At the Time of the Kidnapping Earlier . . .
Just stay out of the way, Powder. Why didn't Big Man just say it? Powder sunk in her bed. This world was so tough. Mylo, Claggor, Benzo and Vander were gone. Vi was an enforcer. To top it all off? The one person who did travel with her, had been there for years. Ekko was no longer her real age.
He couldn't enjoy anything she enjoyed. It's like he wasn't even Little Man. She named him correctly, he was a Big Man now. Powder coughed.
Then she pulled herself out of bed. Something else was hitting her! It was- Vi, Mylo, Claggor, Arcade! Enforcers were coming through the huge glass window! Vi was there, trying to help too.
Then, there was something else . . .
Older. Older like Ekko. Unbelievable grief, she just started to cry uncontrollably and screamed. No! No. Do I get this person's memories too? I don't want them! She didn't.
Because it wasn't enforcers.
It was gas, green gas, and she couldn't breathe. Gagging. Trying. She was holding something. Something big with a bow on it, and she was staring down.
She was staring down at something. Something with bits of red. That hair. That stance. Vi . . . was in the enforcer's protection? In their shielding?
Vi was with them. Vi was gassing her.
Jinx held a weapon out for her, but she was shaking. She couldn't really just kill her sister, never! Even if she did this. Even if did her part to kill off Zaun just that little bit more. Her tear fell onto goggles below. Claggor's goggles.
She moved around to survive, trying to keep her grief quiet. She turned on the arcade's shooting range, and used it to distract them to make her get away.
PJ opened her eyes. " . . . okay." Somehow, she was on top of an old building near the Last Drop. She headed back, knowing Anatoly's magic was probably already working.
They weren't on the ship anymore. Vi was gone. Ekko was gone. No one was there.
"This is bad." She headed closer to it and could smell the gas. Gas was an excellent tool to use with people, that would have knocked the others out. "Someone took them." And unfortunately? "I don't know who, I don't know where, if I go downstairs inside, I'm going to get knocked out." Shit. She crept through the siding to reach the top to her room.
No one knew about her yet probably, so it wouldn't be about collecting her. If it was, they would have grabbed her upstairs. Someone came after Ekko. No. The shimmer factory? My gift? No one would have bothered with it, unless someone was getting more power. Plus, she had Anatoly's eyes on everything. I did, but I screwed it up. I just wanted to do the right thing for Zaun. Now Ekko's been taken because of my stupid gift!
No, because she messed up on Anatoly.
Maybe one of those stupid chem-barons were wanting more power. Still, why go to the Last Drop? Firelights. At least one of the Firelights must have talked about the factory. But why was she at the Last Drop? What excuse did they decide on? Ekko wouldn't ever go for the chem-baron thing.
She went toward the floor and saw her drawing. There was a clock, that wasn't in her style. Yeah, Ekko had me. She wished she knew more. She grabbed some of the paper. "I don't know what your guys' perfect plans were, but I know I don't get much time." There was no time to even take in what was happening.
That a chem-baron had Ekko, and that could be bad.
"Okay, what could I say? I can't tell myself the truth. I can . . ." Blah. "Dear Jinx, Blah Blah. You recognize your own handwriting. Shit's going down. It's been two years. Silco hired out Ekko! Yeah, Ekko's a bad guy boss now, epic, huh? Anyhow. Silco is laying low, and now you and Sevika make sure the Firelights are in charge. It's your duty, Silco trusts you to do it. Ekko got nabbed, he's with a chem-baron. Get off your ass and find him. If Ekko dies, Silco dies."
Sorry, Ekko, I don't know what your final plan was. I know this is going to screw her up, and screw you up, and I'm sorry! I don't know if Vi's involved or not. I don't know anything!This is probably just a gigantic mistake and mess up in the making. Sevika should be there somewhere too. Oh, maybe Heimerdinger as well. I have to try something.
She moved around the room and looked around. "Oh yeah, Sevika's here." She saw a bunch of stuff piled in a closet. Sevika would never leave me stranded, no matter how much we bickered. She dug through it, and found it. "Pow-Pow-Pow." Disassembled in a few parts that were easy for her to see. Probably so Ekko okay'd the whole thing.
As she put it together, gaw, it felt sooo good. She held it, completed now. Pow was her first favorite gun, but when it was lost, she made Pow-Pow. It worked for a long time and was built to last, but she knew that things didn't last forever. She knew how lonely it felt to have to remake her lovely gun again. She might always have bombs around her, but she always wanted her Pow.
This time, she made an emergency backup. Pow-Pow-Pow. It's been awhile since I held a gun. Being part of the mercenaries, everything was hand to hand, with maybe a knife or a stabbing tool. No guns or bombs. "Oooh, that feels good." She closed her eyes. What a sensation. Holding her own hard work again.
Oh damn. That feeling. Of freedom.
/// Ekko really did not pick a good day for doing this shit to her. She was trying to make up for disappointing Silco. She was trying to get her gem back, that those gnarly little assholes stole from her. She stole it fair and square, figured out the damn hextech magic, and she was getting it back for Silco! And to top it all off? After her constant failure at pleasing Silco, she just haaaaad to see her sister. Vi.
