Chapter Text
The tavern’s dark, full of people watching the poker game, trying to hide their grins as Fate’s kid plays them. They’re cutthroat and each person who plays them leaves with empty pockets and a bone to pick. But everyone knows that you don’t play in Bilgewater unless you’re looking to get robbed. Besides the kid’s notorious and it’s hard to miss her considering how long and bright that hair of hers is. People are cheering as another game wraps up and a cloaked figure walks into the bar, drawing everyone’s attention.
They walk over to Jay and take the chair in front of it, tossing a small pouch across the table, showing off her bright red nails. Cautiously she opens it to see over two dozen Silver Serpents, all nicked to show that they’re good. “I have an offer for you. I’ve heard that you’re a good shot and I need someone dead,” she says. Jay nods and leans back in their chair, wondering what the point of all of this is. “Silco.”
Everyone there’s heard of him, a Zaunite chembaron who’s done dealings with plenty of Bilgerats. He’s a bastard but that doesn’t matter, you do what needs to be done to survive, to get ahead. It’d be a mistake to kill him but Jay grins and takes the bag, tucking it into their belt. “I’ll have it done by the month's end,” it promises, they’re a daredevil, always have been and this is the biggest challenge of them all. It might not be hard to get the job done but they won’t have long to spend their winnings.
Jay used to have a bedroom, a kitchen and even a place to hang out in while the world went on outside. Now all she has is a suitcase, a backpack and a room that shared with a stranger, on a ship headed for what once was. Once Jay was a different person, a different girl with a different name but that was a long time ago. The memories are stuffed deep down, untouched for nearly a decade and replaced with something new.
Nobody knows that Jay isn’t from Bilgewater, in their opinion Jay is from nowhere. But in reality it was born in a little shed in Zaun, when revolution was just a distant dream. So for the first time it digs through the backpack that they’ve kept all these years and finds them. A little toy bunny, hairclips and a two use flare, nothing else mattered enough to take back then. The rest was probably destroyed at some point when he took over what used to be home.
“Maybe I will find you this time,” they say as it stares, tears welling in her eyes. Silently it curls up, pulling her arms close to her chest and trying not to break once again. But Jay can’t help it, when they were someone else she could handle her emotions but that’s just another thing that changed. All it can manage to do is bite down the howling sobs that want to come out so no one notices.
The masked figure, one of the Firelights apparently, walks alongside Jay, their feet echoing against the stone walls. “So what’s going on with all of this?” they ask, keeping its tone chipper as they pray the accent works. Her voice has changed over the years but she’s trying to sound like a Bilgerat. There has to be at least one person here who’ll recognize them, she stayed in the shadows but people still noticed them sometimes.
“A few years ago Silco took over the city and someone murdered him,” he says, voice gruff as Jay sighs. She gestures for more and the man looks at her, his hyena mask almost making him look threatening. Nothing scares her anymore though except for the nightmares that haunt her almost every day.
After a minute he gives her the minute he gives them more details, filling in the gaps in the story. She mentally takes some notes before noticing the sunlight ahead, they’re almost to the Sanctuary. Jay guesses it’ll do until it finds their sister, learns whether she did die and somehow fixes things. Soon enough everyone will know what Jay did and everyone will be hunting her. The bounties will be high enough that even TF and Graves might go after it if they were in town, she realizes.
They almost shudder at the thought, they would never do that to it, or at least Jay thinks so. It’s been years since they met and they wouldn’t just sell her out when they’re family. Biting her cheek Jay walks forward, staring forward as they just look around the place. It can see the ground, a bright sun clouded by the biggest tree she’s ever seen and people, all of them smiling. Slowly Jay goes over the things that are in its backpack, it doesn’t work all that well but it gets them out of her head at least.
Her sister is dead, she has to be and Ekko, he’s here and they could just reach out and tell him everything. But it can’t, he thinks that she died too and… Jay rocks back and forth as they feel the guilt crawl down their throat. If Jay was stronger than she wouldn’t feel like this, there would be nothing to be guilty over in the first place but they’ve always been weak.
Suddenly she’s a kid again, staring at the body of her father as something comes flying towards her. A hand meets her cheek and she comes crashing to the ground, tears welling up in her cheeks as she screams. “Why did you leave me?” she asks, they’re the only words that her lips can form.
“Because you’re a jinx!” Her voice is nothing like she’s ever heard before and it makes her sick, everything about it makes her sick. This is all her fault, her sister walks away and she’s left with guilt about what she did. This is all her fault and now everything is different but she still begs for her to come back, hoping that maybe things can change. But Jay knows how this story ends, a girl stows away with what she has on her back and prays for anything better.