Personal Responsibility

by HeartOfMan

Jinx makes a different choice following the death of her father. With a new goal in mind, she sets out to make things right. While this happens, Vi and Caitlyn become more involved in the conflict between Piltover and the Undercity, with Jayce and Viktor deciding how Hextech should be used after the mistakes both men have made. Nothing is certain, except nothing will be the same.

19. The Boy Who Shattered Time

Hey everyone. I just wanted to say sorry for the long wait in between chapters, especially after saying I would be getting this one out soon. Long story short, my grandad died after I uploaded the last chapter, and things have fucking sucked for the past month. That's all I really want to say about that. I don't know if it has affected the quality of the chapter, but I guess we'll find out.

Anyways, this is the chapter I've been waiting so fucking long to write, mostly because it's the first interaction between Ekko and Jinx, which is pretty wild to say considering how much I've written for both of them, but oh well.

Hopefully you all enjoy it, and I'll see you at the end!

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"Scar said I'd find you here."

Ekko's heart jumped into his throat and he nearly dropped the capture grenade he'd been inspecting, fumbling with it for a second before slapping it back down on the crate in front of him. He then planted both hands on the edge of the wooden box and glanced over his shoulder, gaze landing on Klara as she shut the door of the storeroom behind her. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Ekko asked, steadying his breath. The Firelight let out a chuckle as she walked past packed crates and shelves before leaning back on the container to his left, folding her arms across her chest with a smirk.

"No… but I might've been trying to scare you." She said, clearly forcing down a laugh. "Just a little."

"Ha ha." Ekko groaned, actually saying the words as he turned and leaned back against the crate as well, glaring at her out of the corner of his eye. "You're so funny, Klara. Can't you see how hard I'm laughing?" He asked, pointing at his face and fixing her as severe an expression as he could, before shoving his hands in his pockets and looking at her fully.

"What's got you so jumpy, anyways?" Klara snickered, forcing down her laughter as she reached up and brushed locks of brown hair behind her ear. "You're normally much more alert."

Ekko shook his head and looked her over, noting the small cut on her brow and one that ran down her exposed left bicep. Her gray tank top had spots of blood on it and was covered in multiple large patches of dirt and grime, and her trousers were practically caked in the stuff. The only clean thing on her was the Hextech Overshield on her wrist. It painted a concerning picture, considering she'd been spotless when she'd gone on patrol that morning. "I was going through our weapons store and I guess I got lost in my thoughts. I know that's Pyne's job, but… the monotony helps me clear my head." He explained, before pointing his hand up and down at Klara. "The hell happened to you?"

Klara held her arms out wide with a proud grin before dusting imaginary dust from her shoulder. "Got involved in a little scuffle at the edge of the Lanes. There were a couple guns and some blades, but I came out alright."

"What about the other Firelights with you?" Ekko asked, his eyes narrowing as Klara turned away. Her grin turned into something shy as she looked down at her feet, letting out a nervous chuckle. "Don't tell me you went in alone." He sighed, bringing up a hand and pinching his brow. "We do group patrols for a reason, Klara."

"You worry too much." Klara deflected, rubbing the back of her neck, before meeting his eyes again. "The fight would've been over by the time I went and got help, anyways."

"Don't give me that. I built all the hoverboards in this place; they are more than fast enough." He said, reaching out and grabbing her left arm, gently drawing it across his body and looking over the cut. Aerin may have been the Firelight's chief medic, but Ekko had seen enough cuts and scrapes to know this one hadn't been cleaned properly, and he shook his head. "Did you even get checked out after your patrol?"

"No…" She answered, but her voice had gone oddly quiet. "I went straight over to Scar…" Klara explained and Ekko glanced up at her, watching as her pale cheeks grew rosy. He just nodded and slowly tilted her arm, checking how deep each part of the wound was. It was only a surface level cut, thankfully, because even mildly deep wounds in that area could lead to permanent damage. That shouldn't be an issue for them anymore now they had a decent supply of those Hextech healing devices Talis designed, but if someone decided to just walk off their injuries… Well, there was no accounting for bravado.

"You should've gone to Aerin. You've been here long enough to know that." Ekko admonished her, his voice low, but the words carried in near-silence of the Firelight's storeroom. Then he let go of her arm and pushed off the crate, stepping around and in front of her, holding his right hand up towards her face. "You mind?" He asked, and Klara nodded with a raised brow, leaning a couple inches forward.

"I was going to go, really, I just got distracted." She mumbled, unable to meet Ekko's eyes as he rested his palm on her cheek. He ghosted his thumb over the wound above her eye, humming absently for a moment as he inspected it, before his eyes darted down as Klara licked her lips. He couldn't help but think back to their conversation three days ago, what she'd said to him after their discussion about the Undercity's own lightning Mage, and it was his turn to blush. Ekko took the chance to pull away, turning and bumbling over to a shelf on the other side of the room, nearly tripping over his own feet as his heart beat in his ears.

Ekko drew in a quiet breath as he snatched one of the spare med kits up, rolling his shoulders before moving back over to Klara. He kept his head low as he walked, opening up the small box and fishing out the needle and thread packed neatly in the corner, before glancing up. Klara had folded her arms across her chest, rubbing her hands up and down her forearms as she teased her lower lip between her teeth, and Ekko set down the needle and thread on the crate beside her. He then pulled out a small cloth from the pack and set it beside them, along with a small bottle of some kind of disinfectant. "You can't go around taking chances with your life like this. It may only be two cuts this time, but what about the next? The time after that? The Firelight's have only survived this long by not taking stupid risks." Ekko lectured, keeping his voice soft as he picked up the cloth and bottle.

Klara didn't quite roll her eyes at him, but it was a close thing, instead shaking her head as Ekko poured some disinfectant onto the cloth. "I didn't join up yesterday, dad. I know how things work- Ow!" She cried out as Ekko began rubbing the damp cloth up and down her bicep, cleaning the cut. "You did that on purpose!"

"No." Ekko snorted, meeting her gaze with a smirk as he softly wrapped his left hand around her wrist, steadying her arm while he worked. "Well.. maybe just a little."

"I've been here over a year, is what I'm saying", Klara continued, "so I know what I can and can't handle. So if I see five goons-"

"Five!" He interrupted, pausing for a second in shock. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking I had two capture grenades and an Overshield you made for us." She retorted, and Ekko let out an annoyed huff. The older woman chuckled and reached up with her good arm, tapping him on the nose and grinning at the scowl he sent her, but he couldn't find it in himself to get annoyed at her. Not when she looked at him like that. Her dark eyes seemed so bright up close, glowing with such mischief and adoration that it was almost impossible to turn away, and really, hazel and blue weren't all that different-

"The Overshields aren't meant to allow you to take more risks, though." He blurted out before that particular thought could get any traction. They'd gone down that road three days ago when she'd - gods, she'd offered to sleep with him - and Ekko had given her the only answer he could: that he wasn't ready for anything like that. It wasn't her fault. She had no idea he was pining after a monster, that he was so attracted to her because she looked so similar to Jinx. Like she was a version of her that had actually stayed as Powder, as herself!

It was bad enough that he couldn't stop thinking about Powder or Jinx, as a friend or a lover or anything like that, but now he was looking at Klara like she was, what? A substitute? What was wrong with him?

"Just… look, if you wouldn't do it without an Overshield, don't do it with one." Ekko carried on after a moment, taking every thought of Powder, Jinx and all the things he wished he could say to her, and doing the mental equivalent of taking them out back and shooting them in the face. "The fact that a bunch of thugs managed to cut you twice proves you shouldn't have been there alone in the first place. You probably would've been dead without it." He explained, emotions he'd been forcing down leaking into his words,

Klara just stared at him, gazing into his eyes with such clear concern that he had to fight the urge to turn away. "You… It wasn't your fault what happened to Eve. Or the rest of them." She whispered, and Ekko felt a pang of something in his chest that he didn't recognise. Guilt, not for something he did, but rather… "If you're gonna blame anyone, blame Silco's little monster, she-"

"Don't." Ekko hissed, and whatever Klara was going to say died on her tongue. "Please, don't."

Klara pursed her lips even as the silence dragged on for a moment, but her eyes narrowed, like she was searching him for something. Whatever she found, if anything, she kept it to herself. Ekko kept working, cleaning the rest of her wound with the determined efficiency of a man who had no idea how the hell he'd gotten himself into that position.

No matter how much things improved, how many lives they saved with the help of the Enforcers, how much better things were for the Firelights after his deal with Talis; it never seemed like things were actually improving. It was a stupid thing to think and Ekko knew it - as far the Firelights could tell, crime was at an all time low in the Lanes, even with the added chaos of the civil war going on between the Chembarons. Vi was back and working with the new Sheriff who was, as much as it pained Ekko to admit it, actually good at her job. He even had unrestricted access to Hextech, and gods knew he'd been making the most of it. For fucks sake, he had a seat on the Council of Piltover! Why did he feel so shit about everything?

What a redundant fucking question - Ekko knew exactly why he was feeling like this. It was because, no matter how much better things got in the Undercity, he was still here and Jinx was still out there, a monster wearing the face of the girl he'd never been able to let go of.

Ekko couldn't grieve Powder because he was so angry, but he couldn't truly hate her because, even after everything, a part of Ekko still loved her. That's what happens when your best friend vanishes for six years and reappears working for the Undercity's criminal kingpin!

He just wished things were different.

Ekko finished cleaning the cut on Klara's arm and brought the cloth up to her brow, dabbing it softly and pausing when the brunette winced, letting out a shuddering breath. "Everything okay?" Ekko asked, for lack of anything better to say.

She just rolled her eyes, gaze flitting between his hand and his lips for a second before she opened her mouth. "I should really be asking you that." Klara said, but there wasn't a question in her words, nor an accusation of any kind. Just a statement of fact, one that had Ekko giving a grin he really didn't feel.

"I'm a fucking mess, Klara." He laughed, a bitter and sardonic sound that barely made it past his lips, but Klara was so close that she would've had no trouble hearing it. "I'm in love with a dead girl who fucking hates my guts, and, honestly, I kind of hate hers too. And the fact that that is what's on my mind is kinda pissing me off too, considering I could be thinking about the improvements I'm making to my literal fucking time machine, the work I need to do to keep this place up and running", Ekko ranted, waving a hand at the storeroom and the Firelights' base as a whole, "or any of the other responsibilities I've taken on recently. So yeah, that's how I'm doing."

