Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ankle-Biter

Act I, Part I: Only One Time   

She’s fifteen when it happens. Jinx has no one to blame but herself and her own curiosity, but in her defense, Sevika got drunk and just wouldn’t shut up about all the fun she got up to in Babette’s brothel. And in the Undercity, kids don’t stay kids for long. Jinx has grown up around this nonsense for years.

She isn’t stupid, but she’s an engineer and a tinkerer, and by her very nature she likes to experiment to see if she might discover something exciting or interesting. Sevika might not only be dumb muscle, but plenty of people enjoy sex. So she bites the proverbial bullet and decides to see what all the fuss is about. 

What could go wrong? She’s used to dealing with sudden and unexpected explosions. It’s one of her favorite pastimes. So she sneaks to Babette’s place, grabs a boy close to her age whose face she doesn’t immediately want to punch, and hijacks a room.

It turns out sex is a lot like alcohol; not for everyone and definitely not for Jinx. She tries, and her chosen partner (hell with it, she doesn’t even bother trying to remember his name) does alright, but by the end she isn’t sold. It isn’t even twenty minutes before she’s back on the streets, disappointed that all the rowdy talk she hears isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Oh well. She gave it a shot, time to move on. 

…Except it moves on with her. 

“It was one time!” Jinx complains in sheer disbelief. “It wasn’t even that good!”

Sevika is pinching the bridge of her nose. “Dumbass. Fucking stupid kid, are you fucking kidding me–”

“Enough,” Silco sighs. He’s displeased, but not angry. She’s learned his mannerisms in the years she’s known him. “This is not ideal, but your absence can be mitigated with enough manpower. If you choose to keep the child, that is.”

Jinx is tempted to say no immediately because children are something she is absolutely not good at dealing with. She has never wanted to be a mother, not in her whole entire life, and not now. 

Silco is watching her. “Your mother never expected to be a parent, either. I won’t make this choice for you. But I will support you, whatever your decision.”

She scowls. “I need to tinker.”

So she runs to her hideout and sets off half a dozen Chompers amidst deafening rock music. She’s up there for hours, making things on a whim and blowing most of them up because she can. Metal and wires and sparks fly between her fingers and she’s got axle grease on the table–

And it smells like mom. 

She throws the current project (might’ve been a bomb, but she hadn’t put any explosives in yet) in a fit of rage across the room as hard as she can and watches it shatter into scrap. Her hands come up to hold her head. 

“You’re fucking dead , leave me alone!” Jinx sobs. “You’re not even one of the Scribbles! Just go away!”

The axle grease inconsiderately refuses to defy physics and float off. She glares at the can, half-tempted to throw that too, but ultimately stands from her seat to shut the music off. The ringing in her ears is the only thing that fills the absence of noise.

Jinx looks down at her belly, frowning, and pokes it. Flat, taut with muscle. Skinny, as she’s always been. It’s hard to imagine herself as anything but. 

“I have terrible luck with my family,” she says, poking her belly again. “My mom and dad are dead. My foster dad is dead. Jury’s out on how it’ll go for my second foster dad. My sister’s dead, too. You’ll probably have terrible luck, you know that? You’ll get shot or backstabbed or just disappear off the face of the earth for being related to me.”

No response.

“Really? The silent treatment?”

Nothing. 

She realizes a moment later she’s already made up her mind and groans. “Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The pregnancy doesn’t slow her down in the early months. She’s moodier than normal, sure, but no one with more than a single brain cell is stupid enough to be around Jinx and not expect sudden explosions. She still does jobs for Silco, (though she can tell he’s winding down the danger level of what work he sends her on ‘cause they’re all boring ) still terrifies people, and still causes chaos wherever she goes. 

Things only start to change when her belly starts growing. She has to start wearing actual shirts and that drives her a little crazy at first. Once she’s showing, Silco orders her to avoid getting into too much trouble and outright rejects the possibility of her doing jobs with Sevika and the others. 

“You’ve gotten this far,” he reasons when she tries to convince him otherwise. “Complications will not help any of us now. You will not change my mind on this, Jinx.”

She spends days, weeks, months tinkering in her hideout. Ever more time is spent there because Silco does not want the Chem-Barons getting even a whiff of what’s happening with her. She’s a vulnerability for him, she understands bitterly, and in her current state she’s easy pickings. 

Well. Relatively easy pickings. She’s rigged the hideout with bombs and Chompers and the nastiest traps she can devise while she’s out of commission. 

Sevika, a doctor, and one or two other trusted individuals under Silco’s direct command are the only ones who know why Jinx is largely missing from the Lanes. It pisses her off a little. She craves people, even if she doesn’t like interacting with them that much. She misses the background noise. 

Sevika comes by one day with a tray full of scraps and junk for tinkering. Jinx is in a mood, trying to lean over the desk with her belly in the way. She growls curses under her breath as she leans around her project, trying to get the angle she wants. 

“That’s what you get,” Sevika shrugs matter-of-factly. 

Jinx puts three bullets in her prosthetic arm on the way out and Sevika does not return to the hideout for the remaining duration of her pregnancy. 

It drags by, but then her pregnancy is suddenly over and there’s a baby girl in her arms. 

The doctor is one of Silco’s guys–not his Shimmer scientist, who is certainly not amongst those trusted with the knowledge of Jinx’s child–paid handsomely and smart enough to keep his mouth shut. He checks the infant over and is largely satisfied. The blue hair can be dyed once she's older. Between that and the amber eyes, she'll barely look like her mother. Easy to hide from their enemies.

Jinx, on the other hand, has problems (a shock, truly). The kid may have come out fine, but her troubled body has decided that feeding the girl isn’t her job. It’s annoying, but in some ways it works out. The nurse Silco hires to feed Jinx’s daughter in her place is another layer of smoke and mirrors to disguise the true identity of the girl’s parent. 

Silco is the one who sits with her in the hideout, in the little nook Jinx set up years ago to sleep, and now where she pushed a fucking kid out of her body. She’s exhausted, sore, and hyper fixated on the little bundle in her arms. 

“That sucked.”

“I noticed,” he says dryly. He and the doctor had been the only ones present for the actual birth. The nurse (and a makeshift nursery) is set up close to the hideout so she can feed the child.

Jinx lifts a hand and delicately pokes the sleeping child’s tiny nose. “You better be awesome, ‘cause that hurt a lot.”

“Have you chosen a name?” 

Jinx leans her head back on the stacked pillows and looks down at the little girl. “Isha. Vander used to call mom Isha. Said it was supposed to be a joke, but she loved it. Isha, Felicia. Ha.”

Something flickers in Silco’s eyes, but he doesn’t comment on her decision. “Get some rest.”

“Way ahead of you.”

Jinx is back on the Lanes in record time. Within a month of Isha’s birth, she’s raising hell with a vengeance, putting certain gangs that saw her absence as a chance to seize territory from Silco in their place.

She’s a bit rusty, but when she returns from a deep fissure with her minigun in hand and a trail of dead Chempunks behind her, she feels alive. Silco tells her she can take a bit more time off, but Jinx is Jinx, and he gives up on changing her mind when she goes on another rampage and leaves a backstabbing business partner of his riddled with bullets. 

Nobody cares where Jinx was because she hits the ground running with her guns and Chompers and bombs, and they get the hell out of the way or else. 

The nurse Silco hired largely cares for Isha as Jinx returns to the Lanes, always present to make sure the girl is doing well. Jinx doesn’t have the most powerful maternal instinct in the world, and that’s probably something else the Scribbles has fucked her over with. But the instinct is there, and she curls up almost every night with Isha and hums until she goes to sleep. 

Jinx runs into Ekko now and then, sometimes clashing in territorial disputes as the Firelights grow. It’s annoying and she misses her old friend when he isn’t trying to make a mess of Silco’s business, but he’s nosy as ever and entirely too smart.

She’s heading back from a job when she spots him waiting in an alley, slouched against a wall, but tense at the sight of her. Fair enough response, she supposes. 

“Jinx,” he says tersely.

“Wonder boy,” she returns. “Bring your friends along?”

“Not this time,” he admits, though she can’t tell if he’s bullshitting with her. “Figured this was a bit too private a topic to share.”

“What topic?”

“Where you’ve been.”

“Killin’ goons in the fissures, keeping Topside off my turf. The usual. Nothing private at all, actually.”

He pushes away from the wall and she’s got a hand resting on one of her guns, but he doesn’t move to attack. Ekko looks her up and down.

“My face is up here, horny little boy.”

“You don’t really look like you had a kid.”

Jinx goes still for a second too long, but it doesn’t matter. He knows. She can see it in his eyes. He doesn’t even sound surprised. 

She not-so-subtly points her minigun at him. “Careful.”

“This isn’t a threat. I’m serious,” he’s got his hands out where she can see them. Actually looking at him, she realizes he’s not even wearing that oversized jacket he likes so much. It’s just the tank-top, showing his arms and that there’s nothing in his hands.

“I’ll paint you red.”

“I mean it. I haven’t told anyone. I won’t, either. I just—look, I wanted to make sure you were ok.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

Ekko gives her a look. Jinx bites her bottom lip, then sags just the slightest. For a moment, they’re kids again, once more way in over their heads. The minigun lowers a bit. 

“I’m fine. Really. I didn’t…my body did ok, just…It didn’t want to do any extra work after I had her.”

“She ok?”

Jinx nods and the minigun lowers completely. Ekko doesn't move closer. They’re past the point of that sort of trust.

“Look, I’m sure you’re set up if Silco is in on this,” he grimaces at the name and she leers at him. Silco has been the point of contention between them since he took over. “But if something ever happens and you need someone to take care of her—“

“Gonna stop you right there.”

“I mean it. We’re not much, and I get you and I aren’t exactly friends anymore—“

“No shit.”

“But my point is I’ve got nothing against the kid. We wouldn’t turn her away.”

Jinx scowls. “Is that all? Just came to advertise your babysitting service?”

Ekko lifts his hands up in surrender, no doubt sensing their conversation is over. Jinx’s frown drops a bit.

“Her name is Isha.”

“Like your mom.”

“Wow, you remembered that.”

Ekko sighs. “I said it before, but I’ll say it again: I won’t say a word.”

“Gun to your head, won’t tell?”

“Brains on the streets, no last words.”

Jinx relaxes. She and Ekko aren’t allies anymore, but they’ve kept those kinds of promises forever and haven’t broken a single one.

“Thanks. For offering. I probably won't need it, but thanks.”

Ekko nods, shoves his hands into his pockets, and ambles off. Jinx hears him fly away on a hoverboard moments later. 

Jinx gets into a bad fight with the Firelights a couple of months later and any remnants of friendship are behind them after that.

Time goes by. Isha is four when she’s allowed to start visiting The Last Drop, once the blue of her curly hair is dyed to an unassuming brown.

She’s only allowed when it’s closed or if she’s staying in Silco’s office. Keeping a child at his workplace is not ideal, but she’s not noisy or terribly distracting. The lack of noise, however, is not a choice on her part. 

They’d learned early on that Isha was mute. The doctor had told them it couldn’t really be fixed, but she could still learn to communicate. Silco had that all figured out. He’d used sign for years by that point, usually to communicate in secret with his own agents (or to read anyone using sign to try and pull a fast one on him). He’s a busy man and can’t spend a terrible amount of time teaching, but he gets his hands on a book he used to teach himself and gives it to Jinx.

She figures it out in record time, needing help with particulars, but Silco is unsurprised to find Jinx’s eagerness has fueled her to largely master nonverbal. 

Isha is exactly the same way. She’s still so young, but more and more of her personality emerges with every passing year. She’s smart for such a small child, copying those around her and learning quickly. 

She still doodles and gets fascinated by everyday things she’s never seen before, but Silco is, again, unsurprised in the developments. She may not look like Jinx, (though her face is starting to hint at their relationship as she gets older) but she’s got her mother’s mind without (so far) the complications. 

Her presence takes a little adjusting to. Silco himself is no stranger to children and he can handle being around them, but his workers? Not so much. Or most of them, at least. Sevika largely avoids Isha except once when the girl was desperately curious about her prosthetic arm. 

One of his new hires came to the door one day when Jinx was sneaking Isha out of the office. The man had been drunk, stumbled, and the girl was pushed against the wall. 

Whether it was on purpose or not didn’t matter when Jinx put a bullet in his leg. 

Lesson learned. Don’t fuck with the kid.

He’s sitting at his desk writing when he feels his lighter slowly leaving one of his pockets. 

Silco reaches back and catches the small arm, holding her in place as he turns in his chair to face her. Isha’s eyes are wide with surprise, like she can’t believe she was caught. 

“Be smart about who you try to steal from,” is his advice before he lets her go.

He hadn’t meant it as a challenge, but the five-year-old takes it that way. She’s a menace, pickpocketing his men one after another and getting better at it with every attempt. 

“Nice try, ya little sump rat,” Jinx grins and scoops the girl up when Isha attempts to sneak a hand into her mother’s pocket in search of whatever treasures she’s keeping there. Silco glances at them for a moment before going back to his work. 

A week later Sevika is taking a short nap on the couch in the office. She’s startled awake by a loud thud and a small yelp. Isha has managed to unscrew her prosthetic arm, but couldn’t hold it up after stealing it. The look on Sevika’s face sends Jinx into a fit of uncontrollable cackles until she falls from the rafters. 

Silco hears his second in-command grumbling about “little brats with grubby paws” but suspects the woman is begrudgingly impressed. 

They’ve taught Isha to hide when it’s needed and shown her secret rooms and tiny nooks. She knows to disappear when Silco signs in a certain way, or to climb up to the rafters with her mother when he wants Jinx on overwatch. 

Jinx herself has made at least two-dozen safehouses and caches of supplies for Isha to use if something goes wrong. They’re all tight spaces, damn near impossible for an adult to reach, and well-hidden. Isha learns them all soon enough, given that her mother makes it a point to take her by at least one or two every single day to ensure they've not been discovered and raided. 

“I used to do this stuff with my sister, y’know,” Jinx tells her daughter when they’re nestled together in one of the safehouses she’s set up. “She was more into hitting things than running and hiding, but it’s good to have a secret or two.”

Isha nods, but she’s largely content to curl up close to her mother on the moth-eaten pillows Jinx has stuffed into the space. Jinx runs her fingers through the child’s hair. 

“Don’t pass out on me, trouble. I won’t carry you home.”

Isha looks up long enough to sign. Please?

Jinx lifts an eyebrow. Isha beams. 

“So damn cute,” she grumbles and tickles Isha as the girl squirms to get away, but Jinx is merciless in her affection. Breathless giggles leave her until she is finally given respite. 

“Fiiiiiine, I guess I can carry you home,” Jinx drawls like it’s a huge favor. The kiss she plops on Isha’s forehead says otherwise. 

Isha has taken to sneaking into the bar during business hours. The loud music and flashing lights are nothing to her given who her mother is. Jinx lets Isha think she’s sneaking off, but she’s always slipping into the bar after her daughter and perching on the rafters to keep watch. Silco’s men stationed throughout the space know to watch out for her, too. 

She’s a nightmare for any unsuspecting patron, with greedy eyes, clever hands, and a sharp mind. Isha robs them blind amidst the music and chaos, slipping under and around tables, barstools, and bodies to get whatever catches her eye. She’s gotten very, very good at it. If she needs a break, she slips behind the bar and has a nook the barkeeper knows to let her use. 

Jinx never takes her eyes off the girl when she’s gotten into the bar. These are Silco’s consumers and business partners, but she knows the type and Isha being among them always makes her anxious. 

But her daughter needs to learn these things, because otherwise the Lanes will chew her up and spit her out like it has so many others. 

It’s fun in a way. Isha always sneaks back to Silco’s office with her pockets stuffed full of pilfered goods. She brings lighters, cigars, jewelry, money, knives, and a whole myriad of other items, sometimes just because she likes the way they look. 

“You could start your own business,” Jinx grins as she ruffles her daughter’s hair. “‘Isha’s lost and found! You lost it? I found it!’ Just don’t tell them the reason it went missing is ‘cause you robbed them.”

Isha is extremely proud of her little hauls and Silco’s guards find it amusing. She’ll give them knives or money if she doesn’t feel like stashing them away somewhere (she has a little hoard growing in a box hidden in the rafters). Any tech or useful gear she gives to Jinx. Sevika gets mostly lighters and she only steals cigars for Silco. 

All is quiet one day when Sevika barges in with Isha behind her and something in her hand. She’s mad (nothing new) and the anger is directed at Jinx (also nothing new). 

“I get that you like to keep the kid entertained with your gadgets, but giving her a bomb is a little much, don’t you think?” She thrusts a Chomper up at Jinx, who is sitting in her usual place on the rafters. 

Jinx is normally happy to go at it with Sevika, but she only frowns and drops to the floor. She quickly pats herself down and no, she’s not missing anything. 

She takes the Chomper out of Sevika’s hands and studies it. Silco is watching, silent as ever. 

It’s similar, but not quite like her own design. Jinx crouches and gestures for Isha to come closer. The girl obeys, looking shy and maybe a bit nervous that she’s in trouble. 

“Where’d you get this?”

A flurry of hand signs go by that Jinx has long-since learned to interpret. Silco catches most of it and his eyebrows rise. 

“You made it?”

Sevika blanches. “Tell me you’re joking.”

Isha takes the Chomper and pulls the pin. Sevika looks ready to dive for cover, but the Chomper only makes a few metallic bites before it grinds to a halt and stops. 

The child pouts. 

“Didn’t align the gears right,” Jinx reaches up to pat her daughter's cheek. She pulls the makeshift Chomper apart and studies it for a few moments. “There’s no explosives. I keep those locked away these days, anyway.”

“She’s been picking locks for nearly a year.”

“Not my locks.”

Sevika shakes her head, grumbling. “Two of them now. Gods, what did I ever do…”

“Guess I need to set up a tinker station for ya, huh?” Jinx smiles at the child and Isha lights up like her mother’s favorite fireworks.

“No bombs,” Sevika is all but begging.

“No bombs,” Jinx agrees so easily that even Silco is surprised. Her smile turns nasty. “Yet.”

“I hate you,” Sevika declares. Isha giggles.

Isha gets her own tinkering station at Jinx’s hideout and several of their safehouses. Her mother teaches her, starting off simple, but the girl has learned a lot just by watching Jinx do her thing. She’s able to make a Chomper within a matter of months from little more than scrap, though Jinx is careful to ensure she never gets her paws on actual explosives.

Their first project together is a Paint Bomb Chomper that has Sevika swearing like a sailor for hours.

Jinx is a very proud mama. 

Isha has a favorite gear they’ve painted together, something she keeps on her at all times no matter where she goes. It’s something she can fidget with when she gets full of energy, but can’t go out because Jinx is off on a job with Sevika or Silco is busy meeting with his partners. 

They’re at The Last Drop again one evening when Isha hurries back into the office. In the rafters, Jinx slips back into the room, the child still blind to her mother’s oversight. 

It’s not like usual. Isha often comes in and shows whatever she stole to her mother, or Sevika, or whichever of Silco’s men are present. But she runs straight to the man himself this time, a change that warrants attention. Every single one of them knows how to read people, and any shift in behavior is noted. 

Silco turns in his chair to face the child whose hands fly in rapid-fire motion for a few moments. Then she pulls a gun with a green glow from under her shirt and holds it out to him.

He takes the weapon from Isha and lifts it over his desk for the rest of the room to see. Sevika is on her feet in an instant, as well as three of his bodyguards. Jinx’s eyes lock onto the firearm with a frown. Silco looks up and tosses it to her. 

Jinx catches and studies the gun, taking a moment to squint down an uneven sight. “Chemtech mod. It’s shoddy, but I’d bet it works.”

Firearms are prohibited at The Last Drop unless Silco’s men possess them. He has every patron searched before they get in. He’s not lived this long by being careless enough to let his enemies get a weapon like that into his base of operations. 

But someone has. And Chemtech is regulated under his own supply and demand. 

“Isha says there’s a patron sitting at the bar by the stairs. Dark hood, possibly a limp,” Silco’s voice is ice. His eyes flicker over to Sevika. “Basement.”

Her only response is to whistle once, loud and sharp, and she leads his men out to retrieve the infiltrator. Jinx drops from the rafters with the gun and hands it back to Silco, who pockets the weapon. 

“Want me to watch?”

“Did you see anyone else like the one Isha stole from?”

Jinx considers the question. “No, but he still got this toy past your guards.”

He hums in agreement. “True.”

There’s a loud thump downstairs and the music cuts out. Sevika’s no doubt slammed their would-be killer’s head into something suitably punishing, because she’s barking at people to leave moments later. There’s no more commotion than that and Silco is satisfied the building is secure.

He puts a hand on Isha’s shoulder for just a moment as he rises from his seat. He says nothing, but the little girl beams anyway.

Later, when Silco’s interrogated the man in question and left what remains of him for his men to clean up, he steps out of the basement and into the bar. 

Isha is sitting there with her mother, sipping juice through a metal straw the same way her grandmother did so long ago. When she sees him, a smile crosses her face and she lifts up a fancy lighter like it’s the greatest thing in the world.

Silco blinks and slowly lifts a hand to his pocket. He appears to be missing something. Isha’s little grin is nothing short of victorious. Jinx is smirking.

He claps three times, softly, and then steps around the bar to take a seat a few spots down. Silco orders a drink from his bartender. Then he pulls out a cigar and Isha’s painted fidget gear from his coat. 

The child’s expression changes in an instant to baffled outrage as she furiously pats down her pockets (and the secret pockets she thinks Silco does not know about) in search of her fidget. The toy continues spinning around Silco’s index finger. Jinx snorts and starts to laugh.

“Never get so fixated on robbery that you forget to watch your own pockets,” Silco says without looking at her. He puts the gear down, ready to slide it over with a finger, but holds a hand out to Isha at the same time. 

She scowls (and that face is exactly like her mother’s) and reluctantly gives up her prize as Silco pushes the gear to her. He lights his cigar, takes a breath, and glances down the bar. Isha is sullenly drinking her juice, but she’s got those narrowed eyes and a scrunched nose that tells him she’s already planning her next attempt. 

Silco wishes her luck, but he was the best pickpocket the Lanes ever had, and no five-year-old is good enough to rob him without his knowing about it. 

“C’mere, trouble,” Jinx pulls the moody child away from the bar to the jukebox. “Got something you’ll like.”

Silco pulls out his business notes to run through them again while he smokes. He only pauses when “Our Love” starts playing from the jukebox. 

“Put it back in the safe when you’re done with it,” he calls to Jinx over his shoulder. He reminds himself to change the lock code. Again.

“Always do!”

Silco eventually glances back to see Jinx and Isha dancing to the music. The child’s sour expression has been replaced with a tooth-gapped grin.

“Y'know, your grandma loved this song, too,” Jinx tells her, holding Isha’s hands as they dance back and forth. 

She looks too much like Felicia at that moment. Silco returns to his notes and does his best to focus.

Jinx still has moments when the Scribbles get to her. Being with Isha helps, but she’s had them for as long as she can remember and she suspects she’ll have them till the day she dies. 

She’s told Isha about them, how she gets the bad noises and voices in her head and sometimes that makes her temper go crazy. Jinx does not want her daughter to see her like that, but more importantly she does not want Isha anywhere near her when the Scribbles get bad. 

They have a system. 

Jinx has felt the Scribbles gnawing at her thoughts all day. They make her twitchy and short-tempered, and sometimes she tries to drown them out with loud music, but they’re persistent today. Mylo especially.

She’s trying to focus on wiring when Mylo sneers in her ear and she slams her fist on the table. Jinx inhales, deeply, through her flared nostrils. She’s ready to put a bullet through the little doll that looks like her dead adopted brother. 

There are three soft taps, carefully spaced out between a few seconds to not aggravate her further. Jinx closes her eyes and turns to look at Isha, who has pulled away from her little workshop to watch her mother. Her hands move through sign, slower than normal. 

Mylo says something mean and Jinx’s eye twitches as she stubbornly focuses on Isha. Her daughter looks worried and that breaks her heart. 

Jinx comes to the miserable conclusion that she can’t fight off the oncoming attack. “Bunker, Isha.”

Isha runs over to give her mother a hug. Jinx breathes in the smell of her daughter (metal and paint) and that puts the Scribbles in their place for a few moments. Isha leans up to kiss her cheek, then she runs for the vent that leads to the Bunker hideout. It’s the most reinforced safehouse they have, connected to Jinx’s main workspace, but safe enough that her explosives won’t risk hurting her daughter. 

Once the vent closes behind Isha, Jinx puts her head in her hands and cries. She hates that she can’t stop this, that Isha has to fucking hide from her because she’s too dangerous and unpredictable when the Scribbles get out of control. 

She looks through teary eyes to the little paint messages in the cracked glass of her mirror. She reads all the words Isha has written, but focuses hard on the message in the bottom left. 

Luv you mama.

Jinx sobs. Mylo’s scorn fills her ears again and she finally snaps with a furious scream. A bullet rips through the doll and she unloads the whole damn clip into the pitiful shape. 

“SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Jinx shrieks. “KEEP HER NAME OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!”

She’s going to rip Mylo a new one for every bad word he says about her daughter. 

It’s hours later when Jinx feels the Scribbles finally fade into background noise that she stumbles to the vent and knocks three times, spaced out, to signal the attack is behind her. 

Isha is there in moments, yanking the vent door open and flying into Jinx’s arms. She sits down hard and pulls Isha into a hug she desperately, desperately needs. Jinx is crying and she doesn’t know how she still has tears to cry, but she can’t stop them. 

“Do I scare you?” Jinx asks when she can breathe a little better. Her voice sounds hollow to her.

Isha looks up, crying like her mom (more cracks in Jinx’s heart) and signs. Don’t like it when you’re sad.

She keeps going and Jinx catches on before Isha finishes. “You can’t stay with me when it happens, Isha. If I hurt you, it’ll–it’ll be bad . It’ll hurt me more than the Scribbles ever can.”

Isha doesn’t like that, but Jinx absolutely will not budge on the subject. Her daughter slips out of her arms and Jinx stands up, her legs a little wobbly. She frowns when Isha starts digging through her first-aid bin and brings a bandage over with some tape. 

Isha puts the bandage over Jinx’s heart and slaps the tape over it to keep it in place. To make it better.

Jinx hugs her tight and somehow she’s crying again. She carries the girl over to their little nook and curls around her daughter on the blankets. 

“I love you, trouble,” she whimpers. Isha nuzzles into her and they both drift off, too exhausted to stay awake.

Chapter Text

Act I, Part II: Sister, Sister

Jinx has had a rough day. The Firelight attack on the cargo shipment and the sight of that—that girl who looked too much like Vi had the Scribbles itching at her mind. Silco wasn’t disappointed in her, (not obviously, that is) but she knows she’s fucked things up and needs to fix it.

Isha is half-asleep when she returns to the hideout with the blue stone, having left wreckage behind in Piltover. Jinx has a bag full of stolen notes and books, the gem, and the Scribbles are finally, blissfully silent.

“I’m back!” Jinx greets her daughter cheerfully. Isha tosses her blankie aside and jumps out of bed to give her a hug. “There’s my girl. Little past your bedtime though, isn’t it?”

Missed you.

“Aw. I missed you too,” she kneels to kiss Isha’s cheek. Jinx debates something for a moment before she carefully lowers the bag and pulls the Hextech Gemstone out.

Isha’s eyes light up with wonder and greed, (smart girl, knowing something is valuable at a glance!) but Jinx holds it tight.

“Hey,” she’s quiet and serious, and the rare tone immediately has Isha focusing back on her mother’s face. “This is not a toy. This isn’t something you should steal. Do you get it? It’s like mom’s Chompers, but way bigger.”

Isha’s eyes are wide. She looks at the gem again, this time with apprehension. Jinx holds it in her palm. “You can touch it. Just don’t try to play with it. Never mess with it when I’m not around. I have to work on something with it.”

She’s worried now. Safe for you?

Jinx tilts her hand back and forth. “Mmm, jury’s out. I’ll probably put you in the bunker when I test it. Ok?”

Isha attempts to nod, only for her mouth to part in a huge yawn. Jinx taps her daughter’s cheek gently. “Careful. You’ll catch flies.”

The girl giggles. Jinx stands and nods to their little nook. “Bedtime, trouble. Be there in a sec.”

Isha hurries back to bed while Jinx puts up her haul and locks the Hextech Gem in a safe Isha hasn’t cracked yet. Which she then suspends several feet off the ground with a steel cord. Just in case.

She’s joining her daughter in the nook minutes later, curling up around Isha like she always does. Dark blue fairy lights hang over them. The girl snuggles into her mother’s arms and is quick to drift off.

“Sweet dreams, kiddo.”

Being back in the Lanes is…difficult, for so many reasons. Vi’s got her hands full trying to figure out where the new territorial boundaries are between Silco, the Chem-Barons, and whatever other gangs have taken over the Undercity. Vander’s absence has sent it all to shit.

The (criminally hot) Enforcer riding shotgun with her makes it more of a pain in the ass. But she’s out of jail, so Vi humors her.

She gets a tip at Jericho’s to check with Babette at the brothel. Putting Caitlyn to work getting info from the hookers is easy enough. Vi manages to find Babette and the Yordle ushers her into a private room where they won’t be bothered.

She gets the info she needs, learns to no surprise that the Lanes are under Silco’s total control and that The Last Drop is dead-center in his territory. She’s afraid to ask, but the subject finally can’t be avoided any further.

“Have you heard anything about Powder?”

Babette hesitates a few moments too long before she lets out a sigh. “She’s…around. No one knows exactly where she’s staying. She moves a lot.”

“Anything would help. Anything.”

“If I knew anything you could use, I’d tell you.”

Vi sighs. “Thanks anyway.”

She stands and Babette hesitates again before stopping her with a raised hand. “Sit. There’s—there’s something else.”

Vi obeys, but she really doesn’t like how stressed the Yordle sounds. It doesn’t seem like good news, whatever it is. “What is it?”

“About—what, five, six years ago?—Powder came here.”

“…Ok?”

“She went missing a few months later. Hiding for a long time…and the thing is, the last year or two, my informants have seen her with a little girl.”

Vi doesn’t immediately follow because in her mind, Powder is still twelve, a little girl herself. Why would she come to Babette’s for anything but to talk to the Yordle—

And it hits her like a dirty punch. Knocks the wind clear out of her lungs.

“She wasn’t pregnant. You’re screwing with me. There’s no way, this is Powder —“

“She is not the little girl you remember, Vi. She was fifteen when she came here.”

“Fifteen —and you didn’t stop her?!”

“Would that I could. She wasn’t here for even half an hour. I didn’t know she’d snuck in before she was gone. She took a boy close to her age I’d recently hired to ‘see what all the fuss was about.’ Her words.”

Vi feels like she might retch. “Who is he? This guy?”

“Dead,” Babette sighs, wilting. “He was in debt to a gang when I took him on, that’s why he wanted the job. They decided he wasn’t paying them back quick enough. It was only weeks after Powder’s visit.”

“And the…kid? Are you sure she’s…”

Babette looks at her meaningfully. “Her name is Isha.”

Vi chokes on the lump in her throat and Babette is by her side as she almost slides out of her chair, trying and failing to not freak out because Isha was mom’s nickname and that is too much to be a coincidence—

Powder has a daughter. Vi has a niece, a child she’s never met, who she didn’t even know existed until now, and…

“Isha’s parentage is a carefully guarded secret. I’m certainly not supposed to know. Keep it that way, Vi.”

She can only nod, still numb and breathing a little too fast. She stumbles out of the brothel—barely sparing a glance to ensure that Caitlyn is still suitably distracted—and heads out. She’s reeling, but forces the knowledge to the back of her mind for now. 

She’s going to find Powder and Isha sooner or later, but first she’s going to beat the life out of Silco’s second in-command. 

Jinx has her music playing like always when she tinkers, though her setup this time is admittedly much more experimental than usual. She’s flipping through the stolen book, trying to work out the rune patterns she needs to activate the Hextech Gemstone. 

The Scribbles are gnawing. Not so much as to warrant sending Isha to the Bunker, but despite that–

“Here we go,” Jinx finds the info she’s looking for at last. She glances to Isha’s tinker station and whistles sharply. The girl has been only half-paying attention to her own little project in favor of watching her mother try to figure out the Gemstone’s secrets. 

She looks over again as Jinx calls to her. “Bunker, shortstack. I’m gonna switch it on.”

Isha does not look convinced and is very anxious, but she nods and runs off for the vent. Jinx waits until it’s shut tight behind her daughter and only then does she set the Gemstone up with Mylo and Claggor’s dolls as her witnesses. 

It does not go well, to say the least.

The Gemstone blazes with energy, not so explosive that it hurts her, but enough to blow Jinx back and shock her into bad, bad memories. She’s frozen with horror as the Scribbles shriek in her mind. 

She’s so shell-shocked that she doesn’t hear Isha pushing the vent open at first and jerks when the girl scrambles over to her. Jinx’s eyes are wild and afraid, the Scribbles still present amidst the fading blue sparks in the air. 

“No–no, you can’t be here,” she gasps out. “It was a mistake, I–it wasn’t…”

She’s trying and failing to breathe properly as Isha marches to the Hextech Gemstone and snatches it out of the setup. Jinx blinks, dumbfounded. “Wait–”

Isha shoves the stone into a half-built Chomper’s mouth and shuts it closed, then runs back to her mother and hugs her as hard as she can. It’s the best way she knows to help. 

Jinx finds some control in her limbs and wraps herself around Isha before she starts crying. Her daughter squeezes tight and the pressure makes it easier to breathe. It grounds Jinx in a way that nothing else can. 

They sit together for a while. An hour? More? Jinx isn’t sure. When they pull apart, Isha is worried again. 

Jinx rubs away the tear streaks on her face. “I’m ok.”

Bad rock, Isha signs. 

“I must’ve…gotten the calculations wrong,” she says after a moment. “I’ll have to go through them more. That was…”

Throw it away?

“No, I can’t do that. Silco’s counting on me.”

The answer does not make her daughter happy, but Isha’s only response is to hug Jinx again. She blows out a long, shaky breath. Her fingers run absently through Isha’s curls. 

She’s going to have to go through the calculations a lot more. 

Everything is going to hell. 

Vi is alive. Jinx is shaken enough by the news that her success (finally) with the Gemstone fades into the back of her mind. She leaves Sevika strung up in Silco’s office and bolts for her hideout. 

The Scribbles have been a constant, distracting hum in the back of her mind since the Firelight attack and haven’t really shut up since. Jinx has a bad feeling she’s on the verge of a big attack, but the chaos swirling in the Undercity offers no time for her to recover. 

The thing is, Sevika told her that Vi was with an Enforcer. It sounds like another lie, but Jinx isn’t sure what to believe. She needs to find her sister and see what’s going on before she decides what to do. 

But first–

“You’ve got everything?” Jinx fixes the little cloak around Isha’s shoulders. She triple-checks the pack of supplies she’s given the girl.

Isha nods. She looks scared. Jinx cups her face in her hands. “You remember how to find the safe-houses?”

Another nod. Jinx’s thumb rubs over Isha’s cheek. “Good. I shouldn’t be long, but things are…really weird right now. I’m not sure who’s a friend and who isn’t. You can’t go to The Last Drop. Ok? I need to figure this out and I can’t risk someone finding you here.”

Anxiety still wars in her. She hesitates for a moment and makes a choice. Jinx rushes over to her desk, grabbing a piece of scrap and some paint. “Isha, do you remember the Firelights? The guys with the hoverboards?”

Isha frowns, but indicates that she does. Jinx finishes painting the name and turns around to give her daughter the message. “If something bad-really bad happens, I need you to go to them. Ask for Ekko. He’ll help you out.”

Isha takes the piece of scrap and all it says is “Ekko”. Her lower lip wobbles as she looks up. 

Will you find me?

Jinx kneels to kiss Isha in the center of her forehead. “I will always find you. Promise.”

