The time has come.

So I'm back AGAIN after a really long break, and while I don't wanna go into it too much, life fucking sucked for a while there. I'm doing much better now and things are going honestly really well right now, so here's the next chapter. Am working on getting the next one out as soon as possible as well, mostly before my uni kicks up the pace with my dissertation and all that, because wow is this next arc a doozy.

Anyways, hope you all enjoy and I'll see you at the end!


"You can't keep ignoring this."

The knife trembled as it carved through the loaf of bread, cutting away an uneven, messy slice.

"You heard what they were saying."

Powder moved the bread to the plate on her left before gripping the loaf in one hand, steadying it as she cut into it with slow, deliberate slices. This piece came out better, and she placed it next to the other one with a loud hum.

"Jinx… You have to listen to me."

She cut into the partly unwrapped block of butter behind the plate and began spreading an even layer across the second slice of bread - the one she hadn't ruined. It wasn't real butter, not like the stuff they had Topside, but Powder liked it more because of that. It had a near-tangy smell that reminded her of the sandwich's Benzo used to make for her and Ekko, whenever they spent too long tinkering in his attic and forgot to eat lunch. It reminded her of home. Not home as in Benzo's store or even The Last Drop, but home: those distant, bright times she'd got to spend with the people she loved.

They were so far away, but the little things like this… They were almost enough to bring her back. To make her forget…

"I'm tired…" A voice that wasn't hers passed through her lips, and Powder didn't have enough strength in her heart to stop it. The stained-steel knife glided across the bread, held in stained hands as it spread her treasured memories across the slice. "I'm so tired…"

"I know. You can rest soon, but you have a duty."

Cold fingers fell on her shoulder and Jinx's body tensed, her arms jerking as she gasped. The knife speared through the slice of bread and cut a groove into the plate, before she clenched her eyes shut. "I don't want to talk right now." She groaned, drawing back the knife and gently running her thumb along the blade, checking its edge. Then she started buttering the other bit of bread, ignoring the gaunt figure hovering just behind her.

"The Dredge has been opened." Silco's voice rang through the cavern, bouncing off the stone walls as he cupped her cheek. He rubbed small, soothing circles into her shoulder with the other, and even though his hands were ice-cold, Powder relaxed into his touch. "And you know as well as I that nothing good can come from that pit."

Powder shuddered, warmth filling her chest and spreading throughout her entire body, and she hated every second of it. Silco was only doing this because it made her easy to manipulate, just like Mylo had said, but she couldn't ignore the way it made her feel. Even something as small as his palms on her skin brought tears to her eyes, because for the people around her, Mom, Dad, Vander, Claggor, none of them ever touched her. Mylo touched her sometimes, gave her a hug every now and again, but that was just him playing games. Trying to get her to let her walls down and trust him, all so he could break that trust and hurt her, over and over and over again.

But she fell for it every time because she was so desperate for that warmth. She craved the feeling of someone's body against hers so much, enough that she let Mylo play with her heart, just because he might hold her while doing it. That single, overwhelming desire was enough to make her cry sometimes, but that wasn't much of a surprise. Most things did, these days.

Powder knew it was pathetic, she was pathetic, but she'd stopped caring about all that a long time ago. After all, what did pride matter when she planned on dying down here?

"Jinx?"

All Powder wanted was for the pain to end, and to maybe do one, tiny bit of good with her life, and for that she had to die. She just didn't want to die alone. She should've accepted it by now, she knew that, but she couldn't just-

"Jinx!"

"What! What!" Jinx screamed, slamming the knife down and planting her hands on the edge of the counter. Her heart clenched, tightening in her chest yet for all the world feeling five sizes too big. It pressed against her ribs and robbed her of breath, and it was all she could do to force down the rage tearing its way up her throat. "Please. Gods, just leave me alone."

"And leave you to drown in your guilt and misery?" Silco asked, without even the slightest hint of mockery. Without a hint of anything, really. His words were cordial at best, with no concern or desperation or anything for the girl he'd called his daughter. Jinx, Powder, whoever she was - he knew what she was thinking about. Silco knew about her loneliness and her self-loathing, about the screams and whispers bouncing around inside her head, and…

Jinx told him to leave her alone, but Powder just wanted him to care.

