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“Anima Squad! To me!”
Commander Fortune landed on the building rooftop, strawberry blonde hair trailing behind her like a lion’s mane. Which was ironic, Lux supposed, considering she was supposed to be a rabbit… well, if her personality was anything to go by, then she was certainly more assertive than your average bunny.
Soon, the whole squad was there, packed on top of the roof of a skyscraper, faces illuminated by the soft light of the rising sun. Sylas was panting hard, sweat dripping down his face, and Lux wondered why—they hadn’t even done anything yet. Vayne was fiddling with her crossbow and pretending not to respect her commander.
But the presence bigger than both of them, despite being substantially smaller than the two, was Jinx, heavy rocket launcher and mini gun hanging off the same shoulder strap. Her eyes were bright and alive, sparkling with the promise of mischief, fingers already drumming impatiently against her pistol. Fishbones’ sneering cat face stared into Lux’s eyes. Sometimes she swore she could see it blink.
“We’re dealing with a different kind of those bastards today,” the Commander said, the fierceness clear in her voice. She pointed to the other side of the city, where the Primordians moved forward slowly but steadily, razing buildings to the ground in mere lashes of their tentacles and fins. “They’re powered by Shimmer. Makes them a lot more aggressive and a lot more crazy.”
“The drug?” Vayne asked, voice silky smooth and calm as it always was.
“Yes.”
Lux couldn’t help but notice the faraway look that appeared in Jinx’s eyes, far different from the bloodthirsty eagerness from before. She tilted her head at Commander Fortune then glanced at the Primordians, looking distant like her head was somewhere up in the clouds. This wasn’t a common expression on Jinx, but it wasn’t a new one, either, for how long Lux had known her.
She was staring at Jinx so intently Lux had almost forgotten they had something important to do. The sound of Sylas’ voice pulled her back to the rest of them, and Lux reluctantly shifted her gaze away. “If it’s a human drug, how is it affecting the behaviour of a pile of junk?”
The Primordians were far from piles of junk ; they were the fanciest technology Lux had ever seen in her life, metal but sentient, robotic but volatile and powerful. But sometimes Sylas’ way of talking was less about the literal meaning and more about the sentiment.
“Hell if I know. Hopefully if we take one down safely, our local experts—” the Commander jerked her thumb toward Vayne and Jinx, “—can figure it out. For now, we fight. But be careful. Those things are—well, they’re…”
Her eyes flickered to Jinx, nervous and unsure. A concerning look, coming from Commander Fortune. “They’re extremely flammable and explosive. So take care when fighting them, or else.”
Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, Jinx did not listen to the latter half of the sentence, brain coming back online at the words ‘flammable’ and ‘explosive’, which Lux suspected might be two of her favourite words. Along with ‘chaos’ and ‘guns’, of course.
“Hell yeah!” That familiar spark was back in her eyes, and Lux couldn’t help but feel light with relief even as she knew complete mayhem was about to ensue. “Come on, Commander, let’s get going!”
She did not wait for an order. Despite the Commander’s desperate attempts to get Jinx to back off, she didn’t waste time jumping off the roof and parkouring her way across the towering buildings, sprinting fast across the city toward the looming aliens. Before Lux knew it, she was hopping straight off the roof as well, running after her teammate with her staff in hand and a swaying tail.
Behind her Lux could hear Commander Fortune groan and then yell, “alright, Anima Squad, I guess we’re rolling out!”. But Lux could only focus on Jinx, heading straight toward the carnage at the other end of the city, where she was going to take on an entire cluster of monsters with nothing but herself and her two best friends (her guns). She was strong, but she wasn’t that strong.
Trying to catch up to her was no use, though. Jinx was fast, even if she was the less muscular of the two, and she seemed to have a lot of training jumping across buildings. All Lux could do was try her best to keep up, and just hope Jinx could hold her own long enough for Lux to get there. Or else… or else…
Despite the burning in her legs, Lux started running even faster.
This wasn’t a rare situation, really, though that didn’t make her any less desperate. Chasing danger and explosions relentlessly was just who Jinx was, and it was something about her that Lux knew she had been signing up for when she joined the Anima Squad. She had been recruited for her power, but sometimes it felt like she did more shielding and protecting than actual fighting.
Just let her do whatever she wants, Vayne had said when Lux mentioned this to her once, she doesn’t listen to anything anyone says. If she gets herself killed, it’s not my problem or yours. Don’t waste time trying to babysit her.
Still, Lux couldn’t help but care. They were a team, weren’t they? It was their responsibility to take care of each other, even if their squad was a rather dysfunctional one. Beneath Commander Fortune’s tough behaviour was a deep love for all her members; beneath Sylas’ hate for authority was a genuine respect for said Commander. And Lux would never stop believing that Vayne really did care, no matter how far-fetched that sounded.
As for Jinx… well, there was something more to her than just the maniacal laughter and obsession with guns. That distant look she got in her eyes ever so often, the occasional soft smile, her surprisingly intelligent insight into strategies and tactics when she wasn’t going crazy over the Primordians. Not to mention how good she was with technology for someone who, verbatim from the Battle Cat herself, “lived a boooring life before all this!”
That was why, no matter how small or inconsequential it may have seemed to someone like Vayne, Lux would never stop trying. To understand her. To reach her.
…To keep her from dying.
With a breath of relief Lux jumped across two buildings, just in time to reach her staff hand out and wrap Jinx in a protective barrier of light. A tentacle came crashing down upon Jinx, but its force was absorbed by the shield, light burning out as the metal of the Primordian’s appendage sizzled. Jinx turned back and winked, and despite Lux’s exasperation, it made her heart flutter a little.
“Thanks for the save, sunshine!” she yelled, loud enough to be heard even under the crashing sounds of the city being destroyed. Before Lux could say anything in return, Jinx was jumping up onto her rocket launcher like a pogo stick, and propelled herself into the air.
