Jinx POV
Deep underneath the prison was where they housed the truly dangerous and corrupt criminals. Each floor contained dozens of inmates, all yelling and banging on their cages as Jinx strolled past. Some of them she recognised, having probably beaten over half of them into a pulp over the years. They were either people who'd gotten in Silco's way or they'd pissed her off to some capacity.
"Oi, Jinx, you better hope they never let me outta here," growled a large man from his cell, black eyes trailing her every move.
Jinx blew him a kiss and skipped on ahead, not bothering to waste time talking to any of them. The two of them made their way down a spiraling staircase that led deeper below ground. There was no heating or lighting, and the cool air prickled her skin.
"You know that man?" Ekko, silent until now, voiced his question into the dark space.
"Not really," she answered with a shrug.
"He seemed to know you."
She came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, causing him to bump into her. "I can't be expected to remember everyone that has a grudge against me."
When he didn't reply, she took that as a sign that the conversation was over and continued ahead. It wasn't the first time she'd been in a dark, damp stoned walled hall. During her early teenage years she'd sought comfort in the peace and quiet of a space devoid of any light or noise. It helped to calm the voices in her mind. She'd even turned an old cave into a home, far away from preying eyes, where she could just be herself with no expectations.
The first few cells were empty, their doors ajar and no sign of movement from inside. A single gaslight ahead slowly illuminated the hallway, and they both stopped short when a small desk and chair came into view. Some playing cards and a bottle of whiskey sat atop it.
"I didn't think they'd station a guard this far down," whispered Ekko.
Footsteps sounded from the shadowy space they'd just walked through, an echo of a whistle bouncing off of the walls. A shiver ran up Jinx's spine as she reached for her gun, only to find the space at her hip empty. She vaguely remembered misplacing it when Ekko found her earlier in the night. Her hands balled into fists, and she spun to face the open area behind them.
A middle-aged guard with ruby rose cheeks - most likely from the alcohol - froze when he spotted them. "Hey! You're not meant to be down here!"
"Jinx, we -."
"He's guarding something - or someone - down here." Rolling her shoulders to ease the tension in them, she leaned forward onto the balls of her feet. "And I'm willing to bet I know who it is."
Without warning, she darted forward at a speed too quick for the guard to raise his arms to block her attack. The good thing about being smaller than your opponent was that they either underestimated you or they were too big to move fast enough to block you. Jinx used his size to her advantage, ducking under his arm as he took a swing, landing a few blows to his stomach. The guard spun and grasped for her, but she twirled out of his reach.
Ekko appeared behind the guard and kicked the back of his legs, causing him to fall to his knee. Jinx could see in her old friend's face that he was only trying to end the fight before someone got seriously hurt, but this guard was trying to stand in her way of seeing her sister again. He was just as guilty as everyone else who had lied to her this entire time.
The guard didn't have time to consider what was happening when Jinx grabbed the back of his head and rammed her knee into his face, relishing in the sound of his nose breaking. She let him flop onto the ground, blood spouting from his nose as his eyes closed.
She looked up to meet Ekko's disapproving stare. "What? He's still alive… I think."
"Get the keys," he ordered.
Once the ring of keys hidden beneath the guard's uniform were secured, they continued forward. Another small halo of light illuminated the end of the long hallway. A single locked cell at the end immediately caught their attention. Every other cell door was open except for this one.
Jinx stopped walking, letting Ekko carry the keys towards the lock. Up until now this all felt like a stupid plan, one she only went along with because she had nothing to lose. If Vi was in that cell, then Jinx wasn't sure what would happen after. Everything would change; the life she'd built would crumble. It would mean that everyone she'd trusted had lied to her. They'd poisoned her, filling her head with the fear of being alone, betrayed by those who were meant to take care of her.
She didn't know if she was ready to face any of this.
"Jinx?" Ekko's steady voice brought her back from the darkness she was slipping into. He waited for her eyes to focus on him. "It'll be okay."
"I know," she agreed, more so to convince herself.
After fumbling with the keys, he finally found one that fit, and they shared a single glance that spoke a thousand words before he turned the lock. The metal door swung outwards and they both inched closer to peer into the dark space within.
Jinx hesitantly stepped into the shadows, crossing the threshold of the cell. It was a damp and cold space, something dripped from the ceiling, and there was no furniture of any kind. Just a stone walled cell where one would be alone with their thoughts.
"Vi?" She whispered into the empty space, standing still while she waited for her eyes to adjust.