She pulls back and holds her fingers out like a gun. Isha sniffs and matches her for their secret handshake. Jinx gives her one last hug, extra tight, and ushers her into the vent duct that leads to the closest safe-house. Isha looks back for a long moment before she disappears. 

Jinx lets out a breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. She is terrified of sending Isha out on her own, but Silco lied, Vi might be with an Enforcer, and Ekko…she’s burnt that bridge, but she knows if Isha goes to him alone, he’ll take care of her.

She swallows, ignores a scathing remark from Mylo as best she can, and grabs the flare Vi gave her eight years ago before she goes looking for her sister.

Vi squints against the light filtering through the tree leaves. Ekko’s home is unlike anything she’s ever seen in the Undercity. It’s beautiful, in a word.

If only their reunion was the same.

The mural of everyone they’ve lost over the years is as haunting as it is gorgeous. There’s even a new face being added to the art as Ekko shows it to her. Another victim of Silco…and Jinx.

“Your sister works for him not because she has to, but because she wants to. I’m sorry, but that’s who she is now.”

Vi hesitates, because she’s missed a lot and for all that she knows in her bones that Powder is still in there somewhere, it’s becoming increasingly clear that she’s got blood on her hands. She saw it in the tears her sister cried, saw in her face how relieved she was to see Vi. Before Caitlyn showed up, anyway. 

Then it was rage, betrayal, and fear.

There’s another piece missing, something she never got to ask Powder before their reunion was interrupted. 

“Ekko,” her voice drops. “I…I saw Babette before I went after Sevika. She said–does Powder…”

His eyes glint with understanding. “Isha.”

“She’s real?”

“Yeah.”

Vi swallows. “If Powder’s got her, maybe…Maybe that’s the answer.”

“She keeps Isha hidden through the Lanes, Vi. If the kid’s not with Silco himself, tracking her is impossible. Jinx–”

“Do you think Silco’s holding her hostage?”

“No. I wish that was it, believe me. I met with Jinx not long after she had the kid. I told her Isha could stay with us if anything ever happened, but…There was a bad fight a couple weeks later, and Jinx was in the center of it. We lost three people just to her.”

“That doesn’t mean Isha isn’t being used against her…”

“Vi. Silco doesn’t lock her up. My people have seen that kid with Jinx throughout the Lanes, she is anything but a prisoner.”

Vi bites her lip. “I have to try. I have to find them.”

Ekko sighs, but he’s plenty familiar with Vi’s bullheaded nature. “Give it your best shot, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Now come on. Let’s see your Piltie tagalong and figure out what comes next.”

Jinx hasn’t seen Isha in a couple of days. She’s run by a few of the safe-houses, but hasn’t seen her daughter. There’s evidence Isha has been at them, at least. She’s staying on the move, like Jinx told her to. 

It’s probably best that she stays hidden, even from her mother. The Scribble attacks are getting worse. More frequent. The stimulation of so many traumatic memories and less-than-happy reunions is driving her crazy. 

Silco tries to convince her to stick with him, but she isn’t sold. Not completely. He may not have known Vi was alive, but he knew how she disappeared and kept that from her. Can she trust him? She’s not sure. 

She’s certainly not telling him where Isha is, not now. 

Jinx catches up with Vi, Ekko, and the Enforcer girl–Caitlyn, her mind supplies hatefully–on the bridge. Her Firelight bombs do their work and she retrieves the Gemstone moments before she catches Vi red-handed with the Enforcer. Again. 

The Scribbles scratch at her relentlessly and she has to shoot something, only for Boy Wonder to get in the way. 

Ekko’s too damn smart. He’s got her number, gets around Jinx’s shots and has her on the ground in moments. Her blood flies off his knuckles. 

There’s a moment when they both hesitate, a glimpse of the kids they used to be. Jinx isn’t getting out of this. Ekko will not give her the chance. 

She closes her eyes. Her daughter’s name is a breath on her lips. Maybe the last. Ekko catches it and he hesitates one second longer.

She pulls the pin on the Chomper.

Isha knows she isn’t supposed to go to The Last Drop, but she’s heard people say Mama got into a bad fight on the bridge. She’s desperate.

She sneaks into the building through the back. There’s fighting outside, but when she gets into the office, Silco isn’t there. Or her Mama. She goes through the rafters to the bar, still hiding ‘cause Mama told her to. 

Sevika is there with a few of Silco’s men, and then a stranger walks into the bar. Pink hair, tattoos, and huge gauntlets that look a bazillion times too heavy for a person to lift. 

“Everyone, out,” Sevika orders. The bar empties until it’s just her and the stranger. Isha stares at the woman. There’s a numbered tattoo on her left cheek. VI. 

She and Sevika start fighting, landing blows that shake the entire building, and Isha decides she doesn’t want to be here. She flees back to the office across the rafters, but stays to at least see what happens. 

There are thuds, thumps, and furious shouts between the two clashing women. That scares Isha, because Sevika beats up everyone and this stranger is still going. 

There’s one final, loud crash, then silence. Isha hears the stranger howl. She slips through the office door to see what happened. 

The bar is a wreck. Sevika is unconscious, her prosthetic arm torn to shreds. The stranger is on her knees, crying. Isha is scared. 

The woman hauls herself to her feet. A quiet growl escapes her. “Silco.”

She looks up and her gaze finds Isha. 

They stare at each other. The stranger’s eyes become huge. She doesn't look angry, or like she’s about to chase Isha. Her breath leaves her lungs in a small gasp. 

Isha sees a shadow behind her and hears the best voice in the whole entire world. “Bravo, sis.”

One sharp blow to the back of the head and the stranger drops like a sack of potatoes. Mama is standing there with a gun in her hand and an angry look on her face. 

Isha bolts down the stairs and Mama’s eyes shoot up before going wide. The girl flies into her mother’s arms. 

“What–what are you doing here?” Mama falls to her knees and starts patting Isha down, checking her over for scrapes like she always does. There’s panic in her face as she cups Isha’s cheeks. “I told you not to come here!”

Isha sniffles and signs. They said you got hurt. On the bridge.

Mama’s eyes aren’t blue anymore. They’re purple, like the Shimmer stuff she never lets Isha touch. 

Mama sighs. “I did get hurt. But I’m ok now. I think.”

Mama hugs her tight for a few moments. “I need you to keep hiding, shortstack. There’s still bad stuff happening.”

Isha looks from her to the stranger that beat Sevika. Like her.

She points at the stranger and Mama hesitates. “I dunno. I need to get some straight answers. You’re safer not being here. My…the Scribbles are loud right now, too. Ok?”

Mama hugs her tight–a little tighter than normal–and stands up. “C’mon, I’ll walk you to the safe-house.”

Isha takes her hand and only spares the stranger and the wrecked bar one glance before she follows Mama out of The Last Drop.

Silco is dead, but it’s a pyrrhic victory. The Council is dead, too. Among them, Caitlyn’s mother. Jinx’s brokenhearted, psychotic fury has left a permanent scar on Piltover.

Vi is left with the shattered pieces of her life and the only fragment of hope is the single glimpse she caught of that little girl in The Last Drop.  

She has not told Caitlyn about Isha. She doesn’t know if she should. Grief does bad things to people, makes them angry and hurtful and–and crazy. For all that Jinx has hurt Piltover, has hurt Caitlyn so terribly, Isha is innocent and Caitlyn is not herself. 

If only she could figure out how to go on from here. Zaun has already tried to seize Piltover’s backstep with the Chem-Baron attack on the memorial. Caitlyn’s rage has grown in the wake of the massacre. 

She has a plan to utilize the Grey, that deadly factory smog her family kept out of the Undercity with their ventilation systems. It’s–it’s a horrible thing to do, but Jinx is elusive, deadly, and…

And what other choice is there? At least, that’s the way Caitlyn sees it. Vi doesn’t think she can convince the grief-stricken Enforcer otherwise. Maybe part of her doesn’t want to, because she wants to get down there and tear Silco’s empire up from the roots until nothing is left. 

It means killing her sister. It means orphaning her own niece.  

The thought makes her nauseous. She puts on the gauntlets, the uniform, and that fucking badge with guilt so thick she could choke on it.

Jinx is wanted now. Officially, anyway. Piltover wants her, not just Silco’s enemies. 

But she doesn't give a damn about that because her only goal now is to find her daughter. She’s been wandering through Zaun, tracing the safe-houses and checking for any hint of Isha’s whereabouts when the girl quite literally falls into her hands. 

Isha lands on her head and they both end up in the dirt. Jinx is a moment from snapping at whoever was dumb enough to fall on her when she registers the face of her child. Isha wipes her nose, looks up, and gasps in surprise. 

Their reunion is cut short by Chem-Baron thugs coming down from the pipeline, and their focus is on the child. Jinx’s anger spikes. They’d been chasing Isha. 

Her daughter scoots against her as Jinx’s head tilts back and the hood slides off her head. The thugs freeze, correctly terrified. 

Too late, she’s caught them in the act. They might as well have chased a wolf pup straight to her furious mother.

Jinx pulls Isha against her in one smooth move and the gun comes out, putting three bullets in the thugs and dropping them dead in an instant. 

Isha throws herself into Jinx’s arms and the return embrace is tight, tight, tight. Jinx buries her nose in her daughter’s hair when the little hat she’s wearing falls off. She smells dirty, but there’s still the familiar scent of metal and paint that is so very Isha. 

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” she whispers. Jinx pulls back to cup her daughter’s cheeks, looking her over with careful eyes. The girl’s a mess, but she doesn’t seem to be hurt despite falling so far. Jinx supposes falling onto her was a good thing. 

Missed you, Isha signs, only for a moment before she’s hugging and crying. Jinx wraps her up and breathes a sigh of relief. Isha is here, alive, and safe. It’s the most she could ask for right now. 

Still, the street is not the place for this. She hauls Isha to her feet and picks up the little hat and goggles she was wearing, flipping it over to study it. “How'd you get this?”

Isha wipes her eyes. Found it.

“Where?”

On someone’s head.

Jinx snorts fondly. “You and your grubby little paws…”

Isha glances to the side and pauses, blinking at the sight of many, many wanted posters of her mother put up on a wall. Jinx follows her gaze and grimaces. 

“Yep, that’s me. Mom’s famous now, kiddo. Piltover’s most wanted. ‘Ever want to curse a sibling, or a family, or a society? My card.’”

She puts the hat on Isha’s head and reaches down to take her hand. She winks at the girl. “C’mon. Let’s get outta here.”

Isha adjusts the hat and smiles, a skip in her step as Jinx pulls the hood back over her head and leads her daughter away.

Just when Jinx thinks life might not get any worse, Vi shows up with the Grey in an Enforcer uniform with the matching badge to boot. 

She can’t believe it. Oh, she knows Vi is angry, but throwing in with the pigs who murdered their parents? Wearing the uniform? The badge? That’s below even Jinx’s standards. 

At least Sevika is on her side, but between the power struggle of the Chem-Barons in Zaun and the Pilties using the Grey as a chemical weapon to hunt her, there’s no safe place to hide Isha. It means the girl is stuck with them wherever they go.

Given that Vi, the Pilties, and the Chem-Barons are hunting Jinx, it’s arguably the most dangerous place for her to be. But there is no other option. 

Jinx sets a trap and leaves a trail for Vi to follow. She and Sevika are going to jump them by a deep fissure vent where Jinx can also redirect the Grey straight into Piltover. Payback for the chemical warfare.

She leads Isha to an overhang and tells her to stay put. This fight is going to get ugly. Vi and the Enforcers are pissed and Jinx has exactly zero intention of letting them walk out alive. 

It is no place for a child. 

The trap’s all set when Vi and Caitlyn finally show up, minus their other Enforcer buddies. Smart move. They’d have been dead in seconds. 

“Jinx!” Vi shouts.

“Finally got the name right…Guess there really isn’t a crack in the earth where you won’t find me.”

Janna’s visage is etched into one of the walls, a woman of grace and the wind they both remember from Vander’s bedtime stories. They’re the same stories Jinx tells Isha, even if she herself doesn’t buy it. 

“Wild. The kind of crap people get up to when you choke ‘em out,” Jinx’s words are barbed with accusation.

“We used the Grey to clear the streets. To keep people safe,” Vi calls back, like that’s supposed to be some sort of justification. 

“Safe? Safe? Do you even hear yourself? You’ve been poisoning the air just to find little ol’ me. I’m getting things mixed up, sis. Aren’t I supposed to be the bad guy? Never thought my sister would turn bluebelly.”

“Never thought mine would orphan kids.”

“Hello pot, I’m the kettle! You sure have turned a leaf, sister.”

Vi scowls, like she’s about to snap again. She takes a slow breath. “Tell me where Isha is.”

Silence. 

Jinx is frozen. Vi knows. Vi knows. Her eyes dart up to her daughter’s hiding place which is suddenly nowhere near far enough away. 

“She’s safer away from you. Away from all of this. You’re not–”

“You. Will. Not. Touch. Her.”

Jinx’s voice is a deadly hiss, the kind of sound that makes your spine crawl. The fury is building in her belly, hot and surging. “You told your Enforcer friends.”

“No.”

“But Caitlyn is here right now listening, isn’t she?”

Vi hesitates and that’s enough. 

“Traitor!” Jinx snarls. 

Caitlyn takes a shot, but the bullet strikes a decoy and all she does is give away her position. Jinx glimpses Sevika moving in on the Enforcer. She emerges from her hiding place. 

Vi turns to face her. Both sisters are scowling, but the deep-seated rage on Jinx’s face is fresh. 

“Where is she?” Vi demands. 

“Away from you,” Jinx retorts. Her eyes flash with Shimmer, purple, vibrant, crazed with the fury of a parent protecting their child. “The safest place she can be is far, far away from you!”

Sevika jumps Caitlyn. The fight is on.

Something is happening to the Hextech. The Atlas Gauntlets, Caitlyn’s rifle, and Jinx’s rocket launcher, Fishbones, are all going nuts. The Gemstones that power them burst, spark, and flux at random, sometimes ceasing to function for no apparent reason.

Jinx and Vi’s savage fight carries them further to a dias beneath Janna’s visage and at one point Sevika is stunned long enough that Caitlyn grabs her rifle and takes a shot. 

White-hot pain lances up Jinx’s arm as the middle finger of her left hand is blown off. Vi seizes the chance to throw her on the dias and pin Jinx down. Caitlyn is reloading the gun. 

Vi draws a gauntlet back. “Tell me where–”

And suddenly Vi is staring, wide-eyed, down the barrel of a gun. Isha is right there, between the sisters, and Jinx cannot breathe for the horror that fills her. 

The gauntlets decompress, no longer prepped for a killing blow with a child in the way. It’s more than can be said for her partner: Caitlyn’s rifle is still up, trained dangerously on Jinx despite Isha’s head being only inches away. 

“No,” Jinx breathes. 

“Isha,” Vi’s voice is as shaky as Jinx’s. “Isha, listen–”

Isha’s expression is a desperate glare that causes Vi to falter. Her finger is on the trigger. Jinx’s eyes fly between her daughter, Vi, and Caitlyn. Sevika is almost back on her feet. 

A shot rings out. 

Jinx screams as the gun is blown out of Isha’s hand. “NO!”

Isha clings to her mother as Caitlyn reloads. Jinx is frantic. “Isha, off! Get OFF! GET AWAY!”

“Move!” Caitlyn snaps.

“Cait! She’s a child!” Vi scrambles off the dias. 

“Move! She’s not getting away again!”

“CAIT–!”

Another shot, this time one that ricochets off Vi’s gauntlet. Jinx’s arms wrap around Isha and she rolls off the other side of the dias in a move of desperation. A third bullet whizzes so close to Isha’s head as they fall that she sees strands of sliced brown hair. Her heart stops. 

Sevika finally gets up and triggers the bomb that redirects the vents. Jinx curls up around Isha and protects her with her own body as the air gets sucked out of the room like the world’s strongest vacuum. Vi and Caitlyn are blown out. 

The vacuum’s pull finally ceases and the rubble settles. Jinx is gasping, the pain from her lost finger nothing to the terror in her veins. 

She pulls Isha up, frantically checks her up and down. There’s no blood. The bullets missed. Her eyes are full of tears, but from fear, not pain. Jinx sobs and pulls her daughter into an embrace. 

“You never, never do that again!”

Isha whimpers and starts crying. Sevika is there a moment later. 

“We gotta get out of here.” Her tone is quiet, like she knows it’s not a good time. But the truth is, she’s right. 

Jinx sniffs, takes a few steadying breaths, and picks Isha up. The three of them flee back into the fissures.

Chapter Text

Act I, Part III: Big Bad Wolf

Jinx and Isha put Silco to rest after the fight with Vi.

Isha had known by the time Jinx found her. Word of Silco’s death spread quickly throughout the Undercity, after all. And Jinx has already let his body go into the waters where they were both reborn, but she wants her daughter to have the same chance to say goodbye. 

Silco had been a foster-father to her just as Vander had been. And for Isha, he was the only grandfather she would ever know. 

Jinx doesn’t know how to tell her that she was the one who killed him. The guilt clogs her throat and weighs down her heart. 

“It was my fault,” is all she can say in the end. 

They stand by the river at night, hoods over their heads. There’s been a lot of activity on the bridge. The Pilties are on the move again. They don’t have much time. Not even to mourn.

Isha cries. Jinx rubs a hand up and down her back, feeling hollow. The black waters lap silently against the bank of the river. 

Jinx pulls out Silco’s favorite lighter from her pocket and Isha takes out a cigar from her bag. They light it and then throw it into the river. 

Isha takes out another cigar, and Jinx lights that one, too. And another. And another.

“How many of those do you have?” Jinx’s laugh is wet.

A lot, she signs, fingers shaking, before reaching for another one. Her heart hurts. They’ve been exposed for a while now. She doesn’t have it in her to stop the little ceremony.

Isha finally reaches down and finds her little bag is empty. The last lit cigar has already vanished into the murky depths. She begins to sob, almost stumbling. Jinx pushes Silco’s lighter into her hands and scoops the girl up into her arms. 

They wave goodbye to the river. Isha tucks the lighter into one of her pockets. Jinx tries to say something, but she chokes.

Then they are gone.

Six months go by. 

Piltover and the Noxians have united to shackle Zaun. The Enforcers and their war pig allies have checkpoints everywhere. Half the Undercity has been thrown into Stillwater. Arrests, beatings, killings. All in the name of justice.  

It’s bullshit. 

Jinx hasn’t made an appearance since Piltover got a taste of its own medicine for using chemical warfare. She’s thrown herself into caring for Isha, doing everything she can to stay away from the fighting. 

Ekko has gone missing. Jinx has tried to trace him several times, but the Firelight leader has effectively vanished without a trace. She thinks he might really be dead, and that…hurts.

Sevika is trying to rally Zaun together and keeps attempting to convince Jinx to help, but she wants no part in it. Her daughter has gotten far too close to the danger and she does not want to deal with that ever again. 

The only things that draw her from Isha are her resupply runs and spying on Vi. 

Her sister must’ve gotten the boot after failing to get Jinx, because it wasn’t long after their last fight that she showed up in Zaun’s fighting pits. Jinx is sorely tempted to take her out, but the constant fights in the ring and rampant alcoholism is doing the job for her. 

Ultimately, she chooses not to go after her sister again. Isha is more important. 

A lost bet on Jinx’s part when she and Isha pit a pair of Scuttle-Beetles against one another results in Isha getting a pair of twintails in her hair like her mother. She’s wanted to look like her mom for ages, but it was safer for her to not share that much resemblance. By now, the brown dye has disappeared as her blue roots grow out.

Zaun is so fucked up that blue hair doesn’t make a difference anymore.

Jinx covers Isha’s eyes as she spins her daughter towards the mirror to give the big reveal. “Ta-da! You like it?”

Isha’s eyes gleam with excitement as she nods happily. It’ll be years before the twintails are a match for her mother’s, but with her natural hair color fully flushed out, there's a resemblance to say the least. 

They’ve spent afternoons painting tattoos onto each other, and now their arms are covered in blue clouds. With the tiny twintails, they really match. Isha’s features are still different enough that someone could look at them and not realize she and Jinx were related, but the more the baby fat fades from her cheeks, the more she’s getting the sharp cheekbones her mother possesses. 

Though to be fair, who knows how much they’ll resemble each other in a few years? Isha has always had a slightly darker complexion than Jinx’s pale skin, and her hair is curlier where her mother’s is straight. 

Small favors. 

Sevika shows up and tries again to convince Jinx to join the fight, to help unite the Undercity. A symbol. What a joke. Even if she wanted to, Zaun has been thoroughly uprooted by the Pilties and Noxians. 

It pisses her off, because part of Jinx knows Sevika’s right (as usual). She and Isha can’t hide here forever; it’s just not sustainable, even with only two of them. The more the Pilties tighten their noose, the less she can do to keep her daughter safe. 

She’s even thought about bailing on Zaun and Piltover completely, but the city is what she knows best. The countryside? Ha! Fish out of water is putting it lightly.

But Silco’s death also weighs on her. The legacy he left behind, that Vander left behind, that she’s steadfastly tried to avoid. When Sevika leaves again, Jinx sighs and tells Isha to sit tight. She needs to go to The Last Drop and do some soul-searching. Adulting. Ugh. 

…Except when she gets back to the hideout, Isha is gone and Sevika shows up (minus her prosthetic) with the worst news of Jinx’s life.

“She was at the rally. Topside raided the place. Took everyone. They’re carting them off to Stillwater.”

The Scribbles have been quiet for a long time, but now they’re back as Jinx’s panic builds in her chest until she’s ready to explode. She almost puts a bullet into Sevika right then and there, but the desperation to get her daughter back is what stops her trigger-happy fingers.

“Get off your ass,” Jinx hisses at Sevika instead. 

Breaking into Stillwater is almost easy. They don’t have a lot of time, but they do have half of Zaun behind bars. 

Jinx sets them all loose. She didn’t exactly mean to fully realize herself as the symbol they all saw her to be, but the deed is done. The people she’s freed walk past her, their hands fleeting on her arms and shoulders and hands as they make their way to the elevators to start the biggest prison riot Piltover has ever seen. 

It would be awesome if Jinx wasn’t busy hunting for Isha, who she still hasn’t found. 

They go deeper and deeper into the jail, and finally she hears the little grunts of a child pulling on the gate. Jinx’s relief floods her veins as she yanks it open. A smile flits over her lips. 

“You’re late for Stink-Maw’s great comeuppance.”

Isha throws herself into Jinx’s arms and she hugs the child back, running fingers through her hair just to make sure she’s really there. Her daughter is with her again, whole, if not exactly safe. 

Enforcers finally come down with riot shields. Jinx and Sevika ready themselves for a fight–

And then all hell breaks loose. 

The thud of something brutally strong smashing into the elevator doors–and really, the only reason they wouldn’t just open is if whatever is hitting them is hanging against the shaft itself–sets them all on high alert. Jinx shifts Isha behind her. 

Monster is the only word she can use to describe the–the thing that has blown the doors open. What looks like Chemtech tanks are rigged up on its back, running Shimmer through tubes that seem to empower it. The right arm is mechanical. 

It snarls and with one swing, pops an Enforcer beneath his own riot shield like a water balloon. Blood splatters across the corridor and Jinx has a moment of horror as she realizes that this thing is so much worse than Silco’s Chemtank soldiers. 

She takes a shot and it shrugs the Hextech shock off like it didn’t even happen. Jinx exchanges a glance with Sevika, but the woman looks as shaken as she is. Not good. 

She looks down at Isha, who is terrified. Jinx swallows and pulls her eyes back up to Sevika. “Get her out!”

Sevika scoops Isha up as Jinx engages the monster, faster than anything so heavy and massive has any right to be. The Shimmer in her veins is the only thing that saves her from being skewered multiple times in just a few seconds. She hears Isha crying as Sevika bolts for the elevator with the girl over her shoulder, but Jinx cannot focus on anything but the beast. 

It’s a losing battle. It heals faster than any living creature should and does not seem to tire. She tries targeting the Chemtech on its back, but it’s reinforced enough that only a precise shot with her pistol has any chance of damaging it, and the beast is too savage and fast to give her that opportunity. 

She runs out of gas before the beast. 

Jinx slumps against the wall, slowly prepping a Chomper as the beast closes in, savoring the kill to come. The best she can do is try to make sure the damn thing does not escape this encounter alive. 

It’s smart enough to catch her before she can pull the pin, though. She’s lifted into the air with one monstrous hand. Glowing eyes shift as the fanged maw draws ever closer and she can’t help but cry. 

There’s a flicker of different colors. Red and orange one moment. Blue and green the next. The snarls fade as it stares at her. The world flips again with a single, growled word.

“...Powder?”

Jinx manages to get Vander–Vander, she is still reeling from the shock of it–out of Stillwater and back to Zaun, but he seems to barely cling to whatever shred of sentience remains within him. They’re near the pits when he snaps, howling, and races off into the deep tunnels. 

She can’t catch up to him. Jinx groans and heads for the hideout. 

Sevika is absolutely shocked to see her again, but plays it off to a sobbing Isha. “I told you, kid. Your mom’s tough.”

Jinx lifts the crying child into her arms and holds her tight. “I’m ok. Shh.”

“You kill it?” Sevika asks anxiously.

Jinx shakes her head. “I…it’s Vander.”

“What?” 

“That thing. It’s Vander.”

Sevika is frowning. “Did you hit your head?”

“No. I wish,” she scoffs. Jinx breathes in the smell of metal and paint. “It called me Powder.”

The confusion blanches away. “It talks? You’re sure?”

“He knew me. You remember what he looked like? Back then?”

“I–yeah, but he wasn’t a giant hairball! That’s…no, we buried him! Silco wanted him buried! There was a funeral! You were there!”

“Closed casket. Silco’s Shimmer scientist, maybe?”

Sevika falters at that. Her eyes are shifty. Jinx swallows hard. “I never broke into his lab, but hasn’t the guy left a bunch of fucked-up Shimmer test dummies lying around?”

“I…maybe,” Sevika is as stunned as Jinx is. “Holy fuck.”

Isha is still crying. Jinx twists her head to kiss the girl’s cheek and murmurs in her ear. 

“If it is Vander, no one can find out,” Sevika says after she manages to collect herself somewhat. “Did you see what he did on his way into Stillwater?”

“Most of the guys he ripped through were Enforcers.”

“Some of our people were caught in the middle. If everyone finds out Vander is the one who tore those Zaunites to shreds, they’ll lose hope.”

“I know,” she admits quietly. 

“Where is he?”

“In the mines. I had him. He remembered me, he was listening …At some point, he just snapped and ran off. He’s deep beneath the pits now.”

Sevika sags, a little relieved. “At least there, he’s not going to run into lots of people. But what do we do about it?”

Jinx has been thinking about it the whole way back. She sighs. “I think I have to get Vi.”

Vi is exactly where Jinx expects her to be. Fighting herself into an early grave, drinking herself into a stupor, and essentially spiraling out of control as much as possible. 

Jinx watches in the crowd as her sister gets clobbered onto her ass and thrown out of the pit. That’s what she gets for going into a fight drunk. 

She tails Vi with Isha close behind her. She hadn’t wanted to bring the girl, but Isha wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. She’d been too afraid of losing her mother again and Jinx didn’t have it in her to refuse. 

The lock’s undone (drunken idiot) when Jinx opens the door to Vi’s… home is a generous term. It’s basically a walk-in closet with a sink, a shitty mattress, and…not much else. Not much besides so many empty and half-empty bottles on the floor that she can’t walk without stepping onto one, that is. True to form, Vi is passed out on the floor where she fell.

Jinx wrinkles her nose at the smell of liquor and barely-cleaned vomit. Isha doesn’t seem too impressed, either. 

“Jeez, sis. I’ve seen some bad breakups, but damn.”

Isha pokes Vi’s face and gets absolutely no response. An exhale from the hammered woman nearly makes her gag. She looks up at Jinx. Smelly breath.

Jinx snorts, then puts her hands on her hips and sweeps her gaze across the room. “Go ahead and rob her if ya want. I’d say she deserves it. Just watch out for broken glass. And don’t try to drink out of any of these bottles.”

Isha gets right to it, looking around for any goodies she can pocket while Jinx nudges bottles out of the way with her toe. She leans over Vi and whistles in her ear, but the most she gets in response is a half-dead groan.

Isha even starts going through Vi’s pockets, but doesn’t find much beyond a little cash. She looks disappointed. 

It’s difficult for Jinx to decide what she’s feeling. She loves Vi and she hates her all at once. Part of her says Vi deserves this for betraying the Undercity and everything they stood for so completely. Another part hurts to see her sister so…broken. 

Vi’s fingers are trembling. Jinx locks onto the motion, the little twitches that remind her of…

She deflates. Her voice cracks. “You’re an idiot, sis.”

When Vi comes to, she’s not expecting to find Jinx in her room. It’s an unwelcome surprise. She finds the strength to get on her feet and grab Jinx fast enough to surprise herself. A hand clenches around her sister’s throat. 

“It’s Vander,” Jinx gasps out. “He’s…alive.”

“Bullshit,” Vi snarls. 

She hears glass shift and whips her head back. Jinx has brought friends–

Isha is there on the mattress with an empty bottle in her hands and a scared, angry look on her face. Like she’s about to jump and hit Vi as hard as she can. 

Her hair is blue now. She looks so much like Powder that it kills her. 

Vi drops Jinx, who coughs and clutches at her throat. 

“He needs our help,” she says hoarsely. “I can prove it.”

Vi looks at Jinx, then to Isha. Isha, who hasn’t let go of the bottle and doesn’t seem happy to see Vi again. 

She really does fuck up everything with her family.

Jinx leads her to the mines with Isha. The fungi on the walls flash white in response to every sound, slowly fading over time. 

Vi’s got the Atlas Gauntlets (Jinx’s idea, for once, but she wasn’t about to leave without them, anyway) ready in case it’s a trap. It doesn’t seem to be, even if she thinks this is just another bout of insanity on Jinx’s part. Her sister could’ve put a bullet through her head while she was passed out in her home.

But she didn’t, and Vi doesn’t know how to feel about that. 

Not to say everything is sunshine and rainbows. She’s never felt so conflicted in her life. She’s so, so angry at Jinx, but then her eyes will flicker to Isha and the child looks like hope. 

Jinx talks as Jinx does, and Vi feels the anger slowly come back. “When are you going to admit this is just another one of your fantasies? Or do you not want the kid to know how delusional you are?”

Isha flashes a glare over her shoulder and Vi falters. Jinx puts a hand on the girl’s back. “She wasn’t always like this, y’know. She actually used to be pretty cool. Before I kicked her butt.”

Vi scoffs. “See what I mean? Delusional.”

Jinx stops in her tracks and spins around. “Wish I was just seeing things when you decided to throw in with the Piltie goons who murdered mom and dad.”

“Well at least they never had to see the psycho their daughter turned into!”

“Which one?” Jinx snaps back. “The one who busted half of Zaun out of Stillwater, or the one who poisoned the Undercity with the Grey, and then spent the next six months passed out in the bottom of a mug?”

“Yeah, ‘cause you getting knocked up and bringing a kid along for your crazy ride is so much better!”

Jinx goes still. Purple eyes flash. “Why do you think she’s with us?”

“I guess in case you need her to be a meat shield again.”

It’s too far, but she’s pissed.

The next thing Vi knows, she’s been slammed into the ground. Jinx is on top of her, hands on Vi’s face and Shimmer blazing through her eyes. 

“You brought the Grey here, so I couldn’t leave her at the safe-houses in case the air got poisoned! You brought the Enforcers here and she got thrown into Stillwater!” Jinx’s mouth is curled into a vicious snarl. Vi drops the gauntlets and grabs her wrists, but her sister doesn’t budge. So she punches instead. 

“Your psycho Enforcer girlfriend shot at her! Three times! Three! Fucking! Times!” Her voice is a hiss as Vi punches again and Jinx responds with a swing of her own. “She’s SIX! She was never in danger until YOU came back!”

“Oh, that’s rich! Like she was ever actually safe with you!”

They’re scrapping on the ground. Vi gets bit, hard, and throws an arm out. A pained yelp has both sisters freezing. 

Isha has a hand to her face. Blood is dripping between her fingers and her eyes are smarting with tears. 

Jinx shoves Vi away and is at the child’s side in an instant, taking her face in her hands. “Shh, let me see.” 

Isha pulls her hands away, blinking rapidly. Her nose is bleeding a lot. Guilt runs through Vi. 

Jinx dabs at Isha’s bloody nose with a scrap of cloth and studies the injury carefully. “It’s not broken. Still got all your insides, trouble?”

Isha wipes more of the blood away. She sniffs and shrugs. “Mm.”

Tough kid. It strikes Vi that that little noise is the most she’s ever heard Isha say, but she doesn’t comment on it yet.

Jinx helps stand her daughter up, puts the hat back on her head. The affection in her eyes isn’t like anything Vi’s seen from her sister. Isha turns towards the deeper tunnels, claps for light, and glances back at Jinx, who nods after a moment. 

The girl takes the lead. Her mother calls after her. “But don’t ditch us!”

“Why’d you come get me? If you think I’m so dangerous for her to be around?” Vi asks as she picks up the Atlas Gauntlets again.

“We tried saving Vander alone last time and nothing was ever the same after. Maybe this is like a do-over. Besides…he’s your father, too.”

Vi doesn’t know how Jinx can be sentimental like that, not after all she’s seen her do. Her eyes shift to Isha’s back. 

Well. Maybe she can get it a little.

“Will you tell me about her?”

Jinx starts walking again. “What about?”

“I dunno. Everything? I…I missed a lot.”

Jinx glances back at her for only a moment. They don’t stop moving. 

“There’s a lot to say about her,” Jinx shrugs. “You’ll have to narrow it down. These tunnels aren’t big enough for all of it.”

“Who was her dad?”

“Doesn’t matter. She’s mine.”

“...You named her after mom?”

“Who else? Sevika?”

“Do you have to make this difficult?”

“Who just elbowed my kid in the face, bitch-mittens?”

Vi opens her mouth and shuts it. “Ok, that’s…that’s fair.”

“Just…can it and keep walking.”

It’s obvious Jinx isn’t in the mood to talk about Isha. Not after Vi hit the child, accidental or not. She sighs and follows her sister and niece deeper into the mines.

One huge scare and a big fight later, Vander is with them again. 

The four of them embrace for a while. Three generations of Zaunites, and they’re all messed up in their own ways, but they’re alive and together, and that’s all that matters for now. 

Vi is the first to slowly pull back. She looks at Vander, then at Jinx. Her eyes are visibly wet even in the dim green glow of Vander’s Chemtech. “What are we going to do now?”

Jinx has no idea. On the one hand, Vander is back. On the other, he’s a giant mechanized werewolf with the capacity to rip an army apart on his lonesome, and he can snap into a psychotic blood frenzy with no warning. 

“Um. Baby steps? I vote we get into some light first. Y’know, a place where all the glow-shrooms haven’t been totally destroyed.”

Vi’s fight with Vander has done a number on the tunnel around them. They’re lucky it's all rock, because Jinx is completely sure they would’ve flattened buildings in an urban environment. 

Vander huffs, nostrils flaring. Heterochromatic eyes blink at Jinx, then look down at Isha. His head tilts and he sniffs again. Isha’s trepidation is clear as the wolf-man focuses on her. 

Jinx puts her hands on her daughter’s shoulders. “Vander.”

He looks up at her. “...Powder.”

“Yeah. I’m Powder,” she says. Best to keep it simple since Vander’s memories seem…jumbled. Jinx looks down and his gaze follows hers. “This is Isha.”

Vander frowns. “Fel…icia.”

“No. Just Isha,” Powder crouches and puts her face next to her daughter’s. “She’s my kid.”

He blinks. There’s light in his eyes, like he understands, but doesn’t know how to express that he gets it. The change doesn’t last long. 

“Isha,” Jinx murmurs. “This is…not at all how I ever imagined in my craziest fantasies this would go. This is Vander. He’s your grandpa.”

