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There's a saying in the underworld.
A saying that goes ‘the only one stronger than the one who holds all the power, is the one who holds their heart.’
Sevika believed that was bullshit. Because- in order to gain all of the power, you can’t have a heart.
But, as she watched her boss fret over a small scrape on the knee of a girl he had decided was his daughter, she was starting to seriously doubt that belief of hers.
Because- what else explained the softening of her boss’s sharp features as he listened to the little girl rant about all of the chaos she caused in the streets just outside of The Last Drop. A mixture of disappointment and pride as if there wasn’t a thing Jinx could do to make him upset at her.
She de-pantsed one of his followers, accident or not the man was on a warpath and here Jinx sat with a smile and no regrets, and Silco did nothing to scold her. As if afraid that if he did, that scrape would turn into something deeper, something he can’t fix.
Sevika huffed and fell into the couch by Silco’s desk, her chin lifting to the sky while her head rested on the back of the cushion behind her. Although she had only been with them a year, she had slowly been growing more comfortable and more… chaotic.
She had yet to see if those rumors were true, that the one holding the heart of the one with power had more power.
But, she lowered her eyes to the girl who was now standing- or, running around the desk with that too big smile and too many words falling from it for her or even Silco to follow, and she thought that there may be some truth to that.
And she’d hate to see the day that the theory comes true because she knew that once they did, there would be no controlling the hellion her boss now calls his daughter.
—
Two years. It only took two fucking years before those words were proven true… and Sevika can’t find the anger she once thought she’d have.
—
The day started normal, Sevika would get rudely woken by the sound of sharp shrill laughter, and she wouldn’t even have to open her eyes to know who that laughter belonged to.
Or to know the laughter was closing in on the room Sevika called her own, on the rare days she decided to spend the night at The Last Drop.
She groaned and turned over in the bed probably too small for her body, gritting her teeth as the sound of her door swinging open and hitting the wall cut through the once mostly silent room and allowing the unnatural lighting of the hallway to spill in uninvited, a girl with navy blue hair following close after.
“Sevika!”
Sevika ignored her, she would not indulge her like her father did. She was not her child…
She ignored that this was not the first time the girl had done this.
She also ignores that it probably won’t be the last, either.
“Sevika wake up!”
Sevika’s face twists as her eyes remain stubbornly shut, a sharp “Get the fuck out.” falling from her lips low enough to send most of Silco’s lackeys fleeing from her sight.
But Jinx was not one of Silco’s followers. And Jinx did not understand that fear should be held in her heart when around Sevika.
So the girl ignored her, and it didn’t take long before Sevika could feel a dip in the small portion of her bed that wasn’t covered by her body, soon followed by the light weight of the child crawling over her thighs to lean against the wall Sevika was turned toward.
Sevika took a long deep breath, a chant of ‘I can’t hurt her’ flowing through her head before she forced her eyes to peel open. Jinx was smiling, that bright gap-toothed smile of hers as she stared at Sevika with excitement no other person in this world has ever looked at Sevika with.
A low sigh of defeat left the older woman’s lips as she turned so she was on her back and met the girl's eyes with a look no kinder then she gave the men and women just downstairs.
Jinx didn’t even blink.
“What.”
Jinx scooted in closer, showcasing her small size for her age- stunted Sevika was sure, by what, she didn’t know. Silco fed her the best food he got his hands on, after all- as she fit between the wall and Sevika’s waist. Sevika fought the instinct to roll her eyes, and instead let the girl have her way.
Once Jinx seemed satisfied with how close she was to the older woman, too close for Sevika’s comfort- but since when has Sevika ever known comfort- she spoke, almost too fast for the woman to understand. But unfortunately, Sevika had just over two years of practice.
“One of my inventions worked! It worked and now I wanna go try it out!! Can you come with me? Please!”
Sevika scowled, “No.” she bit, “Go ask Silco.”
Jinx pouted, a pout that spelled nothing but trouble as she huffed, “I can’t,” she murmured, “Silco’s busy, and I know he wouldn’t let me test this out anywhere fun.”
