Zaun
Vander's Old Tavern (Rebuilt and Restored)
A lot of it had to be worked on. Actually, all of it. It had been burnt to the ground, but they did it. After the war, shimmer was still being run with chembarons, but he and the Firelights started to take back some of the actual lanes again. His time over in another world, with another Powder, made him realize the lanes weren't something he should forget either.
Sevika on the council wasn't able to get much, but she did manage to get a little of the lanes back.
When they fixed that personal place back up, it was the first thing that really brought more life to Zaun again. Some of them even worked as security, so it would stay a safe place. No shimmer allowed. No addicts allowed. They would beat someone's ass when someone messed up those rules.
Ekko was a little surprised. He was hoping the familiar atmosphere would make Jinx feel better. Open up about how the heck she got with mercenaries. Instead she seemed to really clam up. You okay, Jinx?
For now, he had to skip getting anything from her. She was staying quiet in her mask, staying hidden.
He tried to pump these masked mercenaries for more info but without contract knowledge, they weren't budging. But? He did find one opening.
Some people liked it. He might? He still had some of his leftover sweet bread that Vi brought for his name day. It hadn't been that long ago, but maybe? It could work now. He had brought it to the lanes to share, and there was stil a couple of pieces.
The youngest in the group was definitely the bear masked one. He was small, maybe seven or eight? Very good chance he was a kid of one of the mercenaries. "Hey, Bear?"
The bear looked toward him as the rest of them went on with being sociable. He was just drinking orange juice.
"I've got something. You might like it?"
He tilted his head and lifted his mask. "What is it?"
Ekko moved closer down to him. "It was my name day not too long ago. I got some sweet bread."
"Sweet bread? I like sweet bread," he said.
"Then come on." Ekko helped the kid over to the sweet bread Vi bought for him. "I'll let you have a bite, if we make a deal?"
"What kind of deal?" he asked.
"I'm going to either ask you a question, or ask for a yes or no about something. I'll give you four seconds to answer. Each time you do, I'll let you have a bite."
"Umm?" Bear looked back toward the bar.
"Jinx. Powder is an old friend." He noticed everyone else was calling her Powder, maybe that would help. "She came to help us. I think that means we aren't bad guys?"
Bear looked back one more time. "Just one thing. Just ask one thing, okay? I can't give away too much, Anatoly would get mad."
Anatoly, first piece of info, person in charge. "Alright. Sit on down." Ekko sat down with him too. He already cut the piece. He sat it right in front of Bear. "Ready? Here's the first question."
Time starts now.
"Is her name Powder or Jinx?"
"Her name is long and complicated, we just stick to Powder," Bear answered. "She's called Powder on missions because no one wants to work with a client named Jinx." He reached the piece and started to eat it. He didn't get it finished before four seconds though.
He flipped his Z drive button, taking everything back in time again to four seconds.
"Has she mentioned someone called Vi?"
"No, but I don't know much about her actual life. I just worked with her. Shields would know that."
Mmm. Damn. Not personal enough.
"That was really good," Bear said. "Thanks."
Ekko just nodded at the kid and got up. He went more toward Jinx again, and eventually, as some of them slowly got drunk with a little more hard-hitting stuff (paid for by him), he was getting better answers.
Really good answers. Jinx was starting to call them out.
"You are called Anatoly's Mercenaries, and you were here to help your leader. Sounds good. Why did Powder become leader in less than two years though?"
"The boss likes pink eyes." She refused to touch her mug. She sounded like she had been crying. A little hoarse.
Why isn't any of this working? She wouldn't open up anywhere except the privacy of the lab. "Oh. Do you want to talk back in a lab again?" He wanted to get her back to one anyhow. He noticed how oddly she touched a random gear. He even knew exactly where to take her. "Not far."
That mask twitched as she figured it out. He could tell she was holding a ton of secrets, but she wasn't screaming them all out like she normally would. Her very attitude was so different.
She got up to head out with him.
"Powder, you good?" The wolf masked guy asked her.
"Yeah, Wolfy, I'm good. I'll be back."