Isha slowly waves at him. Vander lifts the mechanized claws, attempts to mirror her–

“Ok, maybe let’s…” Vi catches the arm gently in her gauntlets and gets Vander’s attention. “Let’s maybe not swing those around, big guy.”

“Probably a good idea,” Jinx admits. As the emotion level goes down, her mind starts to work a bit better. “Maybe…what if we took him to The Last Drop? There’s plenty there to remind him of his old life. Maybe it’ll keep him stable?”

Vander chuffs and razor-sharp teeth are bared for a second, but he seems to still be in control. Jinx subtly shifts Isha behind her. 

“Stable-ish?”

“I have no clue how we’re supposed to handle this, but I don’t have any better ideas,” Vi admits. “The Last Drop it is.”

Getting Vander to The Last Drop is a bit of a nightmare. They throw a tarp over him to keep his body largely hidden, but despite it being the dead of night there are still people in their path. Vi and Jinx have to stop four times when he starts to get agitated, talking to him soothingly until he settles down. 

A tense, hour-long walk becomes something closer to three.

The Last Drop is still a wreck from when Vi and Sevika fought, but it’s empty, and that’s what matters. 

They start to turn on the power and Vander growls, low and long, the sort of sound that has the hairs rising on the backs of their necks. Jinx freezes with her hands on the Chem-Generators. The wolf-man only relaxes when the sound of the liquid fades. 

Jinx gulps. “Think it’s the Chemtech setting him off?”

“...Maybe I should wait with him outside?” Vi suggests, looking equally alarmed.

“Uh-huh,” Jinx is staring at Vander, wide-eyed and really, really hoping he doesn’t choose now–after they’ve finally gotten him all the way here–to snap again. 

Vi gets their foster-dad out of the bar. Isha stays with Jinx and signs. Can I help?

“Yeah. Um…oh! I need you to filch our favorite song from the safe in the office. Think you can do that?”

Isha beams, winks, and runs for the stairs. Jinx watches her go with a fond smile. Then she takes a breath and slowly, carefully starts the Chem-Generators back up. She hears another growl outside, but Vi’s voice stays steady and once the generators are running properly and the lights kick on, Vander’s anger subsides. 

She exhales in a loud whoosh. “Well, that was horrifying.”

She pokes her head out the door just long enough to usher Vi and Vander back inside. There’s no freak out this time, though Vander does squint at the light for a few moments before his sensitive animal eyes adjust. 

“Where’s Isha?” 

“Robbing the safe upstairs,” Jinx answers. She turns and winces at the sight of the half-wrecked jukebox. “Though…I might have to do some more work before she gets back. You and Sevika really did a number on the lil guy.”

Vi follows her gaze and matches her with a grimace. “Sorry.”

Jinx checks out the damage and tallies a list in her head of what she needs to repair it. “Pin, levers…where’s that key to the basement?”

She vaults over the bar and only has to look for a moment before she finds the key and yanks off both it and the screw that holds it up from the wood. “Bap-bad-a-bum! I’ll be taking you, thank you very much.”

Vander sits down in the middle of the room, looking around curiously. There’s…what Jinx hopes is recognition. At least his fur isn’t standing on end. Vi’s pointing at a few things here and there for him to focus on as Jinx goes into the basement.

She finds the old monkey toy she built as a little girl and plucks the head right off. “Mr. Duddy, sorry to report, but you’ve got just the pin I need. Least you can’t blow up on me.”

Jinx pulls the toy apart and retrieves the pin, then heads back to the bar and up the stairs to the soundbooth. She twists the levers out one by one. “Sorry pal, I need these more than you do!”

The door to the office opens and Isha comes out with a triumphant grin and the music disc in her hands. Jinx grins as she pockets the levers. “Where’d he hide the lock code this time?”

The wall map.

Jinx tips her little hat and the child giggles. Her voice is full with affection. “That’s my girl.”

Vi does her best to clean things up and keep Vander distracted while Jinx and Isha are busy fixing the old jukebox. She can’t get it all sorted out while she’s trying to keep Vander’s attention, but she makes sure there’s no rubble in the middle of the room, at least. She’ll worry about the particulars of the wreckage later. 

She hopes there’s a “later”. 

At least the sink still works, with clean water coming out so she can fill up a huge pot. Vander is watching Jinx and Isha now, but his ears twitch towards the noise. 

“Hey big guy,” Vi calls. He looks over as she hoists the pot onto the bar. “Are you thirsty?”

His nose twitches and he rumbles before coming over. He only smells the water for a second before lowering his head to drink. 

It’s kind of messed up, watching her foster-dad drink like…well, a dog, but he’s got no way of picking up a glass and Vi suspects those tiny cups would only frustrate him right now. At least he’s rehydrating.

“We’ll have to figure out food later,” she scratches the back of her head. “Maybe Jericho’s…You were never much of a vegetarian, but now especially, I get the feeling you won’t like to eat your greens.”

He looks up at her from the water. A thick tongue licks at the drops on his mouth and razor sharp teeth gleam back. 

“Definitely not into brussel sprouts.”

She hears a click as Jinx shuts the maintenance door to the jukebox and dusts her hands off. Hands on her hips, she surveys her work and nods, satisfied. “I think we’re good!”

Isha gives her a high-five. Vander’s ear twitches at the slapping sound, but he doesn’t react beyond that. He’s as quiet as Vi’s seen him all night. Probably a good thing. 

“Ok Vander! This’ll kick your memory back,” Jinx declares. 

Vi leans around the giant hairball standing by the bar and lifts a concerned eyebrow. “Exactly what are you about to do?”

“Watch!”

Jinx picks up Isha and the girl cranks the lever back. The jukebox sparks to life and “Our Love” starts playing from the speakers. 

Vander’s head cocks like a lost puppy, but he makes a chuff that sounds…not quite like laughter, but close enough for a mechanized werewolf. 

Vi watches as Jinx and Isha start a little dance to the music, something they’ve obviously practiced. The corner of her mouth twitches up. The lyrics start–

Jinx and Isha’s hands are moving in specific, mirrored patterns of one another and Vi has to watch for a second before she realizes that they’re signing the song. 

For a minute all she can do is stare. 

It’s a dance all its own, mother and daughter signing the lyrics to the voice from the speaker. It’s something they’ve clearly done a lot together. They’ve got their own little rhythm, bumping each other playfully even as their hands flow. 

Vander lets out what sounds like a long, deep-chested sigh. He blinks slowly. He looks relaxed. 

Vi steps around the bar so he can hear her coming and slowly puts a hand on the impossibly massive arm. She doesn’t say a word, content to watch Jinx and Isha sign together. 

The song ends and Jinx scoops up Isha, plopping an obnoxiously loud kiss on her cheek that makes the girl giggle. 

Vi claps, smiling. Isha’s beaming face is directed at her for the first time and it kind of takes her breath away. 

“Can we get an encore?”

“Hm, I dunno. Think you can make us a drink?”

Vi hums and goes around the bar to see what she can dig up. The fridge still works, thankfully, and everything inside is good (she checks just to be sure). Her mind is lost in old memories, but she’s still a little surprised to see the juice in the back of the fridge. 

It seems she’s taking a trip down nostalgia road, because she even finds that one, specific cup Vander would fill for Powder, metal straw and all. She fills it with juice and places it on the bar. 

Vander blinks at it, ears twitching at the metal clink of the straw circling the cup. Isha beams as Jinx hoists her into the chair and starts sipping it down. 

“...Felicia,” he rumbles. 

“Isha, big guy,” Jinx corrects gently as she steals Isha’s hat and ruffles her daughter’s hair. 

Vander nods slowly. “Blis…ters. Bed-rock.”

Vi raises an eyebrow. She remembers the phrase from the letter he’d left for Silco. But Vander does not seem unhappy, so she’ll take it. 

“Violet.”

She tilts her head. “Yeah?”

Vander’s mouth curves into the closest approximation he can make of a smile. It’s very…pointy. Slightly terrifying. But his eyes are smiling. 

“Whaddya think, trouble?” Jinx nudges Isha once she’s finished most of her juice. “Encore time?”

Isha nods excitedly and jumps down to run for the jukebox. Jinx saunters after her. Vi watches her lift the girl up again to pull on the lever. “Our Love” plays again.

Vander chuffs. Jinx and Isha sign. Vi breathes. 

Isha is dead on her feet after the third run of the song. They’ve had a long day and the child is exhausted to say the least. Every other breath seems to include a huge, jaw-cracking yawn. 

Jinx scoops her up and sits her on the bar. In an obviously practiced routine, she takes the child’s shoes and socks off, as well as her little jacket. “Bedtime, trouble.”

Isha’s response is another yawn. Her eyelids look too heavy to lift as Jinx tucks the girl against her torso and carries her to the dimly-lit booth in the far corner of the bar. 

She’s got a blanket thrown over her shoulder–where did she get that, Vi wonders?–and sits in the corner of the booth, where she settles Isha’s head in her lap and tucks her in. Jinx leans her head back and lets out a sigh. 

Vander lays on his side, legs kicked out, and rests his head on the metal arm. His ears twitch, but he seems comfortable enough to try and sleep. Vi kneels by him and places a hand on his face. He watches her. 

“Get some rest. ‘Kay?”

His answer is a low sound in his chest before he closes his eyes.

Vi stands and considers her options before she goes to join Jinx and Isha at the booth, though she sits in the opposite corner. Tonight has felt like being with her family again, but she’s unsure if she’s welcome to get quite that close. 

Jinx is running her fingers through her daughter’s curls. She doesn’t look nearly so worn or stressed as she has whenever Vi has seen her recently. It’s like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. 

Vi wants to break the silence, but hesitates because Isha is out. She’s curled up so close to Jinx, tinier than she’s ever seemed. 

“What’s eating you, sis?”

Vi looks up from Isha, but Jinx hasn’t opened her eyes. “If you’re about to throw questions at me, can it wait until tomorrow?”

“I just wanna know about her,” Vi says softly. 

Jinx hummed. “I’ll tell you.”

“Really?”

“Tomorrow.”

It’s enough. Vi leans her head back against the leather and closes her eyes.

Chapter Text

Act II, Part I: Time Can’t Heal These Wounds

Sevika visits them the next day.

Vander wakes them all up with a deep growl. Jinx has a half-conscious Isha under the table and a gun in her hand in an instant. Vi’s barely aware of what’s happening, she’s still so tired, but her knuckles clench. 

Sevika is peering through the door at Vander. Her eyes are wide. 

Jinx yawns and puts the gun away. “You really know how to pick your moments, lefty.”

“I can go,” she manages. Vander’s lips are curled back in a snarl. Vi walks over to him and places a hand–carefully–on the massive shoulder, murmuring to him quietly. 

Jinx waves her off. “Nah, come in. Just mind yer manners.”

Sevika slowly comes in and Vander only seems to relax because Jinx is relaxed. Vi’s eyes are narrowed at the woman, but she too behaves for the sake of not setting off another murderous rampage. 

There’s a truce for Vander’s sake.

“I thought you were crazy, but crazy seems to be the new normal around here,” Sevika quietly shuts the door behind her. Vander’s hackles slowly settle, though he never takes his eyes from the woman. 

“Jury’s out,” Jinx mumbles, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Whaddya need?”

“First to make sure you’re still alive. Second…I didn’t think that far.”

“Wow. I appreciate your faith,” Jinx’s voice is dripping with sarcasm. Isha looks up from under the table, blinks, and just curls back up in the blankets to sleep again.

Sevika hesitates, staring at the beast. “Vander?”

He cocks his head, eyes narrowing. His nostrils flare. “...Vika.”

“Gods, what the hell did that lunatic do to you?” 

Vander snarls and Vi is there in an instant to calm him down. Jinx steps closer to Sevika, partly to break his line of sight so he can relax a bit. The woman is– disturbed to say the least. She had not agreed with Vander’s passivity, had chosen to betray him, but there were fates she wouldn’t wish even on her worst enemies, and Vander was never that.

He’d made her angry and she’d thought him ineffective as a leader by the end, but she still remembered the Hound of the Undercity in his prime. To see what he’d become was wrong for so many reasons. 

“Any ideas?” Jinx asked.

“Asking me? You’re that fucked, huh.”

Jinx waves her hands in Vander’s direction and Sevika has to give her that. She scratches the back of her head. “There are rumors of this…miracle healer, deep in the fissures. Near where your old place used to be, I think.”

“Something actually useful, not gossip,” Vi says dryly.

“You’d think I’d bother bringing it up if there wasn’t something to it?” Sevika retorts, though her tone is fairly flat. She’s not stupid enough to raise her voice around Vander. She’s seen what he can do, and she’s sans an arm right now (as if that would help). 

“I don’t know the details, but I’ve seen some of the people this guy has helped. Cripples that can walk again. Shimmer addicts healed of the side effects. It sounds too good to be true and this–fuck, I have no idea if the guy can do anything about this. But that’s the best I’ve got. You’re not bringing him back to Silco’s man.”

“Definitely not,” Jinx agreed.

Vi glances at Vander. “He needs to eat.”

Sevika raises an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Is Jericho still in business?”

“Barely. He’d probably love you for buying enough food to feed him.”

“I’ll go get money,” Jinx says, making her way to the stairs.

“The safes are empty,” Sevika calls after her. 

“I know. I emptied them.”

“Of course you did.”

Jericho was, in fact, thrilled for their business. Vander consumed a frankly ridiculous amount of food while they ate the rest of the takeout Vi and Sevika had brought back from the cook. 

“You know Caitlyn called this stuff slop?” Vi says around a mouthful of seafood. 

“You’re telling me Piltover’s favorite dictator doesn’t have good taste? I’m shocked,” Jinx answers dryly. “What did she complain about? Actual spice? ‘The flavor isn’t bland enough!’”

She exaggerates that last bit with a dumb, stereotypical accent that makes Isha giggle. Jinx throws the girl a wink. 

Sevika takes a bite as she studies Vander, who seems much more relaxed now that he's filled his belly. “You need a name for him.”

“He’s our dad, not a dog,” Vi scowls. 

“That’s not what I’m saying. Vander’s a symbol as much as a man. I told Jinx this already; if the Undercity finds out Vander was the one who ripped through the Zaunites at Stillwater, it’ll crush them.”

“Wait, what?”

“Boy, do you have some catching up to do, miss alcoholic,” Jinx drawls. She’s staring pointedly at the bottle next to Vi’s food, but her sister ignores that comment.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“When was I supposed to say something? When you were choking me out in your garbage bin of a house? In the mines when you kept giving me shit? Or when we were trying to get Vander here as quietly as possible without him freaking out?”

Vi opens her mouth…and has to concede that. Jinx shrugs. “It’s not like I wasn’t going to say anything. There just wasn’t a good time for it.”

“Fine. But I get what you’re saying,” she addresses Sevika. “You want an alias to keep Vander’s name clean.”

“Mmhm. Any ideas?”

Isha stuffs a piece of shrimp in her mouth and pokes Jinx’s arm. Her hands fly through a few signs. Wolf story.

“Good one, trouble.”

“Wanna share?” Sevika prompts.

“There’s this bedtime story,” Jinx mumbles around a mouthful of food. She swallows before going on. “About a man who was cursed by a wolf for hurting a lamb. Or something.”

“I don’t remember this one,” Vi frowns. Jinx resists the urge to stare at her, because that was literally her sister’s favorite as a kid. Jinx didn’t even like it all that much, and she still has it memorized for all the times Vander told it to them.

The story was simple enough. A cruel man hurt a lamb not for food, but simply because he could, and a magical wolf cursed him so his appearance would match his nature. The man was turned into a beast and hurt everyone in his hometown, and was only freed of his curse once he learned kindness.

Moral of the story! Don’t do mean shit for the sake of being mean, or else a magic wolf will turn you into a hairball.

And Vi has forgotten it. She swallows another mouthful of food past the lump in her throat. “The guy’s name was Warwick. Ring a bell?”

“Not really.”

Sevika glances at Vander. “Good enough for me. That’s what we’ll say if we get asked about him.”

Sevika bails not long afterwards to check in with the other groups of Zaunites still clinging on around the Lanes. Jinx and Vi get Vander ready to travel again. 

Right when they’re about to leave, Vi grabs a bottle from behind the bar. She hasn’t even stepped out when her sister calls to her. “No.”

“No, what?”

“You’re not bringing that.”

“I’m thirsty.”

“So bring water.”

Jinx is frowning at her. Vi lifts an eyebrow. “And if I don’t want to drink water?”

“Then I’m not telling you about Isha.”

“It’s just one drink!”

“You were drinking for breakfast. You’ve had enough. Leave it.”

Vi scowls, half-slamming the bottle on the counter. Isha jumps. Vander rumbles. “Yes, mom.”

“Don’t give me that shit. I don’t want alcoholics around my kid. Or Vander.”

“I’m not an alcoholic.”

Jinx scoffs. “Yeah, sure.”

Viktor is dedicated, in a word. Vi hadn’t been sure about him at first, when he did… whatever it was he did to Vander, but as the days have gone on, her foster-dad has gotten a bit steadier with every session. The Herald is with him for hours at a time, visibly exhausted by the end, but steadfast. 

Vi is getting ready to lock down Vander’s mechanized arm for the night. He had not liked it the first few times they did this, had very nearly snapped, but with Viktor’s efforts, he now accepts it with little more than a grumble. 

“There’s no need, Vi.”

She pauses and looks over her shoulder to see Viktor approaching. “It’s getting late.”

“I know. I’m going to have a session with him now.”

Vi raises an eyebrow. “Now?”

“I’ve not done so before because the Beast is most prominent in his mind at night, when its instincts are strongest. But I believe we’ve made enough progress that I can start working with him at this hour. If Vander’s psyche can remain dominant in the hour of the Beast, it will only improve his recovery that much more.”

Viktor turns his eyes to Vander. “If he agrees, of course.”

It’s something Vi appreciates about Viktor. He doesn’t always make a lot of sense to her, but he never makes an unreasonable demand and he never asks Vander for more than he is willing to give. 

She looks at her father’s face. “What do you think?”

Vander’s eyes have gotten clearer and clearer by the day. He looks at Viktor for a moment, then makes the closest approximation to a nod that he can. Vi pulls the restraints from his arm. Her heart is swelling. 

She looks back at Viktor. “I’ll be just inside if you need me.”

“As you always are,” he murmurs with a nod.

Vi pats Vander’s arm, smiles at him, and heads into the little hut that has become their home in Viktor’s community. 

Jinx is inside on the bed, undoing Isha’s braids for the night. The girl is already curled up beneath a blanket. Vi leans against the wall with her arms crossed and smiles at the sight. 

Her sister looks up when she comes in. “You’re done already?”

“Viktor’s gonna have another session with him now. Vander agreed to it. We checked with him first,” she explains when Jinx opens her mouth to question why. 

“Wow, I thought the metal fortune cookie would need his beauty sleep.”

Vi shrugs. “I’m not really sure if he actually sleeps. He’s not totally human, is he?”

“Fair enough,” Jinx looks down to keep undoing Isha’s braid. The girl shifts in her sleep, nuzzling into her mother’s belly. Vi feels wonderfully warm and fuzzy.

“Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask…can you start teaching me how to sign? I want to be able to talk to her.”

Jinx looks at Vi for a long moment. Her eyes flicker down and her brow creases. “Are you going to stop fighting?”

Vi matches the frown. “What?”

Her sister carefully shifts Isha’s head from her lap and slides a pillow in place. Then she’s standing and approaching Vi. 

“Hand,” she requests, holding out her own. 

Vi raises an eyebrow and does as she asks. Jinx is now holding a fist in her palm. Purple eyes roll.

“I said hand, not fist.”

“Why does that matter–”

“Vi,” and Jinx’s voice is a little shaky. Her sister is looking her right in the eyes with something like fear. But it’s not fear of her. “Open your hand.”

Vi isn’t sure what to do besides obey. Her hand unclenches and Jinx takes it in both of hers, stretching the tendons and joints out. Vi winces a bit. Her fingers are shaking, like they’ve started lately when she doesn’t work the kinks out properly. She’s just so used to having her fists ready.

Jinx is staring at her hand. At the slight tremors in her fingers. “How many times have you gotten hit in the head?”

“What does that have to do with learning sign?”

“You’re punch drunk, you idiot,” Jinx makes a sound dangerously close to a sob and Vi realizes she’s on the verge of crying. “Vander told you over and over again not to block with your face.”

“I’m not.”

“Then keep your fingers still. Without making a fist.”

She tries. She really does, as hard as she can. But Vi can’t do it. It’s as frustrating as it is terrifying. But that doesn’t necessarily mean— 

“What was your favorite bedtime story? When we were kids?”

“I don’t know! It’s been years.”

“It was the one about Warwick. You asked Vander to tell it to us like, every other night. And now you can’t remember it. What was mom’s name?”

Vi scowls. “Felicia.”

“Dad?”

Vi’s mouth opens…and slowly, horror dawns on her as the only name that comes to mind is Vander. There’s a blurry memory of another face, but not–

“Connol,” Jinx is shaking now. “His name. Was Connol.”

She can’t breathe. She’s taken some hard hits in her life, but Vi hadn’t realized she had that much accumulated damage to her brain. 

There’s a lump in her throat. “I didn’t know.”

“You spent months in the pits guzzling bottles of liquor and getting your ass kicked,” Jinx says bitterly. “Figures you wouldn’t even notice…”

Jinx starts massaging her hand and the tremors subside somewhat after a minute. They’re not gone, but they’re manageable.

“Stop fighting. Or get better at blocking your face if you can’t do that,” her sister tells her. “And stop. Drinking. That’s my condition for teaching you how to sign. If this gets too bad, you won’t be able to sign at all.”

“Ok.”

“Promise me. If something happens…” Jinx looks back at Isha. “If I can’t be there anymore, you have to take care of yourself enough to be there for her.”

Vi can’t say no to that. Even if she wanted to. Isha is the glue that’s patched them back together, the little ray of sunshine and hope in a world that has torn up so much of their lives. 

“I promise. Ok? I promise,” Vi swears. Jinx puts her arms around her and hugs tight. Vi can only return it. They haven’t done this since they were kids and it’s like the weight of the world drops from her shoulders. 

She’s missed her sister. Jinx and Powder are one and the same, good and bad, but Vi remembers that letter Vander left for Silco in the mines. What could have been.

“There’s dirt on both our hands,” she mumbles into Jinx’s shoulder.

“Yeah. Lots of it.”

“Think we can figure out a way past it to make things better?”

Jinx snorts. “Isn’t that what we’re doing?”

Vi shrugs and squeezes a bit tighter. “I guess it is. That ok?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s ok.”

Isha has taken to painting on Vander’s mechanical arm. 

The more he’s progressed, the calmer he gets. Jinx feels comfortable enough now to sit nearby and help Vi practice sign while her daughter leans against the massive limb and colors the steel.

Vander watches her curiously. He doesn’t seem to always enjoy the smell of paint, and he needs a break from it now and then, but he’s mostly content to watch the art spreading across his arm.

Isha starts by painting their names. Then it's a picture of them together in the tunnels. She paints blue clouds so he matches her and Jinx. She colors the knuckles like Vi’s Atlas Gauntlets. 

Jinx and Vi are taking a break from sign lessons at the moment, watching as Isha continues to color in the steel of Vander’s arm. They feel a bit more like a family again, but…there’s still a little divide. 

Jinx has been thinking about it. Things are…ok. Vi and Isha get along, but her sister doesn’t seem to know how to click with the girl. And Isha…She’s pretty sure her daughter doesn’t really trust Vi. She’s seen Jinx and Vi fight before. Been in the thick of it, even.

“What’s on your mind?” Vi asks. 

“...What do you think about Painting Isha?”

Her sister is lifting a cup of water to her lips and stops at the words. She looks straight at Jinx. “Like… Painting, painting? She’s a little young for that, isn’t she?”

“Not much younger than I was when you Painted me the first time. It doesn’t have to be full-on. Just…something special for you two. You’re her aunt and all. Plus I think she’s still not sure about you after everything. Maybe you could do a Painting together to…start over.”

Vi’s gaze shifts from her to Isha. Jinx doesn’t rush her sister. 

The Undercity is not known for its many traditions, so what few it clings to mean something, and art is a huge part of them. Asking someone to Paint you is not a gift you just give out on a whim. To a Trencher, it’s something you might only share with a handful of people in all your life. Family and loved ones, most commonly.

The meaning of the art differs depending on those doing it. Sometimes it’s commitment. Sometimes it’s marking each other as kin. Forgiveness. Love. Grief. Anger. Paintings are stories in their own way. The stories those artists share with each other in color.

It doesn’t even have to be between only two people. Some Zaunite families do it together at the end of a year, or at some other important time. Like any picture, each Painting and what it represents is unique to the individuals who create it.

They don’t use brushes. Only fingers. Only skin. They themselves are both the instruments and the canvases of their own creations. It’s special. It’s trust.

“I’ve got an old music disc at the hideout,” Jinx says after a moment. “From that one lady who sang about her own Painting, remember? It’s kinda lame, but I could grab it.”

“Nah. I know what you’re talking about. That song only really works if your Painting matches what she’s singing,” Vi replies. She’s quiet a moment longer before she decides. “If she says she wants to, I think I’d like that. We gotta tell her what a Painting is first, though.”

“Sure.”

They wind up doing a “kid’s version” of a true Painting. Isha seems excited by the idea, but Vi isn’t sure she really gets it. Not yet. She’s still young, and that’s ok. They’ll explain a bit more as they go. This’ll at least give her an idea of how it works. 

So with her approval, Jinx gets plenty of paint and sits them both down in the little garden outside the hut. 

Vi’s taken off her jacket and wraps, but kept her bindings on. Isha wears a tank-top. They sit in front of each other. Typically you’d stand, but her niece is vertically challenged compared to Vi. 

“Ok,” Jinx claps her hands together. She’s playing communicator seeing as her sister is just starting to learn sign. “I think you guys are set. Vi?”

“Yeah. So I’ll start. The way this works is I’ll Paint you a little first. Then you’ll Paint me. And we’ll go back and forth until we think we’re done.”

Isha looks at Jinx and signs. Vi waits, trying to trace the motions, but she barely gets anything out of it. 

“She wants to know what you’re going to Paint.”

Vi hums. “Just little things I think. At least to start. What I want my Painting to say is, ‘I’m sorry for hurting you. I want to make up for that. I want to show you that I care about you.’ And I’ll Paint things that match in my thoughts what I’m trying to say. Does that make sense?”

Isha tilts her head, not fully understanding, but she accepts it. She holds her left arm out, seeing as the right is covered in Jinx’s blue clouds. Vi gently takes her wrist and ponders for a moment. Then she dips her fingers into some of the gold paint. “So I chose this color because it reminds me of your eyes.”

She draws a small, golden heart on the inside of Isha’s wrist. Vi lets go. “And I made a heart because I love you. See? Maybe I’ll add a little more color around it later. Something else to build on it. Everyone’s got their own art style, y’know?”

Vi’s keeping it simple, but Isha’s a lot more interested now. She studies the heart for a moment and her smile grows. Vi gestures to her. “And now it’s your turn.”

The child looks at her aunt up and down for a minute, trying to decide what to Paint. Usually, the process is a bit smoother, but they haven’t known each other for long and Isha has never done a Painting before. 

Isha finally dips her fingers into blue and leans up on her knees. She steadies a hand against Vi’s shoulder and carefully begins to Paint. Vi closes her eyes and stays as still as she can.

When she pulls back, Vi blinks her eyes open. Isha seems pleased and Jinx is grinning. She lifts an eyebrow. 

“She wrote, ‘Isha’ under the ‘I’ in your tattoo. You look like a crossword puzzle.”

Vi snorts. “Why put your name on me?”

Isha makes a simple gesture that Jinx translates. “She says ‘mine’.” 

“Yours, huh?” 

Isha smiles and repeats herself. Mine.

“Alright, you little sump rat,” Vi chuckles. “My turn again?”

Her niece agrees. Vi debates before choosing pink this time. She colors “VI” into the back of Isha’s hand and intersects it with “Jinx” in blue. 

“Ours,” she declares.

Isha hums, then reaches for more blue. This time she carefully dyes a short streak of it through Vi’s black hair. Vi answers with a streak of pink through Isha’s blue locks. 

Isha’s color of choice seems to be exclusively blue so far. But it’s her decision what she uses to Paint Vi. 

“At this rate, I’m going to be even more blue than you,” Vi tells her sister.

Jinx snorts. “You wish.”

Isha is coloring blue clouds on Vi’s arms now. If the idea behind her Painting is to make her entire family color-coordinated, then she’s getting there. Vi’s just trying to Paint as much affection as she can onto her niece. 

They Paint for a little while. Vi and Jinx are content as Isha eagerly explores the tradition. The sisters haven’t done this–not properly, anyway–since they were kids. It’s an act they’ve only ever shared with one another.

Vi glances at her sister when Isha is focused on Painting her knuckles the same bronze as Vander’s claws. She and Jinx have a lot to sort through. One day, maybe, if she’s really lucky, they can Paint each other again. 

For now, she Paints with her niece. The colors and that warm, fuzzy joy in her blood spread like sunlight upon her skin. 

One of the many benefits of Viktor’s community is the opportunity to bathe in actual, clean water. 

It’s great news because Vi and Isha really need a bath after all the Painting they’ve done today. They’re careful not to scrub at the artwork too hard. The paint they use can handle a little water and soap. 

 Viktor is with Vander at the moment, so she's taken the opportunity to get Isha cleaned up. It’s been years since Jinx has bathed with anyone besides her daughter, but nudity is nothing they aren’t comfortable with. They didn’t grow up with a bunch of prudes like the Pilties. You don’t waste good water in the Lanes.

Vi had made sure everyone got hosed down when they were kids, especially Powder and Ekko since they were always covered in grease from their many, many junk dives at the heap.

Jinx is working soap suds (actual, good soap!) through Isha’s hair when Vi steps into the bath behind them and stops in her tracks. 

“Holy shit!”

“What?”

“Your hair, that’s what!”

Jinx has undone her twintails completely since they have the chance to get really, properly clean for once. It’s a job and it’ll take ages to get them back together, but she’s done it before.

Vi is staring at the literal blanket of blue that surrounds Jinx and Isha with her mouth open. She knows Jinx has a lot of hair, but it’s completely different to see it unbound like this. 

She tries to run the math in her head. “When did you get a haircut last?”

“Before the job.”

“Which–wait, that job? When you got the crystals?”

“Duh,” Jinx half-lifts an impossibly long handful of blue. “You think I grew this out in just a year or two?”

Isha is trying to clean her mother’s hair. Well, part of it. It’ll take a while to get it all scrubbed up. 

“Go ahead and rinse off,” Jinx tells Vi. “But don’t step on my hair.”

Vi is very much the kind of gal who’s in and out of the shower inside of five minutes. Prison has made that habit stick hard. 

She’s finished by the time Jinx is done rinsing off Isha. She stands, wet hair rising up like a curtain, and towels her daughter off. 

“Go bug Vi for a bit, trouble,” Jinx says. “Mom’s gonna be here a while.”

Isha nods and before Vi can get a word in, she’s taken her aunt’s hand and dragged her out of the bathroom. Jinx closes her eyes as she starts to work her fingers through the long strands of blue. She’s glad there’s plenty of soap, ‘cause she’ll need a lot. 

When she finally gets out of the bathroom hours later, wrapped up in a towel with her twintails back in place, (but wonderfully clean) Vi is sitting at the foot of her bed. She’s putting fresh wraps around her hands.

Her sister looks up as Jinx gets out, but holds a finger to her lips. Jinx’s eyes flicker over to the bed she shares with her daughter and she snorts. Isha’s passed out, still wearing a towel. 

“She didn’t even get changed?”

“Her clothes weren’t done drying,” Vi shrugs helplessly. “They’re still hanging outside. I didn’t wanna wake her up.”

Jinx laughs and grabs her own outfit, taking a moment to slip into it before she goes to retrieve her daughter’s clothing. 

She knows that Isha can stand to be woken up long enough to get dressed. Chances are she’ll konk out minutes later and won’t even remember being woken up in the first place.  

True to form, she gets her daughter awake, changed, and it’s not even thirty seconds before Isha’s already dozing again. 

She hears Vi stand, but her sister is quiet as she sits on the other side of the bed, albeit hesitantly. Jinx watches her lift a hand to place it against Isha’s cheek. Vi’s arm is covered in blue clouds, like the rest of their family.

She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t need to, Jinx thinks. The softness in her face and the delicacy she uses to twirl the pink streak of Isha’s hair around her finger for a moment says it all. 

Jinx scoots and leans her head on Vi’s shoulder. Neither of them look away from her daughter. 

“Wanna finally hear about her?”

Vi nods. Jinx shifts a bit to make herself more comfortable.

“I guess…we start at the beginning?”

“I know you snuck into Babette’s. She’s the one that told me,” Vi murmurs. “She said the guy you hooked up with got himself killed not long after you…”

Jinx is quiet for a moment, then shrugs. “I didn’t catch his name. I don’t even remember what he looked like. It didn’t matter. It was a fling just to see what all the fuss was about. Sevika got drunk a few times and would not shut up about all her dommy-mommy stuff–”

Vi gags and she snorts, grinning like a shark at her little victory. But she chooses to spare her sister further details of Sevika’s sex life (for now). They’re supposed to be talking about Isha. 

“It was just once,” she hums. “I wasn’t even in Babette’s for more than like, twenty minutes. I didn’t really enjoy it, so I bailed. Figured, ‘Ah well, I guess it’s not all that. Time to make something go boom,’ and went back to life as usual.”

“Until,” Vi correctly predicts.

“Until,” Jinx’s lips curl up as she watches Isha snore. 

“I’m guessing Silco didn’t take it well?” Vi frowns. “Actually, I’m…kind of surprised he let you keep her.”

She glances at Vi for a long moment. Then she sighs. “Look, I get that Silco was like, the worst thing ever to you. I get it. But he was all I had after you got thrown into Stillwater.”

A dark look goes over her face and Vi’s lips part, but Jinx puts a hand over her mouth, though not harshly. “No, just…please just listen.”

Her sister acquiesces, albeit reluctantly. 

“I’m not saying he was a good guy. He wasn’t like Vander, and I know what he did. For a while, I don’t think he knew what to do with me, either. But he and Vander were friends with mom before things went to shit, so…he did his best. He did try, even if he wasn’t always good at it.”

She looks away to Isha. “When we found out I was knocked up, he didn’t get angry or tell me off. He supported me. He didn’t even question my choice to keep her. He was the only person with me besides the doctor when she was born.” 

Guilt flashes in Vi’s eyes at that. Jinx leans over to reach out and shift some of Isha’s hair away from her cheek. “He hired a nurse to care for her after that, ‘cause my body didn’t…I couldn’t feed her. I tried, but you know I’ve never been the healthiest person in the world. Silco kept us hidden. Made sure I was taken care of. Made sure she was taken care of.”

She takes a breath. Leans her head back on Vi’s shoulder. “He never hurt her. Kept the Chem-Barons off our scent. We dyed her hair brown so she wouldn’t look too much like me. She’s probably alive only because he was there to help me out.”

“...I still don’t like him. I don’t think I ever will. But…I guess I can see that he actually helped you. And her.”

“I know. And that’s…that’s ok.”

Vi takes a breath of her own. “So. You had Isha. Then what?”

Jinx’s lips curl up. “Baby stuff. It didn’t take very long for us to figure out that she wasn’t a talker. When she tried…we could tell. Silco helped me learn sign, and I taught her once she was old enough.”

A small giggle escapes her lips. “She was so cute. All fat and silly. I made her toys. Isha would take them apart, but couldn’t figure out how to put them back together for a while. She’d get so mad.

“I think she only walked for like, three seconds before she started running. Holy moly, she was a little nightmare, especially because she was quiet. I took my eyes off her for a minute one time and when I looked back she was sitting in a full bucket of paint.”

Vi’s eyebrows shoot up. “Oh no.”

“She was completely orange from head to toe. Like a pumpkin with arms and legs,” Jinx sniggers. Her sister is trying to laugh quietly. “Had to hide the paint where she couldn’t reach it after that. At least she never tried to eat it.”