Sevika’s eyes narrowed, Jinx’s version of fun was enough to make a grown ass underworld man cry, what did this hell spawn have in that freakish mind of hers? “And what makes you think I'd want anything to do with that?”
Jinx blinked at her, before her smile returned. Although- Sevika swears she can see something sadistic in the girl’s violet blue eyes, “because, I'll go have Silco make you come with me!”
The dark haired woman frowned at the child, “didn’t you just say Silco wouldn’t let you do this?”
The girl crossed her arms and huffed, “he won’t question what i’m doing if you’re gonna be with me!”
Sevika would love to argue the hellion.
Would love to throw her at her boss and call it a day.
But the girl was right, there was no one Silco trusted more than her. And that included the safety of the little psycho before her.
Sevika let her eyes fall shut for just a whisper of patience, before she sighed heavily and sat up. Uncaring for the loss of balance it caused the girl as she fell on the bed where Sevika’s back just was.
The older woman stood and grabbed her cloak, “I’ll be in the area,” she bit, “tell me where in Zaun you’ll be and i’ll make sure to stay in that area. You better not get yourself killed, you little shit.”
The girl beamed and followed after the woman with too fast steps, stumbling some down the hall in an attempt to catch up to Sevika’s long strides. “Thank you! You won’t regret it Sevika! It’ll be so fun!”
“Uhuh, right.”
—
The place Jinx chose, of course, was all the way across Zaun from where the Last Drop stood. populated with hooded figures and shady deals, and the one place shimmer addicts go before they get thrown to the pits down further below.
Sevika couldn’t tell whether she got there first, or if the girl was already enacting her evil plan for the poor fucks surrounding her. And she didn’t particularly care either, as long as it didn’t involve Sevika herself getting blown up, then the brat could do whatever the hell she wanted.
She’d hear the aftermath, she was sure. And the girl knew she was in the area, so worse comes to worse she’s only a call away.
The hooded figures gave Sevika some impressive side-eyes before they scurried once her face registered in their minds. None dumb enough to temp her anger by staring or even staying within her eyesight.
And Sevika was grateful for that, as she only had the patience to deal with whatever the brat was planning, nothing else.
No one else.
She fell onto a barrel just outside some shady pawn shop and lit a cigarette for her to smoke, knowing there was nothing she could do but wait, so she did not hesitate to do so.
Who knows, maybe she’ll be able to gather a few more shreds of patience while she waited.
A boom shook the air, soon followed by a tsunami of yelling figures.
Sevika blinked slowly and lifted her gaze down the road in front of her, watching as bright pink paint decorated the walls of some poor unsuspecting building and what seemed to be a now colorful crowd of angered people.
Sevika blew out a sharp breath of smoke before standing and slowly making her way toward the chaos.
That stunt was bound to piss off the wrong people, it was no wonder the kid knew Silco wouldn’t approve. It sure as hell was gonna be an annoying mess to clean.
An annoying mess she was gonna have to clean, but hell, she’s been doing that for years already. No use complaining about it now.
A thick crowd was gathered, and Sevika kept her head down as she pushed through in order to try and get a glimpse at the center of the chaos.
She could hear the laugh of the culprit, loud, familiar, and unashamed for the chaos she had caused.
Yet, she couldn’t catch sight of her.
Not that she was in any particular hury, it was paint. Worse things have been blown up in Zaun, especially this side of it.
Jinx’s laugh grew louder, excitement coloring it even as the yells of the pissed off pedestrians littered the streets.
Yeah, this was gonna be fun to clean.
Sevika took another drag of her cigarette as her eyes continued searching.
Although- she paused. Her brow furrowing as the girl’s laughter cut off abruptly.
Sevika pushed through the crowd far less forgiving than before, searching a bit more than she had been, only for her search to grow aggressive as a shrill “Sevika!” cut through the air.
