

Cut to black.

CUT TO: INT. PILTOVER'S DUNGEONS

Jinx rolls a hex gemstone around the floor of her cell. A hallucination of Silco walks past the bars.

JINX: Go away. You're too late.

SILCO: Oh, it's a hell of a place. It says something about the late Marcus that he found imprisoning your sister to be a greater mercy than killing her.

JINX: Killing isn't mercy.

The image of Silco appears in the corner of the cell.

SILCO: A spark of rebellion still burns inside that husk, I see. No. Killing is a cycle. One that started long before Vander and me. And it will continue long after the two of you.

JINX: I'm done running in circles.

SILCO: We build our own prisons. Bars forged of oaths, codes, commitments. Walls of self-doubt and accepted limitation. We inhabit these cells, these identities, and call them "us." I thought I could break free by eliminating those I deemed my jailors.

He appears outside the cell again.

SILCO: But, Jinx, I think the cycle only ends when you find the will to walk away.

She lets the hex gemstone fall out of her hands.

VI: Jinx?

Vi arrives and stands at the front of the cell.

JINX: What are you doing?

VI: I swiped these from the guard station.

She holds a keyring.

VI: If you come help use all that explosive potential of yours for good, maybe we could rewrite your story, like you did with Zaun. What do you think?

JINX: Sure, Vi.

Vi opens the cell and runs to embrace Jinx.

JINX: You're never gonna give up on me, are you?

Jinx grabs the keys and punches Vi in the gut. She runs and locks Vi inside.

VI: Hey!

JINX: You don't have to worry about me anymore. You don't need to feel guilty about being happy. You deserve to be with her.

Vi grabs the bars of the cell.

VI: Wait!

Jinx throws the keys into the cell.

JINX: There's no good version of me.

VI: What are you gonna do?

JINX: Break the cycle.

She disappears into the shadows of the hallway.

VI: Jinx!

Vi yells and punches the wall.

CUT TO: EXT. PILTOVER

Mel and Jayce walk down a large outdoor hall.

JAYCE: I'm sorry. I've been an idiot. And an ass. You're hurting too.

They stop walking.

MEL: For as long as I can recall, I have chased the archetype of a Medarda. I believed it my calling to merit the blood in my veins. It was all a lie. This blood is alien to me. Yet it has dictated the course of my entire life. I'm no more than a passenger. A life I spent in self-pity. Now it's gone. I can never return to it.

JAYCE: I've been confused about a lot lately. But there's one thing I know in my bones. There is no force in this world that can control you.

An enforcer arrives. Jayce nods at them.

JAYCE: You will never be a passenger.

He leaves with the enforcer. Mel looks out at the city.

CUT TO: INT. COUNCIL CHAMBER

A large group is assembled in the council chamber, including Shoola, Caitlyn, Maddie, Sevika, and Scar. Cut between several of the smaller groups. Several look at the pillar Jayce damaged earlier.

JAYCE: Quiet.

Jayce walks into the center of the room.

JAYCE: Forgive me, but we don't have much time. A storm is coming, the likes of which Piltover, perhaps Runeterra itself, has never faced.

In the center of the room is an object covered with a sheet. Jayce pulls the sheet back to reveal the body Viktor inhabited.

JAYCE: This creature infiltrated the very room you're standing in, and we barely survived. Hundreds more are on the way. The Noxian general is leading them.

As he continues, the shot cuts back and forth between the council chamber and several other parts of the city. A man plays a piano in an empty hall.

JAYCE: This isn't a fight for ideals or territory. It's a fight for humanity itself. I'm asking, no, begging you, every one of you, topside and bottom, to aid us in this coming war. And it will be a war.

A searchlight is lit on the bridge between topside and the undercity. Steb watches with several enforcers.

JAYCE: Now, this isn't a fair request, but it is our only hope. The forces against us are too great. We need every hand we can get.

The man playing piano stops. Enforcers take down the barricades blocking the undercity.

ENFORCER: Bring them down!

A family watches nearby. A woman closes the door to her shop.

JAYCE: We're abandoning the city's outskirts to stage our defense at the Hexgates.

Dozens of people prepare to leave the undercity.

JAYCE: The final bastion of our salvation. If you choose to flee, don't stop running.

One group leaves the council chamber. Loris teaches a large group how to fight Noxians, including the piano player.

JAYCE: But I'm choosing to fight. And I pray that you will join me.

Sevika and Scar leave, along with several others. One man says goodbye to his family before they leave the undercity. Enforcers set up barricades. Many people, including the piano player, suit up in enforcer gear and load guns.

ENFORCER: Let's go, let's move, let's move!

