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Zaun was a place of poverty, pollution, and shady characters around every corner. People could barely get food on the table, kids didn’t have access to schools, doctors and medicine were insanely expensive and hard to see. Streets were filthy, and the air even more so. Yet, Ekko loved it here.
His childhood wasn’t ideal, but that goes for everyone in Zaun. He had to work a lot, because his parents had to work a lot. Dinner was always short due to the exhaustion of the entire family. His spare time was spent fixing technology and inventing gadgets from scrap metal instead of playing games and reading comic books. The only books he read were educational ones–manuals and instruction books and textbooks so he could learn how to fix things at Benzo’s better. Hanging out with his friends usually meant they would end up running away to avoid being beaten into pulp. Still, Ekko looks back on his childhood fondly.
Despite its problems, Zaun was home.
He was well aware of the problems his city had–everyone was. But, Ekko knew it could be better. Until it could be better, he wanted to make Zaun the best it could be. That’s why he started the Firelights. Ekko knew that someone had to defend the undercity–to make sure its’ citizens were as safe as possible until bigger changes could happen. He cared too much about his community, his city, his friends, to sit and do nothing.
The tree became his new home.
Just like the tree, Ekko felt so rooted in Zaun. Linked to everyone in the city, he had to work hard for them. The “them” of the present, and the past. Everyone that was lost deserved to see a better Zaun, too. He had history here. Rooted farther down that he probably even realized himself. It wasn’t perfect, but it was his. And he would never leave–never for good. This tree, this city, was his safe place.
That’s why he brought Jinx here.
Even though the sun was down, it still seemed to shine bright by the tree. Maybe Ekko was imagining it, but he swore it was always the golden hour here. Things seemed cozy, comforting, and warm–even if the situation was anything but.
Shimmer was rampant amongst the undercity, and each day the air seemed harder to breathe in. Fist fights broke out more often than when he was a kid, and Vi seemed to pick them out more than she would pick what to wear every day. Pickpockets ran amok for chump change, but it made all the difference for most people. The gap between the upper and under cities grew wider by the day. It was overwhelming Ekko.
Sighing, Ekko rolled his head back, staring up at the sky. The tree’s foliage blocked any light, real or artificial, from peeking down into the slums. His head was full of thoughts, both good and bad, but mostly bad. So much needed to be done to help Zaun, but there was only so much he could do. Even with the Firelights, only a handful of people could do so much. An entire population up above contributed to how awful life could be down here. What was he going to do?
“Hey, space cadet.”
Jinx’s voice broke him out of his thoughts. Lazily, he rolled his head over to face her. He was met with her signature scowl, her unbraided her covering her torso like a blanket.
“What’s going on with you?” she asked, venom in her voice. Ekko knew better. He knew her genuine concern was laced underneath her sass.
“Do you ever think about how different things could be? Should be?” he asked her.
She didn’t answer right away, her face not changing from her scowl. Before replying, she shifted to lying on her back, mirroring Ekko, her loose hair fanning around her figure.
“Thinking about it doesn’t change anything.”
“I know, but, sometimes you just can’t help but think about it, right?”
Jinx scoffed, avoiding Ekko’s eyes. All she did was think. Think about the past, if she didn’t fuck up this, if she didn’t fuck up that, if she didn’t go with Silco that day, if she was more competent at her job. It didn’t change a damn thing. But she constantly was thinking, too. She hated it.
“What are you saying?” she asked outright.
Ekko took in a deep breath, his eyes lowering to the painting he did of Powder years ago. She was still there, wasn’t she? If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t be here right now. Even if she was Jinx now, she came here. That had to mean something, didn’t it? He hoped it did.
“Just thinking about how different things could be makes me angry about how things aren’t like that already.”
There was a pause between them. Neither of them looked at the other. Ekko’s eyes were fixated on the painted mural, while Jinx’s traced the patterns in the leaves stories above them.
“Are you upset about what they’re like now?” she asked.
Her voice came out hoarse, broken. It caught Ekko off guard. He hadn’t heard her talk like that in years. She would only croak like that when she was on the verge of a meltdown after a particularly hurtful comment from Mylo. There was no way she felt like that now. Jinx toughened up a lot since her childhood days. Back then, she was as meek as a mouse. Now? She had the bite of a shark, the hunger of a wild cheetah, the aura of a crow–dangerous, ominous, an omen of bad luck coming your way. Something like this wouldn’t make her crack. She was too strong to crack.
“Not everything,” he admitted.
Pausing again, he turned to face Jinx. Her eyes still were towards the sky, her under eyes deep and grey. Hallowed cheeks, and her incredibly pale skin made her seem even more tired than she was. He tried to read her face, but he didn’t know her the way he did as a kid. They were both different now. Forced to change to survive. Even though Ekko didn’t know who she was now, he could still tell there was something underneath the face she put on. He noticed her tightened jaw, the slight furrow of her brow, the way her eyes seemed a little too fixated on the same spot.
