Chapter Text
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A few years ago, after the explosion in the county and a war between the cities that remains to this day, Jinx joined the fire-lights gang after she began a relationship with Ekko, again. It wasn't an easy thing, she was still frowned upon among them but she found a place for herself, between her mental problems and crises and personal matters.
She didn't really follow anyone, did what wanted, but there remained her new home and new friends. She fixed things for them to distract themselves and sometimes went on missions and rounds. Her dating was made official with Ekko a year later. It looked like a bed of roses but these flowers had sharp thorns and everyone was about to get to know them better.
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Chapter 1
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In one full afternoon, everyone was getting ready to rest, it had been a difficult day for Zaun, as if it hadn't been before. You could already see glowing insects around the tree, with the sun fading somewhere in the sky. Jinx was at the door of what they considered an infirmary or something looking static Ekko was talking to someone, in the room there were some youngsters wounded, they had suffered a heavy attack while prowling the city looking for resources. I thought it was her fault, even dressed it was easy to recognize her long braids.
"-I'm sorry, I should have stayed..." The girl muttered looking a little to the side, remorse rising in her throat.
"-It's not your fault, if you weren't there maybe not everyone would come home..." Ekko answered her as he approached her, looking worried at her.
“-Stop consoling me. I know the truth.”
“-You believe this false truth, Jinx, you saved their lives. Don't try to contradict what's in front of your eyes."
The boy caressed her face with a band-aid on her cheek, she had been hurt too but nothing serious, giving her a slight smile that made her smile too, but very shallow as a lake. Jinx watched him leave the room shortly after that and with a sigh, looked to the youngsters in the beds again before walking out right behind him in complete silence. She'd been feeling kind of bad the last few days but had completely ignored anything she could think about. Tired, climbed up to the house she shared with Ekko in the tree lying on the couch watching the time go by, long conversations running through her head like reading a book, one in particular, her wanting to have a child so badly, maybe it had just been a thing of the past. their intimate moment, because now thinking about it, it was scary. She barely took care of herself, why a child? But, she was good with the same at least the youth at the base, no, it was different.
A meow took her out of her thoughts, looking towards the direction of the noise she saw the cat that had called Daisy with a simple smile, she struggled to catch the animal putting it on her lap.
“-Yes Daisy I know. Sometimes I get lost wondering, what am I doing here?” SHe-cat purr made her laugh a little. "-It is not funny! Look at me, I'm thinking about things I'm not capable of. Why is he still with me? He could be with anyone, haha, for example-”
Jinx was cut off by Ekko's voice and the door opening with a tray and a plate of cake, but a well done one and she wondered, why? Although she hadn't wanted to eat properly a few days ago, maybe it made sense now but not the cake.
“-Love, hey! "
“-What is this all about?”
"-Cake"
"-Because? What hollow-”
"-It is needed? You're not eating right again, did you think I'd let you? Also, I wanted to celebrate for being with you, for having you with me, almost a happy birthday!?" The girl was silent looking at him sitting next to him, that took her by surprise, she didn't even imagine him or someone doing this for her. Who celebrates having her by her side? Apart from her father… just him. She started to feel some tears on her face but holding on tightly to not let them go.
“-Hey, Jinx? How is everything? I said something wrong-”
"-No! no, it's nothing, I'm…happy” She hugged him as he set things down on the table in front of them. Squeezing hard and caressing her back was enough to tear her apart. “-Why?… no one… you… all this”
Ekko laughed and kissed her head, welcoming her more tightly into their embrace. His heart tightened just like hers, he would do every day if possible. Love was a strange thing, but the truth is that no matter how much he lied to himself he loved her deeply and it was visible that, deep in his chest too .
"-Let's eat, no regrets, it's a happy moment, my love"
“-Yeah… that, thank you”
"-No need to thank, you're kind sick, I want to see your smile and not your tired face" He unglued her and wiped tears, turned around and cut a piece of cake to give her. Before letting her eat, he kissed her on the lips sweetly.
They both enjoyed that moment together in perfect laughter and a great doing nothing but a doing nothing is doing something, loving each other, something impossible to imagine however at that point after a few years working together to get around some things rested like a prize placed at the table. About resting, Jinx was the first to fall asleep and be placed in bed, warm and tidy by the couple. Ekko stayed awake, he tidied up everything they messed up, calmly lost in his sweet memories with her before going to bed with her and resting too.
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In the morning that followed, it looked like everything was going to be all right and the sun would shine for them again. Ekko was the last to sleep, but the first to wake up in his house, getting out of bed with determination to do his job. Looking for a minute at his sleeping girlfriend still peacefully, she was still going to be his fiancee and wife, but the timing was right, it had to be perfect.
With a slight smile at the thought of it he just leaned over and kissed her forehead causing her to grunt and turn to the other side startling Daisy who was behind her. Ekko chuckled at this softly so as not to wake her up and went to make breakfast. As soon as it was over, the boy leaned on the balcony railing looking down seeing how big a family that the gang was, slowly getting more agitated for their daily life. Finishing eating a little later he washed the bowl and then changed himself to go out and enjoy the peaceful morning, but things don't work that way, only dreamers blindly believe it. Scar approached him more uncomfortable than usual.
“-Scar? Did something happen? I know your face and nervousness, you don't come to me that fast in the morning..." The same said changing his mood to a concern
"-Yes, the dawn patrol hasn't returned yet..."
