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Things were not going great. In fact, things were going the total opposite of whatever great was. Jinx’s mind could not settle and the lump in her throat refused to leave. In the six weeks since he’d died, Silco was only a voice in her head and her sister was gone in a more permanent way than she had been when she was dead. Nothing was right, everything was wrong, and she didn’t know if she wanted to blow up another council building or make a time machine to go back and undo it all.
“Jinx!” Silco hissed in her ear, and she snapped to attention, sneaking to a window the house she was currently squatting in.
Sevika had told her that there was always a room for her at the Last Drop like each word physically pained her. Jinx told her that the building was too full of ghosts. Besides, they barely tolerated each other as it was in their grudging partnership. If they wanted to keep it that way, it was better they didn’t sleep under the same roof.
Enforcers were peering into the first-floor window, which was never a good sign. Jinx let out a small, disappointed groan. The house was one of the better places she slept in in a while. Two stories and an attic, water that worked, and only a few holes in the ceiling, floors, walls, etc. She’d thought about staying, putting down stakes, painting the walls however she wanted. Now, what with the enforcers, she would probably have to leave. Soon. Soonish, at the latest. Because, as Sevika liked to remind her whenever she did something drastic, she had a pretty sizable bounty on her head. Which tracked. Vi probably told them all about the whole giant-gun-rocket-launcher thing or stood complacently by while her Stupid Piltie Enforcer Rich Bitch Girlfriend Born With A Hundred Silver Spoons In Her Mouth did.
Jinx frowned. She wished she could stop thinking about her sister.
“Too good for her,” Silco whispered.
“Thanks,” Jinx whispered back.
She would have liked to wait and see if he had anything else to say, but hiding would probably be a better idea because she was pretty sure they’d reached the breaking down doors part of their manhunt. It was annoying. She should kill them all. Pistol or chompers. Pop, pop, pop till she was alone again, even if alone was so bad she could hardly breathe sometimes.
Her ears perked suddenly. Downstairs, there was noise, but not enforcer noise. A shuffle and a dull thud, like footsteps. Jinx cockered her head to the side, listening. If whoever it was saw her, she might be handed over. If she killed them, she’d draw attention. Same result. A conundrum.
“Think,” Silco said.
“Yeah, yeah,” Jinx muttered, moving quiet as a mouse to the part of the floor that had fallen away.
There was a figure trying to hide on the floor below. Thin, wrapped in a cloak, crutch. A hand reached out to adjust the hood. It was violet and metallic. Which was neat.
Both Silco and Mylo called her an idiot when she swung down to inspect. She ignored them. Curiosity killed cats, but it had yet to kill Jinxes.
She was quicker than she had been before The Fight With Ekko Nearly Killing Her Thing which meant she was better at sneaking, which meant she surprised the thin man by coming behind him and tapping him on the shoulder.
He whirled around quickly, eyes wide and a shade of gold she’d never seen before. He was sickly, with pitch black circles under his eyes that stood out against his too pale skin and wild, chestnut hair. A mole dotted his cheek and just above his lip. He bore himself somewhat elegantly, like a Piltie, but everything else about him screamed Zaunite. Something about him was very familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. It was like he was someone she’d met when she was very young or seen in a dream once.
“Hiya. You hiding from the enforcers too?” Jinx asked in a stage whisper.
“I…yes,” he said carefully. He had an accent she hadn’t heard very often, from somewhere deep in the Entresol. Definitely Undercity, then. A relief.
“This is a bad hiding spot. They kick down doors. They’re more enthusiastic on the first floor than the second,” she said with a shrug.
“You have some experience, then?” the man asked. There was a twinkle in his voice. She liked that.
“Yep. Anyway, wanna hide out together?”
The man was quiet. So was Silco, which meant it was probably fine. Or maybe she’d been alone with just her and Sevika and the ghosts for too long. She didn’t like Sevika. Still. Ever, probably. And even she knew that it was bad to talk to ghosts so much. Sometimes you need to hear words outside your head and chat with someone with a pulse.
“Yes, if you know of a good spot,” he finally said.
“Yep! This place has an attic. Now, you got a crutch, so I bet stairs are hard, but I’ll help. I’m stronger than I look and you look like a twig,” she said, taking his arm and leading him to the stairs.
He didn’t say anything but let out a small huff that might have been a laugh. Jinx decided she definitely liked him, even if he looked like he might be about to die.
“Always room in here for another ghost ,” Mylo hissed, and Jinx ignored him.
The man was light. He was easy to half-carry up the stair and then yank up the ladder into the attic. As soon as she shut the trap door, she heard the sound of big enforcer boots kicking an innocent door in. The man winced, but Jinx just rolled her eyes. Typical enforcer behavior.
“So. Why are you hiding?” Jinx asked.
“Sh. They’ll hear—”
“Nah. Not if we whisper. They’ve got those big helmets. Can’t hear a thing. Probably.”
The man sighed, but he settled carefully, putting his crutch next to him silently. Jinx watched him, chin resting on her knee. He seemed sad. He seemed dying. The second might explain the first.
“They think I colluded with the girl who blew up the council building. And that my research…breaks a few laws,” he said bitterly.
“That’s stupid. First off, what good research doesn’t break a few laws?” Jinx said and the man let out another small huff. Definitely a laugh. “Second off, we just met.”
