The three descended as one from the sky. They separated to check over the nearby building and ground with care and thoroughness as if they're lives depended on it for a clear reason. The area was dim even for the entresol layer, but the lights on the building, hoverboards, and components in the scrap heap was enough for their task.

For her part, the hostess was lying on her stomach, her hands tinkering away with refuse from the heap, and her legs swinging back and forth in the air. She paid no visible attention to them.

After several minutes, the three reunited. The lead looked at one then the other and received two headshakes.

Atypically, the one with a bat mask spoke first. "If needed, we'll kill her." Ekko knew Scar was stating how things would be as surely as saying the sun would rise. Still, he could not nod.

He turned to the cat-masked Firelight. "Nothing to say, except Halt, Meena, and Su."

With a found family like these, who needs leadership?

"If. And I know," he said. Ekko thought about switching off the voice filter, but no. They already see me as being reckless and it could be a tiny thing to barter with her over.

His lieutenants took lookout positions almost back-to-back to be as comprehensive as they could, but stay mobile. Ekko took a deep cleansing breath and brought himself down to his ex-best friend's level.

As he got close, he could tell that she was talking. To herself? To… the ghosts she had confided she heard when I was revealed? To someone part of a trap?! No, not talking. Singing.

"And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune"

This one–it was on the jukebox in the Last Drop. Ekko tried to recall the name, but it, like so much from that time, was gone. Could it be recovered?

"Then the piper will lead us to reason"

Jinx finished assembling a tiny replica of the monowheel. The full scale one had been demolished by the enforcers after Ekko and Powder's short-lived adventures on it.

How long had it been since I've heard–no, never. You've never heard Jinx sing. She is not her. You're falling for a siren song within seconds, fool.

"And a new day will dawn for those who stand long"

She casually waved her hands over the picnic cloth. Ekko and the others had already looked over it. It was busy, but they caught the machine gun and pistol laying there with the ammo seemingly on the other side.

So she's not lost in her thoughts? Is this a power move? See if I'll start the conversation.

"And the forests will–"

"Ekko!" Jinx shouted suddenly, pushing herself up at the elbow and pointing at him like she had just caught him sneaking cookies from the jar. Despite himself, Ekko stumbled back a little, his hoverboard experience preventing him from falling the few extra feet onto his butt. "Like a troubled working girl at Babette's, you're late."

Ekko snorted and showed his palms. "I've been trying to get better with time."

Tilting her head for a moment, Jinx knelt straighter. "You haven't lost or permanently broken your father's pocket watch, I hope."

Reaching into his pocket, Ekko let the heirloom swing back and forth for a few moments before putting it away.

Jinx breathed and wiped her brow with theatrical flair. "I hate to be a Henny Penny, but that takes me back." She spread her hands above the picnic cloth. "I've had totems on my mind, in case I've been too subtle."

Besides the firearms on the cloth were two pipes, one that Ekko didn't know but rested in a bunny's paws and the other was the one he lost to her the night of his unmasking. There was the journal he had surreptitiously read within the second year of Jinx's arrival and a handful of handwritten papers he couldn't make out. And finally, a large picnic basket.

"The new monkey face was clever," Ekko noted, trying to keep the tone positive before negotiations started. "I saw it after we'd already decoded it, but I don't think even Silco would know enough of it."

A warm smile appeared on her face. She probably does get praise often, at least not from anyone besides the two-faced mobster and maybe some of his sycophants. "It did feel good to update my signature."

"Maybe I can show you some of the artwork we've done. In the future." Slow down. You can't bring her to the base! You might as well give the Firelights cyanide pills if you do.

Seeming to sense his indecision, her attention went back on the cloth. "Well, I've shown you mine," she gestured to her weapons again. "Now you show me yours."

Ekko tittered. That was my line with you a lifetime ago. "Okay, but just mine," he head gestured to his nearby comrades. "They're meant to be nonlethal anyway," he added as he set down his crystal bombs, smoke bombs, and club.

Jinx blinked as she got on her feet and then shook her head. "Maria and Ali would disagree, if they could."

Stay away from this. "Who were they?"

"Oh, just your victims. Already losing track? You always were faster than me, Boy Savior."

Ekko felt his anger rising. Disengage or at least stay with facts. "The chemtanks on the airship? Only one died. I spared the other."

Jinx looked to the side and mouthed something. He had seen her do it before. It was an ill omen. "I… don't think you're trying to be a liar, but I saw his corpse, Ekko."

"Stop saying my name loudly here." Stupid! Even if it wasn't known among Silco's crime family, she'll probably start shouting it like a toddler who's learned a dirty word.

She moved closer to him to glare and Ekko shifted his weight to the balls of his feet. "Oh, don't they know who you are!" she jeered, pointing to the two Firelights for a moment. "And I thought I had trust issues."

"I'm not the one who–" Ekko did stop himself there. Jinx didn't need him to finish though and she felt her pink and blue fingernails dig into her palm. He tried to start over. "We're tense because we had two of our own killed on the airship as well."

Glancing away again, she then shook her head. "I still don't think you're a liar. So for someone who was basically our gang's intelligencer, you've become trash at tracking people and keeping numbers straight."

Personal insults you can handle. She can't though. "Explain. Two Firelights went below deck and were killed–"

"No. I know only one died. Because I'd recognize the smug self-righteous voice of a Firelight anywhere, especially when he's calling me the Mad Bomber."

Good thing she had you disarm. "Jinx." She paused. She could count one hand the number of times he had said her name to her. "I would like more of an explanation. Please."

Jinx moved her jaw back and forth and glanced away. She wants to hide something about it.

She brought her spread fingers to her face and then lifted them up. "Take off the mask first," she haggled.

Ekko sighed and looked back at his watchers. He made some hand signals asking if his watchers had seen or heard anything. After Eve and Scar confirmed it was clear, he slowly revealed his face. She must be serious, she didn't act like she was horrified by it.

"Vasili was in a Topsider hospital. Under arrest, now that I think about it. He was in a bad shape, like seven-tenths bad. But he is stable, based on how he sounded. With the bio augmentations like the Scrap Hackers have nowadays, he could have a strong recovery eventually. Anyway, Vasili tried to rat me out to an enforcer woman as Silco's daughter and a murder. That's all I wish to say on that."

Badly injured, arrested, but alive. Only Akshay died. Not "only" but still. If they don't fabricate charges, he won't be in Stillwater long and maybe even not sent there given his condition.

"The airship raid was hard for us all," Ekko lamented.

A long breath left Jinx's lungs. "I was almost the one below deck."

"Hmm?"

"Instead of chemtanks with Maria and Ali in them your team would have been fighting me," Jinx shook her head. "Can't see me winning there."

Ekko thought about that tactically and emotionally. Would he have been able, either by ability or will, to make Jinx fall off the airship or strike her head so hard she'd brain bleed to death? The other Firelights wouldn't hold back, but she wouldn't be either. "I can. Or at least, losing less." No one wins in war, Vi had told him Vander had said.

There was a long silence between them.