Snip. Snip. Delayed snip.
"Jinx, I know you're eager to get back to the gemstone, but if you don't stop being a little eel, your haircut is going to look dumb," Vi chastised.
Jinx kept her eyes on the notebook but narrowed them in a huff. "A poor worker blames their materials, Fat Hands."
They're slightly more than average. At most. "It's not fair for you to give me a mean nickname and I can't call you by your birth name." Vi made a couple more cuts.
Jinx closed the notebook and grabbed the hand mirror from the table. She angled it so their eyelines matched. "I want you to think about the differences there, sis, and let me know when you've figured out why it's fair."
Vi sighed. "A failed joke. Sorry, I thought that part had, I don't know, scabbed over."
"No. It hasn't yet. But I've wounded you too. I'll stop calling you 'Fat Hands' if that helps."
Smiling, Vi made a short head shake. "No, it is fine. Because I know it's not true."
Jinx chuckled. She reopened the notebook and Vi worked on her hair for a couple more minutes.
"You really didn't get it cut since the last time I saw you until that chemtank sliced it?"
Jinx nodded when Vi's scissors were away. "Pigtails down to my back-porch. Probably a source of my power."
"Sounds like a lot of trouble to keep clean," Vi mused aloud.
Jinx shrugged. "We made time."
She is avoiding saying Silco's name. Vi frowned and continued cutting. "I'm going to sleep after this. Are you and Ekko planning to work all night on the gem?"
Jinx held out her hand and made a shaky gesture. "I probably will. I'm as nocturnal as a hedgehog. Ekko though… Little Man has so many plates spinning. Maybe I'll just bop him on the head so he can restore his gray cells."
"He's lucky to have you," Vi noted with a mix of mirth and sincerity.
"Yeah, that's one way to look at it," Jinx answered with ambivalence in her voice.
"And… done! What do you think? I left it a little long so I can shorten it if you want."
Jinx picked up the mirror again with her left hand and brought her right one to her chin as she considered her sister's work. It was a medium bob. Not a hundred cog one, but well done, and certainly an improvement over the hacked one she had.
"Maybe I'll add highlights to it later. What do you think about violet ones?"
Her sister smiled. "Neon green highlights could work too."
Blinking at the thought, Jinx set down the mirror. "I'll give you a recommendation blurb if you like. 'Great work, especially given the barbers hand hocks,'" Jinx finished her finger quotes.
Vi headlocked her sister and was about to anoint the hair with its first noogie when the door opened.
"Ekko!" Jinx shouted. Mercifully, Vi freed her captive so she could run up and hug her science partner.
"I wasn't gone that long or in much danger, silly," he told her quietly, but held her tight.
They're good for each other. Too bad they weren't helping each other while I was locked up.
"Anyway, it looks like she finished," Ekko added.
"See Vi? I told you he's sharp. What's your two washers about it?"
Ekko sighed. "I walked into that trap." He evaluated it and made a circle gesture with his index finger. "Turnaround."
Jinx gave her sister and then Ekko a "see what I have to deal with" expression.
"So I can see the back of it," he clarified.
"Mmhmm." Jinx complied, throwing in a few unnecessary sways and shakes in the rotation for fun.
"Only referencing the hair, it looks good," Ekko said.
Vi stifled a yawn. "I'll let you kids do your thing," Vi said and walked to the door. "Oh, did… that enforcer woman return with you?"
Jinx laughed. "My love! Where are you?!"
Vi glared at her while Ekko covered his mouth. Then Vi smirked. "Oh, Ekko. Jinx told me something really interesting after I beat her in a race."
He tilted his head as her sister's eyes widened and blood rushed to her face. "Don't you dare–"
"She said that she lo–mumumumfle" Vi sounded as Jinxed clasped her hand over her mouth.
"That I loved to show you what should solve the hexgem power drawing problem," Jinx interjected and gently wrestled Vi's attempts at breaking away.
Tapping the door with his club, Ekko refocused the sisters. Vi held up her hands and Jinx cautiously removed her hand from Vi's lips.
He looks as tired as I feel. "We'll try with the hexgem soon. Caitlyn went to the Council, but she wasn't sure about staying and it would depend on what happened. Someone is watching the bridge and if she goes there, they'll bring her back."
Vi nodded and headed to the room her and Jinx were sharing. Sleep will do me good.
"Powder! I'm sorry for leaving you! Don't do this!" Vi shouted as her little sister stood over her between Singed and Silco. She struggled against restraints, but they were made of unbreakable hair braids.