“Jinx!” Lux shouted, but it was no use—even if Jinx heard Lux doubted she would care. She was already flying through the air, keeping herself afloat through the force of her missiles. Some of them exploded against the aliens, shattering metal and glass, but some caused a much stronger reaction.
When a stray rocket hit one of the purple jellyfish aliens, a series of explosions rocked down the side of it, a line of fire and debris erupting everywhere. This seemed to cause a domino effect with the other Primordians filled with Shimmer, the blast running across at least half a dozen of the metal creatures. Smoke permeated the air, thick and foggy, and Lux bent light around herself as she ran to avoid breathing it in.
She wasn’t very good at this, but it was her only hope of reaching Jinx while she was up in the air like this. Taking a deep breath and hoping she wouldn’t fall to her death, Lux threw her glowing staff off the edge of the skyscraper—and hopped right on it.
It buckled under her weight, but stayed in the air, the sparking light at the end pitching her forward into the bedlam of junk and fire. Her shield of light flickered a little but held as she raced through the thick fumes, trying to catch a glimpse of platinum blonde hair or neon green cat ears.
In the end, it was a laser zipping through the air that tipped Lux off, because of course it was. She tucked her legs in and told herself not to look down before pushing a blast of light from her free hand, picking up speed toward the source of the shock blast.
Emerging from the smoke to face the sight of a clear, slowly brightening sky was like a breath of fresh air, both metaphorically and literally. “Jinx!” She called, wrapping another barrier of light around Jinx just as a Primordian critter slammed into her, throwing her off Fishbones into the air. Lux cursed and swooped down, catching her by her collar and heaving her onto the remaining space on her staff with one hand and grabbing the rocket launcher with the other.
“Man, you’ve got some muscle in there, huh!” Jinx seemed more concerned with the show of strength by Lux rather than the fact that she had nearly just fallen to her death, reaching forward to squeeze Lux’s bicep. “How much do you work out, doggy?”
To anyone else the nickname might’ve seemed condescending, but Lux’s own heart skipped a beat at the undertone of affection, not unlike one would talk to an overenthusiastic dog. Which Lux supposed was fitting. “Every day,” she grumbled, before switching to the more pressing matter at hand. “Be more careful, please! Or at least wait for me so I can protect you!”
“Sorry, didn’t know you wanted to join in on the fun.” Jinx grinned. She reached forward to pluck Fishbones from Lux’s arms, hefting it onto her shoulder once more.
“It’s better than letting you get hurt on your own,” Lux relented, dodging and weaving through the assault of appendages. Stretching her fingers out, she shot beams of light toward one of the bigger whales, enfolding it in a cage of rainbow and keeping it in place even as it thrashed and pulled at its restraints. Jinx hopped to her feet, balancing precariously on the staff, and sent a well-aimed cat-faced rocket at its head.
The ensuing explosion sent bits of flesh and glass into the air and painted the sky a strange shade of purple. It looked almost ethereal, like she was looking into the galaxy beyond, and for a moment Lux understood why exactly Jinx loved the sight so much. Purple liquid and smoke glinted off of Lux’s staff and sparking hands, casting a purple glow over both of them.
“Don’t you want to wait for our dear Commander’s orders?” Jinx’s smile was wolfish, expressing clearly how she felt about doing that.
“Too late for that now, I think,” Lux said, as if it were a shame. She didn’t want to admit that touching down now and searching for the rest of the squad would really kill the mood, that she found the sound of her heart beating in her ears and the adrenaline rushing through her veins much too exciting. She didn’t have to, considering Jinx grin grew even wider, as if she knew.
Lux’s fingers tingled with power, rearing to go. More aliens rooted, more purple explosions and flames, licking high at the air. She looked back at Jinx, and the way she looked nearly took Lux’s breath away. The violet light shone over her face, making the manic glint in her green eyes all the more noticeable. Though her face was cut up by debris and fire rippled all around her, Jinx didn’t seem anything but ecstatic, laughing like she was having the time of her life.
So beautiful, Lux thought before she could stop herself.
Luckily, she shook herself out of her reverie in time to dodge a falling concrete boulder. Ignoring the intense heat in her cheeks, Lux leaned forward, gaining speed as Jinx hooted in excitement. She had switched to her minigun now, though that did nothing to tame the detonations. While some bullets bounced off the aliens harmlessly, some struck vulnerable parts and created much the same reaction as the rockets had.
When Jinx cackled, Lux couldn’t help but laugh too, firing off beams and anomalies of light from her fingers. Light burned under her skin, no doubt making her look like a living flashlight; it was always more difficult to control her power without her staff, but sometimes it really did feel more like a hindrance than anything.
Maybe Jinx was onto something after all. It felt good to let loose like this.
“Get closer!” Jinx crowed, shooting a blast from her shock pistol, slowing down a humanoid Primordian running across another one of its brethren straight toward them, before shooting it straight off with a well-aimed round from Pow-Pow. “Ha! Bye-bye!”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Lux yelled as she swerved away from a stray tentacle. The monsters really did seem more aggressive than usual, moving quicker and quicker until she was struggling to weave through all of them. Jinx didn’t seem bothered, shooting and shooting without a care in the world. It made Lux stop worrying, too.
The next blast from her palm disintegrated an entire swarm of jellyfish. She didn’t notice they were right near the head of a giant whale Primordian until an angry, glowing eye was blinking at them, so close Lux could see the wires and Shimmer flowing beneath the glass.
Commander Fortune’s voice echoed in her head. Don’t get too near to the big ones. Just one hit from one of those bastards can send you flying.
But it was too late. Lux tried to swerve out of the way just as Jinx sent a missile straight toward its eye, and at such a short distance it was right on target.
