Archive of Our Own ^beta

Piltover had been at war with Zaun for as long as Jinx could remember.

Of course, the inhabitants of the planet would never see it that way. They lived on Piltover with their 1 G and breathable air and endless oceans without a second thought to the people of the outer planets who were dying everyday, working to mine the minerals of asteroids and dwarf planets and moons like those which the biggest factions of the RAZE resided upon. Zaunites had known since before the solar system had even been settled that it was how things would persist. Back on Earth, it had been the same way. Piltover and Zaun, forever at odds, though at the time, there hadn't been a separation other than that of class, of wealth. They had come from the same nation, the only known survivors of the event that had destroyed the world were the escapees hailing from the nation of Oshra Va'Zaun. The new planet—named Piltover was much smaller than their previous, overpopulation forcing the poorest refugees into the outer areas of the solar system while the wealthy set up their cities, domed to keep out native wildlife.

The people—her people—of the outer planets had clung onto their ancestral name, calling themselves Zaunites as a tribute to their past. They'd done what they always had, the only thing they really knew. They survived. The outer planets were rich in the minerals that the Piltovans didn't dare to mine for on their precious planet out of fear of destroying it just like they had the last, but they needed them so desperately to keep their cities running, meaning it was on Zaunites to do their dirty work. They weren't one people like the Piltovans treated them to be, though there was always a sense of camaraderie with a fellow belter that came from centuries of being under Piltover's boot. They were scattered across the solar system, most residing on stations on the moons of larger planets. The Sump was Jinx's home, the small moon of a gaseous planet with rich deposits of several highly coveted mineral that were mined and sold to Piltover at egregiously low prices, leaving the poor workers without proper compensation or access to the water and air that Piltovans had in abundance on their planet.

Silco was adamant that Jinx learned their history. He would drone on and on about it while she zoned out, staring at the door of his office until he'd let her go. She'd always been a lot more interested in their ship than his lectures on history and revolution. More than once had she taken apart her own mag-boots as a child, leaving her floating through the ship in zero-g until Sevika or Silco found her clinging onto the side of the ship like a monkey, inspecting something or another.

With time, she'd grown to appreciate Silco's lectures a lot more than she had ever thought she would when she was younger. It was a lot harder to get lost in her world of invention when she saw their past all around her in the present, shaping the misfortunes that followed her for life. Her parents had both been killed by enforcers in an uprising on Ceres, protesting the horrible working conditions that Piltover imposed on the miners that got them their precious minerals. Her sister had been arrested by Piltovan enforcers on the planet and shipped to a prison on an asteroid at the edge of the solar system, her adoptive father, Vander, and her adoptive brothers Mylo and Claggor had died during the same incident, exposed to the vacuum of space after she had blown up the side of a Piltovan ship in an attempt to save Vander.

The list went on and on, a string of disasters that followed her around, the jinx that never ended. The perpetrator? Piltover, always. It had taken a long time for her to realize that she wasn't cursed, or a curse, that everything that had happened could be traced back to the oppression of Zaunites by Piltover. It had taken her even longer to actually rid herself of the perpetual guilt that informed her every action, driving her to extremes. The hardest part was getting rid of the parts that seeped into every nook and cranny and crack in her being, sealing the edges so that it was the very foundation that held her together. It had stayed with her so long that the idea of being a jinx had become part of her, and when her world had been shaken with the realization that maybe it hadn't been her all along, she'd been lost.

Silco had been waiting for the day. For the longest time, Jinx had thought it was far too easy for Silco to say everything he did, not having to live inside her head, but the two of them really did have a lot in common. It was the only thing that had brought them together, and the only thing Jinx needed for Silco to become family. It was not like she'd had many other choices, seeing as Silco's ship was in the middle of fucking nowhere in space, but she wasn't above jumping out without a vac-suit if she really didn't want to be there. It was easy to pour her obsessive nature and mechanical mind into the mysteries of modern technology—helping further her father's cause while she was at it—than it was for her to wallow in her pit of misery forever. Though that pit, after some time, had become a comfort. It was like one of those old sayings Silco loved—better the devil you know than the one you don't?

One such thing was general maintenance that needed to be done on Silco's ship. Her ship. She spent most of her time, like Silco, between their light frigate and the Sump, accompanied by Sevika more often than not. Their ship was a good one—pretty good stealth features, smooth sailing and good speed, a lot of which she'd developed and improved herself, but the best part? The totally huge, totally illegal guns flanking both sides, turning a seemingly innocuous ship from the front into a battleship at closer inspection. Her babies Fishbones and Pow-Pow were top-notch guns, some of the best in the system, if she did say so herself.

Like many times before, she found herself stuck to the side of their ship as it cruised through space, nothing but inky darkness and little dots littering it to distract her from her work. The comms in her suit buzzed before Sevika's voice came in, snapping her out of her trance. "Jinx, you there?"

Jinx fought the urge to groan, the interruption feeling like she'd been plunged into a tub of ice water in her sleep. Not pleasant at all. Seriously, how many times had she told Sevika not to bother her when she was out on spacewalks?

"Jinx?" Sevika asked again gruffly.

Jinx rolled her eyes. "What do you want? I'm busy out here."

"Silco wants to see you in his office," she said tiredly, just as annoyed as Jinx was.

"Can't it wait?"

"He said it's urgent."

"Fuck," Jinx muttered under her breath, cutting off comms abruptly. She stared at Pow-Pow longingly for a second, packing away her magnetic tools before standing up against the side of the ship. It breezed through space steadily, engines off. Her suit was a comfortable weight around her body, and Jinx barely felt its weight as her mag-boots slammed against the metal exterior of the ship with every step. Space was her home, a lot more than any other she had claimed in the past. Unlike those false homes, space wasn't going to turn on her. It wasn't going to induce nightmare and hallucinations, she wouldn't be cast out of it—the vacuum of space was nothing but an observer, neutral in its existence.

Jinx popped off her helmet and shimmied out of her suit as fast as she could the second the inner doors of the airlock opened with a quiet gasp, sliding shut behind her as she exited the recompressed space. Sevika greeted her with the jerk of her head as Jinx sauntered into the hallway, brushing past the woman languidly.

"Little brat," Sevika muttered. Jinx flipped her off, grinning slightly as she faced forward. The doors to Silco's study slid open as she approached, the little red light in the corner of her vision glinting for just a second as the security system recognized her. Silco's office was the most ancient-looking thing on the ship—maybe in the entire system. His desk was bolted to the floor but made out of real wood sourced from who knows where, and he even had a pretty decent collection of actual, physical, paper books. It was worth some egregious amount of money that Jinx didn't want to think too deeply about, because Silco's history with less…ethical ways of managing their faction of the RAZE was a stain on her past she didn't often like to revisit.

Silco looked up from his seat as Jinx entered, the steady sound of mag-boots against metal floors a sure indicator of arrival. Living life in zero g a lot of the time meant that nothing could be left unaccounted for—Silco's precious physical objects were safely tucked away, leaving the hologram screen over his desk for Jinx to look at instead of his usual pen-and-paper ways. Things like cups would be closed with lids and have magnets at their bases to ensure they wouldn't float around while the ship was travelling without thrust—the same way mag-boots did for people. Naturally, Silco wasn't the biggest fan of those either.

"Hey, pops!" Jinx exclaimed cheerily, flinging herself into the chair across from Silco, letting herself spin around once as Silco watched with amusement. "What 'urgent' business did you need to interrupt me with?"

Silco waved a hand, pulling up a 3-d model of the solar system. Their ship, having taken off from the Sump a few days prior was highlighted with a zoom-box along with a few other locations. She scanned over them quickly, spotting Arbuscula Station pretty close to where they were, which had recently become the home base for another faction of RAZE run by the Boy Saviour himself. Nothing else caught her eye, save from a couple locations both on and orbiting Piltover that she didn't recognize on first glance, as well as a station somewhere between Piltover and the planet closest to it.

"The Revolutionary Alliance for Zaun's Establishment—" Silco tried to begin.

"RAZE," Jinx corrected. "Everyone calls it RAZE, you don't need to say the entire name every single time."

"The Revolutionary Alliance for Zaun's Establishment," Silco continued. "Held a meeting between factions this morning."