The piano player runs across a bridge. Jayce explains to Loris how to use a large piece of hextech machinery. Several airships leave Piltover. Gert shrugs off an enforcer's hand as she boards a ship. She watches several others board. The enforcers on the bridge turn off their searchlights. Steb begins to walk away, but another enforcer nudges him. They watch as many undercity denizens approach, including Gert and the man who watched his family leave. Steb takes off his cap as the group walks by. Jayce takes a look at the anomalous hex gate.

CUT TO: INT. PILTOVER'S DUNGEONS

The montage ends. Cut to Vi in Jinx's cell. Footsteps approach. Vi turns to see Caitlyn, who enters the cell.

CAITLYN: Had a feeling I might find you here.

VI: I really believed she'd help. Say it. You told me so. I was an idiot to trust her. I went behind your back. I choose wrong every time. And because of it, I've lost everyone.

Caitlyn approaches and leans on the wall next to her.

CAITLYN: You really think I needed all the guards at the Hexgates? Sorry to say, you've grown a bit predictable.

Vi leans in to kiss her. "Fantastic" by King Princess begins playing as they begin to make out. Vi pushes Caitlyn's jacket off. Caitlyn pulls away.

CAITLYN: Listen, while you were gone, I saw someone—

VI: Cait. I don't fucking care.

She kisses her again. They begin taking each others' clothes off. Caitlyn touches a bandaged wound on Vi's side. Vi pulls her in closer. After making out for a few more moments, Vi squats down and begins eating Caitlyn out.

CUT TO: EXT. VIKTOR'S COMPOUND

Cut to the entrance of Viktor's compound. Two guards stand in the background. As one prepares to head inside, the other nudges them. They both watch Mel approach. Cut inside Ambessa's tent. She looks at Rictus's rune chain. The guards outside let Mel in. One leads her through the camp. She sees several graves off to the side. Inside Ambessa's tent, Rictus's rune chain glows as she sets it in a bowl of hot coals. Ambessa turns as she hears Mel and the guard arrive. Ambessa gasps.

AMBESSA: You're alive!

She goes to embrace Mel, but pulls back when she notices her cold demeanor.

MEL: I know about the Black Rose.

AMBESSA: You know a facade. They are nothing but lies.

MEL: You taught me the best lies come wrapped in truth. What really happened to Kino?

AMBESSA: Your brother was struck with curiosity. He got caught in their web and, with every action, grew more deeply entangled.

MEL: So you let him die?

Ambessa slaps her.

AMBESSA: I carried him in my belly, nursed him from my bosom. He was all the sweetness in my heart. For that, they took him, carved into me a wound that will never close. I pray you never suffer the agony of being forced to forsake one child to save another.

MEL: You should have come to me.

AMBESSA: You'd have made the impossible intolerable. I did what you could not. For you. For the family.

MEL: Piltover has nothing to do with your feud. Board your boats, leave our shores. I will join you. We can avenge Kino together.

Ambessa grabs Rictus's rune chain.

AMBESSA: This is more than vengeance, child. These mages dangle over our heads a sword that impales us should we rise too high. Their very nature violates the most core of Noxian principles, that every one of us is equal on the battlefield.

She begins to wrap Rictus's rune chain around her arm.

AMBESSA: That through cunning, sweat, and steel we shape our destinies. The fact you've come to parley for your friends' lives prove you still lack the wrath necessary to defeat an enemy like the Rose.

She walks to the front of the tent.

AMBESSA: I've found another way.

Cut to elsewhere in the camp. Ambessa leads Mel.

AMBESSA: Imagine, child, an army that need never fear death.

Mel gasps as she sees the suspended bodies of Viktor's followers.

MEL: What have you done, Mother?

A hex cocoon floats in the air. Cut to the compound the previous day, after Viktor's fight with Jayce and Mel. The sun shines on the cocoon, which is connected to many tubes. Viktor's voice comes from all of his followers, who were not yet transformed.

VIKTOR: Doctor. You may begin the process.

Ambessa watches. Singed looks at Vander, who is hooked up to many tubes.

SINGED: Very well.

Singed begins turning on machinery. "The Line" by twenty one pilots begins to play quietly in the background. Cut inside the hex cocoon to Viktor. Sky's voice echoes in his head.

SKY: I guess this is goodbye.

Cut to the world as Viktor sees it. Sky looks at him sadly. She helps him up.

VIKTOR: Thank you very much for your company in my solitude, Ms. Young.

Singed pulls a lever. Sky begins to dissolve.

VIKTOR: I will miss our talks.

Singed continues activating the machinery.

SKY: No. You won't.

She disappears. The music swells. Vander and Viktor both shout as the transformation begins. Vander's memories begin to burn away as he loses his identity. Viktor asserts full control over his followers. He sees their bodies glow as they begin to float in the real world. Singed and Ambessa both watch as all of the bodies of Viktor's followers transform. Viktor's body begins its own transformation, splitting his face in two. The music continues into the credits.

END CREDITS