Ekko and Jinx

[Guppy]

"Why did you come?" Jinx asked. Her voice was frail, filled with tiredness and pain that he's never seen in her before.


Part of Ekko wanted to deny that Jinx could ever be Powder again. But that would be a lie. Ekko just didn't fight for his friend hard enough. If he tried, just reached out a little more then…


It doesn't matter. What matters is that here and now he can help her.


"It's going to sound crazy." Ekko said with a small smile directed at her.


"Ekko, everything sounds crazy right now," Jinx said, walking over to her couch, but ended up collapsing on the floor in front of it. Ekko's eyes widened thinking something happened to her, but no, she just curled up on the ground, all her energy lost. "There's going to be a war between the Pilties and Noxus, which have super machine soldiers because of that damned fortune cookie!" She started ranting on her back, looking up into the darkness of the fissures.


"We can help," he said gently, drifting closer and lying down next to her. His Z-drive between them, the glowing core being so eye catching yet both of them looked at the monkeys lining the bottom. Pow- Jinx looked at him in disbelief.


"Me! Help! Do you even know who you're talking to? I'm Jinx! I ruin everything! There's no way I could help. I'd only make things worse." Jinx said, her eyes closing in pain, sadness, and regret. Her hand started feeling the monkey bomb. It didn't sound half bad to just walk away from the cycle.


"Everyone dies when I'm around. You said someone worth building a future for. I'd just tear that future away."


"Can I tell you the crazy thing from before?" He said, his voice gentle. It wasn't an Ekko that Jinx had heard before. He was usually mad and trying to kill her.


Jinx thought she killed him on the bridge. The fact that her old friend not only survived, but was trying to reach out after everything she did to him. It was a miracle that he didn't come to enjoy the show.


It was a miracle he was real.


"Sure, whatever floats your boat, I guess." Ekko reached out, his hand finding hers. She flinched away, ripping her hand away as she jolted from the sudden contact. Her heart pounded in her chest. She didn't even think she'd have the chance to talk to someone else, nevermind touching them.


Ekko looked at her gently despite that. It was like he was seeing more than just her. He always had a strange longing in his eyes when he looked at her. She could tell why now, he saw a life where she came with him that day. Where he saved her.


"I- we, me, Jayce and Heimerdinger. We saw some weird Hextech virus spread in the Undercity, so Jayce brought us under the Hexgates and that's when everything went crazy." He took a deep breath, looking into her eyes, unwavering. "Something wrong happened. They lost control of Hextech-"


"Yeah, I got that from the metal fortune cookie losing his shit."


"I have no idea who you're talking about."


"It's eh, whatever, never mind." He could hear her voice go angry, too sad to self doubt.


"When the Hextech freaked out, it made this giant core that looked like that," he pointed to the miniature version of the Hexcore in his Z-drive. "Only the size of a building."


Jinx let out a whistle. She knows how much power the Hexgems had, imagine what she could do with a Hexcore.


"It sent me to a parallel universe." He said, looking directly into her eyes. For a second, she wondered if her madness spread to him, but she looked at the thing he brought. The monkey's lining the bottom. It was weird and out of place and totally something she would do.


Could he be telling the truth?


"Everything was different there. Benzo was alive, Vander was alive, Mylo and Clagger were alive. Even Silco was alive and everything was peaceful."


"What?" she said weakly, Silco and Vander alive and at peace. There's no way something like that could exist. Everything he said made a knot in her heart. If it was real, is that a world where she died?


"Yeah, they were together. In the last drop, just having a good time." He thought back, seeing Silco there was shock, but his words after stayed with Ekko.


"Silco told me, 'The greatest thing one can do is find the power to forgive'."


So, he'll forgive Jinx, find the Powder within and make this world a paradise like the one he left. People here are relying on him, and they're worth building it for. She's worth building something new for.


"The letter." Jinx whispered, pieces in her mind clicking together. It was possible. There's a world out there where her dads were still friends. Could she exist in that world?


She could imagine it, Vander laughing while injecting Silco's eye, at the same time everyday. Sitting at the bar, complaining about whatever while they tried their best to help, only to accidentally say the right thing.


