Chapter Text
Jinx sat up to assess the area after some heavy shit knocked her down during her stroll. It’s just a Tuesday, who attacks a random person on a Tuesday, she grumbled to herself. Her eyes glowed with shimmer when she noticed the kid and the enforcers, but the glow dimmed when she saw the kid’s fear. Fuck did you do, kid… She thinks, while giving the scrappy-looking child an assessing look.
The enforcers descended the wall quickly, menace and threat in every move they made. An arrogant air clung to them, three on two was good odds for anyone, especially when one of the two was a child. Well, they must not recognize me yet, Jinx thought. As they approached, the kid scrambled backwards into Jinx, seeming to seek comfort or protection with her. Jinx’s jaw fell open slightly in shock as she realized the kid wasn’t scared of her, the enforcers paused in front of them and she lifted her head so that her hood fell back. That finally got the enforcers to recognize her. Hard to hide who you are with blue hair and long braids.
Jinx rapidly drew her pistol and pushed the kid's head down to fire three lightning-quick shots at the enforcers. Her glare settled into an appraising look as she turned her gaze to the kid still sitting between her legs. Too young to really understand much beyond survival, and quiet too… Her gun lazily pointed to the kid’s head. An empty threat, but to a child probably scary all the same.
“You feel it? That… pshew phseew phseeew… buzzing behind your eyes?” she waved her gun around lazily, noticing the child seemed more hesitant at this point than scared. “Because you know, in a moment, it could all~…” She pointed the gun at her own head now and mimed it going off, “poow,” she hummed, her face showing dead eyed amusement. “Best feeling in the world, kid.” She mimed a shot at the kids head next, the tip of the gun ending pointed at her wanted posters.
The kid noticed the wall, then. The plethora of posters showing Jinx drawn at her worst. Fuck. Well, it was nice while it lasted, Jinx thought bitterly. “Yep,” a sigh “that’s me. You ever need ta curse a sibling, a family, a society,” she pushed the kid’s helmet back on and stood up, “my card.” She snapped at the posters with resignation and began to walk away. The kid would be better off without her anyway. Everyone that got close to her died. She may be crazy, but she was above putting kids in danger intentionally.
She wandered the undercity, no distinct destination, but her feet drew her to Silco’s office anyway. She was laying in the rafters reminiscing when Sevika walked in with a piss poor attitude and fumbled with her arm in some lame attempt to fix it. “I can’t believe you’re dead, and I’m still mopping up your messes” Sevika said angrily to the silence of the office.
“Jeez, lady, you crazy?” Sevika threw a screwdriver with less-than-deadly precision hitting just inches from her arm, but even then, Jinx didn’t flinch. “Talking to dead people” she says derisively. Sevika seems to tense up even more somehow. All that booze she drinks, you’d think she’d be a little more calm.
“You here to finish me off?” Sevika said, anger still very present in every line of her body.
“Haven’t I done you enough favors?” Jinx asked, death would be a mercy for anyone in the undercity, but she wasn’t ready to mete it out to someone like Sevika. Not yet, anyway. She turned over from the rafters and fell to the desk, shifted lazily into a sitting position, and found herself fiddling with the syringe Silco used to need. “Same time every day. Big baby couldn’t do it ‘imself.” Nostalgia colored her tone, as she continued to fiddle with the pieces of the syringe.
Sevika dropped the bottle she was presumably going to use as a weapon and sighed deeply. “Couldn’t do much himself” she said. Jinx made a noise of assent, familiar with the way Silco would use people.
“About now he’d have me all over the Lanes running his collections.” Sevika said.
“Building his weapons.” Jinx added.
“Making his deals.”
“Exploding his enemies.” She scoffed, and curled into herself as the memories threatened to overtake her.
“He dips out, the whole world flips over.” Sevika seethed, then angrily tossed a chair with a wordless yell of fury. “All his plans. Everything we built. The hell we supposed to do now?” She turned to walk towards the desk as Jinx picked up the arm that was basically scrap at this point and held it in the older woman’s direction.
“Watch it all burn.” Jinx said, a lilt of amusement in her voice. No leaders down here worth anything, may as well just ride the fall. She got up and headed to the door, a careless nod thrown in Sevika’s direction. She meandered out into the alley and went back to her aimless roaming.