Not even a second later a strong body enveloped her in a bear hug, a hand grasping the nape of her neck, so her head was crushed against Vi's shoulder. Jinx relaxed instantly against her sister and burrowed herself deeper in her arms. Vi had always been bigger than her, but now they were almost the same height.
Vi pulled back too soon so she could stare down at her, brushing her thumb against her cheek where a single tear fell. "Oh, Powder. I thought… How did you find me?"
"I had a great tip off," she replied with a small sniffle, embarrassed about crying.
They both turned to Ekko who was standing in the doorway, his expression a carefully constructed mask. He sprang forward when Vi held out her arm to him, and the three of them embraced one another.
All the sorrow and pain and confusion and anger within Jinx melted away in that moment. The noise in her head stopped for the first time in so long that it made her tears flow harder. Vi would make everything better again.
"How did you two get down here?" Vi asked when they all finally loosened their grip.
Ekko stepped back to give them some space. Vi reached down to lace her fingers through Jinx's, and she felt her heart swell at the gesture. She never wanted to be apart from her sister again.
"We didn't really have a plan, if that's what you're asking."
When Vi turned a questioning gaze towards Jinx, she couldn't hold back the sadness that crept into her tone as she admitted, "I thought you were dead."
"You… you didn't know I was here this whole time?" Incredulous at this new information, Vi swung back to Ekko. "And you?"
"I had some intel about where you were but was never crazy enough to attempt a prison break until I ran into Jinx and -." Realising his mistake almost immediately, he snapped his mouth shut.
"Whose Jinx?" asked Vi.
"We should go," said Jinx, not looking at her sister as she clung to her hand and dragged them out of the cell.
Jinx was thankful when Vi didn't question the knocked-out guard halfway down the hall, not wanting to explain what had happened. For some reason, the thought of her sister knowing who she was made her anxious. Vi remembered Powder. Vi loves Powder. And Jinx was too scared of what might happen when Vi learns that she isn't that little girl anymore.
Once they were back in the elevator it was a straight though shot up to the entry room of the prison. Ekko came up with a plan on how they'd get past the guard at the front desk before slipping the Enforcer mask back on. It would be risky, and it would only work so long as the guards on the morning shift hadn't turned up for change over yet, since all the night guards were knocked out. That would definitely raise a few alarms.
"Just let me handle this," Vi whispered to Jinx, squeezing her sister's hand before letting it go.
Jinx knew Ekko was rolling his eyes behind his mask and avoided the urge to poke her tongue out at him. So far, he hadn't tried to betray her, so she'd continue being nice to him.
The elevator doors opened, and Ekko threw himself onto the floor with a small shout. Vi kicked him in the leg and reached down to haul him back onto his feet. She pinned his arms behind his back, marching him forward. Jinx hung back for a single second to watch the muscles on her big sister's arms and shoulders as she easily handled Ekko. Years in prison seemed to have made her stronger than Jinx remembered.
"Oi, you three! Stop right there!" The burly guard rose to his feet, showing off his incredible height and large build.
Vi continued pushing Ekko towards the front desk. "Let us go. Unless you want a dead Enforcer on your hands."
"You're not going anywhere, darlin'." A gun appeared in his hands, an Enforcer's rifle. He cocked it and aimed it directly at Ekko's chest. "One Enforcer ain't gonna stand in the way of this prison's record. No-one has ever escaped on my watch."
"Drop the gun," shouted Vi.
Images of Vi bleeding out on the cold ground with a gunshot wound, after only being reunited for less than an hour, flooded Jinx's mind. The guard was going to kill them all. In that moment, without any tether strong enough to bind her to reality, the voices returned in a flurry of chatter.
You just got her back.
Bad things happen to everyone you care about.
It'll be easier if you let her die.
Without giving thought to her actions, Jinx used the guard's distraction to slip into the dark corners of the large room. Once she was positioned behind the guard, it wasn't hard for her to use his own chair as a step to leap onto his back. The two of them struggled for a few seconds as her arms circled his neck, squeezing tight to cut off any air supply.
"Powder!" Vi's voice sounded far away as she called out to her sister.
A single gunshot reverberated off of the walls as the guard accidentally fired a shot. The same image of Vi staring at nothing as her eyes glazed over, a bullet wound fresh on her forehead overwhelmed Jinx.
