POWDER VI

You can't trust them.

They are talking about you.

Don't worry about anything.

"Shh!" I shushed the voices as I stalked the three of them at the entrance from one of the branches with my monocular. Their lips were moving but I couldn't make out what they were saying. Suddenly, Ekko glanced up in my direction and I dropped the spyglass as I met his eyes. There was no way he could see me through all the foliage but it felt like he could and I was scared to see what his eyes would say. What if he was finally tired of me and was leaving for good? I shook my head at these thoughts. That was impossible. Not because I was all that great but because he was too kind to do something like that.

I glanced back down and saw Vi hug Caitlyn before turning back towards the treehouse. She was staying? What would they do about her testimony? Plus, she was so adamant about going and I knew how much she cared about Vander's legacy. Was she…staying because of me? "Powder? Are you here?" Of course. It was my fault she couldn't go. I threw a small acorn that bounced harmlessly off her head to get her attention.

"I'm fine now." Liar. "Just…lost my mind there for a second. You can still catch up to them if you go now. I'll stay put here and work on the Hextech thingy." My words clearly didn't do the trick because the next thing I knew, she was climbing up to where I was.

"It's not your fault, you know? Ekko is just spooked by his…I don't even know what to call it."

"His dreams about the different timelines?"

Vi nodded. "Did he tell you about what he saw in them?"

"More or less. I get hurt while crossing the bridge then…something, something, instructions unclear, I blow up the city."

"I tried to convince him that you would never do something like that but he wouldn't budge."

"Oh, you have no idea, sister." I laughed humorlessly. It wasn't that long ago that I was willing to end two innocent lives just for having found this place. If I had my way, the world would have been short two wonderful people and their cute little offspring. I could confidently say that I had grown a lot since then and blowing up a city wasn't something I was looking to add to my to-do list but it did feel like something the pink-eyed Powder could do. Ever since that day at the junkyard when Ekko almost died, she has been lurking beneath the surface. Only one bad day away from taking over.

The real you.

You know my name.

"Powder?" The sound of my name startled me out of my thoughts. "Something on your mind?"

She knows it too.

At that moment, as I looked at my sister, I wondered if I would have been happier had she just left with Ekko and Caitlyn. With her here, it made me want to ask myself questions I was scared to hear the answers to. I pushed these thoughts to the recess of my mind and replied as cheerfully as I could. "I guess if he puts up with my schizophrenic ass every day then I can humor him with his time-traveling fantasies once in a while, right?"

"Schizo- what now?"

"Crazy. Batty. Cuckoo."

"You're not –"

"I am!" The words came out more venomous than I expected like a snake that lashed out after being poked. "I hear voices in my head. I see things that aren't there. If there's one thing I'm certain of in this world, it's that." Vi was lost for words. I didn't know if it was the fact that I went from being normal to a bipolar freak in a matter of seconds or because she was trying to navigate around the eggshells that were the rest of my mental problems. Why?! Why was I so fucked up that I can't even have a normal conversation with my own sister?!

You don't deserve it.

Why do you even bother?

They all pity you.

"I don't want your pity!" The voices were getting louder and I was falling down the rabbit hole. I was still the same useless jinx from before; it was only a matter of time before I ruined everything. Ekko was right to leave me behind and Vi had to stay to take care of me. I hammered my head with my fists. "Useless! Useless! Useless!" Suddenly, I felt my sister's arms around my head as she protected me from myself. My last few hits landed on her head instead and my anger quickly dissolved into guilt. "I'm sorry…I'm so so–"

"It's okay," she said as she softly caressed the back of my head and chuckled. "You're a lot stronger than before."

"W-Why didn't you just grab my arms?"

"I felt like maybe you just needed to let it all out."

"But didn't it hurt?"

"It hurts me more watching you punish yourself like that. I love you, Powder, more than anyone else in this world and nothing will ever change that." I bit down on my lips to stop the sobs from escaping and leaned my head in as she cradled me. "I can't pretend like I know what you are struggling with but we all have our own demons in our minds. It doesn't make you weak if those demons terrify you, it just makes you a normal human being. Sometimes it becomes too hard to fight off the demons by yourself and those days suck but…do you still remember what I told you about bad days?"

"We learn and we stick together," I mumbled through the lump in my throat.

