Chapter Text
Jinx didn’t trust this whole thing.
Why would she? It stunk from top to bottom.
Literally from Topside to bottom.
So she had elected to sit on a table several feet away, dangling her feet over the edge of it as she listened to the Sheriff of Piltover talk to Vander and Silco. Close enough to hear, far enough to run. If she had to.
“I always appreciated this place, even before.” Grayson’s voice was still warm, fond as she sipped at a drink Vander had poured her. Jinx scoffed. Blue eyes scanned over to her, and the older woman gave her a smile. “Only place to get a truly stiff drink.”
“Well we aim to please here at the Last Drop. Always happy to have a friend from across the river visit.” Vander was the very image of polite host before he sighed, leaning on the bar and throwing the towel he had been using to clean glasses over his shoulder. “Really though, what is this Councilor thinking?”
He’d ordered everyone out, just like he’d done the other day, the second he’d met Silco’s eye. It was like they could talk with only a look, a sense of familiarity that was at both times strange to Jinx, but also felt like it had been missing from the two men she had known. They'd become strangers who didn't recognize each other in her world. In this, they were as close as they could ever be.
Grayson didn’t answer right away, taking another long draught of the drink in her hand. “Salo is his name. And I truly don’t know. He’s a fool, this sort of move is.. Risky.”
“It’s too risky.” Silco’s smooth voice entered the conversation at last as he leaned against the counter behind the bar, his arm pressed to his husband’s. “It’s too bold, to give you this order. Why not simply order it to an Enforcer who can be bought?”
“I’m not going to pretend that doesn’t happen, but this is something that would command a steep price, even from the worst in our ranks.” Grayson chuckled, swirling the drink in her glass around as she tipped it towards the man slightly. “He may simply be too cheap, and thinks that he can use his family’s influence to get it done.”
“So he’s a fool, a powerful one. And too blinded by that power to realize that his reach exceeds his grasp..” Silco tapped a finger on the bar counter.
“Perfect material for Piltover’s Council.” Vander’s joke brought a small laugh from his husband, and from the Sheriff sitting across from them.
Not from Jinx though, as she watched this with narrowed eyes. They were too familiar with one another, too unconcerned with the way a Councilor was looking for her. The way Topside was actually hungering for her blood. For the Shimmer that ran in her veins. She steadied herself with a deep breath before she spoke. “He wants to give me over to the doctor, doesn’t he?”
All three sets of eyes snapped over to her. The two men's eyes were filled with concern, but Grayson was the one who spoke, looking confused at what she meant. “I’m not sure if it’s a specific doctor per se, but I think he is being pressured by someone else. Someone powerful, but who is wise enough to remain in the shadows. This is a bold move, using a Councilor exposes one to minimal risk, but its still a risk.” The Sheriff’s eyes were studying her, like she was a puzzle. She hated that. “You must be very special, girl.”
“Pfft, as if.” Jinx laughed and waved her remaining hand flippantly. “What’s so special about a one-armed, half-crazed orphan? Kick a rock in the Undercity, you’ll hit ten of me.”
“Jinx..” Silco’s voice was tight, and she was about to glare at him and tell him to shove it with the lessons today when the door opened.
Powder and Ekko entered, leaning in close to one another and giggling before they stopped and stared at everyone else in the bar. Jinx eyes roamed over them, clocking a few things about them.
Ekko’s tie was off center quite a bit. His collar had been opened, too.
His tied back hair was loose, like the tie had been reapplied haphazardly.
Powder’s two buns were undone, and her hair was sticking up in all directions on the top.
There was a small bruise just over the girl’s collarbone, that the collar her shirt revealed a piece of. It was fresh, not like the yellowing bruise that coated the girl’s left eye, the one that Jinx had put there when she arrived here. The gash across the bridge of Powder's nose was still there too. Also her fault.
Oblivious to all this, Powder blinked and spoke quietly. “Hi, Sheriff.”
“Ah, Powder. Good to see you again.” Grayson gave her a nod in greeting, and Jinx just narrowed her eyes a bit before letting out a quiet chuckle at at Powder and Ekko’s disheveled appearances as they moved to sit down at the table she was on.
Powder took her seat and glanced between Jinx, who was watching her like a hawk for some reason, and her dads. “What’s.. Going on?”
Sheriff Grayson opened her mouth, but closed it when Silco spoke first. “The Sheriff here is enjoying a drink, and letting us know that a Councilor has requested that Jinx be apprehended and brought to him.”