Benzo's
He was quiet on the way there, until she was in and he closed the door. Less of a lab, more of a spot for unsorted junk that needed sorted, but it would give them privacy. It wasn't fixed up half as nice as the old bar area, but he did want to preserve it too. After meeting Benzo again, it felt like he should do something with it. "What's going on, Jinx? How come you don't like the bar?"
"Hm?" She took off the mask. Her face was covered in tears so she wiped them away. "No way. I love the bar."
Oh. "You wouldn't even talk downstairs until I got too nosey though. Why aren't you saying something?"
"I just wasn't prepared to be hit by something so full in the face from the past. I've been trying to concentrate on the future, not this. One crisis at a time."
"One crisis at a time?"
"Well yeah, I burned it all down when I was burning myself out. Do you have any drawings or blueprints of the bar? Do you have a recipe for the beer?" she asked. "The bar is one of the few things I can handle from the past, but, I'm not really ready for it either. I can't stay, I have to go."
She burned it down, probably right before the- "No, not yet!"
He got in front of the door. "I won't dredge anything up anymore if it's bugging you." He gestured toward the old out of sort stuff. "Why don't you just relax for a little while? Tinker."
There was no way that should have been able to do anything, she could tinker in her own stuff anytime but her reactions in his lab had been different. And the results of that tiny little invite to just chill in Benzo's old place?
She sat down and actually started to tinker. She was touching everything that she worked on like nothing was a waste, when most of it probably would be.
Yep, yep, yep. Not normal for Jinx. "Can your team spend the night here, and stay until the afternoon tomorrow? Can you do that at least?" he asked.
She didn't answer at first as she really started to tinker around with things. "I can stay if it's necessary to help repair for a little longer. Evening's the longest."
"There was some damage. If we blindfold them again, you can clean up your mess." Not the funnest thing, but his mind was hurting over the change in her. She was acting so much more like Powder.
Except, still not quite. There. She was hiding something.
"Do you want to know why I never let you save me, Ekko? It's because I'd rather shoot at you than ever let you know the truth."
Oh! "What truth?"
"Remember how we were just hanging out the day before the heist, and practicing our fighting moves? Then when you tried yours you fell backwards?"
Not his best shining moment. "Sure do."
"How we went and started jumping on the beds before someone caught us and beat our butts for doing it?"
"Yeah, I remember. And how you got to go on the heist and I still didn't get to." He remembered that too.
"The next day after that?" She wasn't as fast to speak. "Little Powder made her first bomb that actually worked. She ran up to Vi. She was upset, even though Powder was like 'didn't I do something right finally?' But. It took a moment for Little Powder to figure it out. Vi made it clear. She walked off and never returned. And. She was my sister, the one person who never left my side my entire life. So. Where does a kid go when they've done something so unforgivable that a person like that leaves them forever?" She shrugged. "Only where villains go."
Ekko tried to think about her words. From her perspective. "But." But. "Your bombs sucked back then, you were miles away from making anything dangerous. How?"
"Well, from that fancy place we mugged, we lost all the loot except a few things I pocketed. Pretty blue spheres. I showed Vi earlier that night and asked if we should show Vander. She said no. When Vi left with the others, they rolled on the floor, I saw the sizzle and potential. Shoved it in the monkey bomb and off I went."
"Hextech." The spheres that killed Vi in the parallel world. For some reason, it wasn't as violent of an explosion. That's why the pieces were in different spots, and there weren't as many. This Powder found out it's true power in a different location. This is . . . the same?
It was the same! It's the same!
Different explosion place, that was it! Instead of losing Vi and getting comforted from everybody else, getting the supported she needed, Vi made her think . . . no one would ever forgive her.
This was it. She didn't lose Vi's life, but had no one left for comfort.
"So, yeah," Jinx said disturbing his thought. "Rather shoot at you, Savior Boy, talk ya down, be as mean as possible and keep you away."
"Then risk facing that I'd just walk off forever like what Vi did?" That was it. This whole time. Guilt. Guilt held her back. Guilt held her to Silco. It wasn't that she cared for him more. Guilt let him mold her.