"That's all I know how to do right now. I'm just sticking to you," she said playfully as she glued her hand on my arm, "like an ochre jelly."

"Or a black pudding." A small smile formed on my face as a tear rolled down my cheek and I did the same. "You really went all out with the tattoos."

"It's the cogs and machinery you always tinkered with. It made me feel a bit closer to you while I was in there. And yours?"

"The flare that you gave me. I could only use it once so I thought if I had it on my body, it would always be up and you'd one day come and find me."

"I'm sorry I took so long." The two of us sat there for the next little while in silence, appreciating the miracle that it took for us to be reunited. "You know what? When things settle down, let's go on a trip. We'll leave this, this, cramped, horrible city, and have a look at the outside world."

"Where would we go?"

"My celly always said that Ionia was a place full of natural beauty and magic where the people lived alongside all manner of fantastical flora and fauna. I've wanted to see it for my own eyes ever since."

Her eyes glittered with childlike excitement as she recounted the stories she's heard with contagious enthusiasm. "Can we bring Ekko with us too?" I asked.

"You're really gonna third-wheel me?!"

"Just bring your girlfriend too!"

THOMPBSHH!

A loud popping noise from outside silenced our laughter. It drew the attention of every person within the sanctuary and we all looked up in unison as a flask sailed over the high walls. Time slowed down as I watched it fall and I was able to see every detail down to the stains on the glass bottle to the swishing of the green liquid inside. At that moment, the image of the monkey bomb appeared in my head. When the explosion knocked me off the ledge, I saw the world with the same clarity. The feeling of vertigo in my stomach made me feel like I was the one falling instead of the flask. Down, down, down, until it shattered on the ground and the illusion was consumed by dark, emerald flames.

"FIRE!"

As if someone had pressed the resume button, everything started moving again at the same time. Dozens more of these vials came over the wall, turning the beautiful greenery into a hellish inferno. People scrambled to put out the fire but the alchemical solution burned so hot that it fractured stone and blackened the earth. While everyone was still in a state of panic, Shimmer fiends armored in chemtank suits burst through the entrance and climbed over the walls.

"Firelights with me!" shouted Wengo as hoverboards took to the skies to meet the invaders but we were heavily outnumbered.

Above us.

"Powder!"

The blade came down inches away from my head as I tilted to the right before knocking the chemtank back with a spinning kick and putting a bullet straight into its skull. Two more surrounded us and each took one of us on. Vi weaved between the blades but her bare knuckles weren't enough to get through the metal plating. I killed the one that was harassing my sister first as I danced around my opponent before plunging my pocket knife into its knee joint and twisting the bone out. Even Shimmer couldn't dull that much pain so I put him out of his misery with a bullet to the back of the head.

Vi was stunned for a moment at my brutality but quickly recovered when I called out to her. "Catch." I popped out the cells from my stun gun and integrated it into a brass knuckle for her. A million things were going through my mind but somehow I was able to keep it all straight in my head. Things were simple when it was kill or be killed and amidst bullets and chaos was where I functioned best. The two of us were similar in that regard and we quickly got to work, clearing off any intruder that we came across in tandem.

A whistle caught my attention and Ava tossed me my minigun as she flew by on her hoverboard. "Those fuckers are swarming us down there!"

"Tell everyone to pull back to the treehouse, I'll cover them from here," I ordered and Ava was off. The retreat was sounded and the Firelights began coming back to their nest. I unloaded every single bullet I had and by the time the last casing dropped, the death machine was so hot that smoke was coming out of it. "Take care of things here for a minute. I need to grab the gemstone from the workshop."

"Leave it to me," said Vi as she sent the remaining few Shimmer fiends flying off the branches.

As I rushed over to the workshop, I took in the forces surrounding us. We had bought ourselves a moment's reprieve as the enemy reorganized for a siege on the treehouse but we had already lost a large portion of our fighting force in the initial strike. I inventoried my remaining resources and began making a defense plan in my mind. Winning was out of the question but we could make them bleed. If we fought until the last man then –

Everyone will die.

Silence filled the room as I clutched the gemstone. "What would you do, Ekko?"

"C'mon Powder, we need to get inside!" yelled Vi from the door.

We could leave.

If it were just the two of us, we could probably make it if we escaped while the chemtanks stormed the treehouse.