Klara's face went through a wide array of emotions as he spoke, taking in each word with varying degrees of confusion, concern and pity, before settling on something that could only be described as amused. "That everything?" She asked, before reaching up and taking his chin between her forefinger and thumb, tilting his head down slightly and forcing him to meet her eyes. "Ekko, you silly boy, you don't have to carry the entire world on your shoulders. This place isn't going to fall apart if you take some time to work things out for yourself."

Ekko snorted as he finished cleaning her cut, chucking the rag aside before reaching for the needle and thread, but Klara caught his hand. "What?" He asked, hating how unsure his voice sounded then, but the woman opposite him just shook her head.

"This is what I'm talking about. You could've left me to go to Aerin on my own, or just used one of those fancy Hextech healing devices we've got now." Klara listed, taking his hand between hers and running her thumbs along his skin. "Hell, you could've just left me to my own devices, face the consequences of my actions and all of that, but you're taking the time to help me out yourself, making sure I'm alright and teaching me a lesson at the same time. I mean, I'm assuming that's why you're using regular old needles and thread instead of the magic healing machines."

This time, Ekko's smile was genuine, even if he couldn't keep her gaze, looking at his feet instead. "You've caught me. Gotta make sure you remember not to jump into a fight with five guys somehow. Stitches always worked for me, so…"

Klara laughed, rich and warm and everything he missed from Powder, and he hated himself for enjoying it. "But it isn't up to you to fix everything, you know." She explained.

Moments passed in long yet comfortable silence, before Ekko spoke up. "Maybe, but that doesn't mean I won't try anyways."

"Is that why you built that, then?" Klara asked, letting go of his hand and pointing down at the Z-Drive on his waist, glowing a calm, gentle green.

"Something like that, yeah." Ekko agreed, before he shook his head. "I mean, it's a time machine because of my own interests, but the fact is I wanna use it to help people. That's… all I ever wanted, really."

Klara stared at him like she wanted to argue, to say the same thing Scar, Heimerdinger and just about everyone he'd ever known had said at some point or another: he was too selfless. He certainly didn't feel that way, not even at the best of times, but sometimes he could understand where they were all coming from. Not that he'd ever change, though. "And what about those?" She asked instead, pointing at the series of oval, copper machines hanging on the front of his belt. They weren't all that big, just a little wider than the palm of his hand, and a little thicker too, with arcane runes lining the circumference and a line marking the point between the top and bottom half. What stood out about them, though, was the green light shining out from either side of the hold in the middle.

"Finished 'em yesterday." Ekko began, plucking one off his belt and holding it up for Klara to see. "I call this a Timewinder. It produces a field of extremely slowed time in a five meter radius around it, catching everything from objects to people and leaving them at a hundredth of the speed they were before."

The older woman hummed, looking honestly impressed for a moment before her eyes narrowed. "Wouldn't that catch you in it as well, assuming you were in the area?"

"Nah. Designed it to leave out the Z-Drive and the person wearing it." He answered, tossing the Timewinder up once before clipping it back on his belt. "Long story short, I'll be moving ridiculously fast from the perspective of everyone caught inside. And before you ask, they don't have a gemstone in them; I built a machine to charge them in my workshop, and they fall apart after use anyways, so there's no worry about someone picking them up afterwards."

"I wasn't worried", Klara chuckled, sliding her hands in her trouser pockets, "but I'm glad to see you thought of everything."

Ekko frowned, fixing her with a critical stare. "Now you're just mocking me."

Klara leaned forward, getting even closer to Ekko than before, and he could feel her breath on his lips. "Just a little." She hummed, and his face turned a deep red. "Oh, you are adorable." The Firelight chuckled, but she moved back anyway.

"Just for that", Ekko mumbled, because holy fuck he had no idea what to do when someone flirted with him, "Aerin can do your stitches, and she won't be as nice about it as I would."

"Oh no, what a nightmare." She sighed, holding the back of her hand up to her brow and swooning.

"Could you- ugh." He groaned, reaching up and rubbing his face for a second before turning around once more, leaning back on the crate. "Why're you even here, anyway? You said Scar said I'd be here, so that means you wanted me for something."

Klara tilted her head to the right and rolled her shoulders, letting out a hum that Ekko could only assume meant yes. "Well, I was just checking in with Scar after my patrol today, then I figured I might as well see how you're doing. It's been a busy few days, you know, with our little lightning problem and the raid yesterday."

Ekko glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, brow raising slightly as he tried to work out where she was going with this. "Well, nothing new's come up about the Mage running about down here, unless you saw something new this morning?" He asked, before carrying on after a moment when Klara shook her head. "And the raid went well yesterday, so everything's good. No one died, on our side or theirs, and we managed to arrest a Chembaron." Ekko said, laughing in muted disbelief. "When was the last time you heard that happening?"

"Never." Klara answered, lips curling up at the memory. "The fact that it was my first big fight was really cool too. I mean, we had that skirmish in the Lanes, but this was a whole 'nother level."

Ekko huffed out a laugh, rapping his fist on arm with a one-sided grin. "You did good, especially considering how hopeless you were at fighting a year ago." He teased, and Klara let out an indignant gasp, holding her hand up to her chest. "It's a compliment. You could barely throw a punch when you first joined up, now look where you are. But…" Ekko trailed off, looking towards her with a cocked brow. "Neither of those are why you're here."

Klara's eyes narrowed and she let out a heavy sigh. "Okay, fine, Scar may have mentioned that Margot gave up the location of Renni's main factory. You know, the place we've been searching nearly a whole month for?"

He just held his hands up in faux-surrender, glancing towards the floor with a frown. "And you're upset that Scar and I are gonna be scouting that place out later today, instead of-" Ekko deduced, before Klara cut him off.

"Knocking on their door with forty Firelights and Enforcers?" She rolled her eyes as she spoke, frustration seeping into her words, but Ekko could tell it wasn't aimed at him. Klara slapped her fist against her palm, turning to him with burning eyes. "We have to hit them while they're off balance! We wait too long and they'll build up their defenses, and whatever information they have about the Dredge will be worthless!" She yelled, before wincing and drawing in a heavy breath, and when Klara spoke again her voice was much quieter. "You know I'm right, man. The longer we wait, the harder this gets for us."

Ekko pushed off the crate and took a couple steps forward, turning and facing Klara directly. "You're right about that. But it's information like this that made that raid possible. We don't know how many guards are there, what type of weapons they have, or even the layout of the place itself. We don't even know how many normal workers will be inside, which'll make busting in even more complicated." He explained, pausing for a moment as she took his words in, before placing his hands on the back of his head and sighing. "Why don't you come with us?"

Klara's brow raised as she sent him an incredulous look. "What? Gonna get me to change my tune with some first hand experience?"

"Something like that, yeah." Ekko said with an amused huff, lowering his arms and rolling his shoulders. "We normally take as few as we can on missions like these, but it's not like you can't pull your own weight. What do you say? Wanna go on a trip with your oh-so illustrious leader?" He asked, bowing at the waist and spreading his arms wide. He also did his best impression of a snotty Topsider, but he just ended up sounding like the guy version of the Kiramman, so it worked out pretty much perfect.

The woman opposite him let out a quiet, sultry laugh that sent a tingle down Ekko's spine, and he jerked in place when she reached forward and placed the tip of her finger under his chin. Klara then tilted his head up, meeting his gaze with smoldering eyes and Ekko straightened instinctively, fighting the urge to pull back - not that there was much room to do that in the cramped armory. Her lip curled up on one side, looking far too regal for a girl in a dirty and bloodied tank top, even as her cheeks grew a light red. His heart pounded in his chest as she spoke, breathy words dancing through the still air. "You sure you're in love with that girl?" Klara whispered, tilting her head slightly as she lowered her arm.

"I… uh, we-" Ekko stuttered, glaring at her as she tried and failed to choke down a chuckle. "We should probably get going." He deflected, turning and walking to the armory door, his legs only slightly unsteady.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun!" Klara called, following behind him, and he could practically hear the grin on her face.

He only hoped she was right.

…

The roar of gunfire filled the air and echoed across the edge of the Sump as the Firelight's reached Renni's factory, and Ekko wished he'd just stayed in bed. Dark smoke billowed out of broken windows and through the open doorway at the front of the building, the large steel doors having been blown in by some kind of explosive, and it was there that the three Firelights touched down. Ekko heard screams from the streets behind them as he hopped off his hoverboard and placed it on his back, either from the workers who'd made it out of the factory or from the people living in this part of the Sump, and he glanced towards Scar and Klara on his left.

Their masks, a white bat and fox respectively, covered their expressions, but they couldn't hide the way their bodies tensed, their stances widening as their knees bent, instinctively preparing for a fight. Ekko wasn't much better, his left hand falling to the emerald bat on his hip even as he berated himself for leaving his mask back in his workshop. He liked to think it gave him confidence, especially in situations like this, but he'd make do with what he had. "With me!" He called, shouting to be heard over the rumble of bullets and explosions sounding from within the factory. "If the Sledgerunners are getting attacked, we might as well find out which Chembaron had the balls to pick the fight."

Scar nodded, eyes darting across the front of the factory and the smoke pouring out of the shattered entryway, like he was trying to see through the fog, before meeting Ekko's gaze and nodding. Klara's eyes were fixed on a corpse just beside a broken circuit breaker, transfixed by the knife piercing the underside of the dead woman's chin, cutting into eyes that leaked out the front of her skull. "Klara! You hear me?" He barked, drawing the clock-hand bat from his waist with his right hand and pulling the Z-Drive's chain with his left. Green light shone from his masterpiece, and he could almost feel the lightning bouncing around its steel and glass casing, but he forced the sensation to the back of his mind. "Klara!"

She jerked in place before spinning towards him, her chest heaving as she tore the club from her hip and clenched it in trembling hands. Ekko knew she'd been in her fair share of fights, and she'd come out of those fine for the most part, but seeing someone's brutalized corpse was another thing entirely. There were more outside the factory, too, three others killed by a bullet to the head, and Ekko wished he could take Klara away from this place. Wrap her in his arms and try to pull the image of blood and death from her mind, but as callous as it may sound, he didn't need Klara happy right then; he needed her strong. "I hear you." Klara answered, her voice trembling as she shouted, and she followed him and Scar as they moved.