Her eyes widened. “What?!” She jumped out of her chair, clenching her fists. Ekko was on his feet too, but his hand was on Jinx's shoulder, while his eyes were glaring at the three at the bar. “Well, they can’t have her.”
Scribbles at the corners of her vision, and she felt the fury inside her veins.
Atta girl, show ‘em.
Vi’s voice echoed through her mind, and she took a steadying breath, leveling a glare at her father as she repeated herself more calmly. “They can’t have her.”
Silco held up his hands, indicating for her to back down a bit. She did, sitting back down with a huff. “And they won’t. No matter how little time she’s spent here, she is one of the family.” His good eye leveled at the Sheriff. “Moreover, she is a daughter of Zaun, and I will not hand a single one of us over to Piltover.”
“Nor am I asking you to, Councilor.” The Sheriff hummed softly, and it was those words that got Ekko to step back from being in front of Jinx, protective as always. “But, Salo assured me that this girl was not a citizen of your nation at all, in fact, that she may have entered your city illegally. Imagine the scandal.” The woman scoffed and took a drink from the cup in her hands, shaking her head. It did strike Powder as odd. Imagine being concerned people were sneaking into your city.
Topsider nonsense, as always.
Powder looked at her dads, who glanced at each other, then her fathers good eye found her gaze. The idea came to her as she lit up, and he gave a small smile before nodding to her. “She’s got papers, we can produce those whenever your Councilor would like.” She projected cheerfulness into her voice, and she leaned back in her chair. “She’s my sister, after all.”
She looked over at Jinx, who was staring at her with wide, wild magenta eyes. There was an expression of terror, then confusion, and finally a small smile that spread over the girl’s dark lips as she watched. “My twin, actually!” Powder continued once Jinx gave her a tiny nod. “She had a really hard time with our parents deaths, understandably, and she ran away! But she returned just in time to save me from a lab accident. Such horrific injuries she suffered for her selfless act, it’s a miracle she’s alive! Piltover’s doctors must truly be the finest in all the world.”
Powder ended it with a bright smile, and Grayson let loose a laugh that came from her belly, deep and warm. The woman was grinning at her, and did make her feel a little proud. “You’ve your father’s talent for statecraft, girl.” The Sheriff glanced over at Silco. “It’s a good story. Run with that one.”
“All your time as an Enforcer, and you’re not curious the truth of the matter?” Silco's voice was even as he looked over at the Sheriff.
“With age comes the wisdom to not ask questions I do not want the answers to. ..Why, are they not twins?” Grayson shrugged, blue eyes flitting between Powder and Jinx. “Could’ve fooled me.”
Her dads shared a small, nervous chuckle as the Sheriff put her cup down. Grayson asked her father another question, but it was lost to her because Jinx was suddenly sitting on the edge of the table that was closest to her, a hand pulled her chair over to bring them face to face.
She thought that the girl might be angry with her for jumping to such a leap for a solution, but..
Was it even a leap? They were the same person, really.
'Twins' just made sense, no one would look at them and not see the other in their features. Even for all their different scars, or their eyes, they had the same face.
‘Sisters’ seemed to fit.
Even if she quietly was hoping that Jinx would say yes, to help fill that longing for a sister that had been left by Vi's passing. It was to help someone else, so Vi would understand.
She had to believe that her sister would understand that protecting the other girl was important.
Instead of anger, Jinx was fussing with her hair, and then messing with the collar of her shirt. Powder finally jerked back when she dug out of her own thoughts, whispering her question. “ What are you doing?”
Pink eyes met hers and a knowing grin was on Jinx’s lips, as the other version of her spoke quietly. “Wake up, Pow, you smell like grease and sex. Plus, I could see where he got you good.”
Her eyebrows shot up, and she glared over at Ekko who was stifling a laugh as she blushed furiously. “J-Jinx!”
Magenta eyes slid over to her boyfriend as Jinx spoke. “Don’t laugh too hard, boy wonder, you buttoned your shirt back on crooked.” Ekko’s gaze immediately dropped to his shirt, and he cursed under his breath and began to fix it as discreetly as he could.
Sister.
The word left Jinx reeling as she finished fixing Powder’s hair, leaving it down. Her fingers lingered on the locks of pink hair, dyed in memory of Vi, before she finally pulled away and swung back to look at the people by the bar.
Sister?
Sister.
It felt weird in her skull.
It felt like it had always fit.
All the voices didn’t have an opinion on this, convenient.
She couldn’t find Powder in her head.
