"I'm here"
Jinx could only stare at the scene before her with a pain in her chest. Ekko cradling Isha who was yawning. She etched that moment into her memory, leaving it marked there and treasured forever. It was something she had always dreamed of and now it was in front of her, it was surreal, it scared her.
She was afraid to sleep, and when she opened her eyes, everything would disappear. She'd be back in that cold cell in Piltover, her children no longer alive, and she'd be alone... Again. She wanted to believe that Viktor wasn't cruel enough to do something like that to her, but she didn't know, and if there was one thing that bothered Jinx, it was not knowing something. It was frustrating and exhausting, she just wanted to sleep and wake up in a better world, where everything was fine but here she was.
Jinx sighed heavily, looking down at her body, which was dirty. It probably smelled bad too. No one had commented on it, but she knew it was like that. She urgently needed a bath but didn't want to take her eyes off Isha and Beni for too long.
"Are you okay?" Ekko asked softly, drawing her attention, his soft brown eyes staring at her so intently that her heart pounded. Isha was dozing in his arms.
She looked at her daughter with a small smile and walked over to the bed to sit beside them. She gently placed a kiss on her forehead. "You're good at this."
Ekko chuckled, trying not to wake Isha. "Yeah, I guess I've had practice."
"With Ollie?" Jinx couldn't help but mention Scar's daughter, she was such a wild and cute girl just like Isha. When Scar introduced her to her that night at the Sanctuary, she felt a gentle affection for the little vastaya, Isha's first friend. Scar and she had a difficult relationship, well, complicated? Love-hate? Something like that. She didn't know if she should consider him a friend, maybe yes, maybe not; it was difficult after everything she'd done. But she knew that Scar was willing to protect her and her children, it didn't matter if he didn't do it out of love for her, it was for Ekko and that was enough. After all, he was the children's uncle.
"Ollie? How do you know her?" Ekko asked, confused. How did Jinx know his little niece? What had happened between his timeline and hers? Had that much changed?
She looked at him, not knowing what to say. Should she tell him the truth? Or just lie? She didn't want to do either; it was a long story.
"That's a story for another time," Jinx muttered, looking away and trying to laugh. "I'm sitting here and I smell terrible, like a rotten rat."
Ekko let the comment slide, seeing that Jinx wasn't going to tell him what had happened just yet. He smiled at her in amusement and shrugged. "I've smelled worse."
"Where?" Jinx asked with a grimace of disgust.
"You don't want to know."
Ekko gently laid Isha on the bed. She was fast asleep. His daughter, so small and fragile. She looked so much like her mother. Like the woman he loved and despaired of in equal measure.
"I want to be a part of both of your lives," Ekko said softly.
"If that's what you want..."
"Jinx, if you had told me..." He sighed in frustration.
"But I didn't, stop that. We should stop crying over spilled milk." Jinx said tiredly.
Ekko looked at her with exasperation but stopped himself from answering when he noticed the woman's deep fatigue.
"We'll talk about this when we get out of here."
Jinx nodded in agreement, she wasn't going to be able to escape from that even though they had already talked a little but there was still much more.
"You should rest too." She whispered.
Ekko nodded, stood up, and walked to the door, feeling an overwhelming desire to stay there with the woman he loved and his children, but he couldn't. They both needed time.
Jinx wished Ekko would stay, feel his warmth and sleep by his side once more, but they couldn't. Not yet.
As soon as Ekko left the room, Jinx covered Isha and got up so she could change her clothes. The closets in the room were filled with clothes and things for her, Isha, and Beni. Vicky... Vicky... Son of a bitch.
She had to hit him and hug him very tightly.
Although she needed a bath but didn't want to stray too far from her children so that would have to wait, maybe there were wet wipes she could clean herself with. She rummaged through the closet until she found baby wipes, shrugged, and undressed.
Jinx quickly cleaned herself up; her hair was still going to be dirty, unfortunately. She put on an oversized T-shirt and panties as pajamas.
She approached Beni to check on him, he was still sleeping as sweetly as ever. "I love you, troublemaker."
She left a soft kiss on his forehead and went to the bed where she carefully lay down next to Isha, who, upon feeling her next to her, clung to her body, hugging her. Afraid, Jinx closed her eyes, letting sleep take her in its arms. Before she fell completely asleep, she prayed to Janna for her children. She didn't know if it would help, but it made her feel calmer.