She swung a leg up to hook it around his neck, freeing her hands and using the momentum to twist her torso, allowing her to grip the gun. The guard, choking for air and panicked, released his hold on the gun. Jinx kicked off of the large guard with the weapon in hand, flipping in the air to land right side up on his desk. She instantly cocked the gun and positioned it between his eyes. The guard froze in his gasps for air, locking fearful eyes with her own.
"You could've just let us leave," she explained to him calmly, all the while a storm was raging inside her. The same image of Vi being shot and killed replayed on repeat. "We had a plan. You ruined it."
"Look, I'm sorry. You can go. I won't try to stop you," he pleaded.
Jinx shook her head. "It's too late for that."
There was some kickback to the rifle, more than she was used to handling from her own shotgun. But it did the job, with the bullet piercing a hole through the guard's forehead. His eyes widened briefly before they went blank and he dropped to the floor. The weapon clattered noisily against the desk as she let it slip from her hands.
Pleased with herself, Jinx hopped off of the desk and bounded over to Vi. She froze a few steps away when she finally took in her sister's expression. Vi was staring at the dead guard, a million emotions running through her silver eyes.
"Powder, you… That Enforcer downstairs, the one that was knocked out. Was that also you?"
Jinx found herself floundering, her usual sass and confidence wavering. "Yeah, but we were saving you. So really, it's your fault."
"What?"
Ekko butted into their conversation, saying, "You two can do this later. We need to leave."
The urgency of their situation wasn't lost on Jinx, and she gripped Vi's hand as they rushed towards the entrance. No guards stopped them from re-entering the carriage, with Jinx quickly pausing at the control panel to get it moving. The ride back to the mainland felt shorter this time. No-one said anything as they all stood lost in their own thoughts, but Vi never took her hand away, something Jinx was grateful for.
Ekko exited onto the platform first when the carriage stopped, assessing the area for potential threats. The guard change hadn't happened yet, but judging from the soft orange light touching the sky it was only a matter of time. Alarms would ring, the prison would go into lockdown, and Enforcers would patrol the streets, questioning anyone who looked suspicious.
"Did you do this, too?" Vi had been following Ekko's lead when she came to a sudden stop.
The young female Enforcer Jinx had shot stared blankly up at the pale morning sky. Red blood pooled around her lower body from the wound in her leg. It wasn't the sight, though, that had Jinx on edge as the darkness crept back into her mind. The tone of Vi's voice - accusatory, confused, sad - was what did it.
"They were all trying to stop me from finding you, Vi," she explained in a rush, desperate to wipe the judgmental expression from Vi's face. "For years I thought you were dead. Been told you were dead. I had to save you."
"I get that, Powder. But killing innocent people?"
Little by little, the hopeful and happy emotions that Jinx had been feeling from knowing Vi was alive and saving her started to morph into something else. Years had passed between the two. Vi had been locked away, retaining her strong morals and mightier-then-thou attitude. She hadn't been exposed to the person her sister had become, hadn't had to bear witness to the things she's done to survive.
"None of them were innocent," she spat out.
Vi released her hand abruptly, spinning to face her sister head on. "What's happened to you?"
"You don't get to ask that question."
"What do you mea -."
"You left me! You can't judge me for who I've become when all I've done since you left is survive." Jinx shook her head violently against the onslaught of noise her thoughts brought. She needed to calm down, but it was too late for that. "If Silco hadn't taken care of me, then I'd probably be dead in a ditch by now."
There it was, the one sentence that drew a line between them both. The change in Vi's expression from astonishment to pure hatred was visible, and the dangerous glint in her sister's eyes made Jinx backpedal a little. She hadn't wanted to share that information with Vi - not yet. For all her anger at the world, at everyone who'd betrayed her, there was a large part of her that didn't want Silco to get hurt. He wasn't a good person, but he had been loyal to her this whole time. Jinx could rely on him when so many others had failed her.
"You've been with Silco this whole time?" Vi balled her hands into fists as she glared at her sister.
"He saved me the night you left. I… I had nowhere else to go," defended Jinx.
"Can we not do this right now?" Ekko interjected but was smart enough to not move closer to either of them.
Vi ignored him, instead inching closer to Jinx and pitching her voice dangerously low as she spat out, "He killed Vander."
"No. I killed Vander." Embracing the darkness in her mind, Jinx closed the gap between them until she stood only a few inches from Vi. She stared unflinchingly into her sister's eyes. "Because I'm a Jinx, remember?"
"Whatever he's said to brainwash you over the years is just that! This isn't you."