Silco had stepped away at some point, and was returning with a letter that looked like it had been closed and sealed with wax. An official seal of Zaun, she’d bet. The stamp had been in his office, when she’d taken the time to look through his desk earlier.
“Please pass this on to Cassandra Kiramman, through pneuma tube, if you can.” He pursed his lips as the woman took the letter. “She remains our staunchest advocate on the Council upstairs, perhaps she can put an end to this.. Strain on our relationship as sister cities.”
Grayson sighed, thumbing over the seal. “Perhaps this’ll keep our peace a while longer.”
“You really think what we wanted from Piltover was peace, Sheriff?” Vander spoke up then, having largely been happy to let his husband and daughter talk this over until now, it seemed. “We want your Council to stop looking down here like they own it all. Risking a war because of one girl, what’re they thinking?”
“Time heals all wounds, Vander.” The woman spoke slowly as Jinx watched, no longer worried that anyone here wanted to deliver her to some upjumped doctor looking to dissect her. “But it also lets people forget. Salo, Hoskel. The High Houses and all their varied businesses.. They’ve forgotten what will happen if they push the Undercity too far.”
“Then we should endeavour to let them linger in their ignorance, Sheriff.” Silco sighed and leaned against the bar near the woman. “I will not compromise this camaraderie between our cities, but neither will I not hesitate to remind them that Zaun is free. We are our own nation now, and I intend to hand the next generation a thriving home to build upon, no matter the cost.”
His good eye slid over to Jinx for a moment before returning to the Sheriff. “Do you understand what I’m saying, Grayson?”
“I do.” Her voice was gravelly and serious, and part of Jinx’s mind passively wondered if she could ever get that sort of rumble to her voice. She liked it. “I will push back and run interference as long as I can.. But if the Council orders it, I will have to follow their order or step down.”
“Without people like you up there, Grayson..” Vander sighed and raised his glass, clinking it against the woman’s in a bit of a toast. “It’d all fall apart.”
Vander’s eyes met Jinx’s after he took a drink, and he gave her a firm nod and a reassuring smile. One that she returned after a moment, rocking back in her seat on the table.
They wouldn't give her up, not for anything.
Jinx remained on the table after almost everyone else had left, one leg pulled up to her chest and her arm wrapped around it. The Sheriff had headed back Topside after another drink, while Silco and Vander had retired with soft farewells to the three of them. Then Ekko had kissed Powder goodnight, tossing her a weird look. And the other her.. Just sat down next to her and stayed quiet.
Minutes lingered on in silence, and her mind raced to find something, anything to say to the other girl.
Sisters?!
“..Was it really that obvious, Ekko and me?”
Jinx snorted against her knee, watching her other foot swing back and forth as her leg hung off the edge of the table. Of course that's what was bothering her. “Yeah, you both aren’t subtle.”
“And you are, huh?” Powder’s voice brought her eyes over the side of her knee to look down at the gaze staring back up at her. “I'd bet that when you finally kissed your Ekko, you actually cheered.”
“Hm.” She narrowed her eyes at her twin, smirking against her leg as she recalled the memories of that night. It wasn't exactly cheering, but it certainly echoed. “There was some screaming involved, yeah.”
That got her the win in this little verbal bout they were having as Powder blushed and looked away. Clearing her throat, the girl stood up, walking a few feet away before turning back around with a much more serious expression on her face than the previous one. “I shouldn’t have sprung all that on you, Jinx.”
Lazily following her with her gaze, Jinx sighed. “You’re gonna make this into a whole.. Thing, aren’t you? Okay..” She let her leg down and turned to look more closely at Powder. It was weird to see her here, not trapped as a little girl inside her head.
Different Powder, Jinx.
This was the good one.
“Look, I don’t.. You don’t have to do this for me.” Jinx glanced away, rubbing the sore spot under her loose shirt where the stitches had healed into a puffy scar across her side and belly. “I know we gotta get the papers put together and all that, but you don’t have to actually pretend we’re sisters, if it’s.. I dunno, hard for you. Or whatever.”
Powder looked surprised at her choice of words, then glared at her. “It’d just be pretending, to you?”
“It’d be sad, to latch on to the girl you’re stuck with.” Jinx scoffed and turned away, drawing her knee back up to her chest to rest her cheek against it. “I’m not Vi.”
“I’m not asking you to be!” The girl’s voice had a level of stress behind it now, and her bright blue eyes were wide as she stepped back into Jinx’s field of vision. Annoying, the way she refused to let her go. ‘I’m asking you, Jinx, if you’d be okay.. Seeing what we can have, w-while you’re here. Would it really be so bad?”