The crowd went silent at that, some eyes searching for the woman with the name in question, and stumbling away once they caught sight of her. Allowing easier access and sight of the scene before her.
Jinx was being held off of the ground by the collar of her shirt. Her little legs kicking around as one of the figures- he looks familiar… vaguely. Must be a lackey of one of Silco’s followers- snarled in her face.
Jinx did not look as scared as she probably should be, not as she glared at the man holding her, but Sevika could see some fear clouding her eyes. Could see her breath puffing faster than normal.
Sevika pushed the people blocking her way with little reserve, using her metal arm with the more stubborn ones as she strode forward. Teeth grit and chest warm with a growing anger.
The man was growling shit Sevika could barely understand, low and mean as if he lost a limb and wasn’t covered in a little shit of a child’s art project.
It had a boiling anger coursing through Sevika’s veins, because this place may be the undercity, but that didn’t mean words shouldn’t be watched.
That didn’t mean children- Silco’s child- should be shaken like a doll for a stupid prank.
Jinx saw Sevika first, eyes widening as her grin returned. Relieved.
As if Jinx was happy to see her.
Sevika wasn’t sure she was ever going to get used to that feeling.
The man was late to the party, his back turned partially toward Sevika’s approach and seemingly blissfully unaware of the danger he had put himself in.
The crowd dispersed slowly as they realised that this was no longer a civil dispute. That it now involved someone far more powerful in this new society of Zaun’s than your average angered pedestrian.
Sevika grew satisfied at the reactions, and relieved at the fact that she no longer had to fight her way through a crowd to get to the girl she had under her protection.
It took barely another stride before she was towering over the man and lifting her metal arm to grab hold of the back of his neck. She watched as he tensed, his face twisting more as he snapped toward the culprit brave enough to lay a hand on him, and she watched as the fight left his soul once he registered who that bravery came from.
Sevika leaned into his face, her own twisted with her cigarette now almost to the filter and her attempt at patience well and truly gone, “Ima give you one chance, and that’s it,” she started, “Let her go, or I force you to drop her then I toss you through that fucking wall.”
He grit his teeth, defience in his gaze as if he felt she had no right.
As if he were struggling to adapt under the new hierarchy this city follows.
She now knows who his boss is. There's only one bastard dumb enough to not get in line because of some stupid pride- pride he shouldn’t even have, as before, with Vander calling the shots, he had no more say in this world then any other wannabe gangsters- At least with Silco, they had the freedom to build what they wanted, and they forget that.
She jostled the man, tightening her inhuman grip just enough to drag a choked gasp from his lips and making sure this man knew that one way or another, she was winning this fight.
He glared, teeth bared and eyes narrowed before he dropped the girl in question.
Sevika almost felt the need to throw him anyways. These people needed a reminder on who called the shots now.
But then she heard Jinx huff, a petulant sound as she glared at the man so much taller than her, “it was just paint,” she snapped, her head tilted slightly as if the man was the unreasonable one.
Sevika couldn’t stop her grin at that as she shoved the man away and turned toward her, watching in the corner of her eye as he stumbled before righting himself, “I think you need to learn manners, Jinx.”
Jinx blinked at her, “what’s that?”
The older paused, her face twisting for a brief second before the girl burst out laughing as if she had just told the most comedic joke Zaun has ever seen. It had Sevika biting back a scowl as she lowered herself to pick the girl up, “c’mon brat, this place aint suited for you.” she returned, ignoring her continued giggling.
“Wait!” Sevika paused, her eyes trailing slowly to the man that had spoken. He was scowling, “you just gonna leave!? Look what she did to me! To this place!”
Sevika raised a brow at him, her eyes glancing around carelessly. It’ll be a bitch to clean up, but from the looks of this shithole, the paint’s needed. She turned back toward the man with a shrug, “it’s just paint,” he squawked like a pissed off bird, she turned on her heel and started walking. Jinx sitting in the crook of her arm as she moved, “if you got a problem with it, bring it to Silco.”
