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‘’You’re making a mess.’’ Silco looked at Sevika from the pocket-mirror. He was grim-faced, almost always these days thanks to the absolute chaos happening around him. Stagnation had taken a hold of him. He found himself further and further away from waging war on Piltover. How could he, really, if he had to still clean up house down in the Undercity?
‘’The sister.’’ Sevika said. ‘’She’s back.’’
His whole world turned upside down, just with those four words. Silco snapped the pocket-mirror shut, whirled on his chair, and hissed out: ‘’From the dead?’’
‘’Apparently.’’ Sevika sat on a chair across from the desk. She was bleeding profusely, red and shimmer-purple mixing indefinitely. Her head was whirling with pain, but, also, a smug sort of self-satisfaction that there were going to be problems with the inside. ‘’Get rid of the girl. She’s nothing but trouble.’’
Silco sneered, standing up from his chair with tight fists by his side. ‘’You have some nerve, Sevika.’’
‘’She’s already a ticking bomb. It’s only a matter of time when she blows up right in your face. Especially when she finds out about her sister being back.’’
‘’I’ll deal with it.’’ Silco said. He would deal with it how he should have dealt with it from the start.
Silco didn’t go straight after Marcus and his traitorous arse. He’d use that Chief’s pin to poke his eyes out, if anything else. That would get this rolling anxiousness and anger off of his shoulders quicker.
But no, he couldn’t do that yet. He had to be patient. The door in front of him was splattered with paint. Silco grabbed the door handle, opened it, and went inside.
Inside he saw a room that was odd in its rightful way. Jinx was odd in her rightful way, so it stood as normal, then, didn’t it?
‘’We need to talk.’’ Silco said, before Jinx could get a single word in. She was smiling, a lopsided sort of smile that tried and failed at nonchalance. But she knew his voice, expressive as it was since his face wasn’t allowed to be. She knew that something had happened. Silco approached her worktable, where she was sitting, pooling over her trinkets. ‘’It’s important.’’
‘’Is it about the enforcers again?’’ Jinx could tell that something was up. She wasn’t shouting, she wasn’t twirling her hair or whirling on her chair like before.
‘’No, well .’’ Silco pulled up a nearby chair and sat next to her, so they were eye to eye. He pressed his hands to his lips and stared at Jinx, trying to formulate how to come about this. First, there was the betrayal from Marcus that he’d suffered. Vi dying was a done deal. Vander’s prodigy was no more. ‘’I have been lied to for years by someone I trusted.’’
‘’Is this a Vander story again?’’ Jinx grimaced. She didn’t even hide the fact that she would be bored by the prospect. ‘’Because I get it, you know.’’
Silco took a hold of Jinx’s hand. Hers was shaking already, trying to pull away and wave about her hands from anxiousness. He didn’t allow her, he didn’t move until she calmed down. Until his presence calmed her down. Only when the neurotic spark in her eyes calmed did he continue his speech: ‘’Marcus lied to me, Jinx. He told me that your sister was dead.’’
‘’My sister is dead.’’ Jinx narrowed her eyes and pulled the muscles in her face taut with anger. She finally pulled away her hand, anger colouring her blue from head to toe. ‘’If she wasn’t dead she’d have shown up in the Undercity. I’d have heard about her being back.’’ Her shoulders were tightly wound and her eyes moved from Silco to her hands to the inventions scattered all over her worktable, and then they latched onto the dummies she’d made. Silco was beginning to consider he should have had her remove them, once they’d returned from the river.
‘’She isn’t.’’ Silco explained everything. He did not see a point in hiding information from her. She came first and foremost to him. And he would honour this trust by coming first and foremost to her, too. ‘’Your sister is alive and I just found out about it. The first thing I did was come to you to let you know. I don’t know what you want to do, but she has been seen with an enforcer.’’
‘’My sister is dead!’’ Jinx cried, betrayed once more. How Silco was all those years ago with Vander refusing to align with him. Watching Vander fall and become an enforcer’s lapdog mirrored Vi’s betrayal of Jinx perfectly. He closed his eye and could only hug Jinx when she lunged for him again, crying - crying like that little girl all over again. The scars ran deeper than the river ever could.
‘’You are stronger than her, Jinx.’’ Silco pressed a hand to the back of her head and whispered. ‘’She has chosen her side. If I knew, believe me, I would spare you all of this hardship much sooner. Marcus lied to me. He kept her topside from all of us in Zaun. She has been aligned with enforcers.’’
Jinx was shaking, no doubt remembering her parents - dead by an enforcer’s hand. She was struggling to breathe through the tears and her mental breakage. Her hands were shaking as they gripped Silco’s jacket.
He tried to soothe her, but it wasn’t working. ‘’I am so sorry, Jinx. I know it hurts, but you don’t need her. Not when you’ve got everything I supplied you with. She saw only faults in you, didn’t she?’’
Jinx’s eyes were burning. He could feel her nodding against his neck. ‘’She chose them over me, Silco.’’
‘’I know, child.’’ Silco didn't even need to hide the hurt in his voice. How anyone could choose anything other than Jinx didn't make a lick of sense to him. Yet the relief was also noticeable in his voice. Relief that he wouldn't need to fight Vi for her sister's attention and love.
‘’But you chose me .’’
‘’I would do it again. Without a moment’s hesitation. You are more than I ever imagined.’’ And he didn’t even need to lie when he said this: ‘’You’re perfect.’’