Everything erupted into a haze of purple. The drug that flowed over Lux’s skin burned like acid, and the sweet sound of Jinx’s laugh had been replaced by something distant and sluggish, like she was underwater. One of her hand found the staff she was sitting on while the other rose desperately to try to illuminate the area or shield them, but she didn’t get the chance to before something was slamming into her.
Her ribs creaked under the force, and Lux was sent spiralling through the air. Darkness creeped against the edges of her vision, lungs begging for oxygen but getting none. Lux grabbed around for the feeling of her staff, or better yet her companion, but all she felt was blood and smoke. Agony raced through her body.
“Jinx,” she croaked out weakly, before everything went dark.
-
When Lux opened her eyes again, the light shone down upon her. The new sensation almost hurt, her eyelids fluttering as they begged to block out the brightness.
Traitor, she quipped, and though she knew that light was not a living sentient creature that could understand her, Lux liked to think it got the message. She sat up slowly, looking down at her aching body. Not too bad, all things considered. Sure, her ribs felt slightly bruised and she was bleeding from at least five different places, but she didn’t seem to have any bone fractures or deep wounds.
The material of her battle suit was tough as nails, even if it was easy to forget considering how stretchy and thin it felt when she was moving around. Lux reached up to check if her floppy dog-eared headband was intact, then down for the similarly metal tail. Both good. She flushed with the realisation that she had actually been concerned about the accessories.
It wasn’t like it was that embarrassing. They meant something, or at least Lux liked to think so. Fits ya, sunshine, Jinx had said when Lux was officially inducted into the squad, you’re like a Golden Retriever! Hey, if I throw your staff, will you fetch?
When she’d first heard that, Lux had to restrain herself from jumping the Battle Cat and strangling her. But now, with the knowledge of Jinx’s twisted way of affection and humour, Lux couldn’t feel anything but a strange sense of warmth. If she wasn’t Battle Pup anymore, then Jinx would be missing at least fifty percent of her nicknames for Lux. Though she doubted that the removal of her status would mean anything to her.
You’ll always be my doggy to me, Lux can hear Jinx cooing sweetly in her mind.
She shook the thought out of her head, ignoring the heat in her cheeks. No time for that (was it ever time for such tender thoughts?). Her staff was missing, and she had undoubtedly been thrown across the city, separated from the rest of the squad and with no idea which way the base was. Piltover Sector cities were large, if maps and reputation were anything to go by, and the thought made the worry gnawing at Lux’s heart even more intense.
Panicking was the last thing she wanted to do right now, though, so Lux took a deep breath and surveyed her surroundings. The street she had crash-landed into seemed to go on for miles, occasionally splitting off into different alleyways and roads, but with no dead ends in sight. Every single building in the vicinity towered so high over Lux they seemed to reach the heavens, which was typical of Piltover.
What wasn’t typical was how perfectly undamaged they were. It was as if she’d stepped into another universe, one where there was no apocalypse and no aliens, everything gleaming and beautiful like the world around it wasn’t crumbling to pieces. Piltover had always been wealthy, of course, but most of its residents had to recede and flee eventually when even they weren’t safe from the onslaught of Primordians.
Aside from the stubborn small community or two, the nations and city-states that had once been largely populated were now barren, its citizens having been evacuated to safer shelters underground. Or, though Lux loathed to think about it, they were dead.
But even from a small glimpse she could tell that this wasn’t some hopeful community, determined to live in the place they called home no matter what. The gleaming windows, the technology that lined everything from the streets to the sewer grates in the ground, the faint sight of factory pipes when Lux craned her neck; no, this was a real, faithful semblance of what Piltover had used to be.
Probably. Lux had never visited, but none of the squad had any good things to say about the people there. Vayne had said they were hedonistic, brainless fools. Sylas had said they were idiots who wouldn’t know left from right if they didn’t have servants to point it out for them. Commander Fortune had said they were a bunch of arrogant scumbags who only cared about money and themselves.
And when Lux, with a morbid sense of curiosity, had asked Jinx, she’d gotten up on the dinner table and started ranting about how boring and lame the “fancy shmucks” were. So, a thoroughly negative consensus.
She was shaken out of her introspection when something rumbled behind her. A rock hit her head, then another, and Lux turned around to see a giant crater where there had once been smooth asphalt. In the middle was Jinx, because of course it was, the tip of one of her cat ears broken off but looking otherwise unharmed. Somehow.
“Sparkles!” Jinx yelled, looking almost bashful. She was sitting atop Fishbones, and it didn’t take a genius mind like Jinx’s to figure out what she’d done. “I saw you from way up there, so I came!”
“Did you have to use your rockets to do that? Couldn’t you have just taken the stairs?” Lux asked tiredly.
A psh sound came from Jinx. “Please. Boring. I’m the kind of girl who never misses out on a chance to rocket-jump. Besides… the roof door was locked.” She mimicked the action of trying to open a locked door. Lux wished she didn’t find it so endearing.
“If you want me to believe that you can’t pick locks, I’m not buying it,” Lux said, before sighing and toeing at the edge of the crater with her paw-shaped boot. It was so early in the morning that none of the locals seemed to be awake, even after the deafening blast of Jinx’s rocket. Perhaps living in a place so peaceful let people be heavy sleepers. “We should go before anyone sees us. And please, don’t destroy anything. This place, it’s so…”
She trailed off, trying to find the words, but there was nothing that could describe the feeling of awe in her chest. Lux knew she should be envious, but all she could feel was a soft sense of melancholy. It would be a shame if this place ever fell, even if most of its occupants survived. It would be a shame to ruin something so beautiful.
Jinx didn’t seem to have the same opinion. “Boring? Pretentious? Tacky? Stop me any time.” Unlike most of her insults, this didn’t seem playful at all; her eyes were narrowed and her nose scrunched up in distaste. She was genuinely annoyed.