Vi hums, amused. “What else?”

“I’ve got tons more stories like that. I’ll tell you more of those later,” Jinx decides. She moves on. “By the time she was four, I started bringing her to The Last Drop. Silco’s office only, at first.”

“He didn’t mind?”

“Nope. She was pretty good for the most part. Happy to get some scrap and tinker,” Jinx flashes Vi a mischievous grin. “And then she started pickpocketing people.”

Her sister’s matching smile is full of glee and Jinx feels warm and fuzzy with all sorts of fond memories. Robbery! A favorite pastime of any decent sump rat. “Oh yeah?”

“She tried Silco first, actually,” Jinx beams at her daughter. “He caught her and basically told her to try someone else. So she did. She tried everyone else.

“She robbed all of his guards. She would try Silco now and again, but he always caught her. Same with me. She even got Sevika’s arm off once, but she couldn’t hold it up.”

Vi’s mouth falls open, shoulders wracking and somehow managing to stay quiet. “She did not.”

“Better watch your pockets sis, she’ll rob you blind,” Jinx’s voice is full of pride for her thieving little girl.

“When she turned five, she started sneaking into the bar when it was open. Well, she thinks she did. Silco’s guys knew to watch her and I always sat on the rafters to make sure nobody got up to any funny business.”

Vi looks eager. “And?”

“I guess she got bored with always robbing Silco’s guys, so she started stealing from everyone in the bar. And I mean everyone. She’d run in there and stuff her pockets with whatever caught her greedy little eyes. I mean, she stole anything she could get away with. Money, lighters, cigars, jewelry, knick-knacks. If she wanted it, she’d find a way to get it. She’s got a little hoard in the rafters of Silco’s office.”

Jinx takes a moment, thinking a bit more. “Whenever the bar closed, we’d take our favorite music disc out of Silco’s safe and listen to it. I taught her how to sign the lyrics since she couldn’t sing with me.”

“I saw,” Vi sighs. She looks happy. Jinx feels happy.

“I’ll have to teach you,” she says. “Once you pick up sign enough. I’d bet Isha would help you out if you asked.”

“I’d love that.”

Everything is falling into ruin.

The Noxians are hurling spears at Vander, trying to bring him down as the berserking wolf-man rips through them, roaring and screaming his fury. The marks Viktor leaves behind when he works with Vander are glowing, so red-hot that his entire body is spilling molten chemicals from the Chemtanks on his back. 

Vi gets slashed by a spear and shrieks, nearly falling as Caitlyn puts a bullet through the offending Noxian’s skull. She looks up to see Jinx get slammed by one of Vander’s flailing arms, struck so hard that even her Shimmer-infused body can’t heal it quickly. 

She sees blue heading for Jinx’s gun, but her sister is still down. Vi has a moment of absolute horror as she realizes it’s Isha. 

“ISHA!” She screams. “ISHA, NO!”

Vi tries to chase after her, but the damn cut in her side won’t let her. Isha slides to grab the pistol and pulls out two Hextech Gemstones from her little bag–

Vander spins as Isha comes to a stop near his feet, spotting the child entirely too close. His mouth parts as he roars and lunges down. Jinx is screaming and Vi does the only thing she can in that moment. 

She breathes so deep that the cut in her side burns with the worst sort of pain, and then howls at the top of her lungs. “VANDER!”

It’s just for a second. 

A flicker of a man that remembers his daughter’s cry for help. He sees Isha and the overloading energy in the pistol, and with that last scrap of clarity he separates her from the oncoming blast in the only way a beast can.

The light surges and Vi watches a pair of jaws close around Isha’s hand like a vise. Then the shockwave hits her and she is hurled away.

Chapter Text

Act II, Part II: Paint Me With Your Heart

Her ears are ringing. Ashes come down like rain. Her whole body hurts. 

It’s nothing to the void in her heart and the horror that has turned all the blood in her veins colder than ice. 

Jinx only barely registers Vi staggering towards the smoke-shrouded epicenter of the explosion. She stumbles to her feet, mouthing words that don’t make sense.

She looks around for Isha. She finds Caitlyn instead. 

The ice turns to fire. Before she can register what she’s doing, Jinx is on top of the Enforcer and has her fingers clenched around her neck. Caitlyn gasps and Jinx can’t really see, her eyes are so foggy. She feels tears on her cheeks. A ragged scream that might be her own starts to fill her ears. 

The sound comes back all of a sudden as she takes a breath. Caitlyn is turning blue and Jinx is trying so, so hard to crush that pretty little throat–

“JINX!”

Her head spins, still strangling the Enforcer, to see Vi near the hulking shape of Vander’s unmoving body. Her sister is shrieking against her injury as she tries to lift one of the immense arms. 

There’s a little foot beneath the claws.

Jinx is there in a blur, lifting the limb with Vi and–and Ekko , where the hell did he–it doesn’t matter. They manage to get the arm up and shove it away from the tiny shape beneath the wolf-man. 

Jinx runs her hands over her daughter and chokes when she sees the bloody stump that used to be Isha’s right hand. It’s been bitten off nearly to the elbow by Vander’s fangs. 

Ekko’s beside her with–a Yordle?–wrapping the injury up. He’s saying something, but Jinx can’t stop crying because her baby is–

“-DER! POWDER!” Ekko shakes her and her eyes jerk towards him. “We gotta go! She’s gonna bleed out!”

She doesn’t move. Her breathing doesn’t feel right. Ekko puts an arm around her and with the Yordle, helps her stumble to her feet. Isha is tucked against her chest, too still, too limp, and Jinx doesn’t understand why her daughter isn’t moving. 

She’s guided away by Ekko as Caitlyn gets one of Vi’s arms over her shoulder, and another with Jayce–Jinx isn’t even surprised–and they rush off. 

Vi stumbles to the hospital room next to hers with Loris’ help. She owes him like a million apologies and she’s told him that, but he waves her off. “I think that can wait, don’t you?”

Loris gets the door open and Vi steps inside. She nods to him thankfully, but it’s better if she does this alone. 

Jinx is sitting next to Isha’s bedside. The child looks smaller than ever. Her right arm–or what’s left of it–is wrapped up in a cast. Vi feels the joy in the world drain away at the sight. 

Maimed at six years old. She’s alive. That’s the only consolation.

She stops by Jinx’s chair and hesitantly puts a hand on her shoulder. Her sister barely stirs. 

“How is she?” Vi asks.

Jinx doesn’t say anything for almost a minute. When she speaks, her voice is dead. “Breathing.”

“...And how are you?”

“...Breathing.”

Vi pulls up a chair and sits, wincing at the slight tug in her side. She’ll probably pay for that later, but she won’t leave her sister and niece alone now that she’s awake. 

“Did they–they didn’t try to arrest you, did they?”

“They tried. Ekko talked them out of it. Somehow,” she doesn’t even sound bothered. “He pulled Caitlyn away for a while. I don’t know what he said, but she listened. He was…pretty mad.”

Vi exhales. Well, at least she won’t have to worry about that on top of everything else. 

“You shouldn’t be here,” Jinx mumbles. “Ekko said you needed a transfusion.”

“I’ll get better. I should be here.”

Her sister says nothing. Vi watches the medical equipment monitoring Isha’s vitals. She doesn’t understand most of it, but she assumes the steady beeps means the girl is still with them. 

The paint on Isha is gone. All the marks Vi left from their Painting. Erased. She’s lost all the color Isha put on her, too. Some medical reason, she’s sure, but it still makes her bitter. Vi’s so tired of Piltover just taking and taking.

“I have to make her a new hand,” Jinx whispers. “Something she can use to sign. She won’t be able to talk without it.”

“We’ll figure it out. You’re the best at–”

“Maybe you were right. Maybe she’s never been safe with me.”

“Don’t say that. You’re better with her than I ever was with you. She’s good because of you.”

“Her hand,” Jinx’s voice breaks. “Is. Gone.”

Vi reaches over–ignores the spike of pain in her side–and pulls Jinx into a hug. Her sister shatters the moment she touches her, crying into hysterics until Vi’s shirt is soaked through with tears. And if Vi’s crying too, well. Who could judge her for that? 

They’ve lost too much. She’s allowed to cry.

Jinx slips back to Zaun later when Vi’s fallen asleep. 

Ekko has to stop Vi from going after her, because she’s as furious as she is distraught, but she’s also hurt badly enough that she needs to heal before the Noxians get their shit together and come for Piltover. 

“I’ll bring her back.”

“You don’t even know where she is!”

“I know where her hideout is,” Ekko answers. “Look, she said she was going to get tools and parts to make Isha a new arm. Heimerdinger will come with me. Just rest, Vi.”

“You really do need to recover, lassie,” the Yordle says. Vi looks like she’s tempted to kick him, but he’s unfazed. “Trust us with this. Grief is a terrible thing and I’d be very surprised if she’s thinking clearly now, but Powder has a good heart. And perhaps an added pair of extra sharp minds to help find what she needs for little Isha will do her good.”

Vi doesn’t look completely convinced (and definitely confused by how familiar Heimerdinger seems to be regarding Jinx), but even she knows she needs the rest and she refuses to leave Isha without someone she trusts to watch her. “Don’t get shot.”

“No promises,” Ekko only half-jokes. He brings the Z-Drive just in case.

The whole way to the hideout, Ekko’s mind is racing. Memories of a universe he didn’t belong in make themselves known with every step he takes. 

He and Heimerdinger had been thrown into the same universe, doppelgangers to their counterparts in that world. It had been the weirdest experience of his life; waking up sick to his stomach in an alley and finding an exact copy of himself (well, close to exact) staring at him with J–Powder. 

That had been really awkward. He still felt kind of bad for throwing the first thing he could grab at Powder, but at least she hadn’t taken it personally. Much. 

Ok, so he’d been an asshole and she’d called him out on it. To be fair, he had a little trauma. And he’d apologized by painting Vi for them where the Firelight base was supposed to be. 

He’d thought about painting Isha, but Ekko had only seen the child from a distance until then and it felt…wrong. Cruel, even. To leave the image of a little girl that universe’s Powder would never have. He told no one in the end.

Heimerdinger had arrived years before he did and had already discussed his (probable) arrival with both of their counterparts. With the benefit of hindsight, it was a little easier to adjust to the change. For all of them.

It was still weird. Seeing people who were dead in his world. People he’d loved. People he’d hated. A world where so much was right that it warped in his head right around to wrong. 

Or maybe Ekko had just forgotten what peace was. 

Between him, Heimerdinger, their alternate selves, and Powder, they’d managed to create the Z-Drive over the course of several weeks. That had been their ticket back home. 

He remembers the party. He’d hung back in the shadows in a balcony above the crowd, watching Powder dance with his alternate self. Laughing and full of joy. Leaning in for–

He looks away. It hurts a part of him he’s tried to bury for so, so long. 

And of all the people to find him alone up there, it’s Silco.

Ekko has been told that in this timeline, Silco and Vander had reconciled after Vi’s death. Shimmer never flooded the streets. They mourned Felicia’s daughter together and did everything in their power afterwards to make sure Zaun could flourish for her only remaining child. 

And with Heimerdinger–along with Ekko’s Heimerdinger–they had succeeded. Hextech never came to be. Piltover’s council heard their Yordle grandfather(s), saw the strides made to improve relations with the Undercity, and pitched in. Peace came to their world. 

Old habits stuck hard. Ekko’s eyes narrow as Silco leans his arms on the balcony rail with a drink in one hand. The black of his infected eye is nearly gone in this world. It had gotten proper treatment, though how well it functioned, Ekko can’t tell. 

“Penny for your thoughts?” Silco asks.

“Pass.”

“You don’t trust me. Fair enough.”

“Why’re you here?”

“Old habit. I wanted to make sure my daughter was enjoying herself. I’m not so tall as Vander,” he admits. “Can’t look over the crowds on ground level.”

Silence passes between them. Ekko has started to accept that the people here are different, but…

“What’s she like?” Silco asks. “Where you come from?”

“Jinx?”

“Violet.”

That…catches him off a step. Ekko pauses and considers the question. “Stubborn. Reckless. Still blocks with her face. Kind of awesome. Nicer than she wants you to think she is. I only met her again recently. She was in jail for eight years. I thought she was dead.”

Silco pulls out his wallet and extracts an old picture that Ekko recognizes from his universe. It’s one of Vander, Silco, and Felicia. 

“It’s one of my greatest regrets. That I never really knew her before she died. Vander named her. And Felicia took my little joke and named Powder.”

“You named J…You named Powder?”

“Not by choice. Felicia pestered me until I gave her an answer. Said she and Connol couldn’t decide on one they liked.”

“What’d you say?”

“Gunpowder.”

Ekko can’t resist the urge to snort. Silco huffs. “I thought it would get her to quit nagging, but she went and actually named her child that.”

He’s quiet for a moment. His thumb brushes over the picture. “What I wouldn’t give to hear her and Violet nagging me now.”

Ekko says nothing.

“I won’t be so presumptuous as to tell you what to do when you return home,” Silco tells him. “I do not know your struggles. I do not know the people in your home as you do. I do not know their rights, their wrongs, nor your own. I’ve no place to cast judgment.”

He pulls out a second picture from his wallet, holds it out for Ekko. He hesitates before reluctantly accepting it. 

It’s Powder, front and center. Beside her is Ekko’s alternate self. Mylo. Claggor. Benzo. Silco. Vander. 

They look like a family. Ekko feels a lump form in his throat. What could have been…

“If there’s only one thing I feel I should share with you, it’s this,” Silco says, and Ekko tears his eyes from the picture. Silco is looking down at Powder, who is still smiling and laughing and spinning in her dress. “The greatest thing I have done, in all my life, is find the power to forgive.”

He means it. Ekko can hear it in his voice, for all that he wants to deny that this man has the capacity to feel those things. He looks back at the picture for a moment before returning it. “I wish you’d found it where I came from.”

“For whatever it may be worth to you, so do I.”

Ekko and Heimerdinger get to the hideout easily enough, albeit with extreme care to avoid the many, many traps Jinx has set up. 

“Jinx?” Ekko calls. He doesn’t get a reply, but he hears a chair creaking in the silence of the hideout. 

  Jinx is sitting at her table, flipping a painted gear slowly through her fingers. He catches sight of her face through the mirror and barely hides a wince. She looks awful. 

“How’d you find me?” Jinx asks. Her voice sounds empty. She doesn’t even look at them.

“Maybe I know you better than you think I do,” Ekko answers.

“We came to help find what you need for little Isha,” Heimerdinger adds, making his way to a box of scrap to start rifling through it.

“Oh. Thanks.”

“Of course, lass! What are friends for?”

Jinx says nothing to that. Ekko looks around the hideout. It’s so different, yet so similar to the other universe he and Heimerdinger were sent to. 

There’s no memorial to Vi. Instead there’s paint, scrap, and toys, the traces of a little girl Powder never had in that timeline. The railing around the fan blades is covered in pictures Isha has made of herself and her mother. The fairy lights Powder hung up are present, but a darker blue. Maybe night-lights so the child can sleep easy.

He reads a message painted in the corner of the broken mirror. Luv you mama.

Jinx catches his eyes in the mirror and follows his gaze to the message in blue, surrounded by little pink hearts. 

 “Y’know I had her here?” Jinx murmurs. Heimerdinger stops moving the metal scrap to hear her. She lifts an arm like it weighs a ton and points to a little nook full of blankets that might be a bed. “I pushed her outta my body right there. It hurt so bad. I think I traumatized the doctor with all the times I threatened to shoot him if he didn’t hurry up.”

Her eyes fall to the painted gear in her fingers. “She was a little terror. Started pickpocketing people when she was four. We made a Paint Bomb Chomper together and she latched it to Sevika’s prosthetic. The grumpy old hag was so pissed at us.”

“It sounds like she’s as brilliant a girl as her mother,” Heimerdinger tells her warmly. 

“Her mom kind of sucks,” Jinx replies. “Look where she is now.”

“That’s not your fault,” Ekko says. 

“It is my fault,” she swallows. “Everyone I love dies, or gets hurt, or gets completely fucked over. I’m a Jinx. Always have been. Always will be.”

“No,” he takes a breath. It’s hard, separating her from the Powder in the other universe, but staying civil. He wants to be angry, he wants to yell at her for all the bad shit she’s done. For all the friends she’s taken from him. 

Worst of all, he wants to believe in her.

“Do you know where we’ve been?”

“Dunno. I went looking for you, but I had no luck. I thought maybe you were dead. And that was…really awful. I missed you, even after the bridge. Even after everything.”

Ekko tries to ignore that. Her missing him. He remembers seeing the other Powder with his doppelganger, what could have been–

“The Hextech overuse made an anomaly in the base of the Hexgate,” Ekko forces out. “It was starting to affect the plant life down here.”

“There’s plant life down here?” 

“Hard to believe, but it’s true. Heimerdinger and I went to see Jayce to figure out what was going on. The anomaly kind of…sucked us into another universe or two.”

Jinx raises an eyebrow through the glass. “Uh-huh.”

Yeah, she isn’t buying that. He isn’t surprised; it sounds nuts. Time to break out the big guns. 

“We were able to convert one of those anomalies into a time loop.”

“A time loop. You wanna–”

“–try again, Boy Wonder?” Ekko finishes with her. Jinx blinks. 

He pats the Z-Drive and her gaze drops to it, to the coiled anomaly suspended in the core. She slowly rolls the chair around to face them. 

“...You’re–”

“–pulling my leg.”

“That–”

“–doesn’t make any sense.”

She looks annoyed now. “Predict this. I–”

“–stole your wallet when we were kids–” Ekko stops as what she’s said catches up to him. “Wait, you stole it?! Wha–” 

“Alright, alright, I get it! Stop that!” Jinx snaps, scowling and flushed. She looks a little less dead inside now. “So you got sucked into another universe and what, it was so bad you actually decided to come back here?”

“Not at all! I was there for several years and achieved so much!” Heimerdinger exclaims. “We repaired the relationship between Piltover and Zaun! Both cities became the thriving utopias they should be! You and Ekko were two of my most brilliant students!”

“Really?” She doesn’t sound totally convinced, but she’s interested at least. “This sounds too good to be true.”

“It was, a little,” Ekko admits. “It wasn’t perfect, just different. Everything after that job–the one you went on with Vi, when you got the Hextech Crystals? It was all different. Vi died on that job from the explosion. Vander and Silco made up with Heimerdinger’s help to bring Zaun together and…so much else. Isha wasn’t born.”

Jinx’s interest fades. “Doesn’t sound like I would like it that much, then. I can’t even imagine life without her. I don’t think I could go on.”

Ekko bites his lip. He takes a breath, remembers all he’s lost over the years. Remembers a girl who wore Powder’s face, but wasn’t her.

“I need your help.”

“With what?”

“You, me, and Vi. When we get through this whole mess with the Noxians and Viktor, I need your help to bring Zaun together. We can make things better.”

“There’s no way. I blew up Piltover’s Council. They threw half of Zaun into Stillwater in response, including my daughter. My father is a mechanized Chemtech monster. Vi is in love with an Enforcer who wants me dead so badly she shot at Isha just to get to me. Whatever universe you saw, you should have stayed there, Ekko. It’s too late to fix this one.”

“I never said it would be easy,” Ekko walks towards her slowly. He shakes his head. “It’s…it’s a huge mess. I’m still not sure if Heimerdinger and Vi are right about you. That you can be good again.”

“You’re really selling me on this.”

“Yeah, I bet. But I think you love Isha too much to sit back and watch the world go to hell.”

Heimerdinger remains silent. The Yordle glances between them, but he seems to understand this is a matter they have to figure out themselves.

Jinx looks up at Ekko when he stops in front of her. Purple, but he can see shards of blue like broken glass. 

“I killed Enforcers. I blew up half of Piltover’s Council. I’ve lost count of how many Firelights I’ve shot.”

Their eyes are locked. Neither of them breaks it.

“You still want my help?”

The greatest thing I have done, in all my life, is find the power to forgive.  

It’s like flipping time on its head. Impossible. 

He does it anyway.

“Sometimes taking a leap forward means…leaving a few things behind.”

Jinx’s eyes go wide. Ekko trembles. He means what he’s said and she feels that. The hideout is terribly silent for a few moments.

She looks from him to the Yordle. “What time is it?”

“Nearly dawn! Goodness, we have been out late, haven’t we? Piltover’s council is meant to meet in a few hours to discuss our strategy–”

“Push it to midday,” Jinx tells him. Her eyes have narrowed. Ekko can see the gears turning in her head. “That’ll give me enough time to find Sevika and some others to meet with them, too.”

Ekko lifts an eyebrow. “You think they’ll follow you?”

“You’ve been gone a while, Boy Wonder. I’m the Symbol of Zaun. They’ll bend over backwards if I tell ‘em to,” she stands up, a little unsteady, and walks around her work table until she’s nearly out of sight. She peeks around a moment later. “Um…it’s Heimerdinger, right?”

“Yes, lass?”

“Would you mind telling the Pilties that we’re coming? I’ve…gotta get some things done first. Ekko will tag along with me.”

The Yordle glances at him and Ekko nods. “That can certainly be arranged! I think I’ll have some time afterwards to draw up a diagram for Isha’s prosthetic, too. Would that be acceptable?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

He beams at the pair of them and with the patter of small feet, vanishes as only his race can. 

Ekko walks towards her. She’s doing something; he can hear metal being shifted around. 

Jinx looks at him and her mouth opens. She falters. Shifts further around and stops so he can see all the paint buckets she’s lined up on the table. There’s a pair of scissors in her hands.

“You meant it,” she says quietly. “Didn’t you.”

“I did,” Ekko murmurs. He’s not sure how, but he did.

Jinx slowly pulls a chair and sits down. She takes a breath. “I’m cutting it off.”

“What–your hair? Why–”

“I want you to Paint me.”

Ekko stops in his tracks and stares. She looks back at him over her shoulder. Anxious. 

He understands what she’s asking. Any true Trencher would. She wants him to understand that she’s taking it sincerely. To be open with him the way he was with her. 

He nods. She lifts the scissors to her head.

Ekko watches the impossible lengths of her twintails fall away like chains. She keeps cutting, close until the choppy cut looks a fair bit like Vi’s. She’s quick with it, better than he’s expecting. He wonders if she cuts Isha’s hair. Knowing Jinx, she probably doesn’t trust anyone else with a blade that close to her daughter. 

Once she’s done cutting her hair, Jinx stands up and grabs a music disc that she sets in the speaker. “I always thought this song was pretty dumb. But…it kind of fits. Maybe too well.”

She stops in front of him. He sets the Z-Drive on a chair. Tops and accessories come off until they’re both bare from the waist up, and from then on neither of them says a single word. 

Ekko and Jinx Paint hurts, and apologies, and forgiveness upon each other.

Can’t take all the hurt back.

Never enough time for that.

Ekko goes first. He dips his fingers into color–red, pink, blue, black–and paints her body everywhere she’s hurt him. There are many red and black X’s over her heart. He counts each one in his head, one for every friend she’s hurt or taken from him.

Only one X is blue, slashed wide across her chest and then filled in with pink and lined with black. Powder, he thinks.

Scattered pieces of the lives I’ve torn.

Bullets ripping through the memories we had before.

There are other marks. Ekko lifts his hand and gestures for her to turn. The pale expanse of her back faces him. She shivers as he traces a shrapnel tear she’d given him right across her lower spine. Bullet wounds. Burns. She’s hurt him so much. 

When he’s done, he inclines his head. Jinx reaches for the paint next. 

Now you’re standing here again.

Forgiving what I can’t defend.

She colors upon him her apologies. Pale blues, yellows, greens, pinks. Warm things. She takes his left wrist and slides a hand into his palm, then drifts it up his arm to his chest. Yellow and blue leave a trail and where his heart beats she presses her hand, hard, until his pulse rumbles through her fingers. 

She chooses another color and presses her hand again to his torso, feeling his body rise and fall with every breath. Her handprints hold Ekko in all their colors and each one is an apology. 

All the holes I left are bleeding you dry.

Jinx does not rush through it like she might with something less significant. Her touch is a soft, heavy thing, and her eyes do not leave his as she presses I’m Sorry all over his body and into Ekko’s soul.

How can you see the good in me, through all the tears I’ve made you cry?

When her hands finally pull away he reaches for the paint again. 

He starts to mark her with forgiveness. It doesn’t wipe what she’s done away. His pain colors her skin now, after all. But he dips his fingers into paints that make him feel hopeful. 

Infinity in the palm of your hand.

Time still slips away like sand.

He paints stars they used to watch in different colors. Squiggly lines that remind him of their childhood, when they’d race past buildings with cans of spray paint, go up and down her arms. A necklace he remembers is marked at the hollow of her throat. He takes a bit of pink and runs a line of it through her hair. Puts an hourglass in blue on her cheek, for the games they used to play.

Still chasing me, you’re never far.

But every time we have collided, I have colored you with scars.

Then it's her turn once more. 

Jinx paints her own memories on him. Blue fire from that night. A Hextech Crystal, shattered. A firelight in warm, warm pink and yellow. Across his shoulder blades she colors “Pow-pow” in green and “Tuff-tuff” in blue. She puts a bit of gold in his hair, the unspoken crown he wears as leader of the Firelights.

Only when she’s done do they stop completely. They wait a little while for the paint to dry before putting their tops back on.

So Paint them in my heart.

Ekko watches her dip her fingers into the color pink again. Jinx breaks the silence. “A little more?”

They wind up coloring their outfits, too. Not exactly the tradition, but there’s relief and peace they’ve needed for too long between them now. Friends who were enemies and are now…

Ekko doesn’t let that thought go too far. They’re allies again. There are things they still need to sort out, but this is the foundation of a new bridge they’ve chosen to build. That’s enough.

Paint me with your heart.

Sevika sometimes wonders why she tries to keep the Undercity together. She’s always been the second, never quite fitting into the role of head honcho, but the squabbling idiots who were left when Silco died could never fill his shoes. 

And with Piltover down their throats, she’s truly left with the scraps at this little gathering in Silco’s old office. The Firelight second, Scar, is present, along with the “head” of the Jinxers, Gert, and the two surviving Chem-Barons; Chross and Margot. The only others present are those few remaining bodyguards who served Silco, and who have chosen to stick with her. 

It’s supposed to be a discussion about how they’re going to handle the Noxians in the Lanes, how they can unify their forces, but she’s getting exactly nowhere. Chross and Margot keep fussing about their territory being trespassed. Scar and Gert are in agreement with Sevika, but they’re not enough to overrule the Chem-Barons, who possess more military force to their names. 

The whole meeting is a shitshow until the door gets kicked open. Everyone stops and looks up. Sevika is about to yell at the guard who was on duty, but falters. 

It’s Jinx. 

She’s cut her hair. A lot. The ridiculously long twintails are gone, and she’s shaved one side of her head in a manner similar to Vi. She’s covered in paint; not just random mess marks, but actual art. 

The change in appearance is so significant that she almost doesn’t see Ekko come in behind her. He’s covered in paint too, and Sevika only has to flit her eyes between them to realize what’s happened.

The bodyguard who was at the door is wide-eyed, but she suspects he’s made the right call in letting them in. Better than getting shot. Jinx has got a look in her eye that tells Sevika she has something cooking in her devious little brain. 

“Who invited you?” Margot snaps. “Silco’s not here to protect you, you little tramp. You’ve got no place–”

“Quit your bitching, slut. This is my house.”

And Margot does, immediately nervous. Sevika feels the hairs on her neck rise, because she knows that tone. It’s one she’s never quite pulled off no matter how hard she’s tried, the same one Silco and Vander could use to command a room in an instant. The Chem-Baron bends, albeit reluctantly.

“Don’t mind me. I just need to grab something,” she steps into the room. Ekko hangs by the door, but nods at Scar, who looks relieved to see him. Gert is also much happier with Jinx’s presence. 

“Could’ve knocked,” Sevika points out as Jinx walks past Silco’s desk to the dresser in the corner. She opens it up. 

“I thought about it. But I heard a bunch of bullshit and decided it wasn’t important,” she hums. Jinx pauses a moment before she reaches into the dresser and pulls out one of Silco’s coats. Sevika’s attention sharpens as she slides her arms into it. 

“...What are you up to?”

“I gotta go talk to Piltover’s council,” Jinx says, pulling the coat around her. She does not sound thrilled about it, but doesn’t falter, either. “Heimerdinger’s setting up a meeting. Gotta figure out how to deal with all the Noxian pigs on our doorstep.”

“So you’re with the Pilties now?” Margot sneers. “Silco’s little pet, boot-licker of the Enforcers! Just like Vander.”

Jinx looks over the coat’s high collar at the Chem-Baron, then glances at Sevika. “You’re coming too. You, me, and Ekko are representing Zaun.”

“That’s not your decision to make,” Chross says.

“It is now. Zaun was Vander’s territory, then Silco’s, and now it’s mine,” Jinx retorts. Sevika sucks in a sharp breath. 

Margot scoffs, emboldened by Chross and too arrogant to see the huge pile of shit she’s stepping into. “And how are you hoping to achieve that without our support?”

“Good question,” Jinx twists and Sevika barely registers the click before the gun comes out of the coat. 

Two shots. Two headshots. Margot and Chross are wasted before their men can do a thing.

Jinx blows out the smoking barrel and sets the gun back on her hip. She looks at Ekko. “The garbage had to go.”

He shrugs. He’s not about to mourn the Chem-Barons. Chross and Margot’s guards look conflicted. Their bosses are dead, but tangling with Jinx, even for revenge, is…

“Ekko and I are gonna put the Undercity back together,” Jinx tells Sevika. She looks every inch the Zaunite daughter Vander and Silco raised her to be. Sevika thinks she might actually be proud of the young woman. “You just gonna sit there, or are you gonna get off your ass?”

Sevika whistles once, sharp and loud. Silco’s old bodyguards stand immediately. The Chem-Barons’ employees slowly do the same. Scar moves to stand beside Ekko, and Gert is nearly beaming. 

Jinx walks out at the head, the undisputed leader of Zaun, and everyone else falls in line.

The meeting in Piltover’s Council Chamber is comprised of everyone who still matters in the coming fight. 

Jinx walks in with Sevika at one shoulder and Ekko at the other, and behind them are a few other prominent Zaunites. Heimerdinger hovers between the groups along with Jayce. His role is to be a peacemaker, as he was in the other universe. 

Caitlyn is on the other side of the chamber table with Mel, Shoola, and several other representatives of Piltover. 

Vi stands near the Enforcer, but she keeps shifting her weight. She’s been wide-eyed since she caught sight of her sister’s altered appearance. The haircut, the paint on her skin and Ekko’s—she’s a child of the Undercity too and she knows the significance.

Caitlyn and Jinx have not broken eye contact since the Zaunites stepped into the room. The moment she arrived, it was understood without words that she was in charge. Zaun’s answer to Piltover’s Commander. 

No one is comfortable. 

Jayce and Heimerdinger take the stage, telling all of them the plan. Between them and Ekko, they’ve got a solid strategy, even against such daunting odds. 

Not once do Caitlyn and Jinx look at anyone but each other. 

When the explanation is finished, everyone turns anxiously to the de facto leaders of both cities. No one says anything. 

Jinx is the one who breaks the silence and she goes straight for the throat.

“Your Enforcers murdered my mom and dad. You left the Undercity to rot because it was convenient for you. You threw my sister into Stillwater for eight years without even a trial,” her eyes flash to Vi, and Caitlyn’s jaw clenches. 

“You kicked out one of your Alchemists, dusted whatever crime he committed into Zaun, and he turned up in the Lanes and made Shimmer. He turned my dad’s corpse into a blood-crazed monster.”

Jinx’s nostrils flare as she breathes deep. “I shot back. I blew up this room. I killed three people.”

Caitlyn’s fingers twitch like she wants a gun in her hands. Mel and Shoola glare. Jayce looks badly like he wants to say something.

“You responded by poisoning the air of everyone in Zaun with the Grey. You sent your Noxian war pigs into the Lanes. Half of the Undercity was thrown into Stillwater for justice. You killed dozens of them. You put my daughter in a cell. You brought the Noxians and your old Alchemist to Viktor’s sanctuary and twisted my dad into an even worse monster. My daughter’s hand is gone because you helped them.”

Caitlyn does not flinch. Vi nervously glances between her sister and her lover. That high collar the Enforcer wears barely hides the bruises Jinx left when she tried to strangle her.

“You shot at her. You would have happily killed her if it meant you got me. I doubt you’d have lost a wink of sleep over the death of another Trencher. Even a child.”

“No different than when you murdered my mother,” Caitlyn finally spits. Jinx glowers. There are no apologies or denials. The hate between them is a slow, thick poison. It’s generations of bad blood.

Jinx breaks eye contact to look over her shoulder at Ekko. He says nothing, but he’s steady. A rock. An anchor.

Sometimes taking a leap forward means leaving a few things behind.

She bites her bottom lip so hard she tastes iron. Jinx looks back at Caitlyn.

“Truce.”

She barely forces the word out. Caitlyn’s jaw drops. Vi is staring at her like she’s grown a second head. 

“No more,” Jinx has to drag it from her lungs, and it sounds ragged. “I don’t want my daughter to grow up with—with this.”

She gestures to the space between her and Caitlyn. “We’ve lost too many people we love. No more. Just–no more.”

Jinx sags and leans on the table. Ekko’s hand squeezes her shoulder, tight, and she has to focus on that to keep herself from taking it all back. She feels nauseous. Like she’s just betrayed everything she’s ever stood for.

Ekko takes the reins while she recovers from what she’s done. “We’ll help you fight the Noxians and Viktor. Assuming we’re all still alive when it’s over, Jinx, Sevika, Vi, and myself will take the lead in rebuilding the Undercity. Heimerdinger wants to mediate between Zaun and Piltover. We get through this fight as allies, we bury the hatchet, and start to rebuild the bridges we’ve burnt.”

“Nothing good will come out of fighting anymore,” Heimerdinger waddles until he’s smack-dab in the middle between both sides. “I was here when Piltover was first built two-hundred years ago, and I saw the Lanes born, as well. But I became so indifferent to the world that I allowed the wound between Piltover and Zaun to fester until it birthed a terrible poison. We should never have become so divided, and the blame for that is squarely on my shoulders.

“But I know there is hope. I have seen it with my own eyes, and I mean to commit all the knowledge and resources at my disposal to heal this feud. We can build a future where the children of Piltover and Zaun both will thrive without bloodshed! Where our sister cities are no longer in conflict, but in unity!”

Jinx lifts her eyes from the table to Vi. Her sister looks like she’s forgotten how to breathe. 

Heimerdinger looks at Jinx first, with maybe the kindest and proudest expression she’s ever had directed at her, and then he turns to Caitlyn. 

“If you don’t take this chance now to make peace, things will never get better. It is not a fair thing to ask either of you. Generations of strife weigh on your shoulders, along with your own. But I beg you, with all my heart and soul, please let this go. For the future. For yourselves. Both of you, and all of us, need to heal.”

Caitlyn stares at him for a long moment, then at Jayce. He nods. Her eyes track to Mel and Shoola. The Councilers are still at first, then incline their heads one after another. 

The Enforcer’s gaze returns to Jinx. Her mouth parts. She falters. Jinx knows exactly how it feels to try and get those words out. It’s awful. Like scraping an infected wound raw.

But she does it.

“I accept Jinx’s proposal for peace.”

Chapter Text

Act II, Part III: This is Victory

She’s kind of pissed.

Jinx and Ekko march after Jayce to the Kiramman residence. She’s scowling, but for once it’s not the Enforcer she’s mad at. 

Ok, she is mad at the Enforcer, but Caitlyn’s not the main object of her ire. 

A butler (of course Vi’s rich-ass booty call has a butler) answers the door and hesitantly asks for Caitlyn once Jayce explains why they’ve come. 

“I need the Atlas Gauntlets,” he tells her. “They haven’t had any maintenance in months and they need to get checked out before the Noxians show up.”

