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Ekko sat on the edge of a dilapidated rooftop, the chaotic sprawl of Zaun stretching out beneath him. The city was alive with its usual cacophony of sounds—clattering machinery, distant shouting, and the ever-present hum of pipes—but none of it reached him. His world had gone silent.
Jinx was gone.
The faint scent of smoke still clung to his jacket from the explosion. Her explosion. Her final explosion. She had always said she wanted to go out with a bang. He’d never thought she meant it literally.
It was disorienting. Everything was after he pushed the Z-drive beyond its limits. It felt like time itself was seeking revenge on him, blurring his vision and making his steps slow and heavy.
But that wasn’t the only punishment Ekko would receive that day.
He doesn’t remember where he was when Vi found him, a grim look on her face. A look that held decades of grieving families she would never get back. He doesn’t remember the words she told him either. Doesn’t remember if her voice cracked or if it was steady as she told him that her sister was dead.
That Jinx is dead.
He couldn’t believe it, didn’t want to believe it. The boy savior, and yet he couldn’t save the one person who needed his saving the most.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her wild grin, her electric blue hair whipping in the wind as she danced on the edge of chaos, daring anyone to follow her.
Everywhere he looked, he saw her.
The faded graffiti on the walls—they had once been hers. The jagged letters, the messy shapes, all sprayed in shades of blue. The flicker of neon signs in the undercity alleys—they cast a pale azure glow that reminded him of her eyes. Even the shimmered sky above Zaun seemed to taunt him, streaked with traces of cobalt as the polluted clouds churned.
She was the blue that colored the sky on happier days. The blue that poured rain on him when his heart pulled and ached. The blue at the bottom of a cup that he hoped would wash that pain away. The blue that hugged and held him when the day was over. The blue that teased and danced with him in his dreams. The blue that looked up at him with an innocent smile in his memories. The blue at the side of his vision, taunting him to run after her— go after the ghost he knew would never stop chasing him.
Jinx had always been a storm wrapped in that vibrant hue. It was her color. Her chaos. Her essence.
Now, blue was all he had left.
But blue wasn’t always chaos. Once, it was hope.
When they were kids, blue had been the color of their bright dreams and wild schemes. It was the color of the ribbon she tied in her hair, back when she was still Powder. Before life twisted her into Jinx and left him as the Boy Who Shattered Time, forever trying to fix a world that refused to be fixed.
And now, without her, that world felt even more broken.
Ekko pulled a small, battered trinket from his pocket—a scrap of metal fashioned into a crude charm. Jinx made it for him hours before they went into what would become her final battle. Blue paint flaked off its surface. It was the only thing he had left of her.
Unless you count all the memories and kisses they shared in the quiet of the night. A warmth that has been taken away from him, leaving him shivering in the everlasting winter of his life.
The wind picked up, rustling the debris around him. A shard of glass caught the light, refracting a bright, piercing blue into his eyes. He flinched, his heart lurching. For a moment, he thought he saw her, standing just out of reach, her silhouette framed by the impossible glow.
But when he blinked, she was gone.
The city was gray again.
Ekko stared at the charm in his hand, a tear slipping down his cheek. He cried for Powder, he cried for Jinx, he cried for the girl who looked at him bloodied on that bridge, big blue eyes shining with pain for the last time, he cried for the woman he had to watch die five times before she finally listened to what he had to say.
He cried for the lover who felt her life was only ever worth being a sacrifice.
The color blue lingered, a constant reminder of her chaos, her brilliance, and the void she left behind.
Jinx was his blue but he failed to be hers.
So a life spent aching for that color was the cruelest punishment time could have given him.