No more guilt. "Try me, Jinx." She looked confused. "Seriously." He moved over to her right side, and pulled her over in a yank. "Powder? I did it, I really got ya this time, let's go." He didn't speak with the same level of intensity. Just the same words.
Powder didn't answer at first, thinking. For her, it apparently wasn't as engrained. "I'm working."
"Not here anymore. Come on." He pulled her slightly. "Come on, your free now. You aren't a prisoner anymore, I'm rescuing you, let's go."
"No, let go."
"What do you mean no? Why not?"
"Because I work for Silco."
"I don't understand. Forget it, come on." He tugged her again.
"You don't want to understand."
"Try me." She was going off script with 'you don't want to understand' instead of the smack she gave.
So he would too. She did remember it, she's been preparing to think.
"I work with villains. I am a villain."
"No, you're not."
"Yeah, I am. I. I caused the explosion that killed everyone." She just stared ahead for a little while. "You need to go."
He didn't move. "You caused the explosion."
"Yeah, I did, so you need to-"
Ekko brought her in for a tight hug. He held her several seconds while she tried to figure out her next move.
A part of him was mad now. Really mad. If she just-!
But. She was scared back then. Vi's treatment, it set a precedent to how she thought everyone would act. "I need to bring you home right now. I thought everyone was dead. I lost everyone. I won't lose you." He felt her tremble beneath him.
Then, she hugged back just as tight. "It was an accident, Little Man, I just wanted to help!"
"Yeah. I know."
"I don't know. Vi talked to me, I think. But. Silco said she died in the explosion, that I was just hearing the voices of the dead because of my guilt."
Fuck Silco! How? How was that guy actually friends with Vander in the other time? But? Not this Silco. This Silco would rot in hell.
"Would you really have done this, Ekko?" She questioned him. "Without seeing another world. Another Powder."
The other universe. "I never told you what was different about it," he said to her, still holding her. She hadn't wrenched herself away, and he wasn't letting go until she did. "There was more than one thing, but for this conversation. That Powder had a bad explosion too when she went with Vi and them to collect loot. Hers was much worse, and she lost Vi then."
Absolute surprise. "Vi. She killed Vi in the heist."
"Yeah. Mylo. Claggor. Vander. Benzo. Everyone. They were all fine. Everyone was fine with what happened because it was an accident."
"Did they know it was the hextech? Did she even know, that that's what killed Vi?"
She didn't seem to take any blame. "Even I would have had to share some of that blame. I gave the tip. So, the only real difference is she found forgiveness."
"She found forgiveness."
"Yeah. It took awhile, but so did you, even if you didn't need it."
She just stared at him. Her eyes were trying to make sense of what she heard.
"It was an accident-"
"-I followed without permi-"
"-It was an accident. It doesn't matter whether it was permission or not, it was still an accident. Just in case you need to hear it? I forgive you, Jinx."
Yep, that was a big change. Her eyes started to well up as she clung onto him so tight. "I was only trying to help, I was only trying to help!"
He could hear her start to cry. Long overdue. He didn't dare let go right now. Even without visiting the other universe, he definitely would have taken her back. Even if she did say it just like that, an explosion without saying it was an accident? He'd know.
He knew his friend. He knew how much she had cared for her sister, for Vander, for everyone. He hadn't seen the horrors she could create yet back then, and he would have taken her back. "If I had figured it out, back then, then would you have come back?"
"Would I have left Silco, to go back home with my best friend way back when in the beginning? Of course I would have, Ekko."
Oh to finally hear that! It was so unfair. Hidden facts. Changed so much.
"One huge point for Shield," she said.
Hm? "What Shield?"
She pulled away, so he let her go. "I really couldn't stop messing up back then."
"You weren't the only one. I should have tried something," he said too.
"I kicked you away every time. Like I said-"
"You'd rather shoot your best friend then have him willingly walk away forever." Yeah. Such different circumstances. "Stay longer. 'Til noon at least. I have some stuff I need to do, but I'll switch it to the evening."
