Chapter Text
The longer Ekko stayed in this new and strange reality, the more he knew he had to leave.
Zaun was…beautiful. It was everything Vander had dreamed about building and Ekko’s heart hurt every time he looked around and saw how happy everyone was. It was hard to enjoy it all when he knew that his friends were struggling to get by and that his tree was dying in his real timeline. Powder helped ease the discomfort and guilt.
And Powder…when he looked at her, her didn’t see the mania or the rage that seemed to always infect Jinx; she was content and the world that had been built for her allowed her to be. On one hand, Ekko was glad to know that she didn’t have to fight to survive- that she could be lazy and give up on things and that it wouldn’t mean risking her life to do so. On the other hand…
Powder was soft and unmarred by the struggles that Ekko knew that hardened and scarred him. Her sedentary was a privilege he had never been afforded and it wasn’t something he could accept- not now, not at this stage of the game. For all of Jinx’s faults, she was just as driven and innovative as Ekko considered himself to be. The life he could have here with Powder was something he had daydreamed about as a little kid when he first realized he liked her, but that was before his entire world had exploded.
Ekko had been luckier than most; he had adapted and survived. Powder had done the same even though she had lost herself in the process and become something so entirely foreign to him- before she had become Jinx. However, the short time he had spent with Powder had reminded him that she wasn’t to blame for what she had become. She had lost everything and the only person who had been able to offer her comfort and safety had let the world twist and warp her into the worst version of herself. Piltover and hextech and Silco- they had been the ones to create Jinx and it had been all too easy for him to forget that.
“If you want to save Jinx, you have to save Isha.”
Ekko couldn’t help but startle at the words. “What did you say?” Powder lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him, but it wasn’t her eyes that bore into his nor was it her voice that came out of her mouth.
“If you want to save Jinx, you have to save Isha,” The foreign voice repeated as two glowing eyes of gold and white stared back at him. Glowing thick lines of the same color spread over her forehead, down her neck and disappeared underneath her jacket as she spoke, the new voice echoing with Powder’s. “You have a chance to save her, but you will lose her if she loses Isha,”
“Who’s Isha?” He asked. “What does that even mean? Who are you?”
Powder’s lips smiled at him as a hand tinged in glowing white lifted to lay on his cheek. “A friend,” The voice answered. “And Isha is…was absolutely beautiful. She was the future and she still can be,”
“...I-I don’t understand,” Ekko admitted. Time travel, timeline hopping, hextech- all that he could make sense of, but this? A vague message in a voice not belonging to the glowing, alternate timeline version of the only girl he’s ever loved? That was too much for most to understand. “I still don’t know who you are or who Isha even is- let alone how to save her… Why are you telling me all of this?”
“Because we won,” The voice said as Powder’s smile fell. “And yet we lost nearly everything… I’m telling you this because at least one of us should be happy in the end.” The hand on his cheek began to move, trailing up his face to his forehead before delicately pressing directly in the center and suddenly Ekko knew;
He knew exactly what he had to do.
-
“ISHA!” Jinx yelled in a desperate attempt to get the kid to come back. “ISHA!” She tried to get out of Vi’s hold, but months in the fighting pits had grown her muscles and Jinx wasn’t exactly at full strength. “Let go of me- ISHA!”
But Isha was already crouched beneath Vander’s rampaging form- gun in hand. Even through all the chaos of the battle field, Isha’s teary eyes found Jinx’s. Raising her free hand, she shot off her finger gun with a “pew” that Jinx couldn’t hear before turning her attention upwards.
“ISHA!” Vi still had a vice grip on her, but that didn’t stop Jinx from fighting to get away. “ISHA DON’T!”
But it was too late.
With bravery and a resignation that no one so young should possess, Isha raised Jinx’s gun up. Closing her eyes, she thought about the last few months and the family she had gained in such a short time. They would do the same for her, so it’s only fair she do the same right?
Smiling, Isha pulled the trigger.
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Smiling, Isha pulled the trigger.