He loved her. Wasn't he capable of showing that? For fucks sake, if Silco needed her to do what he wanted, all he had to do was tell Powder he loved her. She didn't care if he was manipulating her, if it was all just lies like with Mylo, because she loved him so fucking much! And she'd do anything he asked if he just told her the same. Those three words would mean the world to her. Powder didn't care if it was a lie, she didn't, but if he could fill that gaping void inside her chest for just a moment…

He loved Jinx. The monster he created; drawn from the ashes of the little girl who'd died alongside her family all those years ago. Killed and left to burn, to rot, in that god-forsaken building.

She killed them.

Killed. Murdered. Sundered. Unmade. Destroyed. Betrayed.

She only wanted to help.

You killed them all. They could never love you.

The knife drove straight through the back of her hand and deep into the metal counter beneath her palm. Jinx forced the blade all the way down until the handle hit her skin, purple blood pouring from the gaps between flesh and steel. A lance of pure agony rushed up her arm and she crumpled to her knees, shrieking uncontrollably. Pained tears ran down her face as she heaved, each breath carrying another worn scream that echoed through the cavern, but the noise paled in comparison to the beating drum that was her own heartbeat, pounding in her ears. Powder let go of the knife and clutched the edge of the counter, her right hand spasming even as she fought to keep it still.

She grit her teeth and fought down her screams, and the sound that left her then lips was a low, keening groan. Powder's head fell as she fixed her gaze on the floor, watching as deep, lilac blood trailed towards the edge of the counter before dripping down. The first drop landed just in front of her feet before the second joined it, forming a tiny puddle that grew with every passing second, staining the floor.

Minutes passed in tense silence, broken only by the sound of Powder's whining, before she worked up the strength to grab the knife once more. One by one her fingers wound around the handle, before she drew in a deep breath and pulled. Her hand burned as she tore the blade free, scattering dark blood across the wall as she threw the knife aside. Powder's eyes burned and her vision grew hazy, and she did her best to wipe away the tears with only her left hand. Even after a month, seeing liquid purple in the palm of her hand made her stomach churn, because that fucking doctor took her tears from her! Now she couldn't even cry without being reminded about the poison running through her veins, about how she was a monster now in body and mind.

The Shimmer had ruined her. As much as it could ruin something like her, because no matter what Powder did from now on, what choices she made, she could never go home. Her home wouldn't have her anymore. Vi wouldn't have her, because of what was in her blood. Even if she could convince herself that her little sister wasn't some twisted, irredeemable freak, that she was a good person deep down, there'd always be doubt in the back of her mind. Enough of it that it would fester with time, growing into something suspicious and wary until Vi said something, brought up the past or the things Jinx had done in Silco's name, and Powder would snap, and Vi would be dead.

Her sister would be dead, the sister she loved more than life itself, the last person in this broken world who might care about her. She'd be dead and gone and stuck in her head for the rest of her lonely, miserable existence, because Powder hurt her oh Gods why did she hurt them they loved her why did she hurt them why did it hurt make it stop hurting please make it stop please please please please-

Her eyes were purple.

Everything that had happened since Jinx killed Silco, this hell she confined herself too, without love or companionship or hope - it could be summed up in those four words.

Your eyes are purple.

Jinx's eyes drifted shut, her head hanging low as she folded her arms atop the counter. Kneeling on the steel floor for so long was beginning to take its toll, but the ache in her knees was nothing compared to the pain everywhere else. The sharp, fierce pain in her hand; the dull pounding at the base of her skull, and the way her heart was trying to tear itself in two - it was a primal kind of agony that Powder had known only once before, when the doctor had saved her life after her fight with Ekko. She had wanted to die then, too.

But Silco had been there for Jinx, even if the doctor had drugged him, just like he was there for her now. Wasn't he?

"Can you…" Powder groaned, sitting back on her haunches and drawing her arms to her chest. She held her right hand up and got a good look at the wound, biting her lip when she realized she could see straight through the cut. Her eyes widened a moment later when the edges of her wound began to secrete some kind of purple liquid, coating the open flesh and exposed nerves. The low lighting made it hard to see but the liquid almost seemed to harden, solidifying on contact with the air, and Powder let out a gasp as the pain in her hand vanished instantly, before what felt like a spark ran up through her wrist.

Some form of regeneration, or at the very least accelerated healing. That was just… great.

"Can you tell me you love me?" She asked, the words falling from her tongue before she could choke them down. Her hand had stopped hurting but that didn't mean the pain was gone. Not now and not ever, and it was all her fault. "Dad?"

Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Thirty. Forty.

Silence.

And really, what had she expected? Words of love from the man she killed? That she was somehow worth them? That went so far beyond arrogance it wasn't even funny. She couldn't help it, though. She was a desperate, tired thing, clinging on to whatever would make the next moment just a little bit more bearable.