With that damn enforcer again! Her replacement! Of course she was her replacement! How could she ever pick her? They'd never go together! She took out her frustration by using her gun to shoot straight up the middle, starting from the ground, getting the satisfaction of seeing them split apart.
But lo and behold, on that worst day of all days, who just haaaad to come out of the middle. Ekko.
Not. In the mood. He wasn't even hiding in his owl mask anymore. Usually she killed the people around him, or she just did her best to miss him. That idiot had taken a bag and tossed it to Vi and the enforcer.
Holy. Shit. I don't believe this. Ekko. Ekko was siding with enforcers too? What was this world coming too?! I don't understand! What the hell is wrong with everyone?! Enforcers? Why do they love enforcers so much, they are Zaun's enemy!
And Ekko especially, what was that shit?! He and those Firelights interrupted shimmer stuff, and they got shot at by enforcers too! The world has literally gone mad!
Vi just looked at her, and she shot her the meanest look she could back. Don't even look back at me you traitor.
Then, as they walked off, Ekko got in front, like he was ready to fight her. He. Was ready to fight her. Not with his Firelights. He wanted a one on one fight with her.
Gaw. Damn. "Well, look who it is! The Boy Savior!" She shouted toward him. He was really making her do this.
And as if he thought she just needed a liiiiiitle more of a push in the wrong direction? He gave her a strange look he hadn't shown her in a long time, that she couldn't read, and pulled out his stopwatch.
Like when they were kids.
Ekko. Really had noooo idea how she was feeling right then. You'd think the huffing and angriness would have pushed it in, but no. That's it. This is it. I can't take this anymore. Powder and Jinx had been fighting together for a part of that day, ever since she saw Vi with the enforcer. And now.
Ekko. Decision time. Am I going to kill him, or am I going to kill me, or am I going to end us? Because that was it, she couldn't take it anymore! Something had to give. Something had to quell the emotions rising in her.
This is not what Silco would call beautiful. This was not what Silco would appreciate. He'd love the chaos she was making, that she was fully expressing herself, but he wouldn't like what was going on in her head. She messed up. She messed up all the time, that's what she did, but she didn't like to mess up on Silco.
But she never wanted to end Ekko.
But Ekko was Silco's enemy.
Which meant Ekko should be taken care of.
But Ekko's life was devasted by Silco.
But she loved Silco.
But she loved Ekko.
But she loved Vi, but Vi loved the enforcers, and she hated the enforcers.
So Vi hated her.
And Ekko hated her.
And everyone hated her, because she was Silco's.
And if she didn't do this right, then even Silco would hate her.
Then everyone would hate her.
Okay. Let's roll, Mylo. She turned her body in the exact same fashion Mylo did in the arcade back then. He shot wrong and missed every time. Powder had showed him how to hold the gun right.
This time. She'd hold it wrong. She often held it wrong for challenges in her shooting, but she fully mimicked Mylo this time. Fully, sloppily shooting from the side like an idiot. Fate will decide for me. As Ekko ran toward her, changing his direction, she knew how it would end. She felt the clobbers of the pipe, felt him beating her down.
Just like Vi. Just like when Vi beat her down. She was the bad guy that night, blowing up their family. She was the bad guy that day, getting blow for blow that she deserved. This was fate.
This was life.
Because good guys could fall, but bad guys couldn't rise.
And Vi was a good guy. And Ekko was a good guy. They would never be bad guys. They would never be like her. All she had was Silco. All she'd ever have was Silco. All she could do was keep making him proud, so she wouldn't lose him.
Because he's all she had. Good guys and bad guys never mixed.
She saw Ekko pause and look at her again. She expected the evil hate, but instead, saw something worse. He looked at her like she was Powder again.
He had seen her weakness stir. Time for fate. He'd probably get out of the way. He might not. It didn't really matter, should it? Did anything really matter anymore? Up was down. Left was right. She let go of the bomb.
Ending all of the confusion.
Unfortunately, it didn't end all the confusion! She didn't die right away. She heard one more sound before it all slipped away. And she knew, who came to her before she died. The one man who loved her the most. Despite all of her messed up qualities.
"She won't die, Doctor. She can't."
Silco's voice.///
Jinx found herself staring at her emergency gun. "What the hell?" Okay, weird. She wasn't injured anymore. She wasn't on a table or anything. Silco wasn't around. She got up and looked around herself. It was the Last Drop, but it looked way different. More like what Vander had.
That wasn't done overnight.
She looked at the ground, and saw drawings of hers. Okay, that made sense. Next to it though? "I wrote a note to myself?"
Yeah, it was definitely for herself. No explanation, straight to the point, with the only emphasis on what she'd care about. "It's been two years, and Silco put the Firelights in charge?" Ekko specifically? Ekko?
Ekko! "Ekko came to my side?! Holy shit!" Holy shit. Ekko was with Silco? Ekko was a bad guy? He actually fell, like her. He fell. This was a damn miracle! "Okay, I'm working with Ekko now. Ekko's . . ." Ekko flipped!
It was bizarre, but she was in the Last Drop, and it looked like nothing like it used to. It didn't even look how it did as a kid, it was brand new. No, she wouldn't lie to herself, and that was definitely her scattered handwriting.
She clicked her tongue holding Pow 3. Damn, this is a little exciting! "Okay Pow-Pow-Pow. Our first check should probably be . . ."