Chapter Text
The flame burned a stark blue before dying out with a quiet woosh . Another flick, the smell of gas, light, and then nothing. Over and over again.
“You haven’t visited in a long time, Jinx.”
Quiet sobbing, crumbling tunnels caving all around, red purple red red red dripping down down dow-
“I’ve been busy. Or did you not get my last note?”
Friction made the sparks, the click click of gears aligned it in just the right position, the right order, and caused a reaction. It was predictable - expected.
“ Jinx. ”
Silco was not looking up at her, letting the silence of the sealed office speak for itself, waiting for an answer, an explanation . Jinx rubbed a gun-calloused thumb against the engraved pattern of the metal casing, leaning to let a braid hang off the rafters.
“I sent multiple letters over the last two years, and the only response I get is an ‘ I’m alive’ - dated last month.” His eloquent tones were tense, stiff with a tempered anger he rarely dared to turn against her.
Jinx hummed, unconcerned with the scolding.
“That’s all you needed to know,” she responded simply.
A loud thump was heard below,
“You claim to serve Zaun, yet you leave us to rot for upward of two years with no explanation or instruction.”
The lighter clicked shut.
Silco didn’t startle at the long-awaited fall, remaining silently expectant from his seat even as paperwork flew off his desk from the impact.
“That’s always been your problem. You always doubt, always question: ‘why are you making friends with outsiders’, ‘why are you taking in the sump rats off the street’, or - my favorite - ‘why are you always gone’.”
Her hand came down hard, lighter clanging hard against the polished wood of the desk. The tattoos on her knuckles seemed to shift, if only minutely, before settling into the tan of her skin.
“You have no faith: not in me or the will of the gods.”
“I believe in what I see. And what I’ve seen shows a lack of care for our people.”
“You lack vision, Silco. Have you not seen me and all of my miracles? Have I not brought clean air to the fissures? Did or did I not help you foster relationships with Piltover?”
The metal in her braids chimed softly as Jinx leaned against Silco’s chair, not reacting to the slight tensing as she handled his injector in plain view. The resignation in Silco’s one good eye was palpable. Jinx had, after all, stolen it sometime last week.
“Haven’t my deals helped you - my allowances, ” she reminded him, deceptively earnest as she pushed her face close to his. One of her leather-clad boots pressed against the chair’s arm, caging him. “Or did you forget that your contract with the Kiramann clan runs through me? ”
A snake’s hold.
“Or that I allow you to keep distributing your poison .”
A blur of motion - and Silco’s head roughly hit the leather backing of his seat.
A choked gasp passed through the older man’s lips before he abruptly forced himself to be quiet. Fingers clamped tightly to his jaw, grip relentless and near unmoveable despite the visible struggle in the minute struggle of his head. It forced a disgruntled Silco to finally look up and meet her steel blue eyes; to face the utter disregard she held for him.
“You’re nervous because you can’t see all the moving parts, the little cogs in the wheel that keep the world spinning.” Jinx laughed a bit, a hint of mocking coming through.
“We’re in the endgame now. And you’re running out of use, Silco,” Jinx remarked, bringing up the needle of the injector and poising it delicately over the mutated golden-black eye. “I suggest you make your peace with it.”
The whistling wind drowned what was left.