"And then there was you." He said. Jinx felt the knot in her heart go loose. In such a perfect world, she can exist.


There's a good version of her.


"You worked at the last drop. Vander wasn't too happy about it. He wanted you to go out there and live up to your full potential." That sounded so like him. Vander always wanted the best for them.


"You were amazing as well, you still went by Powder. You saved Mylo from embarrassing himself in front of his crush." Jinx couldn't believe it. She helped Mylo.


"Mylo and Clagger?" Jinx said, unsure.


"They loved you. Clagger would tell me how Mylo was hopeless without you there to save him from himself." He said, smiling fondly looking back at the brothers.


Jinx felt herself choke up. Her brothers, they loved her. She could've had that, instead of killing them.


"What about Vi?" she asked. Ekko took a sharp breath, holding it in and looking away pained. Jinx felt her heart drop. Even knowing her sister was safe in a cell she trapped her in, hopefully not grieving too hard.


"Vi, she died… on the job." Jinx knew exactly which job he was talking about. That dreaded memory. She took those shiny blue gems and nothing was ever the same.


"Vi, died?" Even in a paradise, she couldn't help but still mess things up. The knot in her heart tightened up again.


"You had a shrine for her, detected in her memory. I painted her mural, showed it to you."


"Heh, how much did I bawl into tears?" Jinx said, even in a better world, her family was still dead. Just like everyone else here, just like Isha.


"Not at all actually, I told you that Vi was fearless, and you said she wasn't."


"What?"


"You said it was fear that gave Vi her strength. Her fear of losing you, her fear of losing her family pushed her to be so strong."


Jinx closed her eyes. Thinking about those words, Vi was afraid. It was true, the only thing that scared her sister was losing Powder and losing her.


She laughed, crazy and unhinged, but the laughter just didn't stop escaping her. Her sister wasn't scared of her, but she was always scared for her. The laughter died down and tears took its place.


"Jinx, I" Ekko started but cut himself off. She wiped away her tears. She needed to take her mind away from her sister.


"Did they do it? In your perfect world, did they make Zaun?" Jinx asked a question that burned into her when she found out that Silco was alive. Did he achieve his dream?


"Yeah, it was beautiful. Pilties didn't have Hextech, and we didn't have Shimmer. Market stalls from both the Undercity and Topside covered the bridge. They did it."


"Heh, no one could stop those two together."


"I used to dream about the Undercity being like that and I got consumed by the ways it wasn't. I got consumed by how everything and everyone changed. But, now that I've seen it, I want to build it. Not just for me, there's people in the Undercity worth building it for."


Jinx couldn't help but think of Isha, think of Sevika, think of Vi and Ekko. Now, she can't scoff or deny those words. Even if Isha is gone.


It would be a dream come true, for them, for Vander and Silco. For mom and dad. For her and for Powder.


"You think you can do it?"


"I know I won't give up trying. Never again."


They fell silent after that, just enjoying a moment of peace and silence. Something they both desperately needed.


Ekko got up, stretching his legs a little before reaching out to her. "Will you come?"


Jinx shied away. "Ekko, I would just make things worse" her voice was hoarse and rough, but certain.


"I know there's a part of you in there that wants to help them. That wants to go fight to protect her home. To protect her family."


"Look Ekko, what you want is Powder! But Powder is gone! There's only pieces of Jinx left!"

"You're wrong. We don't get to pick and choose our past. Every person we've met and every interaction we've had has shaped us. Powder is in you and so is Jinx. You can embrace both. You don't have to choose one identity over the other. You're everything, and that makes you perfect."


Don't cry your perfect


Jinx almost cried again. The knot in her heart came loose and now something else was bubbling there.


There's a good version of her out there and the only one who's seen it thinks she can be like that.


They would be happy, wouldn't they? Mylo, Clagger, Silco, Isha and Vander, they would all fight. Powder would fight and she's Powder, too.


Powder and Jinx.


Her hand slowly came up, Ekko's latched onto it and pulled her up. Just like that, she was going to battle.


She was going to be a Big! Fat! Hero!

 

[CaraMyBeloved]

"It's going to sound crazy." Ekko said with a small smile directed at her.

Click to shrink...

It might seem crazy what I'm bout to say