Chapter Text
* * *
Worry.
There were two things in Silco’s life that he worried over. One was Zaun, and the other . . . his daughter.
Jinx.
Jinx, hurt by her sister so long ago.
Jinx, fraying at the seams from her sister’s return.
Jinx, nearly dead from an explosion on the bridge.
Jinx, who was gone before Silco even woke up.
Silco hurried through the streets. He needed to see her, embrace her, feel her heart beating and know she still lived. She hadn’t come to him before the meeting with Jayce, and he gave her space. After he tried to kill her sister without even telling her . . . well, she wanted some. And he didn’t want to force it.
But then . . . then she’d went to the bridge. Killed over a dozen enforcers, fought the best friend of her childhood and her very own sister.
Almost died doing so.
Seeing her on Singed’s table, so limp . . . he’d felt her heart, fluttering so weakly. She barely breathed . . .
But she’d live.
She had to live.
And Silco had to see her. Had to know.
His thoughts were running in fragmented circles, set in a spiral from meeting the Man of Progress and hearing his deal.
To give up Jinx . . .
No.
Never.
He’d decided in an instant, a decision that nearly broke him.
To sacrifice the hope of Zaun for a single person-
No, no! It was a wretched deal. In exchange for freedom, he’d steal from us the tools to protect it. To defend it!
The whole thing could be simply be a ploy. I don’t think Jayce is capable of it, but Medarda certainly is . . . and her mother is even more capable . . .
There were many reasons to not accept the deal, all of which Silco could hide the truth behind. But his feet told the truth as they carried him through the darkened streets.
Until, for a mere moment, he hesitated.
Silco looked down one street, and in the distance stood the statue of Vander. Originally, Silco wanted him tall and proud, fists raised toward the heavens in defiance . . . but that wasn’t who Vander chose to be in the end. And some part of Silco had to respect it, despite the man’s many failures.
He didn’t protect Zaun.
He didn’t protect his people.
He didn’t protect his children.
I’ll do the last, at least.
And I will never give up on the first.
So Silco pressed on. And he would keep doing so, step by step, until he was dead or Zaun was free -and Jinx was there to see it. Turning down the deal didn’t mean turning his back on his home. It just meant he’d have to find another way.
Perhaps I must sabotage hextech . . . perhaps I must steal hexgems for Jinx to use.
I will have my home and my family, no matter what it takes.
It was a deep, burning promise. One made so deeply and truly that it touched his soul. And with Jinx’s brilliance, it just might occur . . . but before any of that, he needed to see her again.
Needed to make sure she was alive.
In comparison, nothing else truly mattered.
When faced with the thought of losing Jinx, betraying her in that way . . . Silco didn’t truly want to speak to a statue! He wanted his daughter.
Nothing else would do.
Nothing at all.
And so his mind continued its circles.
* * *
The voices were louder.
Jinx couldn’t take it.
“Jinx! Jinx! Jinx!”
It sounded like the screams of a crow.
Not constant, but she heard it.
“They’re right,” Mylo snarled. “It’s all you are!”
When she went topside, broke into the fancy Piltie manor and no birds were around-
“Jinx! Jinx! Jinx!”
Her brain felt like scrambled eggs, but not done eggs -not yet.
No, her brain was still being cooked, and Jinx felt the heat of it like a furnace inside of her.
“You should burn!” Mylo growled. “For what you did!”
Hot, hot, too hot.
When she’d had the Piltie girl over her shoulder, bringing her down under.
When she saw a passing group of enforcers, eyes searching on patrol.
When she felt the danger-
Heat.
And a pink haze settled over the world.
Time sped up while slowing to a crawl, and the voices were drowned out by her blood pounding in her ears.
She hadn’t killed the enforcers -she didn’t care about them.
She had her prize.
And she was going home.
But when the pink had passed-
“Jinx! Jinx! Jinx!”
The next crow she saw, she shot.
It wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last.
The Piltie girl was tied to the chair in a building whose sight made Jinx’s mind burn with memories.
“It’s all your fault!” Mylo barked. “All of it!”
Jinx couldn’t stay, of course.
The party still needed another guest.
But . . . she couldn’t do it.
It was too much.
“And that’s okay, Powder.”
It was a voice she heard only rarely, and only at her worst.
The heat, the scribbles across her vision, the-
“Jinx! Jinx! Jinx!”
She couldn’t take it.
“You’re too weak!” Mylo bullied. “Not strong enough!”
“You’re strong enough, Powder, you can do this.”
The voice, again, that Jinx loved and hated in equal measure.
Vi.
She was there in the darkest moments, when Jinx had no one else. She helped Jinx keep pushing forward . . . and made Jinx’s feelings towards the real Vi even more confused.
But there was only one person who made the voices calm, who made everything calm, and Jinx had caught a glimpse of him.
For a moment, he was her whole vision, and Jinx could see the slump in his shoulders. How his eyes were downcast and troubled. How his stride was weary and resigned.