Ekko led them around the right side of the factory, Klara and his second-in-command trailing just behind him, before stopping under one of the high windows down the length of the building. He took a second to glance around, peering across the dimly lit streets of the Sump and to the rock wall the factory was built into, before facing his companions and pointing up to the window nearly ten meters above him. "I'm gonna fly up there and take a look inside, see if I can't make sense of this mess. You guys keep watch." Scar nodded as Klara let out a hum, the sound nearly lost underneath all the gunfire, and the Vastayan reached behind him, pulling a spear from the sling on his back and holding it before him. His hands were steady, unlike Klara's, which trembled ever so slightly, to the point that Ekko doubted she even noticed it. But as Ekko drew his hoverboard from over his shoulder and prepared to hop on, something crashed through one of the windows above them, sending down a shower of glass shards as he looked up, his eyes widening in horror.

A small, steel cylinder tumbled through the air before landing in the dirt with a thud, less than ten feet away from Ekko and the Firelights behind him. The steel jaw attached to its front glowed with fluorescent spray paint, the metal teeth chattering like the wings of some hellish creature, but he only saw the burning green eyes cut into the device - boring into him and forcing the air from his lungs.

A bomb.

Jinx's bomb.

Klara let out a gasp as Scar caught his arm in clawed fingers, dragging it behind him in a split second as he made to drag Ekko out of the blast radius, but he wasn't quick enough. They'd be caught in the explosion, torn asunder in a wave of fire and force that he doubted even their Overshields could save them from, and he thought back to that night on the bridge to Piltover. Jinx, bleeding and broken beneath him, her blood on his hands as she rolled the grenade at her feet, the dark water beneath him his only escape.

Not this time.

Ekko's hand fell to his waist as he snatched a Timewinder from his belt, priming it with a thought before tossing it at the bomb. A wave of green light erupted from the device right as the bomb's teeth slammed together, detonating right as the temporal energy washed over it, Ekko and his Firelights and filling the space with emerald lightning, and the world around it slowed to a crawl.

Azure fire leaked out of the device, metal twisting and warping impossibly slowly as a single second was stretched out into a thousand, and Ekko grinned as he looked around him. Klara and Scar were as still as statues, suspended in positions of shock and fear within this space of altered time, but everything outside the dome-like field moved normally. Then he grabbed his friends by the collars and hauled them out of range of the Timewinder, pulling them off their feet with little regard for potential issues like whiplash because, funnily enough, he didn't have the time.

While this boundary of slowed time could, in theory, drag the explosion out over the next two weeks, the Timewinder simply didn't have enough magical power to last that long. He had seconds at best before the field collapsed and the explosion ripped them all to pieces anyways, but he'd make do.

Mass and wind resistance went and fucked themselves as Ekko dragged his friends through frozen air, pulling them along like the world's weirdest kites, before passing through the barrier and reentering the realm of linear time. His Z-Drive kept him safe from the effects of the Timewinder, an unintentional but extremely useful effect he'd discovered early in testing, but Scar and Klara had no such protection, landing face first in the dirt as gravity reasserted itself. The Vastayan pushed himself to his knees as Klara sputtered, head darting left and right as she tried to work out what had happened, but Ekko just pulled them to their feet before shoving them ahead of him. "Go, go, go, go, go!" He shouted as he broke into a sprint, aiming for the front of the factory.

The Firelights wasted no time in catching up, throwing themselves around the corner of the building and pressing their backs against the wall next to him. The Timewinder ran out of power less than a second later as blue fire tore across the side of the factory, the roar of the explosion making Ekko's ears ring but otherwise missing them entirely. Smoke flowed like water past the edge of the building, a reminder of the death they'd scarcely avoided, and he heard Klara let out a breathless laugh from his left. "What the fuck was that?" She asked, sounding just a little hysterical, and he honestly couldn't blame her.

"One of Jinx's bombs." Ekko answered, stepping forward and tilting his head side to side, because fucking hell his day was about to go to shit. "Guess we know who's attacking this place."

"And the other thing?" Scar spoke up, waving his free hand at where they'd been moments ago, now covered in rapidly rising smoke.

"Timewinder. Neat trick, huh?" He said, turning with a smirk and tapping one of the other devices on his belt. Klara just shook her head, moving away from the wall and grabbing her hoverboard from her back.

"We need to go and get reinforcements." She explained, nodding when Scar gave a hum of approval, before jerking a thumb at Renni's factory behind them, and the firefight still raging within. "If we can capture her-" Klara continued before Ekko cut her off.

"She'll be long gone by then." He replied, shaking his head as he flipped his bat into a reverse grip, planting its tip into the dirt. "You guys go and get the others, and see if you can't find Vi and her lot in the Lanes while you're at it. I'll go on ahead." Ekko ordered as he turned, taking a step towards the shattered doorway before Klara grabbed his arm. He turned to her over his shoulder, watching as she tore off her mask and met his gaze, her eyes wide and frightened.

"Are you fucking insane!" She called as Scar moved around them, explicitly putting himself between Ekko and the factory's entrance. "She almost killed you the last time you fought!"

"This time's different! I've got the Z-Drive, remember?"

"And who knows what the fuck she's got!" Klara shouted, all of them wincing as another explosion rocked the earth. "You hear that? She's slaughtering them, and you're just gonna throw yourself in there?"

Ekko whirled around to face her fully, snatching his arm back with a snarl. "Yes!" He shouted, rage building in his chest, forcing its way up his throat and out between his teeth, before he sucked in a breath. He knew he shouldn't be getting angry, not at them, but they just didn't understand. Jinx was… He had to… "We need to find out what Renni knows and we can't do that if she's dead! Out of the three of us, I have the best chance at beating Jinx in a fight. And if we can capture her…" Ekko trailed off, but he knew she understood.

Klara stared at him for a long moment, her face twisting with growing fury before letting out a harsh curse, turning her head aside and running her hand through her hair. "Fuck! And you're not going to say anything?" She huffed, looking past him and towards Scar.

"Ekko's right." Scar answered, though he didn't sound happy about it in the slightest, and he turned to stare at the Vastayan. "Someone needs to stay, and, honestly, we'd only get in the way."

"You…" Klara hissed, before drawing in a heavy breath. "You better stay alive, okay? Stall her, and if you can't, run."

Ekko gave her his best smile, but it was a sickly, frail thing. He didn't want to fight Jinx. He wanted to turn and run, get reinforcements, do the smart thing… but Ekko had never been smart when it came to the monster wearing his best friend's face. He just didn't have it in him. "I'll be careful. I promise." He swore, meeting Klara's gaze before turning towards Scar, and they nodded.

Then they pulled away from him, jumping on their hoverboards and flying off into the distance, leaving him alone with nothing but his thoughts and the dying sound of gunfire for company.

Ekko let his head hang for a moment, breathing in the dust and misery and drawing a hollow sort of strength from them, before striding through the smoke and into the factory. Yet, for all the violence and death he had seen over the years, nothing could prepare him for what he found.

Bodies littered the floor in mangled heaps, each one filled with more holes than he could ever count, but all he could see were their faces. They looked shocked. Confused, like they'd been killed before they could understand what was happening. Maybe they hadn't. They'd been so close to the door that Jinx could've gunned them down before they'd had a chance to react. They were the lucky ones, Ekko couldn't help but think. The rest just looked afraid.

One last gunshot rang out before the factory floor fell silent, snapping Ekko out of his stupor, and he turned to its source with his bat held in two hands before him. Pillars of smoke drifted towards the slanted roof, gathering in a large cloud that was beginning to overflow, the excess gas flowing out of the broken windows and into the Sump.

And center of it all, with a radiant blue pistol in one hand and over a dozen bodies at her feet, stood the girl of Ekko's nightmares, hunched over and heaving with every breath. Her braided blue hair had grown greasy, hanging across a bloodied and dirty back, and the back of her trousers had some holes cut or burned into them, and Ekko's chest grew tight. Then his eyes fell to the minigun hanging from her shoulders, a weapon he'd faced too many times over the years, before glancing up at the massive, shark-like weapon slung over her back. He'd never seen anything like it before, but considering its shape and size, along with blue light glowing from its body and eyes, he'd bet every coin he had that it was some kind of Hextech rocket launcher.

Fear and something he wasn't brave enough to admit to welled up within his gut, and he lowered his bat as he took a slow step forward, watching silently as Jinx reached up and stroked the back of her latest weapon. Three steps later and she pulled a tatty looking rag from her pocket, wiping what he could only imagine was blood from her face. Seven and she holstered her pistol, quietly choking down a laugh, but the sound carried across the now-silent air within the factory, and Ekko could barely believe his disgust.

She's murdered dozens of people, cut them down in cold blood, and she's fucking laughing!

This was the girl who'd helped put the worst criminal in the history of the Undercity into power, Ekko shouldn't be surprised, but there was a tiny sliver of hope in his chest that died whenever he saw her like this. For all her bullets and bombs, that was what hurt him the most.

Then he made a mistake. Each step had been perfectly measured before, carefully planted to make as little noise as possible, all to try and catch the monster off guard. Except he'd forgotten all about that in his anger and accidentally kicked a bunch of bullet casings with his boot, scattering them across the stone floor, and Jinx moved.

There was no interim movement, no A to B - one second she stood with her back to him, pistol on her hip, and the next she faced him with that same gun pointing between his eyes, expression twisting in murderous fury. But Jinx's face fell when she saw him, meeting his gaze with bloodshot, tearstained, purple eyes, and Ekko froze in place. He knew about the Shimmer that had saved her life after their battle on the bridge, had put it together from what Vi and Caitlyn had told him over the past few weeks, but to see it in person was…

Jinx's head tilted to the side a moment later, staring at Ekko like she was trying to solve some great puzzle, before speaking in a creaky voice. "Hey, Ekko…" She mumbled, her finger drifting from the pistol's trigger and coming to rest along its barrel. The movement was slow, lost, almost, and Ekko doubted she did it on purpose.

Words failed him as his eyes roamed up and down her body, taking in every detail and trying to reconcile the quiet girl before him with the monster he'd spent years fighting - the one who'd murdered all the people in this building, even.

She'd lost a lot of weight, was the first thing Ekko noticed. Her face had grown gaunt and her eyes had sunk, and he could barely hide his grimace when he caught sight of Jinx's ribs pressing through her skin. Her limbs weren't much better, looking more like sticks than anything, but the worst part was her hand. Even in the near dark of the factory, Ekko could make out the patch of purple material covering, or maybe even filling, the middle of her right palm. He'd seen Shimmer's regenerative abilities before, Vi had apparently even experienced them, once, but to see them on Powder…

She looks tired… The little boy Ekko used to be whispered, his tiny voice bouncing around his skull, and he scowled.

