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“...someone worth building it for.”
She stayed still then.
Maybe something, someone existed outside the cavern then, outside the overbearing scent of axel grease dripping from every loose bolt on her workbench behind her, outside a girl so willing to toss what scraps of her were left into the fire to keep her sister warm.
But it didn’t matter much to him. There could’ve been rustling outside. Probably something closer to hysteria. The only sound he let himself hear is the soft blinking of the monkey’s eyes in her hand.
Tick, tick, tick…
He knew then. Clearer than he'd ever known anything. One wrong move and he’ll lose her forever.
Again.
Focus, Ekko thought to himself, ignoring the twinge in his gut telling him he was already too late. She's depending on you.
Ekko doubled back then.
Jinx flinched at the sudden movement, but her hands stayed clutched around the monkey’s forehead. Away from the ring.
“I’m fine,” he choked out, to nobody in particular. Jinx crooked her eyebrow. She stayed quiet.
He was failing again. He could feel it.
Oh, Janna. He always failed. He always will.
He balanced himself on the railing. He looked up at her. Her thumb was moving back toward the string dangling from the monkey’s neck.
Don't you dare, he wanted to say, but he knew well enough what that would do. And he wouldn't be sure if he could make the round trip for a fifth time. Because he was weak. Because he broke things.
He gave her the tip. He burnt the shimmer. He went after the rune. So many missteps. He couldn’t make another.
One more false move. That’s all it’ll take. If he misses the cable of the drive, she’s gone. If he falls with her, she’s gone. If…
Ekko stumbled back a second time. Then a third. Jinx turned to face him.
“Ekko…?” she mumbled.
“Please, just… don’t…”
Ekko’s fourth step backward led his leg to buckle. He collapsed.
A streak of violet shimmered across the steel. Ekko thought he was seeing things at first. Everything was blurring around him regardless. Then his eyes adjusted in the dark. Jinx had made it from where she was standing to kneel above him in less than a second.
She had caught him.
No. She couldn’t have.
Dark streaks ran down from her violet eyes that shone a gentle glow in the dark of her home. Her face was as expressionless as it was moments before when she jumped off the ledge. Moments ago when she shredded her face open.
Four times.
“You’re not okay,” Jinx mumbled.
“Makes two of us,” Ekko whispered.
He looked back at her eyes. They were quiet. Docile. When did she become so lifeless?
“Ekko…”
“What did they do to you?” he muttered. He wasn’t sure if it was supposed to sound vindictive. It sounded more like a plea.
Jinx didn’t answer. Her eyes seemed to darken as she mindlessly began brushing her thumb against his hair. She didn’t move from where she was above him. He realized he didn’t want her to.
“You're alive,” she spoke softly. She let the fact seep into the depths of her. “You’re real.”
“Yeah. I'm real.”
Jinx looked at the drive nestled under his right arm. He could see her think. Putting two and two together. “It’s hurting you.”
You’re hurting me, he wanted to say. He bit down on his tongue until he could taste copper.
“I’m okay,” Ekko said eventually. He pulled himself upward - off Jinx’s knee - only to collapse onto the cold steel. He could feel her fingers reaching for his back.
It was second nature to him now, pulling away from her. He grabbed her wrist. “ Don’t… touch me.”
Ekko stared up at her. Jinx seethed in quiet restraint ever-so-slightly. He was glad. That was the first sign of life he’d seen from her since he’d materialized.
But then his eyes drifted to her gloved hand outstretched in front of him, to the gap between two pairs of fingers, and everything decent vanished again, like it always did. When she saw where his eyes drifted to, she jerked her hand free from his grip. But it was too late. The damage was done.
There was no going back now.
Ekko looked at her. But she wouldn’t meet his eyes.
Powder, Ekko thought. Look at me.
“You have to rest,” she said.
“No. Not until… not until I know you’re…’till you’re not gonna…”
Another wave of disorientation struck him all at once. His vision began to blur again.
“No, no, please. No, no, no, no…”
You know what she'll do if you pass out now.
“Ekko, calm down.”
“No, please. I can’t. I just… need to stay awake a little longer.”
“There's no point."
Everything began spinning. Ekko fell to his knees. His overalls tore against the rust of the eroding steel below him. He looked up at Jinx. She was facing him now. Watching as his energy drained out of him. Another feeling flashed across her face.
Fear. Fear of losing someone else.
Ekko wanted her to snap back into hate. He didn’t come here to be pitied. He steeled himself as best he could. Shoulders up, eyes burning into hers. But it was no use. He looked like any other terrified boy wandering the streets of Zaun. Slipping into hell after clawing his way out of heaven.