"I've got a new family now, Vi," Powder answered as she brought the knife to cut around her heart. "They love me and I love them. They made me…" Vi watched as Powder transformed like she took an older variant of shimmer, but instead of looking like a monster, she turned into Jinx. "Though I do owe my name to you."
Jinx removed Vi's still beating heart. She, Singed, and Silco started tossing it back and forth.
"Vander did say she had a good heart," Silco said, his bad eye glowing as sharp as a firework.
Jinx cackled wickedly. "I didn't think she had one at all."
Singed injected it with shimmer and carelessly tossed it into Vi's chest cavity. He was completely unbandaged and his missing lips made him look like the last thing a prey would ever see. "A disappointment. Onto the next subject."
Vi looked around and screamed. On the tables next to her were a dead Mylo, a dead Claggor, an tormented Vander, an unconscious Caitlyn, and a semi-conscious Powder at eleven.
"Violet, this is on you," Jinx told her as she held out the pig doll with her right hand and the bunny doll with her left. "Who gets the knife and who doesn't? The burden, the curse, the oh-woe-is her. You hate her; you love her. It's… Powder. (But don't say her name, okey-dokey?) And in this corner, coming from Piltie nobility and purveying the guns that murdered their parents. The old, new, borrowed, blue sharpshooter, your long-suffering date, 'your love!' Cupcake!"
Vi broke the restraints, but was suddenly surrounded by black steel bars again. "Stop this! Don't hurt anyone."
"Don't hurt anyone?" Vi could see Jinx was moving strangely and had thin ropes attached to her. "But Vi, that is all you do." Vi followed the ropes up as Jinx continued. "Hurt enemies, hurt friends, hurt yourself." She saw a giant Silco was puppetting her and mimicking her voice "And most of all, hurt your sister."
"I–I didn't mean to," Vi stammered. She felt small, injured, and weak. Like that night.
"If you don't want to hurt her, you have an easy solution," a shrinking Silco said. He had a bloody knife in his hand as he stood over a weeping Powder.
The bars were gone and she was close. It wasn't like that night. She could stop Silco this time. Stop it all. Like she had traveled back in time.
"Just–" Silco began as he pulled back his knife.
"Vi?"
Vi sprinted forward and drew back her right arm. Don't worry about telegraphing.
"Stay–" he continued and his hand moved toward Powder.
"Vi, wake up."
"Away." He was so close to ending Powder now. She moved as fast as possible.
"Vi!" The shout twisted the world, but she still saw Powder was about to die. Her eyes opened, pink and overflowing with fury. Her right hand swung to deliver a devastating blow into Silco's toxic left cheek. In a blink she realized it was not Silco. It was Jinx.
The hit had enough strength behind it that her sister's eyes rolled up in her head before she hit the ground hard. She was in a new nightmare.
"No! No! Help!" Vi leapt out of the bed and checked on Jinx. She was bleeding from her head and her jaw was likely dislocated, but she had decent vital signs. Some of the blood ran to the side of her head, painting a streak of her hair red.
Ekko dashed through the door. "What happened?!" He knelt down and checked her neck and back to determine if she was good to move.
"I–I was startled. I didn't want to see Powder get hurt. I accidentally hit her."
Ekko glowered at Vi with more rage than she had ever seen in him. "What is wrong with you?! How can you keep hurting her?! And with your shimmer abilities you could've…." He exhaled deeply then picked up her sister's unconscious body. "I'll bring her to our infirmary."
Vi felt her fingers make a fist again and she forced them to relax. "I can carry her if you lead the way."
Ekko looked at her again. He seemed less livid and more exhausted. "Vi, no. Not right now. Stay away." Taking care to not let Jinx's head hit the door, he took her away.
Vi felt her blood boiling. With her head in her hands, she screamed. A piercing, primal scream. Her pink eyes stayed bright as she looked around the room and saw the belongings Jinx had brought. She looked through them and quickly found what she wanted. Packing them in a bag she left the room and leapt over onto the branch. She quickly made it to the large metal door, which to her fortune was open.
"Hey, Ekko asked if you could take me to the Lanes. Some light scouting and reminiscing," she directed a young looking Firelight.
"Okay. Will you need me to stay by or will you get picked up later," she said and set down her hoverboard for Vi to get on.
"No. I can do this on my own," she said. No one else needs to get hurt. No one else except one person.