Lux wanted to push, wanted to ask her what exactly this place meant to Jinx because clearly it meant something , but that unimpressed look on her face was a touch too intimidating. Despite her antics, Jinx’s violence was always fuelled by a deranged sense of fun and twisted whimsy, similar to an overexcited child. Seeing her actually angry, eyes dark like an incoming storm, was… unnerving, to say the least.
That was why Lux ignored the curious voice in her head and instead started to pull Jinx down the streets, her guns dragging against the ground and making an awful scraping sound. “We’re really far from the base. You don’t possibly know any way to get us back, do you?”
To Lux’s delight, and perhaps a little bit of relief, Jinx immediately brightened. She dug something out of her thigh bag, a small tablet that crackled as she tapped the screen experimentally. “You doubt me too much, puppy,” she said coolly, even as the device made concerning fizzling noises.
Silence lapsed over them for a few moments, in which Jinx played with the tablet and Lux stood there and watched. After a few more taps that grew exponentially more infuriated, a holographic 3D map flickered to life above it. Jinx let out a small cheer and turned the tablet sideways so they could examine it.
“So we are over here ,” Jinx said pointing at a red dot surrounded by towering buildings. She zoomed out a bit until the other sectors were in view, these ones lined with red. “The red lines means that sector was kaboom -ed by the squiddies. If I’m right, which I always am, base should be right around…” A second of frantic scrolling. “Here.”
A doodle of Commander Fortune, with rabbit features more exaggerated than she ought to have, blinked above the location she was pointing at.
“Just twenty miles away!” Jinx proclaimed brightly.
“Twenty miles?!” Lux’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. That was six, maybe seven hours of walking! And that wasn’t even going to take into account whether they’d get attacked by Primordians on the way back, which—okay, Lux was optimistic, but she wasn’t an idiot. They were probably going to get attacked. “Can you communicate with the squad? Tell them where we are?”
“Nope. My communicator’s busted.” Jinx didn’t look bothered by this at all, twirling her bright hair around her finger, singed and choppy at the edges. “Must’ve gotten fucked up in the blast! I bet yours did, too.”
She was right, because of course she was. Lux fidgeted miserably with her broken communicator and earpiece as if that would help at all. It didn’t, because Lux wouldn’t know her way around a machine if her life depended on it. Even her staff, Hextech and electric, was a total mystery to her. All of it was Jinx’s department, not hers.
At the thought of her staff, Lux heaved a sigh. “My staff is missing too.” She now sorely regretted not wearing some kind of strap with it like Jinx did with her weapons. On the bright side, she now knew not to ever let go of it. The best way to learn lessons were the hard way, her brother always said. “We’ll search for it first, then set off to base. It can’t be too far.”
“Well, good news! We don’t need to go on a wild dog chase.” Lux wasn’t sure that was the phrase, but she let Jinx continue. “I have a tracker installed on all the weapons I’ve made. It’s only a few blocks away. We’d better get to it before one of these assholes—” she jerked her thumb in the general direction of the city, “—picks it up and tries to sell it. Heh. As if they could ever use it.”
“That’s amazing, Jinx! Thank you!” A smile broke across Lux’s face as she bounced on the heels of her paws, resisting the temptation to lunge in and give Jinx a hug. Surprise physical contact seemed to be out of Jinx’s comfort zone, considering the last time Lux had tried she’d ended up with a bruised cheek. For someone so small, Jinx could really pack a punch.
Jinx made a sound like a pleased cat, but her expression then melted into something “Don’t thank me yet, doggy,” she remarked, crossing her arms and pointing with her chin toward the far end of the city. Beyond the rows and rows of buildings and fluffy white cotton clouds, something drifted through air.
A Primordian, because of course it was, Lux groaned internally. One of the big whale ones, surrounded by a swarm of squids, the kind that weren’t any bigger than her torso, made dangerous not by their size or individual strength but by their force in numbers and how easy it was to get overwhelmed while facing them. By the looks of it, they weren’t Shimmer Primordians, emanating a glow of neon pink instead of deep purple.
“They won’t see us if we don’t engage, so just relax,” Jinx said, sounding almost bored as she toyed with her tablet. Lux, on the other hand, was far less laid-back. Her heart began to pound loudly in her ears as if already anticipating the rush of battle, panic gripping her chest in a sharp, stinging ache.
“But what if they attack the city? We should protect the people.” All the more reason to get her staff back. The last thing Lux wanted to do was lose control of her power and destroy everything in her path, even if Jinx would enjoy that.
Something in Jinx’s eyes darkened once more, and she rolled her eyes like she was exasperated with Lux. When she did that, Lux couldn’t help but feel like a child, awfully aware of the gap in intelligence in worldliness between the two.
“Trust me, these idiots will be fine. I know, ‘cause… this is Piltover’s upper crust. Wealthy shits have a Hextech barrier around the place that makes them invisible and protects them. They can snooze away inside and leave everyone out to dry.”
Lux stepped back, absorbing the information. She’d known this was a wealthy area, that at least was obvious—but to have a constant shield so powerful it completely blocked the place from view, to continue going about normal life as if the world wasn’t burning around them? It seemed impossible. Otherworldly. And…
Selfish.
“This would make a great shelter. Why don’t they…?” Lux bit her lip. It was a stupid question. She already knew why.
“Because they’re Piltovans, Lux, any more dumb questions?” Jinx bit out, and the usage of Lux’s real name instead of some silly nickname made her pause even despite the clear effort on Jinx’s part to keep her voice light. “Hey, like I said, they’ll be fine. Let’s just get out of this place, I can feel my soul being sucked out already. Any longer and I really am gonna blow everything up.”
The intonation of her voice dipping suddenly into something almost resembling softness, the hand placed on Lux’s back. This was Jinx’s awkward attempt at comfort, demented and unsure from presumably years of unuse. Still, it made Lux feel better, probably more than if it had been one of Sylas’ weird metaphors or Commander Fortune’s monologues. Maybe it was the fact that it was Jinx, of all people.