"It's okay… You don't have to say it." Powder mumbled with her head low, even though she really hoped he would. That if she kept talking he might just take pity on her, but he said nothing. She looked over her shoulder after a moment, that last spark of hope fighting in her heart, before it was snuffed out entirely. Silco was gone.

Jinx planted her good hand to the floor and pushed herself to her feet, stumbling for a split-second before catching herself. Whatever the Shimmer was doing to her, it was making her feel tired but somehow energetic. Like lighting was coursing through her blood even as her muscles filled with lead. But even if her body didn't feel so heavy, would she be able to even do anything with that energy? She'd made some small changes to the Hextech in her weapons and her new hoverboard, but that was all they were; changes. There was nothing new, nothing groundbreaking to show Silco.

Powder had nothing left to give. Not like this, not when her pulse was pounding in her skull and it was all she could do to get out of bed in the morning. The most she'd done in days was when she'd went out into the Lanes today, stealing some food from one of the markets because she'd gotten so fucking hungry, and she'd heard-

She snatched the plate from the counter and stalked towards the small table at the edge of the leftmost fan blade, dropping into the stool beside it. Jinx set her lunch down on its metal top before running her left hand through her hair, letting out a huff as she clenched her right fist. She could feel the wound closing up already and, at this rate, it would be shut within the hour. Whether it would heal properly or not was up in the air, because she didn't know all that much about regular Shimmer, let alone whatever weird variant the doctor had pumped into her.

"If the Dredge has been opened, you and I both know the Undercity is in dire straits." Silco's voice sounded from her left, continuing his plea like he hadn't disappeared in the first place, and Powder turned towards him, a scowl on her face. "I have not spent my life lifting the Lanes from the dirt to see it dragged down by the likes of those freaks." He growled, his voice low, and he reached out towards Powder.

Jinx slapped his hand away and looked back towards her meal, genuinely considering ignoring him, but the look in his eyes… "I can't help. Even if I try, I'll only screw things up again."

"You don't have a choice!" He called, slamming his palm on the table. Powder flinched back as his eyes met hers, blue and orange piercing her own. "The filth that left that mine will run rampant throughout the Undercity, whether for revenge or personal gain. The Enforcers and the Firelights are not up to the task of defeating them, and the Chembarons will either wait out the chaos or assimilate the prisoners into their own forces. And that is without considering the possibility of an organized force being responsible for the Dredge's opening."

"What are you talking about?" Jinx asked, her fists clenching.

"You stupid little girl." Silco snarled, his poisoned eye glowing like a flare. "The Dredge stood for years without issue, despite the numerous plots against it - from within or otherwise. The only way that prison could have fallen is if the inmates banded together, and the only way that could have happened is if they formed together under a powerful leader. Powerful enough to unite the multitude of groups within the depths. You know this as well as I do."

Jinx did, but it wasn't like it was all that difficult to put together. Even after the chaos caused by Silco's death, Renni kept a hold of her part of the Undercity with an iron fist, and it just so happened the Dredge fell under her jurisdiction. She doubted the older Chembaron would've had much trouble keeping that mine under control, seeing as she was damn near the Undercity's leading arms manufacturer, even if they specialized in Chemtech weapons, and it was for that reason it probably wasn't an outside job, either. No Chembaron would want to send their people into Renni's territory, not with her new Chemtanks guarding the place, and even if they did it wouldn't be to open up the fucking Dredge of all places. Not with everything else going on. Jinx would never accuse the Chembarons of being smart, but they were savvy enough to take power in the Undercity and then keep it, and they managed that by not making stupid decisions for stupid reasons.

Which meant a prisoner had united the rest and led them out of the Dredge, something which should've been impossible on multiple levels. Jinx had never been inside the mine but she'd heard a lot about it over the years. People banded together to survive down there, but never in one group. No, the gangs in the Dredge fought for the safest parts of the mine, and to get as many body mods they could get down there, all so they could have better odds of survival. Silco had told her that was all by design, so the prisoners would be so focused on each other that they wouldn't have time to fight against the people keeping them there. By paying the prisoners for their work with small amounts of food and the tech needed to keep them alive in those conditions, they fostered a fierce sense of competition amongst them that had never been overcome before.

Except someone had gone and done just that. They'd taken a bunch of broken slaves and led them out of the most heavily guarded place in the Undercity. Jinx didn't want to even think about what they could do with that kind of power.