Swallowing, Ekko turned on his side, cradling his head as he stared at her. How could she still be so breathtaking all these years later? Even with his sickly look, he couldn’t get enough of her. She was deranged, homicidal, and could turn on him at any moment. But, he felt something. He had no reason to be on edge right now. Her new reputation and trigger happy tendencies didn’t cross his mind. Ekko knew she wouldn’t pull any stunts. Somehow, he just did, and he couldn’t explain it at all.
“I regret how we grew apart,” he started, feeling the heat rise to his face. “I regret that we had to become enemies. There wasn’t a day that I didn’t think about you, whether it was the old you, or the current you.”
He stopped, gauging a reaction, any reaction, from her. Yet, she stayed the same. She didn’t move a muscle, not even her pupils moving from their focus point.
“That night on the bridge, I was so blinded by what happened to my friends, to everyone in Zaun. When you left and started working for Silco, I didn’t want to believe it. You were my best friend. Growing up, I was always more willing to start a fight than you were. You always sat in the corners with me, trying not to let Mylo’s teasing get to you. You would always quietly show me your inventions, because you knew that I wouldn’t make fun of you, or say stuff about them not working. I didn’t want to believe that the same quiet, smart, creative person I knew back then started moving shimmer around the slums. After a while, seeing all the damage you caused, I couldn’t pretend anymore. You changed. Even changed your name.”
Still, she remained unmoving. Her jaw was still tight, her body looking relaxed until you looked closer and realized how tense she was.
“Anything else, Captain Obvious?” she spat.
“But I saw you that night,” he continued, ignoring her anger. “I really saw you. I looked into your eyes and saw the same girl from back then. The same girl I thought I lost.”
Ekko heard Jinx’s breathing change. She kept her angry facade, but he knew his words were getting to her. He knew she was listening.
“Jinx, you changed. But everyone does. Even me.”
Finally, she turned her gaze back to Ekko, her eyes tired. They shined so bright. How could they look so dull despite that? Her undereyes were matching the deep purple of her lipstick, and her once full cheeks were so hollow. If her body didn’t somehow still have warmth to it, Ekko could’ve sworn he was talking to a ghost.
“You do good things, Ekko,” she breathed out, her voice hoarse, distant. “You haven’t changed at all.”
“There’s still time to,” he countered. “I’ve changed in ways you would never imagine-”
“You still didn’t follow through on finishing the job.”
Ekko paused, caught off guard by her statement. His brow furrowed, perplexed. “You said no-”
“And you stopped before that.”
She scowled again, her eyes growing angry. Genuinely angry.
“If you changed, you would’ve killed me. But you’re still the same ol’ Boy Savior you’ve always been. Why didn’t you kill me, Ekko?”
“Because you haven’t changed, either!”
Jinx gasped, her face curling in on itself. She was pissed.
“The old me is gone,” she stated firmly. “I’m not Powder anymore-”
“Then why did I see her on the bridge?”
His retort left her speechless. Her mouth agape, her visage was still furious, even more so now that she couldn’t argue back at him. They both knew. Even for a few seconds, they traveled back in time and were their old selves again on the bridge. That game was all muscle memory, like no time had passed at all. Both adults now, they still had that tenderness inside them. They just had to protect it better now.
Realizing she couldn’t argue with him, she huffed and turned her back to him. All he saw was blue. She was covered in her own hair, like she was a kid hiding under her blanket. Maybe she did change. As a kid, she was never this stubborn.
Hesitating, Ekko scooted his body closer to hers, close enough where he could reach out to touch her shoulder. When his hand touched her body, she flinched, her arm immediately curling around to smack him. It hurt, but he kept it to himself.
“Jinx,” he started, his voice gentle. Ekko didn’t even know what to say. How would he convince her that things can be different for her? For them? For Zaun?
“You don’t know Jinx, Ekko,” she said.
“Can I get to know her?”
Turning around, her magenta eyes–he still wasn’t used to that–shot him a judgemental look. Could she trust him right now? She hasn’t been able to trust anyone in years. The only one she could trust was dead, his body at the bottom of the ocean.
“No,” she replied. “But I won’t blow you up–for now.”
Ekko took that as a victory. He smiled to himself, and rolled onto his back, staring up at the tree again. Jinx mirrored him and did the same. The summer heat wasn’t unbearable, for once. It was familiar, encompassing the two in an embrace that told them they were always welcomed here.
Despite its problems, Zaun was home.
The firelights thought so, too.
Dozens of the insects seemingly joined out of nowhere, giving the tree an ethereal glow. For the rest of the night, Jinx and Ekko laid in silence, coexisting in an in-between. They weren’t friends, far from it. But, that muscle memory was there. It existed right now, among the firelights, the very symbol Ekko named his movement after. Yet, the all too familiar scene they were in felt completely different now. This was nowhere near the same summer nights they shared under the stars as children. They used to stay up all night sharing secrets and jokes. Now? They might as well have been strangers. But that was impossible. Too much history was between them to be strangers. So, they existed as enemies.
But do enemies share a still moment such as this?
Regardless, the two stayed still, silent. The rest of the night was calm, cordial. Ekko hadn’t even realized he drifted to sleep until he woke to the sun shining beacons into his eyes, the space next to him now devoid of that blue he adored since his childhood days.
He knew she would be back.
Zaun was her home, too.