“Alright, I trust you,” Lux said, and though it was a sentiment she’d echoed many times to both Jinx and the rest of the squad, she could see Jinx’s sharkish smile waver like it always did when she said that. And like every time before, Lux wondered why. “Let’s go.”
They weaved their way through the city. Lux tried to remember all the roads they were taking, but the streets were so complex, branching out in so many different directions, that she soon got confused. Even the wealthiest parts of Demacia were never this… maze-like. She swore they passed the same shop three times, yet Jinx just kept nodding at her map like they were right on track. How did the Piltovans even navigate this place day-to-day?
She resigned herself to following Jinx and hoping that they weren’t lost, knowing she looked exactly like the canine of her namesake, trailing after its owner with sad eyes.
All of a sudden, Jinx stopped dead in her tracks. A beeping started to emit from her tablet, and she spun in place, looking all over for the staff. Lux joined her, even throwing open dumpsters and lightly whacking contraptions she couldn’t hope to understand, but the familiar glow of the weapon wasn’t anywhere to be found.
That is, until Jinx froze once more and slowly tilted her head, craning her neck to look above. And there it was, caught conveniently on the intricate decorations curling down the windows of the nearby shop: her staff, shining brightly in the light of the sun. It looked thankfully undamaged, but stuck much too high up, out of reach even when she tip-toed and jumped—and Lux was very tall. Taller than the Commander, taller than Vayne, and only a few inches short of beating Sylas when he stood up straight, something he seemed to take relieved pride in.
And much taller than Jinx, obviously, though that was a somewhat low bar to cross. Her pint-sized stature paired with her trigger-happy personality really did make her akin to a rambunctious cat, one that Lux wanted to scoop up and cuddle in her arms…
Okay. No. Not the time, never the time for her weird, overly affectionate thoughts about Jinx. Still, it was herding cats trying to control them. Lux knew because she’d tried.
“Can’t reach,” she sighed as her fingers barely brushed against the bottom windowsill. “Do you have any rope or anything that could help?”
“Too much of a hassle. I’ll do you one better. Let me get up there, doggy.” Lux opened her mouth to ask exactly what she meant by that, but Jinx didn’t give her any time to speak before clambering onto her, boots scraping against Lux’s side. Fear struck Lux’s heart as Jinx wobbled, afraid they would topple and collapse on the ground.
Jinx somehow managed it, though. Perhaps she had experience. Or perhaps it was just the grip of her feline boots, which came to rest precariously on Lux’s shoulders, toe beans brushing against her cheek. They were dirty, but surprisingly soft, like a real cat’s paw pads. Lux’s hands came up to wrap around Jinx’s ankles, holding steady in case they lost balance.
After a few grunts and a concerning clang noise, Jinx raised the staff high up in the air with triumph. “Got it!” She slid into a sitting position, thighs resting across Lux’s cheeks. Lux fought the urge to blush, or turn her head and rub against the material of her suit, or… God, there was a cat paw print decal there. That was so cute.
Oblivious to Lux’s suffering, Jinx hummed, leaning forward to rest her elbows on Lux’s head. “Doesn’t look like anything broke,” she said, more to herself than Lux, tapping at both of its ends and examining the handle. “One of the core’s a bit loose, and the hinge is singed from the blast, but it’s nothing a genius like me can’t fix.”
Without warning, Jinx jumped off Lux’s back, nearly giving her a heart attack in the process. But she landed nimbly on the ground with an uncharacteristic grace—cats always land on their feet, Lux thinks—brushing herself off and tossing the staff her way. Lux caught it, a smile spreading across her face as she felt the familiar smooth metal in her palm, the power humming under her skin making the staff come alive once more.
“Thank you so much, Jinx!” Lux bounced on her heels, unable to contain her excitement. She almost made to hug Jinx again, but corrected her mistake immediately, rocking back into place awkwardly and settling for giving her a huge smile. “It’s a good thing you thought to put a tracker in my staff when you made it.”
The moment was all too familiar, down to the see-sawing balance of her toes. For all her chaos, Jinx really was a valuable member of the squad; maybe Lux would never stop owing her.
For some reason, that thought didn’t upset her as much as it should have.
“Heh. Well, they do say crazy is genius, don’t they?” Jinx winked. Lux had never heard anyone say that, but perhaps it was a saying from… wherever Jinx was from. “Now that you’ve got your little lightstick, let’s get outta here. Long way to go.”
“Don’t remind me,” Lux said, but her tone was light-hearted. Once the seed of optimism was planted in her heart there was absolutely nothing to stop it from growing. It was just in Lux’s nature to never stop hoping, to always look for that next shine of light. Like a flower growing through concrete, her brother used to say.
She let Jinx pull her along. The way out of the city, compared to going deeper in, seemed simpler at the very least. Once they were back on a wider street, Jinx just kept walking straight, periodicially checking her tracker and nodding to herself. Her determination to not spend her time staring at the city around her left her with no other options but to stare at Jinx’s back, the clack of her minigun against her belt and the swing of her long pigtails. The tail on the back of her suit swayed as she walked.
Adorable.
Really, Lux was certain that none of the other animal features of the rest of the squad was this endearing. Perhaps it was because Jinx was a Battle Cat, and Lux had always had a soft spot for the mysterious creatures. Or perhaps it was because it was Jinx, and Lux had always had a soft spot for her, mania and all.
Dog and cat , Lux thought, not for the first time. She wondered whether it was a coincidence.
Those kinds of thoughts weren’t good, she knew. Those kinds of thoughts should have been reserved for a different world, better times and peaceful places, one where the world wasn’t overrun by mecha alien squids.