"I know," Jinx groaned. "I skipped out for a reason, I don't need a word-for-word summary of every boring—"

"We have reason to suspect Piltover has developed a new technology, top-secret, possibly a weapon that could destroy us all." Silco interrupted, looking grim.

Okay, that definitely caught her attention. "What?"

Silco pinched his fingers together and then pulled them apart to zoom in, the rest of the solar system fading away to give way to Piltover. The planet stood proud, a blue and green miracle amongst lifeless rocks and balls of gas. Jinx stared at it bitterly, some envy infiltrated the edges of her vision in the way no true Zaunite was supposed to have, but that they all did anyway.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?" Jinx asked, scanning the hologram quickly.

"This." Silco tapped his desk, one of the stations orbiting Piltover coming into view with a small box next to it detailing key information. The Council's headquarters in space, and docked there was…

"Is that a House Talis spaceship?" Jinx asked, squinting. Jayce Talis was a renowned inventor, he'd brought the Talis clan back into power for the first time since Piltover's establishment with one key invention, stealth tech that allowed the high-militarization of Piltover to crack down on the outer planets like never before. He was detestable, if a little blind to his own impact, but what was worse was his partner, Viktor. A belter who worked for Piltovans—what a joke.

Their ships were extremely recognizable, and the most damning feature was the giant hammer logo out front—well it would be, if the ships didn't look like huge hammers themselves. Way too over-engineered, in her opinion, but they were highly coveted and for whatever reason, their build was one they refused to sell, meaning it had to be owned by House Talis directly.

It wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The guy might live in a spaceship, but the Council had Jayce Talis under their thumb. In fact, they were the only ones House Talis would ever do business with, not the many private companies that had likely offered unimaginable amounts for their technology or the multiple RAZE factions that had tried to get through to Viktor, but the Council had been House Talis' one and only customer from the very beginning.

What was out of the ordinary however, were the ships docked around it. House Medarda, House Kiramman, House Ferros, House Heimerdinger, the entire council seemed to be there all at the same time. Not just them, but several corporate tycoons she gagged at the thought of. Multiple leaders of planetary settlements not associated with RAZE…everyone but the people of the belt. Not surprising. In Piltover's eyes, the people of the outer planets were just the lower class under Piltover's rule. They branded RAZE a terrorist organization and made every decision that benefited them to Zaun's detriment, they had no say in anything at all, not unless they decided to sell their own people out and buy themselves a seat at the table.

Which, Silco had almost done himself.

If it hadn't been for Ekko forcing his hand and somehow managing to convince Silco to join with the other factions of RAZE for the first time in decades, Jinx wasn't sure what her life would be like now. So maybe she owed that to Ekko—but that didn't mean she would ever admit it, and she definitely wouldn't ever like him for it.

They had a long history, and not a particularly happy one either.

"They're holding a solar summit, the report just came in from our informants." Silco sighed.

Jinx shook her head. "I don't understand. If Piltover had a weapon like that, they'd never let it be known in front of—" Jinx waved her hand over all of the docked ships. "It doesn't make sense."

"They're not," Silco replied simply. "It's a cover, we have reason to believe House Ferros is directly involved in its creation, along with—"

"House Talis," Jinx interrupted, eyes flickering across the hologram rapidly as she tried to make sense of this new information.

"Yes. They're using the congregation of the Houses and powers in the solar system to possibly bid it off, get investors, we're not sure yet."

"And you know it's not bad intel?" Jinx asked.

"Believe me, if there was any doubt in my mind, I wouldn't have even entertained the idea." Silco sighed. "If we don't get a hold of this…weapon, or somehow find a way to disable it, Zaun will lose every opportunity to rise."

"They're gonna squish us like bugs." Jinx muttered. Silco was right—they couldn't afford to fall behind Piltover, not again. Everything had finally been falling into place after decades of infighting within the outer planets, the RAZE factions finally coming together was supposed to mean good things for Zaunites, not just bring them more misfortune. "There's no way this is a coincidence."

"It's likely this has been in development for a long time, but that doesn't mean they won't be targeting us." Silco disagreed. "We'll need to gather more intel, but the summit is starting in two days and the time to act is now. Once the weapon is revealed to the rest of the houses—"

"We won't stand a chance." Jinx leaned back in her seat. Silco zoomed back out, their ship—The Eye—coming into view again. This time, Jinx noticed the faint perforated line that showed their their course, following it with her eyes until—

"No," Jinx breathed out.

"RAZE must stand together." Silco eyed her closely, calculating, analysing.

Jinx clenched her fists, shaking her head wildly. Her gaze was fixed right where their path ended, the station many Zaunites referred to as paradise; her own personal hell. "I want nothing to do with him."

"We have no other choice. Personal quarrels aside, the Firelight Faction is the only one with the necessary resources for a mission like this. The Lanes still haven't gotten back on their feet after Piltover's reaction to the riots and the Dredge can't afford—"

"Then the Firelights can do it!" Jinx burst out. "Send them to Piltover to get the weapon, it's not like you're ever willing to do the dirty work yourself anyways. Why are we heading to the Arbuscula?"

Silco pinched his nose. "Their leader is still wary of me. I can't trust that if they gain control of the weapon, they won't turn on us. I need someone I trust there."

"He isn't wary of you—he hates your guts," Jinx corrected, her stomach sinking. "But he wouldn't do that, he—"

"We can't risk it," Silco said firmly. "We've already discussed all the details, the Firelights have a small stealth ship you'll be using. The Firelights have personal stealth gear, you'll intercept the ship of a smaller house and take their place at the summit."

"Me?" Jinx asked incredulously. "You've finally lost it, old man."

"You're the only one I can trust." Silco sighed. "Zaun's future depends on this, Jinx. I can't afford to send anyone else. You're the best engineer we have, you're the only one with a shot at figuring out House Talis' technology."

Jinx scoffed. "I've done it before, of course I can."

"So you understand where I'm coming from."

"No, I don't!" Jinx exclaimed. "You said it yourself. I'm an engineer; I handle the ship, I handle guns, but a spy? You'd be better off sending Sevika."

"You don't believe that."

Yeah, he was right. She absolutely did not believe that. Sevika was great at what she did—she was the brawn to Silco's brain. She handed the riots, she handled his dirty business, but she couldn't tell a screwdriver from a wrench and she was possibly almost as dramatic as Jinx was during fights with her tendency to dramatically fling off her cape and reveal her prosthetic arm.

But Jinx wasn't exactly an ideal candidate either. For one, for all she liked to make fun of Sevika's cape flinging, her bombs and glittery explosions were hardly conspicuous. There was also a small little detail Silco was forgetting; the one where she was a very wanted woman after she'd killed a dozen enforcers for opening fire during a protest.

Needless to say, if she was caught, she'd probably be shot on sight.

"There's thousands of people you can choose from," Jinx gritted out. "Any Zaunite would be willing, you know they would."

"And if something goes wrong?" Silco challenged. "If the weapon cannot be moved? If it needs to be studied on the spot? If it needs to be disabled? Who but you would be able to understand what we're working with?"

He made a good point; he always did, it was Silco for fuck's sake.

Silco knew she had given in before she could even say it.

"Fine, but only because we have no other choice."

There was a pit in her stomach that hadn't quite left since she'd first figured out where their flight trajectory was taking them. It was a parasitic little thing, squirming around and feeding on her insides, spilling out waves anxiety that flooded her lungs in its wake. Jinx was no stranger to that feeling, but she certainly was no stranger to wrangling that little parasite into compliance either. She'd once been victim to it, let it take control of her body and mind, inching its way up her esophagus, through her nasal cavity and burrowing itself into her brain. It would eat at her incessantly until she had no choice but to be its puppet, driven by an all-consuming madness.

Now, she kept it caged behind bars, fortified by her sheer will. Only during the most trying times would she falter, letting it gnaw its way out until she managed to capture it again. It was running amok now, and Jinx forced herself to breathe as their ship continued its steady approach towards Arbuscula Station. Every second that brought them closer was a centimetre that she slipped down the steep hill of panic. She couldn't let this get to her, not now.