"You look like shit." He spat, hating himself with every word that left his lips, because they weren't what he wanted to say. Not even close. But he couldn't afford to show any empathy now, not after last time, even though all he wanted to ask was if she was okay.

The corners of Jinx's lips twitched up even as her arm dropped, the gun hanging loose in her grip. Ekko watched, then, as her entire body sagged, like some great weight had been lifted from her shoulders, before she took a step forward, something halfway between relief and desperation crossing her face. He drew his bat up in response, pointing its jade tip at her chest with both hands and clenching his jaw, and she paused mid-stride. A confusion he didn't believe filled her eyes as she stared at him, before she glanced at the space around them, at the death and destruction she had wrought, and she sighed quietly. "Why're you here?" Jinx whimpered, holstering her pistol and shoving her hands into her pockets, but Ekko didn't lower his guard for a second. He saw how fast the Shimmer made her literal moments ago; she could draw her gun and put a bullet in him before he could even blink.

Ekko began to move towards her, cautiously putting one foot before the other and closing the distance between them. He knew how far apart they were physically because of the Shimmer, but he liked his odds better up close than at a distance, even if she could probably twist him into knots with her bare hands. "The Dredge got busted open." Ekko answered slowly, turning his body to the left to make himself a smaller target. "Figured Renni might know a thing or two. You?"

Jinx shrugged, her eyes falling to the ground between them. "Same as you, I guess."

He actually managed a laugh at that, the sound angry and caustic, before letting his bat lower towards the floor. "I came here to scout the place out. The fuck do you call this?" He asked, gesturing vaguely to the space around them, though he felt it was pretty self-explanatory.

There was less than fifteen feet between them now, close enough for Ekko to see Jinx bite her lip, tears welling in her eyes before she squatted down and wrapped her arms around her knees. "Silco told me to." She groaned, pressing her forehead against her thighs and hiding her face from him. Ekko took a hesitant step forward at that, eyeing the bat in his hand and feeling for all the world a fool.

She's… she's really not okay, is she? That same voice said, and this time Ekko didn't have the strength to force it down. Gods, he knew it was a stupid idea, but he stowed his bat anyway and approached her. "Well, we keep going like this and Renni's gonna get away."

What little he could see of Jinx's mouth curled into an amused smile, like she was enjoying a joke only she could understand. "She can try. There's no way out from her office, so her only choice is to stay there, or come out here with us." She chuckled, before her eyes flickered up to him. Ekko had no idea what she was looking for then, but whatever she found wiped what little joy she had from her expression.

Ekko hesitated for a moment, scanning around the room before turning back to Jinx. He wondered what kind of trick she was cooking up to kill him, if any, but if it was just them, like this…

Fuck it. He had the Z-Drive. He could take a risk.

He crossed the final few feet between them and crouched down as well, coming nearly face to face with her as he placed his palm on her knee. Jinx's eyes widened, a single, lavender tear trailing down her cheek as she leaned back and stared. "Why don't we talk to her together? Strength in numbers and all that." He pleaded, meeting Jinx's, Powder's, gaze, but her eyes darted to the left as her entire body started to shake. Ekko's breath caught in his throat, recognising her reactions for what they were, and he quickly placed his palm on her hand to try and calm her. "Powder?"

Her gaze shifted back to him, wild and unfocused, and she almost seemed to stare through him for a moment. Ekko held her gaze without flinching, keeping his mind on the Z-Drive's proverbial trigger, ready to rewind time with a single thought. He hoped by whatever gods sat on high that he wouldn't need to, but hoping had never gotten him very far with Jinx. It barely helped him survive her at the best of times, which made him doing this even more fucking stupid. Then her eyes fixed on him, a tense breath escaping her chest as she fell back on her ass. Jinx raised the back of her hand to her head, wiping her cheeks before glancing down at the purple stain at her hand. "You should just kill me." She told him, lowering her hand as Ekko's jaw dropped.

Jinx refused to look at him, not even when he snatched her hand and clenched it tight. He racked his brain for the right words to say, but how could he when he didn't have a goddamn clue what was going on right then. One moment Jinx was killing dozens of people and laughing about it, the next she was asking him… she wanted him to… "Shut up. Don't even go there." Ekko fumed, running a palm down his face as he hissed out a breath, doing his best not to look at the scores of bodies surrounding him. "We're gonna go grab Renni, find out everything she knows, and then we're gonna get you outta here. You're gonna come with me and we'll, I don't fucking know - we'll work something out." He rambled, watching carefully as Jinx's eyes narrowed, but she didn't fight him when he stood and tugged her to her feet.

"Renni's office is up there." Jinx mumbled, eyes drifting shut as she jerked a thumb towards the back of the factory. Ekko saw a set of galvanized steel spiral stairs leading up to a small walkway running along the wall, and a bunch of doors leading into who-knows-where. Considering the steel door in the far right corner was in much better condition than the rest, he figured that was where Renni had holed herself up, and he nodded towards Jinx. Ekko kept hold of her hand as he began walking towards the stairs, not trusting her not to run off the second he turned away, but she trailed behind him without a word of complaint. She only spoke up when they reached the bottom of the stairs, tugging on his arm to get his attention. "What's that?" She asked, pointing a finger at his Z-Drive, and Ekko didn't bother hiding his smirk.

"It's a time machine." He said casually, enjoying the way she rocked back in shock, her brow shooting up like it was about to take flight. "What, you don't have one?" Ekko laughed as they continued up the stairs, and he couldn't deny the flash of joy that rushed through him when Jinx laughed with him.

"I've got self-replicating bullets and a solid-light hoverboard." Jinx answered with a tilt of her head, reaching behind her holster with her left hand and pulling out some kind rod-like device. She waved it about for a second before stowing it again, and he nodded in consideration.

"So you copied me, then." He concluded, and Jinx rolled her eyes so far she must've seen the back of her head, but she couldn't quite force down her smile.

"Fuck off." She chuckled as they reached the top of the staircase.

"I'm just saying; the Firelight's did it first." Ekko declared, drawing his bat and holding it at his side. He stepped towards the door Renni was probably hiding behind before Jinx moved past him, rapping the back of her fist against his shoulder. "You taking charge here?" He asked, smiling despite the sheer absurdity of the situation. She was his enemy literally minutes ago, and now they were bantering like they were old friends, which was… not that far from the truth, Ekko supposed.

Still, for the first time since meeting her two years ago, Ekko looked at Jinx's face and saw Powder. Older, thinner and filled with a dread that he couldn't explain, but it was hers, and it was beautiful.

If only it didn't belong to a murderer.

The smile on his face fell like a stone.

"Yep!" Jinx called, her voice cracking, and Ekko wondered when she last drank water. Days at most, but even then he couldn't be sure. Not with how much weight she'd lost. A moment later she rolled her shoulders and tilted her neck side to side, her tiny smile growing morphing into a feral grin, and whatever resemblance she shared with Powder was gone. This was the Jinx he remembered, the one who slaughtered his friends with a smile on her face and helped spread poison through the Lanes.

Then she raised her foot and kicked the door the door off its fucking hinges.

Credit where it was due, the door itself survived, warping and groaning under her superhuman strength but otherwise staying in one piece. The same couldn't be said for the wooden frame it sat in, which shattered into half a dozen pieces, and Ekko's jaw fell when the door flew into the room. "Knock knock!" Jinx shouted as a resounding crash sounded from Renni's office, along with a sharp scream.

Ekko rushed forward as Jinx strode into the room, getting to the empty doorway in time to watch as she wrapped a hand around the edge of the door, now resting at an angle on the floor, and flung it to the left across the room. It crashed through the wooden desk sitting in the middle of the space, damn near shattering the thing and launching shards of splintered wood everywhere. But Ekko's eyes were on the woman who'd been pinned beneath the door; lanky and wrinkled with a pair of tubes running up into her nose, injecting her with some kind of green chemical. She wore a green, obviously synthetic cloak, with a similarly made collar to match, which looked to have fallen open when she'd been hit, exposing her upper body.

Her left arm was also missing, cut off part way through the bicep, and judging by the bandages wrapped around the stump and the telltale signs of Chemtech medicine, she'd lost it recently.

"Hey, Renni. Long time no see." Jinx said, drawing out the greeting as she hopped to Chembaron's left, squatting down beside her. She tapped her on the forehead with the barrel of her pistol, grinning as Renni scowled and swatted at her with her good hand. The smile remained even as she snatched the much taller, much heavier woman by the throat and lifted her up against the wall. This was a woman who had exploited and terrorized the Undercity for years and yet, as Jinx began choking the life from her, Ekko had to force himself not to look away, bile churning in his stomach. Renni kicked at Jinx's feet while she clawed at Jinx's hands, and behind the burning fury in her eyes, Ekko could see that she was terrified.

And why the hell wouldn't she be? Jinx had been incredibly dangerous before she got pumped full of the most potent Shimmer Ekko had ever seen, and Renni would've known that better than nearly anybody, being one of the bastards that had worked with her. Her business had hurt so many people; her gang had killed some of his Firelights - shot, stabbed or worse.

He remembered poor, sweet Muri. They had been so full of life, laughing and playing with the younger kids in their base when they weren't fighting for the Undercity's future.

Ekko and Scar found them wandering the Sump after a mission went wrong a couple years ago, lost and confused and alone. Renni's witch doctors had surgically cut off their head and attached it to some kind of hulking, mechanical war-frame, and just… let them out into the Undercity. Some kind of message, or joke - Ekko didn't know which. All he knew was that they had been pumped with so many Chems that they attacked them the second they saw them, screaming and gurgling with the artificial lungs they'd had grafted onto them.

He would never forget the way they had begged for death, once they'd damaged the Chem-pumps enough for them to regain some semblance of clarity. They pleaded, cried with their mechanical eyes, but when Ekko and Scar refused, trying to convince them to come back to base, that they could fix things, they lifted their steel arms and ended things themself.

She deserves this. Ekko thought. Not a small part of himself that he fought to ignore, locking it in the deepest recesses of his mind and throwing away the key: him.

But he couldn't let this happen. Benzo would never forgive him if he did, wherever the old man was now.

"Jinx." Ekko said, resting his hand on the handle of his bat. Jinx's eyes were like pinpricks as she glared into Renni's, and her grin widened as the Chembaron's face started turning blue. "Jinx!"

