"Maybe it was a bad idea to come here. Maybe I shouldn't go in with you. And what kind of sick games do you play over there that you need this for?" Jinx asked, blindfolded, as Ekko led him by the hand through the streets leading to the Firelights' base.

"The blindfold is customary for everyone who visits for the first time. And it's gonna be fine." I sure hope so at least…, he added in his mind, as he really didn't know what state he would find his home in. Jinx brought her up to speed on what happened in the past months, including Vander's reappearance as the feral beast that Isha ultimately sacrificed herself to stop. It was a hard pill to swallow.

She had to watch him die twice. Shimmer. Even if you die, you can't rid yourself of the damn thing. And now it flows in her veins…

Nevertheless, she didn't know what happened to his friends, which made him anxious beyond belief. He trusted Scar well enough to make the right decisions, but the decaying tree worried him a lot more. It was the reason he and Heimerdinger left in the first place, and why they got stuck in the Anomaly. Months have passed and the corruption could have spread even more in that timeframe. And if it did…

He was so lost in thought he barely noticed when Jinx fell.

"Hey, hey, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine…" She tried standing up, supporting herself with her arms, but fell back on her bottom without even getting halfway there. "Well, mostly." A loud growl from her stomach area quickly betrayed the cause of her ailment.

"When did you eat last time, Jinx?" he asked, concerned.

"I don't know… Like… three days ago?" Ever since… Dammit.

"No wonder you're so weak. Come on, it's not far away, I'll carry you."

"Fat chance… of that…" She tried to resist, but she wasn't in control anymore.

On the brink of fainting and unable to see what was happening, she heard Ekko talk a few minutes later.

"I've brought someone who needs refuge. And food, fast. She hasn't eaten in three days."

Afterwards, she could only hear unfamiliar voices around her.

"What did you even think bringing her in here?"

"He did the right thing helping her. And besides, she did bust us out of prison, man."

"Stray cat lost its owner and it's looking for another one," followed by something that sounded like a punch.

"Where were you? We're on the brink of collapse here!"

"She killed so many of us!"

"And what of it? You used to run with Smeech too! You atoned for your kills under him already?"

The next thing she knew, she woke up in a dark room, lying on her back in a bed that felt like the most comfortable one she had slept in in a decade. She heard snoring from her side and she felt something stopping her from moving her left hand. She turned there to find Ekko sleeping next to her in a chair that was pulled up to her bed. He was still holding her hand with his head laid down on top of it.

Did he really mean it literally?

The door opened and cold breeze rushed into the room, as a Vastaya with huge ears entered it from the darkness of the night.

"Hey. I'm Scar. Nice to see you awake." The Firelights' number two had a deep voice, different that what Jinx imagined it would be. He stepped in, closing the door behind him, the noise of which didn't wake Ekko up but did enough to pacify his snores.

"Hey. I'm Jinx." She spoke quieter than usual, content with letting Ekko sleep for now. "You… probably know me though. Your friends surely do, at least."

Scar stopped by the entrance, pondering.

"What makes you say that?"

"I remember some of the things they said when this big fat hero brought me in. Although, in the state I was in, I may have just hallucinated it all. That's my specialty."

Leaning on the door, Scar took a good look of the girl lying on the bed, observing her.

"It's true that not everyone… approved of your presence at first. Ekko and I made sure to convince them of the opposite."

"Why?"

"Because the Firelights don't turn away those who are in need. Besides, you don't exactly strike me as a source of danger at the moment. Though the kitchen might be at risk once you get a taste of my cooking. Ekko makes a mean apple cake too. When we have the ingredients for it, that is."

Jinx snorted.

"This all sounds a bit too good to be true. Why would you just welcome me, after all I did to you in the past?"

"We could all tell stories of our past here," he said, facing the floor. "Thing is, we built this place to forget about the past. To focus on the future." He turned towards Ekko. "He didn't tell me much about where or why he was gone before he passed out alongside you, but he did tell me how he found you. I've met him trying to do same thing, years ago."

"He told me that."

Scar smiled.

"When you have the strength to stand up again and he'll show you our home, I want you to remember that he felt just like you one day. And I want you to look at what came of that feeling, what he helped build here. So that you realize that there is a path from where you were yesterday, to where he is today."

Scar turned to leave.

"We didn't expect you to wake up until the morning, but I'm glad I came to check up on you. I'll bring some food. In the meantime, you tell your big fat hero that his big fat brother is gonna give him a big fat beating the next time he disappears like this."

As he walked towards the kitchen, he couldn't help but feel a sense of relief as he recalled Ekko's figure from all those years before.

You finally got your wish granted, brother. I hope you can make the most out of it.

Inside, Jinx moved her free hand to wake Ekko up, but just as she was about to pinch his nose, she stopped. She could do that later, she thought, right before Scar returned. For now, she thought it would be okay to watch him just for a little while longer.

"Did Vi use to wake you up like this when you did something wrong, or what?" Ekko asked, still holding his nose, feeling the numbness.

"Whwat dwo ywou mean, I lwearned it from ywou."

"Come again?"