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Smiling, Isha pulled the trigger.
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Smiling, Isha pulled the trigger.
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Smiling, Isha pulled the trigger.
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Smiling, Isha pulled the trigger.
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Smiling, Isha pulled the trigger.
…
…
…
Forty-four times.
One hundred and seventy-six seconds.
Nearly three minutes.
That’s how long it took before Ekko managed to successfully save Isha.
The kid was fast- faster than Jinx had been at her age and more slippery than Ekko was. She managed to evade him and pull that trigger forty-three times before Ekko finally came to terms with the fact that catching her before she got to Vander wasn’t how he was going to save her.
Every four seconds Ekko asked himself the same thing; what was he willing to sacrifice in order to save Isha? In order to save Jinx? In order to save himself from a fate so depressing that someone had pushed their consciousness through time and space just to help him?
It wasn’t until the forty-third attempt that Ekko realized what it was; what he had to be willing to sacrifice to make those four seconds matter.
He had to be willing to sacrifice everything.
Going back for the forty-fourth time, Ekko stopped chasing Isha and headed straight for Vander.
-
“How’s Little Man doing?” Vi asked, passing a new bowl of cold water to her sister.
Neither of them had any idea where Ekko had been or why he had only just shown up in the middle of the chaos out of nowhere, but the effects of his presence were immeasurable.
Isha was alive and was running around without any serious injuries. She had a few burns and cuts, but they had been treated and she wasn’t in any risk of losing a limb or getting an infection. She was nothing but a ball of energy as she ran through the Kiramman house, fetching whatever she was told in order to be of help.
Ekko…he hadn’t been as lucky.
All of his limbs were still there, but one of his legs was broken and all of the bones in his right hand were practically shattered. The doctor Caitlyn had hired had said that his hand could be fixed, but it’d be months before he’d be able to move his fingers and, even then, his hand wouldn’t ever be fully functional.
His body was littered with severe burns and wounds that would take months of healing and would leave scars as a reminder of their presence. Worst of all, there were just…chunks of meat and skin gone from his sides, his stomach and his check. Luckily, his heart hadn’t been damaged and Topside had synthetic skin or gauze or something similar (neither Vi nor Jinx had been paying much attention when Caitlyn tried to explain it to them) to patch him up with.
Caitlyn hadn’t wanted to let Jinx into her house- especially not with her father there- but there hadn’t been much choice. Not with the monster that had once been Vi and Jinx’s father (and almost had been again) running loose through the Undercity. Most of the population had already been evacuated in the week since the attack and were taking refuge in Piltover. Neither the council nor the Pilties had been particularly happy about that development, but Vi was past caring about their feelings.
Jinx took the bowl and immediately wrung out the rag inside before patting down his sweaty face and neck. “That quack your girlfriend hired said that his fever’s going down,” Her voice was low and gentler than Vi had heard it be in a long time. “He said that there’s nothing else he can do- that whether or not Ekko lives is up to him,”
“He’ll be okay,” Vi insisted, putting a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “If anyone can make it through this, it’s him.” Ekko had managed to survive this long without anyone there to protect him. It would take more than a few bootleg hex crystals to take him down…she hoped.
“He saved Isha,” Jinx’s voice was thick, but she tried not to cry. Crying wouldn’t Ekko. “I don’t know…I don’t know what would’ve happened if she died because of me,”
“It’s not your-”
“He can’t die,” Scooting closer to him on the bed, she laid the damp rag on his forehead. “He can’t die- not before…” ‘ Not before I say thank you; not before I say I’m sorry…not before he knows that we’re still family. ’ “Isha drew on his casts,” Looking down at Ekko’s uncovered leg, Vi saw that it was littered with childish drawings in Jinx’s favorite colors. “She’s such a baby- she’ll cry if he dies before he sees it, so he can’t die, okay?”
Vi swallowed, blinking back tears at her sister’s poorly veiled worry. “Okay,” She said with a nod. “He won’t die…no one else dies…I promise.”