EKKO III

"This is not who we are, it can't be." Things would have been so much easier if it had just been some goons sent by Silco or one of the other crime bosses we've messed with in the past. Killing them would have been easy to justify. I could have convinced the altruistic side within me that the world was better off without them but I couldn't do it with Wengo and Kaya. If we went down that path, we would never be able to turn back. It would be a slippery slope down and slowly but surely, we would be no different from the Silcos of this world.

"Listen, we'll figure something out, we always have," I said, not wanting to argue anymore, but when I looked up, her gaze seemed to be a thousand miles away. "Blue, you okay?" She didn't answer and instead turned back toward the door. My eyes widened as her hand reached for her gun and it finally registered in my head what she was about to do. "Powder, no!" I jumped at her and shoved her just in time to make her miss. Her body hit the floor and I quickly kicked the gun away from her reach. "What the hell were you thinking?!"

She shrank back from my voice and backed up against the wall, "I-I'm sorry, I was only trying to help. I was only trying to help." She was mumbling the same thing she did that day when I found her at the cannery and that's when I recognized that she was having a particularly bad episode. The shock and anger immediately drained away and I tried to reach out to comfort her. "No, no, not again," she said as she put up her arms to protect herself and looked at me as if I was the vilest of villains. "Don't hurt me, please!"

My chest tightened as I wanted nothing more than to drive her demons away but at that moment, I was the demon in her eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you, Powder!" I said as I tried to calm her down but that proved to be a mistake. A strong kick to my stomach sent me flying backward and when I looked up, she was already at the door. "Powder!" I tried to run after her but a steel bolas wrapped around my ankles and I crashed unceremoniously to the ground for a second time.

I pulled out my pocketknife and started cutting away at the cords but by the time I was free, she was long gone. "Powder?!" I called out as I searched the treehouse for her only to end up right where I started. "Dammit!" I yelled in a fit of rage as I threw the bolas against the wall. The steel weights collided against the metal surface with a loud bang that echoed within the small chamber. Silence returned when the sharp sound subsided and I was left alone with my thoughts before Wengo finally spoke up.

"Thank you for saving me, you're a good man."

"You don't know shit about me," I said as I got up to his face. "If you were a threat to me – to her – I would kill you without a second thought."

"But you know that we're not."

"Thank you for reiterating my dilemma," I sighed as I ran my hand through my hair again. Fresh out of ideas, I turned back to the person who had just as much stake as I did, "So, I can't let you go and I can't kill you. If you were me, what would you do?"

"You could let us join you."

I scoffed, "We're not a charity."

"We can pull our weight. Kaya can help build this place up and I can help you with your jobs. You're Owl and Jinx, right? The gadgets, girl with blue hair, just the two of you. It's not hard to put the pieces together." I didn't answer him but that in itself was probably all he needed to confirm his guess. "This place is well-hidden but eventually more people are going to find it. Are you going to kill every single person that shows up at your doorstep?"

"I-" Before I could respond, the sound of an explosion coming from outside caught my attention.

"What was that?"

"Powder…" Wengo called after me as I rushed out but the only thing I could hear at that moment was my mind screaming for me to hurry and find her. I felt like I was reliving that rainy night when I tried to save Vi and the others. A feeling of dread pooled in my stomach as my imagination ran to the worst-case scenario. What if she was hurt or…worse? No, this time would be different, I wasn't the same powerless child I used to be and neither was she. I jumped on my hoverboard and donned my mask, "Hold on tight, Powder, backup's coming."

I flew through the air of the undercity like a bullet and chased down the sound of the explosion. It was at an abandoned junkyard where I found Powder being chased by half a dozen brutes with Chemtech augments. They wore strange helmets that kept their heads submerged in Shimmer and were equipped with blades glistening with a green liquid. An unfair fight given Powder was unarmed but that was about to change real quick.

I whistled to get Powder's attention and then nodded toward a junk pile up ahead. She caught on to my plan and ran toward it at full speed. Her small frame and agility allowed her to maneuver through the mountain of broken metal garbage while I flew over the top to make sure the freaks were following. As soon as she was through, I dropped the bombs and collapsed the stack of trash on top of her pursuers.