Jinx followed, and in another time, she would’ve followed him to a statue of Vander . . . where she would hear him speak, and think that he was going to betray her by turning her over to Piltover. But Silco didn’t go to the statue of Vander this time.
Instead, Silco walked through the undercity with another place in mind.
Long ago, Silco had taken Jinx to a massive fan that hung like an icicle over a chasm full of fissure gases. The fan had existed to pull the gases up, and disperse them into the atmosphere -thus raising the undercity’s air quality. They’d broken down before the infamous Bridge Massacre, and in fact were one of the reasons of the renewed push for independence that resulted in the Bridge Massacre -and the Discord that led up to it. And Silco wanted Jinx to fix it.
Jinx had started to . . . but soon enough, she grew attached to it, luxuriating in having a place away from the Last Drop and the painful memories there. A place that was hers, where she could tinker and play music and be away from anyone else.
When Silco found out that Jinx didn’t fix the fan and wasn’t going to, he was irate at first. But she seemed so happy there, and afraid that it would be taken away, that Silco couldn’t deny her.
Silco always remembered it at the first time he’d chosen between what Jinx wanted and was best for Zaun. So, after coming to the resolution he had . . . it was fitting that he would return there. Besides, he wanted to see the person he was giving everything up for. After all, Jinx wasn’t doing well the last time he’d seen her, and he wanted to check on her.
Of course, Jinx herself knew none of that.
Instead, she watched and followed as Silco moved across the undercity . . . and could guess at where he was going.
“He only comes there when he’s angry at you,” Mylo muttered. “You messed up again!”
Jinx shook her head -it wasn’t like that. He came to her when there was something important, not when he was angry.
“But you always screw up important things!” Mylo pointed out. “So he’s always angry!”
“You’re lying,” Vi accused. “He loves her!”
Vi’s right. Jinx thought to herself, shaking her head. He loves me!
“So did Vi,” Mylo snarled. “Did.”
She left me . . .
The memories came in flashes.
Vi, the Piltie girl, and Ekko heading across the bridge. The goodbye hug -too long. Then Vi left them, went back to the undercity.
Jinx knew what it meant. Vi had gotten the hexgem back to Piltover, and was turning back to find her -why else would she turn back? Why?
“To kill Silco,” Mylo growled. “He deserves it.”
No, to find me! Jinx wanted to believe that was why. Wanted with all her heart.
Then . . . the gunshot.
And Vi turned back, because the hexgem or Caitlyn or Ekko or something was more important to her than Jinx was.
Jinx had already released the explosive butterflies -she had as soon as Vi left. After all, Jinx didn’t care about the lives of the enforcers, the Piltie girl, or Ekko. So by the time Jinx saw Vi running back, she couldn’t stop them . . . not that she was sure she wanted to.
Then . . . the moment their eyes met. Gray and gray, with Caitlyn’s arm over Vi’s shoulders.
But suddenly Vi wasn’t even there anymore. It was only Caitlyn, her face twisting into monstrous mockery and Vi wasn’t there to chase away the monsters so Jinx did what she did best and fired.
Then Ekko was suddenly there, and he took the case that he thought had the hexgem in it, throwing it to Caitlyn and Vi.
He told them to go.
And Vi did.
She left me . . .
She went with Caitlyn! To Piltover! With the hexgem!
Of course, she didn’t actually have the hexgem, but she thought she did, and-
“That’s all she cares about,” Mylo snarled. “Caitlyn and the hexgem -not you. Why would she care about a jinx? Now that she knows what you really are.”
Jinx growled to herself and shook her head, waving her arm behind her to dispel the ghosts that were looking over her shoulders.
“Protect yourself, Powder,” Vi urged. “Keep yourself safe.”
Jinx planned to. In fact, she had a plan to . . . because even after all of that, after Vi left her again, Jinx was willing to give her a third chance. Maybe it’s just the hexgem. Maybe it’s just about that.
Vi had once told Powder that Powder was the most important thing in the world to her. That as long as they were together, things would be alright.
I’ll see what her words are worth soon. Jinx promised herself. She’ll choose between her precious Caitlyn and me. I’ll see if I really do matter to her.
After all, Caitlyn was just a Piltie princess enforcer at the end of the day. Exactly the kind of person that Vi and Powder had always hated. Precisely the kind of person that Vi’d said would make the undercity better off if they were dead.
“But she left you . . . for her,” Mylo pointed out viciously. “For her! Because she hates you even more than the worst of Piltover!”
I’ll see soon enough!
She had everything ready but Vi herself -oh, and she still had to pick up Fishbones from her-
Workshop.
They were there.
Silco had come to her laboratory, the massive extractor fan that hung like an icicle over fissure that was so choked with smog that the bottom couldn’t be seen.
And Silco was looking around, casting his gaze about for a head of electric blue hair.
“Jinx!” the crow screamed.
Jinx froze up, because it was Silco who opened his mouth, then-
“Jinx?” Silco called softly. “Are you here?”
Jinx was.