Vi just proved that she could never accept Jinx for the person she was now. It was the one thing she'd been dreading. She'd thought that Vi would love her enough to look past all of that, or at least understand what she'd had to do to reach this point.
Losing all of her fight, Jinx's shoulders lost their tension, and she turned away from her sister, saying, "I'm glad you're alive, sis."
"Powder, wait!"
Vi made a grab for her shoulder, but Jinx ducked out of the way, spun back around, and landed a small hit to her abdomen. She quickly skipped out of Vi's reach as she doubled over, clutching her stomach. When Vi glanced up, her silver eyes were filled with betrayal, an emotion Jinx was all too familiar with.
"That's not my name anymore," she told her softy, trying to stop the tears from exposing how much pain her sister had caused.
Neither of them stopped her as she fled the docks, something she was thankful for. Her emotions were spiraling, tangling together as she fought for control of her mind over the endless abyss that threatened to swallow her whole. Jinx didn't want to hurt either of them, but she knew she would if they forced her hand.
It was early morning when Jinx made it back to The Last Drop and used an unlocked window to slip inside the empty tavern. No-one would arrive until midday, but there was someone she knew would be here this early. As quietly as a mouse, avoiding stairs she knew squeaked, she crept up to Silco's office on the top floor.
The door was half open already, a soft stream of gaslight illuminating the small landing. Jinx stood there for a few extra heartbeats, watching Silco as he scrutinised the paperwork in front of him. There was a tiredness and stiffness to his posture, indicating he'd had a sleepless night.
"Stop hovering, Jinx," he spoke out loud, raising his eyes to smirk at her through the open door.
She strolled into the room and made a beeline for his desk, not waiting for him to move the paperwork out of the way before she sat atop it. "You look tired."
He ignored her statement, instead asking, "How did it go yesterday? I sent Sevika out when you didn't return."
Oh, right. The task Jinx was sent out to handle yesterday seemed like a distant memory. It ended up being a larger mass of rebels than they'd originally thought, and not something she had been equipped to handle on her own. She'd barely made it out when Ekko discovered her in that alleyway and her entire world went belly up.
"I'm fine."
"What happened?"
"You're a liar," she blurted out.
That made Silco sit up a little straighter as he regarded her. "Excuse me?"
She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, making herself as small as possible. "You told me my sister was dead."
An array of emotions flooded his eyes until they eventually landed on confusion and mild shock. Her eyes searched his, trying to find any hint that he knew about Vi being alive all along.
"Because that's what I was told. It's been years since that fateful night that led me to you," he said softly. It was a tone of voice he only ever used for her. It made her feel special. "Where did you find her?"
"Stillwater prison." When Silco continued to stare at her, she knew he was waiting for her to give more information. Jinx unfolded herself so she could slide closer to the edge and place her legs on either side of his chair. "Yesterday didn't go so well. An old… friend found me. He told me about Vi and we broke her out of prison."
He tentatively reached a hand up to caress her cheek, and she leaned into the touch. "You could've been hurt."
"I had to know if it was true."
"Where is she now?"
"I don't know. We had a stupid argument. You'd think after risking my neck to get her out of that hole in the ground she'd be a little more grateful, but no! All she did was judge me the moment she found out that I'm different. That I'm not that little girl who she left behind."
Silco listened to her rant with a soft expression. When she was done, he pulled her off of the table and onto his lap, letting her curl up against him. Jinx had often spent her younger years in a similar position. Whenever she was upset, hurt, or angry with the world, he was a calming presence for her. There was never any judgement, only acceptance.
"You are different, Jinx," he whispered against the top of her head. She pulled back slightly to look up at him. "You're stronger than anyone else I know. She's a fool not to see that. They all are."
Guilt rippled through her heart at the realisation that she'd almost jeopardized this for the person who'd abandoned her years ago. All this time she thought that everything would be different - would be better - if she had Vi. Then her world could return to what it once was. Only now, in this moment, did she understand that there was nothing good to go back to.
No-one trusted her back then. She was too little, too slow, too much of a jinx in their eyes. She had just been a stupid kid blindly trailing along behind her big sister. It was Silco who had lifted her higher, allowing her to embrace the world for what it was. He'd seen the truth inside of her and encouraged her to grow into a stronger person than she ever thought capable of.
"I'm sorry," she said to him as she snuggled back against his chest.
Silco curled one of her braids around his wrist, tickling her nose with the end of it. A gesture that had never failed to make her smile from a young age. Jinx chuckled and batted his hand away, but he never let go of her braid.