"You came," said Powder with relief in her voice as I came down from the air. She then reached out to touch me and asked uncertainly, "Y-You're real, right?"

"Of course I'm real." I booped her on the nose to prove my point which made her smile and earned me a hug but our reunion was rudely interrupted as some of the goons slowly crawled out from underneath the rubble. They growled at us and brandished their blades as the drug coursed through their veins. I handed Powder her weapons and cracked my neck, "You ready to school these clowns?"

"Oh yeah." She yanked the pins from two of her grenades with her mouth and both sides charged forward. The first two chemtanks took the chompers to the face which exploded their Shimmer fishbowls. I skated through the air and encased two other in yellow minerals with crystal bombs. While they were immobilized, Powder finished them off by breaking their helmets. Without their precious drug, they were nothing more than grown men in funny-looking metal suits.

We worked in concert with each other like a dance, overwhelming our opponents with a flurry of aerial and ground tricks. When they tried to go for Powder, I would be there to wreck their shit and when they tried to go for me, Powder would be there to jinx them. We were in a zone and I felt like we were invincible. As long as we were together, there was nothing we couldn't accomplish.

As the last chemtank fell, I took off my mask, allowing the cool breeze to hit my sweaty face, and looked to Powder with a smile. It was clear to me now what we should do with Wengo and Kaya. If I explained it now, I believed that she would understand too. Even if they betrayed us, as long as we stick together, there will always be another home for us. If we stayed true to what made us Ekko and Powder, we'll make it through anything life throws at us.

"Alright, let's go ho-"

Strangely there was no pain, only a sudden feeling of weakness as I fell down on my knees. I didn't realize what had happened until I looked down and saw the blade sticking out of my body. Then, as if it had just been an illusion, the blade was gone, leaving behind a gash that slowly dyed my shirt red. There must have been another one that escaped the rubble. The next thing I knew, the world tilted over and my body hit the ground.

The chemtank stepped over me and began moving toward Powder yet she remained rooted in place. Her wide blue eyes urged me to get up but every second that I didn't, they were filled with more and more fear. I wanted to yell for her to move but there was no voice in my throat. The metal monstrosity reared its arm back and thrust the blade forward. For a brief moment, I thought this was the end of our story but suddenly, there was a flash of purple and my eyes lost track of her.

The juggernaut fell on its back and a girl that looked like Powder jumped on him with monstrous ferocity. She smashed open the glass helmet, peeling away the remaining shards with her bare hands, before violently stabbing down again and again. Blood spurted out of the metal container like a fountain as the sound of flesh being put apart filled my ears. Her screams were mixed with laughter and her tears mixed with blood. When the corpse was no longer recognizable, she looked up to the sky and reached for her pistol.

"Powder…"

Her figure froze as if she was snapped out of a spell and she quickly crawled over to me. Her mouth was moving but I couldn't make out what she was saying. My vision turned black and when I opened my eyes again, Powder was carrying me back to our home. She set me by a wall and from my peripheral vision, I could see her marching toward Wengo with her shard of glass. There was more shouting and when my mind focused again, Wengo was crouching beside me.

"Am I going to die?" My voice sounded weak and pathetic to my ears. Instead of thinking of ways to survive, my mind was working uselessly on what last words I should say to Powder. But there were too many. How could I fit all the conversations we would have for the rest of our lives in just a few short sentences? How could I convey the feelings I've had all these years in just a few short breaths?

Get a grip!

"You're losing a lot of blood and I think whatever they had on their blades is infecting the tissue around the cut," said Wengo as he moved my hand to inspect the wound. "We'll need to cauterize it." Cauterize. Burn. My breathing quickened as I recalled the pain I felt in that burning cannery that fateful night. The blinding agony from having my flesh melted still haunted my dreams. "You'll need Shimmer," he said, noticing my fear.