With that spoken, she continued walking. Giving no care to the protests she’s leaving behind and instead focusing on the near endless stream of words that were now leaving the girl in her hold’s lips.
—
Turns out the fool listened when Sevika told him to ‘take it to Silco if he had a problem with it’. Because- why else is the dumbass strutting into Silco’s office like he fucking owned the place. Cutting Sevika off from reporting her findings of Zaun’s current problems- and Jinx’s current escapades- and interrupting her thought process as if it was easy for her to remember all of this shit for her boss to write down.
It seemed he was alone, no boss following behind him- like any sane person in Zaun would’ve done when trying to face the man with all the power, but it seemed even he knew having his boss would not help him, or, he simply did not have the brain power to think that far ahead- but accompanied by what seemed to be two lackeys of his own.
Sevika cast a glance at Silco, who looked unimpressed as he stared blankly and didn’t even give them the respect of straightening. “Can I help you.” Sevika wasn’t even convinced it was a question. It sounded more like a warning, if anything.
The intruder puffed his chest at Silco’s words, as if they emboldened him. Sevika couldn’t help the huff that escaped her chest at it. Neither her boss nor the dumbass paid her any mind. “I was told that I needed to come to you if I have a problem with one of your people.”
Holy fucking shit, he did take it seriously.
She couldn’t tell whether or not she was amazed or disgusted by the man's both audacity and idiocy.
Silco did straighten at that, his eye narrowing on the man, before they flicked to Sevika. The woman bit back a scoff and shook her head minutely, he turned back to the man. “Alright,” Silco started, “what is this problem you have?”
The man glared at Sevika before stepping forward, “some brat blew up a bomb on our side of the undercity, and she-” he gestured toward Sevika with a careless wave of his hand, “let the girl off! Took her away as if she was the fucking victim there.”
Silco raised a brow at that and turned toward Sevika with a slow blink, she leaned her elbow on her armrest and pressed her lips to her palm. Hiding her growing grin.
It wasn’t everyday she found entertainment like this, she wanted to enjoy it.
Silco opened his mouth as if to respond, but it seemed the man wasn’t done talking. “If you want to be the new leader of this shithole, we need some actual repurcussions for people's actions!”
Silco’s jaw clenched at that, the warning returning in his gaze and replacing the exhaustion the situation seemed to have given him. “You want repercussions?” he droned lowly, “you now want law and order after thriving in a world without it? I believe in punishment, and I believe you’re right, this city needs more order, but don’t lecture me for a world you’d be crying about if I were to succeed in policing the people here.” he took a breath, “Now, if you want justice for the bomb that went off, then I will do so, who was the child, what kind of bomb was it, and how many were hurt? I’ll base the punishment off of that.”
The man blinked at him, seemingly at a loss for words. Silco’s patience seemed to be running thin as he turned toward his right hand, “you were involved, correct?”
Sevika answered without pause, “I was,” she nodded, “the kid was Jinx-” Silco’s eye fell shut at that, like a tired parent learning their child’s behavior at school, “the bomb was a paint bomb, and no one had even a scratch. I think the worst damage done was to the damn building that took the brunt of it. But I went back to make sure it got cleaned, the paint wasn’t waterproof.”
His eye peeled open at that, “Paint.” he droned, “this is about paint.”
Sevika nodded with a shrug, “seems so.”
Silco sighed, long and exhausted before he spoke, “well, since it seems no harm was done then an apology should surfice, yes?” The man grew beet red at that, teeth bared as if to argue. Silco did not give him the time, “Jinx.”
A huff sounded from above, soon followed by a low, “Yes?”
“Get down here, you must face your problems if you’re going to move past them.”
There was grumbling, and Sevika found amusement in the perplexed expression of the man intruding her boss’s office while Jinx climbed down from the beem she had seemed to call her own just above Silco’s desk. A petulant expression twisting her face as she stood in front of Silco’s desk like a scolded child who believes they’ve done nothing wrong.
Silco nodded, “Now apologize for the paint.”