What spies Sevika still has in the fissures have reported that the Noxians and Viktor have not left the camp. They seem to be preparing something, but it means they have time before the fight arrives on their doorstep. How much remains to be seen.

“I can retrieve them,” Caitlyn agrees slowly. She glances at Ekko and shifts uncomfortably before she turns her eyes on Jinx. Her gaze narrows. Just because they have to be civil now doesn’t mean they have to like each other. At all. “And what did you need?”

“I need to talk to my sister.”

“It can’t wait?”

“What, do you have her tied up to your fancy bedpost or something? Vi!” Jinx shouts while Caitlyn splutters, red-faced, and Jayce coughs. 

Ekko hides a snort. He’s here to keep things from getting out of hand, but it’s always funny to see the Pilties get flustered.

“Jinx?” Vi shows up behind Caitlyn and the Enforcer rolls her eyes, but opens the door enough for them to see each other. Vi frowns. “What’s going on?”

“Pretty boy needs to give your bitch-mittens a tune-up,” she jerks her thumb at Jayce. 

“...Ok?”

“And you,” her finger stops an inch from Vi’s nose. “What are you doing here?”

“I actually invited her,” Caitlyn snaps, crossing her arms.

“She’s supposed to be in the hospital,” Jinx retorts. “She just had a–”

She falters when she sees a glass bottle that Vi’s half-hidden behind herself. 

“What. Is that.”

“What? Oh, this—it’s not liquor.”

“Then you won’t mind showing me.”

Vi rolls her eyes, but holds the fancy bottle out. “It’s–what’d you call it, Cait?”

“Sparkling water.”

“Yeah, that. It’s all bubbly! It feels so weird, like–”

Vi twists her wrist a bit and the bottle slips out of her fingers. Glass and liquid shatter on the stone in front of the door.

“Oh, goodness,” the Kiramman butler exclaims. “One moment, I’ll go get something for that.”

Jinx barely hears him. Her eyes are fixed on Vi’s shaking fingers. She hears Ekko breathe in a little more sharply behind her. He’s caught it, too. Jayce and Caitlyn only look confused.

“Are you ok?” Jayce asks.

Vi’s hand clenches into a fist to hide the tremors, but the damage is done. She avoids her sister’s eyes. “I’m fine.”

“Go back to the hospital,” Jinx says. She hopes her voice doesn’t shake. “Now.”

“I’ll just…grab my jacket. And the gauntlets,” Vi quietly ducks back inside. Caitlyn looks at Jinx, frowning, then turns to go after her. 

“Jayce?” Ekko gets the inventor’s attention. “Do you mind if we use one of your workshops to get some gear made?”

Jayce considers that and nods. “That’s ok. Just no explosives, please. Only my personal labs are designed with that kind of fortification.”

“Won’t be a problem. Thanks,” Ekko replies, then tugs Jinx away. She lets him.

Jinx is thankful for the seclusion of the workshop. It’s not her hideout, but there are enough tools and quality materials for her to work on whatever project she needs them for. 

Right now it’s a helmet for Vi. 

Ekko is with her, working on his hoverboard one table over. The silence is only filled by the sounds of tools and metal being shifted. 

“How long has she been like that?” Ekko eventually asks. He sounds crushed, the same way she feels.

“I don’t know. She already had the shakes when I found her in the pits. She was getting her ass kicked and drinking herself into an early grave for like, six months,” Jinx lines up a screwdriver and slips her mark. She swallows hard.

“Actually she couldn’t remember dad’s name.” 

Ekko freezes. Jinx misses with the screwdriver again. Blinks a couple times. “And you know my sister, always picking fights. She probably spent her eight years at Stillwater going after every inmate and guard who looked at her funny. Vander told her over and over not to block with her face. She never listened.”

Her nostrils flare as she misses her mark again. She just—can’t seem to line the damn thing up. “And she had that bottle –sparkly, whatever–like it doesn’t matter that she’s a fucking alcoholic and–”

Jinx misses a fourth time and slams the screwdriver against the table. Her hands cover her face and drive into her hair. She’s breathing too hard. Her eyes are wet. 

She doesn’t know when Ekko gets up, but she feels his hand hesitantly rest on her shoulder and Jinx is too stressed out to even stiffen up at the touch. She takes a ragged breath and shakes her head. 

“She’s gonna die. Or she’s gonna take a hit she can’t walk away from.”

“We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Jinx chokes. “I haven’t even made a prosthetic for Isha because the doctor said her arm has to finish healing first. She hasn’t woken up. And Vi–she’s gonna be in the middle of the fight like she always is, and if she takes a bad hit–”

“Jinx, you gotta slow down.”

She takes a shuddering breath because she doesn’t know what else to do. The Scribbles are a background hum, their scratchy presence rising as she freaks out more. The steady grip on her shoulder is an anchor.

“Look I won’t lie, this is gonna be a rough fight, but we have a plan. Vi’s gonna have cover fire everywhere she goes. Once Jayce and I deal with Viktor, it’s done. The Noxians aren’t enough on their own to take us out, even with the Alchemist.”

Jinx nods. Still breathing. Still wiping the tears from her eyes. 

“And besides, you can do this. Your whole thing is making the world stop in its tracks.”

“Says the boy who shattered time.”

He snorts. 

Jinx feels a bit steadier now, but she stands up out of her seat to breathe more easily. She twists and leans back against the workshop table. Ekko stays put, watching to make sure she’s doing better.

“Mind answering a question?” She needs to distract herself.

He ponders that and shrugs. “Sure, if you answer one from me.”

Jinx is fine with that. “What was she like? That other version of me you met.”

“Different. Way different.”

“In what way?”

“Just… different. She helped run The Last Drop. She was smart like you. Helped invent things to clean up the air and the water. But she was scared of change, I think. Vander and Silco kept telling her she was too smart to work at the bar all her life. She was scared to move on, but she was stronger than she thought she was.”

Ekko’s lips rise up into a smirk. “She wore dresses.”

“Bullshit.”

“Nope. She even danced. Like, actual dancing.”

“What we did when we were kids was actual dancing.”

“It wasn’t fancy dancing.”

“So she was a goodie two-shoes who dressed like a pretty girl,” Jinx frowns. “What about…what about the Scribbles? How did she handle that and live so…well?”

“Heimerdinger figured out how to make a medicine to treat the psychosis. She did therapy too, I think. As long as she kept up with that, I don’t think she had to deal with them.”

“At all?”

Ekko shakes his head. Jinx is stunned. “I gotta ask that little furball if he can do that here. Isha would never have to go to the bunker again.”

“Bunker?”

Jinx bites her lip, grabs a piece of scrap from behind her to fiddle with. “When I feel them coming–like, when I know I can’t avoid it, there’s–there’s this vent that leads to a bunker in my hideout. Armored and everything, even from my bombs. I always send Isha there so she’s safe. From me.”

He stares at her. Jinx glances away from him. “I’m not stupid, Ekko. I know how badly I could hurt her. I can’t trust myself when it gets out of control.”

“I just…didn’t know you did that.”

“She’s my little girl. I’d do anything for her.”

“...How bad is it? I…kinda remember a few of your attacks when we were kids, but Vander always took you to the back and stayed with you until it was done.”

She’s getting too deep. She shouldn’t keep talking about it. 

“Depends. Sometimes it builds up after a while. That’s gotten worse over the years. There’s this…background noise, always. Scratching. All the time. Mostly I can ignore it, but if I’m surprised or–or I see things that remind me of bad stuff, I snap. I hear dead people talking. I see things that aren’t really there.”

“That sounds exhausting.”

“Yeah. It is.”

She crosses her arms for a moment and looks up from the floor to him. “You loved her, didn’t you? That other version of me.”

Ekko’s face drops. He averts his eyes. “Always a dance with you. Never know what you’re gonna say next.”

“Just the way you talk about her, is all.”

“I only knew her for a few weeks.”

“So?”

Ekko sighs. “It’s…I didn’t love her. She was you, but she wasn’t you. She had this…whole other life I didn’t know anything about, y’know? She was cool. I think it was more like I saw the good in you again. It…kind of made me want to believe in that. That even after everything… maybe.”

 Jinx isn’t sure what to say for a few moments. “I can’t undo it. Everything.”

“I can’t either. I would have if I could,” he glances to his work table, where the Z-Drive sits. “Four seconds isn’t enough time.”

“I guess not,” she takes a breath. She wants to move on. “Ok. Um–your question now.”

Ekko thinks, perhaps trying to recall what he’d wanted to ask, but he’s got his mind back on track as fast as ever. “Why’d you steal my wallet when we were kids? I don’t even remember losing it.”

Oh, great.

“I gave it back.”

“Well obviously, but why’d you take it in the first place? When?”

“It was when you fixed up that bike. Remember? We took it on a joyride and flipped off all the Enforcers.”

His mouth quirks up at the memory. That had been a fun day. Benzo had been super pissed at them afterwards. 

“I’m still not hearing a ‘why’.”

Jinx half-glares at him. It’s his fault for using his stupid time-shattering tech to copy what she was saying back in the hideout. He’d have never known otherwise. 

But she’s already dug her grave, so it’s time to lie in it.

“I wrote a note saying I had a crush on you. I was gonna stick it in your wallet, but I chickened out and gave it back before you noticed.”

Ekko purses his lips and a little snort escapes him. She scowls and shoves his shoulder. “Don’t laugh at me! I was honest and all that crap!”

“Sorry. Just…I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Yeah. Ha-ha. Little Pow-pow had a crush. Vi gave me so much shit for it.”

“You told Vi? Why would you do that to yourself?”

“I was like, eleven! I didn’t know what to do! I didn’t think she’d use it to mess with me so much!”

“She did the same thing with me. I just never told her who I was crushing on.”

“We all knew,” Jinx’s mouth quirks up in the corner, but falls just as quickly. “Wish I’d said something. I wouldn’t trade Isha for the world, but...you know what I mean.”

Ekko rubs the back of his neck. “I’m proud of you, y’know. For choosing to move on.”

“Well…thanks for coming to find me at the hideout. Even after everything,” she falters, meets his eyes. 

Then a thought strikes her. “The Z-Drive.”

“What about it?”

“...How much did you have to use it to convince Caitlyn not to arrest me?”

There’s a ghost of a smile on his mouth and she knows she’s right, but just as quickly it turns into a grimace. “As much as I needed to.”

“The limit’s–what, a few seconds, you said? You were talking to her for like, twenty minutes,” Jinx tries to run the math and she does not like the answer she arrives at. “Ekko–”

“I know. Just…I didn’t want you to be alone. You needed Isha as much as she needed you. No matter what the Pilties wanted.”

He glances over at the device where it sits by his hoverboard. His expression is disturbed. “I won’t lie. I used the Z-Drive a lot on Caitlyn. If I rewound time enough and tried every option, eventually I’d get the outcome I wanted. So I did.

“Did I say the wrong thing? Try again. She didn’t react the way I wanted? Try again. She said no? Try again. As long as I had her trapped in the loop, eventually she would say yes.”

Ekko shudders. “That thing shouldn’t exist. It scares the fuck out of me. It’s so easy to just try again and again until you get exactly what you want. Carry it around everywhere you go and you can manipulate people however you want if you’re smart enough.”

“How much did you…?”

“I only used it enough to convince you that the loop was real. Four times,” he says. “I didn’t want…not like that. I didn’t want to manipulate you. I wasn’t sure you could change, but I wanted to believe you could.”

“I remember,” she answers quietly. “You Painted me.”

His colors are still all over her skin, the same way her marks cover him. Jinx shifts her weight against the table. “What changed your mind? About me?”

“I…I met Silco in the other universe, too. He and Vander were brothers again,” Ekko shakes his head and Jinx badly hopes he will tell her more about that, because she wants to hear it. 

“He said that the greatest thing he’d done in his life was find the power to forgive. And maybe it’s not exactly the same, but you looked Caitlyn and the Pilties in the eyes and asked for peace. So Isha could be happy. That was…” 

He trails off. He hasn’t looked away from her. She feels a little breathless. Sort of like she’s high.

“You’re staring.”

“So are you.”

“Don’t confuse me for someone else, Ekko.”

“I never could.”

He doesn’t step away, even when she slowly pushes off from the table behind her. There’s not a lot of space left between them. 

“This is a bad idea,” she tells him. Her blood is thudding in her veins. 

“A super bad idea.” But he doesn’t move.

And she loves bad ideas.

Ekko breathes deep when she catches his mouth. It’s just a brush at first. A beat passes and she kisses him again, harder. She’s got his face between her hands and he’s wrapped an arm around her waist, lifts her onto the table with a clatter of steel and tools–

He flinches, just for a moment, and she stops. They’re both shaking a little. 

But the moment’s over. Ekko backs off and Jinx half-stumbles as she stands from the table. “I should–um, keep working. On the. Thing.”

“Helmet. For Vi.”

“Yeah. That.”

Ekko nods, takes a breath, and walks back to his table. Jinx swallows and only glances after him once. 

It’s not the time. There’s war with Noxus and Viktor. She has to sort out keeping Vi alive. Isha needs a new arm. They have a metric fuck ton of baggage. She can’t be distracted by Ekko. Not right now. 

She exhales and shifts back into her seat.

Vi stops by to see Isha after she gets checked out again. Caitlyn has tagged along, but Vi asks her to wait outside. She won’t be long. 

Jinx is at her daughter’s bedside again. On the other side of the room, Ekko’s second, Scar, is feeding his own child. The Vastayan has agreed to watch over Isha along with his daughter whenever the girl’s immediate family needs to be elsewhere. If Ekko trusts him, that’s good enough for Jinx, and thus good enough for Vi. 

Her sister is writing on a piece of paper when she walks in. Jinx looks over her shoulder to see who it is. She accepts Vi’s presence without question, but her gaze falls to the closing door and she must catch sight of Cait, because her eyes start to smolder. 

“She’s not coming in. I told her to wait,” Vi reassures her.

Jinx’s jaw clenches, but she nods stiffly before looking away. Peace is in the works, but Vi’s sister has made it clear she does not trust Caitlyn to be anywhere near Isha. 

Vi looks at Isha, but the girl is still asleep. She hasn’t regained consciousness since her arm was lost two days ago, but she’s remained steady. Improving bit by bit.

“Anything?”

“Not yet. But she’s not in any pain,” Jinx mumbles. “Doc says so, anyway.”

But she hasn’t woken up, and that’s a problem. Vi bites her lip. “They can’t evacuate her, can they?”

“No.”

Isha might be on the mend, but her condition is too sensitive for her to leave the hospital. Scar will be present to defend her and his own child, along with a handful of Silco’s old personal guard when the fight reaches them. 

They’ll have to end the battle before it reaches this part of the city. 

“What’d your doc say?” Jinx asks.

“I’m good. Patched-up enough to fight.”

She jerks her thumb over her shoulder. “That’s yours.”

Vi follows the gesture to a small table in the corner and blinks. There’s an armored helm sitting there, decked out in blue and pink with VI on the side. 

“I don’t need that.”

“I can put a cone around your head or you can wear the helmet.”

“You don’t have a cone.”

Jinx stops what she’s doing and looks at her. She nudges something half-hidden beneath her chair with her foot. Vi feels a sense of dread. 

“You actually have a cone?”

“You bet your ass. And it comes with a free paint bomb. Take the helmet.”

Vi takes the helmet.

“Thanks,” she says. Jinx nods and looks back to the paper. Out of curiosity, Vi walks up to see what she’s working on. 

It’s a diagram. At least, she thinks it is.

“That’s gonna be Isha’s prosthetic?”

“Heimerdinger drew it up. I wasn’t sure, but that little furball is a lot smarter than I gave him credit for,” she admits. “I might add a thing or two, but he did a pretty good job.”

Vi has barely any idea what she’s looking at, but if Jinx approves, then the Yordle has outdone himself. Her sister isn’t easy to impress when it comes to mechanics.

Vi slips around Jinx, leans over, and places a kiss on Isha’s forehead. She smooths some of the blue hair away. The girl does not respond, but she’s still breathing. 

“I’ll see you soon, trouble,” she murmurs. Then Vi places a hand on Jinx’s shoulder and slips out of the room.

Cait is still waiting, speaking quietly with Loris. He’s the only Enforcer Jinx will let anywhere near Isha because A: Vi trusts him. B: He’s smart enough to stay outside of the room. C: He’s outnumbered by Silco’s old guards now working for Jinx.

When she steps out, Cait blinks at the helmet tucked under Vi’s arm. “What’s that?”

“Jinx gave it to me. Something to keep my head attached,” she shrugs. Truthfully, she’s grateful. The doc told her she’d need to be tested to figure out how much damage she’d accumulated in her brain, but that would have to wait until after the war. The helmet would, hopefully, keep any further damage to a minimum. 

Caitlyn only nods before Vi leads her away. “How was she?”

“She’s hanging in there. Isha’s a tough kid. She’ll pull through.”

“Good. That’s…good.”

There’s a short silence. 

“Vi, I could still post a few Enforcers–”

“No.”

Cait purses her lips. “It’s not meant to be threatening.”

“I know. Just…she’s my niece. I need to know she’s safe, and that’s easiest if she’s surrounded by my people.”

“She would be safe.”

Vi stops and turns. “I want to believe you. I do. But I can’t. Not with Isha, and you know exactly why.”

Caitlyn has the decency to look ashamed. And really, she should be. Vi is not absolving Jinx of her wrongdoings, but Caitlyn is not innocent either. 

Even if she hadn’t known about Isha’s relation to Vi and Jinx, she’d still pulled that trigger and nearly killed her. Three times. At least Jayce had only killed a child by accident. 

Cait could have waited two seconds for Vi to peel the kid off of Jinx so she could get her shot, but she’d been angry, impatient, and she had not cared who was hurt so long as she got her vengeance. And Vi gets it; grief does crazy shit to people. Makes them not themselves.

But it’s no excuse.

“I’m trying my best,” Caitlyn says at last.

“I know you are. And I’m grateful for that. Just…not this way. Or maybe just not yet. It’s too soon. Ok?”

She touches Caitlyn’s elbow and leads her away again. Vi’s staying in the hospital, but she does need to eat. And really, she doesn’t want Cait and Jinx in the same part of the building for longer than is necessary.

She loves them both, but they become volatile chemicals around each other just waiting to explode. They’re more alike than they know, though Vi’s not stupid enough to tell them that.

It’s a bloody war. Enforcers and Zaunites alike fight together against Ambessa’s army and Viktor’s Hextech marionettes. Sevika leads a brutal ambush on the Noxians from the bridge and single-handedly kills Ambessa’s second, Rictus. 

Ekko is with Jinx and Vi at the forefront of the battle. Heimerdinger has a hoverboard rigged up sort of like an airboat that he can sit on, zipping around with the Firelights and wreaking havoc on their enemies wherever he goes. Jayce confronts Viktor at the Hexgate. 

Mel and Caitlyn meet Ambessa. Daughter challenges mother for command of their family’s army. It keeps the General away from the rest of them, at least. 

Jinx mows down swathes of Noxians with her minigun and Fishbones. Vi turns flesh, bone, and armor into paste with the Atlas Gauntlets, which Jayce has reconfigured into true weapons. The knuckles have steel spikes and the fingertips are sharpened into claws. 

Ekko and Heimerdinger are flying support to guard the Hexgate tower from the invaders when trouble arrives. They regroup with Jinx and Vi a few floors up, looking down on the carnage.

The marionettes swarm through the city, but the Noxians largely pull back as a hulking shape stalks through the crowd towards the tower. 

“Vander,” Vi gasps. Ekko stares at the beast with wide eyes.

There’s no trace of the man he remembers. He’s Warwick in full, more monstrous than he ever was. Maybe because he’d practically swallowed the Hextech explosion at Viktor’s sanctuary in an attempt to save Isha, his previously-obliterated skull has regenerated into an unfamiliar shape. 

The human-like face has been replaced with a slavering wolf’s snout. There’s a bushy tail and thicker fangs. Whatever the Alchemist did to him has done the job, but Viktor seems to be in control of the beast judging by the glowing silver marks on his head. 

He’s staring right at them. Jinx takes a shaky breath beside Ekko and calls out. “Dad?”

There’s no response. Warwick starts to approach, falling to all fours. Chemtanks on his back start to pump Shimmer into him and the beast snarls. Ekko feels his skin crawl. 

He grabs Jinx and pulls her onto the hoverboard. “Ok, we gotta go.”

Vi jumps onto Heimerdinger’s rigged hovercraft and they fly towards the top of the tower. Warwick howls and Ekko glances back, only to swear when the beast starts to run up the vertical wall. 

He’s faster than they are.

Warwick chases them all around the tower, slashing and snapping in an attempt to catch the group. Ekko isn’t sure if Viktor means for the beast to kill them or not, but he’s not about to chance it. 

The beast slashes and nearly catches him and Jinx, throwing off the hoverboard’s rhythm. Vi leaps from Heimerdinger’s hovercraft and with a surge of energy from the gauntlets, comes down to drive her fist into Warwick’s face. 

She splits his skull in half and the beast falls five stories before he catches the side of the tower and starts to chase again. He doesn’t stop, bones snapping, regenerating as he comes back up, and it’s the most horrifying thing Ekko has ever seen. 

Heimerdinger catches Vi and they’re ascending again. Ekko regains his balance on the board, twisting so Jinx can get a shot. Her minigun rains hell on the beast, but even as they riddle him with holes, he just keeps coming. Heimerdinger’s energy cannons don’t even phase him for more than an instant.

Vi goes in for another punch and Warwick swats her aside into open air. Ekko pulls on the Z-Drive. Two seconds. 

He snatches a Chomper from Jinx’s hip and manages to hurl it onto Warwick’s mechanical arm. The blast keeps him and Vi separate, launching the beast into the tower’s huge clock and shattering the hands. Heimerdinger catches Vi again. 

Ekko grabs one of the broken clock hands as they zip past Warwick with Jinx’s minigun going at full-throttle. Having the makeshift weapon in his hand helps keep his head cool.

Warwick hurls himself at them with a snarl and shreds through the minigun with his claws. Jinx yanks Ekko back and he watches in horror as the steel meant for him drives through her heart. 

The Z-Drive is what saves her. He twists on his board and deflects the claws so Warwick misses. Jinx’s blood is spattered on his face, but she’s not hurt anymore. Ekko lets out a shaking breath. 

Warwick keeps coming. For every time they repel him, he continues his pursuit with speed that would break most creatures. The Chemtanks on his back continue to pump Shimmer through his veins. Even glancing blows are deadly. Vi’s arm gets clipped by Warwick’s huge elbow and she yells, but keeps fighting.

Ekko loses track of how many times he uses the Z-Drive as they ascend the tower. Warwick never seems to miss a step, his fury controlled enough by Viktor’s calculations that he always recovers as quickly as possible. It’s exhausting. He can reset even death if he’s fast enough, but the damage he takes and the physical strain lingers on his body. 

Heimerdinger gives his hovercraft a boost and loops down, then upwards. Vi is propelled by the force and her gauntlets, but Warwick blocks her attack this time and barely loses any ground. 

Ekko sweeps after them and jams his clock-sword into the Chemtank mechanism. Warwick swipes, but doing so forces him to give up on catching Vi, who uses the gauntlets to launch herself back onto Heimerdinger’s craft. 

Jinx shoves a Chomper into the Chemtank and as they fly off, her minigun reconfigures into Fishbones. Warwick crouches on the wall to give chase. The Chomper attached to his back detonates and he loses a step, and then a grinning rocket meets his snarling face. 

The explosion nearly throws Ekko and Heimerdinger’s hovercrafts away from the tower and into open air, where climbing potential for the tech is limited. As it is, they manage to use the shockwave to pick up the pace and accelerate towards the top. 

Warwick bellows beneath them, still alive, undoubtedly healing. Chasing, even now. 

They reach the top of the Hexgate tower.

It’s a trap. 

Heimerdinger and Vi are immediately caught by Hextech marionettes. Ekko has to go back in time twice to figure out how to keep himself and Jinx out of their grasp, but his warning never reaches Heimerdinger and Vi fast enough for it to matter. If he goes back any farther, they’ll get shredded by the temporal flux.

They have to finish this without them. 

Jinx shouts after Vi, but Ekko drives the board onwards towards Viktor and Jayce. Warwick gets to the top and blazes after them. 

He glimpses Heimerdinger and Vi struggling before they are fully engulfed by Viktor’s power, but they’re largely unharmed by the marionettes. Warwick keeps pursuing him and Jinx with all his fury, and it finally dawns on Ekko what’s going on.

Viktor must sense the Z-Drive. He does not understand how Ekko keeps escaping him, and he is willing to resort to greater lengths to keep the unfamiliar technology away until it is neutralized. 

Well, tough shit for him. Ekko’s no quitter.

The Z-Drive saves them over and over as Ekko evades Warwick and the marionettes. Jinx unleashes a rain of bullets upon Viktor, but the laser at his shoulder intercepts every single one with impossible precision. The Herald is largely distracted by his talk with Jayce, and that gives them an edge.  

Warwick leaps in a blur of supernatural speed. Ekko barely processes the attack before Jinx shoves him from the board. The fangs tear into her throat. 

He rewinds. She’s died for him twice now. Ekko does not mean to see it happen a third time. 

He grabs Jinx and forces her to duck as the wolf-man sails over them. Ekko sees a Chomper in her hand, and then she lunges in a blur of Shimmer-enhanced speed at Viktor. The bomb pulls his marionettes in to defend their master and they catch her a moment later.

But he sees an opportunity. Rewind.

Warwick flies over them again. The Chomper’s in her hand. “Up!” 

Ekko guns the board’s acceleration and Jinx leaps upwards with the momentum. The explosive is blocked by the marionettes, but the greater verticality gives her the chance to unleash Fishbones’ fury upon Viktor before she falls. 

The Herald defends himself with barely a twitch, but it’s the distraction Ekko desperately needs. 

He warps time again, blinking forward through the blast, and now he is too close for Viktor to escape. Ekko sets the Z-Drive into overcharge and slams it into him.

There’s a sound like thunder atop the Hexgate. The marionettes drop like puppets without strings. Jinx hits the ground with a yelp and watches as Ekko is hurled away from Viktor. But he’s done it. 

Viktor collapses and his influence wanes. Energy forms around the Herald and Jayce, surging wildly. There’s a flash, an intensity that seems to atomize the pair, and then they are gone.

The marionettes are down, but Warwick shakes his head, free of Viktor’s influence, and howls. The beast locks onto Ekko, now without his Z-Drive to give him another chance.

Jinx scrambles to her feet and flies between them, arms spread wide to bodily shield Ekko from the savage claws. 

And Warwick stops. 

The beast growls, ears twitching. There’s nothing human in his face, but there’s a flicker in his eyes with Viktor’s absence. He shifts back and forth on his feet, towering over Jinx. Snuffles and shakes his head. 

“No,” she tells him. Hoping. “Vander. Dad.”

He roars in her face, slashes a deep scar in the ground at her feet in a fit of rage. She has to fight the urge to flinch.

“You remember. I’m Powder.”

The flicker in his eyes comes back and the beast whines, angry and distraught all at once. He looks past her at Ekko, who is barely conscious after taking the brunt of the shockwave that struck Viktor down. Vi is slowly approaching and his ears twitch towards her. Warwick hesitates again, but he’s still nearly frothing at the mouth.

It’s not enough. Jinx can see it in the way he behaves. Even if he gets control of himself now, it won’t last. 

“Go.”

Warwick snarls. 

“Powder. Violet. Felicia. Silco.”

The beast roars again, scratching at himself. He chuffs. Glares at her. 

“Blisters and Bedrock.”

…and he backs off. Warwick steps away. Slowly at first, but then he twists and races down the tower like no natural creature could. Once he’s back on Piltover’s streets, he beelines straight towards the bridge for Zaun.

Jinx slumps to Ekko’s side as Vi and Heimerdinger hurry to reach them. She lifts a shaking hand to grasp his, just to make sure he’s alive, and he squeezes back. It’s over. At last, it’s over.

Jayce and Viktor are dead. Two of Piltover’s greatest innovators, the creators of Hextech. Gone forever. Ekko’s Z-Drive is a thing of the past. 

The Noxians have all bent to Mel’s authority in the wake of Ambessa’s death. Vi doesn’t trust them in the slightest, but they’re obedient enough to go back to their ships and behave while Mel helps Heimerdinger, Sevika, and Piltover’s council sort out the aftermath. 

They’d best stay there; her gauntlets are already smothered with the red of Noxian blood.

Vi’s helping to move rubble away almost as soon as she gets down from the Hexgate tower with Jinx, Ekko, and Heimerdinger. The battle’s over, but there’s a lot of dead and wounded they need to reach.  

Her arm is killing her, even with the gauntlets doing most of the work. She’s pretty sure Warwick fractured the bone of her upper right arm. It feels like a break, anyway. But she sucks it up and keeps helping. 

Even the Enforcers are shaken by the sheer amount of carnage, but Vi and the Zaunites are barely affected. Death is an old friend they see all too often. 

Or maybe she’s just shell-shocked after everything. She finds out that Caitlyn’s been rushed to the hospital to treat a serious injury to her eye and can only nod to acknowledge the information. Vi feels detached from the horror around her. The cries of wounded men and women, the sound of crackling fires still licking at buildings, and the wails of the grieving all pass through her. 

What breaks her from her stupor is a child’s heartbroken scream. 

All the breath leaves her lungs in a rush like she’s taken a physical blow. Vi’s gaze shifts towards the cry that cuts straight through memories she never wants to relive. 

Sevika is crouching by a body as another is carried away by two of her men. A Zaunite woman leans against the wall, eyes glassy. Vi doesn’t see what’s killed her, but she knows what death looks like. 

The child can’t be any older than Isha. Younger? Vi has no idea where she came from. Almost all of the kids were evacuated before the battle, save those stuck in the hospital. She must’ve snuck away or something. 

The girl is clinging to the lifeless shape of the woman–her mother, Vi suspects numbly–sobbing and begging even as Sevika lifts a hand to shut the sightless eyes for the last time. 

Vi doesn’t really think as the gauntlets fall from her hands. 

Sevika’s eyes lift to meet hers and they’re just as haunted as Vi’s. She does not cry. She just looks so, so tired.

Vi stumbles over and kneels by the child. She reaches around and gently takes the shaking hands in hers, pulling the girl away from the body. A rat’s nest of green hair spins towards her and the tear-drenched face is a mirror of her old ghosts.

She doesn’t know what to say. She doesn’t even know the kid. Why did she come here? Her lips part, but nothing comes out. 

The girl doesn’t try to fight her grasp. She collapses into Vi’s chest and cries. Her arms move without thinking to wrap around the child. 

Maybe after all that’s happened this past year (maybe her whole life), it’s the last little thing the world needs to finally break her. Vi can’t breathe. Her eyes burn and the strangled gasp that leaves her lungs feels like it was wrenched straight from her soul. 

She looks up through streams of tears she cannot control and Jinx is there, frozen. The same ghosts are in her eyes. It’s the bridge where they left mom and dad’s bodies behind. It’s the factory where Vander, Mylo, and Claggor were killed, where Powder died and Jinx was born. It’s her sister screaming as she starts a war. It’s Vander ripping Isha’s hand off. It’s too much. 

Vi has a single moment of horrified realization as she finally understands why Vander hung up his gloves. It’s something she never wanted to know. How he could give up the fight, despite everything. 

It’s the orphan in her arms, the shattered pieces of a life that will never be whole again. They were supposed to win. Everything was supposed to be better than this.

The girl’s sobs are an endless wave of crushing blows straight to her heart. If this is victory, she does not want it.

Chapter Text

Act III, Part I: Sunflower

It’s been eight months since the war ended. 

Jinx vaults across a roof and slides between two walls to the top of another building. She looks up, watches Isha copy her motions, and then keeps moving across the rooftops once she’s sure the girl is keeping up.

They’re taking a shorter route today than usual. Isha’s recovered well from her injury, but she’s still young and gets tired faster than she used to. Healing takes time, and it’s hit her stamina a bit.

But this is also the first day she’s trying to traverse the Lanes without using her prosthetic hand, which is currently in a “rest” state. The fingers are folded into the mechanism, leaving her with what’s essentially a wrist. 

It had been Sevika’s suggestion. If something ever happened and Isha lost the mechanical limb or it malfunctioned, it was a lifesaver to know how to move around the fissures without it. 

Granted, Isha actually has most of her arm intact, but losing the hand still messes with her sense of balance. She’s figured out the prosthetic for the most part. 

The day-to-day is getting better. But even though life in the trenches is improving, they’re fissure-folk to their cores, and some lessons must still be learned. 

Jinx twists as Isha lands on a rooftop behind her and winks, waving as she falls backwards into open air. She grabs a metal pole as she flips and slides twenty feet before pushing off to leap for another building. When she spins to look up, Isha is watching with an awestruck gleam in her eyes that makes her beam.

She’s showing off a bit, but she’s also like, the coolest mom ever. She has a reputation to keep up.

Jinx waits as Isha looks at the pole, but she’s hesitating. The move would normally be pretty straightforward, but she’s never done it with only one hand. It’s getting in her head. 

She’s already tracing a route to get back to her daughter if the girl gets cold feet. Jinx calls up. “Isha, go ahead and use the hand if you need to! It’s only the first day.”

Isha frowns (stubborn little sump rat) and shakes her head. She takes a few steps back, charges, and jumps for the pole.

She manages to get hold of it, but the metal of her folded prosthetic grinding against the pole as she slides messes with her and she goes down too slowly. When she gets to the jump, she doesn’t have the momentum she needs and that only screws with her head even more.

Isha tries to jump and winds up half-slipping. She yelps, scrambles, and clings to the pole, now stuck below the jump point.

A hand pries hers from its death grip and she looks up. Jinx is perched on the steel, smiling as she lifts her daughter onto her back. Isha holds tight like a baby sloth.

“We’ll practice sliding later, ok?” Jinx encourages. “You got the jump! You’ll get the rest.”

Isha nods, content to press her cheek into her mother’s shoulder. Jinx climbs back up and leaps for the roof with grace that speaks of a lifetime of experience. Then they’re off again.

When they show up at the Firelight Sanctuary treehouse, Isha catches sight of Heimerdinger tinkering with Ekko through the window and she lights up like fireworks. Jinx can’t help but laugh at the enthusiasm as her daughter rushes through the door to join them.

Isha adores that egg-headed fluff-muffin. The Yordle is always happy to teach and encourage a bright young mind, and the girl fits right in. Throw her mother into the mix and Ekko as a bonus? Isha would probably keep all of them at the junk heap for forever if she could get away with it. 

There’s no school in Zaun, though maybe that’ll change in time. A crazy thought for a place where the denizens only learn through trial and error, or by having a mentor. But Isha enjoys their little hangouts and she has picked up some useful tips and tricks from Heimerdinger when they’re tinkering. 

She’s also robbed him like a dozen times. 

Every time her daughter comes home from days with Heimerdinger, she’s pocketed some new knick-knack she did not have when they left. But Heimerdinger never says a word, and Jinx is starting to suspect the Yordle purposefully leaves interesting things for Isha to steal and figure out to encourage her creativity. 

If she’s not careful, she’s gonna start to actually like having that fluffball around. And he’s already around often enough as it is, helping her out.

“Hey there, boys,” Jinx greets them as she strides in after Isha, who is already trying to figure out what Heimerdinger’s working on. 

“Ah! Good morning, lassies!” 

She glances at Ekko–

“And…you didn’t sleep.”

He just shakes his head and Jinx can’t help but wince. Not even a snappy comeback? Yeesh. 

“What was it this time?” Jinx walks over to the desk he’s sitting at and leans over the spread of papers and diagrams. 

“Air filtration. Sevika’s gotten the old warehouses on the eastern bank torn down so we can rebuild them into greenhouses, but it won’t do any good if the plants get smogged up.”

“...Didn’t you already figure this out?”

“For the denser air in the Lanes, yeah. Not for the thinner smog layer at the surface. I can’t figure out what I’m getting wrong.”

He’s frustrated. And tired. Jinx gives the numbers a quick scan and…

Yep, there it is.