Silco was right. If there was some weapon that Piltover was developing—one so powerful it had been kept quiet for so long—they couldn't take any chances. She'd cracked Talis tech before, she could do it again. And if something went wrong—well, she hated to say it, but that slippery son of a bitch Ekko would be her best bet at an escape. Not to mention the fact that his knowledge of Piltover's nobility and his own brilliance with technology made him the best partner for her crimes—in theory.

Of course, things were never so simple—especially not for her. The leader of the Firelight Faction was a traitor, and that wasn't a crime she was willing to forgive so easily. Silco and Ekko might have been able to put their past issues with the Firelights to the side for Zaun's sake, but his and Jinx's story went much deeper than that—all the way back to the very beginning.

Like most kids who grew up in the Sump, Jinx and Ekko had known one another since before they could even remember. There was no such thing as friendship there—just family and comrades and enemies—but Jinx and Ekko had always found a way to make it work. They would slip away when their parents weren't looking, sneak around and cause mischief, just narrowly avoiding enforcers while they were at it. It was a simple kind of friendship; the kind born from a shared love and a shared hatred. They never spoke about it, they were an escape for one another. They kept those little stolen moments at the junkyard and in abandoned tunnels close, building themselves a fortress of childhood before reality would come crashing down on them.

It did, eventually—like it was always meant to—but when the time came, Ekko turned away from her. Like everyone else, he left her in the ruins of their past and found his own place while Jinx stayed trapped. If it hadn't been for Silco, she might have stayed there, too broken and bruised to ever get up.

Jinx would have followed Ekko to the ends of the universe then, but Ekko had chosen his righteous goals and his little gang of misfits over her; that was what she could never forget.

They'd both done well for themselves without the other. Ekko was exactly where Jinx had always imagined him to be. A hero, a freedom fighter, a leader, a saviour. The Firelights had been the only faction of RAZE that had survived Silco's rise of power, and they'd slowly helped the rest rebuild until they had the numbers to face the Eye of Zaun himself head-on. It had ended—not horribly, but not how Silco or Jinx or even Ekko had likely been expecting. It was the most unusual of alliances, and even if Ekko still hated Silco—and Jinx, by extension—the fact that he had not only signed on, but had proposed his involvement in this suicide mission was enough for her.

He hadn't changed, not one bit. He was willing to put himself aside for Zaun's sake, just like he'd been willing to put aside her.

If Silco noticed her nerves, he pretended not to notice as they docked, the familiar hiss and click doing little to ease her anxiety. Despite the blood thrumming against her ears like war drums, Jinx stood tall. Her jumpsuit bore the logo of their faction—the same eye that was painted proudly on their ship. She couldn't let him know—couldn't let anyone know. They would think she was still weak, and Jinx was anything but.

The doors slid open and Jinx was immediately caught off-guard, lungs filling with pure oxygen in a way she had never experienced. She took in a deep breath, trying not to let her surprise show. Silco stood tall next to her, stepping forward with Sevika in tow. Jinx followed the two, keeping her gaze set straight forward as they stepped onto Arbuscula Station for the first time—and maybe the last.

Unfortunately for her, the first person who greeted them was him. He looked about the same as he always did, but his locs had gotten longer from when she'd last seen him. They were pulled back in a small bun, a few stragglers that were too short hanging over the front of his face. His arms were crossed over his chest, muscles bulging out of his short sleeves. Really, with running an entire station and rebel movement, how did he find time to fucking work out? Jinx matched his stance almost subconsciously, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

Ekko was so much shorter than Silco, but he stood proud, his unwavering confidence enough to put him in the same seat as Silco. It helped that he had four Firelights flanking him, each bearing the Firelight insignia—that green hourglass Ekko would doodle everywhere as a child—and looking like they would attack if Ekko so much as breathed aggressively in Silco's direction.

"Ekko," Silco greeted, looking about as excited to see him as one is to see a hole in their clothing.

"Silco," Ekko replied disdainfully. "Sevika."

Sevika gave him a sharp nod. Ekko's gaze only flitted over to Jinx for a second, his greeting to her coming out much quieter than the previous two. "Jinx."

Jinx ignored him, petty as always.

"You guys can head back to your stations, I'll be fine on my own." Ekko told his people. The one with the big ears—Scared, or something like that—lingered as the others dispersed, whispering something quietly to Ekko.

"Thanks Scar, don't worry about me." Ekko told him. Scar, that was right. Jinx had once almost bashed his skull in and he clearly hadn't forgotten about the event, shooting her a glare as he, too, left. Ekko gave the three of them a once-over before sighing and turning around, motioning for them to follow.

Sevika took the lead, Silco going after her, leaving Jinx at the rear. It was a natural order for them, Sevika and Jinx were much more practiced fighters than Silco was. If anything were to happen, they'd be able to protect him most effectively that way.

"We appreciate the Firelights' cooperation in this—" Silco began.

"Cut the bullshit." Ekko scoffed. "Neither of us want to be here, let's just get on with it."

Jinx suppressed the urge to laugh at Silco's disgruntled expression, catching herself before she managed to embarrass herself beyond repair. Sevika glared at the back of Ekko's head, her real hand clenching like she was getting ready to throw a punch.

"Very well then. I assume your ship is ready?" Silco asked.

"It's docked and ready to launch, we just need to modify…"

Jinx tuned out the rest of the conversation, her brain absorbing nothing except what she would need to remember. The station was a lot more worthy of her attention.

The Arbuscula was everything Ekko had ever imagined. She was unable to wipe every detail of his dreams from her mind, a bitter taste coating her tongue as she looked around. When they were kids, Ekko always described his greatest fantasy of living in a tree house. Not the frail, skinny things that grew in the Sump that were fed chemicals to stay alive—but an actual, real tree. One with roots that permanently dug themselves into the ground and branches that extended far beyond its trunk. He would describe these vivid images of the two of them sitting under the tree, catching stray leaves as they fluttered to the ground and sinking their teeth into fruit they'd pick off of its branches.

As they got older, that dream shifted; it became more realistic, holding onto that same idea of some magical tree. He would describe a safe-haven where Enforcers wouldn't dare to enter, where Zaunites would be able to escape from Piltover's grasp and make their own lives with their own rules. The Arbuscula was just that; it was every bit the heaven it was described to be. Every wall was covered in plants—vines that climbed through the netting that held them in place and rows on rows of flora that she couldn't name. The air was so impossibly clean that Jinx almost struggled to breathe, the oxygen entering her lungs overwhelming to a body that had known nothing but thin air and pollution.

People greeted Ekko kindly as they walked past, not even sparing a glance at the very out-of-place looking trio behind him. Children ran free in the halls, dressed in clothes patched together and looking scrappy but carefree and well-fed. They passed multiple Firelights doing maintenance around the station and several rooms filled with people hard at work and smiling. Smiling, as they worked!

It was so surreal that if Jinx closed her eyes, she might have been able to imagine herself in another world, during another time. She might have been able to breathe in the air and picture open skies, a bright sun, and grass under her feet. She might have been able to picture a life where Zaunites didn't have to struggle for scraps, where they lived off of the land and always had the pull of gravity to keep them tethered to the ground.

Jinx couldn't close her eyes. She couldn't let herself imagine something so out of reach, even if she was standing in a place that was as close as she would ever get. It wasn't hers to bask in, Ekko had made sure of that.

It was a few hours later that the thing she was most dreading about this whole situation came to be, and Jinx was just as unprepared as she had imagined. After a few hours of talking logistics, a couple of arguments and multiple close calls, Ekko and Silco had finally come to some sort of agreement. As such, Silco and Sevika had returned to their ship, leaving Jinx to deal with Ekko all on her own.

Why didn't they just throw her out of the airlock and space her while they were at it?

Jinx dragged her feet as Ekko led her to the ship that they'd be flying to Piltover. While Silco and Ekko were talking politics, she'd managed to intercept a message from House Torek detailing why they wouldn't be able to attend the summit and some other fancy words she was sure was just the Piltovan way of telling the Council to fuck off and leave them alone. Something about their trip not being over yet? If she was honest, she hadn't bothered to check the details. The important thing was that they had their in. As far as the Piltovans knew, House Torek was still in attendance. Meanwhile, Jinx and Ekko would be taking the places of the two attendees, gathering information and hopefully gaining control of whatever weapon Piltover had just added to their arsenal.