"But I can't help!" Powder tried again, planting her elbows on either side of her plate and rubbing at her face. "I've tried over and over again and I just fuck it up!"

"I told you the night you killed me, Jinx. Fight the good fight, then die." Silco intoned, stepping around the table and standing directly in front of her. His body shifted, flickering in and out of sight as he lost all color, save for his twisted eye and the holes that grew in his chest. Red blood dripped onto the floor, onto her hands and face and soul, and Powder's eyes burned.

Still, Jinx had strength enough to surge to her feet, locking gazes with him even as her stomach twisted, feeling for all the world like she'd been run through. "That was about Hextech! Not this! I'm not about to go out and start killing just because you told me to!"

Silco just rolled his eyes, folding his arms across his chest and looking at her like she was nothing more than a petulant child. "You've been doing that for years, Jinx. Why is this any different?"

"Because I'm sick of hurting people!" Jinx cried as she slammed her fists on the table, before her eyes widened as the table split in two, coming apart like cheap wood and sending her lunch off the side of the fan. She could have easily caught it, but…

People ate because they enjoyed it and because they needed to live, but she just didn't care about them anymore. She was going to die down here! What did any of that matter! What did she matter; her pain, her hunger, the voices in her head, the family and friends she missed - Vi and Ekko…

Powder sat back, aiming for the stool but missing by a couple inches, and she fell ass-first on the floor. She didn't make a sound, though, even as the clang of bone on metal echoed throughout her tomb. Powder just wrapped her arms around her knees and cried, silent and still and alone. Even with Silco and everyone else who visited her, she was alone. That was what it was to be without love, not from others and certainly not from yourself.

"I don't want to hurt people anymore." She whispered tearfully. "I just want to be good. I want to do something worthwhile, you know? Even if no one knows, or cares. Just once. It could be Hextech or-or helping someone in the Lanes or anything. Would that be so bad? Am I so twisted that I can't even do that?" Powder asked, and Silco just stared at her, cold and uncaring.

"Yes." He answered coolly, voice naught but an echo. "I may have made you into the weapon you are today, but you were already walking that road by the time I found you. You made the bomb that killed your brothers, that doomed Vander to death and Violet to a life in prison. Not by the order of another, but because you believed it was right. All you needed was someone to mold you, to sharpen your mind and body into something truly lethal, without fault or mercy or regret." Silco explained, like he was reciting some script instead of talking to his fucking daughter. "Do you truly believe your life would have been so different, if I had died in the place of your family? That they wouldn't have forged you in my stead, and that they weren't doing so already? We are each born for a purpose, and your purpose was to destroy."

Powder looked down, tugging her knees right up to her chest, pressing against her breasts. "I never wanted to be a weapon. I wanted to make them happy."

"You've had that chance so many times." Silco countered, his words tearing through her and sending fresh tears down her cheeks. "Even now, after you turned against me for a sister that doesn't love you, I gave you one final chance to be something more than the weapon you were destined to be. To build and spread Hextech amongst the people of our home, and what has come from that endeavor?" He questioned her, waving a hand at the workbench behind him, where the fruits of her labors lay. "Weapons that turn magic into munitions and a selection of meaningless trinkets, technology that Piltover could have developed years ago, save for the fact they have no need for such things? No, you have squandered that chance, because it is not in your nature to create. Despite the work that goes into forging a sword, the beauty and strength of its creation, its only purpose is to take the life of whoever its wielder chooses."

"And that's what I am, huh?" She snarled, fury twisting her tearstained face, though she never looked up. "A weapon to be pointed at the enemy, leaving nothing behind but blood and corpses? I'm supposed to just sit in my scabbard until there's a battle to be won, never seeing the world, never having a life of my own? No love or home or hope, just death, until I'm passed onto someone else, over and over and over until I break?"

Silco walked around the table, leaving bloody footprints with each silent step, before crouching down just in front of her. His arm darted forward and caught Powder by the chin, turning her head side to side as if inspecting her before pulling away. "You are already broken." He answered, shaking his head in clear disappointment. Jinx growled before leaning back and driving her legs towards his shins, but he vanished before it could connect, reappearing at the center of the fan before she even realized he was gone. Her eyes darted to him, leaning back against her workbench with his arms folded against his chest. His ashen body grew dim and hazy in places even as his deformed eye began to glow, a blazing sun in the dark night. "A weapon that will not kill cannot be anything else. But I am going to fix you, and then you're going to find Renni and teach her the consequences of failure, if she has not learned them already."