Bait and switch!

Smart girl.

"Powder?"

Do it.

Let's go find Ekko.

What good is dying with the rest of them?

"You looked like you were napping just now. Don't even try to lie, I caught you!"

"I actually have a book on that. How to Tell if Someone Likes You: 9 Signs of Attraction."

"Raoq said his first words yesterday. Can you guess what it was? It was Pow-Pow!"

"I'm sorry, sis," I said as I buried my face in her chest. "I can't leave them."

"I know, Pow-Pow," she said as she patted my head. "I'm staying with you…" Until the end was left unsaid.

"Thank you," I said as I looked up at her with a smile before my eyes widened. "Behind you!" With razor-sharp reflexes, she turned around and put up her guard but there was nobody there. "Goodbye, Violet."

The floor filled with injured bodies as non-combatants rushed to save as many people as they could. Memories of corpses on the bridge resurfaced and I considered covering my eyes again as I walked past them. But if I did that then some people's final moments may pass by unnoticed and they deserved to have someone mourn them as they went, even if that someone was me.

The bombardment outside shook the very foundation of the tree upon which so many of us built our hopes and dreams and it wouldn't be long before our sanctuary was destroyed. The children cried and the adults despaired. "I told y'all this would happen!" yelled Worm as he slammed the table. "We should have killed that enforcer bitch when we had the chance."

"What are you gonna do about it?" I asked as I pushed into the center.

"Well we can't do anything now, she's gone already!"

"So you're just complaining to complain, glad we got that established. Are we trying to make a plan or are we just circlejerking here?"

"There are too many of them to fight off…"

"There are other ways of making them leave." Everybody in the room turned to me. "It's the gemstone they're looking for. We just need one person to act as bait while the rest escapes." The room fell deathly quiet apart from little Raoq's cries; the shells outside and the crackling of burning wood filled the silence of the adults.

"Who will it be?" asked Wengo solemnly.

I looked around the room and everyone had their eyes downcast. They all knew what would happen to the person acting as the bait. It would be certain death. "What a stupid question. This is my plan," I chuckled. "I'm going to be the decoy, obviously. The rest of you would probably screw it up."

Ava clutched onto my arm and tears welled up in her eyes. "Please, don't – you don't have to do this."

"Have some faith," I said as I patted her head. "I'll take them for a loop and lose them no problem!" Her grip tightened as I bought her in for one last hug before gently easing her hand off. I then turned to Wengo, "My sister is by the entrance. Take care of her and get everyone to safety. Ekko will know what to do when he comes back."

"You have my word." As I got onto my hoverboard, he called out to me one last time. "And Powder…it'll be Raoq's birthday soon…We'll be waiting for you." I gave him a small nod and quickly turned away. I could hear the lump in his throat at the end and if I saw him crying, I would start fucking crying too.

"We'll be waiting for you, Blue!"

"Come back soon, Powder!"

The higher I went, the more people broke down. Why were they all crying? Nobody should cry for jinxes. My vision blurred and I tried to wipe away the dust in my eyes. Nobody should cry for jinxes…

I tossed a few grenades to get the chemtanks' attention before opening the cylindrical container and showing the blue sphere inside. "Are you guys looking for this?" Like moths to a flame, they converged on me and I hovered just within the range of their attacks to keep them interested. Back at the treehouse, the Firelights seized the opportunity and fought their way through the thinned encirclement. The plan worked. I smiled from ear to ear and waved my hand. "C'mon losers, over here!"

I led them on a wild goose chase through old town before one of their harpoons took out my hoverboard. The landing wasn't pretty. My skin scrapped on the pavement and I felt a sharp pain in my right leg as I hit the ground. My handgun slid across the road and before I could crawl to it, someone yanked me back by my long braids. I was flattened on my back as the chemtanks surrounded me before a thin middle-aged man with pale, greyish skin stepped through.

"We meet again," said Silco in the same soothing voice as last time. He had visibly aged since then. White streaks now ran through his black undercut hair and he was wearing heavy makeup and several layers of foundation to hide his facial scarring that had grown worse. But despite his physical deterioration, his presence was still terrifying. "Give it up, it's over."

"Okay…you win," I said as I opened the container. The look of surprise and then anger as he held the ordinary blue marble up to his orange iris was an achievement in and of itself. "Too bad, so sad." I stuck out my tongue and gave him a big fat middle finger.