“Hm, might be.” She scoffed against her leg, shaking her head. “Should’ve see the scraps Vi and I got into with each other..”
“I’m not Vi, but I’m basically your family.” Powder sounded exasperated. Upset with her. That definitely seemed like the effect she had on family, at least. “Jinx, we’re practically twins.”
“Except for the eyes, the arm.. My superior fashion sense.”
Powder smacked her leg for that one. “Fine, so we’re close enough..” The other girl turned and leaned against the table, folding her arms and looking away. “I’ll drop it, then.”
Jinx frowned, looking over at the girl with a raised eyebrow. She’d hurt her by pushing back, she could hear it in Powder’s voice.
Scratches tore at her eyes, and there was a cruel voice.
Mylo was right.
No.
You’re a jinx.
No!
Jinx squeezed her eyes closed as she forced herself to breathe, letting out a long slow breath and opening her eyes to find Powder looking back at her with concern on her face. Of course she recognized what it sounded like to silence the voices. “Fine. I think it’s dumb, but I’ll try.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “If it’s that important to you, I guess.”
She was rewarded with Powder literally jumping with excitement, cheering before throwing her arms around her neck and pulling her in for a hug that was far too tight. “Thanks, sis!”
The way it sounded as she wrapped her arm around the other girl in return..
It felt like it fit.
Jinx hummed softly. Another sister.
Hopefully it went well this time.
Orange energy crackled all around him.
One second...
Ekko drifted through between worlds, an entire ocean of stars that he could see. Hm, no, that he could feel .
“-lly made i-”
Fifty-eight million, six hundred and ninety-five thousand, two-hundred and eighteen seconds...
A voice was following him through this rift, or.. Waiting for him at the end of it.
“-nda, I’m losing mys-”
One hundred and thirty-seven million, one hundred and sixty-six thousand, two hundred and twenty-three seconds...
Throughout the Arcane was a thrum of energy, but he could feel the way that Runeterra, the moon, and the sun had all aligned. Just as Viktor said, but there was something else. Another alignment, right next to this one. The other world, the one where he had been before. He could feel the connection he had with it, even after such a short time there.
“-ide, they contamina-”
Two hundred and thirty-five million, four hundred and thirteen thousand, and fourteen seconds...
His watch, belted to his left hand, was clicking away as his mind kept track of each agonizing second that ticked by. It lasted an eternity. It only took the time between inhale and exhale.
It was forever. It was less than a second.
“-ko, please , c-”
Three hundred and ninety-two million, five hundred and ninety-seven thousand, and seventy-four seconds...
Ekko slammed into a metal floor, sucking in a ragged and panicked breath as he was catapulted through time and space, coming to an erupt stop in this place. He coughed as he turned over, spittle coating the floor as his empty stomach attempting to heave all of the nothing in it out. He retched dryly for several moments before his body seemed to calibrate to this world again, focus snapping in like he’d just come up from underwater.
His arms trembled as they kept him up, and he looked around.
It was Powder’s workshop.
Dust covered every surface.
Years of dust.
Ekko’s gaze whipped around, looking over the dark space as his eyes adjusted. There was nothing here, just rusted metal and broken pipelights. “N-no.” He struggled to his feet, his body still screaming at him for that particularly long journey through the Arcane. He let out a cough as he pressed his arm to his mouth. There was something in the air. “No, no.. Jinx! ..Jinx!”
His voice echoed through the empty space, and he stumbled forwards as he made his way towards the stairs that led out of here. He coughed again, and he could taste the way the air was heavy in here. Stale. Then there was a click as his ankle pulled on a trip wire, and the phonograph a few feet away kicked on with a whirring buzz.
“E-E-E-E-”
He looked down, and followed a once-bright scribbled drawing of a blue and purple arrow towards the stand where the machine sat. The needle was stuck, and the noise screeched through the entire workshop, echoing over the metal walls.
Moving unsteadily as he made his way over to it, he would’ve recognized Jinx’s drawings anywhere. She’d left him a message, she had to have. He pushed the needle back to its ready position, and leaned in to blow the dust from the cylinder that was inserted. With a heavy breath, he let the stylus fall back into place, where it started playing the recording.
“E-E-Ek-Ek-Ekko, if that’s you.. ” It was her voice, as raspy as he remembered, even as scratchy as it was through the recording device. But there was something else, a weariness he hadn’t heard in her voice outside of the time after he’d talked her off the ledge several months ago. "You finally made it."
“..You’re late, mister.”