"You want me to kill her?" Jinx asked, before letting out a scornful laugh. "That'd be a trick! How are you gonna make me do that?"

Her third father shook his head once more, pursing his lips as he looked down to his left, to the guns she'd built and modified. "I do not wish for you to kill her, simply… find her and assess the situation. After that, you may do what comes naturally."

Powder scowled and twisted her body, facing away from Silco and towards the cavern walls. "As if." She mumbled, crossing her arms and slumping forward, a wave of raw exhaustion washing over her. She could go to bed, sleep all this off and try again tomorrow, but there was only one way to make this all stop.

"Jinx…" Silco's voice echoed from behind her, sounding close yet so far away, and her shoulders hitched as let out a quiet sob. "This is a threat that concerns not just the Undercity, but Topside as well. Sooner or later, the Enforcers and the Firelights will be forced to take action against them. Vi and Ekko will be forced to take action, and for all their success in the Lanes thus far, you know they will not come out the other side unscathed, if at all. All I shall ask is this: will you let your cowardice bring them harm, or will you stand up and fulfill your purpose in their place?"

Well… that was it, then…

Powder shut her eyes and ran her hands across her face, wiping the tears that wouldn't stop falling before drawing in a shaky gasp. She held it still for a long, silent moment, before letting it go and standing.

Jinx opened her eyes.

Violet's warm hands cup her face, drawing Powder close before wrapping her arms around her shoulders. She is so proud of her.

Jinx killed the guards first, flying in on her hoverboard and putting bullets between their eyes before they could even react. One fell from the roof he'd been standing on, bleeding from his nose and mouth as he stared, eyes uncomprehending, at the rocky sky. The next reached for a gun before a bullet tore through her left eye and out the back of her head, scattering her brains across the wall of the building she'd been standing outside, shock coloring her broken face. The last managed to get some shots off before she landed behind him, kicking his rifle out of his hands and shoving the barrel of her pistol past his teeth. He might've begged, faced her with garbled words and teary eyes, if only she'd given him the chance. He died afraid and alone, his life and everything he was draining into the dark and dirty street.

Ekko's hand rests on hers, steadying her as she slots a particularly small gear into place. The clockwork bird comes to life with a whir, flapping its wings and tapping its claws against the table in quick, repetitive motions, and they cheer.

Jinx found the circuit breaker next, tearing the steel door of its hinges and slamming the switch up before snapping it off entirely. Then she took a step back and shot it five times, just in case. They'd have emergency power for the lights, that was just common sense, but even the slightest shift in lighting would work in her favor. The machines in the factory would shut off as well, but that wasn't all that important. They'd break with the rest of them.

Her parents take her in their arms, holding her between them as they whisper comforting words in her ears. The nightmare fades into distant memory, before it is forgotten entirely. She loves them so much.

She must not have scoped the place out properly because there was another guard, rushing out from around the corner and trying to stick a knife in her gut. Jinx took a single step to the side, her body little more than a purple blur as she let the rusty blade drift past, before wrapping her arm around the girl's wrist and tugging it up. The knife pierced the underside of her chin with a nauseating squelch, reaching up through her mouth and into her eyes, spraying crimson across Jinx's face.

Vander teaches her how to throw a punch, how to arrange her fingers and how to plant her feet, but she is a slow learner; much slower than Violet. But it is okay. She has time.

Renni's factory was built into the side of the cavern wall, at the edge of the lowest level of the Sump, with two guards either side of the large sliding doors at the front of the protruding building. They died as soon as they laid eyes on her. Then she plucked one of the grenades off her belt, Chemtech with some basic Hextech enhancements, before pulling the pin and hurling it at the door. Pink light flashed through dark air as it detonated, lighting the surrounding streets and washing over Jinx as it tore through reinforced steel like paper and, for the briefest instant, she almost felt like smiling.

Claggor takes her and Ekko to the scrap heap on the edge of the Lanes, carrying the parts they were too small to move themselves. He smiles and laughs with them, even though he doesn't understand half the stuff they're talking about, because he knows it makes them happy. Above all, he is kind.

Jinx strolled through the smoke and into the factory, the silhouettes of terrified workers darting past her as they fled, before emerging onto the main production line. It was nothing she hadn't seen before in her time with Silco, machines arranged in neat lines with workers and guards milling between them. She'd defended them from attacks more times than she could count, but this… this was new. Jinx holstered her pistol and reached down to the minigun that hung at her waist, pulling it forward as its three barrels began to spin, and she painted the place red.