She found herself at one of her labs, mind blessedly blank while she wandered... Some purpose she couldn’t put a name to had brought her here, and when she entered, her thoughts drifted to Sevika’s arm. For all that they weren’t friends, the woman did deserve better than that piece of scrap she was stuck with. Jinx aimlessly tinkered for a while before her aimlessness took on more and more purpose. Eventually ending in a rather brilliant piece of work tailored to exactly the kind of person she knew Sevika to be laid out in front of her.
I guess I care about her more than I thought. She hummed to herself while she wrapped the arm and tied it with a bow. Hands on her hips, she stared down at the gift-wrapped arm in satisfaction. That old hag is going to feel like the luckiest woman alive. Or at least she better. She thought with amusement.
There was a sudden whoosh and Jinx, survival instincts somehow intact even though her active thoughts generally ended in ‘wish I were dead,’ leapt into the rafters with her gift for Sevika held tightly in her arms. What followed was what Jinx would later describe as “a personalized fucking hell” if anyone had cared to ask her. Being given up on by the sister you loved more than anything else was bad enough, but it was barely survivable; being hunted down by her with her topsider lover was a level of pain Jinx didn’t even know existed. Especially when it seemed any amount of collateral was worth it for them. How many people down here are suffering now because they released the grey just for me?
After several tense minutes and many close calls, she got out. She made it out safely. Sobs wracked her body, and every thought turned towards wondering why she kept surviving, what process in her body drove her towards life when she really just wanted to die. But she was alive. Sevika’s new arm clutched to her chest, tears making her makeup run, and then some fucking rat got in her face talking big about how much she’s worth alive.
Then Sevika was there-saving her sorry life, and Jinx had to try again, couldn’t let Sevika suffer for her for no reason. She dashed towards the older woman deftly snagging the new arm and tossing it, as she reached out and caught her own gun that Sevika had thrown. She watched Sevika attach the arm, and when the look she got in return said ‘Really?’ All she had to offer was a crooked smile and a shrug. Then she was dodging the two-bit thug using her shimmer and planning her next move when a glitter grenade came flying in towards the dipshit with a fancy arm. She took the time during his moment of distraction to reload her pistol and pointed it towards his head, waiting until he saw his end coming to pull the trigger.
In the distance the kid from earlier looked on in curiosity. Kid’s mighty helpful to someone she doesn’t even know Jinx thought, but something about the way she didn’t (couldn’t?) talk and the way she avoided eye contact was kind of endearing so Jinx threw her a finger gun and then turned to watch Sevika use her new arm to ruins that rat's fucking day.
She danced a little when her theme song came on, ignoring Sevika’s look of exasperation. Her eyebrows raised in appreciation when Sevika hit a mean right hook, maybe I haven’t been giving her enough credit Jinx thinks. She glanced at the kid that had sidled up next to her and knelt down to her level to watch the show with her. Sevika let loose a kick-ass one-liner and when she pulled the lever of the slot machine built into the arm again it landed on first the middle YES then the left, which seemed to make even the kid make a noise of interest, and finally the right half of the grin. That Smeech guy had never been in so many places at once, he should be thanking Sevika really.
The kid seemed kinda bothered and bumped into her when the gore splashed all over them and Jinx threw her an appraising look, is this the end of the line? Is she grossed out enough by our messy lives that she’ll give up following me? She focused back on Sevika “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Moron never could keep his damn mouth shut” Sevika said.
Jinx chuckled, but something was bothering her “You coulda just let me eat it.” She says, unable to keep the slight admiration from her voice.
“Haven’t I done you enough favors?” Sevika retorts, and fair enough, it was a good line when Jinx said it. “I didn’t ask you for this.” Sevika gestured with the highly tuned arm Jinx had made.
“It was something I could fix” Jinx says, and she can’t keep the yearning for something more from her voice. But she’d meet her end soon enough. No more hope for her, the end of the line was approaching.
“You got that look in your eye again… What are you planning?” Sevika asks. Ever the suspicious hag. But it’s kept her alive so Jinx supposes there isn’t much blame she could lay on the older woman.
Jinx doesn’t hesitate to reply “To finish what’s left of my family” because how could Sevika know that meant Jinx dies, and Vi lives, and fuck the rest.