Her head snapped towards Ekko, her gaunt face twisting with a hate that surprised even him, and he couldn't hide his flinch. Then Jinx's gaze fell to his waist, seeing his hand slowly beginning to unclasp his bat, and her eyes began to widen. She looked back towards Renni, rapidly going limp in her grasp, and while the rage remained, something in her face seemed to soften. Then she let go of the Chembaron and stomped over to the other side of the room, slamming her pistol in her holster as she leaned against the wall. Jinx didn't quite glare at him as she did so, but it was a close thing.

Ekko moved over to Renni, now gasping on her hands and knees, and hauled her up by the arm that was still there. She hacked and coughed but managed to catch herself before shoving Ekko away, and for a frail old woman she must've had some strength left in her, because she actually made him stumble back a step. It was either that or all the drugs she was pumping into her body.

Jinx appeared in front of Renni less than a second later, the end of her pistol pushing straight into her open mouth as she grabbed her collar in the other hand. "Killing her's still an option." Jinx hissed, all traces of murderous joy gone from body, replaced by an icy calm that sent a shiver down Ekko's spine.

"We need her to talk, remember." Ekko denied with a forced laugh, reaching out and wrapping his hand around Jinx's fist. He gently pulled her gun out and away from Renni before pushing her arm down, and even in this fucked up situation, he still felt a jolt of something racing through his gut when he touched her.

The woman Ekko was trying very hard not to love looked him up and down, like she was making sure he was okay, or something ridiculous like that, before she nodded and stepped back. "Don't take too long." Jinx hummed. "Who knows how many of her boys were outside the place when we came in. I don't think they'll take kindly to you manhandling their boss."

Ekko conceded the point with a nod before turning back to Renni. "She makes a good point. Tell us what we want to know and I promise your trip to Stillwater will be comfortable."

"You stupid fucking child." Renni growled, speaking for the first time since they'd barged in. "You have no idea what's going on in the Undercity, yet you run around the place like it's your playground, beating up whoever you don't like and bringing down the Enforcers on all of our heads as soon as things don't go your way!" She was nearly frothing at the mouth, glaring bloody murder at Ekko, but, funnily enough, Renni didn't dare raise a hand towards him. It might have had something to do with Jinx standing less than five feet away from her, tapping her fingers on the butt of her pistol with the tightest smile ever seen before.

"You're right about one thing." Ekko said after a moment, smirking. "I don't have any clue what's going on around here. Now, tell me what happened in the Dredge. It was your gang's job to keep those prisoners contained. What the fuck happened?"

Renni's glare weakened as her eyes darted to the open doorway, but there wasn't any hope in her gaze, like she was waiting for the rest of her gang to come and rescue her. No… Ekko wasn't sure why, but he thought it might've been the opposite. She was afraid of reinforcements arriving, of what a rescue from them might mean. Then the second's hesitation passed, and she turned back to Ekko with a scowl. "The prisoners broke out. That's all there is to it."

"Don't bullshit me. Bunch of cyborgs break out of the most heavily guarded prison in the city, and every one of them just goes into hiding?" He asked before shaking his head. "As if. We heard about The Spider from Margot. Was he one of those prisoners?"

A flash of genuine terror filled Renni's expression, and her cheeks grew pale. "H-How?"

"How do you think?" Ekko questioned derisively. "We beat the shit out of her goons and hauled her off for questioning. She didn't say much about this guy, but he sounds like bad news for everyone involved."

Renni looked to the side, her lips trembling even as her eyes blazed. "Margot is a fool. She was all too eager to join up with The Spider. It didn't matter how much he frightened her; only that he could help expand her business."

"And what about you, huh? You jump into his bed just as easily?" He pushed, before glancing at her stump of an arm. "Or was that how you lost your arm? What, he not take rejection well? Or was it revenge for looking him up in a mine for fuck knows how many years?"

The Chembaron's good hand flew to her opposite shoulder, turning away from Ekko so he couldn't see it, and if this were anyone else he would've felt bad for prodding like this. But while he wouldn't let Jinx kill Renni, making her squirm certainly wasn't off the table. "It was Sevika, that traitorous whore! The first thing those freaks from the mine did when they got free was surround this place, knock down the doors and take us all hostage, and what did they do next?" She roared, spittle flying from her lips and landing on Ekko's breastplate. "They offer us a partnership."

"They?" Jinx asked, breaking her unusually long silence.

"The Spider! He sat Sevika and I down right fucking here and asked us to join his great mission, and our trangressions against he and his will be forgiven." She spat, her voice cracking as she repeated what Ekko could only assume were The Spider's words. "I told him I wouldn't follow him, but Sevika… that dog has only ever sought a master to follow. Vander, Silco, me, and then this freak, once she realized the strength of his conviction. She practically fell to her knees when she heard his offer. And when I wouldn't jump ship, he… he…"

"Had Sevika cut off your arm." Ekko finished, just a little empathetically. "What, to show that he wasn't afraid to kill you? Why not just end you and take your operation for himself?"

"He said he recognised the strength it took to say no in the face of overwhelming opposition." Renni explained, her visage haunted. "That taking my arm was a mark of respect, but also a warning."

"Get in line, or else?" He surmised.

"I… His eyes, they…" The once powerful woman stammered. "I don't want to die, so I…"

"Sold out, yeah. I'm getting that." Ekko huffed, turning away and rubbing his cheeks, suddenly very tired. "Okay. First things first: how many people did he have?"

Renni's breathing began to quicken, her eyes darting to Jinx once more. "Over a hundred, at least. I don't know how many prisoners made it out of the Dredge in the first place, so…"

"Any other important looking people with him? Some kind of lieutenant or something?" He continued as he turned back to her.

"There was a woman with him when he talked to us." Renni answered after a moment, biting her bottom lip as her gaze flittered between him, Jinx and the door. "She had a prosthetic right arm. It looked new, and the wounds on her shoulder hadn't healed yet so I figured she lost it in the breakout. She didn't say anything, just stared at me…"

"Anything else you can tell us about her?"

Renni shook her head. "She had long black hair and a mask over her mouth. That's it! That's all I know-" She rambled, holding her one arm out towards him, almost pleading, before Jinx cut in.

"What's his name?" She challenged, and there was a heaviness to her voice that had Ekko turn to her. She stared at the back wall with tears in her eyes, but she wasn't really looking at it, which didn't make any sense, but how else could he explain it? "You made a deal with him. Don't you know his name?"

The Chembaron shook her head so fast Ekko was surprised it didn't fly from her shoulders. "N-no, please, he never told me." She said, and Jinx started walking towards her. No super speed, just… one slow step at a time. "I'm not lying, I- Aaargh!" Renni howled as she grabbed her remaining elbow in one hand and her shoulder in the other, bending her forward and twisting. Ekko took a panicked step back when the bones in her arm started to crack, and pained tears sprang to the older woman's eyes. "Fuck, fuck, please oh gods, I don't know!"

Jinx rammed her knee up and into Renni's stomach, the blow sounding like fucking canonfire as she dropped like a sack of stones, falling to her knees and retching. She threw up a second later, a heavy stream of bile launching from her throat and splashing down the front of her clothes before piling at her feet. "You're lying to me, Renni. I don't like liars." She announced airily, emptily. "Tell us his name."

It took Renni twenty seconds to remember how to breathe again, and by that point Ekko had crossed to the other side of the room just to escape the smell. Jinx hovered over her shoulder, either not noticing or simply not caring about the stench, until Renni turned to her with tears streaming down her face. "He'll kill me."

Jinx's boot caught her throat and slammed her down onto the floor, her pistol appearing in her hand as she aimed at Renni's head. "He's. Not. Here. We are." She said with a broken smile, crying as she gestured at the empty room around them - but not once did she look at Ekko.

"That's enough, Jinx." He warned, watching in mounting horror as Renni's eyes began to bulge.

"Please…" Renni groaned, clutching at Jinx's ankle with her remaining hand, and in that moment she didn't look like a tyrant, or a murderer. She looked like a scared old woman, staring up at the monster that had killed her friends - had killed his friends, once upon a time. How could Ekko have forgotten that, even for a few minutes?

"Tell me, or you lose the other arm." Jinx threatened, holstering her pistol before leaning down. She gripped Renni's hand and tugged, and she let out a choked scream. "Tick tock~"

Renni threw her head back and screamed, hoarse and raw and terrified. "Urgot!" She sobbed, curling up on her side as Jinx released her.

She stepped back after a moment and turned towards the wall with a sad smile, before she wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands. "There. Are you happy now?" Jinx asked, her voice tainted with scorn.

Ekko looked between Renni, bruised and lying in a puddle of her own sick, and Jinx, who appeared to be talking to thin fucking air. "Holy fucking shit." He groaned before drawing in a breath. He held it for a moment as he processed, well, everything that had happened in the last thirty seconds.

Klara was going to kill him when he got back to base.

"We're leaving." Ekko called, locking gazes with Jinx when she turned his way. She nodded before her eyes darted to the space above his left shoulder, and fear flashed across her face. "We've got this guy's name", he pressed on, trying to regain Jinx's attention, before he mumbled under his breath, "if it even matters at this point. Not like we can just go around asking people if they've seen any Urgot's around."

Renni pressed her palm to the floor and forced herself to her knees, though she struggled doing even that much. She had enough energy to spit at Ekko's feet, however. "You've just killed me." The Chembaron wheezed. "He's going to hunt me like a dog and tear me limb from fucking limb!"

"Looks like he got a head start." Jinx laughed, shrugging her shoulders when Ekko sent her an exasperated glare. He just didn't have the energy for her right then.

"We can protect you." He promised as he held out a gloved hand out to Renni, but she slapped it away.

"You can't even protect yourselves! You Firelights, how many have we killed over the years?" She raged, before she turned to Jinx. "How many has she killed? Five? Ten? More? Why are you even working with her!"

Because I miss her. "Because I'm not about to turn down help. Even from her." He lied, doing his best to ignore the shame washing over Jinx's face.

Renni stomped past Ekko, though she was very careful not to touch him as she did. She got right up into Jinx's face, towering over the girl who could end her life with one hand. The fear that had dominated her moments ago had been washed away, drowned under a tide of desperate rage that surprised even Ekko, but Jinx just smiled. "Silco was a fool for ever trusting you, and he was even weaker for it, too."

Jinx's eye twitched wildly as she tilted her head to the side, but she never stopped smiling. "What did you say?"