Jinx’s scowl deepened, “it was paint!” she returned, “besides, i’m not gonna apologize to someone who threatened me. That makes me weak.”
Sevika could feel the temperature drop in the room, chills gracing her exposed skin as the words tossed throughout her own mind as well. The man grew stiff as her eyes trailed over to him, narrowed, waiting.
“Threatened,” Silco murmured, low and dangerous, “and what do you mean by threatened?”
Jinx sniffed and scuffed her shoe in the dirt that had yet to be cleaned from Silco’s floor, “that he’s gonna beat my ass for what I did,” she returned with little mercy, seemingly uncaring for the life she held in the palm of her too small hands, “which is stupid cause it’s just paint, and paint that can be washed too! I didn’t use my permanent stuff cause I knew it’d probably disappoint you.”
Silco’s hands were clasped tightly on his desk as he turned toward the stone faced Sevika, “did you know about this?”
Sevika had yet to take her eyes off of the stiff man before her, “No, I wasn't exactly paying attention to what the prick was saying. I was more focused on getting him to drop her.”
“Drop her.”
Sevika nodded, “held her by the collar of her shirt.”
Sevika didn’t know what he’d said to her, or maybe, she would’ve thrown him into the wall after all. He sure as hell needs the humbling, if he has to threaten kids to feel a power trip.
Silco’s kid, too.
Which was just asking for all sorts of the wrong attention.
Wrong attention he marched right into with the fucking bravery and bravado of a blind man in a sleeping bears cave.
“Well,” Silco’s voice was a warning in itself, a threat just in the tone he used to say that one word, “it seems Jinx is not the one owed an apology, now is she?”
The man opened his mouth to no doubt protest, Silco did not allow it, “Watch your words now,” he snapped, “they may very well be your last.”
The man's jaw snapped shut with a click, and the men behind him looked stiff as a board, eyes flicking from the ‘leader’ to Silco like they were ready to bolt.
Sevika could care less if they bolted. Hell, she could care less if their ‘leader’ bolted too. And she knows for certain Silco feels the same.
It’d probably save them, in the end. If they were too run now.
Not that Silco was going to share that information.
“Now, Apologize.”
The man straightened, his pride twisting his face into a glare that Sevika would be overjoyed to get rid of, but when he opened his mouth, he did exactly as he was told. “I’m sorry,” he bit out, eyes flicking toward Jinx with poorly hidden contempt for the situation, “I’m sorry I threatened you. It won't happen again.”
Silco did not look satisfied, in fact, he demonstrated it as he turned toward Sevika with just her name falling from his lips.
Sevika grinned and stood. Bracing her normal and metal palms on the arms of her chair as she rose, her eyes trained on the man like a lion stalking its prey.
The man stumbled back, seemingly finally catching the hint that he should run.
But, it was too late now. The order has been given. His fate was sealed.
“Wait.”
Or so she thought.
Sevika’s grin dropped as she turned toward the source of the voice, watching waith a frown as Jinx crossed her arms and kicked her legs from where she was now sitting on Silco’s desk.
Sevika turned toward Silco for confirmation, he nodded.
She stopped her march forward.
“Yes, Jinx?”
Jinx let her head fall back, looking at the man upsidedown with an unnatural show of flexibility, although Sevika doubted she could properly see the man with the angle. “Can you leave him alone? He apologized or whatever, it's not like I'm hurt or anything.”
“Is that really what you want?” Silco returned, but he did not question her decision.
She straightened and turned around toawrd him, her legs crossed, “Yup.”
Silco sighed and nodded, “then fine,” he waved, his eyes lifting to the frozen stiff men standing in front of his office door, “leave, and don’t show your faces here again.”
They wasted no time doing as he said, slamming the door so hard behind them it swung back open again.
Sevika just watched them go with a frown, but as she turned toward her boss and his daughter. She too did not question the decision.
Because as it turns out, the theories were true.
And this little girl, with both their hearts in the palms of her hands, was the one to prove it to her.
—
It was unfortunate, or- dare she say torturous that it couldn’t stay that way forever.