What Jinx wasn't expecting was for Ekko to stop in his tracks so suddenly halfway there, making her crash right into his back with a curse. Ekko didn't even flinch, turning around with an annoyed scowl on his face. "Look, if we're gonna do this, can't we be cordial, at the very least?"

Jinx scowled right back at him. "I'd rather die."

"Great," Ekko muttered, turning his back to her again. The action made her stomach drop and bile rise up her throat, an unfriendly reminder of abandonments past.

His pace quickened, and Jinx was forced to speed up so she wouldn't fall behind. Naturally, this did nothing to ease the anger that was quickly replacing her previous anxiety. She had known this was how it would be, but how dare he try and pretend she was the issue when they were only apart because of him? When it was he who had betrayed her and chosen this—a perfect life, a dream, over their friendship.

No, she wasn't going to back down. If he wanted to be "cordial" he should never have left her in the first place. Now, they were no longer friends, they were no longer comrades and they were no longer crewmates, they were just allies. Plain, simple, and cold.

"Authorization required for entry." A mechanic voice called out as she and Ekko approached the hatch. Ekko pressed a hand to a small glass panel to the right, a small beep and a green light indicating a completed scan.

"Authorization granted." The hatch slid open with a hiss, and Jinx's eyes widened in surprise as she stepped onto the ship. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting when Silco had said the Firelights had gotten hold of a small stealth ship, but it definitely wasn't what was in front of her.

"Is this a Talis ship?" Jinx asked in shock, not even bothering to muster up a veil to hide the authenticity in her voice.

Ekko smirked smugly, making her regret her question immediately. "Pretty neat, isn't it? We hijacked an automated test run of this ship and managed to override its programming. Redid the outside to make it look like your average personal transport ship."

Even she couldn't deny that it was…pretty cool. "Wouldn't Talis be able to regain command of it though? There has to be some fail safe installed."

Ekko shrugged. "We did the best we could, but isn't that why you're here? If you want to do your own thing, be my guest. Just, try not to blow it up, will ya?"

Jinx shot him a glare, flipping him off as she approached the flight deck, running a finger over the command centre. "Show me system control."

She spent about an hour tailoring the ship to her preferences, only forcing herself to finish off when Ekko returned, looking expectant. "Are you done yet?"

She could have modified the thing for eternity, but it would do for the mission. There was something more important for her to focus on now. If they were going to do this, she needed to install some better guns. The ship was a fighter, but even Talis couldn't engineer guns the way she could.

Jinx walked right past Ekko, refusing to spare him a glance. "Yes. But we're going to need better—"

"Guns."

Jinx blinked in surprise, turning her head back to look at him. She wanted to wipe that smug look right off of his face. It would be a miracle if she managed to get through this entire mission without killing him—or at the very least causing his pretty face some serious damage.

"How did you—"

"I know you better than you think." Ekko interrupted again. Jinx glared at him, refusing to acknowledge his statement. "Come on, we have everything you need already."

As she trailed behind him, Jinx had the thought that their mission was going to be difficult for a lot more reasons than she'd anticipated.

The guns she'd managed to build on such short notice certainly weren't Pow-Pow and Fishbones, but they would have to do. She had zapper on her person, but felt naked after being forced to forego the majority of her explosives. She'd managed to take some chompers and some parts to keep her busy, but Silco had warned her off of taking any more. Ekko seemed less than enthusiastic about her being armed, even if it was a lot more minimal than her usual arsenal of weapons.

Of course he couldn't exactly object, seeing as he had weapons of his own, but Jinx definitely caught him staring at Zapper when it would peek out from her utility belt. Their takeoff and flight had been smooth thus far, and Jinx had to say that he was a much better pilot than she'd expected. It was smooth sailing for the majority of their trip, and Jinx even found herself enjoying the familiar tasks that came her way as the only engineer aboard the ship while Ekko handled the navigation.

Sharing space was…awkward at worst, and quiet at best. They rarely crossed paths, and on the rare occasion that the two ended up in the same room at the same time, Jinx would make a point to exit almost immediately. She wasn't there to make friends with the Boy Saviour and heal her inner child or whatever bullshit they did in the Firelight Faction—she was the Eye's best fighter, their best engineer, and she had a mission to complete.

Unfortunately for her, she could only avoid Ekko for so long before something forced them together. Fate or whatever truly enjoyed making her suffer.

"Jinx?" Ekko called, walking into the ship's small kitchen. Jinx was perched on the counter with her legs crossed, a cup of coffee next to her and a tablet on her lap displaying the blueprints of her next project.

It was the first time either of them had willingly spoken to the other since their trip had begun. Jinx stared at him blankly, annoyance twisting over her features. "What? I'm busy."

"We're docking soon, I alerted the station. We're all clear, they think we're the Toreks. We're gonna need holo-hiders," Ekko told her, tossing the holo-hider her way. She barely managed to catch it, flipping him off as she inspected it. It was smaller than she'd ever seen a holo-hider get, just a ring with a shiny jewel set in the middle. She suspected Ekko had made it himself, but she wasn't going to inflate his ego by mentioning it. She slipped it on, watching the illusion ripple before it settled over her skin.

Ekko let out a choked laugh.

"What?"

"Being a ginger does not suit you," Ekko commented, watching her with amusement.

"Asshole," Jinx muttered. "Let's see what you look like."

Ekko—well of course he looked nothing like himself. The holo-hiders were designed to make you look like someone else, even if not entirely. If someone looked close enough or knew the Toreks well, their disguises wouldn't stand a chance. But Ekko looked—his white locs were replaced by black cornrows, dyed blue at the ends. The hourglass shaped birthmark along with the accompanying face paint disappeared, leaving an unfamiliar face with sharp green eyes to replace Ekko's warm brown.

It was disorienting. She was so used to Ekko's features, watching them disappear in front of her eyes felt she was a child whose favourite plush was just snatched away. She didn't even have some witty comment to make, simply frowning until Ekko turned the device off, his own face returning.

Jinx decided she much preferred Ekko's face to the Torek guy, even if looking at him gave her the urge to punch him. It was the most frustrating feeling, she could never quite fully pinpoint what it felt like or what her brain wanted to do. She just felt like she needed to do something right away, because she couldn't stand looking at him. It made her so overwhelmed at times it felt like she couldn't even breathe, and all at once like she was hooked to an oxygen tank, breathing in more than her lungs could swallow.

So she just looked away, bumping shoulders with Ekko as she walked past. "At least I can stand to look at that face."

A bit of truth, even if Ekko scoffed behind her disbelievingly.

The station was as excessively opulent as Jinx had expected. The place hardly looked like it was floating around Piltover out in space; if someone had told her it was one of the castles of old Oshra Va'Zaun, Jinx would have believed them without a doubt. The second she and Ekko stepped in with her hand wrapped around his bicep, a posh sounding voice announced their entrance. Jinx had to hold back a wince as most of the people in the room turned their heads, watching them intently.

Ekko did most of the heavy lifting. He put on a polite smile as Jinx resisted the urge to dig her nails into his arm and pull him right back out with her, the ostentatious room already bringing out her barely-concealed rage. She was sure Ekko was just as angry as she was, and she was even more surprised he wasn't letting it show. Ekko had never been one to hold back, even when it got him into tough situations. He was a lot like Vi in that regard—act first, think later—even if he was a lot smarter in combat than Vi's punch everything approach.

She wasn't the only one who'd grown, it seemed.

The two of them walked in sync, attempting to fade into the background of the party, hoping nobody would take an interest in them and they'd be able to sneak out soon enough. Jinx wanted to get a good idea of the station's layout. Silco's blueprints were out of date—she could tell that much already. The place had likely been modified in the last few years, broken down and reconstructed and upgraded to match every Piltovan standard.

Jinx was never so lucky. As most people settled back into conversation, nursing glasses of champagne in their lavish dresses and suits and everything in between, one person began to approach. Jinx gritted her teeth, pretending not to notice until she was much too close to ignore.