She grabs the pencil, draws a line leading from a point in Ekko’s equation to the side of the paper, and runs the math herself. “Done.”

Ekko furrows his brow and scans what she’s done. He looks at his own work and Jinx has to resist the urge to snicker when he slaps his face because the poor guy truly has been working himself to the bone. 

“Y’know, screwing up numbers like that is believable for randoms who barely know how to multiply single-digits, but in your case it means you need this little thing called sleep.”

“Thanks,” he groans. She can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic or genuinely grateful. 

“Go take a nap.”

“I can’t. I’ve got–”

“–that boring meeting topside this afternoon, yes, we do!” Jinx interrupts. “So maybe you should get some actual sleep before you show up looking like you’ve got one foot in the grave.”

Ekko stares. “That’s today?”

Jinx looks at Heimerdinger. “Please tell me you’ve got some fancy tea or something to knock him out. I don’t wanna add to the bruises under his eyes.”

“Lavender and chamomile coming right up!” Heimerdinger races to the burner and kettle he’s set up in Ekko’s…home? Lab? Workshop? It’s kind of a conglomerate of everything. Sort of like her hideout.

“I don’t like how it tastes,” Ekko complains. 

“Oh, no need for that! I’ll drink the tea. I predict that in your current state, just the scent of lavender will be enough to make you lose consciousness in about twenty minutes!”

“There’s too much to do! I have stuff that has to get–”

Jinx rolls her eyes. Stubborn, self-sacrificing dumbass.

“I guess I have to be the mom friend,” she grumbles. Isha smirks and Jinx winks back. 

Ekko has all of two seconds before Jinx spins his chair and pushes it so he’s sitting in front of his bed. He squints over his shoulder. “Really?”

“You can sleep now or you can sleep this evening and hear me bitch at you tomorrow for missing our little get-together. Or you can hobble around like a brain-dead zombie. Pick one.”

The scent of Heimerdinger’s lavender and chamomile tea starts to waft through the air. Wow, he got the water boiling fast. 

Ekko’s eyes already look heavier. Stubbornly, he tries to cling to consciousness.

“If you pass out and fall onto the floor, I’ll leave you there. And we’ll paint your face.”

Wisely, he believes her. Ekko offers a half-hearted grumble and clambers into bed. He’s barely shoved his face into the pillow before he’s out like a light. 

Jinx shakes her head fondly. Isha is snickering a little, but she quickly returns to trying to figure out Heimerdinger’s latest contraption. 

“I am glad the two of you turned up,” the Yordle proclaims. “The poor lad’s mind was noticeably deteriorating with every passing minute, but he just wouldn’t get the rest his body requires!”

“He’s got ‘boy savior’ disease. I think it’s contagious,” Jinx shrugs. 

Heimerdinger hums and glances at the clock. Then the calendar. He blinks. “The meeting is not until tomorrow.” 

“Shh,” she holds a finger to her lips. Her eyebrows waggle. “Don’t tell.”

Heimerdinger guffaws, but he’s quiet. “I’ll let him rest enough that he can still sleep tonight without too much trouble. With a little luck, he’ll be plenty coherent on the actual day of the meeting. Did you already see Sevika and Violet this morning?”

“Sevika’s at the bar, but she’s spending most of the day with Shoola. Sorting out some trade deal,” she waves her hand dismissively. “Money and all that. I think she’s gonna talk about it when we all get together topside.”

“Ah yes, of course. And I’m assuming Violet is…”

Jinx purses her lips. “Still at the bar.”

Heimerdinger pours his cup of tea and comes over to take the seat Ekko vacated, which Jinx is casually spinning around with one hand. He hops in and pays the rotation no mind. 

“I don’t know how that’s going to go,” Jinx admits quietly. “Tomorrow.”

Vi has not been the same since the war ended. 

Jinx still remembers when her sister went to pull that kid–Zeri, they found out later–from her dead parents. It had been an echo of the bridge, when Vander took them in. That had been bad enough, but Vi had absolutely shattered.

It scared the fuck out of her. It had scared the fuck out of all of them. For a minute, Jinx thought that Vi had somehow gotten the Scribbles for how much she was freaking out. She and the kid had cried themselves into fits and Vi…

It got so bad that Sevika had to take Vi and the girl someplace quiet, while Ekko pulled Jinx back to the hospital to check on Isha. She hadn’t wanted to leave, but her sister’s panic attack had begun to trigger the Scribbles and Ekko had realized first that Jinx needed to get the fuck away from there.

By the end of the day, Vi had slipped off, alone, to Zaun. They’d taken Zeri to be cared for with the other Lost Kids at the Firelight Sanctuary. Vi had not been in any state to take in a child, let alone one who’d just lost everything. 

She hasn’t been topside since. Not for anything. Not to see the sky. Not to find the Atlas Gauntlets. Not even for Caitlyn. 

Her sister got a little better in the weeks that followed. She took to working on The Last Drop, getting it back up and running. Kept herself busy with the project.

She focused on making sure their little family was taken care of. And really, that was a much better priority than what Jinx had feared Vi would do, which was to drown herself in alcohol again. 

She made sure the bar was stocked. Made sure they could eat and sleep in safety. She helped Isha however she could as the girl got used to her new prosthetic and kept practicing sign. Made sure Jinx took the medicine Heimerdinger had arranged for her every night the way she was supposed to.

Except she has bad days, too. 

Sometimes Vi doesn’t emerge from her room for the whole day. She won’t eat. She curls up in bed and lies there, sometimes sleeping, but just as often she doesn’t have the energy to do anything. 

Those days, Isha and Jinx will check in on her and spend as much time with Vi as they can. Isha’s a constant companion for her aunt when Vi is just too drained to move.

The worst days are when she drinks. 

She’s not a full-blown alcoholic anymore. That’s something, at least. But sometimes Vi slips, takes a bottle when no one’s looking, and they’ll find her drunk in her room or slumped against the wall by the basement. Once, Jinx found her curled up on the floor behind the bar with a half-empty bottle next to her. 

Vi hasn’t slipped like that in about a month, but every time it happens, Jinx’s heart sinks a little more.  

“We could tell the Council she’s not feeling well,” Heimerdinger suggests.

“I can’t do that,” Jinx shakes her head. “Sevika’s already annoyed about it. Vi’s supposed to be working with the rest of us to get Zaun back together.”

“Everyone heals at a different pace,” he tells her. “And the mind is…a place where wounds can linger for a long time, indeed.”

“I just want her to–to do something,” Jinx digs her nails into the back of the chair. “Yell, cry, get mad, something. Anything.”

Anything is better than the hollow shell that remains of her sister. She goes through the motions, but she has no purpose. There’s an absence to her, even with her family. Vi has fractured and she has no idea what to do about it.

“You’re sure she doesn’t have the Scribbles, or–what’d you call it?”

“Borderline Personality Disorder,” Heimerdinger finishes. He stirs a tiny spoon in his tea. “She doesn’t. Your condition is inherently different from hers, though both have been exacerbated by trauma. No, Violet’s current state is, I suspect, a result of her becoming too overwhelmed to properly process everything that’s happened to her.”

“How do we fix it?” Jinx has asked this so many times, hoping that eventually she’ll get an answer she can work with. What’s happening with her sister isn’t something she can just repair by getting the right parts and slapping a mechanism together, and it’s driving her nuts. It’s not like Sevika’s arm, or Isha’s. It’s not like teaching her daughter how to sign.

“Be there for her. Support her as best you can. If possible, convince her to go through with a psychological analysis so we can work out how best to help. This is Violet’s fight, ultimately. She must be the one who gets through it.”

“What if she doesn’t?”

“She still has the strength to get out of bed. Maybe not every day, but she can still do it. That, lassie, is more hope than you think.”

The Last Drop is back in business. Jinx leads Isha inside amidst a (relatively) quiet hub as everyone in the Lanes starts to get moving for the day. 

Sevika is organizing the last of the work crew foremen before she heads topside to meet with Shoola. Most are shoveling food down their throats as they listen to her, and once they’ve got their assignments they eat as fast as possible before hurrying off to work. 

She catches Jinx’s eye as she and Isha step into the bar. Sevika mutters briefly to the last of the men before she stands to meet them. Jinx ushers Isha off so they can speak alone. 

“Well?”

“Ekko got the air filtration for the vents in the greenhouses sorted out. We’re good.”

Sevika lets out a breath. “Thank fuck. The sooner we get those up and running, the happier I’ll be. We won’t be half so dependent on trade with topside when winter comes around.”

Jinx hums and glances past Sevika. Vi’s behind the bar with a towel thrown over one shoulder. Chuck–Silco’s old barkeep–is still the one who works the drinks and makes the food, but Vi tries to do most of that stuff for Jinx and Isha on her own. She’s… ok at it. 

She hasn’t poisoned them, at least.

Sevika knows where she’s looking without following her gaze. Her voice drops. “She has to be there tomorrow. It’s the first time we’re all going back topside since the war. We have to be unified.”

“I know,” Jinx bites her lip. “I’ll…try again.”

“Look at me,” Sevika snaps her fingers and Jinx focuses. “I don’t care what you have to do at this point. Dye her clothes blue. Sneak a paint bomb beneath her pillow. Steal her favorite shirt, all her money, I don’t give a fuck. She can’t keep doing this.”

“I’ll handle it.”

“I’ll step in if I have to. If I have to smack her around to get her back in line–”

“I said I’ll handle it,” Jinx’s eyes turn flinty. Sevika backs off. 

“Good. I’ll see you later,” and then she is gone. Jinx huffs. 

She has to be an adult again, she gripes. This will not be fun.

She waits until the bar is mostly empty before she approaches Vi. Her sister is wiping down pots and pans and glasses. Keeping her hands busy. 

So she’s having a “good” day.

Jinx glances up at the rafters and is unsurprised to see Isha sitting there. For once, she hopes this isn’t about to get messy. She doesn’t want her kid to see them fighting again.

Jinx walks to the bar and sits at the counter. She glances at Chuck and jerks her head for him to bail. Wisely, he does not question her before he steps out for a smoke. 

Vi turns away from the dishes and blinks at her sister. Without a word, she pours a glass of juice and sets it in front of Jinx. She murmurs her thanks. 

Vi goes back to cleaning. 

“You’re coming to Piltover tomorrow.”

“I can’t. The bar–”

“Chuck’ll run the bar.”

“That’s not even his real name.”

“It’s his name when I’m talking to him,” Jinx answers. 

“We can’t leave Isha alone.”

“She’s staying with the Firelights. Scar’s got a few others helping him watch the kids at the Sanctuary.”

“She might not get along with the other kids.”

“Not if she never steps foot outside of here, she won’t. Duh.”

“I can’t go.”

Jinx tries to fight off the frustration. “What do I have to do for you to leave the Lanes?”

Vi hesitates and keeps doing what she’s doing. Jinx bites her lip. “Give me something to work with. Let me help you. Sis. What is it, Caitlyn?”

“It’s not Caitlyn.”

“So tell me.”

“I just…can’t be up there again. Thinking about it makes me sick.”

“You haven’t left the Lanes in months. We haven’t even started looking for Vander.”

“Vander’s gone.”

“I told you he listened to me! You think he just left Ekko alive because I batted my eyelashes and told him to go eat someone else?”

Vi doesn’t say anything to that. Jinx fights the urge to throw something. She wants to scream because Vi is not meant to be quiet and dull and… this. 

She’s fire and fury and a cocksure smirk, dubious intentions to the arch of her eyebrow and a filthy sailor’s mouth that makes the Pilties turn faint.

“Ekko got the ventilation system sorted out for the greenhouses,” Jinx tells her. “We’re gonna have ten of them. Ten! All those big-ass empty buildings on the east bank of the river, stuffed with enough plants and fruits and veggies to feed the whole damn undercity! Sevika’s already making deals with topside so we can take a fat cut from them whenever they buy our stuff. Heimerdinger almost has a cleaning project for the water figured out.”

She crosses her arms. “I blew through two gangs in the deeper trenches the other day. A few of the big shots down there–the guys Silco never allied with or pushed out–are trying to take some ground from us. They didn’t get any.”

Vi’s head turns slightly over her shoulder. “You’re ok, right?”

“I’m fine,” she murmurs. “But you aren’t doing anything.”

“I’m running the bar.”

Jinx lowers her head into her hands. She’s tempted–so, so tempted–to follow through on Sevika’s suggestion and hide a paint bomb in Vi’s room. But she suspects Vi’s reaction would be little more than a sigh before she got started cleaning it. 

Something to keep her busy, but also to keep her at home. Which is the opposite of where Jinx and the others need her to be.

“You don’t even have to fight. I’m not asking you to fight,” Jinx mutters. “I want you safe, too. But sis, you’re not helping yourself.”

Vi seems like she might say something to that, but ultimately she chooses not to. Jinx is finally too frustrated to keep trying without snapping, so she huffs and shoves away from the bar. She stops by the door before she steps out.

“I love you. Ok?”

Vi finally looks at her. She barely sounds like herself. “I love you, too.”

Jinx feels a lump rise in her throat and then she slips outside. She has to move. Do something. She’s not sure what. 

But she can’t be here and watch her sister rot.

Vi hasn’t been doing good.

Isha watches Mama walk out after their talk and looks down at her aunt, who is still behind the bar. Sevika’s talked about it a lot lately. Vi’s hurting, but she’s not getting better. 

Vi isn’t happy anymore. Isha’s eyes narrow as she thinks. There has to be something she can do. Mama always says to experiment whenever they’re tinkering, and eventually you’ll figure out whatever’s got you stuck. 

Hmm…

An idea! Isha is quick to scramble from the rafters back to the office, then back downstairs. Vi blinks and looks over as she runs down. 

First, she runs to the basement and grabs some bandages and tape. Then Isha hurries to the corner where the music box is and cranks the lever for their favorite song. The bar is pretty much empty now. Most everyone has left to go work.

Our Love begins to play. Isha looks over at Vi, who’s hesitating. She still has a glass in her hand. Isha gestures for her to come over.

Vi puts the glass down and slowly approaches. She crouches in front of her niece. 

Isha takes a bandage and tapes it to Vi’s heart. To make it better.

Vi sighs. “Isha…”

She makes signs she knows Vi has memorized. I love you. Lots and lots.

Her aunt sits on the floor and pulls Isha into her arms, who finally enacts the last part of her plan: Hugs. The biggest, tightest hugs she can give. 

The hugs that make Mama feel better. 

“I love you too, trouble,” Vi sounds like she might be crying. Isha hugs her tighter. Our Love plays. 

This has to work.

And it does.  

For a little while.

Vi’s a bit better after they hug, but the day goes by and she starts to get down again. Isha wonders if her sadness is like Mama’s Scribbles; maybe it comes back sometimes. Or maybe she just needs more hugs?

When Mama gets home later, Isha waves her and Ekko (who looks sort of grumpy) upstairs in a rush. Vi’s behind the bar, helping Chuck serve the usual patrons who start to show up in the evening.  

Isha closes the office door behind them and signs to Mama. Ekko’s able to read it too, but he needs a bit more practice actually doing it. He’s better than Vi, but not as good as Mama.

I gave her hugs and played our song, Isha signs. She was better. But she’s sad again.

Mama crouches and lifts a hand to her cheek. “That was sweet of you, trouble. Vi just…has some stuff to figure out. She’ll get better. Keep at it.”

More hugs?

“Lots more hugs,” she agrees. Isha smiles. She can do lots more hugs. She can do all the hugs.

And then there’s a thud downstairs. Isha jumps. Mama and Ekko freeze. 

Isha only knows one person who makes that sound.

Really, it was inevitable. The fact that her patience lasted for eight months is a miracle in and of itself. 

But Sevika is finally done with Vi and her bullshit.

Jinx throws the door open and gets halfway down the stairs by the time she sees Sevika bodily pinning Vi face-down against the counter with a hand twisted behind her back. Vi might be out of practice, but really the only way she could’ve gotten pinned so completely is if Sevika jumped her when her back was turned. 

Everyone in the bar is frozen. Sevika barks over her shoulder. “Get OUT!”

Nobody is stupid enough to disobey her. The bar swiftly empties. Jinx scowls and vaults over the stairs, though Ekko stays back to keep Isha away in case things get (more) out of hand. Sevika pays them no mind. Vi’s face is contorted in (understandable) anger.

“The fuck is your problem?!”

“You! You are my problem!” Sevika snarls. “You sit here and mope all damn day! It was fine right after the war, we were all fucked up, but this has gone on too long!”

“Let her go!” Jinx snaps. The only reason she doesn’t immediately jump into it is because Isha does not need to see that and big fights with Sevika (and herself, and Vi) get way out of hand.

She does not want to break the bar again.

“Not yet. I told you if she didn’t get her shit together that I was gonna get on her ass. We cannot have this right now! Too much is on the line!”

“You can’t just leave me alone?” Vi growls. She tries to wrestle her arm free, but it’s locked in Sevika’s mechanical hand. Her words somehow manage to piss off the older woman even more.

“YOU are Vander’s DAUGHTER! YOU are the face of Zaun along with your sister! You have responsibilities and I am tired of watching you sit behind this bar and fuck around all day!”

Vi’s teeth are grit into a snarl. Sevika leans down to hiss into her ear. “You cracked. I get it, it sucks, and I know it fucks you up because you can’t do a damn thing about it. You can’t punch your way out of it, you can’t run from it, you can’t do fuck all. 

“But you’re going to get off your ass anyway and you’re going to pull your weight from now on! I did not bury my boys so I could watch you and Vander live in your little fantasies and pretend the Lanes would just magically get better! Is that what you wanna do? You’re gonna sit here and do nothing? Don’t give a fuck about your sister or your niece?”

Rage flares in her eyes. “Leave them out of this!”

“Tough shit! They live in Zaun like the rest of us. Everything that happens down here affects them, and you’re going to sit here and do nothing good for them anyway!” Sevika accuses. Vi spits, slams her free fist on the counter as she tries to get loose and sock the older woman’s jaw. “Oh, are you finally pissed at me?!”

Sevika shoves her down and backs off. Vi’s standing ramrod straight and spinning around in an instant. There’s violence in her face and the way her fists are clenched. “You motherfucker–”

“Vi, dontdontdont–Vi, don’t!” Jinx gets between them and braces her hands on her sister’s shoulders. Vi almost gets past her, bristling like a furious cat. Well. More like a bull, really.

“There she is,” Sevika scoffs, shaking her head. “I almost missed seeing that color on your face.”

“You don’t think maybe you went a bit too far?” Ekko scowls. He’s got a hand keeping Isha safely behind him.

“Save it. I don’t give a fuck if she has to be pissed every day for the rest of her life, so long as she gets out of bed and helps make Zaun better. We agreed to run the Undercity together. We didn’t agree for three of us to bust our asses so one of us could play bartender.”

She jabs a finger at Vi. “See you at the meeting tomorrow.”

Vi half-throws herself over the counter, fumbling for something behind the bar and swearing wildly as Sevika storms out. She’s already slipped outside by the time Vi swings herself back onto her feet and throws a bottle after her as hard as she can. Glass shatters against the wall.

There’s fury in every breath and she’s got a manic look in her eyes, like she’s ready to pick a fight with the first thug unlucky enough to cross her path. Vi’s nostrils flare as she strides for the basement. She’s back out in a flash with her jacket on.

“I’m going out.”

“Don’t go after her, Vi,” Ekko warns. “It’s not–”

“I’m not gonna go after that hag with her ugly fucking mug and bitch-ass haircut. Had to fucking jump me ‘cause she can’t win straight, that mother–” Vi’s curses fade as she slips out the door and slams it behind her. 

Jinx hopes everyone is smart enough to stay out of her way, for their sakes. Vi might catch bodies if they’re stupid enough to try jumping her now.

Ekko rubs a hand down his face. “That went well.”

“I’m gonna tail her,” Jinx decides. “She’s too pissed to notice. Don’t want her to get into too much trouble.”

He doesn’t seem sure, but nods. Jinx walks over to the stairs as Isha ducks out from around Ekko. She pats her daughter’s cheek. 

“Ok, I’ll be out for a bit longer. Ekko’s gonna watch you. Have you eaten?”

Not yet.

“Can you get her Jericho’s? I’ll pay you back.”

“Yeah, that works,” he agrees.

Isha frowns. No more fighting?

“No more fighting,” Jinx holds up a hand. “Pinky-swear.”

That brings some relief to the child, who seals the promise. They do their little finger gun handshake and Jinx spins away. She catches sight of the wide-eyed bartender peeking out from behind the counter.

“Chuck, y’mind cleaning up that glass?” Jinx prompts on her way out.

“Y-yeah, sure boss.”

“Thanks!”

She races through the Lanes. She’s vaulting over fences, scaling buildings, pushing her muscles until her lungs burn and then pushing more anyway. 

Vi is flying on rage.

She screams at some point, cutting through the perpetual twilight of the Lanes with all the pent-up emotion in her chest. She only stops swearing when she literally runs out of breath for it. 

Vi eventually drops down to street level and throws her hood over her head, stuffing her hands into her pockets as she storms through the alleys with a scowl. Just one. Just one unlucky sonofabitch–

Some stupid guy leans around a corner with a knife at his hip and a smirk on his face. Two more slip out of hiding holes behind her. Exactly what the doctor ordered. 

Vi’s hood comes off. The guys go pale.

Too late. She’s pissed and they came to her.

Her knuckles do the talking. Vi socks the first guy in the jaw and relishes in the impact. She spins on the other two. One is smart enough to run for it, but the other tries to swing. His form is sloppy. 

She slaps the hand away, grabs him by the back of his neck, and drives his face into the steel of a garbage can lid. The ringing sound fills her ears and he drops like a sack of potatoes. 

Vi kicks him for good measure and throws the hood back on before storming away. Fuckin’ thugs. Her knuckles sting in a good way. Her blood’s pumping. She feels alive. 

The adrenaline slowly simmers down as she stalks further towards the surface. She lets her feet carry her. She doesn’t have a particular destination as she emerges from the smog and sees moonlight for the first time in months. 

Eventually, she spots the little overpass she and Powder used to sit at when they were kids, where they could look out at Piltover. Vi purses her lips, then forces herself to climb up.

She doesn’t sit, but she takes the hood off again and looks across the river. There it sits, the City of Progress, pristine as ever. Almost like it never fought a war. She kind of hates that.

Shoes drop down behind her. Vi stirs and glances over her shoulder. She’s not surprised to see it’s Jinx. 

“Mind if I join ya?”

“Hn,” she inclines her head. Jinx strolls up and they stand together. 

“How’d you find me?”

“You’re not subtle.”

Fair enough.

“Where’s Isha?”

“Getting dinner with Ekko.”

Vi’s stomach grumbles. She ignores it. She’ll eat later.

Jinx’s arm brushes hers as she leans her head against her sister’s shoulder. “What’s eating you, sis?”

“It hasn’t changed,” Vi says. “Looks the same as it always does. Clean as a whistle, like nothing ever happened.”

Jinx shrugs. “Some stuff is different. You see the bridge yet?”

“No.”

“I’ll show you tomorrow. Think you’ll like it.”

Vi’s quiet for a bit. 

“When I got back to the Lanes,” she starts hesitantly. “When Caitlyn broke me out of jail, when I came looking for you–well, I know we got interrupted by Ekko, but I should’ve just gone looking alone. Bringing her along was a stupid idea.”

Jinx lifts an eyebrow. “Where’s this coming from?”

“Just,” Vi sighs and decides to sit down. Her sister joins her. She throws a hand towards Piltover. “I feel like all that shit wouldn’t have happened. I was still pissed at Silco, but bringing an Enforcer into the Lanes was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done. I should’ve just ditched her as soon as I got back.”

Jinx tilts her head. Vi keeps going. She’s gotta get this off her chest. It’s been bubbling inside her for months and months.

“But she got me out of prison, then she saved my life when Sevika stabbed me,” Vi grumbles. “I guess I kept giving her chances because she kept giving me reasons to trust her. To think she was different from all the others. 

“After Ekko took us, she started going on about how the city needed healing, then in Piltover she asked ‘what about us’ when the Council didn’t give us the time of day. And I just ate all the sweet nothings that came out of that pretty little mouth–”

She cuts herself off and rubs a hand over her eyes. Jinx is fidgeting a bit as she watches Vi.

“I mean, I’m not a fan of cupcake at all,” she says. “So I sure as hell won’t defend her, but where are you going with this? Do ya just wanna talk about your ex?”

“She wasn’t—I don’t even know. We didn’t, like,” Vi waves her hand vaguely.

“You didn’t fuck her?”

“No. That–we kissed once. I asked her not to change like everyone else in my life,” Vi admits. “And then she almost put a bullet in Isha.”

Jinx’s face drops. 

“I felt so fucking stupid. I put on that uniform like a fucking traitor and went after you because I thought she was better than the rest. She ditched me right there after you blew the pipes into Piltover. Told me your blood flowed in my veins and just left. 

“Then she walked straight to that pig and stormed the Undercity. So much for ‘healing’. She wound up being the worst of all of them,” Vi runs a hand through her hair. Then her head falls against Jinx’s shoulder.

“I wasn’t fair to you,” she confesses. “I mean, I still hate Silco for what he did. I don’t agree with the worst things you’ve done, not by a long shot. But I let myself go on that ride with little-miss self-righteous and I gave her everything she needed to know to take Zaun.”

“She made that choice. Not you,” Jinx mumbles into Vi’s hair. “You can’t put all of that on yourself. Like yeah, you fucked up, but all that shit with the Noxians–no one knew that was even a thing until they were already down our throats. And…I played my part, too. I almost blew up the pig’s daughter. I killed Cupcake’s mom.”

“But you didn’t know there were people in there. That doesn’t make it better, but you shot at a symbol. Not the council. Not knowingly. She saw Isha and she opened fire anyway.”

Her sister doesn’t say anything to that. Even if knowing about the council’s presence in the tower wouldn’t have made a difference in her decision to attack, it doesn’t change Caitlyn’s own choices.

Vi’s cheek is smooshed against her sister’s shoulder. “I’ve been really messed up for a while. I know. Same thing kinda happened when I got thrown into Stillwater way back when. Just lost my shit for a while and shut down afterwards. I think I got into a fight and that got me back on my feet.”

Jinx lifts a hand to play with Vi’s hair. “Sounds like you. Guess Sevika had the right idea, trying to piss you off.”

“Don’t tell her that.”

A snort. “Sure.”

They’re quiet for a little while. 

Jinx nuzzles against the top of Vi’s head. “Why’re you telling me all this? Like, I’m happy to do the whole ‘sister heart-to-heart’ thing. I’d love to do this more.”

“Me too,” Vi shifts just a bit. Her eyes lift to stare at the City of Progress. “I’m scared of going back over there. It feels like I choose wrong every time with Piltover. If I cross that bridge again, how long until I’m stupid enough to trust more pretty words? How long until I find a way to fuck us over?”

“Y’know, I’m supposed to be the jinx.”

“Yeah, well. Maybe I am, too.”

“Then we’d better stick together,” Jinx murmurs. “I want you to be happy. You know that, right? Even if it’s with that…that tall drink of water you wanna slurp up.”

Vi snorts. “‘Tall drink of water?’”

“Her height is cheating.”

“Not if she bends.”

Her sister makes an exaggerated gagging noise and Vi laughs. She feels relaxed. Better than she has since the war ended. 

Her lips purse. “I don’t know if I can ever trust her again. Give her that much of me. I know a part of me wants to. Like…I want to believe that what she said about healing the city was sincere. That she did what she did afterwards because she was grieving for her mother.”

“You trusted me again,” Jinx reminds her. “After everything.”

Vi nods. 

“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’ll ever like her. At all. And I’m pretty sure the feeling’s mutual. What’s the saying? Keep your enemies close?”

“I don’t think that means keep your enemies in your bed. Don’t be stupid about it.”

“Good point,” Jinx tuts. “I mean, if you just need to get laid, you could jump over to Babette’s whenever.”

“Eh. Flings are kind of whatever to me.”

Jinx frowns. “How many flings have you had?”

Vi’s quiet for a bit. Her sister’s eyebrows rise. “Are you counting?”

“No,” she denies. Hesitates. “Ok, kind of. In my defense, I was a little drunk once.”

“Your defense has been heard! Now out with the truth!”

“Uh…four.”

“This wasn’t when you were wasted in the pits, was it?”

“Oh, fuck no. It was, uh. I was fourteen. You were a kid.”

Jinx’s mouth falls open. 

“Holy shit, you did exactly what I did!”

“I did not! I didn’t go to a brothel! I just–I wanted to try drinking because Vander was talking with Benzo about some good liquor, so I snuck out and stole a bottle after you fell asleep one night. I knew better than to drink a lot, but it was a bit stronger than I thought it would be. I wasn’t hammered or anything crazy, just…feeling good.”

“Go on,” Jinx sounds gleeful. Vi rolls her eyes, but obliges. She’s been told about how her sister wound up with Isha, so…it’s only fair.

“I wound up wandering near the port and there was this–this girl,” she gulps as Jinx waves her hand eagerly for Vi to go on. Oh, her sister is never going to let this go. “Same age as me at the time. Vastaya. Sorta purple-red feathers. A little edgy? I think she was just passing through, but we bumped into each other and got into it a bit. I was feeling good, so I asked what her name was and…”

Jinx is laughing. Vi can tell by how her shoulders quake. “And, sister dearest?”

“Ugh, she broke us into this inn a few floors off street level–we climbed up so we wouldn’t get mugged–and uh. I’m pretty sure I fell right into her lap. I told her she was hot. I guess she liked that, ‘cause things got a little wild.”

“And the rest is history?”

“Kind of. I was under her skirt when her dad walked in.”

“Oh, fuck!” Jinx cackles. Vi’s face is red, but she’s laughing, too. 

“That’s what she said. Like, actually what she said,” Vi sniggers. Her sister laughs even harder. “Just not like that.”

A slap on her shoulder and wheezing.

“I almost fell on my face tripping out the window,” Vi admits. “Her dad was pissed. Like, throwing feather blades after me, pissed. Sobered me up right quick. I barely got back into the Lanes before he could wring my neck.”

“You got away with it!” The sheer glee has Jinx falling onto her back. Vi follows, throwing an arm across her eyes as they laugh. “My sister, the master criminal!”

“Shut up,” Vi giggles. “She was the one who pushed me between–”

“Ok, I don’t want those details!” Jinx gags, still laughing. 

They lie there for a while, riding the high of their mirth. Vi finally settles down a bit. “Never saw her again. Don’t remember her name, either. I had two flings in prison. One with my tattoo artist before she got out, and another with this Bilgewater girl.”

“We’re at three,” Jinx holds the matching number of fingers up above their heads. “Let’s hear number four.”

Vi shrugs. “Fourth was a rebound. After Cait left. I wasn’t in the pits yet, but I was hurt and pissed and I just needed to get it out of my system.”

“You went to a brothel.”

“Yeah,” she admits, sighing. “I did. Fucking the misery out of myself with another girl wasn’t working, so I went looking for a hard drink and fights instead.”

“Mm,” Jinx’s laughter fades and she twists her head to grin at Vi. “Never knew you had so much game, sis.”

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”

“But anyway. Before you went off on your awesome story, you said you were kinda done with flings?”

“Mmhm. They’ve been fun for the most part, but I guess I want a taste of the good life we always dreamed of,” Vi shrugged. “Someone I can wake up with every day.”

“I think you’ll find someone,” Jinx hums. “You’re hotheaded, a bit of a jackass, sort of vertically challenged–”

“I don’t wanna hear that from you.”

“But you’re great. Always doing your best, even if you forget to take care of yourself,” she finishes. “Anyone would be lucky to be in love with you. That’s what I think.”

Vi reaches over to take Jinx’s hand and squeezes. The return pressure says everything. 

“What about you?” Vi finally decides to ask. 

“What about me?”

“Ever thought about looking for that ‘special someone’ the old folks always drone on about?”

Jinx is quiet for a minute. “I’m not exactly what most people are looking for.”

“I don’t give a fuck about ‘most people’ and neither do you.”

“True.”

Vi kind of feels bad for saying the obvious, but she gives it a shot. “Ekko.”

Jinx looks at her. She doesn’t say anything at first. Vi hesitates. 

“Sorry, if you don’t–”

“I…He’s great. You know we Painted each other. Before the war. It was apologies and forgiveness. Starting over.”

Vi squeezes her hand and the response is tight. 

“I don’t wanna push my luck. Like, things are good right now, Vi. We’re actually getting Zaun fixed up. You’re back. Isha’s safe again. Ekko and I aren’t trying to kill each other anymore. Thanks to the meds, the Scribbles are gone.”

She bites her lip. “And yeah, I–I wouldn’t mind. More. Just, I come with a lot of baggage, especially for Ekko after everything that’s happened. And Isha…”

“She likes him,” Vi says encouragingly. “I’m pretty sure she wants to make her own hoverboard.”

“Yeah, she does. But it’s a lot to ask someone, y’know? Not everyone wants to raise a freakin’ kid who isn’t even theirs. And if Ekko ever wants kids that are like, his, he’d be better off with someone else.”

“Why?”

“You don’t actually think I could ever have a kid again after all the shit my body’s been through, do you?” 

Vi stares at her. Jinx shrugs. “I got lucky with Isha. She doesn’t have the Scribbles. Who’s to say I’ll get lucky again, if I ever did wind up with another kid? Ugh, I don’t think I even want that. Do you have any idea how much of a pain in the ass it was, trying to build shit with my belly all fat?”

“Was it that bad?”

Jinx holds a hand over her belly, considerably higher than Vi’s expecting. “Imagine trying to lean over a piece of machinery with this in the way.”

“Pass.”

Her sister snorts. 

“I mean, you could always just take a kid off the streets,” Vi says. “That’s how the Undercity’s worked since before we were born. Kids pop up and sometimes you just take ‘em in. It’s what Vander and Benzo did. Fuck, it’s what Silco did.”

“Maybe. Every street rat is a happy little accident,” she snickers. “Like us.”

“Oh yeah.”

Vi breathes out long and low. 

“Thanks. For coming to talk with me,” she murmurs. “I missed this. Us talking.”

“Me too,” Jinx agrees. She rubs her thumb over Vi’s knuckles for a moment. “By the way, you have plans tomorrow night.”

An eyebrow rises. “Do I?”

“Ekko and I set it up. Surprise for you and Isha.”

“I’m in.”

Jinx’s smile stretches from ear to ear. She flips over to hug her sister tight and Vi’s all too happy to return it.

“I love you, sis.”

“Same here, troublemaker.”

“...Did you just–”

“You did make her.”

Jinx slaps her shoulder and Vi laughs. 

Crossing the bridge isn’t as bad as Vi feared it would be. She needs a moment to steady herself, but once she takes that first step, the worst of it is behind her.

When they get to the halfway point, Jinx is subjected to a search (part of the treaty Piltover signed with Zaun) to make sure she’s not carrying any weapons. There’s a similar condition for Caitlyn, Vi finds out, if she ever needs to go into Zaun. Enforcers on-duty are banned from the Undercity. Completely.

She’s largely distracted while Jinx grumbles about the Enforcer (Steb, the only one of their strike team besides Vi and Cait who lived through the war) patting her down. There’s a new memorial overlooking the eastern side of the bridge. 

It’s their weapons.  

Fishbones, the Hextech Rifle, and the Atlas Gauntlets are fused together in steel. The Gemstones are gone. The tools that signified weaponized Hextech are shells now, never to spill blood again.

Vi stares at it until Ekko taps her elbow and gets her moving. 

She steps close to Jinx. “You gave up Fishbones?”

“I still have Pow-Pow,” she hums. “You left the Gauntlets behind. That was kind of what did it. I don’t remember whose idea it was, but they were locking the Gemstones down anyway. Cupcake gave up the rifle. I figured, ‘whatever, I can build another if I need to’.”

Like it was that easy. Jinx has loved her gadgets and creations ever since she was a little girl. She doesn’t just give them up. Vi nudges her sister and Jinx returns the gesture. 