I watched as he uncorked a vial of that cursed purple drug and held it up to my lips. "No Shimmer!" I objected vehemently as I batted Wengo's hand away. I've seen what it could do to people and I would rather die than end up like that.

"This is going to hurt."

"I'll scream."

"A lot."

"I'll scream loudly." I held his gaze until he finally accepted my conviction and put away the drug. He looked around for a suitable instrument and threw it into the furnace. The metal rod glowed bright red in the fire and it scared me so much that I couldn't even bear looking at it. I gave him a nod before I closed my eyes and braced myself for the pain. I felt the heat from the rod on my skin for a split second before it was pressed on my body. "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

It was on me for less than a second but it felt like an eternity of torture. I was convinced the scalding iron had set fire to all my internal organs and was burning me from the inside out. The tiniest of breezes turned into needles that pierced my body and grated my nerves. This must be what death feels like; that was the last thought that passed through my head before the world turned black again.

In the darkness, I felt the soothing touch of someone's hand through my hair – warm and familiar. Her soft voice was the calm in a storm of confusion, a lullaby on the darkest nights. I fought hard to hold onto the moment but I could feel it slowly slipping away like a dream. 'Please,' I prayed, 'let me stay in this memory for just a little longer.' I tried to reach for her hand but like a reflection in the water, the person there was gone.

"Wake up, my little genius."

"Please…wake up…" My eyelids fluttered open as the familiar sight of my bedroom ceiling slowly came into focus. I turned my head on the pillow and saw Powder kneeling next to the bed with her head down. She was holding tightly onto my hand with hers as she whispered the same prayer again. "Come on, Little Man…wake up already…" I tried to sit up but the ache on my side reminded me of why I was here in the first place. Her head shot up as she noticed the movement, "Ekko! Are you okay? How are you feeling? Should I go get the doctor?"

"Slow down, Blue, I'm okay," I chuckled weakly and that was when I noticed her current state. Her clothes were stained in crimson, her face was caked with dried blood and there wasn't a single spot of clear skin on her entire arm. "You're covered in blood. What happened?"

"It…It's not mine," she said quietly as she lowered her head in shame. The disturbing scene of her repeatedly stabbing the man flashed before my eyes again. I couldn't imagine the fear and sadness she must have felt at that moment. It was yet another trauma I couldn't protect her from but at the very least, I could try to lessen the burden. After all, I would be lying if I said I would have reacted any better.

I reached out and cupped her cheek which made her look up at me in surprise, "I'm glad you're safe. That's all that matters." Her eyes welled up with tears and as she leaned into my touch, the small droplets rolled down the back of my hand.

"This isn't fair, I was supposed to be angry at you," she whispered as she threw her arms around my neck and buried her face into the crook of my neck. "You're not allowed to scare me like that anymore, okay? Promise?"

I smiled as I patted the back of her head, "Okay, I promise." We stayed like that in silence and simply enjoyed the warmth of the other person's presence. It felt so right that I never wanted this moment to end but my eyes were getting heavy and I knew my body needed more rest. In that dream-like state, I asked for the first thing that came to mind, "Wanna join me?" Without hesitation, she nodded and I made room for her on the small bed. I pulled back the covers and she carefully curled up against me, making sure not to put pressure on my wound.

I closed my eyes and the world shrank down to just the two of us. The sound of my heartbeat slowed down to match her rhythmic breathing. My hand slowly combed through her long silky blue hair as my mind began to wander and relax. "It's gotten pretty long, huh?"

"I like it." That was the last thing I remembered before I drifted into a deep sleep.

Voraces Lector: How are you always first to comment on every chapter?! Thank you for the continuous support you've shown so far, it really means a lot to me. It's also funny how you called that this chapter was going to be from Ekko's perspective, maybe I'm getting too predictable :thinkingface:

Warlocktoungue: Hope it was a good subversion of expectations :P Thanks for sticking with the story and leaving kind words every chapter, I always enjoy reading your reviews!

Samjakub: Thanks for taking the time to leave a review, hope you enjoyed this week's chapter!

KingdomDone: Thanks for the compliment!