Zaun
Okay. Deep breath.
"Deep breath," Shields warned her. "It'll be okay."
"Yes, we are right here," Margaret warned her. "Nothing can happen to you. This will be our first stop. It shouldn't take long, and then we will move on to our second."
"Yeah." Still. It felt weird. It was still Zaun, even though Sevika was on the council.
Shields wanted her to invite more than Vi. Vi was part of her life, but a big part of her childhood. She felt it would tighten the connection to Jinx, to her teenage side more, with someone from there.
There was only one person from there she ever even slightly cared for, that was still alive.
She wore her fancy jewelry, and a crown of her braids on her head along with tiny white flowers tucked in it. The evening dress and even a matching stupid purse with it. It felt strange going like this. Things she did to better herself sometimes.
The mercenary crew were out celebrating in Piltover in their own ways, leaving it all to them. Anatoly was also gone. He didn't want to come to Zaun, and she wasn't going to plead with him.
Margaret knocked on the door.
Sevika tried to hold back the gruffness. She just finished coming back from a council meeting that was once again terrible. They may have all joined forces to take out the greater threat of Viktor, but damn.
Allegiance only lasted so long. She was trying hard every time to get more support to Zaun, but it was hard. While part of it was rich because of the shimmer, more parts of it were bad with the shimmer, and parts of it were fighting itself because of the shimmer.
As a council member, she now had to see and inspect everything. She didn't get to just live in the nice little bubble she made for herself in life. That addiction was rampant, and losing Silco who at least had some regulations on it, was even worst for Zaun.
Silco's group watched those shipments. Dropped those shipments. Made sure nobody got those shipments without paying. While the enforcers had taken out some, Silco only shut down part of them. Fifty percent had still been in production, and restarting the other ones he had shutdown wasn't hard.
The chembarons fought and fought for the control. Shimmer between all of them didn't have set pricing, didn't have loyal followers that got shipments where they should be, it was chaos. Get it cheaper from this guy but risk getting killed if it showed up to the front door and the delivery guys wanted to save cash. Get it more expressive from that girl, but it would have a higher chance of getting to the participants.
Zaun was worse than ever without Silco. The only tiny light she noticed, was some of the Firelights actively working on guarding and taking back a tiny bit of the lanes. Near Vander's old bar. The leader even got the courage to come see her, to try and get some changes. She rewarded that, and Zaun, with real talks to the council. Enough to get Vander's old bar back, and a few other places near it. The Firelights were taking those small gives she could give, and they were guarding it with their own fists.
Still, it was just a small percentage of everyone down there. That was it for the good news though.
The Shimmer. It was hard to just put the foot down on it, because it ran the weapons. The hextech was gone from Piltover, outlawed and illegalized. No one wanted another Viktor case.
That left only shimmer to help run things now smoothly, and Piltover was figuring out it's own uses for Shimmer now too with it's own weapons. Without hextech, it only made sense, and even some hidden factories in Piltover were popping up.
In Piltover. Piltover was using Zaun's liquid of independence from Silco, to power their own new weapons, that would of course be used against Zaun. He never would have let that fall to them, but those chembarrons ransacking it all, they weren't loyal.
Oh, he'd be rolling in his grave. That's what happened with power and progress.
She answered the knocking again, and noticed someone definitely not from Zaun coming for a visit. "What do you want?"
Apparently her name was Margaret and she came from a hidden village called Laurent. Definitely hidden, never heard of it. She waited for her to get to the point.
Then couldn't believe her point. Jinx was there under the protections of Laurent village, so no one could arrest her for two days. If she legitimately joined a village with those given protections, it would work. Doing those protections made outside visitors who had deals with Piltover feel safer.
Bet Piltover didn't see this one coming though.
Margaret gave her information about Jinx coming to their village for help. They helped and she became an integral part of their village. Jinx was doing good? Maybe they had the wrong person, someone pretending to be Jinx.
It took a lot to make Jinx move if she wasn't motivated for it. It took just as much to make her stop.
Then she said Jinx was with her. Sevika looked at the fancy womand and man next to her, along with a brat not being a brat, and clearly two guards. "Jinx is with you? Where?"
Jinx stepped out from behind the guards. "Tis I!" She held her hand to her chest, being overdramatic and dumb, like her.
Something was different though, even with the presentation. Something more than the interesting fancy clothes and new accent. Her body was . . . loose. Her voice felt more loose. Jinx was always tight in her stature, like she was ready for a fight at any minute, like she could whip out several grenades on someone.
None of that was seen. "Hey, Sevika."