—
She saw the decline as it was happening.
Hopeless and clueless as to how to stop it. Fix it. Fix her.
She was not a therapist, she had her faults, and so did Silco.
They both knew this. But they both tried, and- for the longest time, they were just foolish enough to think it was enough.
That just them caring for her was enough to fix the damage of her mind, or hell- not make it worse.
But it got worse, Sevika had to watch as the girl she helped raise, the girl she saw as her own niece, lost herself to the insanity of the world around her.
Watched as Silco almost lost her, grew desperate and used shimmer on her. Turning the Jinx Sevika thought she knew, into the person with eyes nearly crimson, and a mind that no longer had a semblance of care to the host it lived in.
But- even with the insanity clinging to Jinx like a haunting unforgiving shadow, she never thought she was capable of this.
There was a missile sailing through the sky. Sailing straight toward Pilltover.
A rocket Sevika knew all about, one she heard Jinx ranting about to Silco. One Silco knew full well she was making, but made the girl promise not to use it until the time was perfect.
But the time wasn’t perfect.
In fact- with the state both cities were in, Sevika knew Silco wasn’t ready for this amount of action yet.
And Jinx would never fire it until he told her too.
Not unless he wasn’t there to order it, anymore.
Sevika wasn’t sure she had ever run this fast in her life. Wasn’t sure she’s ever felt this desperate in her life.
Because- she couldn’t lose her family to this.
She couldn’t lose the only two assholes who’ve ever shown her love like this.
So she ran. Ran and hoped to whatever dieties may call this world there's that when she got there she’d see them both, alive, unharmed.
No matter how hard her logic warred to correct her thoughts.
It wasn’t difficult to find where Jinx fired the weapon, it wasn't difficult to see the signifigance in what was happening just from the broken abandoned building before her.
The building where Vander died, where Jinx lost the family she had before them.
Sevika grit her teeth and glared as she rushed through the gaps in the broken walls. Ignoring the memories invading her mind of her own shortcomings in this building as she searched for anything that would point her in the right direction.
A set of stairs, or hell- rubble that looked even remotely like something Jinx would climb onto.
But- that was not what she found.
There was a table, long and decorated in the chaotic way only Jinx seemed capable.
Candles still lit, barely halfway melted, as if the events that resulted from this setup were not long past.
There were broken items strewn about, and as Sevika stepped slowly around the table, she could see the glint of golden shells rolling away from her feet as she lifted her feet from them.
But- that was not the thing that kept her attention.
Not the bullets, not the footprints she could barely see through the shadows, not Jinx’s signature written all throughout the scene- hell, not the hand binds she could see hanging from some of the chairs. No, what had Sevika’s attention was the gut twisting smell of death.
A smell she knew she’d never forget.
A scent she had to smell almost every damn day in the undercity.
Death and blood.
There was something dripping from the chair at the opposite end of the table, and as she approached, the scent grew stronger.
Making Sevika’s face twist as she rounded the chair.
She froze.
“Oh-” she wasn’t sure of the feeling in her chest as she stared at the body.
Wasn’t sure if it was pain, or shock, or something else she doesn’t know the name of.
But despite the feeling, she couldn’t stop the way her hands shook as she approached the body slowly, her teeth gritting because maybe it was pain. Maybe this was a pain she wasn’t sure she could ignore.
“Silco,” she murmured, shaken and choked as she kneeled before the man that had given her the life she knew. That had entrusted her with his life, the lives of everyone below him, and most importantly the life of the girl he called his daughter.
The man did not respond, but- she knew he wouldn’t, she felt no hope to even believe he would.
His skin was growing cold, and there were holes scattering across his body.
As if shot with an automatic.
As if shot with a machine gun.
Sevika bit her cheek and dropped her head, shaking deep breaths pulling and pushing her chest up and down as she fought the realisation as to what had happened, as she fought the emotions that realisation forced upon her.