"Take her." A chemtank stepped forward and blocked Silco's silhouette. It reeled back its fist and with a thud, the world went black.

Headache. In my groggy state, it was the first thing I could really focus on as I was being dragged by my arms. Once the world stopped spinning, I looked around and found myself in some sort of cave. The sound of dripping water echoed down the dimly lit corridors and the smell of various chemicals filled the cavern. I tried to muster up some strength to fight against my captors but only found a lot of broken things inside my body.

We passed by a large steel cage before I was tossed unceremoniously onto the ground. I glanced over and locked inside was the wolf I had met in the junkyard all those years ago. "So you were real, huh? They get you too?" The wolf's eyes were closed and it didn't respond to me. Not that I was expecting it to; it just gave me a vague sense of familiarity and that made the situation slightly better.

Unfortunately, our reunion was interrupted as someone's shoe stepped in front of my vision. "Where is it?" I looked up to see who asked and it was the big bad himself. The slender man with the devil's eye.

"Ah, the pronoun game, I love this one." I heard a deafening loud crackling and a current of electricity coursed through my body. My vision went black for a moment as every muscle fiber in my body felt like it was being torn apart. My scream must have woken up the wolf because the next thing I heard was a blood-curdling roar followed by heavy bangs against the steel cage. The goons standing around began to panic when the bars started to bend and then the most miraculous thing happened. The wolf spoke.

"YOU WERE THERE! YOU WERE THERE!"

I was so shocked that I thought I was hallucinating again. Was it speaking to me? "Put him to sleep," ordered Silco, and a cool blue liquid was injected into the chemical chamber on its back. Slowly but surely, the fanatical beast lost its strength before it fell unconscious.

"Who…was that?"

"My questions first. Where's the gemstone?"

"It's not in my pocket? Bummer, I must have lost it." The real gemstone was hidden somewhere only Ekko would find and by now, everyone would have already evacuated the sanctuary. They would have to rebuild but they will have Ekko and Vi and even Caitlyn to help and guide them. My job was done. That earned me another shock and once my muscles stopped spazzing, I craned my neck to see who was doing it. "You're really doing an A+ job there, buddy, keep it up."

"It doesn't have to be this way, you know? You and I are kindred spirits; abandoned and betrayed by those we loved. I believe there's a world where we could work together."

"Maybe…but just not this one."

"So you would rather die then?"

I scoffed. "I was dead the moment you captured me."

"Hmm." He made a noise in his throat that was neither a confirmation nor a denial before walking away. "She's all yours."

A bald, decrepit, old man in a tattered brown coat stepped into the room as Silco left. Half of his face was covered and the visible half was calloused and leathery. "Hello, Jinx. Do you know who I am?"

"The first mate to Captain One-Eyed?"

"My name is Singed. I'm an alchemist. Normally I conduct my experimentations for the sake of pushing the boundaries of knowledge, but I do admit a part of me will enjoy this." The doctor carefully removed his face covering and the bandages underneath, revealing the grotesque burns. "A token from when you set off your little monkey bomb."

"Don't feel too bad, it's not much worse than what you looked like before. Now your name makes sense. Singed…hehe."

"I'm glad you have a sense of humor," he said as he unrolled a bag of sharp blades and needles, "but I wonder how long it will last." Two of the goons picked me up and strapped me down onto the operating table. My heart rate sped up. This was it. This was how I was going to die. Not in the arms of someone I love but under the knife of a mad scientist. Countless needles were stuck into my arm and instantly, my entire body felt like it was set on fire. I saw my veins pop up to the surface of my skin and watched as the substance crawled up my body through my blood vessels.

It hurt. It hurt so much that I cried but instead of tears, strange purple liquid came out of my eyes and mouth. The agony kept ramping up to the point where I couldn't take it anymore then another shot of Shimmer would be injected into me to keep me alive. The drug was a flash of reprieve in this living hell. A single frame from moments in my life when I was truly happy.

"You know, Powder, you're stronger than you think."

One by one…

"I love you, Powder. Always have."

…they became corrupted by the writhing suffering that came after.

"No, don't. NOOO!"

"I understand this must be painful. I'm afraid it'll only get worse."

I screamed from the pain and the memories that came with it.