Peaceful places like this one. Quiet and still and normal. Lux looked up, where the swarm of Primordians drifted over them, looking almost deceptively peaceful as their neon-and-silver bodies passed over the lofty buildings. The entire area, hidden in plain sight, leaving its residents to live in peace.
They kept walking and walking, the roads long and winding. If she and Jinx lived here, maybe they would be happy together.
But then again, probably not. Jinx hated this place, and she would hate not being able to live an unchained, explosion-filled life even more. And though it made Lux uncomfortable to admit, something deep inside of her felt that same desperation. For freedom. For excitement. For a death in a blaze of glory rather than a sad one having lived like a bird in a cage.
They kept walking and walking. Did the roads here ever end?
As if on cue, Jinx turned back. "Just a bit more and we'll be out of this ghost town," she informed, "then it's a trek back to base! Assuming our dear squad hasn't come to pick us up themselves."
"I wonder if they miss us," Lux said, pride bursting in her chest at the small giggle Jinx let out at that. "I bet Vayne doesn't."
"Please. That old bat wouldn't miss anything except for her crossbow. She's past senile, if you ask me. Miss Bunny should just kick her out of the squad already." Jinx did a little hop and skip before kicking a pebble across the road, as if to illustrate her point.
Lux attempted a frown of disapproval, but it was shaky. "She's only thirty years old, Jinx. You shouldn't say that. At least, not around her."
"Aww, what's she gonna do? Shoot me with one of her dumb bolts?" Jinx spun around and put her fingers on her head in V-signs, as if mimicking Vayne's bat ears, and her voice dropped lowly to an almost comical extent. " I will purify you. Grr. Or whatever it is she says."
This time Lux couldn't hold back her laughter. "I don't think she growls. And I still don't know what your problem is with bolts."
Now this was Jinx's soapbox. She launched into a tirade about bullets and rockets and their superiority to bolts, occasionally puppeteering Fishbones to narrate her point as if they were some kind of comedic duo. Lux couldn’t help but notice that her argument boiled down to the fact that bolts didn’t cause explosions. Which was probably exactly why Vayne liked them so much.
Still, Lux liked to hear her ramble. Liked the sound of her voice and the sparkle in her eyes that she got when she got passionate about something. If only she talked about herself as ardently as she talked about explosives—wouldn’t that be nice, Lux thought.
“Hey, Jinx?” At the call of her name, Jinx looked back with a raised eyebrow. Lux skipped forward to be by her side. She resisted the urge to press their shoulders together and instead put a foot of distance between them, matching Jinx’s pace. “I’m curious. When did you… start using guns?”
“Huh. Weird question, sparkles. I wouldn’t tell just anyone that, you know.” Lux’s heart skipped a beat in panic, and her mouth was already open to apologise, but Jinx didn’t let her speak. “But you aren’t just anyone, are ya?”
“I’m… not?” Her staff sparked in her hands as a blush spread across her face. She knew she was closer to Jinx than the rest of the squad, considering they spent so much time as a duo, but hearing it from Jinx herself made something in Lux short-circuit. Rubbing at her cheeks as if that would do away with the redness, she hoped Jinx didn’t wonder why exactly she had turned into a tomato.
Before she knew it, Jinx had closed the distance she’d tried so hard to keep, arm slinging itself around Lux’s shoulders. Jinx leaned in with a grin on her face, and the proximity made it easy to see every lash and scar and blemish, every divot and plane on her narrow face. Lux gave up on trying to stop blushing.
Especially when Jinx’s hand reached forward to pinch one of her warm cheeks. “Of course. Nobody follows me around like you do, doggy.” Jinx winked. Lux’s mind spiralled trying to figure out what exactly that meant.
“So you’ll tell me?” Lux questioned, trying to veer away from Jinx’s dilly-dallying and to get that nickname out of her head .
“Fiiiine, since you’re so nosy.” Jinx pulled away, arms falling to her sides. Lux breathed a sigh of relief even as something in the back of her mind whined with disappointment at the absence of touch, the weight where Jinx had once been feeling awfully empty. “Well, where I grew up, guns were pretty normal. Going pew-pew, all day. So I’ve known them since I was a wee baby.”
The thought of such a violent childhood made Lux wince. “That must’ve been terrible.”
Apparently this was the wrong thing to say, because a flicker of annoyance passed through Jinx’s face. “It was normal,” she said, fiddling with Pow-Pow’s handle. “Everyone was fighting all the time back then. I can still… I can still picture it. Got a photographic memory, you know?”
She reached up to knock at her own head—a valiant attempt at her usual whimsy, but it felt empty when her eyes had that same look again, distant and remote. Lux wished she could reach her, wished she knew how.
“Meanwhile, all the fancy royals with hats like these ones—” she spread her arms and waved them around, “—sat up top and drank tea and watched us tear each other to shreds. When it was all their fault, too. Talk about not cleaning up your own mess.”
On the outside her voice was light as always, but it wasn’t hard to hear the strain of it underneath, the uncharacteristic anger about to boil over. “Is it gone now?” Lux asked hesitantly, afraid of how Jinx would react to a question like that. “When the Primordians came, did they—well, you know…”
“Yep. Maybe not all of them, but most of them. Boom. It was beautiful too. Seeing the whole thing go up in ashes. Sometimes I think… well.” Her face darkened, mouth twisted into a frown. Like this, the shadows under her eyes were much more prominent. “Sometimes I think it was good for ‘em, these stupid squids. Just wish those hoity-toity assholes went down with us.”
Her eyes darted around the city. Lux didn’t miss it.
Of course she’d known that Jinx’s problem with this place was personal. Jinx wasn’t the type of person to care so strongly about other, random strangers, after all. With what was the first real conversation they’d ever had about Jinx’s past, everything began to click together in Lux’s head. Why she glared at every building and sign they passed, why her fingers twitched next to Fishbones as if she was aching to blow the place to bits.