Footsteps snapped her out of her trance, dragging her eyes up from the dusty ground beneath her, to the shadowed cavern of rubble that no doubt led deeper into this unstable building.
There was a tremble earlier, a boom that shook even through Zaun.
She knew what the rocket hit.
She knew what this meant.
Sevika found no surprise when she caught sight of the bright eyes of the girl she knew was responsible for the mess before her. But- it seemed Jinx was surprised to find Sevika kneeling before the body of the man she killed, as she paused, something vulnerable flashing through her features before it became guarded. Fearful.
“I-” it seemed words failed her.
Sevika gave her mercy as she turned her eyes to the body before her, “this was you, wasn’t it.” it wasn’t a question. She knew the answer.
Jinx choked. Sevika turned back toward her.
The girl stumbled a step back, the weapon she had used for the bomb falling from her hands as tears slid down her too pale face, “I- I didn’t mean too-”
Sevika dropped her head, it was words she’d heard fall from the girl’s lips more than once. But never had she anticipated she’d hear them in this situation.
Jinx’s feet shuffled, “I- I swear- I didn’t see him- I didn’t know I was hurting him.”
Sevika stood silently, her eyes mournful on the body before she turned toward the girl.
Jinx flinched, and as Sevika stepped forward, Jinx stepped back. Nearly tripping as mumbled near manic apologies fell from her lips, shaken from cries and Sevika could see her falling back into the mania Sevika had done nothing to help.
Sevika hastened her steps, her jaw clenching as the girl curled into herself with blubbering apologies growing incomprehensible.
Sevika knew she heard ‘Vi’ slipping through a few times, and she couldn’t help but wonder if the girl was even present even more. Or if she was somewhere else.
But she didn’t ponder it, didn’t let it stop her approach.
And when she got to the girl, she watched as she visibly jolted away, almost turning as if to run. Sevika didn’t let her.
She reached her remaining hand forward and grabbed the girl by the shoulder. Pulling her close and giving the younger no options on backing out.
Jinx was stiff, trembling in her hold like she didn’t know what to do.
Sevika just pulled her closer and pretended that her vision didn’t blur like it did. Pretended that she couldn’t feel something trail down her face as she buried her cheek as best as she could in the hair of the girl in her hold.
She did not move, even as Jinx’s arms snaked around her waist. Even as the trembling and mad mumbling of the girl grew worse with her sobs.
Things werent going to get better.
She knew this.
Sevika was no therapist, and she wasn’t even sure Jinx could be saved from this.
But she wasn’t going to abandon her, not after everything they went through. Not after everything Sevika still owed Silco.
She was her niece, but she was also her boss’s daughter.
And Sevika’s loyalty just happened to be both her greatest strength, and most crippling weakness.
—
Although, despite her thoughts from before. Things did get better. Even as the world crumbled around them.
—
She hated this damn place.
It was an accident waiting to happen.
Really, Jinx had way too much faith in the balance of the poor fuckers that find themselves here because one wrong step and you were going right over the edge, straight to your quick death.
It made her nausious everytime she looked at the edge, so she just… didn’t. As much as possible.
Jinx was humming up ahead, and Sevika damn near hugged the wall of the center place as she walked around to the wing that Jinx and her new- pet? Sister? Friend?- called home. Letting her eyes trail the warmth of the place that had never been there before, even when Silco still walked the earth.
Maybe that was another failure on their part.
Maybe they were just too cold to be considered parents of any kind.
The girl sitting in one of Jinx’s chairs seemed to perk once she caught sight of Sevika’s arrival. Wide eyes followed the woman silently as she struggled to make the walk to where both girls were at.
Really, you’d think after over seven years of this place she’d have gotten used to it by now. But no, it’s just as much of a heartattack as the first day Jinx dragged her and her damned father to it, smiling like she’d just won one of Pilltovers damn lotteries.
As she grew closer to the two girls, Sevika’s eyes trailed the work Jinx seemed to be doing to Isha’s hair.
The once auburn color now traded for a patch-work blue, closely resembling the blue of Jinx’s own hair. If not a shade or two darker.
