Chapter Text
“Ekko?”
Vi’s voice spoke out from the drowning silence that Ekko’s mind was swimming in. Down at the base of the ruined Hexgate. The place where he, Heimerdinger and Jayce fell through the anomaly was where he let his mind, and wishes run free. He knew that what he had done was the right thing, but that didn’t make the loss hurt any less. Ekko came back, to help, to fix things and to hold out his hand to Jinx, so that he wouldn’t let Powder down again.
Ekko was told the search party hadn’t found any traces of Jinx. They suspected she was vaporised in the blast and she had been presumed dead. He had saved her from one death, only to lead her straight into another. Even though Vi had told him how it had happened, how Jinx had-
“Ekko? You alright there? You seem kinda out of it” Vi’s face burst into Ekko’s field of view, pulling him away from his train of thought. He met her eyes, dark circles framing the concern written across them. He looked her up and down, seeing her adorning the black-stained enforcers uniform, and no gloves in sight.
“Yeah, I was just…” He pulls his eyes away from hers, staring longingly at where the anomaly had been. “What if you found a place where things are different?” He looks back at Vi’s face, only seeing the bewilderment looking back at him.
“I don’t get what you’re hinting at Ekko. Look, if you want to walk away from all of this, just tell us. No one is gonna hold it against you personally after all the shit that’s happened. The rebuilding is going to take a lot of work, especially without any fancy magic to help. And it’ll take even longer to fix the problems between Zaun and Piltover. And don’t even get me started on all of the crazy stuff Sevika says the council are planning out-”
Vi’s voice fades off into the background as Ekko’s eyes begin to drift. He glances at his time-travelling machine, his Z-Drive, when he notices the rune moving more, strangely than usual. Usually it pulsates in intervals, but now its erratic movements catch his attention. Vi takes a glance at where Ekko’s attention has wandered to, “Should it be doing that?”
“I don’t know. It’s usually kept in a stabilised state, I don’t see what could be reacting with-” Ekko’s eyes dart around, searching desperately.
“Ekko, what is that thing doing?”
“I don’t know! The last time it did that was when Heimerdinger and I used it to-err” Ekko pauses, not knowing if he should tell Vi about the alternate dimension he fell into. “To what Ekko?” Vi’s increasingly panicked stare, is aimed at the Z-Drive, which has begun pulsating at an even more erratic state, and its form drastically alters with every beat.
“I don’t have the time to explain everything right now! All you need to know is if we can’t find out what’s making it react this way, then we won’t be in this world anymore”
“What! You mean that thing is going to kill us?” The space around them has begun to warp, reality folds into twos and threes, crushing inwards and expanding outwards.
“No! I mean, maybe? Who knows what kind of alternate world we’ll be pulled into!”
Time has begun to accelerate and decelerate at varying frequencies. Shapes and colours take the appearance of a kaleidoscope, and Ekko can feel it. There is no going back. He reaches to grab a hold of Vi, wishing that they fall into the same place, at the same time.
“Alternate world! What do you mean alternat-”
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Today marks 12 days since Ekko fell asleep and won’t wake up. After the blast of light, and the appearance of two different Ekkos, Powder doesn’t know what to think. At first she was scared, then confused, then angry, then sad and then everything all at once. She knew something had been up since that day she visited Ekko and he had thrown things at her. Her suspicions were only confirmed as she spent the first few days after Ekko wouldn’t wake up pouring over his and Heimerdinger’s notes. She had always known that Ekko was smart, a boy genius even, but this was far beyond anything she had ever seen him work on before. She could not wrap her head around anything that was written.
There had been two Ekkos, and now one of them is gone, and the other won’t wake up, even after all of Vander and Silco’s attempts. Benzo had been beside himself for days. He was trying desperately to stay strong, but even Vander was having a rough time getting through to him recently.
Trying to get any information out of Heimerdinger had proved entirely fruitless as well. Anytime that Vander attempted to question him, he would only reply with vague statements and philosophical quotes about the danger of power and what it can do to the wrong people. Vander thought he was full of it, Silco thought the same, but was more inclined to think that there was some hidden meaning to his words. At first, Powder thought he had gone crazy from the blast, but after reading through his research, she thought that he was just crazy all along. And yet he was right about something, somewhere.
And so here Powder was, 12 days later. After crying (a lot) trying to understand the entire scope of their weird project she decided to just take things one step at a time. She worked methodically through their notes, replicating bits and pieces to try and recreate what they had done, to bring something back to Ekko. The machine looked close enough to what she had seen and what they had drawn. She was close to something, she knew it.
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Vander was worried about Powder. He had wanted her to feel passionate about something of her own for the longest time, but these circumstances were… strange. The last time Vander had seen Ekko, he had been with Powder, dancing and happy. And now Ekko is teetering on who knows what edge, and Powder has become obsessed with the machine that caused all of this. From what Vander could tell, she believed that this machine could undo what had happened. He had his doubts, but if Powder was so certain to bet everything on that machine to figure out what happened to Ekko, Vander was here to help her no matter what.
So now here he was, on lunch duty, bringing Powder food, else she’d forget to leave and eat again. Vander knocks softly on the door to Powder’s workshop.
“Powder? Can I come in?” A soft mumbled reply came from behind the door, and Vander slowly pushed the door to see the unravelling chaos within the workshop. All sorts of machine parts and trinkets are strewn across the floor, blueprints haphazardly plaster to walls. Powder sits in the same spot that Vander had seen her in last, her breakfast plate wiped clean, and a screwdriver left in the center of it.
“How’s it going with the err- thing?” Powder’s head turns to face Vander, and she pulls her goggles down to see him.
“I think it’s going well? Nothing’s blown up in my face yet, and I’m nearly at the end of all the notes they left.” Vander continues towards Powder, his large frame trying its best to navigate the mess of her workshop. When he stops behind her, he peers over her shoulder to see the wild array of wires from this morning had since been re-organised and placed intentionally. Despite this, he still cannot help but worry about Powder. Silco says that they should just sit back and trust her, and that she’ll figure it out in her own time, but what if it doesn’t work out?
“Say Powder, are you sure that this will work first time? Is there anything else that you could try?”
Powder turns back to look back at her machine. “We’ll find out soon! Care to stay and join?”
Vander places the plate on the small amount of free space he can find and takes a seat. “I wouldn’t miss it.” After a bit more fiddling, and a few quiet curses something clicks into place and a soft whirring noise can be heard. The platform begins to glow white, and the objects in the room begin to shake. “Is that meant to happen? Is this safe?” Vander makes his way towards Powder, to pull her back from that machine. A brighter white light begins to emit from the platform, the space around it distorting and fracturing. “I think this is what's supposed to happen, at least, this seems like what’s described in the notes.”
The items in the room begin to shake even more violently, the light becomes blinding, before a part of it splinters off towards Ekko, still fracturing the space around it. His body floats just above the sofa he was resting on. Powder tries to run towards him, but Vander holds her back. He will not let this hurt her. Vander closes his eyes, holding Powder’s face away from the light before. He waits for a moment in anticipation before crashing and clanging forces him to open his eyes to see what had happened.
There on the floor was Ekko, stirring in his unconscious state, something he hadn’t done in days. And just to the right of him was a young rugged woman, faded black streaks through her hair. She tilts her head to look up,
“Vander?”