JINX
Hours have passed, but the amount of hours spent on thinking on all that occurred had been eating though Jinx's mind, far more than all the aftermath of the Council explosion.
The Vander told to take whatever the crowlady, Morgana, was offering, as to not stir that one's fury. Urgot was bad enough as it was. There was almost no one left as well, and Jinx wasn't in the way of being able to fend anyone off, even more now that the fat spider man was aware of where she lived...
The Silco was clearly opposed, telling to leave and not come back. Clearly another one trying to bring Powder back, and that one didn't even KNOW her other than by name. Clearly trying to make Jinx weak, in spite of this 'Veil Lady' saying otherwise. For obviously, 'everyone betrays us'.
The Claggor was unsure about all of it, taking no sides. But then, he was more about the immediate wants, not such decisions. Could hardly be blamed for it.
The Mylo was... the Mylo about it. Stating that 'crowlady' was wrong, that Jinx would be weak, no matter what, and that she'd leave, like everyone else did.
Jinx herself was conflicted with the decision, and knew that... they... wouldn't be of much help this time. And the question bugged her mind, in spite of Morgana's answer she knew *too well* was bullshit. It had to be, in spite of about the lack of falsehood tales Jinx had grown quite adept at detecting.
The question banged, over and over.
Why her? In spite of all that's happened... why her?
She did want to listen to the Silco and run off. Hide in a corner. Perhaps forever.
But she knew the question would remain unanswered if she were to run. Unanswered and gnawing at her mind. One more gnawing at her to madness...
Hence, she took the decision for herself and left the room where she first awoke, all guns behind. Heading to the geek - Viktor's - office, she instead found it was empty, instead. Neither him, nor the crowlady, neither Ziggs were there, like the last time. Or even the shining, glowing orb thing.
The growling in her belly also became a hint for the Loose Cannon of where they could be. Everyone had to eat, at some point. And clearly something close to a kitchen had to be the levels below.
Jinx started walking down the stairs, some degrees indeed in a state of disrepair, noticing some movement in one of the corridors below. Jinx, having been quick to turn her head, noticed they seemed to be smaller, even as they ran to the doors of the rooms near them, in a corridor equally under disrepair.
Children. Clearly orphans under the care of either the geeker or the crowlady. Likely the latter one, due to typical motherly instincts. Motherly...
Jinx continued down the stairs, reaching the floor level, as she could see a pair of the same children sitting down and playing on the floor, looking rather nervous the moment they saw Jinx and went on their feet, remaining still as the Loose Cannon passed over them. She could look in their eyes, in spite of having no anger against them. She knew those looks too well. Looks of fear. Something that she was always taught by Silco, to *be* what they fear the most. Except that, on those children... it somehow felt wrong. Pointless.
Passing by them to the open, doorless arch ahead, she came across what looked like a nearly tiny kitchen, with some cabinets, a sink and faucet and even a supposed space meant for a small oven, except it was void, only an unused, plugged gas pipe extending out of the rundown, cracked wall. A table and some chairs laid at the center, where the crowlady was sitting at one of them in spite of the filth all around, as Viktor - steelmug, she nicked him - was standing on his feet, a book or journal on his left hand as the right one seemed to be holding a staff, holding the glowing, living orb right atop it, caged in a frame. Ziggs stood on his feet as well, a bowl on his hand as well, noticing the Loose Cannon having entered.
"Oh, hey, Jinx.", Ziggs greeted, walking to the table and resting the bowl over it. "Have some of these. Not much in the way of food, at the moment, but we can make due, can't we?"
Jinx took a second before she entered the kitchen taking a seat before Morgana with the bowl ahead of her, visibly filled with what looked like cookies. Nothing that much new, from one of the fissures such as her. The Loose Cannon was in no mood for eating, though, as she and the Veil Lady glanced at each other for several seconds. Jinx could notice the Veil Lady's serene mood, totally unconcerned, as that one noticed the Loose Cannon's hesitation. Jinx did notice that Morgana wasn't going to say anything, and did not have to unless needed.
She* had to be the one to start conversations.
The whispers of those in her did little to have Jinx be patient and prepared to ask, as well.
"What... what's it you want, crowlady?", the Loose Cannon started.
"Too many things.", Morgana answered, a second later. "Too many to fit a list..."
Jinx squeezed her eyes shut, baring teeth in frustration. Not at the Veil Lady's answer though.
"With *me, I mean... what you want with me.", Jinx replied.
"At the short-term, your help.", Morgana answered, truthfully. "Especially concerning some of Zaun's immediate issues."
"Urgot?", Jinx asked, suspecting the answer, before she nodded. "'Course it had to be that, having to clean the mess up..."
"A mess that did have a purpose, though.", Morgana replied. "It did expose some of Zaun's darkest secrets, as well as the dire consequences of Piltover's complacency. It has shown the flaws in all parts, and thus what is needed to begin healing."
"I didn't do it for any of that, not to expose or heal anything, I didn't.", Jinx shook her head, staring at the eldritch being before her. "I- I just wanted some people off my back..."
"I know you wanted.", Morgana nodded.