Mel Medarda, without a doubt. Jinx had never met the wealthy head of House Medarda, but it was safe to say that she wasn't a face that was easy to miss. Outside of being blindingly beautiful, she was draped from head-to-toe in gold, absolutely exuding affluence. She was younger than most of the council, definitely not past her forties, but her gaze was as sharp and discerning as Silco's.

"Councillor Medarda," Ekko greeted. Going undercover was trickier than most people would assume, especially when they'd barely had any time to plan or prepare before they were shipped off to the snake den and forced to fend for themselves. She'd gone over the information packet Silco had prepared about the people she and Ekko were impersonating—or at least she'd tried to. The words had begun to blur after the third paragraph about something or another rich and fancy school and blah blah blah.

Improvisation would prove to be fun, surely.

"Ah, if it isn't the newly weds." Councillor Medarda smiled, giving them both a quick look-over.

Newly weds? Maybe she really should have read that fucking packet. So this was Silco's brilliant plan? Have Jinx and Ekko pretend to be some mushy-in-love couple so nobody would suspect anything as they sneaked around the station, trying to get information on a top-secret weapon they knew absolutely nothing about?

He was losing his touch with age, because it was fucking ridiculous. For one, Jinx wouldn't know how to pretend to be in love even if a manual hit her in the tits. And two, the last person she could convincingly pretend to be in love with and married to would be fucking Ekko Aeon. In fact, the absolute hatred boiling in her stomach and running through her veins at even the thought of him was barely concealed even now, so what could he possibly have been thinking?

It took her a second to realize that she'd echoed Mel's words in surprise out loud.

Ekko covered for her instantly. "We never get tired of hearing those words, right babe?"

"Right," Jinx deadpanned, forcing herself to put in more emotion when Ekko pinched her arm. "Every time I hear it, it's like bombs going off in my stomach."

"Butterflies." Ekko corrected. "It's butterflies, love."

"No, it's bombs," Jinx disagreed. She'd never even seen a butterfly before, as far as she knew, they didn't even exist on Piltover. They were a thing of humanity's past, a saying that persisted from Oshra Va'Zaun, but she didn't know anything about butterflies, so how could she describe it with them? Besides, she wasn't going to be so mushy. If they were going to do this, it would be on her terms. "It feels like bombs—or fireworks."

Ekko sighed. "Fireworks—you know what, I'll take it."

Councillor Medarda eyed them in amusement, like she was watching her favourite soap-opera. Jinx was surprised they hadn't given themselves away already, but perhaps Councillor Medarda didn't know the…newlyweds very well. Silco had mentioned that being of a lesser house and having a reputation for being hermits meant the Toreks were rarely involved in events unless they were as large as this one. Clearly, they made the right decision by staying home once again. Attending would have just gotten them drugged and locked in a 'terrorist' ship…it was lucky that they'd been able to intercept their message detailing their absence at the summit before it hit. If they were lucky, the actual newlyweds would still be off on their honeymoon somewhere, disconnected from the rest of the world and allowing RAZE easy access into Piltover's noble ranks.

Really, they needed to up the security. It'd been laughably easy for Jinx to disguise their ship to match the modest ships of House Torek, and even easier for her to gain full-body scans of the couple and program her and Ekko's holo-hiders to match their appearances. She wasn't going to complain about them making her job easier, of course, but it only made her wonder why RAZE had never attempted a covert operation like this before. Maybe they had, and she just didn't know about it because the stakes hadn't been high enough. After all, it was no secret to her that Silco and Ekko both had informants in Piltover's ranks that fed RAZE information.

Jinx tried not to stiffen as Ekko wrapped an arm around her shoulders, clearly committed to selling their cover. Fuck, she was going to have to figure out a way to deal with this fast—or she could finish their mission in record time so she wouldn't have to spend any more than the minimum amount of time around him.

Councillor Medarda was just about to speak before she was interrupted by the announcing voice, whispers breaking out around the room as the name Talis rang out. The Man of Progress himself, in the flesh. His partner walked out behind him, a mechanic brace fastened over one of his legs assisting in his walk, even as a slight limp remained.

"If you'll excuse me," Councillor Medarda said politely, not even looking at the two of them. Her gaze was fixed right on Talis, and his eyes were searching the room until they landed on her, the two walking towards one another and meeting in the middle of the room. This entrance certainly held people's interest a lot more than theirs had, multiple people following Councillor Medarda's lead in making their way towards Talis.

Jinx discreetly pressed her fingers on her arm in a quick pattern, something that might look like she was scratching herself to the untrained eye. Her bracelet doubled as a transmitter, and her first message of the mission was clear.

Target identified. Gathering intel.

That was all she needed to say, Silco would understand. It was a one-way message, meaning Silco had no way to contact Jinx and Ekko unless they returned to their ship, but he would be getting updates on their moves and progress at the very least.

Jinx glanced at Ekko, unable to resist the small smirk that inched onto her lips at his expression. His eyes were fixed on Talis like everyone else, brows furrowed and lips curled into an angry frown. So he did still have emotions—nice to know. It was no surprise to her that he wasn't a fan of the fabled inventor. It was her turn to pinch him this time, grinning when he flinched.

"Stop glaring," Jinx hissed, guiding Ekko to a more secluded corner of the room. There was only one exit and they wouldn't be able to slip out just yet without people noticing, meaning they'd have to endure at least another hour of…mingling.

Jinx wanted to throw up. Her dress was too uncomfortable to reasonably be worn, and she was way too close to Ekko for her own liking. Every time they brushed hands, Jinx felt like she was being burned. She'd never felt hatred like this before, she just wanted to shove Ekko against and wall and—

Punch him.

Of course, they were supposed to be pretending to be a married couple, so she couldn't exactly do that. Well, she assumed punching wasn't normal for married couples, she wasn't exactly married, and all of the adults in her life had always been single; for better, or for worse. She'd never been old enough to see what her parents had been like together.

"We need to stop looking so suspicious, people are already talking about us," Ekko whispered into her ear, leaning in close. His breath ghosted over her skin as he spoke, a subconscious touch of his hand to her arm making her skin tingle.

"What the fuck are we supposed to do? Everyone is just standing around talking or…" Jinx understood what he meant. "No way."

"Yes way," Ekko argued, slipping his hand into hers and tugging her towards the centre of the room where couples were beginning to line up for the next song. "If we're going to sell this, we need to look like a newly married couple that's stupidly in love."

"We can do that from the corner of the room." Jinx argued, trying to tug her arm back. This wasn't what the mission was supposed to be—this was nothing like she'd been expecting. She'd prepared herself for Pilties, for a weapon of mass-destruction and a spy mission, but dancing?

She was not ready for that.

Jinx faltered as Ekko put a hand on her waist, taking one of her hands with the other. He was touching her, and he was way too close—closer than before. She wasn't just burning anymore, she could be a fucking star with the way her body was lighting up.

"My shoulder," Ekko whispered, guiding Jinx's hand. Since when did he know how to dance like a Piltie anyways? Did they do that kind of thing at the Arbuscula? Who taught him, who did he practice with? "Your four o'clock."

Jinx discreetly managed a look, spotting Talis and Councillor Medarda in the exact same position as them, beginning to glide along the dance floor. Jinx hadn't even noticed the music begin, her footsteps following Ekko's lead instinctively. They settled into a rhythm quickly, and Jinx didn't even have to think about the steps; where he went, she followed. The patterns were familiar, the dance reminding her all too much of a battle between two practiced fighters.

"Try to get us closer," Jinx instructed, unable to read Councillor Medarda's lips as she spoke. "If there's anyone on the Council who knows what Talis is up to, it's her."

Ekko's hand pressed onto her dress, lightly guiding the way as they weaved through the dance floor, the couple they were chasing just narrowly managing to get away from them as another couple slid between them.

"Fuck," Ekko muttered under his breath. The word washed over her like a wave, making her shudder for undecipherable reasons.

"Can you not speak so close to me?" Jinx complained, her fingers slipping from his shoulder to neck for a better hold.

"We're dancing, I can't get any further than this," Ekko huffed. "Left."

Jinx didn't even need to think about this words, letting him twirl her so they'd end up closer to Talis and Councillor Medarda, a few words catching her ears before they slipped away again.