"He was a frail old man who died while on the cusp of achieving his life's work. It would be sad if it wasn't so funny." Renni grinned, enjoying watching Jinx's face grow red. Ekko rushed forward and gripped the Chembaron's shoulder, trying to draw her back before she said something they'd all regret. "It was a shame Finn and I's little coup didn't pan out, even if he did vanish later that day. Honestly, I don't care how he died, whether some bum in the Lanes stabbed him or he bit a bullet - I'm just annoyed I didn't get to watch. And you-"

Renni's brains coated the ceiling, and her body slumped like a puppet that had its strings cut. Her head pointed up at the roof, blood and bits of viscera already dripping back down on her, on him, and her empty eyes faced different sides of the room. Ekko's stomach spun as he forced his gaze away from her, bile climbing up his throat, and he looked towards her killer.

Jinx stood there and heaved, her pistol still aiming up from where she'd shoved it under Renni's jaw. Her right fist shook as it leaked blood from where her nails had bit into her injured palm, and Ekko couldn't bring himself to look at her face. "Ekko… I didn't-"

"No." He intoned, forcing down the anger and the grief and all the stupid fucking things Jinx and this city made him feel. Even with her standing by his side, working together after all these years, he still couldn't keep Jinx from killing people. He couldn't save anyone because he was too slow, too weak, too small to amount to anything in the face of her. She was the genius who helped crown the Undercity's despot king, with her bombs and her guns and all the talent she'd squandered, and he was just a boy who liked fixing clocks. But now… now he had a power that even Jinx couldn't deny, and he would be damned if he just stood by as she killed another person in front of him. "No more."

His oldest friend let out a gasp as he twisted the dial on the back of his glove, before all sound cut out entirely. Green energy pulsed outwards as emerald lightning leapt across the room, and time stood still. Only then did Ekko find the courage to look at Jinx, her eyes caught halfway through widening, and he wondered what she might say if she could see what he could. Would she be impressed by his work, or would she be afraid of something she could never hope to fight, as powerless to stop him now as she was to stop the sun from rising.

The river of time flowed backwards, and the world spun in reverse.

Renni's body floated back to its feet, the contents of her skull spilling back into her head as Jinx's pistol disappeared into its holster, and Ekko's left hand shifted onto the Chembaron's shoulder once more. Then Renni kept on talking, unaware of her own death being undone. "I'm just annoyed I didn't get to watch. And-"

Ekko's other hand released the Timewinder as a second wave of energy spread across the office, the world slowing instead of reversing, and he glanced around Renni's shoulder to see Jinx's pistol barely a few inches from her chin. Even with all her speed, she could never hope to outrun time, and Ekko tugged the Chembaron's body away from her before shoving her out of the office. Her body impacted the metal railing that overlooked the factory with what he imagined was a loud clang, but even with the Z-Drive keeping him safe from the effects of the Timewinder, sound was simply too slow to reach him in this space. Still, he watched as Renni's expression went from angry, to confused, to shocked when she saw Jinx frozen with her pistol pointing where she'd just been standing. Then she practically threw herself down the spiral staircase and away from the two of them, which was probably the smartest thing she'd done all day.

Ekko turned back to Jinx before snatching the pistol from her hand, sliding it back into her holster before taking a couple steps back. He'd have shut the office door as well, but considering the door was laying on the floor next to them, he'd just make do with what he had.

He then waited the last few seconds for the Timewinder's power to run out, and Ekko would admit to a tiny bit of amusement as Jinx pulled a trigger that wasn't there. She rocked back a step as her eyes darted over her surroundings, her hand falling to the gun suddenly back on her hip, before her gaze narrowed on Ekko. "Did you…"

"Mess with time? Yeah." He answered, one hand on his hip and the other on his bat. "You killed her, Jinx. Or you did in a future that never came to pass."

"Why?" She questioned, her words like chips of ice on his skin, and he squared his shoulders.

"Because I'm sick of watching people die. Especially at your hands." Ekko said, and Jinx's jaw clamped shut. Seconds passed in tense silence before Jinx turned away from him, reaching up and covering her ears as she muttered words too quiet for him to make out. He prepared to take a step forward; to, stars help him, comfort her, before she wrapped one arm around her waist. Her other hand came to rest on her shoulder, her thumb rubbing comforting circles into the exposed flesh, before she stopped entirely. "Hey." He called, watching as her head tilted a second later, but he got the feeling that she hadn't heard him at all. "Let's just-"

Ekko's Overshield flared with blue light as something hit his chest, and he glanced down to see a crumpled bullet hit the floor. His mouth fell open as he looked back up at Jinx, baring her teeth at him with a furious scowl, as she fired her pistol twice more. The next couple shots hit him in the neck and collar, draining the final charges from his Overshield, before he finally willed the Z-Drive into activating.

The world paused, and Ekko let out a frightened breath when he saw a forth bullet floating just outside the barrel of Jinx's gun. If he'd reacted even half a second later, he'd be dead, and there would've been nothing he could do about it.

He'd nearly died.

No.

Jinx had tried to kill him. Again. Even after they'd come to a mutual understanding down on the factory floor. Every chance he gave, every single one, she just… threw it away!

Rage filled his broken heart.

The clocks spun back as the bullets returned to Jinx's pistol, swimming back against the current of time until Ekko stood before her, two seconds before she shot him.

I really tried, Powder. I wish I could say I was sorry. I wish you would care.

Ekko threw himself to the left as he drew his bat, the first shot whizzing through the space he'd been standing in and out the empty doorway. He slammed his foot on the fallen door and used it as a platform to leap into the air, swinging his bat down in an overhead strike aimed straight towards Jinx's skull.

Even though the Shimmer didn't enhance her senses all that much, Jinx had always been insanely perceptive, and she leaned back with serpentine grace. His bat sailed by, emerald steel striking the floor as Ekko landed on one knee, and two bullets impacted the left side of his head, making his Overshield flare.

Let's try that again.

The Z-Drive turned back time and left Ekko midway through his jump, and he attacked exactly the same way as before. This time, though, when she dodged and he landed, he swept his free hand up and into the side of her pistol, which was right where he figured it would be. He sent her hand off to the left and her shots went wide, striking the wall but otherwise missing him entirely, and Ekko swung his bat straight at Jinx's ankles. Being strong wasn't the same as being heavy, and his blow knocked her feet straight out from under her, sending her to the floor with a grunt.

Ekko didn't waste a moment, sweeping his bat over his head and down towards her chest. Jinx blocked it at the last moment, holding her pistol in both hands and halting his strike with the barrel, making full use of her Shimmer-enhanced strength. Ekko scowled and rewinded time, taking the attack again but this time aiming for her shins.

She wasn't able to get her hands down in time and his bat struck true, hitting just above Jinx's feet with a dull crack. If she felt anything from that, she didn't show it, and she planted her empty palm on the floor and spun her body clockwise. Then she reared back her leg and kicked straight towards his chest.

He managed to twist his upper body in time to let the blow glance off his breastplate, but the sheer power behind it was enough to activate his Overshield. Ekko didn't bother using the Z-Drive, though, wrapping his arm around Jinx's outstretched leg and holding it in place. Then he slammed the bottom of his boot into her gut before she could react, and even if she couldn't feel pain any more, she sure as hell felt the air being forced from her lungs.

Jinx tore her leg from his grasp and rolled back, coming to her knees as the weapons on her back clanged together, and it was for that reason Ekko rushed in after her. The fact was her pistol was her least dangerous weapon, but if he gave her even a modicum of space she'd be free to use her minigun, which he knew would shred through his Overshield like paper, or even her rocket launcher, which he hadn't seen in action before but it seemed safe to say it would really ruin his afternoon.

His only chance was to beat her in melee, but that was how things had always been between them. On the bridge a month ago, or in any of their scuffles over the last two years. He'd be fighting even more of an uphill battle here, even with the Z-Drive, but he'd gotten used to being the underdog over the years.

Ekko would win this. He had to, for the Undercity and the Firelights. For himself. For Vi.

He barrelled towards Jinx, still on her knee, and drove his knee straight towards her face. She jumped to the side with ease and let Ekko sail on by, hitting the wall instead as his Overshield took the recoil for him. In the split second he stood still, Jinx punched her gun's nozzle into his exposed side, and he surely would've lost a couple ribs without his arcane protection. Ekko just huffed and called on the Z-Drive, traveling back a second and leaping up and off the wall, backflipping over her strike and landing on bent knees. Then Ekko chambered his bat and sent its tip straight towards her face.

Jinx took her eyes off of him just long enough for emerald steel to strike her in the cheek, knocking her head into the wall with an echoing clang. Blazing purple eyes flew onto him as she swatted his weapon away, sending Ekko stumbling as she blurred to her feet, and she caught his neck before he could even think of turning back time. Then she drew her arm back and threw him through the metal wall, through the steel railing on the platform outside, and into the air above the factory floor.

Ekko's Overshield proved its worth once more as he made it through both barriers without a scratch, but as he fell ten feet onto the corpse-covered floor and drained the last of its charges, he remembered just why momentum was such a bitch.

Pain lanced through his back as he rolled across the dirty and bloody floor, the Z-Drive and his hoverboard digging sharply into his spine and drawing a sharp grunt from him, before he caught himself on his palms. A second later Ekko spotted his bat laying just a few feet away and he scrambled over to it, moving past the bodies around him and snatching it up before throwing himself to his feet. Jinx dashed through the office doorway right then, leaping over the balcony and landing on both feet with superhuman ease, snarling as she swung her minigun towards him.

Shit!

Its barrels began to spin as Ekko's hands fell to the final Timewinder on his belt, activating it with a thought and throwing it as hard as he could towards her. The field of distorted time went up the instant after Jinx's gun fired and a bunch of bullets made it past, two striking him on the chest and shoulder. They weren't even enough to break through his Overshield, though, let alone put him down, and Ekko sprinted forwards and into the bubble.

Ekko dropped into a slide as he entered the effect of the Timewinder, knocking Jinx's legs out from under her once again and leaving her suspended in the air. He hit her over the head a second later and knocked her prone, before smacking the minigun from her hands - just for good measure. It was still strapped to her which wasn't ideal, but Ekko would take what he could get.

The Timewinder deactivated and Jinx spun ass over head, slamming face first onto floor before momentum carried her forward, her body bending at an unnatural angle as she slammed straight onto her back. Her nose had broken in the fall, spraying purple blood across her mouth and chin and making her look even more pitiful, but Ekko wasn't feeling particularly merciful at that point, and he tried to drive a boot into Jinx's throat. She caught it in her palm and tossed him aside, both climbing to their feet a second later, but Jinx had already reached his side by the time he'd stood up.