"I mean, you're all powerful and stuff, you *must've* seen what I did, all I did!", Jinx started, anxiety and nervousness gripping her. "And still you..."
"When I shouldn't have, you mean.", Morgana replied, a second later. "And you wonder why, when you feel you didn't *ever* deserve it. Maybe you indeed do not. But maybe it's not on my power, let alone right, to choose your fate, Jinx. Or maybe because this so called 'justice' you feel you deserve would've *still* achieved too little to nothing."
"But, I mean...", Jinx then growled aside, Ziggs recognizing it were likely her 'ghosts' at it again, and she kept on shaking her head, looking down. "My family... All those people... All that blood on me..."
"I still prefer an honest sinner over a righteous liar.", Morgana replied. "I have seen, even felt, far before you've drawn first breath, the pain this has brought. And what it shaped in the end."
"And you think, what, you can heal me? From all that?", Jinx asked a second later, looking through the Veil Lady's eyes before then she shook her head, getting angry with some realization. "Of course. I shoulda already guessed! Bring goody two shoes Powder back, even if she's useless! Just like all 'o ya want so much, it's what your offer's all about, ain't it!?", she then got up from the chair.
"Jinx!", Ziggs called, raising his hands. "Easy there, now. I didn't hear her say anything on changing you."
"Like she ever had to, Zigger.", Jinx retorted, glancing at the Veil Lady. "Her eyes are about saying it."
"Are they, now?", Morgana asked, in control.
"Jinx.", Viktor said, taking the moment. "You can lower your guard here, none of us is a threat. No one wants to be your enemy, here."
"Wait, there's also that, Viktor.", Ziggs rapidly said. "She'd rather not want friends, enemies only."
Enemies only...?
"What?", Viktor asked. "Only enemies and no friends? What kind of nonsense is this?"
"Not nonsense.", Morgana said, glancing at the Loose Cannon. "The product of betrayal. Betrayal *never* comes from your enemies.", she took a moment before continuing. "What Ziggs said is true, Jinx. I want you to continue being as you currently are. Mistakes and everything."
"Oh, do you now, crowlady?", Jinx asked, in sarcasm.
"Let's just say I've also grown *far* too weary of 'idealized' selves.", Morgana said as she then looked aside, apparently something having got to her. "More than I'd like..."
"Was it... sister, too?", Jinx asked, a couple of seconds later, having read through that statement, being caught off-guard as well by that. "I mean, if you have her?"
"Especially.", Morgana answered. "One as shaped as yours always aspired to be. A paragon, a bulwark against wickedness, a champion of light. Of righteousness...", the last word having a particular bad taste, as Jinx resumed sitting down.
"And thus I suppose you are the dark one, then?", Viktor asked, a second later. "Out of logic, I mean, you said your sister is the one of light."
"I am.", Morgana answered, glancing at the scientist. "But only fools conflate darkness with evil. Just look at Piltover, and then at Zaun. Not every light is a gift, Viktor.", she then returned her gaze towards Jinx, as Viktor took a glance at the Hex Core. "But we are diverging, here. The focus should be what has to be addressed, if Zaun is to survive."
"The Dreadnought.", Viktor nodded. "And the beast running loose."
"The beast- you mean the mutt!?", Jinx asked, caught off-guard, on which she then squeezed her eyes in frustration. She should've known her sister having made it from *that* was too good to be true...
"One thing at a time.", Morgana said, straight to the point. "What do you know of the Dreadnought, Jinx?"
"Urgy?", Jinx shrugged, then waved her head around as she tried to recall. "From what he said, he was sort of a head chopper. Got rubbed all the wrong ways by his own fellas, then got turned into... y'know, *that*. And got a bit crazy from all that, from all his... ideology-ing on pain-loving."
"Urgot, like any other soul, was born as equally with the potential for protecting others from harm, or inflicting it on them.", Morgana said, a second later. "Unfortunately, he happened to the born and grow in a land and a time that enabled the worst of his potentials, until they became an ideal as twisted as his current self. An ideal that attracted the attention of one as worse as he, and whom elevated him to a position that made him a threat to others, so much physically as in ambitions.", her eyes pierced into the Loose Cannon's, then. "Convictions that were *never* put to a check, and they would have become the undoing of everything and everyone, if he weren't stopped, before. And now the cycle repeats again."
"With him and his zealots.", Viktor nodded, understanding why he had to be stopped. "And then there's the beast running loose. Maybe you could also inform us on that, Morgana."
"I know about it as much as you do.", Morgana said. "I know only it is... unnatural."
"It's no joke, either.", Ziggs commented, pointing at everyone. "If you want to live, you'd best have a good set of legs. In fact, what I can best tell you on that thing is that you *survive* it. It's all you can do against that."
Quite the understatement...
"What if we could set up a trap?", Viktor asked.
"A trap?", Ziggs asked. "And just us? That thing was the same that ripped open the whole Ironhands' group apart! I doubt you could find something that'd last at least five seconds, without that thing reacting."
"I don't see much alternatives either.", Viktor said, glancing at the Veil Lady. "Unless you could help drain it's strength, as you did..."