Ekko could feel Jinx’s eyes on his. His heart began screaming. He hated the way she looked at him. Like she was… sorry. He didn’t want it. She just needed one thing from her. She needed to know.
“Please, Powder…”
“Stop.”
She flinched at her name. Ekko wished he could pull the cable again. But he kept going.
“I can’t lose you… I can’t lose you again.”
And then he fell.
Tears slid down his cheek and onto the cold steel floor. The rust scraped against his forehead as he continued to push upward but her hands gently pulled him back down. She didn’t have to try very hard.
She was enhanced. He knew that now. But she still felt frail. Strangely delicate. Even has her fingers tangled around his overall buckle and her arm slid across his back. Strong enough to lift someone nearly twice her weight, but not strong enough to keep going.
He could feel her pull him off the ground.
She carried him toward a cloth tent at the edge of the propeller blade. Or maybe she dragged him. He wasn’t sure. He tried to fight her at first. Fight the impulse to give in to someone he had spent the better part of a decade learning to hate.
But Ekko was weak. No one knew that better than Jinx.
If Vi were here, she'd save her. She'd know what to do. She always did.
Why couldn't he get this one thing right?
He became faintly aware of his sobs echoing across the top of the cavern. He didn’t even know he had been crying. The sounds were pathetic. Raw. Coming somewhere beyond what he was or wanted to be aware of.
He knew what would happen if he let go now.
Maybe someone else would come to save her. It doesn’t have to be him. What did he have for her anyway? It could’ve been anyone. From Piltover. From Zaun. It didn’t matter anymore. All he knew was that she had to keep going a little longer. Someone had to come. Someone would hear his cries and save her.
But so many people were crying in Zaun that night.
“You’re beyond help,” he could hear her mutter as she adjusted his helpless form into her nesting place under the tent.
“But you aren’t,” he said in between his desperate gasps for air. “So… stay. Please.”
She stared at him for a moment. Considering. She mindlessly unclipped the monkey from where it had been dangling from her belt. Her thumb fiddled around with the ring. Eyes still blinking. He could tell by the way she fidgeted with the string that she wasn’t thinking twice about what she was doing with her hands. But it was all he could see.
Jinx exhaled and crawled down onto her knees in front of him. She set the monkey down beside her.
Ekko reached out toward the bomb. He needed to toss it. Throw it to the bottom of the pit. His fingers brushed against the blinking eyes before she pulled them away from his reach.
“Not out of the woods yet,” she cooed.
He choked out another sob. His body shuttered against the pillows she laid him on. She shuffled forward across the ground and reached behind him. He was burning, but he could still feel her warmth.
Jinx's hand fiddled behind him before she caught hold of what she had been looking for. She pulled a blanket from the cove behind Ekko. She lay beside him as she draped the cloth across his shivering body. Everything was too warm. He tried to pull it off but her hand met his. It was firm.
He tried to pull away. She wouldn’t let him.
Jinx pulled herself underneath the blanket with him, pressing herself into a careful embrace.
“I know it feels like you’re burning. But you aren’t. You need this.”
He hated himself. He hated himself so much.
She was on the brink. So close to the end. And now she was trying to get him to rest. He had spent his life giving people a chance. Why couldn’t he give one to her right now?
Why her? Why did it always have to be her he let down?
“Please, Jinx… Don’t die. Please don’t die.”
Jinx stared at Ekko’s shivering lips. She moved in closer. Ekko shuttered as she quietly pressed her forehead against his. She ran her forefinger across the line of his jaw. Her thumb brushed against his cheek.
“Is that what you’re afraid of?"
“I’ve always been afraid.”
Tired. So, so tired. If only he could just stay here. Rest for a little.
“I know,” Jinx spoke. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Hm,” she muttered. “Don't think I've heard that one before.”
“You should've. Even if it was.”
Jinx chuckled at that. Ekko was too far gone to return the favor.
“I need you to believe what I’m gonna say next, Boy Savior.” Her voice gently pulled him back to reality, one last time. “Can you do that for me?”
He struggled to nod. The world was fading fast. Everything was nearly gone now. In a few seconds, he’d be asleep. In a few seconds, Jinx would be alone again in a cavern of dead friends and broken dreams.
Bloodshot eyes stared into violet one last time.
Ekko wouldn’t remember much of what happened after the last explosion when he woke up. Hours from now, he’ll awaken as if he’d never been ill. With the drive reset, the people at his call, and a war ahead.
But he’d remember the last thing she said. He always would.
On the last night that it had been true.
“I’ll be here when you wake up.”