“-Not a message from them?”
“-Nothing, we searched but without any sign. I fear they caught the same”
“-The enforcers?”
“-I don't know, it could have been worse, a chembaron. They are just young teenagers but this makes them easy even if an adult is with them"
"-We can't lose any more, we already have a team hospitalised, and I don't want to bury bodies..." Both men stared at each other in complete silence, perhaps thinking the same thing when they came back to reality.
"-I'm going after them!"
"-Ekko, it's dangerous, don't always play the hero, you'll kill yourself!!!"
“-I'll take some with me, I'll be fine. I won't lose them like that!"
"-You know it's a trap" The bat entered in front of him with an angry face, like a father who knew his son could get seriously hurt
"-Why don't you listen to me?"
“-Because you know I'm stubborn and I'm not just going to stare! Excuse-me"
The boy spoke before pushing him a little to the side and calling some to go with him, maybe if he'd known he wasn't coming back that day he wouldn't have walked out that entrance. Scar just sighed looking back at Jinx walking out the door looking for her boyfriend.
"-He left"
"-Where? So early…"
"-They kidnapped a group of our young people... it wasn't the enforcers you faced yesterday, it's something worse than just Piltover's shit cop"
"-Alone?"
"-No… "
She didn't respond anymore after that just went inside again, she seemed to feel something coming, she wasn't completely wrong. Hours passed and no one heard from Ekko and the group. Jinx was nervous wanting to leave but no one was letting her, Fremmy one of her friends in that place tried to calm her down, it worked but not for long.
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"-Help please!"
A scream sounded outside, Jinx ran to see, was it Ekko? Was he okay? But no, he was just one of the kids in the group that fell to the grass wet with blood now. She already knew the worst when she saw it. Ekko and no one else came back, her head raced miles an hour, did she lose a loved one again? Why with her? No…no Jinx he's still alive, just think-
“-Take him to the infirmary urgently!” She yelled from upstairs watching as they carried the boy away quickly. She descends and stands next to Fremmy, Scar and Shaggy in front of her.
"-What do we do now?" the smaller blonde girl asked, looking at them too worried to hold on without shaking.
"-I don't know, it's not safe to lose more of us, we have to know the situation first before acting." Scar responded by being more logical.
“-But what if he dies!? I can't lose him, Scar, not again!" Jinx spoke loud and clear to the bat, her anguish and anxiety, fear consuming her.
"-Let's not go Jinx, and Ekko, he'll be fine until we find him..."
"-COWARD! He's going to die and it's your fault! And I will do-”
“-Jinx! Stop, look, let's rest, everything will be fine. Breathe, remember?” Fremmy spoke, touching her carefully and pulling her away. “-Scar is right, we have to see first then act, or it could all go wrong”
“-I'm done… I'll go…” She closed her eyes and counted slowly taking a deep breath to try not to freak out.
"-That's it, you're not alone and Ekko will come back." She cringed and walked to her friend's house to try to be at least more controlled of her thoughts, voices, and paranoia. She accepted her tea as soon as she sat down on the couch.
"-Here, I know it's going to be a difficult week, but you have to be strong, you said you could do it."
“-I said, but I doubt myself now… just, I, I don't want to lose anyone else. I don’t want to be alone."
"-And you won't, look why don't we talk about food?"
"-Sounds good to me"
"-Great"
She just gave a slight smile but even with her demons grabbing her from behind, she would have nightmares, where was Ekko? Who took it that easy? Questions ran through her mind as she sipped the tea and chatted with Fremmy in order to distract herself, but one in particular never left her mind. Go after him.
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A cough echoed through the place, the smell of blood entering the nostrils along with the mould and dust. Ekko looked around a bit stunned, it was dark, the blow to the head was hurting like a shit. The boy shifted and felt trapped in a pipe, shit, it was chains, with no option to cut or get rid of easily. "-Aly-" He muttered going to call his friend but seeing him dead on the floor something went down in his stomach. He was just a teenager and they had completely destroyed him. Zaun was a horrible place when you lived close to whoever ruled, they had no morals sometimes, no one had mercy. Even knowing this and living almost always with losses, it was still difficult to swallow many.
“-Shit, where are the others? Impossible to get out of here now. Okay keep calm, you're bruised and you've got the body of a younger god… that's fucking hard" He swore at himself moving at least to try to rest from the pose he was in, his ribs felt like they'd been put through a meat grinder .
"Better than nothing, I need to think of something" He thought to himself, eventually someone would come after them, at least hoped, but a plan wouldn't hurt anyone, it didn't seem like there was anything in that room to help him. He should wait, regain strength.
A cough distracted him from his objective, he quickly tried to locate where it was coming from, he hoped it was someone on his team, it was much better than maybe whoever had caught them from behind. Lucky for him, or unlucky, it was. A firelight girl just crawled on the ground but something was wrong with it, he felt it.
"-E-ekko" She moaned in pain but he didn't respond, something in her instinct told him to be quiet and pretend not to be awake, a shiver ran down her spine when a faint laugh could be heard. But he didn't see anything, who it was, the last thing before he passed out from exhaustion again was watching his friend die with something in her mouth, a strange liquid and plants coldly crushing her.
His question was, would he make it out of there alive? Would the rest of his family be okay? Would Jinx be okay? It was like feeling the world collapsing at his feet and everything going dark.