The man stared at her for a moment with a furrowed brow and then his eyes went wide. He looked scared for a second and then like he was about to laugh. And then he did laugh once, loudly this time, and slapped his hand over his mouth to stifle the sound. His shoulders shook with it until it became a coughing fit. He stifled that too and when his hand came away, it was bloody. It looked kind of cool against the purple.
“You nearly killed me,” he said, wiping the bloody hand on his pants. “I was in the council building when your rocket hit it.”
“Why?” Jinx asked with narrowed eyes.
“My…my partner…there was a debate about giving the Undercity its independence. It passed, if you must know,” he said. He had stumbled over the word “partner” so there was a story there, but Jinx knew all about bitter old men with ex-whatevers, so she decided to leave it alone.
“Oh. Well. Sorry. I didn’t mean to kill you,” Jinx said.
“Ah. I suppose all is forgiven then,” he said, sarcastic, which meant they’d probably have to talk more about it later. “Can I ask you something now?”
“Sure.”
“Why did you do it?”
“Killed my…killed someone important. Silco. It didn’t mean…I had to…had to see his plan through. You know. The usual,” Jinx said lightly.
The man looked at her like he saw right through her. It was uncomfortable.
“You aren’t…you won’t tell them I’m here, right?” she said.
“No. They would arrest us both and what good would that do?” the man said without even pausing to think.
“Good. So. What’s your research?”
“I think I found a way to…heal myself. Stop death. Improve lives. It comes at a cost, one I don’t know if I can bare, but—”
“Oh. You’re one of those. ‘Boo-hoo, my science got scary!’ Listen. You don’t control it, right? It’s like my bombs. I make them. I plant them. I press a button or light a fuse or program a timer and then…whatever happens happens. Usually a big explosion. But I can’t control all of it. Sometimes people get in the way,” Jinx said, full of false bravado, Claggor’s eyes making the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
“This is a bit more…unusual than a bomb,” the man said carefully.
“Sure, sure. That why you have a purple hand?”
The man nodded and then rolled up his pant leg. His weaker leg was purple too. Jinx decided she liked him because of that alone. And because he wasn’t going to tell the enforcers about her. And because he had laughed when she told him about the council building thing. She had nearly killed him. It could have been much, much worse.
“I’m glad I didn’t kill you,” she said.
“I am too,” he replied.
“So. Where’s your research? Can I see it?”
“Piltover. My old lab, my…partner barred me from the lab. I am not allowed back.”
“Oh. Wait. You’re one of those Hextech guys!” Jinx said, pieces falling into place. She had read (stolen) one of their journals. Probably not his. There’d been a few sketches of him. He’d been asleep in one. She knew he looked familiar.
“I was,” the man said bitterly.
“I know how to get into your lab. We can steal it back.”
“How?”
“Leave that to me. You just let me know what to take. We could even go tonight!” Jinx said, grinning. She felt better than she had in a while. Since Silco maybe.
“Tonight? I…yes. We should get it quickly, before it can fall into the wrong hands,” the man replied carefully.
“Oh, buddy. These are for sure the wrong hands,” Jinx said with a cackle.
“Eh, maybe. But they are not the worst hands,” the man shrugged.
“I’m gonna take that as a compliment. Now sh. I’m gonna see if the enforcers are still here.”
The man fell silent, and Jinx lay on the floor, pressing her ear to the attic door. The house was silent. When she crept to the attic vent, she could see them on the street below, making their way to the next house. She grinned. Stupid Pilties.
“They’re gone. Wanna get out of here?” she said.
“A moment. I have not…I have not had time to rest for some time,” the man said.
“Yeah, you look bad.”
“I am dying,” he said, with a snort.
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t…but you might not, right?”
“No. Perhaps not.”
“Good. I’m Jinx, by the way,” she said, offering him a hand with bright, chipped polish.
“I know. I took apart one of your bombs. Ingenious. It was quite hard to disarm.”
“Thanks. Now’s the part where you say your name,” Jinx said, still holding her hand out.
“Viktor,” he said, taking her hand with his purple one. It felt stiffer than a normal hand, like it was made of some kind of flexible metal, just over his skin. She wanted to yank it closer and examine it.
“Manners,” Silco reminded her, so she let it go.
“Well, Viktor. I think we’re gonna do some cool stuff,” she said.
He only smiled at that. Then he leaned against the wall. Jinx sat, waiting. He could sleep if he wanted. She’d keep an eye on him. She’d had no one, not since Silco, and maybe she could again. He wasn’t like Silco, too young to be her kind of dad. She’d also already had three of those and anymore seemed like it would be pushing it. But maybe a brother. Or just a friend. Or just a someone she could talk to that wasn’t Sevika that didn’t only see her as a stupid little kid or a loose cannon or a fuck up. Yeah. That sounded okay. She settled against the wall next to him. Viktor glanced at her, surprised.
“Sleep if you want. I’ll think of a plan,” she said quietly.
Viktor paused, a question in his eyes, but then he sighed, giving up, and shut his eyes. He looked sicker when he slept. Whatever tape and glue that was holding him together dissolved and his breath came in rasps. Jinx poked his hand lightly and it twitched. His brow furrowed, but he didn’t wake. It was the metallic hand. Still hard, cool to the touch. Maybe he’d tell her how he got it one day.