Things got a little complicated from there; at least from Ekko's perspective.

Each time Jinx hit Ekko, knocking one or more charges from his Overshield, he rewound time. Each strike that Jinx dodged or guarded against, he rewound time. Every move Ekko made was calculated, every attack and block tested, using the one real advantage he had in this fight: Time.

Ekko practiced this fight with Jinx in a way that only a time traveler could, memorizing everything she did and coming up with the perfect counterattack. He'd take a hit in one timeline and then go back, taking it over and over again until he found the perfect way to dodge, opening Jinx up for an attack. He learned to build or close distance as it was needed, dodging her fists and bullets by the smallest margin necessary, just to save energy. The Hextech Overshield was the only reason why something like this worked. As long as he used the Z-Drive before she could break through his defenses, he could take everything she threw at him without issue, so long as he learned to avoid it the next time around.

It was like he was piecing together a puzzle, studying every possible outcome and figuring out which fit together best, until Ekko lost track of time in there entirely. Eventually…

Jinx threw a right haymaker straight at his temple, relying on raw speed over technique to win, but Ekko spun and stepped into the blow. He held his bat in a reverse grip so it wouldn't get in the way and slammed his back into her chest, wrapping his arms around her raised one before throwing her over his head and straight onto her back again. Then he dropped a knee onto her gut and jabbed his middle and index finger into her eyes, making her cover them instinctively, before driving the pommel of his bat straight into her teeth. None of them came loose, nor did Jinx lose either of her eyes, but it dazed her long enough for him to jump back and take a step to the right.

Jinx wheezed as she brought up her pistol, still covering her eyes with her free hand, as she loosed a torrent of bullets into the air in front of her. None of them hit Ekko, of course. He'd memorized where she would fire ages ago, so all he had to do was wait for them to whizz past before jumping back in, and he thrust the end of his bat straight into her throat. Jinx let out a choked cry as she suddenly lost the ability to breathe, and she had to force her eyes open to see him, kicking a leg up in an arc to try and catch his chin.

He leaned back with contemptuous ease, darting back a step as Jinx let the momentum carry her onto knees. She spun around with a speed that once frightened Ekko before sprinting directly at him, leaning forward as she tried to tackle him to the floor. He flipped over her and landed with his back to her, before turning and throwing his weapon straight at her legs. A bat in the shape of clock's hand wasn't the most aerodynamic of weapons, that was for certain, but he'd gotten pretty good at it after seventy nine goes, and the tip struck dead center of the back of Jinx's right knee. She dropped down to one knee with a loud grunt, her right hand pressing onto her thigh. Jinx still had enough presence of mind to try and shoot him, and she twisted her body round and pointed her left arm at him, but Ekko had already closed the distance.

Ekko wrapped his left hand around her wrist and forced the gun away from, relying on positioning and leverage to stay out of its line of fire. Then he balled his other fist and punched her straight in the shoulder, before raising his left leg and stomping the back of her other knee. The second went down even easier, leaving Jinx on her knees and struggling to gather her bearings. He would be in trouble the second she did, since he had no way of beating her in a contest of strength. He'd tried to keep a hold of her like this once already, before she showed him exactly why that was a very poor idea. He'd gotten the message the first time around and he let go, instead grabbing Jinx by the base of her right hair braid and tugging her to her feet. Then he spun her around by the shoulder and punched her straight in the liver.

Jinx let out a gasp, not in pain but definitely feeling something, and she tried to shove him away. Ekko drew his right foot back in response, turning his body to the side and letting her hands fly past him, before throwing a left jab straight into her broken nose. Amethyst blood coated her teeth this time around, staining his knuckles as he pressed into her guard and rammed his knee up into her crotch. Her eyes bulged and she practically curled up around his leg, but Ekko drew away, reaching behind her empty holster. His fingers brushed the deactivated hoverboard attached to her belt and he turned it on with a thought, jumping back as a plane of solid blue light sprung into existence on her hip.

Jinx let out a panicked cry as the magic that powered her hoverboard dragged her up into the air at breakneck speeds, before she crashed head first into the floor a good thirty, forty feet away. Ekko stepped back and picked up his bat, watching out of the corner of his eye as Jinx scrambled to turn her board off, still being dragged around by it. She succeeded a moment later, staggering to her feet with her pistol in hand, bruised and bleeding from her nose and half a dozen cuts across her torso.

Ekko paused when her gun trained on him again, his heart pounding in his chest as he sucked in a deep breath. This was the furthest he'd gotten so far, so he was probably going to have to start experimenting again, and he prepared to activate the Z-Drive.

This is it! I'm winning! Just a little more…

Then something in Jinx's eyes changed, and she looked at the gun in her hand with what could only be described as confusion. Her eyes began to water after a long moment, and she brought her free hand up to her mouth as she stumbled back, horror etched across her face. "I shouldn't have… Mylo, why did you make me…" She sobbed before lowering her pistol.

Mylo? Ekko thought, before he shook his head with a scoff. He'd had more than enough of the waterworks. "Just shut up already." He groaned, pointing his bat at her. "You picked this fight. You don't get to start crying now that you're about to lose."

"Ekko…" She cried, but he was having none of it.

"No! We're done, Jinx." Ekko snarled. He would drag her to the Firelight's base kicking and screaming if he had to. Vi could deal with her from there. He was done with her! Ekko had tried caring about her time and time again, and it bit him in the ass every single time! He was done with her.

Wasn't he?

Jinx's lips curled up at the corners a few seconds later, but she never smiled. The manic joy he'd come to expect from her never even touched her eyes. More than anything, it looked like her heart was breaking. She choked out a few sobs as her body began to curl in on itself, and her gaze fell when she couldn't bring herself to look at him anymore. The girl he once called a friend glanced around, taking in the bodies at their feet for what must've been the first time, and whatever light was left in her eyes was snuffed out.

Then she straightened, looking up at him before something caught her attention to her right, and Jinx turned her head to the wall. There was nothing there, but she chuckled a moment later anyway. The sound was hollow, like brittle bones that were about to break, and something twisted in Ekko's chest. "You were right, Dad… this is all I ever was." Powder whispered, before she reached behind her back and drew the rocket launcher over shoulder.

"Jinx, don't do that…" Ekko warned, moving towards her as he reached behind him and grabbed his hoverboard from his back.

Powder closed her eyes and aimed the shark-like weapon towards Ekko - no, towards the back of the factory, and her lips moved as she whispered words that he was too far to hear. He couldn't read lips all that well, but he'd dabbled at it over the years, and it looked like she was saying she loved someone.

Then she pulled the trigger, and the factory was bathed in sapphire light.

Blue flame poured from the shark's mouth, energy blazing in its eyes and down the sides of its body, but Ekko had already leapt onto his board. He tilted his body forward and sped towards the open door, watching in terror as a shaft of arcane flame erupted from its mouth, before the largest rocket Ekko had ever seen flashed towards the wall.

A lot happened in the next two seconds.

Ekko's hoverboard carried him straight through the broken factory door in the first, right as Jinx's rocket detonated against the steel wall of the building. A cataclysm of fire and force rushed through the air, filling the entire structure in a fraction of an instant. The flames incinerated the corpses of the workers and turned every machine inside to slag, and the concrete and stone the factory was built around ruptured as enough kinetic energy to knock down a tower was forced through them.

The shockwave caught up with Ekko at the start of the next second, lifting him off his board and pushing him even faster through the air, and that was the only reason he was still alive. He flew to the end of the next block and then some, slamming chest first into a broken street lamp and practically wrapping around the thing, his Overshield protecting him as he landed safely outside the blast radius. The factory, and every building within seventy meters, was not so lucky.

Ekko wasn't sure how long he laid on the street, winded and half-deaf from the explosion, but eventually his ears stopped ringing and he managed to climb to his feet. Then Ekko felt the raw heat on his back and he turned around, and then he sorely wished he hadn't.

What remained of the streets by the factory were covered in orange and blue flame, burning them from the inside out and truly lighting the Sump for what Ekko thought might be the first time in the Undercity's history. The rest might've been blown apart by the force of the detonation, but Ekko couldn't see much rubble around the place. Either most of it had been launched out of sight, which might end up a problem in and of itself, or they had all been reduced to ash, or dust, or even their base fucking particles for all he knew!

A large chunk of the cavern wall had collapsed, burying Renni's factory and probably half a dozen other buildings under a few hundred tons of rock, but Ekko wasn't too upset about the loss. Sure, the loss of all these buildings was a shame when they could've been fixed up at some point in the future, but it wasn't like people lived in this area. The Sump was the least populated part of the Undercity for a reason, and that was especially true in the heart of a Chembaron's territory. Ekko would've been very surprised if anyone who didn't work for Renni died in the explosion. Hell, all of her guys in the factory were already dead, so…

Renni herself might've died, depending on how far she got out of the factory before Jinx…

Oh, gods. Powder.

Ekko tried to run but he fell after a few steps, tripping over his own shaking, stupid legs. He was such a fucking idiot, and now Powder was-

He scrambled back to his feet and broke into a sprint, dashing past the burning buildings and around what little rubble lay in the street, calling out the name of the girl who had caused all this destruction. "Powder! Powder!" Ekko screamed, never slowing down for a second. His eyes darted left and right, down blazing alleyways and ash filled sidewalks, searching for Powder.

She can't be dead! She's not supposed to die! Oh, please…

He got to within maybe a hundred meters of the sundered factory before he found her, lying against the wall of a burning old restaurant, and Ekko's heart stopped in his chest. He dashed to her side, sliding to his knees as he reached out to touch her, before Powder's eye shifted towards him.

Her single, ruptured eye.

"Oh, fuck! Powder…" Ekko sobbed, taking in what was left of her body. Her legs and waist had been torn off entirely, probably lost in the initial blast, and he could see scorched entrails pooling out of where her belly used to be. Her right arm was missing, too, alongside her clothes and all the hair on her head. Fuck, nearly every inch of skin she had left was either charred or melting off her flesh, and Ekko hoped for her sake that her nerves had been burned out at this point. This would be agony, otherwise.

How is she even still alive? Ekko thought as he wiped the tears from his eyes, but they wouldn't stop falling. But even with his vision blurry, he caught sight of the purple liquid bubbling up to the surface of her flesh, traveling through what remained of her circulatory system.

Shimmer.