Lux didn’t know much about Zaun except for two things. One, which she had learnt when she was a child: it was the underbelly of Piltover, less wealthy and less fortunate, stuck eternally between exploitative kingpins and rich uncaring nobles. Two, which was common knowledge by this point: the entire area was gone, ravaged by the Primordians, leaving everyone in it to scramble for a new place to take shelter… or die.
“This is where the barrier ends,” Jinx remarked, stopping so abruptly that Lux almost crashed into her. She’d been expecting some kind of glowing blue screen, but there was nothing but empty air, the only indication that this was the right spot being that the city just stopped . The road, the streetlamps, the buildings. It almost looked abstract, the way it went from ornate store fronts to barren land. As if they were stepping into a different world.
A different world. Lux turned to Jinx as they stepped through, feeling the wind blow through her hair harshly, and thought that she’d better say this before she lost the courage. “Jinx… I… are you from Zaun?”
Jinx looked surprised, which was rare from her, so much so that Lux briefly felt proud before the dread took over. She narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to reply, but something seemed to catch her eye behind Lux as her body tensed and she yelled—
“Duck!”
Like a good dog, Lux obeyed so well her chin started to ache from how hard it had hit the ground. Above them, a cluster of Primordian squids sailed past, buzzing and hostile. They didn’t have faces, but as they veered back to head for Lux and Jinx once more, what exactly they were trying to do was clear.
With a thunderous boom, Jinx unleashed a rocket from Fishbones. It exploded right into the middle of the clump, causing them to scatter, flying all around them like insects. She switched to her minigun, spinning and firing bullets everywhere as Lux whacked a squid away with her staff like she was playing baseball. When the next one flew in her face, Lux opted to catch it with her bare hand, twisting light inside of it until it imploded.
Pink liquid burst all over her arms. Lux made a face, but there was no time to be grossed out as the tell-tale sound of Jinx shrieking with excitement sounded out from somewhere in the swarm. Something wailed in the distance, and Lux thought back to the whale she’d seen floating through the sky along with the squids. The ruckus had probably attracted something much, much bigger.
“Look alive, Fido!” Jinx cackled as her bullets sprayed everywhere. Lux took out three squids in one go with a well-aimed light laser. “We’ve got a big boy!”
That, they did. As the squids went down one by one, the whale came into view. It bellowed as it crashed into the ground, narrowly missing the pair and kicking up a storm of dust that threw Lux into a coughing fit. Being so big, it was probably better-suited to destroying cities and skyscrapers than two human beings, even if one of them was abnormally tall and glowing and the other was unleashing a hurricane of bullets and rockets.
Across from her, Jinx positioned Fishbones and clambered onto it. Lux kicked off her own staff and jumped onto it once more as it sparked and blasted off, carrying her toward the whale’s eye. Something in the back of her mind reminded her that this felt worryingly familiar, but she shook it away. What was one Primordian compared to dozens?
If she were alone, Lux probably wouldn’t be thinking that way. But Jinx had always been good at bringing out this side of her.
Explosions rocked its side as Jinx flew through the air with Fishbones, using her other hand to fire lasers with her shock pistol. The remaining squids from before that had managed to avoid disintegration were now back with a vengeance, swarming around them as if eager to come to the whale’s aid. Lux flung out her hand and threw a light shield in Jinx’s general direction, hoping it would land.
The muffled laugh and thanks! indicated that it did. Lux pressed her fingers to the core of her staff and cranked the speed up even more, leaving a trail of light as she zipped around the whale’s side fins, twitching and fluttering as it struggled to evade Jinx’s attacks. Light formed in her hands like a rope as she winded it around the fins then to its tail, limiting its movement even more.
“Nice!” Jinx yelled. Lux floated over the whale’s other side, holding the thread of light tight in her hands, pulling it taut. Jinx blasted closer, a chain of explosions in her wake as the whale thrashed so hard Lux’s hands started to burn. She planted her feet against her staff and pulled, but the Primordian was stronger and more flexible than it looked.
“Jinx, no!” She screamed, but it was too late. Jinx was already moving through the air too fast to stop—and even if she could, Lux didn’t think she would . In one second the glowing rope snapped, dissipating in a shower of miniscule sparks, and the whale flicked its tail toward Jinx. For as small as a target she was, it hit dead-on, and she went rocketing toward the ground from the force.
She sped toward her, but Jinx had already hit the ground, a cloud of dust over where she’d landed. Lux had seen her withstand more than that, but the whale was already rearing to go once more, stretching itself and jerking its fins as if irritated. With another angry-sounding caterwaul, it swam through the air toward the ground, picking up speed as it headed toward Jinx.
Lux twisted the light in the area, slowing its rampage, but it was too fast and too determined to be stopped. Her fingers twitched, light coming to her fingertips, and as she raised her hands in the air she knew what to do.
If things were any different, if she had crash-landed alone rather than with Jinx, maybe Lux would have been worried about being destructive. About breaking the shield or damaging the city. But as it were, she could only think about Jinx, laying immobile on the ground; and the only thing she could hear was the thundering of her blood as her heart pounded.
The beam of light came as easily as breathing. It lit up Lux’s hands and blasted through the sky, straight through the middle of the whale, leaving a gaping hole in its body. Even Lux had to admit it was beautiful, glowing in the air and twirling into a dazzling array of colours, a rainbow of obliteration burning everything in its path.
After a moment, it disappeared just as quickly, leaving only the faint flash beneath her eyelids and harmless sparks floating through the air. Lux looked down. Her hands were steaming and radiating with light, smoke curling off her fingers, but it wasn’t painful. The only sensation there was an ebbing, pleasant tingle.