She swallowed the fish in her mouth.

"You did it to me first, Big Man."

"Huh, really? I must have forgot."

"Back when we were building that new wheelie thing of yours. We've been working on it all day and I must have passed out from the fatigue." First time you dared to do anything like that. "It was my first big lesson. Never fall asleep in the face of the enemy!"

"Glad I could be of help." And that your hunger returned. "When did you lose that, by the way?" He pointed at her left hand, decorated by the mechanical finger in the middle.

"I used it too many times to greet Sevika. Guess muscles have a limit on them too. One day, it just fell off."

Ekko gave her an incredulous look.

"It was the enforcer girl. She shot if off back when I fought with my sister," she admitted. "Never was a fan of sniper rifles, but hers sure could pack a punch."

"Well, you got it replaced in style at least."

She ate fast and efficient, devouring her plate in under a few minutes.

"Your buddy didn't joke when he said I would like his cooking," she said as she finished. "He also promised you'd bake me a cake."

"He didn't."

"Yeah, but it would be nice, you know?"

"I'll add it to the list," he smiled.

"Anyway, I did what you asked. I came here, slept here, ate here, and I'm feeling fine. So, now it's your turn for answers." Her tone suddenly became serious as she turned towards the Z-Drive which rested next to Ekko's chair. "Where were you, and how exactly did you get that?"

"Okay, but it's all gonna sound crazy, so buckle up."

"You got me believing in time travel, how much crazier could it get?"

"A lot."

And Ekko told her everything — almost everything — about the Anomaly and the alternate universe. How he got there, how the Undercity thrived and found hope. How he found hope, for both the city and for her. How everyone found happiness. Everyone except Vi. He only left out the tiny detail that their alternate versions had been in a romantic relationship.

By the end of it all, Jinx was quietly sobbing.

"Vi died there and the rest of us just… live happily ever after? That is just… unfair." Is there no universe in which the two of us can just live fine? The cycle—

"She's alive here. And so are you. We can still make this work." His reassuring words didn't exactly convince her, but they calmed her down for the moment. "The point is that there is a good version of you, Jinx. I saw it with my own eyes. And I didn't have to look far once I came back to see it in you here, either."

She took a moment to collect herself.

"So… you actually built that thing? The Z-Drive, you called it?"

"With your help." And the Professor's.

"Okay, but who did all the monkeys?"

"That was me, but you were responsible for quality control."

"Huh, no wonder. That's about the only part of the design that looks cool." Built for someone special, you said.

"I see you feel good enough to trash talk. Also good enough for a walk?"

"Yeah."

"Come on then, I wanna show something to you. It's even better during the night."

Ekko hurried forward excitedly, with Jinx in close pursuit. As she exited her room, she saw it was located on the side of a clearing with many similar ones alongside it, all made out of scraps of metal, no doubt originating from the nearby junkyards. We sure know how to build stuff out of Topside's crap. She noticed something enormous blocking her view in the middle. And she looked up to see the tree for the first time.

Its trunk was so massive, Jinx believed the entirety of The Last Drop could have fit inside it with room to spare. Before I burned it all up, that is. A long staircase on its outside spiraled upwards from the ground all the way up to its canopy, with countless small huts opening onto it, each carved and built around the tree itself, light spilling from their windows. At the top, the stars in the distance shined brightly, with firelight bugs — their namesakes — flying around the branches, their vivid green color illuminating the clearing as if they were forming a protective blanket around it. And at the bottom of it all she saw a mural — with familiar faces.

"So… what do you think?" he asked, anxious to hear her opinion.

"Never saw anything like this down here before," she said, clearly impressed. She remembered Scar's words. So this is what you've been doing all these years. Where those same feelings had led you to. "What's with the mural?"

"They are… former Firelights. Friends. Loved ones. Everyone we've lost in the fight for our freedom."

She looked over the many portraits painted on the wall and wondered how many died by her hands. She could recognize at least one — the girl she mistook for Vi on the smuggler ship almost a year ago. As she started to feel guilty about herself, she noticed something else.

"I'm painted here too. So are you and Vi."

"We thought Vi was dead for a long while. As for you… I painted you there after…"

"After I beat you up, huh?"

"Not right away. But yeah. As for myself, I guess Scar thought I was a goner. I've been away for months after all. I gotta tell him everything that happened sooner rather than later."

She turned towards him.

"Back there… in that alternate timeline of yours… we didn't use to fight, right?"

"No, we didn't. I was so surprised when you entered my room, I just threw the first thing that I could grab at you," he laughed.

When I entered your … room.

"But no, we didn't fight. We were… on good terms."

"How good?" The question left her mouth before she could process its implications.

"Uh…"

"Actually, forget it. I don't want to know," she backtracked, turning towards the mural. "And you're sure you didn't just dream all of it, right?"

"It wasn't a dream… but it sure felt like one."

What could have been.

"I'm not saying that you're suddenly going to feel okay. That would be a lie. What I'm saying is, that it gets better. Give it a chance here. You… We… can just ease into it, little by little."

What perhaps … still can be.

"Okay," she smiled.