Prologue
Falling should have filled her with terror, with some primal emotion, just days ago she had been planning - poised even - to throw herself into an abyss to wipe the slate clean of the stain of her existence. Now, as she plummeted, huge clawed hand curled around her waist, squeezing painfully, she softly smiled up at the quickly fading image of her sister’s beautifully pained eyes.
Turning in the terrible grip, feeling lighter than she had since Isha, she curled her body towards the thing that had once been one of her fathers, and pulled the pin of the brightly coloured bomb in her hand. As though it recognised the divine, or perhaps he whir and tick of the mechanism inside was amplified to its superhuman ears, the monstrous visage opened its mouth in a silent scream and flung her away roughly, right as the ferocious blast consumed the chasm they were falling into with heat and light that she felt down to her bones. Only the fact that she was already in motion from being cast away protected her, alongside the enhanced speed of her shimmer strength and she careened gracelessly into one of many ducts lining the scarred walls.
Her world spun—everything disintegrated into chaos—until her legs hit something solid and she was propelled forward. She couldn’t see where she was going, but she didn’t need to. Her hands outstretched, her body guided by memory as she plunged into the narrow, dark duct of the Hexgate tunnels. The walls closed in around her as she crawled desperately, coughing and gasping for air. Her heart pounded in her chest. Everything was pain.
Everything was pitch dark, the brief spark of the explosion soon dimmed, leaving her along with her broken wounded body. She would die here, alone, torn apart by her family but also put back together by them. Only seconds had passed since she popped the crystal out of Vi’s gauntlets and gave her back her life and pink eyes began to close as life ebbed out of her. Before she fell into a far deeper darkness a pulse of prismatic light swallowed everything, and she felt it pulling at her very soul, stretching her body like it was nothing but a fragile, fleeting thread in the wind.
Agony.
Then nothing.
When Jinx opened her eyes, she wasn’t in the Hexgates anymore. The air was different, crisper, like winter biting at her skin. Her vision blurred as she tried to focus, but all she could see were the faint outlines of trees, an endless horizon of snow and jagged peaks. A towering mountain belching an alarming amount of smoke.
Wait.
Where the hell was she?
Her head throbbed, like someone had been hammering nails into her skull, and her body felt... wrong. Not just the ache in her joints, the ribs shattered by a giant fist, not just the gash in her side where the explosion had torn her open, but something deeper. A sensation that crawled under her skin, like her very being didn’t belong here.
She pushed herself up from the frozen ground, swaying on her feet. The snow crunched under her boots as she stumbled forward, vision swimming in front of her. The last thing she remembered was falling - no, escaping - into the depths of the Hexgates to die.
But now, she was... here.
Jinx clutched her side, wincing from the sharp pain but it was keeping her alert for now, even as the snow beneath her feet turned crimson in a rapidly spreading pool. She had to focus. She had to get the hell out of whatever this was. The idea that it wasn’t a hallucination danced at the back of her mind, but she didn’t have time to dwell. The chill that crept into her bones told her that if she didn’t figure out where she was and who did this to her, she might never wake up again. It must be the cold, the shock and the shimmer even keeping her upright.
Her feet carried her onward despite the hazy dizziness threatening to claim her. She didn’t know where she was going, only that she had to keep moving.
The sky above her stretched wide, unforgiving and gray, with only the distant shadow of mountains as a guide. That was when she saw it: a small cluster of buildings in the distance. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to spark the faintest hope in her chest.
She made her way toward the settlement, the icy wind cutting through her hair, tugging at the remnants of her clothes. The few things she could remember about the world around her were already growing thin. Freljord. That name echoed in her mind, but it didn’t make sense. She didn’t know why it was there; why it felt like a distant memory she hadn’t touched in years.
When she arrived at the town, her steps faltering in the snow, the warmth of the building seemed to beckon to her. As she reached the door, she was ready to collapse when it opened, and a woman in furs and layered leather stepped out. Her eyes widened when she saw Jinx.
“By the gods... you’re hurt.”
“Yeah,” Jinx whispered, her already raspy voice nothing more than a hoarse whisper, “No kiddin'... lady.”
The woman didn’t wait for an invitation. She grabbed Jinx into her arms gently, carrying her inside without a word, and the door shut behind them, leaving the biting cold of Freljord behind. As though all of the adrenaline bled out of her even as the cold did, Jinx slumped into the larger body holding her and faded into darkness.
It was only when Jinx woke up again that things began to shift. The room was warm, too warm, with the faint scent of burning wood in the air. Her head was no longer throbbing, but it still felt like a fog hung over everything she tried to remember. She wasn’t sure if it had been a dream; no, it had felt too real.
“Hey.” A soft voice pulled her from her swirling thoughts, and she blinked up to see the same woman who had helped her earlier. This time, there was a deep frown on her face. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been run over by a... a tram,” Jinx muttered, rubbing her forehead. “Where am I? How long?”
The woman tilted her head, giving Jinx a look that was almost... pitying? “You’ve been here for days. You’ve been in a coma since we found you. We weren’t sure if you’d make it.”
The words didn’t make sense. “Days?” Jinx’s mouth went dry. “How long… how long have I been out? Where’s... where’s my... where’s everyone?”
“Everyone?” The woman seemed puzzled, then her eyes flicked to something just over Jinx’s shoulder. Jinx tried to follow the gaze, but the room seemed to spin again.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” The woman asked, her tone a little softer now.
“No.” Jinx gripped the blanket tighter, her chest tight with panic. “Where am I? Tell me where I am!” She stared at the woman with an intensity that would’ve cut through anyone else.
The woman paused, unsure of how to answer. Then, with a sigh, she answered in a voice laced with a weariness that tugged at Jinx’s heartstrings. “You’re in Freljord. In a village called New Haven.”
Freljord. New Haven.
The name hit her like a splash of ice water. It sent something deep inside her spiralling. Her breath came in short gasps. Everybody in Runeterra knew the tragedy of New Haven. Seven years. It was seven years before everything. Before the volcano. Before Piltover. Before Zaun.
Somehow, she had ended up here, in the past, in a place that she didn’t even recognize, with no idea how she’d gotten there. She was broken, alone and in just as much danger as she had left in the future. He head swam at the thought.
Jinx closed her eyes, her heart racing in her chest. There was no way. She couldn’t... could she?
The world had broken her once, shattered her to pieces, and now it was doing it again. Only this time, it wasn’t the world of Piltover and Zaun she had left behind. No, now she was trapped in a place she didn’t understand.
A world before her time.
Before everything fell apart.
All she could do now was try to figure out what the hell had happened. Try to make sense of how she, of all people, had ended up here.
Not to mention, the small matter of surviving a volcano that was ready to explode.