On the other hand, the Primordian wasn’t as fortunate. It hung in the air for a moment, wailing—did Primordians feel pain, Lux wondered—before it exploded, glass and metal flying everywhere along with the pink liquid inside of it, raining down on the ground as fire and smoke drifted through the air. Lux weaved through the falling debris and hit the ground with a thump, running as fast as she could toward Jinx.
Her heart fell when she reached the smoking crater where she’d landed, only to find she wasn’t there. Lux drew up, sucking in a breath and ready to shout her name, when—
“That was amazing! ” Lux yelped and stumbled back, falling onto her ass. She looked up and saw wild green eyes and a wide grin, awe shining over every part of Jinx’s face. “It was all like, boom! Bang! Like a grenade! But cooler! ”
She laughed and laughed and laughed, so genuine and normal, as if Lux had told a good joke rather than ripped apart an alien whale. The sound of it did bad things to Lux’s heart. All of it did, from the flush of her cheeks and the dirt smeared across her nose. Lux wanted to lean forward and wipe it off, but she restrained herself.
“I’m… I’m glad.” The sight of her so happy reminded Lux of how she’d looked before, what felt like an eternity ago but was probably only ten minutes. Her affronted expression, eyes almost judgmental. “Jinx, are you, um, upset about before? Because I’m—”
For the second time that day, something large and loud landed near the two, cutting Lux off and sending her into another round of coughing. Seriously, did she just have weak lungs or something? How was Jinx so unfazed by all this dust?
Once the fog cleared, a familiar ship came into view, engines whirring. The Anima Squad’s vehicle of choice, and Jinx’s fourth favourite object following her three guns. It was old and perhaps not the most advanced thing on the planet, but Lux couldn’t deny that she’d be disappointed if they ever got a new mode of transportation. The doodles and spray paint they’d terrorized it with made it look homey and well-loved.
After a moment, the door slid open with a hiss. Commander Fortune stepped out, walking toward them in that intimidating way of hers, hips swaying and back straight. She didn’t look too angry, at least. Small victories.
“What were you thinking, Crownguard?” She scolded. It didn’t have enough energy behind it to make Lux worried, but guilt still took its place in her heart. She gave the Commander a stilted, awkward smile. “Your light trick did a serious number on the city’s shields. If they don’t fix it soon, the whole thing’s going to go down and they’ll be swarmed with Primordians. And no one’s less prepared for them than spoiled Pilties.”
Turning back, Lux did notice that there seemed to be the faint trace of something blue flickering where the city ended. The residents seemed to be waking up, considering the sun was already high in the sky now.
Jinx’s words echoed in her mind, the darkness in her eyes and the twist of her scowl. It took Lux a moment to realise that she didn’t feel sorry at all.
If the Commander noticed, which she probably did, she seemed to recognise that there was something deeper going on. “Well, I suppose you didn’t really have a choice, from what I saw. You did good taking that thing down.” She patted Lux on the shoulder, and pride swelled in her chest. “Jinx…”
At the sound of her name Jinx perked up, straightening up and saluting in an exaggerated manner. Lux couldn’t help the giggle that slipped out of her mouth, only increasing with the tired look on Commander Fortune’s face.
“There’s nothing I can say that I haven’t said a thousand times before. So all I’ll say is that you’re on night patrol duty.”
This seemed to actually break Jinx. “No! But it’s so boring! ”
“We’re all praying that it is. Hopefully then you’ll learn your lesson.” The Commander turned on her heel, marching back toward the ship and gesturing for them to follow. She pressed a finger to her ear. “This is BB01, reporting in. I got the rascals.” With a glance back at the city, she added, “and prepare for a possible mission this afternoon. That goes for all of you.”
A stern look back at Lux, who rubbed the back of her neck, and Jinx, who merely laughed.
As they walked to the ship, something began to tug at Lux’s heart again. Jinx seemed her normal self, but the anxious whispers wouldn’t go away until she settled her fears. “Are you not mad?” She said, voice quiet, and Jinx tilted her head in curiosity. “About what I said, before. I know you must not talk about your past for a reason.”
For a second, Jinx was quiet as well. It was the most introspective Lux had ever seen her. Then that cheerful beam was back on her face as she shook her head and said, “nope.”
“Nope?”
“‘Course I’m not angry . How could I be mad at a cute face like that? You’re smart, Lux. I knew you’d figure it out eventually.”
She reached over and pinched Lux’s cheek affectionately, who was left stunned; both at the gesture and at the usage of her real name. Lux stared wide-eyed as Jinx retreated into the ship, only breaking from her reverie when Commander Fortune yelled at her to get in.
Somehow she found herself sitting next to Jinx on the floor, backs pressed against the wall. Shoulder to shoulder, just like Lux had wanted. Jinx dropped her head into the crook of Lux’s neck, which made her heart do an entire gymnastics routine in her chest. “That really was fucking awesome back there,” she whispered sleepily, “you gotta do that more.”
“Okay. I will,” Lux murmured in return. Something in her felt compelled to keep that promise.
“Think there’s time for a nap before lunch when we get back?” Jinx was adorable like this, eyes drooping as she yawned. Lux wanted to reach up and brush the hair out of her eyes, so she did, skin brushing against skin. Where she touched, the dust cleared, leaving streaks of cleanliness amongst the rest of Jinx’s grimy face.
When she dropped her hand back down, her fingers twined with Jinx’s. They sat there in silence as they flew back to base, unmoving the whole time, even Jinx’s energy momentarily tamped down.
As it turned out, there was time for a nap before lunch. Usually they slept in a bunk bed, Lux on top and Jinx on the bottom, but they were too tired to sort that out. Instead they both collapsed into the bottom bunk, tracking dirt on the sheets and squeezed together on the small mattress, still tangled in each other.
Lux smiled into Jinx’s hair, and for the first time she didn’t feel nervous at all. She closed her eyes and let herself be lulled to sleep by the steady pounding of Jinx’s heartbeat.