"…not ready yet, but Ferros is demanding a demonstration…"

Ekko must have heard the same thing, because she felt his grip on her waist tighten. Oh, and it was like bombs going off in her stomach. Her brain had apparently decided that they were fully going for the act, and Jinx's mind blanked for a second before she regained the ability to think clearly.

"They have to be talking about the weapon. House Ferros is definitely involved." Jinx whispered.

"No surprise there," Ekko muttered, spinning Jinx one last time before the song ended and they stepped off the dance floor. All of the spinning must have gotten to her, because she felt strangely lightheaded and breathless, almost like she would during when accelerating at 5 G—only a lot more pleasant.

There was some short guy standing up on a podium—on top of a stool—clearing his throat to catch the room's attention, his voice amplified by the speakers. He was one of the Councillors, Jinx knew that much, she just wasn't sure which one.

"Heimerdinger," Ekko supplied, seeming to detect her question before she even said anything.

"Can you stop doing that?" Jinx grumbled.

"Doing what? Helping you?" He asked.

"You—you know exactly what you're doing," Jinx complained.

"Enlighten me, please."

"You keep reading my mind," She accused.

"And that's a bad thing?" Ekko inquired.

"Well…no."

"So it's a good thing?"

"Definitely not," Jinx scoffed.

"I'm confused. You make no sense."

"Figure it out," Jinx huffed, their hushed bickering cutting off abruptly as the room burst into applause. What for, she had no clue. Ekko slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her into his side. He was warm, and Jinx had the odd thought that she could have fallen asleep right there, in the middle of Piltover's nobility and richest while Heimerdinger was droning on about Progress or whatever—oh! The summit was for Progress Day, of course, why was she just now realizing that?

"We might be able to slip out now," Ekko whispered. "But remember, we're a newly married couple, so if anything goes wrong—"

"Make them think we're sneaking off to fuck," Jinx deadpanned.

"That's not what I was going to—"

Ekko got cut off as an old man bumped into them while he was trying to get closer to the front of the crowd, making Jinx lean into Ekko fully in an attempt to keep herself stable.

Oh, this was just getting better and better, wasn't it? After this, she was going to hand in her resignation to Silco. He could shove his revolution up his ass, if she had to deal with Ekko for one more second she was certain to explode. Just a few hours ago, they'd been on their ship refusing to speak to one another and now they were fucking wrapped around one another and pretending to be a married couple just to get to the fucking weapon Talis had created so that Piltover didn't have the means to turn anyone who didn't live on Piltover and wasn't rich into a fucking slave so they could continue living with their fancy galas and dresses and absolutely impractical things they "needed" just for visual effect.

Really, could she have been given worse cards in life? She supposed maybe she could have, like, maybe in another life she and Ekko were actually a newly married couple and…

"Now," Ekko hissed, cutting off Jinx's train of thought.

Jinx was glad for the distraction, because her thoughts had been taking her down an alley she definitely hadn't wanted to explore. Ekko pulled her towards the doors, hand-in-hand. Jinx glanced at Talis one last time before they slipped out, a flash of something shiny and blue catching her eye before it disappeared again. They exited into the same hallway they'd entered from. One end led to the guest rooms, one of which was reserved for the Toreks. Jinx just hoped they managed this within the day, because she was not keen on sharing a room with Ekko.

The other hallway led to the docks.

"So, which way, oh great leader?" Jinx asked sarcastically, ducking into a small alcove and pulling Ekko with her so they wouldn't be instantly visible if someone was around. She knew from their arrival that there were several enforcers stationed at the docks and more patrolling the halls. She moved to pull out the station's blueprints, instantly dropping Ekko's hand once she realized she was still holding it.

She double tapped her bracelet, the hologram in front of them was helpful—even if not entirely accurate. The hallway that led to the rooms went basically nowhere else, but if they made a turn from the docks, they could make it to the labs. They were across the station, but also exactly the kind of place they were looking for.

"I doubt Talis put the weapon in his room," Ekko began.

"The hard way it is," Jinx sighed, letting the hologram disappear as she dropped her arm. "So? Got a plan?"

"Aren't you the one who always says plans are for people who can't fight?"

"I—Where did you even hear that?"

Ekko didn't answer, casually stepping back into the hallway. Jinx reluctantly followed, their steps silent. It wasn't exactly very…stealthy, for a spy mission. When she imagined covert operations, there was a lot more hiding, crawling through vents, and definitely a lot more danger. Though, to be fair, she was a wanted 'terrorist' and Ekko was the leader of a 'gang' and if they were found out, nothing short of a gunfight would accompany their escape. Perhaps it was just her; it was impossible for the stakes to really have weight in her mind when nobody was actively attacking her.

"Wait," Jinx hissed, holding out an arm to stop Ekko right as they were about to turn another corner, her ears picking up on the faintest patterned sound. "I hear footsteps."

"If there's any suspicion, they'll figure out we're wearing holo-hiders," Ekko warned, backing up and pulling Jinx with him.

Her eyes darted around the hallway, searching for an escape. "I got nothing."

Ekko gave her a look—one she knew all too well. Even on an unfamiliar face the Ekko she knew shined through with that expression. The look that got them out of trouble with their guardians and into sticky situations they had to figure out for themselves more often than she could count. The look that said, 'I have an idea, but you aren't going to like it.' Unfortunately, she knew exactly what the idea was this time around.

"Fuck no," Jinx hissed.

The footsteps got louder, getting closer.

"Either that, or I'm letting you explain to the enforcers what two nobles are doing out of the party and heading towards Piltover's top-secret labs," Ekko warned.

It wasn't like she had any other choice. "Fuck, fine."

Jinx messed up her hair ever so slightly, hiking up her dress as she leaned back against the wall of the hallway. The things she had to do for the sake of Zaun…

Ekko leaned in close, wrapping an arm around her waist as she lifted up her leg—the one where she'd hiked her dress up—and wrapping his free hand around the skin on her bare thigh, holding it in place as she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.

"Get closer, idiot." So now he was having qualms about being in her personal space, but not earlier when his hands were all over her?

"Fuck," Ekko groaned, pushing his body right against hers and dropping his head onto her shoulder, burying his face into her neck. He was so close, his hands were on her skin and burning through her dress and he was so warm under her fingers and her stomach was doing flips as his lips hovered over her own. She swallowed, nodding her head in permission as he dipped just slightly, their lips meeting in a featherlight touch.

Oh, she didn't hate him. No, she didn't hate him; she had always been hurt. Maybe they had hated each other once—enough for them to hurl bombs and bullets at one another quicker than they could come up with insults—but things had changed drastically since then. They were on the same side now, and if this mission was a success, they could be seeing a lot more of each other.

If it was a failure, they would die together.

Either way, there wasn't anywhere Jinx could hide from it anymore. The reality, the one she had tried so desperately to suppress was staring at her right in the face. She couldn't think about anything but the last time they had been so close without actively trying to kill one another. She would give anything to do it all again, and maybe then she never would've had to convince herself she was anything but a pathetic, hurt, girl who wanted so desperately to be chosen.

Except right now, it wasn't real. It was just for a second, but Jinx cursed herself for letting herself get dragged into all of this; she couldn't come back from this now. Not when that singular touch had opened the floodgates, too much spilling out. Betrayal, longing, hatred, love, it was all jumbled together. The worst of all was what was buried under it all—a tiny sliver of hope, rekindled.

"What—" The enforcers stopped in their tracks, taking in the scene. They both turned to each other, and then back to Jinx and Ekko in shock.

Ekko pulled away from Jinx suddenly, feigning surprise and Jinx almost did something stupid like chase his touch and pull him back in, but she unfortunately had more control now than she would have in the past. Maybe at nineteen, Jinx would've given into her own madness—but she wasn't so stupid anymore.

Instead she pretended to be scandalized, fixing her dress as Ekko acted sheepish with the enforcers. "We were just uh—um—"

"Making our way to our room!" Jinx cut in. "Isn't that right, baby?"

"Right, yeah. To our room," Ekko echoed.

"Rooms are that way," one of the enforcers said gruffly, pointing down the hallway.

"Are they?" Jinx asked, feigning confusion. "Oh my, apologies, we were a bit…distracted."