Where to start? "What the hell did you do to your head?" Sevika asked.
"I pinned my braids up. I'm making a good impression here," she told her. "Anyway." She grabbed something out of a little purse and gave it to her. "Come if you want, don't if you want."
Sevika looked at what she gave her. Well. What an interesting day so far. "Who the hell are you marrying?"
"My son," Margaret said. "Anatoly Laurent."
Sevika looked back at the wedding invitation she now held. "Powder-Jinx Laurent? You already have his name?"
"They wanted me to have a last name for professional reasons, and they gave me theirs," Jinx said. "Jinx is still fine. It's whatevs."
"It's whatevs, huh? Loses it's slang vibe when you say it like that."
"Yeah." She dropped the fancy accent. "Professional reasons too."
Yeah. Holy shit, they did get it right. No one was conning them with her identity. This was Jinx. "Yeah, that's better. Thought you got fully converted there, Jinx."
"No, just . . . got a little better." She gestured toward Shields and Sword. "These are my doctors. They help me with um. Stuff."
"Mental problems that had stopped her from being the best person she could be," Shields said for her.
Okay, what?
"Yes, it's a rare branch of medicine for helping the mental aspect of a person," Swords also added.
Mentally helping her? How could anyone help her? It was hard to believe, but just from the way she was holding herself. The way her eyes had really softened. She wasn't prepared for war. She was always prepared for war.
That gown. The piled up braids making a crown like a Piltovan would wear. She was cleaned up. It was like a damn miracle. Jinx went down and down in time. Starting from a girl, to a crazy girl, to an even crazier teen. This?
She didn't know exactly what these doctors did. But. She looked a hell of a lot better. She started a new life. Getting married. Got away from Zaun. "Well. Guess I owe it to Silco to see his daughter make the biggest mistake of her life. He'd appreciate that." She tucked it away.
Yeah. She had to see this place. Get to know more of this craziness.
"You'll like it." Jinx sounded softer. "Food is free. Clothes are free too. I'll-I'll umm, treat you to some of our trinkets if you want. I mean, not trinkets like nothing. There are village specialities before they get shipped off to expensive shops. So, I can get you something nice while you are there as a . . . souvenir or something."
Still don't get it. "Didn't know anyone helped the crazies," Sevika said, "but there's something way different about you. The whole . . . thing."
"I feel different," she admitted.
"It a good different?" Sevika asked.
"Yeah. Kind of. More. Whole?"
"Well." Sevika crossed her arms. "Keep at it. Did you see your sister yet?"
"She's my, um. Next stop." She put the fancy accent back on again. "We won't be long in Zaun before we are headed to Piltover. Can you just tell me what your thinking? I don't always get it right."
Hm. "Wasn't planning on coming home to see you of all people admitting you are alive, and presenting me with a wedding invitation all done up like that. It's . . . not bad, Jinx. I think he'd be proud to see it."
" . . . would he?"
"Pretty sure all he ever wanted was you surviving and happy."
"You could try asking for a hug if you wish?" Shields said out of the blue.
The hell was that? Who would boldly say that? Even Jinx looked oddly at her.
"With Sevika, a little different, Shields," Jinx said to her. "Maybe. Later."
"Okay, it's okay," Shields said to her. "You don't have to if you aren't ready yet."
That was weird. If someone recommended that to Jinx in the past, she would have yelled at them and split their lip. She knew that. She would have done the same thing.
Yet, Jinx just calmly handled it. Calmly. Handled it.
"Damn, it's like night and day, Jinx."
Jinx looked back toward her again. "Not really, I mean you gussy up anyone in a dress and-"
"It's not the dress, Jinx." It was everything else. Her eyes. Her voice. The way she held herself. She didn't even need to say a word, I already knew something was different the moment I saw her. "You're right. It's a good different. Your soft, but I can still tell, you can kick anybody's ass."
"Totally." That Jinx smile mixed with something else. A little bit of what she used to see.
"We really need to get going," Margaret insisted. "Zaun is not a place for the likes of us for long."
"Ah, I'd kick anyone's butt messing with us," Jinx said proudly.
"Save it for Moe and Joe. Let's go," Margaret commanded.
"Right. Good to see you, Sevika. Gotta head out. Gotta go see . . ."
"Your sister? Yeah, have fun with that. Only got two days before someone can drag your butt to jail so better make it count." She closed the door.
Trying to put together what she saw. There were actually doctors who could treat the mind, instead of the body? How did that work? Magic always made minds worse, not better. So, it couldn't be magic. Could it? "Hmm."