"I missed you so much"
Ekko
Jinx? Oh... What... Should we save Jinx? What happened to her?
The mere thought of something bad happening to his blue-haired girl brought him mixed feelings, he knew Jinx wasn't a good person but... still...
"Who's Jinx?" Mylo asked, scratching his head in confusion.
That was a good question, who is Jinx? Who was she really? A simple pyromaniac psychopath? A trigger-happy person with... Practically everyone? Or was it the woman with tender eyes and a bright smile, with a mind as fast as it was dangerous? Or a woman who had already lost her mind long ago?
Ekko wanted to believe that that hadn't happened but he knew that was practically impossible, he himself had seen Jinx go crazy on the firelights missions, he heard her high-pitched, uncontrolled laughter, a part of him hated himself for finding strange comfort in that laughter.
Ekko's brown eyes briefly glanced at the little Powder, his wide blue eyes staring curiously at the adult Vi. How did he tell those from the past who Jinx was? How did he tell them that the innocent, naive, intelligent girl turned into something even more intelligent, uncontrollable, and extremely dangerous?
The adult Vi looked at him still in Vander's arms with conflicted eyes, she didn't know what to say, how was she going to explain to the teenage Vi who her little sister had become? Ekko took a deep breath because it seemed like it was his turn to explain, he already hated this whole situation.
"Jinx is, well, it's hard to believe, maybe I don't know, it's Powder." Ekko stumbled over his own words. A part of him wanted to laugh hysterically when he saw the faces of the people from the past, they looked so confused and surprised.
"W-why do they call me Jinx? That's not my name." Powder asked timidly, emerging from her shelter behind the teenage Ví.
Ekko's heart broke when he heard Powder's voice, so confused and hurt. He knew how much it hurt little Powder to be called Jinx, she always ran with tears in her eyes to Benzo's shop every time Mylo called her that. He remembered how Powder cried in his arms and he could barely console her, but sometimes he managed to make her laugh and he could feel happy thanks to that.
"Maybe you finally accepted who you are." Mylo said with a small laugh. Ekko didn't really remember how irritating Mylo was and right now he wanted to punch him. But it wasn't necessary because the teenager Vi gave him a hard punch on the arm.
"Don't say that, you idiot. She's not a jinx." Teenage Vi said, pulling Powder towards her body, who now had tears in her eyes.
She's a jinx, but not like you think Vi.
"She calls herself that now, that's her name." Ekko said with a sigh. His legs felt shaky, his body seemed to be starting to stop being fueled by adrenaline and the whole situation was falling on him. He walked with shaky steps to the single sofa where he sat down heavily, put his elbows on his legs and covered his face. For Janna.
"So you're Vi, right?" Vander asked the adult Vi, trying to lighten the mood. The teenage Vi looked curiously at the adult Vi.
Adult Vi nodded, wiping away the tears from her eyes. "I missed you so much." She said before hugging him again. Vander hugged her tightly, caressing her back.
"What's going on?" Ekko jumped when he heard Caitlyn's voice. He had already forgotten she was there.
Ekko could see the teenage Vi startle at the sight of Caitlyn. "What's a Piltie doing here?"
Adult Vi separated from Vander and approached Caitlyn who looked confused. "She's Caitlyn, she's not bad."
He wanted to laugh really hard, she's not bad, of course. She was an Enforcer, that was enough. And not only that, her mother was Cassandra Kiramman, a hideous woman.
"Here." Ekko said, passing the letter to Caitlyn. He didn't feel like explaining anything further. He felt exhausted.
"Ekko." He inadvertently looked up, believing that Benzo was talking to little Ekko, but his dad was looking at him. His breathing caught for a moment, his heart tightened, how long had it been since he heard his dad's voice? He had already forgotten what his dad sounded like.
Ekko nodded at the unspoken question.
"You're me? Woah, I look really cool." Little Ekko said in an excited voice, his brown eyes shining. "Powder, look, I'm taller."
Ekko laughed softly as his gaze met Powder's who blushed quickly. Jinx was a shameless, brazen girl and most of the time shyness ran away from her but when they were together she went back to being the shy and sweet girl he fell in love with. Although that didn't mean he didn't love the shameless woman she had become.
"Hey little man, you worked out, huh?" The teenage Vi said, pointing at his arms. Ekko simply shook his head with a smile. All this was strangely comforting.
"You've grown quite a bit, kid." Benzo said as he approached him. Ekko stood up, feeling tears begin to fill his eyes.
"It's been a while," he replied, his voice shaking. His father looked at him in confusion before he realized that Benzo was no longer in his life.
Unable to contain himself any longer, Ekko approached and hugged his father tightly, who held him in his arms. He felt like he was 11 again.
"I missed you so much." Ekko whispered on Benzo's shoulder, who didn't answer him but ran his hand through his hair, caressing it.
"What happened?" Claggor asked, looking at the whole situation confused, and pointed at Vander and Benzo. "Are they dead in the future?"
The adult Vi looked at him with sad eyes. How could she explain to him that they were all dead? How could she explain to them that the cause of that was little Powder?
Ekko pulled away from Benzo and decided to simply forcefully remove the band-aid. "You four are dead," he said, pointing at Vander, Benzo, Mylo, and Claggor.
"Well, shit," Mylo said with a shrug.
"How... What happened?" Teenage Vi asked, approaching her adoptive siblings with Powder and little Ekko.
"Yeah, that's an... interesting question." Ekko replied, sitting back down on the couch. "Maybe we'll see, who knows."
He didn't want to tell them what had happened, he knew Mylo wouldn't understand and he didn't want to burden Powder with all of this. He clearly remembered the moment when Jinx told him what had happened that night. He didn't understand it at first and wanted to get angry with Jinx but that was erased when he saw how distressed his blue-haired girl was.
It was an accident, he knew Jinx just... just wanted to help. It wasn't her fault, although Jinx won't think the same.
The adult Vi looked at Ekko and smiled, thanking him for answering that question, she herself didn't know what to say.
"Maybe we should sit down and see what they told us in the letter." Caitlyn said trying to distract those from the past from the question.
"We'll see you as an adult, PowPow." Little Ekko said, pulling Powder's hand as they sat together on the couch.
Oh, man. Little Ekko had no idea what was in store for him. He had to remind himself how to breathe every time he saw Jinx.
As soon as everyone sat down, a projector came out of the floor, the lights dimmed without turning off completely and the wall in front of them lit up.