It didn’t look bad, not really. And she could already see the excitement coloring the mute girl’s face as the older seemed to braid as much as she could in the back. “Dying it, huh?” Sevika hummed as she made it safely to their makeshift home and fell into one of Jinx’s rickety chairs.
Jinx flashed a proud- if not a bit unhinged- smile in Sevika’s direction. Isha doing much the same, although admittedly, more sane.
Sevika huffed at their twin looks and lit one of her cigerette’s, watching Jinx finish off the girl’s hair as smoke trailed out of her mouth and dispersed around her. Vanishing as if never there, until she replaced it with another puff.
When Isha was finally released from Jinx’s hold and shown the new state of her hair, the smile that lifted her lips was damn near contagious. “Ya like it?” Jinx poked the younger’s cheek gently as she asked.
Isha nodded before she ducked from under Jinx’s arm and ran over to Sevika, eyes bright in a way that Sevika was enver sure she’d get used to.
A show of child-like innocence on the face of a child that- just like herself- had to grow up too fast in the city they called home.
Hell- maybe Sevika forgot what that innocence looked like because Jinx lost that look years ago.
Maybe Isha having that look, seemed too much like the girl Jinx once was.
Sevika forced a grin on her lips as she nodded at the younger, ignoring the way her traiterous mind would replace her with a younger Jinx- a Jinx that housed more of who she was before she and Silco failed her as the ones who were supposed to raise her to be better then them- as she spoke, “you look good, kid.”
Isha beamed, and Sevika was able to fully dispel her mind from the clutches of the past long gone and focus on the now.
On the Jinx she still had, despite everything, and the new girl threatening Jinx’s claim over Sevika’s heart.
And as Sevika watched Isha rush back to Jinx, saw the genuine happines in Jinx’s eyes, and the gentleness in the way she handled her, she knew that Silco would be proud with what Jinx did with herself.
Even with the state of the cities above.
Silco would be proud.
—
But goddamnit- good things only last for those deserving and lucky. And Sevika was never on the list of people she considered deserving or lucky.
—
She found out about Isha through whispers circling around the undercity. As she was preparing for a war that none of them were truly prepared for, she had to find out about Isha through goddamn whispers.
Her niece lost another sister, another piece of her own heart, and Sevika couldn’t fucking find her to help.
And by the time she even caught a rumour that Jinx was back in Zaun, the war had already started.
—
Sevika wandered through the streets of Zaun with a stone cold face and three folded pieces of paper held as gently as possible in her palm.
There was a heaviness in her heart, as she found her way to what remained of The Last Drop. No longer under any ownership after everything that happened, and now somewhat abandoned, as there was no longer anyone to hold the mantle of leader to lay their claim to the place.
She pushed through the front door and forced herself to ignore the unnatural stillness and quietness that engulfed her as the door swung shut behind her, instead, forcing herself to focus on the destination she had in mind. And the route she had to take to get there, the route that she knew damn near by heart.
She wandered through the halls, and up the stairs, until she found herself climbing onto the roof. One handed with the paper now shoved into her pocket.
The air was calm, barely any wind making itself down to the crevices of the world they lived in. leaving her mostly undisturbed as she took a seat and let her eyes trail the streets around her.
She pulled the papers from her pocket. Ink flashed as they unfolded, three pieces with three names.
She knew people were doing it for those lost in the battle above, but- Sevika never really cared about rules, or tradition, or what should and shouldn’t be done.
So she wrote three names.
Three names that somehow made Sevika learn that she did have a heart, buried somewhere in her chest.
The three people that took that heart with her when they went, stole the one thing they helped Sevika discover.
She pressed them together, unable to find the strength to read them herself, before she grabbed them as gently as she could with the claw of the arm Jinx gave her, and pulled out her lighter with her good one.
Letting the flames that exit the gold box lick the papers until they are engulfed. Sending small bright lights floating into the sky. Dissipating, and taking whatever gentleness had been in Sevika with it.