Fire and smoke covered the place making Jinx's chest hurt, the shimmer was not helping her breathe better she could only cough. She blinked trying to focus her eyes, her stomach ached from the hard hit Vander had given her, her hands pressed against the ground trying to get up but her legs wouldn't respond.
Explosions and screams echoed in her dazed ears, but she heard one noise in particular that caught her attention. A cry... A baby's cry... Her baby's...
Unable to breathe, Jinx desperately looked for Beni and Isha but only saw Noxians with their large spears attacking the commune. Until a blue glow amidst so much Noxian red and bronze caught her eye, and her heart stopped for a moment. Everything went silent, no one existed, no Vi, no Caitlyn or Vander, no one mattered. She could only watch as Isha took her Zapper in her small hands, with Beni strapped tightly to her chest. As she placed the Hextech gemstones into the Zapper... One... Two... Three...
Three...
Three fucking stones... Three fucking stones...
Isha's frightened face was heartbreaking, Beni's tears shattered her. Her children... So small and innocent, so terrified...
No matter how much Jinx screamed and tried to catch up with them, she couldn't make it in time.
Jinx woke up, breathing heavily, her face wet with tears. She looked to her side, where Isha was still sleeping, now sprawled out and uncovered, a trickle of drool running from her mouth. She covered her mouth with one hand so as not to wake her with her crying and pressed her free hand against her daughter's chest to feel her heart beating.
She just had to remind herself that Isha and Beni were okay, they were breathing, their little hearts were beating... They were okay...
With a soft sigh she dried her face with the sheets, her body still ached but the tiredness had mostly disappeared. She knew it wouldn't be long before Beni woke up hungry or needing a diaper change, so she got out of bed making sure Isha didn't wake up.
She looked at her loose blue hair, it was all dirty and hardened from lack of care, she shuddered when she touched it, her hair was always soft and smelled good but now? A yordle's dirty, moldy hair sure smelled better. She tried to comb it but only managed to pull it, making her scalp hurt, it was so tangled.
She gave up letting her hair down, she needed to wash it urgently.
The wounds on her body had mostly healed, the shimmer took a while but it finally did its job on her. She looked at the door wanting to see Silco and Vander again, maybe they were awake or hadn't even slept, she didn't think she had slept for a long time. But there was a tiny, tiny, but very, very big problem... The other people...
"When I find you, fortune cookie..."
She walked to the crib taking Beni in her arms, the chubby baby was still sleepy but was already trying to wake up.
"If you keep sleeping you won't be able to eat, fatso." Jinx whispered, biting her baby's chubby cheek with her lips, and carefully left the room.
She looked at the place that looked like a living room, it was empty so she assumed everyone was sleeping, with hesitant steps she inspected the place. Everything looked so normal but at the same time piltie, that caused a small feeling of repulsion. There was a large sofa with small ones on the sides, a projector that was in front of a white wall, the space was wide.
Beni began to whimper softly.
"Sh~" Jinx hummed softly, gently rocking her son, she decided to sit on the couch so she could feed him. The sofa was quite comfortable and soft, the cushions were fluffy.
With some difficulty, Jinx lifted the large shirt so she could attach Beni to her breast, and soon he began to drink milk. Breastfeeding her children always felt so comforting, it was almost therapeutic, as if her mind had quieted for a moment and everything was at peace. It was just her and her children.
She inspected the soft white fluff on Beni's head, his hair would surely grow in curls, his small uneven eyes looked at her as if she were the whole world. And maybe that's what she was to him and Isha, after all she was his mother, she carried Isha in her womb for nine months and Beni for almost eight. One pregnancy was relatively easy and the other was not at all, but her children were healthy and well-nourished. That told her that she had done at least one thing right in her life.
"Oh!"
Jinx jumped at the sound of someone's surprise behind her, she turned around and found Vi, the idiot adult not the teenager.
"Oh, it's you." Jinx said, turning her attention back to her son.
Without seeing her, she could feel her older sister sitting down beside her. For a blessed moment, everything remained silent... A beautiful silence that Vi had to ruin.
"Jinx, we should talk."
"I honestly don't know what we should talk about." Jinx sighed, wiping Beni's spilled milk with her shirt; the baby seemed to have taken to her breast as a pacifier.
