What the hell am I doing here? Jinx wondered as she waded into the cool water after her guardian. My false guardian.
Jinx glanced back to where she had left her things, including her minigun and pistol. I could end him now. No Sevika to protect him; no brain-aching stratagems. Just kill him right now! With the minigun for catharsis or the pistol to be quieter. Bring Silco out into the deeper water and have him never be found. Like he ran away and was never seen again. Like what happened to… her.
"I almost drowned in these waters," Silco began.
Jinx's eye was startled a fraction of a second. How'd he–oh, of course. He's just thinking of himself. He can't read your mind.
"We've been here before," Jinx stated simply.
Silco nodded and wadded in farther; he was mostly turned away from her. "Vander was different than you think. Darker. Driven. Bloodier."
Jinx's nostrils flared and eyes narrowed. Better than you, monster! Was that what she was to him? His therapy pet? A tool for his perpetually delayed revolution? A gun with goddamn pigtails?
She swallowed and brought her fingers to rest on the surface of the waters. Let him damn himself.
"You got what you deserve. Of course only someone equally deranged could love you. Or even just feign that they do," Mylo mocked.
"You should hear him, even if you don't listen. You don't know enough yet," Claggor contended.
"Since when has that stopped her? Shoot first, bomb after. That's what she does."
She noticed that Silco was now staring at her. "I understand you are haunted by your old fears, my child. But when that weak girl die, as I let a weak man die that morning with Vander, you will be free."
And what is weakness? Would killing you make me weak, as you claim Vander would think? Would it make me strong, like you're implying?
Silco held out his hand. Jinx stared at it like a cat would when it was expecting a treat.
"But–it's different, right? Vander betrayed you because of your dream of Zaun. Vi… that was because of me killing our family," Jinx offered. It surprised herself to say it, but it seemed to help. Focus on finding out information.
"Different yet the same." Silco approached her at a calm pace. "It was still betrayal when she should have forgiven you. I would ultimately forgive you regardless of your actions."
Jinx scoffed at that. Uh-huh. Maybe I'll take you up on that later. She reflexively leaned back as Silco moved close. "After she's gone, there will be strength. There will be perfection."
She leaned back more. Silco brought his arms to her shoulders to steady her at first before bringing them under the water.
"At last!" He's going to kill her! Blub! Blub!" Mylo celebrated.
Jinx was trembling as Silco gained leverage.
"You gotta stop him, Jinx," Claggor implored.
She was shaking more emphatically as most of her head became submerged. She hated feeling this vulnerable; she hated the cold water; and she hated the man trying to drown her, symbolically or not.
Silco halted. "It's okay," he assured. The two words shot through her like lightning. The words Jinx had first heard when she was born. She always interpreted them as sincere, comforting words. If it was a lie, then what am I?
He slowly started to lower her again. What am I? A daughter of Zaun, a daughter of Vander, a sister of Vi, an engineer, an inventor, a painter, a fighter, a creator, and a destroyer. And I am NOT his!
She had enough. Jinx twisted and thrashed against Silco as her face went under. Surprised by her reaction, Silco let her go.
Jinx rose like a sea monster. "Don't! NO! NO! NO! Stay away from me!"
Holding up his palms, Silco tried to assuage his ward. "Jinx," he took a step toward her, "it is meant to–"
"Stay away!" she shouted and punched Silco in his infected right cheek. Silco was stunned, not from the force, but the act.
Jinx looked at her fist like it was alien to her. I can't be with him. I can't kill him. She turned and dove under the water. Swimming close to the shore, she ran up and grabbed her weapons, tools, and shoes while Silco shouted words she could hear but not listen.
Jinx knew better than any time in seven years that not only did she need her sister, but her sister needed her. Staying in Silco's organization would be as healthy for them as sharing drinks from the Piltover factories' runoff.
I don't belong here. She ran.
"This is worth the time," Ekko affirmed. He had been making his contribution to painting Akshay and Vasili into the mural, but he was referring to Eve's hesitant report.
Eve, who had been a member of the Firelights from the beginning, furrowed her brow. She knew better than almost anyone how heavily that young woman laid on him.
"I was careful to get a second pair of eyes on it this morning."
Ekko nodded.
Eve took a breath. "At a blink, it was just a more defined monkey face graffiti she makes, this time on the side of Benzo's old shop. But its ears were firelights–the creatures. In its left eye was a rabbit, like the stuffed toy kind. What was eye-catching (unintended) for me was that in its right eye was a white Zaunite hourglass."
Ekko breathed deeply. Impressive how well she communicates for how terribly she communicates. "There was more?"
"Yeah," Eve answered and pointed to her nose. "The rest seemed more ambiguous, at least to us. Its teeth were a collection of wheels, batteries, circuits, fuel, and warped metal. Its forehead was an airship, but again a toy-looking version. Finally, I didn't see it, but Fred thought the downward eyebrows looked like two number ones." Eve finished with a shrug.
'What could one expect from the Mad Bomber?" Ekko imagined her thinking.
Ekko considered the mural. In a way, it mirrored the phantom of his old friend. He cared about it and not forgetting, but he was loath to have to expand on it. She had through ruthlessness, accident, and tragedy put Halt, Meena, Su, Mylo, Claggor, and… Powder on it. Am I next? The 'Boy Savior' commits suicide by the woman whose name he's still reluctant to use? A grim jest. What was that expression? 'First as tragedy, then as farce.'
"Well, I guess we have a parlay tomorrow night," Ekko said and resumed painting.
Eve winced for a moment. "We being you, me, and who's the third?" Eve asked, feeling she decoded the message enough to know that it would be three Firelights.
"Scar."
"Ekko, I understand choosing Scar. He has no love for her and he's our best fighter; but, if this is a clever enough trap, we'll be decapitated."
Ekko paused his brush. I can't explain it to her. That killing every fighting Firelight would not weigh on Silco's daughter's conscience as much as using her sister as bait? So let's risk the Firelights on that? "We'll just have to be sure to keep our heads."
"You've been here before. Hoping to get through to her. It hasn't been fruitful," Eve reminded him.
Ekko nodded. "I doubt she wants me to come and rescue her like I thought as a kid. It will be a different topic to discuss."
Eve clenched her fist. "If we have to, Scar and I will kill her before we let her harm you or another one of us again."
The brush was set down. He had done enough. "I still see her face, Eve. Even through the residual smoke, the obscuring pink glass, and the fractions of a second I could, I see the face of the woman I killed in our raid. Her snarling lips becoming a gaped mouth; her eyebrows going from slanted down to raised; her pink eyes opening wide. That was a big part of our "victorious" raid. Perhaps we should paint our fallen enemies too. Not to celebrate or even memorialize them, but so they can be free from our minds."
Staring at her leader, Eve swallowed. "Speaking freely, sounds like you're in a piss poor state to meet with her."
"No," Ekko shook his head. "I'm actually in a great state to meet with her. I'm just in a piss poor state to have my new family members kill my old family members, and very much vice versa too."
"Is that what you tell her?"
Again, Ekko shook his head. "I've tried telling her many different ideas since she first arrived years ago in our few talks." Ekko turned from his teammate to the painting of his lost friend, the relentless fighter, the intrepid leader, the pink-haired teen who used to hose Powder and him off after work playing in the scrapyard.
"Now is the time for me to listen."