"Right, well." The enforcer stared at them blankly. "Rooms are still that way."

"Give us a moment to ah…make ourselves presentable," Ekko suggested. "We'll be on our way in a minute."

The enforcers looked at each other again. God, they were dumb. This was too easy, why was it so easy? It couldn't possibly be this easy.

But it was. The enforcer who had spoken just said, "alright, but don't hang out here too long."

And then they were gone.

Jinx huffed out an incredulous laugh as they rounded the corner, muffling it by burying her face into Ekko's shoulder. "There is no way that just worked."

"Timeless trick," Ekko said, grinning when she pulled back again. He'd always had a stupid thing about time.

"Ekko—" She started. Ekko turned to her expectantly, waiting for her to speak. His expression was genuine, something about it making her stop in her tracks. She couldn't do it. She swallowed it all down, fixing her dress once again. "Let's go."

She only managed to get a little past him before Ekko grabbed her wrist, forcing her to turn around. "Listen, Jinx, I know this isn't the best time but I just—we're not going to go our separate ways after this."

"No, we aren't," Jinx agreed. "What's your point?"

"I—" Footsteps coming from the directions the enforcers just left in. "Let's just talk later?"

"Yeah, okay."

An interesting feature of their holo-hiders was that they would hide them from any security footage, meaning the only thing they had to worry about was running into more enforcers. They had a few close calls—but they'd climbed into the vents around halfway through and Jinx was crawling behind Ekko, trying to give him directions with the blueprints glowing brightly in front of her.

"Left," Jinx whispered. They couldn't risk being too loud, the vents echoed like crazy. It was a miracle they were even big enough for her and Ekko to fit through, but the station was rather large after all. "We're here, the labs should be in this hall."

"The vents don't lead into the labs?" Ekko questioned worriedly, already beginning to unscrew the vent cover underneath them with a handy screwdriver he'd pulled out of thin air. Jinx had her own tools on hand, of course, with a small pouch strapped to one of her thighs—the one she'd made sure remained covered during their little…show. It was pretty uncomfortable crawling through vents in her dress, and she was sure it was covered in dust by now. She'd hiked it up as much as she could, but it was a lost cause.

"No. They have their own system entirely in case of toxic fumes. There's an exhaust system that shoots right into the void and the labs have their own oxygen. You need to go through an air lock to get through. They have decontamination systems—"

"We don't have access," Ekko hissed, pausing his work on the vent cover.

"Leave that to me," Jinx replied, pulling out a small device. She tapped on the screen a few times, watching it go from red to green, then her signature hot pink. A satisfied grin took over her face as Ekko finally got the thing open with a clang.

He dipped his head down. "Not too far of a drop, can you back up a little?"

Jinx did as he asked, watching as he dipped down, fingers holding onto the edge of the vent before he dropped fully, landing on the ground gracefully. Jinx pushed herself into position after him, legs dangling over the edge. "Here, catch."

Ekko caught the device easily as Jinx repeated his actions, landing on the ground significantly quieter than he had. Ekko rolled his eyes at her smug grin. "Is this a scrambler?"

"You're not the only one with tricks up their sleeve," Jinx replied, snatching it out of his hand. Their entry from the vents had been a smart idea, all other entrances to the hallway were closed off and Jinx didn't have many scramblers to spare. The hallway wasn't anything different from the rest of the station, four metal walls with doors down each side, each lab sealed shut.

"So, which one do we think Talis uses?" Jinx asked, walking down the hallway. "Silco said that outside of Talis Laboratories and the Academy of Piltover, this is one of the places he's spotted most often. His work has to be here."

"All of the labs look identical though," Ekko sighed. "And some of the other Houses own labs here for the inventors and researchers they sponsor to use."

Jinx groaned, pulling up the blueprints again. "Couldn't they label these things or something?"

The blueprints didn't say much, the labs were one of the parts of the station that had been almost completely redone. The old blueprints looked nothing like the hallway they were standing in. Jinx furrowed her brows, trying to come up with a solution. Maybe if she hacked into the station's system, she'd be able to find out where—

"Jinx?" Her head snapped up at the sound of Ekko's voice. In the time she'd been staring at those blueprints, he'd made it to the very end of the hallway. Jinx approached, watching as he stared at the doors. "I think this is the one."

Right next to the doors, a plaque with bold lettering read "HOUSE TALIS LABORATORIES. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY."

Jinx grinned. "Labels."

Ekko pulled out his pocket watch. "We need to hurry. The party's ending in twenty minutes, there's no telling if Talis will come here afterwards or not—"

Jinx shoved him out of her way, spinning her scrambler around once. She held out a hand. "Screwdriver."

Ekko handed her his screwdriver and she got to work quickly, plugging in her scrambler before the system detected any interference. For one second, the security panel flashed red and Jinx took in a sharp breath, instinctively moving back in step with Ekko. Her fears were eased as the red was replaced with hot pink, monkeys dancing across the screen in a circle before they all pulled out bombs and threw them to the center in a digital explosion. The whole thing glitched out—the screen reading "Jinxed Ya!" and then blacking out right as the doors slid open.

Ekko let out an incredulous laugh. "Oh Janna, that was ridiculous."

"You're one to talk," Jinx teased. "You flash that hourglass logo everywhere you go. And your mini-ships? The ones that people see and instantly scream 'Firelights!'"

Ekko rolled his eyes. "Our mini-ships are technological genius."

"They're also flashy as hell."

"And what you just did wasn't?" Ekko challenged as the doors slid shut behind them, the small room pressurizing as they were sprayed with some disinfecting spray.

"I'm just pointing out your hypocrisy. If I'm ridiculous, you are too."

The second set of doors slid open with a hiss in front of them, leading the way into the lab. Ekko stepped out first, and Jinx took a second to look around, taking the place in before she immediately began going through Talis' things. There were countless half-finished inventions scattered across the room. Some sort of mechanical arm, gauntlets not unlike the ones used by miners back on the Sump, little devices with open circuitry.

"Oh, this is nice," Jinx gasped, pocketing a rather expensive piece she'd been searching the entire solar system for. It would be perfect for this new invention she'd been working on—

"Jinx!" Ekko reprimanded, slapping her hand away as she reached for something else. "We aren't here to milk them of everything they've got, the weapon, remember?"

"Literally half of the things here are weapons," Jinx pointed out. "Those gauntlets could probably smash someone's skull in."

"A system-level threat kind of weapon," Ekko corrected himself. "Come on, I'm not seeing anything like what our informant described, but we should look over the entire place anyways."

There wasn't really anything that screamed destroying planets and civilizations, if Jinx was being honest. The lab was similar to her own, if a lot fancier. She might have shoved a few more things into her pouch when Ekko wasn't looking, but it was only her right. Finders, keepers.

She was just about to give up when a flash of blue caught the corner of her vision again, just like at the party earlier. It was familiar, so much so that it made her stomach turn. Ekko was across the lab, flipping through a notebook—an actual pen and paper notebook—too distracted to notice her unease. She dropped the little holo-simulator she'd been inspecting, approaching the fancy box that was slightly open, catching that flash of blue again.

Her palms were sweaty as she opened the box, heart skipping a beat when she saw them. Two crystals, that same shade of blue as back at the Sump. The crystals that had ruined her life. They weren't exactly the same. These crystals was perfect spheres, glowing slightly. They seemed to shift and swirl under the bright lights, pulling her in like she was staring at a whirlpool. She reached out, pulling her hand back like she'd been burned as she was reminded of what had happened the last time she had touched those things.

They were the weapon, there was no doubt in her mind about it. Those crystals were the most destructive things she'd ever witnessed—and she liked to consider herself somewhat of an expert at the art of destruction. If Talis had somehow found a way to wield their power…

She flinched as Ekko put a hand on her shoulder, holding out the notebook he'd been reading. "Those crystals…"

Jinx nodded. "This is it."

She stared at them, so tiny, so beautiful, capable of unleashing horrors that most people couldn't imagine in a million lifetimes. They looked so innocent, yet if they hadn't found them, they likely would have led to the deaths of millions. "How?"

"It doesn't matter," Jinx snapped, grabbing one.