The Council chamber sees all of Piltover’s representatives on one side of the crescent-shaped table today. There are four seats opposite them.

Sevika is already seated. She looks up as the rest of the Zaunites enter the room. Her eyes meet Vi’s and she’s…not quite smug, but it’s a close thing. 

Vi flips her the bird. She’s pretty sure some rich old lady gasps, but she doesn’t give a fuck. Jinx sits between Vi and Sevika, and Ekko takes the last chair closest to the door. 

They’re not exactly dressed up to Piltie standards, but as the Undercity goes, they look pretty good. Sevika and Ekko clean up best in button-downs, though neither will be caught dead in a suit. 

Vi’s close to her usual outfit minus the hoodie, with a dark shirt and pair of pants which lack the stains most of her other clothes possess. 

Jinx is Jinx. She’s got her pants, a shirt (somehow) free of paint, and Silco’s coat. She pulls a fidget out from her pocket and spins it on her finger. Vi suspects Isha was responsible for the paint job on that particular bit of metal.

She looks up, scanning the faces of the Pilties. Shoola is present, directly across from Sevika. Vi knows that Mel is gone–took the Noxians back to their homeland in her mother’s place. 

There are a handful of faces she does not recognize. Replacements for the old council members, she bets. Heimerdinger is here, but he’s got his own little setup between the groups of representatives. He mediates for both cities.

And the one across from her and Jinx is, naturally, Caitlyn.

The eyepatch is new. Vi knows she’d lost the eye fighting Ambessa, but she hadn’t been able to see her after the battle. Too much had happened, and then she’d–

She forces those thoughts away. She does not want to relive that breakdown. 

Cait looks good, all things considered. Vi doesn’t say anything. She’d be lying if her traitorous heart didn’t catch a little when she saw her. 

Heimerdinger clears his throat and they all look in his direction. “Thank you all for coming today! Let’s get straight to business, shall we?”

Vi isn’t sure what she’s expecting from the meeting, but she’s relieved that the Yordle is in charge of it. 

Heimerdinger knows all of them. Most importantly, he knows the Zaunites and how easily Jinx (and Vi, if she’s being honest with herself) get distracted. The whole meeting is designed to be objective, every point laid out straight without any of the long-windedness she knows takes place in Piltover’s usual meetings. 

Heimerdinger shows them a nail and explains how they’re going to hammer it. Short, sweet, to the point. 

Piltover’s part is brief. They’ve repaired most of the damages to the city. Most of what’s left by now is aesthetic. The vast majority of the work being done is in Zaun. 

The only major bit regarding Piltover is the Hextech.

After all that happened, the Gemstones and any remaining Hextech devices have been locked away in a high-security vault requiring three keys to open, each kept by Caitlyn, Heimerdinger, and Sevika respectively. For them to be unlocked requires all three keepers using the keys in tandem, in addition to three unique codes known only to them.

There were no chances taken. Not after Viktor.

The decision was made to do so until Ekko and Heimerdinger can figure out how (if it’s even possible) to circumvent the side-effects of overusing Hextech into something harmless. Jinx isn’t allowed in on the project for obvious reasons, no matter how smart she is.

It isn't a priority right now due to all the rebuilding projects they’re working on. For now, Hextech is completely locked down and probably won’t see the light of day for years at minimum. Fine with Vi. 

They turn to Zaun. 

“The designs for the smog filtration systems at surface level have been completed,” Heimerdinger announces. “Which means once the greenhouses are finished, they’ll be safe from airborne contaminants. I’ve completed the water purification designs for irrigation and sanitation, respectively.”

“How long until they’re ready?” Shoola asks.

“We’re building the greenhouses in groups,” Sevika answers. “Five to start, then five more once those are done. Most of the buildings are down and in the process of being rebuilt. Our people are already elbow-deep on the project. They should all be done and filled with crops by the time winter rolls around.”

Jinx knocks on wood. The corner of Vi’s lip twitches upwards.

“Once the greenhouses are done, we can move on to the next project,” Sevika continues. Vi feels out of place as she goes on. Sevika, Jinx, and Ekko really have been the ones doing all the work. 

Sevika was right, not that she’ll ever say that to the old hag’s face. She tells herself she’ll do better by them from now on.

They get to talking about fixing up the factories on the west side of the river and shutting down or reconfiguring most of the ones in the deepest fissures that cause a lot of the major pollutants in the air. Vi glances at Jinx, who is still spinning the fidget on her finger. She looks bored, but she’s behaving. It doesn’t seem like the meeting will go on much longer, anyway.

One of the nobles opens his mouth.

“It’s a decent idea, but a great deal of legalities and money will have to go into buying and overhauling the factories you’re talking about,” he says with a posh, uppity accent that makes Vi immediately want to punch him. “This project of yours will take years to do properly. It will require investments and support from well-respected families. Speaking of which, have any of you ever given us your family names?”

He talks like he’s teaching children. Vi’s not impressed. “There are no family names in Zaun, big guy. Fissure-folk don’t marry.”

The councilor looks like she’s just told him the moon is made of cheese. Jinx snorts at the look on his face. “Hello, culture shock.”

“You don’t marry at all?” Shoola sounds more intrigued than startled. She’s spent more time around the Zaunites than any of the other councilors. Besides Caitlyn, of course, but Shoola’s interactions with them (specifically all her discussions and business meetings with Sevika) have been historically less…aggressive. 

“Why would we?” Vi shrugs. “You can’t have–what do you guys call them, weddings? A whole bunch of people and gifts and food? Fancy jewelry? In the fissures?”

Sevika grunts in agreement. “Why don’t you just ring a dinner bell for every shark in the trenches? It’ll be faster.”

 “And like, with what money? That stuff’s pricey. Your average Trencher isn’t gonna blow all their hard-earned cash just so they can get robbed. Good enough chance your partner’s gonna get shanked on their way to work, anyway.”

“I thought the Undercity’s crime rate was improving,” Shoola glances at Sevika.

“Improving, yes. Gone, no. It’s only been eight months. We’re up to our necks in work. It’ll be a while before things get better.”

“But back to the point about the factories,” Ekko puts in. “Buying them up isn’t an issue. We own all the factories on the river and most of the ones in the fissures, too.”

The noble frowns. “How is that possible?”

“Silco owned them,” Jinx is still watching her fidget spin, not even looking at the councilman who opened his privileged mouth. “And everything he owned is mine.”

“I’m sure your…benefactor–”

“Dad,” she cuts him off.

“–possessed a fair share of assets,” the noble drawls. Vi’s eye twitches. “But no one in the Undercity owns that many businesses.”

Jinx scoffs. “Silco owned half of Zaun. What he didn’t own, the Chem-Barons owned, and I’ve killed most of them. To the victor goes the spoils, and all that. I hate to break it to you, but the Undercity pretty much completely belongs to me. Sevika can give you a list of things I don’t own. It’ll be shorter.”

Vi has to hide a laugh as the noble’s face turns ruddy. 

One of the funniest (and most ironic) things about Jinx taking over Zaun was that she essentially became the owner of more territory than almost all of Piltover’s nobles combined. At least in the cities. She might not be as overall rich as the fat, hoarding dragons topside, but she’s the biggest fucking mob boss in Zaun by a mile. 

And money isn’t that big a concern when you’ve also got an absurdly rich, centuries-old Yordle able and willing to help you finance pretty much every project the Undercity needs. 

“I’m not writing that list,” Sevika grumbles with a dismissive wave of her hand. “But she’s right. Silco was an entrepreneur and an industrialist, and he never believed in putting all his eggs in one basket. More or less anything above the really deep fissures belongs to us, and the most profitable mine shafts are under our control. It’s why we’re able to move so quickly on these projects. The only legality we have to go through is each other.”

“They put up a nail, I give them a hammer,” Jinx says cheerfully. “WHAM!” 

Shoola only nods in response (mostly to Sevika). None of this seems like news to her. No doubt she and Sevika have had this conversation before. She glances at the noble who’d challenged them. “Does that satisfy your question regarding the factories, Councilor Ferros?”

Ferros looks like he wants to keep bitching, but wisely keeps his mouth shut. Smart move. 

Caitlyn breaks her own silence. 

“On the subject of the Chem-Barons, I’ve gone through records and information we obtained prior to the end of the war,” she explained. “Some of it may be outdated, but if there are any particular groups still raising issues, I’ve brought leads for you to investigate.”

Ekko rises up from his seat and strides across the room to snatch the packet of paper Cait holds up for him. He flips through it before he sits, then slides it to Vi. 

She puts it between herself and Jinx so they can check it out. Jinx rubs her hands together like she’s gotten a present. She’s got that evil little gleam in her eye that tells Vi she’s planning to make some boom if the info is still good.

“I’m going to assume we’ve not located the Alchemist, Dr. Corin Reveck, have we?” Caitlyn asks. Vi stiffens. 

“No,” Sevika admits, scowling. “His old labs that we know of have been vacated. He got out in a hurry after the war, and he had to have had help for how fast he slipped away with all his research. We’ve been hunting, believe me.”

Shoola considers that. “What about Warwick?”

“Deep trenches, same as the Chem-Barons,” Ekko says. “We haven’t seen him anywhere near the surface. He leaves behind a mess if he gets into a fight, but so far he hasn’t hurt anyone outside of the gangs.”

Vi catches Cait glancing at her from the corner of her eye, but she does not look back. 

Heimerdinger nods. “I do believe that covers everything! If there is nothing else?”

He waits, but everyone is largely satisfied. Hextech is still locked down, Piltover has rebuilt, and Zaun’s infrastructure overhaul is in full-swing. Heimerdinger knows none of them want to sit there any longer than necessary.

They’re not friends. It’s business, nothing more.

“Then meeting adjourned!”

The Zaunites are out of their chairs and moving for the door just like that. Vi’s relieved the meeting didn’t last long; thank fuck for Heimerdinger.

She stuffs her hands into the pockets of her jacket and walks with Jinx as her sister keeps flipping through Caitlyn’s info. Ekko waits to talk to Heimerdinger as the Yordle waddles out of the room, and Vi’s pretty sure Sevika is with Shoola again. 

“Vi.”

She stops. Jinx stops with her and glances over her shoulder, then looks at Vi. 

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She can do this. 

Vi half-turns. “Hey, Cait.”

Caitlyn falters, like she knew what she wanted to say, but has lost it now that they’re here. “I…wanted to ask if we could talk? Later, perhaps.”

Vi considers it for only a moment.

“I have plans tonight,” she says. “We’re doing a surprise for Isha.”

“Of course,” Cait nods. “My apologies, I wasn’t aware of–”

“Tomorrow,” Vi stops her. She steels herself. “We can… talk. I don’t know for how long. I have a lot of work to catch up on.”

Caitlyn’s shoulders fall just the slightest. It might be relief in the lonely blue eye that looks back at her. Vi’s making no promises, but Cait’s grateful for the chance. 

“Of course. Lunch? At…Jericho’s?”

She snorts. “What, a pat-down for you and lunch for me? I’ll stop by the memorial. We’ll walk or something.”

“Thank you,” Caitlyn says. Her voice is soft. 

Vi twists away before Jinx does and they’re off again. They turn a corner and Vi reaches for her sister’s hand. She gets a squeeze and that helps her to settle down. 

One day at a time.

Hours later, (after they’d gotten dinner and changed out of their “good” clothes) Jinx and Ekko (each shouldering large bags) have led Vi and Isha to a building near the river. It looks like it was rebuilt recently, fresh coat of paint and all, with a chain fence around it.

“What is this place?” Vi asks. 

“Warehouse for port shipments,” Ekko fills her in. “Sevika got our people to fix it up as soon as the war ended. Most of them were pretty screwed after the occupation. We needed at least a few that still worked when ships came in.”

“And we are here now because…?”

“One way to find out,” Jinx grins. She climbs over the chain fence and vaults onto the other side, waiting for them with a smirk on her face. 

Isha’s eyes gleam at the challenge and she mirrors her mother as Vi and Ekko watch, amused by the child’s enthusiasm. They’re up and over the fence moments after the girl lands on the other side. 

Ekko ambles ahead to unlock a door and leads them inside. He grabs a lever on the wall and with a pump, gets the lights on with the liquid sounds of Chemtech. 

Much of the room is empty. Vi’s not sure why, but maybe this section of the building isn’t in use yet.

Jinx strides over to a large wall. There are a few chairs and a beanbag set up nearby. Vi arches an eyebrow. They’d been planning this, alright.

Whatever this was.

She hears static and turns to see Ekko has plugged in a music system to the Chemtech power grid for the building. That was what he’d been carrying in his bag. 

And Jinx was carrying–

Vi feels a grin spreading over her face as her sister unzips the bag and reveals a lot of spray paint canisters. Jinx points at Ekko, who’s pulled out a personal artbook in addition to the discs for music. 

“Fuck off!” Vi is giddy. “Guys!”

Isha looks equally excited as her mother drags Vi over to check out the pieces Ekko’s made in his artbook. Vi lifts her niece up so she can see as their friend flips through the pages. 

“Let’s pick a good one,” Vi tells Isha. She feels like a kid again. They did this all the time when they were younger.

Ekko has quite the collection, and confesses to owning two more artbooks back at the Firelight sanctuary, but he’s brought his best out for tonight. 

Isha flips another page and immediately jabs her finger. Vi grins. “That one, huh?”

It’s bright blue with pink and fading yellow-orange, (big shock Isha picked this one, truly) waves of water backdropped behind the aptly-colored word, ‘sunrise’.  

Ekko gets a music disc playing as Vi and Jinx help Isha set up the spray paint. The jackets and hoodies come off until they’re all in tank-tops. They’re gonna get a little messy, after all. 

Isha’s obviously done it a few times, but she’s still inexperienced compared to the older Zaunites. No biggie; they’re here to help her out and tackle the more detailed bits. 

The whole wall is a canvas and the section they choose is all theirs. 

They spend a while on the backdrop. Vi’s a bit out of practice, but she gets the feel for it back as she goes, like a muscle that hasn’t seen use for a while. They’ll have to try and make this a regular thing as much as possible. 

Gods, she would love that.

Ekko is the best of them at detail work, plus he’s the certified coolest in Isha’s book when he hops on his hoverboard and gives her a ride while they’re waiting for a layer to dry a bit. Jinx has a board too (Vi suspects she’s stolen it or built her own) and tries to outdo him with daring tricks. 

Vi calls for them to get started on the next set of colors before they get too carried away with that. Her sister looks like she might fly into a wall if she speeds up much more.

They get through the first layer for sunrise when Jinx and Ekko briefly slip out of her line of sight. Vi’s pointing and showing Isha where to spray the yellow when she hears the music disc being changed again. 

It’s a beat she has not heard in years. Vi freezes and whips her head around for sheer surprise. Ekko and Jinx are watching her with wild grins on their faces. 

She knows exactly what they want, the scheming little trash bandits. 

“Screw you guys,” she protests with no heat. “I’m so out of practice!”

“Vi! Vi! Vi! Vi! Vi!” They chant gleefully. Isha’s staring at them like they might have finally gone completely nuts.

Vi looks up at the ceiling with a huge smile. She takes a breath, and then she’s singing. Light, warm, and buzzing joy spills through her lungs and past her lips. 

Jinx bounces over and hip-checks her, singing along with her sister. She’s gotten good! Better than Vi’s expecting, but she’ll ask about that later. Right now, Vi is alive and breathing and happy, happy, happy.

She’s probably way too high on the good feelings, because eventually she scoops Isha up as she sings. The child giggles, delighted.

“‘You’re the sunflower,’” Vi sings to her niece, who beams like a little ray of light. “‘You’re the sunflower.’”

Chapter Text

Act III, Part II: Nothing So Undoing

Two years have passed since the war. 

Ekko watches, bemused, as Isha tries to figure out the scrambled puzzle toy in her hands. She’s sitting in a chair next to him, eyes narrowed as her fingers prod and twist and pull to convert the object into its true shape. He’s tempted to spin the seat around, but she looks so focused that he can’t bring himself to disturb her. 

The puzzle is amongst the little gifts Heimerdinger has given her. Toys that are scrambled and need to be solved. It’s like a game she gets to play for the first time twice, and the Yordle never seems to run out of them.

Ekko suspects from the color and a few other details that this one will probably be a Poro once Isha’s figured it out. She saw Heimerdinger’s for the first time recently and absolutely fell in love with the fluffy creature. 

Isha’s grown a lot, now eight years old. With the exceptions of her freckles and eyes, she’s the spitting image of her mother when Jinx was that age.

They’re currently at his flat near the surface of Zaun. Ekko largely resides in the territory between The Last Drop and the bridge to Piltover these days. He’s got a pretty nice view of the greenhouses on the east bank and the sea beyond them.

The Firelight Sanctuary has been turned into the Sanctuary for Lost Kids in the past year. Zaunite orphans or street kids throughout the Lanes go there if they need a place to stay or something to eat. Ekko’s old treehouse is still the main hub of the Sanctuary, and he pops in whenever he can to make sure things are still running smoothly.

The reason for the move was practicality. Ekko’s research with Heimerdinger on safety measures for Hextech (and their various other technological studies) means he spends a fair bit of time every week in Piltover. But he’s also got an actual lab now in Zaun, which Jinx and Heimerdinger regularly utilize for pretty much whatever is needed.

Studying Hextech has been his and Heimerdinger’s focus lately. All of that research is conducted in Piltover, so any Gemstones in use can be immediately locked up when they’re done. 

It’s been…not fruitless, but slow. They’ve created a tiny anomaly in a controlled environment and have been studying it down to every last detail. It dissipates over time on its own, but not quickly. Not quickly enough to warrant the use of Hextech. It grows every time magic is used, no matter where they actually tap into the Arcane. It all congregates in one place. 

That tracks, seeing as the massive anomaly in the Hexgate tower had been the only one of its kind. The problem is so far, only the passing of time causes the anomaly to fade. They’ve yet to find a way to convert the excess into something harmless. Something that won’t warp space and time with overuse.

Ekko’s been grinding long days trying to puzzle out the maths, but he’s hit a wall and isn’t making any headway. Heimerdinger finally insisted he take a break and come back rested.

So today he’s off work, as is Vi. 

Ekko’s sitting just inside while Isha puzzles out the toy beside him. If he looks out the open window, he can see Vi on the street below as she teaches Zeri how to ride a (modified and slowed) hoverboard. 

Vi had not been in any state to look after a kid in the immediate aftermath of the war, but she never forgot about the girl. A few months after she got Zaun’s Busybodies set up and operating, she started visiting the Sanctuary to see Zeri. 

Now the girl is a regular companion, though she still lives at the Sanctuary. Vi’s still struggling with a few particularly obstinate demons and, Ekko suspects, she wants to ease the six year-old into the family. 

It’s one thing for kids to be adopted by someone they already know, the way Vander adopted Vi and Jinx. It’s another to jump into the home of a stranger.

“Take your time,” Vi encourages, holding one of Zeri’s hands as she wobbles on the board. It’s well-balanced, but the sensation of having nothing between the board and the ground is weird when you’re just starting out. “I won’t let you fall.”

Zeri’s little tongue is sticking out the corner of her mouth as she steadily gets her footing. Ekko smirks a bit and glances at the child still puzzling beside him. If Zeri does join the little family, (and he’s caught Vi teaching the girl sign; she’s as subtle as a brick) he suspects it won’t be long before she and Isha are raising hell everywhere they go. 

He, Jinx, and Sevika are literally gambling on how long it’ll be before Vi brings Zeri home and just keeps her. 

“Nnnn,” Isha’s lips curl into a pout as she gets stuck on the puzzle. Ekko considers helping her, but he’s also sure if he does so without Isha’s express permission that she’ll leave a paint grenade somewhere for him to find later. 

She is very much her mother’s daughter, he thinks affectionately.

He turns back to his own project as the morning breeze gently flows through the open window. That’s not something he’s really gotten to experience before he moved into the new place, and it’s become something of a ritual of his. 

The air still tastes a bit like smog, but the filtration units and modified factory exhausts have made it loads cleaner over the last year. He and Heimerdinger have been very, very busy. But the results speak for themselves. 

Pollution is at an all-time low for the first time in decades. The river’s getting cleaner. Life in Zaun is improving. 

Ekko refocuses.

He’s got a canvas and paint set up at the table beside him. This is a rough draft. He wants Isha’s opinion on certain things before he commits to a final run.

The girl makes another little noise, this time of triumph. She’s gotten past the block and is continuing to solve the puzzle at full speed. He feels a bit bad interrupting her.

Ekko nudges her knee and she looks up, then to the painting. He lifts his finger to an eye on the canvas. “Whatcha think? Like this, or…?”

Isha stares at it for a moment. She sets the toy down to sign. Like she remembers.

“Dark it is,” he agrees. He dabs the paintbrush in black and leans in to get the color detail right. Isha watches, tapping his leg whenever she wants to point out something else.

He’s pleased with it so far. The painting is only the first issue, but Ekko’s confident he has a good grasp for how the final product is going to look. He jots down a couple more reminders on a piece of paper at his work table and pulls away. He’s done for now.

Ekko glances at Isha and realizes that one of her braids is half-undone. Without a word, he lifts her into his lap and gets to work redoing it. She barely responds except to shift and make herself comfortable. Isha’s used to such things. 

Her twintails are getting longer. When he first met Isha, they barely brushed her shoulders. It doesn’t look like they’ve grown that much, but he suspects that’s just because Isha herself is growing, too. The evidence for that is at The Last Drop, where Jinx has a record of marked lines on the wall by the basement of Isha’s height as she gets older. 

He’s just gotten the braid finished when Isha looks up from her toy and does a double-take. Something’s caught her eye in the street. Ekko follows her gaze–

It’s Sevika. And Jinx. 

Neither of them look happy. Fantastic. On his day off, naturally.

Isha lights up when she sees her mother and leaps from Ekko’s lap to go greet her. Ekko stands to follow. Vi helps Zeri down from the hoverboard. They’ve all picked up that something’s happened.

“What’s wrong?” Ekko hears Vi ask as he strides over. 

“There’s a Noxian merchant ship pulling into port,” Sevika scowls. “And half a dozen more on the horizon. The one coming in is flying a flag of truce.”

Vi and Ekko scowl. Truce. Bullshit.

“Vi, can you take Isha and Zeri to the Sanctuary?” Jinx asks. Vi opens her mouth to protest, but her sister steps in close and they get to muttering with Sevika. Ekko doesn’t like any of it. He puts a hand on Isha’s shoulder and pulls Zeri close, too. 

“What’s wrong?” Zeri asks, frowning up at him.

“Hopefully nothing too crazy,” he tells her. 

But he’s got a feeling in his gut that this is going to get out of hand. Vi and Jinx have murder in their eyes as they discuss…he’s not sure he wants to know. It won’t be pretty, whatever it is. 

When the sisters are planning violence together, Ekko just tries to calculate how big the inevitable explosion is going to be so he can keep everyone else out of the way. 

The Noxian captain calling the truce is named Samira. Jinx hates her on-sight. 

The guns she can appreciate, even if they’re old school blackpowders. The blades aren’t to her tastes. The tattoos and armor? Whatever. The eyepatch reminds her of Cupcake. She doesn’t like that. 

Sevika and Caitlyn (who came over from Piltover at their request; it’s literally the first time she’s been in Zaun since the war ended) are the ones who do most of the talking while Jinx stalks around and never pulls her gaze from the woman. 

Samira has a cunning gleam in her eye and a certain arrogance borne from experience. She’s a warrior, same as Ambessa was. The truce, the sham-story about them coming for merchant business with a protection escort?

It’s horseshit. Samira is here for something beyond trading goods. Jinx can smell the lie and she would like nothing more than to riddle the woman with bullets. 

She might just, if Sammy is stupid enough to stay in town for too long.

Eventually, Sevika and Caitlyn cautiously allow (they’re already planning for violence, Jinx can see it) Samira’s ship to remain in port for a limited time. Noxus is not amongst the friends of Piltover or Zaun. Ambessa’s invasion was too much as it was. 

Samira thanks them entirely too sweetly for allowing her crew to make port. Jinx’s eyes flicker to the half-dozen other vessels that remain on the horizon. 

Sammy will be lucky to leave port alive, she decides.

Mama’s angry. Aunt Vi, Sevika, and Ekko too. Bad stuff is happening, but Isha can’t tell how bad because Vi and Ekko rush her and Zeri to the Sanctuary.

Vi heads out for a bit to get some stuff for Mama from the hideout, leaving her and Zeri with Ekko, the Firelights, and the Sanctuary kids. Ekko and Scar do their best to distract them, but they’re organizing and planning something with the other caretakers. 

Zeri takes her hand and leads Isha to a playroom in one of the buildings around the treehouse. She’s taken straight to a little punching bag, where Zeri begins to show off what Vi’s taught her. 

Isha stops her before she gets too carried away and grabs the gloves hanging from the wall next to the bag. Punching stuff is less fun when you split your knuckles. 

“Thanks,” Zeri says. Isha helps her get the gloves on and then the younger girl starts to show off. Mama’s told Isha to look out for Zeri like how she and Aunt Vi look after each other, because Zeri is probably going to live with Vi soon. 

“You’ll be her big sister,” she’d told Isha. “Sorta. So you always look out for each other, ok?”

Isha’s never had a sibling before, but she likes that idea. It makes her feel like a grown-up. 

So she watches as Zeri punches the bag with excited, exaggerated sounds like she’s fighting bad guys or something. Isha’s pretty sure she’ll stop in a minute. Zeri wants to punch like Vi, but she can’t do it for very long before her arms get tired. 

The door to the playroom creaks open a bit. Isha looks over, expecting Ekko or maybe one of the Firelights.

There’s a man standing in the doorway she does not–

Wait. No, Isha does know him. It’s the same guy from Stillwater, with all the bandages on his face. The one Mama said did bad stuff to Grandpa Vander.

She yanks Zeri away from the punching bag and behind her the same way Mama does when she’s protecting Isha. She grabs her prosthetic’s wrist and twists until it clicks.  

The mechanical fingers fold and the palm opens up to expose gun barrels. Isha squeezes the wrist tight, ready to crank back and shoot. 

The room is quiet. The man does not move as he stares at her. Zeri makes a scared noise behind her and Isha tries to be brave, even though her heart is beating really fast and she’s starting to shake. She bites her lip. She’s the big sister, so she’s gotta be brave.

“There’s no need for that, little one,” he tells her softly. “I’m not going to hurt either of you.”

Isha’s not stupid. Mama says bad guys say stuff like that to trick you, and Mama is always right about fighting.

Slowly, he lifts his hand and shows a piece of paper, which he places on a table by the door. “If you could, give this to your mother? I only wish to talk.”

He slowly steps back into the hallway. “That’s all. Goodbye, girls.”

He turns his back on them.

Always cheat against bad guys, Mama tells her. 

POW!

Ekko hears a gunshot–a fucking gunshot–coming from the building Isha and Zeri are playing in and for a moment, he’s drowning in terror. Time-stopping, world-ending, void in his heart raw terror.

Not the girls, is all he can think. Not the girls. 

He doesn’t even register how fast he’s running to get inside until he starts throwing doors open. Ekko locks onto the sound of Zeri crying and bolts for it. 

 Isha’s sitting on her butt like she’s been pushed over, her prosthetic’s weapon smoking and aiming at the doorway. She looks terrified and Zeri is a crying mess behind her. Ekko’s afraid she’s hurt herself until he takes a step and registers his boot sliding on something. 

Blood. There’s blood on the floor. 

He hears the mechanism changing, looks up as it reconfigures back into a hand, and Isha starts signing. Her fingers are shaking.

Bad guy. She scrambles to her feet and pulls Zeri towards Ekko. Zeri dives in for a hug. He scoops her up, but Isha runs to the table and grabs a piece of paper–

It’s coordinates for a meeting place. His blood chills when he sees the signed name, C. Reveck.  

The Alchemist was in the building with the girls.  

“You shot him,” Ekko realizes aloud. “Isha, where’d he go?”

She points further down the hall, the opposite direction from where he’d come. Her eyes are big and scared and teary, but she’s trying hard to be brave. He’d be so proud if he weren’t still losing his shit.

Scar is right outside the room, bristling with shock. “How the hell–”

“Take her. Take them both, get them out,” Ekko passes Zeri to him and takes Isha’s hand, guiding it to Scar’s. He kneels in front of the girl and puts his hands on her shoulders. “You did so good. Stay with Scar. Vi’s gonna be back soon.”

Ekko’s off in a flash, following the blood trail into an old maintenance room for the Chemtech power. He peers inside, fists clenched and ready for a fight, but no one’s there. 

Bloody finger marks are on the far wall. Ekko has a horrified suspicion and storms in, kicks as hard as he can–

The wood shatters into splinters. There’s a fucking tunnel behind it.

They’re pissed. 

No, scratch that. They’re all fucking seething. The Noxians only ruined their day. This? 

Absolutely fucking not. 

Ekko is furious, unable to believe that Reveck had an entrance directly to the Firelight base in that old building this whole time. 

It’s not new. That part of the building is older than the Firelight’s themselves, built by someone previously unknown before they took it over and made it into a home. He suspects they now have the answer to that question. 

But the true source of the rage is that the girls were threatened. 

Vi and Sevika are on the warpath, barking orders as Zaun is kicked into a frenzy like an angry hornet’s nest. Ekko’s got his old Firelights blazing above the trenches, locking down the tunnel leading to Reveck’s requested meeting place. 

Jinx is waiting at the tunnel entrance with her Rhino gun in her hands and a dozen of their bodyguards–all formerly Silco’s top guys, and each one is decked in armored Chemtech suits with spiked knuckles. 

There’s death in her eyes. 

The kids at the Firelight Sanctuary are being evacuated to a safehouse in Piltover on Caitlyn’s recommendation. She’s coordinating with Scar and Piltover’s sheriff, who is helping to get the kids across the bridge. Between Reveck and the Noxians (and Jinx’s suspicions on their ‘merchant business’ have only grown), no one is willing to take chances. 

Heimerdinger and four of Jinx’s most trusted guards take Isha and Zeri to Ekko’s lab in upper Zaun, where they’ll go into a security lockdown. The place is better defended than anywhere else, and it’s unfamiliar to Reveck. Jinx is unsure if he’s aware of her hideout’s protections. 

He had access to Ekko’s turf, which is bad enough. They can’t count on the usual places for this. She’s still a little sick with horror from when she heard about the incident. 

Vi and Sevika storm up to join her once they’ve got Zaun locked in to their satisfaction. Her sister is wearing the armored suit Jinx built specifically for her. 

Vi doesn’t get into nearly so many fights these days to prevent herself from accumulating more internal damage. But in a situation where fighting is inevitable, Jinx has thrown everything her mind can come up with into keeping her sister safe. 

Vi’s Chemnaut armor is a mech-suit powered by Chemtech and high-pressure hydraulics. It’s not as quick and easy to throw on and use as the Atlas Gauntlets were, but it offers a lot more protection and packs a bigger–if slightly slower–punch. 

It’s even got similar steel gauntlets, though the right hand has been modified into claws. Jinx had taken a bit of inspiration from Warwick’s own mechanized arm for that. Bitchin’ Mittens, she calls them.

Ekko and Scar come down on hoverboards and leap off. The Firelight leader is scowling. “Nothing above the tunnels. He’s dug into whatever hole he’s made.”

Jinx growls. Her eyes dart to Sevika. “You, stay. Keep all the shit up here under control.”

“Don’t miss,” is the response. She tosses a gas mask and goggles to Jinx, who is quick to throw them on. Knowing who they’re up against, all their people going into the cave are wearing similar gear.

Vi snaps. “Let’s go!”

Jinx spins on her heel and they all fall in line, storming into the tunnel. 

When they find the wolf marker, Vi knows what they’re about to walk into.

It’s just a half-rotten wooden wall blocking off a section of the tunnel, but there’s a recently-painted image of a wolf that looks eerily like Vander. 

Vi rips it down with the mechanized claws on her arm and leads them into the dark path. It’s a deep tunnel, definitely not on their maps. He’s been busy. 

The tunnel eventually opens into a larger cave, where an armored building–a bunker, she realizes–is constructed against the far wall. Vi’s willing to bet there’s another bolt hole somewhere in there.

They’ll have to make sure he can’t use it.

A door lifts on the right side of the building and three Chempunks stalk out, fuelled on Shimmer. Vi scowls. 

“Kill ‘em!” 

She’s barking the order as she charges. Ekko jumps onto his hoverboard with Scar right behind him. The Chempunks fly at them, but Jinx hasn’t brought a bunch of meat shields to fight. 

No, the guards she’s brought–plus Vi, Ekko, and Scar–are prepared to fight enemies like this. 

Vi catches the stabbing blade of the first Chempunk she meets and one of the bodyguards immediately strikes the Shimmer-juiced man in the kneecap with Chemtech-augmented brass knuckles. The Chempunk drops, maimed.

Before he can even try to retaliate, Vi’s Chemnaut fists are raised and come down like hammers. Glass and steel shatter. The flesh and bone behind the visor turn into paste. 

Ekko slides around another Chempunk and drives his Clock-sword into the Shimmer mechanism at the back, crippling it. The Chempunk staggers and two more of Jinx’s bodyguards take him by the arms, cracking bones and driving the faltering soldier to his knees. In moments, he’s been beaten to death.

The third one is stupid enough to go right for Jinx. 

She vaults over the charge and when the Chempunk twists to go after her, the Chomper latched to his Shimmer mechanism explodes. He’s hurled into the ground with such force that his mask shatters. 

The Chempunk pushes himself to one knee, looks up, and finds a gun barrel between his eyes. 

Boom.

Jinx blows out the smoke and spins towards the hideout. Vi yanks her fists from the human mush, blood dribbling from the steel. 

“That was too easy,” she mutters. 

“Hn,” Jinx grunts. She’s studying the armored bunker with a frown. Vi’s pretty sure she’s mad that she can’t just blow it up with Rhino, but the building itself is a big red flag.

Reveck didn’t just find the resources he needed to build a bunker like that by his lonesome. Someone has been helping him hide. They’d suspected as much, but this confirms it.

The door the Chempunks emerged from remains open, but they’re not taking the obvious bait. 

Jinx finally scowls and shouts. “We’re not stupid, egghead! We’re not coming in!”

There’s a pause, then a steel panel opens on the second floor of the building. Reveck is standing there–

Jinx takes a shot and it bounces off reinforced glass. 

“Shoot first, ask questions later,” Reveck’s voice is dry. He’s holding a large flask of deep blue liquid in one hand. His right arm is wrapped in red-stained bandages. “You taught your daughter well, Jinx. I confess, I didn’t think she’d actually take the shot. I’ll be feeling that for some time.”

“I’ll make sure to get her ice cream later,” Jinx shoves her pistol back into the holster and takes Rhino from her back. 

Vi is about to snap when she spots the figure standing next to Reveck and falters. 

For a moment, she thinks it’s one of Viktor’s Hextech marionettes, but it’s…not quite that. It’s more human. Still metal, but there are distinctly human features that are almost lifelike. It’s even wearing a dress that reminds her vaguely of Piltover’s ballerinas. 

“Who’s your friend?”

“This is my daughter, Orianna.”

Orianna. Vi remembers this. Caitlyn’s mentioned it a few times. 

The dead child for whom Reveck threw away all dignity and morals. He’d kept her corpse in stasis as he searched for a cure to death. 

And he’s made a metal doll in her likeness now.

“Sure.”

Orianna…frowns. Vi’s almost taken aback by the expression. 

She’s floored when the thing talks.

“Why are you so rude?”

It sounds musical. Mechanical, not human, but there’s actual emotion in the voice. It reminds her of…

Jinx puts it together first. “Viktor did this.”

“Not quite,” Reveck admits. “But he gave me the data I was missing to complete the procedure. And the Apex Shimmer from Vander was the last piece of the puzzle.”

“You actually turned your kid into…” Vi trails off, a little ill. She hates to admit that she kind of gets it. She wishes she could bring back everyone she’s lost.

But not like this.  