"On one condition?" She looked down at all the scraps. "I'll need Shields and a Cake later."
A cake?
"Do you mind if I tinker for a few more minutes?" she asked.
He nodded. Once again, really weird. There was nothing up there that she could mess with though. He didn't have a lot of stuff in there to make a grenade or any kind of weapon. That stuff was kept in a different place, not that junky area.
He took a seat beside her, and watched her. She was just tinkering with basic nothings and clapping her hands. With motions, like tightening screws and untightening screws. Her eyes though, he couldn't place it. It was like she hadn't done it in months. Like she was just savoring the gestures.
After a few minutes, she left to go to sleep with her allies.
He went back home and tried to get some sleep.
It wasn't happening. His head was going everywhere but to sleep.
/// "So Vi got something special for her name day," Powder said while they looked up high. "It was a cupcake. She gave me a little bite, and I was unprepared how sweet it was. I spit it out on the ground. Then Mylo scolded me, so I picked it up and shoved it back in. Then and I had sweet and dirt in my mouth."
"Eeew!" He laughed at her as he wrinkled his nose. "You were eating dirt, Powder."
"I messed up and I tried to fix it. I wasn't even thinking. It was really disgusting though and Vi definitely had that look of 'what did you just do' while everyone else was grossed out. It was instinctive, I just reacted to get the teasing to stop. Mylo really called me out for it again." She moved her legs back and forth.
"Well after that, what did Vi do with it?"
"She took a bite, and then she took her hands?" Powder giggled and showed her palms to him. "And then just shoved it in her face like this!" She blew her cheeks up, making them both laugh. She leaned backwards and shook her legs in laughter. "Vander wasn't super impressed by either of us, but it was funny to see, Buster."///
That. Age. Jinx's first kill was when she was Powder. It was an accident though. She was just . . . trying to help.
That affectionate touching of the lab equipment. Most of the time downstairs, quiet. Staying on task for the duty. It wasn't something he thought he could ever see from her. She was built differently than the Powder he grew up with. She felt different than the other Powder who lost Vi.
He felt a little bit of the old Jinx, but it was a lot more . . . subdued. Was that, that guy Anatoly's doing? What had changed her? What made her want to tell him that tonight?
Was that change good or bad? "Why is there like an eight-year-old being a mercenary?" Endless questions. Ekko. You have to get some sleep. Forget about things right now.
///"This. Do this." Powder poked at his head and laughed.
"Hey." She poked at his head again. "Quit."
"No. Do this, Buster." She took his finger and put it on her own forehead.
"This is stupid," Ekko said as he held his finger on her head. "What are we doing?"
"Putting each other's fingers on each other's foreheads."
"Yeah. Why?"
"Cause. I'm bored, Little Man. I don't know what to do. What are you up to?"
"Helping Benzo with stuff. You?"
"Lately, I've been sticking my finger to my friend's forehead."///
Ekko started to crack himself up. I haven't thought of that stupid thing in forever. He didn't let himself think for a long time about moments with Powder. When Powder became Jinx, he had to put it all inside again.
Hard to think about the silly girl touching foreheads with fingers, when she was shooting like a maniac filled with destruction. That's right. She was really destructive because of Silco. She didn't seem like she posed a threat to the community though.
///Powder was sitting on the cage of a captured animal. He was just on the other side, but she was engaged in her own thoughts and things. Like he wasn't really mattering to her. Her leg just swung away while she wasn't paying attention. He couldn't help himself and grabbed at her leg, startling her.
Ha. Now she looked at him. He had her attention again.///
No, she wasn't a threat at all. She saved it. It was night, most people were going down for bed. The few enforcers that did make it in, were being guns all ablaze. Plus, all the people who knew before that? No one would know who knew and didn't know their location.
That trust of secrecy for the Firelights base would have been shattered. She not only took care of those enforcers, she got all the rats along the way. Cleaned it up.
That was good. That was better than good, that was great. So.
If she was getting better, then why was she a mercenary?