"Wait, no—" An alarm went off instantly, the doors to the lab shutting as the lights cut off, a low red replacing them. The box slammed shut, the other crystal out of her reach.

"Fuck," Jinx cursed, pocketing the gem in her hand carefully. Talis had said he and his partner had managed to stabilize the crystals in his notebook, but she wasn't going to risk it. "How do we get out?"

"These vents don't connect to the ones we came from, but these rooms weren't labs before the place was reconstructed, right?" Ekko asked.

Jinx pulled out the old blueprints, understanding his train of thought immediately. They hadn't been fully reconstructed, only redone. The old vent tunnels still existed, they were just shut off. They would need to cut through somehow…

Ekko grabbed a laser cutter from the counter. "Good thing we're in a lab, right?"

They closed the vent cover behind them, already gone by the time enforcers would arrive in the lab, but it wouldn't be long until their covers were blown. Those two enforcers that had seen them on the wrong side of the station were bound to run their mouths. They were better off dropping the holo-hider disguises to throw them off. If they were looking for a ginger, they wouldn't spare someone with blue hair a second glance.

The metal glowed red-hot as Ekko cut through, making a rectangle large enough for them to fit through. Jinx sneezed the second they got into the old vents, the dust making her nose itch. "Fuck."

"We're almost there," Ekko told her.

Unfortunately, their luck didn't improve once they got there. The docks were completely shut down, dozens of enforcers patrolling the area. Once they'd made it out of the vents, Jinx and Ekko had taken refuge in the corner of the large docking area, perched atop a ledge, out of sight. Jinx had ripped off part of her dress after it had become too much of a nuisance, and she gripped Zapper tightly, ready to shoot should they be spotted.

"We can take them," Jinx insisted for the third time, scanning the place. It would take them about a minute to get to their ship and less to take off, the problem was that there was no way for them to board without being seen. Their ship's guns would do fine against enforcer ships, they just needed to make it out alive first. The enforcers weren't likely to shoot to kill once they recognized who they were, Jinx and Ekko were too valuable alive.

"No, we can't," Ekko argued. "It's thirty to two. They're all armed, we're not."

"Speak for yourself, I have my gun."

Ekko narrowed his eyes at her. "How did you sneak that in—"

Jinx waved him off. "It doesn't matter, they're just a bunch of brutes. We can take them."

"Brutes with guns, Jinx," Ekko hissed. "Thirty of them."

"Well where's your brilliant plan then?" Jinx asked, annoyed. "Wait up here until they find us like sitting ducks?"

"I—a distraction, maybe?"

"I have one smoke bomb," Jinx told him. "That's not enough."

"Where did you even put a whole bomb?"

Jinx grinned. "Up my—"

Ekko slapped a hand over her mouth, effectively shutting her up. "Nope. Forget I even asked."

Jinx licked his hand, smirking with satisfaction when he pulled away, glaring at her before he wiped it off, cursing under his breath.

"I was kidding."

"Right," he muttered. "We're running out of time, we need to get out before they shut off access to the ships entirely."

It was oddly familiar. She felt way too calm for the situation they were in, but she couldn't help but be reminded of the times they would stake out jobs together, high up, watching the Sump where nobody could see them, but they could see everyone. Ekko was always a slippery kid, he would find his way through vents and tiny spaces between walls and abandoned corners of the Sump, hearing and seeing everything going on without anyone ever suspecting a thing. Jinx would stumble behind him, never nearly as agile or fast. She'd grown into herself with age, and even if she wasn't just stumbling behind Ekko blindly anymore, finding themselves in such a familiar predicament was enough to send her on a trip down memory lane.

Thirty enforcers was a lot more than five, but if they'd managed to do it as kids, maybe…

"Do you remember the crying trick?" Jinx asked.

Ekko's eyes widened. "You think it'll work?"

"We can try," Jinx said, pulling out a small handheld device, tapping away at the screen as Ekko watched. If there were any speakers nearby—which she was sure there were, most stations had an intercom system—she could hack into them and input a pre-recorded sound of someone crying and then screaming for help.

"Gotcha," Jinx said triumphantly, dropping the sound effect so that it would only ring down one hallway. She'd programmed it to move from speaker to speaker as the enforcers approached, making it seem like the victim was being dragged away. Seven enforcers took the bait, the rest dispersing themselves evenly around the docks. Jinx waited a minute before doing the same thing again, in the opposite direction. The recording was different so that they wouldn't suspect anything, but urgent enough for another five enforcers to break off and leave.

That left eighteen.

"How's that?" Jinx asked with a smirk.

Ekko tilted his head. "Doable."

Then he jumped right off the ledge, tackling an enforcer before he could even make a sound. Jinx grinned, her head buzzing and her body tingling with excitement. Oh, it was so on. The enforcer's partner pointed her gun at Ekko, but Jinx got to her first. Zapper burned the woman to a crisp, knocking her out right next to the enforcer already on the floor. "I bet I can take down more of them than you."

"Oh, it's so on," Ekko called back, grabbing the gun out of the unconscious enforcer's hands. Jinx dodged as an enforcer attacked, zapping them before kicking another right in the gut. His gun flew out of his hands and Ekko shot him, watching as he crumpled.

"Behind you!" Jinx called out as an unarmed enforcer went for a sneak attack, getting way too close to Ekko. He hit her right in the head with the back of the gun—he was so copying Jinx's moves—and she shot down three more while Ekko fought two at the same time, both going down quickly enough. She was already breathing hard, her eyes widening in panic as the remaining eight enforcers appeared, eight guns pointed at them all at the same time.

"Put your hands up!" One of them yelled. "Drop the weapons or we'll shoot!"

"Fuck," Ekko cursed, dropping his gun and putting his hands up in the air.

"You too!" The enforcer turned to Jinx. She put her hands up. "Drop the gun!"

Jinx grinned—a wicked, devilish grin that had Ekko stepping back before she could even do anything. "No can do."

With a stomp, her smoke bomb fell to the ground from the pouch on her thigh. It exploded in a flurry of pink smoke, glitter making the enforcers choke as Jinx and Ekko had the sense to hold their breaths. Several shots went off blindly as they dodged, making it to their ship in twenty seconds.

"That's a new record," Jinx breathed out, laughing slightly as she and Ekko quickly boarded, the airlock shutting behind them as they locked their ship from the inside. Ekko made a beeline for the flight deck, settling into his pilot's chair as Jinx got their weapons online.

"Five enforcer ships en route," Ekko called as Jinx strapped in. "You ready?"

She scoffed, tapping away at her screen. "Don't ask stupid questions."

Quieter, Ekko spoke again. "You have the gem?"

Jinx fished it out of her pocket, making sure it was secure in the little holding panel near her control centre. "Yeah, I already alerted Silco about our departure. He knows we have it."

"You know what this means, right?" Ekko asked. "Piltover won't take this lightly, it means an all-out war."

Jinx shook her head. "We've always been at war."

And it was true. For the oppressed, for Zaunites, every act that had deprived them of their livelihood had been an act of war. It was about time they took things into their own hands, war or not. Silco had always been right—they couldn't live off of Piltover's scraps and let themselves be stomped into the ground anymore. This gem—that tiny little thing was going to even the playing field for the first time. "You have the notebook?"

Ekko hummed in confirmation, the sound reminding her of the little gasp he'd breathed out after they had kissed and—oh, why was she thinking about that now? She hadn't let herself earlier, but this was the worst possible time. In a few seconds, they were about to be attacked by several enforcer ships while they made their great getaway—and they would make it out, she knew they would, because nobody understood the art of guns the way she did—or the art of flight like Ekko. It was somehow worse, knowing they would survive, because once they did, there was about to be a very awkward, very heavy talk ahead of them.

For now, Jinx needed to focus on what she knew best. She cracked her knuckles, sliding the bar on her screen all the way up. "Weapons are a go."

"Affirmative," Ekko said. "Prepare for launch in five, four, three, two…one. Enforcer ships are in pursuit."

Piltover was going to get their war, now it was time to see how they would do against an opponent their own size. Buzzing behind her eyes, tingling in her fingers, Jinx fired the first shot. "Boom."

TO BE CONTINUED…