Orianna does not seem pleased with Vi. “Turned me into what? Father did all he could–”

“Peace, dear one,” Reveck sets a hand on her shoulder and she looks back at him, confused. “Their anger is understandable. I am to blame. Do not fault them for it.”

Orianna doesn’t seem sure, but she says nothing more. Reveck looks from her back to them as Jinx hefts Rhino onto her shoulder. 

“This is sweet and all, but I’m gonna blow you up now,” Jinx tells them.

“I wouldn’t,” Reveck responds. 

An alarm goes off and Vi sees another door parting behind the open bunker entrance. She hears snarls, chains shifting, and a sinking feeling hits her gut. 

It’s Vander. She fucking knew it.

She has no idea how Reveck caught him, but he’s fully trapped in steel bonds that seal him against the floor. Only his head and the Chemtank on his back are visible. He’s frothing at the mouth, jaws snapping aggressively. 

Jinx bites her lip as she looks at what’s become of their father. Her fury climbs up to Reveck. “I can still kill you before he gets to us.”

“You misunderstand.”

Reveck pulls on a lever and Vi sees tubes glowing as a pale blue liquid travels through the darkness and into Vander’s Chemtank. The beast howls, furious as he struggles. 

Then he goes quiet. Huffing and whining. He blinks and Vi feels the breath leave her lungs.  

The red in his eyes is gone. Green and blue peer out of the dark.

“Viiiii...leeeet…”

The elongated muzzle seems to warp and distort his voice. She barely understands, but he can speak her name. And despite all the blood around them, he’s not going into a frenzy. 

Reveck’s point is made. The Beast is gone. Vander is in control. 

“Dad,” Vi looks up at Reveck and she hopes he knows how much she hates him from the look in her eyes. She glances back to Vander. “Dad, just–just hold on, ok?”

Jinx is frozen. Vander had been too out of control when they’d last seen him on the Hexgate tower, but this–the awareness in his eyes as he looks at them is as good as it was when Viktor tried to heal him. More man than animal. 

“It took me longer than I expected, I admit,” Reveck tells them. “But I discovered the formula to suppress the Beast in recent months. What I’ve given him is a temporary cure. I possess a permanent variant that will completely extinguish the animal.”

He holds up the flask in his hand. The unspoken answer. But the problem is not so straightforward.

“With this, I expect it will still take time for his memory and mind to recover. But the animal will never be dominant again. Though his body will remain in this form, Vander’s personality will heal.”

Ekko steps off his hoverboard close to Jinx and glances at her. When she doesn’t immediately respond, he takes over talking to Reveck. His voice is hard. “Ok, you have our attention. What do you want?”

“A ship from Noxus arrived in port today.”

Vi snarls. She knows where this is going. 

“An exchange,” Reveck proposes. “Vander’s mind for the freedom of myself and my daughter. We will never return. Your father will come back to you.”

“And we’re supposed to just believe that your permanent cure will work,” Ekko’s eyes are narrowed. 

“I have the data with me. I would be more than willing to give it to Heimerdinger for analysis. His knowledge of alchemy is as vast as my own, if not quite so specialized. But understand that the temporary cure I have given to Vander will wear off within a few hours. And if the Beast develops a way to reject a threat to itself wholly, I cannot say if the permanent variant will have the desired effect.”

Which meant they were on a timer. Slick bastard. 

Vander whines again. “Powww-durrr.”

His voice twists at Vi’s heart. Jinx bites her bottom lip, hard. “I want you to know that I hate you.”

“I know,” Reveck replies. He doesn’t sound pleased about it. Tired, if anything. Resigned. “Do we have a deal?”

Vi wants him dead. She hasn’t wanted to kill anyone so badly in a long time. Not since Silco. 

But Vander’s sanity is on the line. 

She glances at Jinx and her face is like a mirror. Rage. Desperation. Anguish. Hate. 

“Fine,” Jinx forces through grit teeth. “Vander for you and your brat.”

Sevika brings Caitlyn and a large group of their men, who will escort Vander, Reveck, and Orianna to the port. Reveck has agreed to cure Vander before he steps onto the boat. Only then will they be allowed to leave. 

Jinx and Ekko have their eyes on Reveck’s daughter. Specifically, the spherical mechanism floating around her body and her father’s. 

It looks an awful lot like Hextech, Caitlyn thinks. Whatever Viktor and Reveck have done to Orianna, she’s certain only magic could keep her mechanical body alive with her old personality.

If that even counts as ‘life’. 

Vi goes ahead of the main group to sort out the transfer with the Noxians. Caitlyn hopes she doesn’t get herself into trouble, but she has other priorities right now. 

Reveck gave up the whole bunker once their deal was secure. 

“I have nothing left to hide in Zaun,” he’s told them. “Do what you wish with it. If any of the data would be useful to you, by all means, take or destroy it.”

Sevika had quietly requested that Caitlyn help her search through the lab. She was unsure, but something in the older woman’s eyes silently urged her to go in anyway.

“We don’t have a lot of time. Find anything you can to trace Reveck to whoever was helping him hide down here,” Sevika says once they’re alone in what seems to be the Alchemist’s office. She starts rifling through papers immediately.

Caitlyn frowns at her. “We’ll need time for an in-depth investigation–”

“Anything. Something to give Jinx before she goes off the rails.”

“Before–but she’s stable now. The medicine she takes for the psychosis–”

“You don’t get it,” Sevika snaps. “The psychosis isn’t what makes her Jinx, treated or not. She’s still Jinx. She is not going to take this quietly. She is going to explode and she’s going to need a target. So let’s find one.”

Caitlyn gets the point. She doesn’t like it, but she begins to search through Reveck’s documents anyway. Sevika knows Jinx better than she does, and Caitlyn will admit that she’s probably right.  

So they need to find a target that will be constructive rather than destructive. For them, at least. And then hope nothing else goes wrong.

As soon as they get to the port, Jinx has a gun pressed to the back of Reveck’s head. To his credit, the Alchemist seems unsurprised. 

Samira–that cocky, self-satisfied bitch–is waiting for them, smile and all. Jinx is going to kill her. 

“There you are,” she greets them. “Your sister dropped by to tell us you were coming.”

“And where is she now?” Ekko scowls. Vi isn’t present.

“Something about needing to blow off steam,” Samira responds dismissively. “Quite the hothead, that one. Dr. Reveck?”

“I am intact,” he responds. Orianna is watching Jinx with that Hextech orb floating around her father, but she doesn’t give a fuck. She just presses the gun barrel closer against the fucker’s head.

“And you’ll only stay intact if you cure my dad,” Jinx growls. 

“I am a man of my word,” Reveck replies. 

“We’ll see.”

Vander has remained sentient, though he’s been growling and snuffling with ever-growing frequency as the temporary dose Reveck injected earlier steadily wears away. Ekko keeps a hand on his flesh arm and speaks to the wolf-man quietly, which seems to calm him. 

“Say a prayer and work your magic, egghead.” 

Orianna’s voice becomes defensive. “If you harm him–”

“–you’ll what?” Jinx hisses. Her anger is intense enough to make the mechanical girl recoil. 

“Do not be rash, Orianna,” Reveck tells her softly. “This is not a fight you will win, in any case. All will be well.”

His daughter is nervous, but she backs off. Good. 

Reveck holds up the blue flask, then pulls a tube and hand-held pump from inside his coat. He attaches one end of the tube to the Chemtank mechanism on Vander’s back. 

“Keep him calm, Jinx. He will respond to you.”

“Ekko,” Jinx calls, and he takes her place and the gun, keeping it trained against Reveck’s skull. She steps around to Vander’s wolfish face and holds his jaws to look into his eyes. 

Reveck starts to pump the cure into the mechanism. When the blue reaches the Chemtank, Vander goes rigid and lets out a low whine. His steel claws tear into the stone beneath him.

“It’s ok,” Jinx whispers. “Shh. It’s ok. It’ll be over soon. You’re gonna be fine.”

“Pow–dur,” he slurs. His body is starting to wrack and shake. Reveck does not seem surprised. Or maybe he just doesn’t care.

“I know,” she cradles the huge skull and hugs tight. “I have you, ok? You’re fine. You’re fine.”

It takes an agonizing two minutes before the cure is completely transferred to the Chemtank. The chemical glow has shifted into bluish-green. 

Reveck slowly steps around to inspect Vander’s eyes. The pupils are dilated and he’s still shaking. “He’ll be ill for a few days’ time, I expect. The cure is binding to his cells as we speak. Take him somewhere dark and quiet, where his enhanced senses will not be strained. It will make the process easier on him.”

Jinx sets her jaw and nods stiffly. Reveck stands to back off. A look from Jinx and Ekko pulls the gun away.

“I do sincerely apologize to you, Vander,” Reveck says. “I never wished for this. I know you were a respectable man. But I think you and Jinx both will understand trying to save your child. There is nothing so undoing as a daughter.”

Jinx spits pure venom. “Get out.”

Wisely, Reveck turns and leads Orianna onto the Noxian ship. Samira follows and the gangplank is lifted. The vessel is pushed away from the dock. 

Samira is pleased with how smoothly the pickup has gone, if a little disappointed by how anticlimactic things were. She’d expected a bit more fight from Zaun after Ambessa’s stint a couple years ago. That the warlord had met her demise here of all places was…less than impressive. 

Reveck only spares a few moments to look at the other Noxian ships waiting on the horizon before he twists back around. His eyes are on Zaun’s port. 

“Feeling homesick already?” Samira queries. 

“You should have brought more ships.”

She raises an eyebrow. “We brought few enough that it wouldn’t be immediately seen as a threat. It’s still enough to keep us safe on the sea.”

“It is not the sea that concerns me,” Reveck mutters. He squints and she follows his gaze to the port. 

It’s Jinx’s sister–Vi, she recalls. A real charmer, that one. She looked ready to kill Samira on sight. A girl after her own heart. 

“Violet,” Reveck says. His eyes narrow. “I see now. Orianna, go to the upper deck. It seems we’ll be taking that swim, after all.”

Samira stares at him. What?

Loud music starts blaring from Zaun’s docks. She blinks, even more confused as Reveck ushers Orianna up the steps with growing urgency.

And then the ship ruptures beneath them.

Really, Ekko should’ve seen it coming. 

Vi comes from further down the docks with her hands stuffed into the pockets of her jacket like nothing is wrong. Like she’s just on a stroll. 

Except she looks like she’s taken a swim. 

“You figure it out?” Jinx asks her sister. 

“Attached ‘em to the ship like you said. Shouldn’t be long.”

“Get Vander to the Firelight Sanctuary,” Jinx says. “It’s empty right now. We’ll find another place for him later. He won’t like all the noise I’m about to make.”

Vi grunts and begins to lead Vander away from the docks. Ekko stares after her before his gaze slowly moves to Jinx. “Do I wanna know?”

“You didn’t actually think I’d just let them leave, did you?”

The Noxian ship has barely gotten two-hundred yards away when it violently rocks. Explosions burst from beneath the waves, just moments before one of Jinx’s music tracks starts blaring from speakers set up around the port. 

So that was where Vi went.

Jinx gets a megaphone from one of her men–really, where were they hiding that?–and lifts it to her mouth. The Noxian vessel is crippled from whatever bombs Vi planted on its underside.

“ATTENTION, ATTENTION! THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING! PREPARE FOR YOUR TRADITIONAL ZAUN SENDOFF!”

Jinx tosses the megaphone to Ekko and hoists Rhino onto her shoulder. He doesn’t even open his mouth before she fires a rocket. 

Samira swears as a fucking missile comes flying at them from the port. She’s heard about Jinx, but she didn’t think that slight little woman was capable of–

Reveck’s daughter lifts the Hextech sphere and manifests an energy shield, which the grinning rocket crashes into. The explosion drowns Samira in light and heat, but she’s unharmed. The same cannot be said for her ship or her men. 

Samira, Reveck, and Orianna are among only a handful who survive that first blast. 

Jinx’s furious voice echoes through the megaphone again. 

“THAT’S A NEAT TRICK, BUT I ONLY HAVE TO GET LUCKY ONCE!”

She glances out to see the rest of their fleet coming to rescue them. Samira hears a hiss in the air and finds another rocket already coming–

Orianna’s shield catches it again, but the mortally wounded ship groans and collapses. Reveck slips a vial from his jacket and downs it in one go as the three of them are tossed into the sea by the concussive force. 

Samira kicks through the water to remain close to her charges. Reveck’s veins are purple. He hoists a piece of steel like a shield with strength that shouldn’t be possible in the water, attempting to protect his daughter and himself. The mechanical girl seems to need time to recover from using her Hextech barrier.

“THIS ONE’S FOR YOU, SAMMY!”

That little psychopath—

Bullets start flying at them like a whirlwind of death. They ricochet and rattle off the steel of Reveck’s makeshift shield. Cleave through the flesh and bone of her men. Samira dives beneath the waves, using sinking wreckage as cover. 

She surfaces as another rocket sails over her head and introduces itself to one of the would-be rescue ships. Debris and men go flying in chunks. 

They have to get out of the water. She’s gonna kill them. 

Bullets and rockets come at them in waves, (where the fuck is that tiny woman keeping THIS much ammunition?!) tearing apart whatever they strike. 

Another rocket is launched well above them, only to break up into a swarm of smaller missiles that rain down. Samira blanches and dives as Orianna gets her shield back up. 

The force of the bombardment rattles her teeth until it feels like they might come apart. Her eardrums pop. 

The sound fades and she hesitantly returns to the surface. 

Five of her seven ships are sinking. The remaining two are damaged, but still seaworthy. Bodies float in the harbor, some ripped to pieces by the explosives. Reveck and Orianna have slipped around to the far side of one such vessel, where they are not visible from the dock, and are being helped onto the ship along with other survivors. Samira swims over to join them. 

She looks up at Zaun. The shrinking shape of Jinx is still there. Maybe she’s out of ammo, but somehow Samira doubts it. She just has to hope that the woman believes Reveck and Orianna are dead. 

“You never told us she was like that,” Samira spits water onto the deck.

“I requested more ships,” Reveck has a slight (but now understandable) edge to his voice. 

She can’t really argue with that.

Jinx is out of rockets. She could probably empty the minigun into the remaining ships, but it might not be worth the bullets. They’re a bit too far away now and the damage will be limited. 

If Reveck is alive, he’s a lucky man. 

Jinx grunts, lowers Rhino, and turns away. 

Good fucking riddance.  

They congregate in Reveck’s bunker afterwards. Vi is still with Vander, but Jinx and Ekko drop in on Sevika and Caitlyn to see what they’ve found. 

“He double-crossed a Chem-Baron,” Sevika tells them. “He wasn’t supposed to leave at all.”

“Which one? Who was hiding him?” Ekko demands. 

“There’s no name. We have a few base locations, but the only references are on his papers. I don’t recognize any of the tunnel maps or coordinates.”

Jinx’s face twists into a scowl. “They’ve been digging deeper.”

“And farther out to the southwest,” Caitlyn passes her a few papers. “There’s a building a few hundred yards down the bolt-hole Reveck set up here from the sound of things. Could be a Shimmer factory, but it breaks off into a network of other tunnels. It’s a labyrinth down there.”

“How deep exactly?” 

“I checked out the bolt-hole,” Sevika grimaces. “The air was already thick and smoggy. It’s like the depths, where the Grey leaks out here and there. Clogs your lungs up. Makes your eyes swell. Going into that is like stepping into hell.”

“Silco could do it,” Jinx mutters. 

“Silco lived in it for years. You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”

Caitlyn frowns. “Jinx, perhaps you should organize a team to–”

“Thanks for your help, Cupcake, but this is my territory,” Jinx interrupts. “Go back to your side of the bridge. I’ve got work to do.”

She spins on her heel and leaves the bunker for her hideout.

It’s late at night when she goes to The Last Drop. 

They’re closed for the night, given the circumstances. Jinx quietly leans Rhino against the wall by the basement and slowly pushes the door open to peer inside. 

Isha’s curled up on the couch farthest from the door. Zeri is in the other one. Jinx takes a moment to just watch them sleep. The girls are all tucked in, courtesy of Ekko, she expects. 

He’s slouched in the chair, arms crossed and passed out. Jinx can’t help but smirk. It’d be a great chance to prank him, but…

Her smile drops as she quietly descends the stairs to kneel and plant a kiss on Isha’s cheek. The adrenaline of the day has worn the child out. Jinx wishes she had a bit more time to tell her daughter how proud of her she is for protecting Zeri, but she has to get to work.

Jinx stands and gives Zeri a kiss. She looks over at Ekko. He…might not want that. Tempting though it is.

She takes a breath and slips out of the basement.

Sevika is waiting for her at the bunker, right next to the bolt-hole. 

Jinx stops as the woman looks up. “Thought you were smart enough to stay out of the way.”

“I’m not getting in your way,” Sevika grunts. “I’m not an idiot. I knew you’d do this.”

“So what is this, a pep-talk?”

“Call it precautions.”

She tosses Jinx a gas mask and goggles that are…a bit different than the ones she’s seen before. They’re more heavy-duty. 

“Do not take those off anyplace where the smog is thickest,” Sevika warns. “You remember the Grey. You know how dangerous it is.”

Jinx nods. Sevika pulls out a bottle of tablets and shakes it before pressing it into her hands. “Do not drink anything without these. The shit down there is toxic if you can’t purify it. Same with food. Don’t eat it if it’s not wrapped up or sealed where you find it.”

She pockets them in one of her pouches. Sevika taps her arm. “You remember your meds?”

Jinx pauses. Sevika rolls her eyes and pulls out another bottle of pills. “The things I do for you.”

“Thanks,” she says. 

“Don’t get killed,” Sevika replies. “That’s a mess I don’t want to clean up, you hear?”

Jinx snorts. “Remind me to give you a raise.”

“You don’t even know what you’re paying me now.”

“Which means I can probably afford it.”

“Don’t get sappy. You see something moving down there, you kill it. You understand? Everything down there wants to kill you.”

“They’d better get in line,” Jinx puts on the mask and the goggles. She glances at Sevika, who jerks her head towards the bolt-hole as she puts her own mask on. 

The door opens. The Grey is already leaking. 

Jinx descends. 

Vi’s pissed when she finds out. The only thing that keeps her from going after her sister is Vander and the girls. 

Vander’s been moved to a safehouse close to The Last Drop, isolated and quiet enough that he’s not bothered by the hustle and bustle of the Lanes. There are always guards around the building and Vi visits him regularly. What Reveck did is taking its time embedding itself into his system, so the wolf-man is resting a lot. 

They get him food and make sure he has water to keep him hydrated. Anything else has to wait until he recovers from the side effects of the cure. In the meantime, Heimerdinger is studying Reveck’s old notes to check the chemical composition and see if there’s anything else they can do for him. 

The girls only know that Jinx is on a job and might be away for a few days. 

Ekko had a feeling she would go on her own, but Jinx had slipped into her one-woman army mindset and gone into the deep fissures before he could get a half-decent plan together. Now she’s in the depths, the harshest place in Zaun, alone and in hostile territory. 

He rubs a hand over his face and stares at the empty canvas. It’s raining outside–fits his mood, he thinks bitterly–and the water cascading down the glass would be pretty to watch if he weren’t so frustrated. 

He just doesn’t get why she does jobs like this alone. Every time they hear about Chem-Baron thugs or the like, Jinx is off like a shot before they can get a word out. They trust each other with their lives. They’re the best fighters in the Lanes. The smartest, too. They took down a demigod together atop the Hexgate. 

Why does she go alone?

Ekko wants answers. But more than that, he wants her to come out of the depths alive. 

He finally takes a breath. The brush finds paint and meets the canvas.

Mama’s been gone for a couple of days now. 

Isha’s trying not to think about it. She and Zeri are with Ekko a lot since Vi’s trying to help Grandpa Vander. He’s getting better, but he’s still sick. They can’t see him yet.

She and Zeri play with a couple of Heimerdinger’s gadgets while Ekko works or paints. Isha’s always with him when he’s working on the painting. He’s trying really, really hard to get it right. 

They go back to The Last Drop most nights, where Vi takes over watching them while Ekko helps Sevika do stuff. All the grown-ups are tired and sorta tense. She thinks they miss Mama. 

Three nights after Mama goes away, Isha is woken up by a finger prodding her cheek. She frowns and blinks. 

Mama’s smiling at her. She holds a finger to her lips, eyes darting to where Vi is snoring on the other couch with Zeri asleep on her chest. 

Mama hugs her super tight and Isha squeezes back with everything she has. 

Missed you lots, Mama signs. 

Missed you too, Isha returns, beaming. 

Sorry to wake you up. Has Vi been good?

She nods. Mama lifts a hand to shift some hair from Isha’s face. Her smile fades a bit. 

I have to go again, trouble.

Isha frowns. You just got back.

I know. I needed to see you, Mama leans over to kiss the top of her head. 

Why do you have to go?

Mama sighs quietly. I found something super important. The bad guys don’t know that I know. I have to hit them now before they figure it out.

Isha watches as Mama reaches into a pouch and pulls out three vials of purple stuff. It looks like Shimmer. 

I’m gonna put these in the safe upstairs, Mama signs, returning them to the pouch. Tell Vi in the morning, ok? Sevika will know what it is.

You’re gonna come back?

Mama’s eyes soften. I’ll always come back to you.

She tucks Isha in under the blankets. Isha pulls her hands out to sign again. Bedtime song?

Mama doesn’t sign. She leans her head against Isha’s and hums, soft and slow. She can follow the lyrics in her thoughts. Dear friend, across the river…

She tries to stay awake as long as she can, but Mama’s fingers run through her hair and she sings until Isha drifts off.

When she wakes up, Mama is gone.

Sevika studies the Shimmer vials in her hand, frowning deeply. They’re gaseous, she can tell at a glance, and labeled, “Berserker” in blue.

“She didn’t say anything about how she got them?” Sevika asks. 

Isha shakes her head and signs. She said she found something important. The bad guys don’t know.

Vi’s jaw is clenched. “She was in the room and I never even heard her.”

“She does that,” Sevika grunts. She considers the vials before carefully passing them to Ekko. “Get these to Heimerdinger. Don’t open them. At all.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” he stares at the label. 

Berserker. It fills him with dread. What has she gotten herself into?

“Jinx isn’t the type to go in quiet like this,” Sevika breaks him out of his thoughts. Her eyes are narrowed. “If she thinks it was worth it to go down there again so soon, then she must be onto something big. I say we trust her on this.”

Vi looks like she wants to argue, but Ekko knows the last thing she wants is to lose her cool in front of Isha. Later, he suspects, she’ll get into a shouting match with Sevika over this. 

Ekko makes a choice. 

“I’m going into the depths.”

“Don’t be stupid.”

“I’m not going after her. But I can set up–I don’t know, markers to guide her out. Something. I can’t just sit here anymore.”

Sevika considers that before she slowly nods. “Fine. You work on that. I’ll get a mask and goggles sent to the bunker for you to use. At least we won’t have to worry about her getting lost.”

Ekko’s already spinning for the door. 

Truth is, he does go after her. He goes way deeper than he should, working his way through a haze of barely-lit tunnels. 

He has no idea how anything lives down here. The thick, choking air, the poisoned water, to say nothing of the feral creatures and people…the depths reject the outside world entirely. 

Ekko leaves markers everywhere pointing towards the surface in gleaming paint that is impossible to miss, even in the low light. He won’t chance her getting lost and dying in this fucking place.  

He descends as far as he dares for the better part of a day, until he’s almost out of paint to make markers. Only then does Ekko force himself to turn back. 

Unsuccessful. 

He returns to his flat more frustrated than ever. The mask is thrown across the room as Ekko sits on the edge of his bed and drives his hands into his hair. 

Every fucking time he tries to save her. Every fucking time he fails. 

Boy savior. The only success he had was when he literally broke time until he got it right. 

It kills him that she does this. 

He looks up from the floor to the painting. It’s almost finished, but he can imagine it already. He wants her to see it, even if it scares the hell out of him. Isha told him Jinx would like it, but he’s been afraid it will upset her. 

Ekko sighs and stands to get himself cleaned up. He’ll finish the painting, then he’ll go back down into the depths as many times as he needs to until he finds her. 

Jinx has been in the depths for six days now.

Ekko has gone looking for her three times, but the labyrinth down there is a fucking nightmare. He has left markers all over the damn place and sometimes he still gets turned around. It’s the most claustrophobic, panic-inducing environment he’s ever been in and he absolutely hates it. 

But he keeps going in. 

He’s back in his flat after his latest failed attempt. Even Sevika is starting to get a little anxious, for all that she tries to hide it. Jinx is the best at what she does, but six days in enemy territory in the depths is a lot. 

Night’s fallen outside. The moon is high. Ekko tries his best to relax so he can get some actual sleep. He tries not to think about her down there, alone in the tunnels. 

He’ll go back in tomorrow, he decides. Sevika keeps telling him off, but he doesn’t give a fuck. 

He’s just about to drift off when someone knocks on his door. Ekko grumbles, wiping the sleep from his eyes as he grabs the Clock-sword leaning against the wall by his bed. Old habits die hard. 

If this is Sevika in the middle of the goddamn night–

He opens the door and it’s Jinx.

Ekko practically drags her inside and shuts the door behind her. She stumbles in, eyes red. Face pale. Exhausted enough that she’s trembling. Her clothes are ragged. She has bruises and cuts–some of which are an angry red–and even her weapons are scratched up in places. 

She’s a fucking mess. 

“You’re ok,” Ekko wraps her in his arms for all of two seconds before he registers how filthy she is and pulls her to the shower. Jinx doesn’t even say anything, she’s so worn out. 

She flinches suddenly and her head jerks, staring at nothing. Ekko realizes after a moment what’s happened. 

“Get cleaned up, ok? Go ahead and brush your teeth, too. I’ll get some food going for you to take with your meds. And some clothes.”

Jinx nods and starts to undress as he gets the water going. The clothes probably need to be burnt, if he’s being honest. They’re certainly no good anymore. Hell, she’s only got one sock on. She hisses as she pulls her bare foot out of her shoe and there’s a fair few blisters rubbed raw. Ekko grabs her bag, the Rhino gun and pistol, steps around her and catches sight of–

“What the hell is that?”  

There’s a– bruise is too small a word for the expanse of discolored skin across her back. It’s black-blue-yellow from her left hip all the way up to her shoulder blades, like she got thrown against a wall or something. 

“What happened?”

“Got clipped,” she mumbles. 

“By what?”

“Chemhulk.”

Ekko bites his lip to keep from saying anything to that. He forces himself to step out of the room. 

She needs food. She needs her meds. She’s probably dehydrated. She needs clean clothes. 

Ekko vents his worry and frustration into the tasks, trying to calm down while the shower runs. He heats up a plate of leftovers, sets her meds beside a glass of water. 

Jinx has meds stashed in their usual haunts throughout the Lanes. The Last Drop, the treehouse, Heimerdinger’s lab, and Ekko’s flat to name a few locations. Just in case she forgets or misplaces some.

He grabs a pair of his sweatpants and a hoodie for her to wear and sets them outside the bathroom door. Then he goes to the little table by his kitchen and waits. 

Jinx is in the shower for a bit, but she’s got a lot of scrubbing to do given how she looked when she stepped into his flat. 

When she does come out, she looks–thankfully–like she’s doing better. She sits down beside him and begins to eat, a little energy returning to her as she devours bite after bite–

“Slow,” he sets a hand on her arm lightly. “You’ll make yourself sick. When’d you eat last?”

She frowns. “I don’t really remember. I think a day? Maybe a bit longer.”

But she listens and eats more slowly. She downs her meds about halfway through and sighs, pressing a hand to her forehead. Ekko’s hand falls from her arm to cover her fingers. Physical contact helps to ground her when the Scribbles are scratching.

“I fumbled them,” she admits. “Tried to take them in some of the thinner smog, but there were Chempunks around and I got startled. Just dropped ‘em and couldn’t find them afterwards.”

“How bad?”

“Mylo’s been yelling at me for a few hours.”

Probably only a day then. It’s not a complete disaster. Give it a few hours and a solid night’s sleep, and the Scribbles will be suppressed again. Ekko wraps his fingers around her hand and squeezes. She sighs. She looks so tired. 

“I’m sorry for showing up like this,” she says. “I didn’t want to scare Isha. And Zeri–she’s never seen me when the Scribbles are around.”

“It’s fine. I wasn’t really sleeping. I was planning to go back down, actually.”

Jinx looks at him. “You set up the markers?”

“You saw them?”

“They got me out. I got turned around and…Ekko, those were like two miles in.”

“I went down three times trying to find you. I was gearing up for a fourth trip.”

Jinx bites her lip. “Thanks. I…don’t know if I would’ve gotten out without those. I didn’t think it was gonna be that insane down there.”

“Why did you go alone?” Ekko asks, trying to get the weight off his chest. “You could’ve been killed.”

“It’s my job. You and Heimerdinger invent stuff that makes life down here better. Sevika sorts out the trade deals. Vi’s got her Busybodies covering work for everyone in the Lanes. My job is making sure the scum of the earth stay away.”

“Not alone! Nothing down there is worth your life!”

Jinx purses her lips and stands up. Ekko almost can’t believe she does that, like is she actually about to walk out–

She goes to her bag and kneels to pull out a stack of papers and her missing sock. The half-torn fabric has been tied up around something. She undoes the knot and what falls out is–

It’s a Hextech Gemstone. She presses it into his hand as she sits down again. The papers are set down on the table. 

“Where did you get this?” Ekko can only draw two possibilities and one is impossible–

“I hit a lab on my first trip. Found the weird Shimmer gas, but there were a bunch of notes written up by Reveck in a safe I cracked. Said there was another lab further in. I figured out they were working on some Hextech project and tried to get at it before they knew I was onto them.”

She taps the stack of papers she must have stolen. “He learned a lot from Viktor, I think. When we were getting ready to fight the Noxians? I think Viktor was the one who made the Gemstone. There might be more, but maybe not down there. I tore the place up.”

Ekko flips through the papers and stops on an image that looks a little too familiar. It’s a sketch of an Arcane anomaly, labeled as a…power source(?) for some kind of device that reminds him of the Hexcore Heimerdinger told him about. 

“Reveck’s daughter,” Jinx murmurs as she takes another bite of food. “That floating ball she had, it’s like…a modified Hexcore, or whatever. Reveck and whichever Chem-Baron was hiding him were working on making a Hextech weapon sort of like it. I stole all the info I could.

“Reveck worked out how to deal with the side effects. Probably with Viktor’s help. I guess he went deep on the research so that his kid’s magic heart didn’t like, warp reality around her and stuff. I’m not sure if it solves everything, but this might be what you and Heimerdinger need to get the Hexgates working again.”

Ekko stares at her. She pokes at her food with the fork. “Still think it wasn’t worth the risk?”

“What did you think would happen if you didn’t come back? How would I have told Isha that you–” Ekko sets the Gemstone down maybe a bit harder than he needs to. Jinx throws him a weary glare. 

“You know I pulled every dirty trick I had to come back to her,” she retorts. “You know I did. It’s what I do best.”

“You’re not just a one-woman army, we–”

“That’s what I have to be, Ekko! The best thing I can do for Zaun is make sure our enemies are too scared to come anywhere near us!” Jinx scowls. “After all that shit–the Noxians just showing up in town for ‘trade’ and Reveck–fuck, he could’ve taken the girls!”

She’s breathing hard. Her eyes are a little wild as she drops the fork and drives her fingers into her hair. Ekko stands and moves behind her to place his hands on her shoulders. He squeezes, a bit more gently than he usually might to help keep her anchored from the Scribbles. He doesn’t want to aggravate the bruises and cuts she wears.

Jinx takes a raspy breath. “I had to react. I had to make a fucking example out of them. Blowing up the ships, tearing the labs in the depths apart–I can’t let any of our enemies get any ideas that we’re vulnerable. Look how close Reveck got to Isha and Zeri. When you told me what happened, I, oh my god, I was–”

She starts crying. Ekko leans over and hugs her tight. He’s shaking a little as he buries his face in her shoulder. 

He knows. He was scared out of his fucking mind when it happened. 

Ekko waits until she’s cried the worst of it out of her system. She’s shivering, wiping tears from her eyes, and trying to breathe. 

He steps around her and takes her hands, pulling her onto her feet. “Can I show you something?”

“I’m too tired to see some new invention, Ekko.”

“It’s not that. I think you’ll like it.”

Jinx considers that for a moment before she nods. “Fine.”

Ekko tugs her to his little art room and turns some of the softer lights on so her eyes aren’t aggravated. She’s been used to the low tunnel lights for a week now. 

Jinx still squints a bit before he turns her towards the painted canvas near the window. She stares.

It’s a side view of the bar at The Last Drop. Ekko’s painted Jinx sitting on one of the barstools with Isha in her lap. She’s holding her daughter as Isha leans up to light a cigar in Silco’s fingers. Silco stands on the other side of the counter, and beside him is Vander. They’re older, a bit of gray in their hair that he remembers from the other universe. Vander’s got a hand on Silco’s shoulder as he talks with Vi, who is sitting next to Jinx and Isha. 

They look happy. Jinx is smiling down at Isha in the picture. Silco’s strict face has softened somewhat as he watches the child. Vander’s laughing and Vi’s got that cocky smirk on her face, like she’s just made a joke or something. 

“You painted this?” Jinx whispers. 

Ekko shifts anxiously. He hopes she likes it. That he’s not overstepping. 

“I wanted to make something for you,” he admits. “But I wasn’t sure if this was okay, so I asked Isha. She’s been helping me get it right for a couple of weeks now.”

“You didn’t have to,” she lifts a hand to delicately touch Silco’s visage. “He looks so…Ekko, you–”

“I know you loved him. Even if I never did, he was important to you.”

She half-turns to stare at him. He thinks she might cry again. Ekko swallows and hesitantly lifts a hand to her cheek. “I know I’m not…like, I haven’t said it, but I’m happy you’re in my life. I just…wanted you to see that. You and Isha–I would just as soon leave Hextech in the vaults if it meant you were still here. Even after everything, it’s…it’s you.”

Jinx doesn’t move as he leans down and catches her lips. She presses back a little. It only lasts a moment. 

Her mouth parts, but she doesn’t say anything. Like she’s afraid the moment could break like glass. He’s a little scared it might, too. 

Ekko presses his forehead to hers. Blue fills his vision. 

He finds the nerve to get the words out of his lungs. The truth he’s known for years, even when they were enemies. The reason he could never put her down and the reason he’s here with her now are the same.

“Truth is I could drink poison if it tasted like you.”

Jinx’s breath leaves her in a rush. Her hands frame his face as her mouth finds his again, and Ekko doesn’t really think as he pulls her flush against him. His heart might burst from his chest for how hard it’s beating. He’s shaking, or maybe she is, he’s not sure. 

Things escalate from there. They’ve never been known to possess an abundance of caution, even in other universes. 

She tugs him to his room and before he knows it, they’re both bare. His fingers run along the expanse of her back, she’s leaning down to kiss him and her breath is loud in the dark. 

Neither of them are strangers to sex, but they may as well be. They fumble and giggle like they’re high, like the overeager teenagers they used to be. 

Ekko sits up and presses soft kisses to the hollow of her throat. Her head lolls back, she’s laughing and gasping and her voice is euphoric for him. Fingernails scratch at the back of his neck, she shifts her hips–

His face drops to her shoulder, he tastes the sweat on her skin as she kisses the side of his head. She shifts again and a sound he didn’t even know he could make escapes his lungs. 

It’s slow. For once, the frenzied pace of their lives slides to a crawl and Ekko tries to memorize every single second. She’s staring into his eyes, there are flecks of purple that linger in the blue. A bit of moonlight coming through the blinds, paints ribbons of her skin in silver. 

He’ll Paint that moonlight the next time they mark their colors onto each other. 

Time is nonexistent to him now, but eventually they both come down from the high and are curled up together beneath the cool sheets. Ekko wraps himself around Jinx and buries his nose in the crook of her neck. She has his fingers interlocked with hers, like she’s afraid he might disappear in the morning. 

He’s not going anywhere.