"With you.", Morgana said, nodding. "And Urgot. It could work, but the strength of the beast itself could match or even surpass the Dreadnought himself, enough to break any hold of mine too quickly."
"Guess you'll need help, then.", Ziggs nodded as he glanced at Jinx, whom glanced back. "I could do that. We could."
The Loose Cannon took at glance at Ziggs and then back at Morgana and Viktor before she shook her head. "No no, no.", she said. "You won't want me, I'm serious. Even more for that plan of yours. Name Jinx is for a reason..."
"Your trauma can't take hold on you forever.", Morgana replied, a second later. "It's what you created the persona for, what Silco had you foster it for."
"Yeah, and I took it to heart, and what a much good did it do!", Jinx retorted, slamming the table, letting her breath out.
The Veil Lady raised her hand as Ziggs attempted approaching.
"You believe you'll bring nothing but misery and death, no matter what much good you attempt.", Morgana said. "This is the most direct and honest you'll get of me - not all of us are gifted to do good, Jinx. Even some whom don't even deserve this gift are yet gifted so, hence why I've long given up on any sense of justice. But this *does not* make you useless, or a burden."
"Yeah, I know, just a gun to the pointed on something.", Jinx said, in irony, imitating a gun pointing to her head and pulling the trigger.
"You may think it so.", Morgana said. "But it still remains on your hands whom this gun is to be pointed towards. We are what we wield, and for what. You can still choose, to be either the Jinx to those you love... or to those who'd do harm to them. *This* is what I offered, Jinx - Not changing anyone into an idealized version, as you'd believe. But instead taking what it *is* right there and focusing it in a way that serves the world around you, better than any would-be champion ever could. This is what I do - when you can't wield the light, you can still channel the darkness."
"Wow.", Jinx shrugged. "Bet you practice that a lot in the mirror, crowlady."
"Twice a day.", Morgana shrugged, something that made Jinx dart eyes aside, feeling bummed again. "It's not so big as you think, either, it's just something I learned with myself.", she then glanced at Ziggs. "And so did he, his talent with explosives now better applied. And I didn't even need to help him, back then."
Jinx's eyes darted aside for a moment, squeezing as she shook her head, the voices within her disrupting her train of thought all over again.
"And you... you really think *I* could manage?", she asked. "Me?"
"In time, you can. And will.", Morgana answered. "As long as it's your decision, not *theirs*. And if they get in the way, they'd do well to remember who's it they share space with."
The Loose Cannon's eyes glanced for a moment at the Veil Lady's, in a manner of understanding the blue-braided girl had indeed thought would never see again, the last time being only weeks ago. Her eyes then darted aside as she nodded.
"Then it seems we may have something against that thing.", Viktor said, gesturing at himself and then at Morgana. "The trap and the means to drain it's strength. The biggest problem, however, is how to draw it's attention, especially where we'd want it..."
"Blood.", Jinx said, a couple of seconds later, getting everyone else's attention, as she continued speaking, looking down. "The first time me and my sis met it, sis got her nose bleeding, somewhat. Mutt reacted to it, grew more rabid."
"More rabid?", Viktor asked. "So it could become far more dangerous? Isn't there any other way we could bait it?"
Morgana took a glance at Jinx. "It seems unlikely.", she said, a second later. "We may need to make due with the risk."
"Well, what kind of trap you thinking of, anyway?", Ziggs asked.
"It might sound strange to you, but I'm thinking more of an artificial no-gravity field.", Viktor answered. "Make his body mass impulse almost irrelevant."
"Oh, and you could do that?", Ziggs asked.
"Not could. I did.", Viktor answered. "One of my first experiments with Hextech, you could say. Which is also a problem."
The claw.
"There is only one source available at the present moment.", Viktor said as his eyes dashed to the Hexclaw by his back. "And due to this I might not be able to be of much direct assistance against the monster, as the gemstone that could power the Hexclaw will be also powering the trap."
"There is another source, Viktor, and you know it. You saw it.", Morgana said, as she glanced at Jinx again. And so did Viktor.
The Loose Cannon then stared at everyone. "My Fishbones?", she asked, nervously.
"I wasn't going to ask it...", Viktor glanced for a moment at the Veil Lady before returning to the blue-braided girl. "But I *did* recognize that azure shining on that monster weapon's eye. I could've very well took it, and should've, but my good sense spoke first."
"And so what?", Jinx asked, glancing at everyone. "That little blueball was quite a hubbub on my life, I lost a lot for it, life, sis and dad included, and you really think I'd just hand it over to ya? Just like that?"
"Borrowing it, for this case.", Morgana answered. "He would return it to you, when it is done. And, in a twisted sense, you *quite* owe him that."
"Owe him!?", Jinx asked, incredulous. "Crowlady, I thought *I* was the crazy one! I didn't even meet steelmug up until now!"
"But he did meet you.", Morgana replied. "Or rather... he met your rocket, at the Council."
Jinx's face fell flat as she then stared at 'steelmug', whom shrugged back.
"Your talents do precede you...", he said, subtly savouring the irony.
Bus-ted...