Chapter 1

This shouldn't be possible. Powder knew it didn't make sense—just like she'd felt in her core that something about Ekko was different the past few weeks.

It didn't make sense, yet it was happening. There was no denying it. Ekko was literally in her arms, while a different Ekko stared at her from within the glowing orb. His eyes pierced her, overflowing with sadness—the same eyes she felt falling deep in love.

He was her best friend, her little boy. And recently, their friendship had begun to develop into something more. But it never turned serious, for a reason.

Then, one day, he simply was different. More mature, more enigmatic, full of shades and angst. He didn't seem like a little boy anymore, something about him was undeniably different.

Something she now saw clearly in front of her, as all the pieces started to click together. This was the first time she was really seeing him—this was Him all along, not her best friend. A different man entirely.

The memories crashed through her mind, every moment she sensed something wrong but buried deep inside. Every time he flinched around her, his alarmed eyes betraying a mistrust that hurt more than she wanted to admit.

The memories flashed faster.

When he asked her if Vi was dead.

When he appeared with this stranger—Heimerdinger—obsessing over some project he had never once mentioned before, with a drive that made him look like he had a life-threatening mission on his hands. So dark yet full of strength and depth.

When she lay on her red couch, almost asleep, watching him tinker with a tiny red monkey, her heart feeling heavier than it ever had.

When they locked eyes at the dance. That twist in her stomach. The way the world disappeared. The connection she never experienced before with him, floating all night in a blissful fever dream.

"Some night." she'd said.

"It's beautiful."

They never had a night like that before.

"Where'd you learn those moves?"

"Oh, I was just following your lead."

Mm… Suddenly, he had lines.

When he asked her to pretend it was the first time—so honest, so vulnerable. His eyes weren't his. She'd known then, for sure. With the same certainty she knew she was completely in love when they kissed, for the first time.

But this… Shouldn't be possible. The question was forming on her lips, but before she could speak, he was gone—along with everything around him, including Heimerdinger.

What the actual fuck?!

Little man opened his eyes and said "Powder… What happened?"

"I… I don't know. Well, I do, but…" She shook her head, trying to clear her mind. "No, it's not possible." Her hands darted over him, making sure he was really there. "How are you? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, I think. I feel fine," he replied, rubbing his head. "Maybe I partied a little too hard last night, huh?" He chuckled weakly.

The relief she felt was quickly shoved aside by gears moving inside her head. It was not possible, yet it was. She remembered Ekko's notebook—his drawings of the anomalies connecting silhouettes. It was all starting to make sense. She ran to Heimerdinger's notes, flipping frantically as her mind raced.

The answer had to be there. All this time they were working on this puzzle that also didn't make sense—until it made. She knew it.

"The time loop!" Powder shouted.

"What? What are you doing? You look mental, like when you get one of your new ideas" Ekko muttered, slumped on the red couch, pressing his forehead. "You know what? Last night's catching up to me. I'm gonna go and take a nap." She barely heard him. Her mind was reeling.

This is it, right? The time loop allowed him to jump back. But how did they know it would work like that? Did they use it to get here?

"Pow pow? You heard me? No? Never mind, see ya later genius… or madness."

It was. It was because they used it before to get there. From somewhere.

Memories flooded her mind again when an image hit her like a punch: the badass girl Ekko painted on the tree. It was from a dream, he'd said.

He had to come from somewhere. His dream?! A DREAM?! Vi!

Her cheeks started burning red, flushed with anger and disbelief. Her eyes teared. Vi was alive, somewhere. A place where Ekko went, somehow. She helped build it. She could replicate it. She just needed to know how to replicate that giant portal Heimerdinger did in a few hours. How hard could it be?!

She kept flipping the pages frantically, almost ripping them apart. Then her heart skipped a beat—literally skipped a beat when she saw it. The sketches were messy, the handwriting rushed. But it seemed complete, it even made sense.

"I can actually do this" she whispered, her voice trembling.

I can follow him—well, not follow him, he left me. But I can go to you, Vi.

Then, she dropped the notebook and sank to her knees, appalled. Tears blurred her vision as she started sobbing, covering her face.

"I can't! The stones… He used them all!"

How could he do that to me? I thought it was real. It felt real when we kissed, like the first time. It felt real when he gave me the necklace. How could he not take me? He knew what Vi meant.

"I believed it was real!" She cried, her voice breaking with anger. Her grief turning into fury, blackening her mind, her heart.

How could he use me like that?

She snatched the stupid necklace from around her neck and stormed to Violet's memorial. Her tears cleared as she wiped them away—just as Vi had done for her as a child—and she collapsed into the chair in front of Vi's picture, utterly devastated.

How dare he? He really wasn't my best friend—my Ekko could never.

She opened the drawer to bury the stupid necklace when she saw it—the crystals.

The crystals that took Vi's life.

The crystals she had forgotten—but were far more powerful than Ekko's tiny shards.

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