Powder bugs Mylo into teaching her to pick locks sometime before their first job together. She takes to it much better than boxing, but even then she lacks the patience required to truly master the skill. It is one of the few times they spend together, just the two of them, and for a short time Powder believes they can be friends, not just brothers. She is sorry.

She stepped over the body of a Vastayan woman and hurled a grenade towards a bunch of Renni's men a dozen meters ahead of her, but one managed to hit it with his bat before it could hit the ground, sending it up into the air and through one of the high windows. It broke through with a crash that would've been loud had they not been in a gunfight, and Jinx let out a laugh, honestly impressed. She gunned them down a second later and darted behind one of the machines to her left, bullets pinging off its steel frame as she listened for the explosion, but it didn't come. Jinx sighed as a gangbanger rushed around the machine, hoping to catch her by surprise, but she caught his neck with speed that surprised even her. He died moments later, and only then does she hear her grenade go off outside, seconds after it should have.

Vi and Ekko take her to Jericho's for her birthday, buying her some fried dirteel and Sumpfish, and Vi tries her best to keep up when they start discussing the science behind combustion engines. Jericho charges them half price when he overhears that it's her birthday, and they laugh their way back to The Last Drop, stepping into their home beneath the bar. Vander and her brothers are waiting for her there, alongside the rest of her friends from around the Lanes, and there is a cake sitting on the table. Vi says she has been saving up over the year, scrounging together enough money to buy a cake from a bakery Topside. They eat and laugh and dance to music from an old record player Ekko has fixed up at Benzo's, and Powder has never been happier. This is the best day of her life, and things will never be better than this.

Rivers of blood flowed across the concrete floor.

Powder is nine years old, and she is happy. She has a family that loves her, and friends that mean the world to her.

She stood amongst the bodies of her enemies, wondering why she wasn't on the ground with them.

Jinx is ten years old, and she will never be whole again. Her family is dead and her sister is gone, broken by her own two hands, and Powder dies with them. She has nothing left, except for the monster that takes her in, holding her, shielding her from the fire and rain.

Her rocket launcher weighs down on her back like an anchor, and Jinx reaches up and runs a hand along its spine; the gift Silco never got to see.

Jinx is eighteen years old, and Violet walks away from her again, choosing the kind, beautiful Enforcer over her freak of a sister. Jinx cannot bring herself to be angry at her, turning her rage against the boy she wants to hold more than anything else, and he cannot bring himself to kill her. Jinx wishes he could. Dying at his hands is the best way she could go, she thinks, because at least she wouldn't be dying alone.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out an old cloth, running it down her face and wiping away as much blood as she could. None of it was purple.

Silco is dead, and she is still here. Why is she still here?

Why was she still here?

Powder opened her eyes and choked down a sob, clenching her fists as she holstered her pistol.

She knew what Silco would say, that killing them was the right thing to do. Things here had been business as usual until Jinx showed up, which meant that, whatever had happened after the Dredge opened up, it didn't interfere with Renni's operation. It didn't make sense for the prisoners to break out and then not get revenge on the woman who'd kept them locked in there, especially since, if they moved quick enough, they could've rolled over this place before Renni even learned about the break out. The fact that this place was up and running meant that they'd either killed Renni and all her people before setting up shop here themselves, hiring a whole new batch of workers and guards to man it, or that Renni made a deal with them to save her own skin, keeping her operation in tact but handing over the reins to whoever led the prisoners out of the Dredge. All Jinx needed to do was find Renni and make her talk; see if she couldn't find out who was leading the escapees.

But, still, she hadn't wanted to kill them, not…

Jinx had been so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't hear the footsteps approaching her from behind, but she did hear the clattering of bullet casings as they walked, and she spun on the spot, drawing her pistol in a flash-

Oh.

Powder froze even as her thoughts ran a mile a minute, as Silco and Mylo began screaming in her ear, telling her to run, kill, to finish what she'd started, but she just stood there, gaze locked with the figure standing before her.

Who else could it be?

"Hey, Ekko…"


So, that was a thing.

I wonder how many of you saw this coming. I also wonder how many of you can guess how this whole thing will play out, and what the repercussions might be, because there will be many of those. Anyways, I don't know how you all felt about the action this chapter, but I really enjoyed writing it. I didn't think writing this chapter as a standard action scene rest of the chapter, not with Powder's deteriorating mental state, so mixing it in with her memories was something of an experiment, I guess. Honestly though, I think it came out well.

Well then, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you all soon!