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Ekko had tried to make the undercity a better place since he was all of twelve. He had made the Firelights, his community, a safe haven built into existence by his own two hands. Life and love at the very center of it.
He had done everything to save everyone he could. Yet he had given up on Jinx. Until he saw who she could have been—how the girl he had once loved could still be something beyond what Silco had made her into. Beyond what grief had consumed of her soul.
Ekko came back and saw Jinx, Powder hiding behind her expression like a shadow.
He had tried so hard to save her after that. Reset after reset after reset—he couldn’t give up. He wouldn’t. She was still the girl he had been friends with. She deserved someone to try and save her from herself.
And it had worked, hadn’t it? She had helped. She had lived, for a while longer. They had talked and grieved who they could have been.
But it hadn’t been enough. She was still gone.
So Ekko sat on the old roof above The Last Drop, staring out over Zaun and the distant skyscrapers of Piltover. Sevika was being nominated as a councilor tomorrow. It wasn’t perfect—fuck no it wasn’t, one Zaun seat was nothing compared to the Piltover number—but it was something. It was a foot in the door. Ekko understood better than most that that was what they needed to begin change.
Jinx should have been here to see it. She should have been able to see what good she had done.
Instead she was gone. There hadn’t even been anything to bury; not that that was a widely celebrated Zaun tradition. Her mural hung beautiful and blue on their memorial wall. Ekko lit incense for her whenever he passed it.
He would make sure she was remembered. Ekko and Vi had both made sure everyone knew she was a hero, that their symbol of revolution had saved them once more. Jinx would be remembered.
It didn’t stop the sting of pain though. It didn’t stop tears from gathering in Ekko’s eyes as he stared out over the city.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you,” he whispered to the night air. “I’m sorry I didn’t try harder before.”
Silence met him. Of course it did. The wind made the broken fence clink together behind him, made the light of fires in the distance sway.
Maybe he should plant flowers up here. Like that other universe. Jinx might like it, maybe. She’d probably call it stupid first though.
It was silent on the rooftop.
“Hey there, Boy Savior.”
Ekko launched to his feet, fists up and a snarl on his face. His gloves creaked as he searched for who had spoken. His board was just out of reach.
Only then did the words begin to register.
Only then did a head of blue hair poke over the edge of the roof. Blue hair, a purple streak still partially there. Wide, red-violet eyes.
Jinx pulled herself over the edge of the roof, watching him carefully.
Ekko fell to his knees.
“Woah! Hey, come on, we did all that fighting stuff and you just suddenly lose your bones? Come on.”
Jinx reached out for him. Ekko, frozen, watched her hesitate. She didn’t cross the distance still between them, didn’t touch. Looked hesitant, like she may not be allowed to. After everything.
“You’re…real?” he asked. He had to know, he had to.
Jinx looked down at herself like she had to double check too. “Yeah, pretty sure.”
Ekko was back on his feet faster than he could blink. He grabbed for Jinx’s hand, the one still raised like she had wanted to steady him. He pulled her in and wrapped her in a hug he had never thought he’d be able to give.
Jinx was rigid for a good few seconds. Gradually, slowly, she realized he wasn’t going to hurt her. She exhaled and Ekko could feel how it rattled. How she was reminding herself that he wasn’t going to stab her in the back.
“Miss me?” she asked, probably aiming for joking and entirely falling short. It almost sounded like a plea.
“We all thought you were dead,” Ekko croaked. “Jinx-“
That’s when she ducked his arms, escaping in a short flash of magenta. She watched him cautiously, body tilted to flee. Ekko let his arms fall back to his sides. He let his eyes catalogue her instead, the soot remaining in her hairline and the bags under her eyes.
Jinx looked away, to the skyline. She all but collapsed in on herself to sit down with her knees to her chest, arms crossed over them. Ekko eased himself down to sit beside her. His legs hung over the edge of the roof.
“Jinx is dead,” she said softly, “so, uh, need to find a new name, ‘cause Powder’s dead too.”
“Ok.”
Ekko sighed as he slumped over onto his back. Jinx was alive. Jinx was alive. She didn’t want to go by Jinx anymore, fine, she was far from the first person to change their name while Ekko had known them. He kicked his feet against the wall.
Part of him wondered if he would find empty air if he looked to his right.
“I’m skipping town,” Jinx said suddenly, startling him. “Give- give Vi a chance to be happy with Ms. goody-goody. I know you have the Firelights and everything, but they have your second in command dude, whats-his-face, and you said yes to everything until now. My gun and the paint and everything, so. I thought that maybe- uh, maybe you’d want to…come with?”
Ekko slowly sat up, looking at Jinx. She was still staring over the skyline. Rigid, avoiding eye contact. Prepared for him to say no.
“I don’t have bags, you know, so it’s easy to just, pick up and leave! Leave this stupid place behind. End the cycle and all that. Walk away. But I don’t know where to go and you- you said I should live, so. Figured you may want to make sure I stay that way, or something.”
So many thoughts whirled around Ekko’s head. Jinx was alive, Vi didn’t know, Jinx didn’t seem to want her to know. She wanted space. She wanted away from Zaun.
She wanted him to go with her.
Ekko took a deep breath, and let it hang in his lungs for a moment. There was…so much to consider. The efforts to rebuild Zaun into something better, something independent, or at least with representation. The remaining tensions and shimmer that still had to be destroyed.
The Firelights. He couldn’t just walk away, could he? He was their leader, but they had always been prepared for the possibility that he wouldn’t come back one day. And, well, Scar had been saying he should take a break…
So Ekko let the breath out and nodded to himself.
“Ok,” he said. “Yeah, why not.”
Jinx’s head whipped around to stare at him then. Like she couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. Like she couldn’t believe he would want to even be around her more, after they fought together, and Ekko ached.
“I have to tell someone that I’ll be gone for a bit,” he told her. “But yeah, let’s go. You got a way out of here?”
That seemed to restart Jinx, at least. “Huh, yeah. An airship. Like the one-“
“You wanted to ride one day, I remember.” Ekko smiled softly.
Jinx blinked at him, still like she couldn’t believe the words out of his mouth. Ekko blinked back at her. Slowly, he extended a hand. Jinx eyed it like it was going to spontaneously combust, but Ekko held still.
Like a skittish cat, Jinx carefully set her own hand in his. Ekko closed his eyes, breathed out slowly, and ran his thumb over her knuckles.
He had lost Powder. He had given up on Jinx. Then he had saved Jinx from herself and lost her again all in a week. Now she was back, and Ekko wasn’t so keen on giving her up again. Not so soon.
“I did miss you,” he said quietly, letting the words hang in the air, suspended.
They would never be Powder-and-Ekko from that other universe. Their circumstances hadn’t made those people, but for better or worse this is who they were. But maybe- maybe they could still be friends.
Jinx huffed, sounding so, so tired. She looked back out over Zaun. The stars had blinked into place over their heads, like firelight beetles eons above Runeterra.
“I’m leaving tomorrow morning,” Jinx told him. “From- from Silco’s old dock. Don’t be late.”
Ekko chuckled at the unintentional joke. “I won’t be.”
“Good.”
The warmth left his hand, a flash of magenta zipping away in his peripheral vision. Ekko slowly breathed out. He held onto the fading warmth that had been in his hand, convincing himself it wasn’t a dream or hallucination. Dreams didn’t involve cold cement, and hallucinations didn’t tend to leave his glove with a lingering warmth.
Ekko rolled to his feet. He grabbed his board, slowly flying back to the Firelight’s base. He had some people to talk to, some things to set straight before he left. Before he went on a roadtrip with Jinx.
And you know what? He couldn’t wait.