"We come from different timelines, I think." Vi ruffled her hair; it was all very confusing. "I don't know, Ekko tried to explain it to me but my head is very scrambled."
"You've never used your head much anyway."
Vi sighed heavily; she had to be patient to talk to her. "I think we both owe each other some explanations."
Jinx looked at her, puzzled. "And I thought I was the crazy one. I don't have to explain myself to you."
"Po- Jinx." Vi corrected herself in time, she was on eggshells with her sister, she realized she didn't really know how to talk to her, not anymore. Jinx was no longer a child, she was a grown woman, not only that, but a mother too. How was she supposed to talk to her? What should she say? What was okay to say and what wasn't?
Vi realized with a pain in her heart that she no longer truly knew her little sister, everything she knew she learned from the proyections.
"Look, Vi." Jinx adjusted Beni, who had woken up, to continue nursing at her breast. "I don't have anything to explain to you. I already talked to my Vi, the version of you from my timeline."
"But I want you to talk to me." I need you to, Jinx, Vi thought.
"Why? What do you need to hear from me?"
"I don't know, I just... I just want... I want to have my little sister back." Vi sighed exhaustedly, looking down at her tightly clenched hands. "I made a lot of mistakes with you, I should have been better, and I can't fix that now, but I can try to make up for it."
Jinx looked at her for a moment before getting up from the couch, still breastfeeding Beni. She felt restless and couldn't just sit there. She knew she couldn't stress herself out with Beni drinking from her breast, her body would start producing shimmer and even though she knew Beni already had that stuff in his blood she didn't want to contaminate him further.
"We both made mistakes, me especially." Jinx began, looking at Beni. "But some things just can't be fixed, Vi."
Vi stood up and walked over to Jinx, who gently moved away from her. "Don't run away from me."
Jinx let out a small, almost hysterical laugh. "I never ran away from you. That was always you, wasn't it?"
Vi looked at her hurt, she knew that would always be a mark on Jinx but still...
"You're right, I never should have left that night and when I tried I couldn't go back, that enforcer caught me."
"How ironic." Jinx laughed, pacing across the room. "All to end up being one of them."
Vi remained silent just looking at her sister, she hadn't yet become an enforcer but for Jinx she had.
"I don't understand why you Vi did that but I'm not her yet and I never will be."
Jinx laughed bitterly, pulling Beni away from her breasts to lean him against her shoulder and patting him gently on the back. "How long will that last when the other idiot shows up?"
"Caitlyn?"
"Is there another idiot?"
"I'm nothing to her yet, but I would never let anyone hurt you or the kids," Vi said firmly. She had feelings for Caitlyn, but her little sister came first.
The blue-haired girl felt an enormous bitterness in her chest, she had already spoken with her Vi but she still had that little sister resentment and she didn't know when it would go away. She wanted to scream at Vi, grab her by the shoulders and yell at her, hit her, let out everything she was holding back. Although she had minimally repaired her relationship with Vi, there was still much to repair or forgive, Jinx could not easily forget how thanks to her and Caitlyn Isha had not been able to breathe for a moment.
"Vi... Like for you, there are things I just can't forget." Jinx said to her, turning to look at her.
Vi frowned, her patience beginning to wear thin. "Our situations are different."
"And how are they? What I see here are two sisters who committed actions against each other or not?"
"I'm not your Vi, I don't think it's fair that you blame me for the things she did."
"When I said I blamed you for her actions, huh?"
She had done it, hadn't she? Jinx thought.
"You did it, Jinx," Vi said in frustration, running a hand over her forehead. "Maybe we should talk more calmly another time."
"I didn't do it." Yes, she had. "I didn't want to talk to you, and you were the one who insisted because you're as stubborn as a dead cow."
"That doesn't even make sense," Vi exclaimed, waving her arms.
"For you."
"Girls."
Vi jumped in surprise while Jinx didn't even flinch, when they turned around there were Vander, Silco, Ekko and well, everyone else watching them.
Had they seen all that? Jinx thought with disgust.
Her pink gaze connected with Ekko's brown eyes, who looked curiously at Beni on her shoulder. He cautiously approached her and stroked the child's small head with one hand.
