Prologue
Powder sat on a rough chair as she stared up at the mural of Vi not-Ekko had painted. She didn't know how many times she had come back to the paintings. Everything seemed so real, everything seemed too real. That Ekko she had seen in the ball of energy had only left behind more questions than answers and Powder didn't know how to make sense of any of it at all.
Vi— or at least the paintings of Vi— looked down at her. There was defiance in her eyes. Strength. Anger. Confidence. There were so many emotions that seemed too lifelike for her to understand.
Nothing Powder had seen should have been possible but she knew what she saw. She knew she hadn't been dreaming it. The contraption left behind was proof of that. The oddities and the subtle differences had all been there and she had just thought them Ekko's nerves due to the competition.
At least until she had seen two Ekkos before her.
But Powder kept replaying something not-Ekko had said and the harder she thought about, the more she tried to make sense of it, the more it made her want to pull her hair out in frustration.
The dream Ekko described to her had been too real, too specific for Powder to shake. What he said about her had felt more like a memory and a lived experience than any kind of dream.
Powder sighed then. Her mind had tried making sense of everything and she was tired. Perhaps she'd revisit this dilemma in a day or two once she had rested. She just wished she had someone there to talk to, someone who could help her bounce ideas off. She couldn't talk to Ekko— or at least her Ekko. It wasn't that he wouldn't understand. But Powder thought she needed to come to terms with whatever had happened on her own before bringing him into this mess. It was only fair.
Powder took in a steadying breath as she looked up at Vi's face once more and she smiled. She could almost picture Vi smiling back at her, she could almost hear her voice in her mind and she wished beyond wish that she could ask her for help.
Vi would have helped. Always.
And so Powder turned back from the mural as she began to head back home, her hands stuffed in her pockets and her fingers playing with the blue crystals she had long since put aside.
Until now.