That fucking drug was keeping her alive, when anyone else would've succumbed already, and Ekko wasn't even sure he could call it a good thing. He didn't want her to die, oh, stars, he didn't, but the pain she might've been in…

Ekko watched as her remaining hand, missing her thumb and index finger, twitched, before her arm began to rise towards him. What was left of Powder's brow furrowed in concentration even as she kept her sole eye fixed on him, and even though most of her mouth had burned away, Ekko swore he saw a word forming on her lips.

Please.

He took her hand without hesitation, holding it as gently as possible in case it might hurt her. "H-Hey, Powder. You'll be okay, yeah? We-we've got magic healing devices back in my base. They'll fix you right up…" He rambled, the last words he would ever say to Powder tumbling out of him. "Come on… You can't die here! I was gonna take you back to Vi. Gods, she was gonna be so happy! You guys were gonna be together again! You can't fucking die here! Please!" Ekko screamed, tears falling like rain.

Powder's arm twitched once more, trying to move up towards his face, and Ekko guided it there. He thought through every bit of medical knowledge he had, searching desperately for something, anything, to save her, but he came up empty. All he could do was stay by her side as she…

Her hand loosened and Ekko let go, and with a final burst of strength Powder brought her palm to his cheek. Her skin burned against his, but he wouldn't have pulled away for anything, and Powder wiped his tears with the fingers she had left.

Then she just held him, taking whatever comfort he could in his presence, even though this was all his fault-

Powder's one eye filled with relief and affection, maybe even love, and her head tilted to the side as a single purple tear trailed down. What remained of her lips twitched upwards, and despite everything that had happened, Ekko smiled back at her.

She died less than a minute later.

Ekko fell back when Powder's hand dropped, sitting in the dirt as he stared into Powder's lifeless eye, almost trying to will the light back into it. He stared at her for what felt like hours, trying to understand how she'd gone from being alive and healthy to… to this! He understood how, of course he did, but it just wasn't adding up. Things weren't supposed to be like this, they…

What was he supposed to do now?

He would… He would have to bring her body back to base. Get her cleaned up and ready for burial, and if anyone said no, called her a freak or a murderer, then he would just have to kill them.

Someone would have to tell Vi. It would probably have to be him, all things considered, and she would kill him. Her little sister had died fighting him; it was what he deserved. Ekko just hoped Caitlyn would look after her. She was kind, kinder than he thought any Topsider could possibly be, so Vi would be okay, someday. She would need to-

Get up, Ekko. You can fix this.

Ekko brought his hand up to his mouth, rubbing his cheeks as his brain came up with a million wrong answers to this problem, because there was only one way he could make this right.

His other hand fell to the machine on his lower back. The Z-Drive hummed with power beyond Ekko's understanding; coursing with a living, breathing energy that he couldn't quite comprehend. But when he thought back to the moment he first created this emerald gemstone, he remembered the feeling of connecting with eternity. He remembered existing in a single second that stretched out to the beginning and end of the universe, and into a place beyond that, but more than anything, Ekko remembered understanding.

He forgot that last part when he came back to himself in his workshop, the fruits of his labor in hand, but he thought he might've gained something instead. It was a question. Nothing more than a word, really.

Why?

Why had he sought out the power to bend time to his will, to reach into the past so that he might affect the future? People wiser and more powerful than him had probably tried before, so what gave him of all people the right to such power? Why did he deserve all of that extra time?

And as Ekko stared at the corpse of his best friend, broken and burned and far from home, he found the answer he was looking for.

People wasted a lot of time. Then, they wished for more. They wanted more hours in their days. More days in their years. More years in their lives. Because if they had all that extra time, they could fix any mistake. But there's the thing about time: if he couldn't make the most out of any given moment, if he couldn't save Powder, his friend, the girl he loved, then he didn't deserve a single, extra second.

Ekko twisted the dial on his wrist, the power of the Z-Drive reaching its zenith, and the universe listened.

This power had nothing to do with rights or deserving. Ekko could help people, and so he would. And that meant saving Powder; the woman he'd done all of this for, deep down.

Powder won't die today. I won't let her.

Ekko's body climbed back onto its feet before running in reverse, life returning to Jinx's eye as he moved away from the broken factory. He flew back into the air as the explosion shrunk behind him, his feet connecting with his hoverboard once more as he sailed backwards into the building. Then, as the rocket returned to the weapon it had been fired from, Ekko's feet touched the floor once again, and Powder stood before him.

Time moved forward once more, and Ekko threw his bat aside as he leapt onto his hoverboard. This time, when blue flame leapt from Powder's weapon and launched towards the back wall, Ekko didn't fly for the door.

He flew straight for Powder.

Ekko's shoulder slammed into Powder's chest and dragged her off her feet, and he wrapped his arms around her back as she scrambled to keep hold of her rocket launcher. They soared towards the open entryway as fast as his board could carry them, and they barely made it out into the Sump when the explosion caught them.

Like before, Ekko was knocked off his hoverboard, but that didn't matter to him right then. He held onto Powder with every last ounce of strength he had, tumbling through the air as he dragged her towards his chest, and when they fell, it was his body that struck the ground first.

Ekko's back hit concrete and the two of them bounced, spinning through the air as his Overshield flared. They landed on their sides next, his shield protecting him even as he hoped Powder's arm didn't break. They landed on him twice more after that, his Overshield taking the first impact but he had no such protection for the final bounce, and he felt the Z-Drive shatter beneath him even as pain lanced through his back.

Only then did Powder slip out of his grasp, and they skidded to seperate sides of the street, and even with the pain in his back Ekko could tell they'd landed about the same distance away from the factory as he had the first time around.

Thank the gods for small mercies.

Ekko laid facing the roof of the Undercity, one hand on his chest and the other stretched out at his side. He tried to breathe through the pain but he wasn't really having much luck, not when he was having trouble breathing as well, but that was what happened when you hit the ground at speeds like theirs. Still, he felt the pain start to recede after a bit, and Ekko figured he'd be able to move again soon. Then he'd find Powder and, if it was at all possible, gather up the pieces of his Z-Drive. At the very least, he'd need to find the gemstone. It would be a nightmare if that got out into the city, especially if someone managed to reverse engineer their own time machine.

Then, maybe twenty seconds after their emergency landing, Ekko heard footsteps sounding from his left, rapid and heavy against the street. Powder came into view a moment later, dropping to her knees as she laid her hands to his shoulders. Her teary eyes scanned him up and down for injuries, though she was careful not to move him in case she hurt him, well, any more than she already had.

"I'm so sorry, Ekko. I'm so sorry!" Powder wept, cupping his cheeks in her palms and pressing her forehead against his. Ekko tried to tell her it was okay, that they could work things out together, but the air wouldn't form quite right in his lungs. All that came out was a gurgled wheeze. "Why did I hurt you? You were trying to help me and I hurt you! Oh, gods…" She rambled, before she leaned back and finally managed to meet his eyes. Hers were bloodshot, purple veins running to similarly coloured iris', and lavender tears dripped down onto his cheeks. Ekko tried to convey forgiveness through his own, or at the very least understanding, but whatever she saw in them had her letting out an anguished scream. "You shouldn't have saved me! Why did you save me? I was so close; I was almost free! I was…"

Ekko grit his teeth as he tried to force down the pain, pouring everything he had left into one, single word. "Pow… der…" His voice came out throaty and dry, breaking halfway through the word, and he didn't think he'd ever sounded more pathetic in his life. But he managed to lift the hand from his chest up to Powder's waist, grabbing onto her hip and using his thumb to rub small, comforting circles into her skin.

The grin that broke out on Powder's face was radiant, and Ekko even managed a smile in return. She wiped her thumbs under his eyes, drying his tears before they could fall, and words began to form on her lips.

She gave up on those a moment later, though, and kissed him instead.

Ekko's eyes drifted shut a second after hers, and he managed to bring his other hand up to the back of her shoulder, drawing her flush against his chest. She let out a hum of laughter against his lips, heady and pleased, and heat stirred within his gut.

Powder pulled back a moment later, sitting back on her haunches with dusty cheeks and an embarrassed grin on her face, and Ekko knew that if he'd had the strength to sit up, he would've followed her. "I…" She began, before her head jerked to the left, and her eyes widened in fear. "No, I… Don't say that, please don't take this away from me, please…" She trailed off, and Ekko did his best to break the silence that followed, but he just didn't have it in him. Fresh tears fell down Powder's cheeks as her smile fell, and she ran her hands across her hair, sniffling. Then, twelve seconds later, she spoke. "I don't deserve this… I don't deserve you." Powder told him, but she refused to meet his eyes. Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out his emerald gemstone, before placing it into his. "You shouldn't have saved me." She whispered, before staggering to her feet, choking back a sob.

Ekko drew in a much clearer breath as he fought to get his words out, but Powder had already left, jumping onto her hoverboard and flying away.

It took Scar and Klara another four and a half minutes to get back with their reinforcements, and by the time they found him, he'd managed to climb to his feet and work out how to speak again. But even so, he wouldn't tell them what happened. Just that Jinx had fled after they fought, and the name Renni had given them.

Urgot.

He spent the rest of the day and most of the following night in his workshop, rebuilding the Z-Drive and a bunch of new Timewinders in between long bouts of pacing back and forth, trying to piece together everything that had happened between him and Jinx the previous day. He knew he needed to go talk to Vi and the rest of their little gang about all the information he'd gathered, and the things that had happened with Jinx. Especially since he'd missed their usual meet-up that afternoon, but he needed time to get his head together - to work out where to go from there.

Still, that particular mystery kept him in his room until around midday when Scar knocked on his door, saying that Jinx had been spotted on a rooftop overlooking the Lanes, and that the patrolling Firelights were awaiting his orders. Normally, Ekko would've organized a strike team and gone after her guns blazing, but he went alone this time, with nothing but a spare hoverboard and his Overshield.

He wasn't going to give up on her. Not this time.

---

So there's our first meeting between Ekko and Jinx! Hopefully you all enjoyed it. There's a lot more to come from them down the line so don't worry if this all seemed a little inconclusive - it's quite literally the whole point. I really enjoyed writing the Z-Drive and the Timewinder's into the narrative, not going to lie, especially when it came to the fight with Jinx. Time travel's just a blast to write, especially when it comes to time loops and stuff, which is pretty much what Ekko did.

Now, I'm not gonna make any promises about when the next chapter is gonna come out, but I have a very specific place I'd like to get to in the story by the end of the year, so as long as nothing else goes wrong in my life we should start making pretty good progress.

Let me know what you thought about the chapter in the comments, positive or negative, and I'll see you all next time!