Jinx and Ekko's hearts beat as one, for one blessed moment it was just them and their baby, no one else, just as they always should have been. She could see the love in his eyes and for the first time in a long time she felt accompanied, she felt that she was not alone with her children, now he was there too.
Jinx wordlessly handed Beni to Ekko, who greeted him with a sudden look of nervousness. The baby simply stared at his dad with sleepy eyes.
"Isn't he going to cry?" Ekko asked nervously, cradling his son. He felt like his heart was going to burst out, he had held babies before but this one was his, it was his son.
"He's not a crybaby," Jinx said, placing a small kiss on Beni's cheek. "Isha cried all the time."
Silco let out a small laugh. "It's true, my dear Isha was upset about everything when she was a baby."
Jinx looked at her dad allowing herself to get away from Beni for a moment, she approached Silco who greeted her with a soft hug. Soon she felt a larger hand stroke her hair, which, although dirty and straw-like, was done gently. Turning her head, she realized it was Vander.
A stunning peace settled in her chest, everything felt too perfect and it scared her.
The peace ended too quickly for her liking, as some voices distracted her. When Jinx looked she saw Powder, with little Ekko (very adorable, by the way) talking to teenage Vi.
Her gaze connected with Powder's, and she expected to feel panic or even disgust, but she didn't; it was almost like looking in a mirror. There was what she didn't want to admit, hitting her in the face. In the end, Jinx and Powder weren't that different. Jinx was weak in many ways that Powder was strong, and vice versa. She was Powder. She wouldn't say it out loud yet, but that was how it was.
Powder gulped nervously, her hands clenched shakily. She wanted to talk to Jinx, but she was afraid; she didn't know what to say. Jinx had a clear dislike for her, though she didn't know why.
"You guys look like ducks that are going to be shot down," Jinx said expressionlessly, surprised at the two children and the teenager.
"What does that mean?" Little Ekko whispered to Powder who shrugged.
The tension in the room was practically palpable, and it was getting to Jinx's nerves.
"Will you all stop being so careful around me?" Jinx asked loudly, separating herself from her two dads.
"I know it's difficult to be in my impressive presence, but calm down," she said, feigning disinterest.
Mylo's voice disturbed Jinx in a way she'd seen coming. "Well, it's not every day we get to see the crazy version of your little sister."
Jinx reached for her gun on her hip, but it was obviously gone, and she'd forgotten it. "Shut your fucking mouth. You never learned how to shut up, asshole."
Mylo looked at her, startled by her words. "Don't talk to me like that."
Jinx didn't look at him because she knew if she did, she'd probably beat the shit out of him. Mylo had always been a fucking jerk to her.
"Shut up, idiot." Claggor gently shoved Mylo, scolding him.
"Yeah, shut up," the teenage Vi told Mylo angrily.
The blue-haired girl's head was hurting again, she didn't want to endure this whole circus for who knows how long.
She just pretended that none of that scene had happened and went to check on Isha. Upon entering the room, she found Isha just waking up.
"Hi, bunny," Jinx greeted her, causing Isha to smile at her and stretch her small arms out towards her.
Jinx sighed, shaking her head in amusement before lifting Isha into her arms. "Aren't you too old for me to make you uppies?"
Isha frowned and shook her head, hugging her mom. Jinx just smiled and hugged her tightly. She would always be their baby.
"Let's go with your dad, shall we?" She said to Isha as she walked towards the living room.
When Jinx returned she realized that the projector had turned on and a shiver ran through her body, she didn't want to see her life, she didn't want anyone to see that. Everyone was sitting on the couches, Ekko was sitting alone with Beni sleeping in his arms.
Jinx walked over, holding Isha in her arms, and sat next to Ekko. Her body was tense, she wanted to leave that place, she didn't want this.
Isha got out of her arms to go to her grandfather Vander.
"Hey." Ekko's whispered voice caught Jinx's attention. She looked up at him and gasped. He looked at her like she was glowing, like she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. She had never felt more beautiful in her life than she did at that moment. Despite her still-dirty, disgusting hair, she was beautiful to him. And that was enough.
"I'm here. You won't have to go through this alone." Ekko whispered, taking her hand. His touch was delicate and rough from the calluses on his hand, perfect. "Never again."
And Jinx knew that despite everything, despite all the tears she was sure to shed, all the screaming and anger she would have, everything would be okay. Because she had Ekko and her children by her side.