TW; Throwing up, violence, very slight gore
Jinx remembered a lot from her and Natalia's years spent together.
She remembered the way Natalia laughed when Jinx told one of her stupid jokes and the way Natalia so intently looked at her when she was showing off one of her latest gadgets or tricks. Jinx remembered how Natalia would accompany her along all of her stupid adventures, be there with her to deal with the consequences of any ridiculous idea Jinx had materialized into fruition.
But Jinx also remembered the difficult things. The times Natalia spent curled up in her room, sobbing the night away, only thinking about the family that broke her heart beyond repair. Or how she so tightly clung to Jinx in those moments, burying her face in Jinx's neck, as if Jinx would get up and walk away at any moment.
And Jinx knew that feeling like the back of Pow Pow's holster. She knew all too well the paralyzing fear in Natalia's eyes at the thought of being abandoned again. It was haunting, terrorizing, an ominous dark cloud containing a storm that only followed her wherever she went, never breaking— just being.
But Jinx felt different in those moments than how she usually did. There was no Mylo to hound her and berate her, no intrusive thoughts to scratch at her brain like insects fighting their way through the crevices of floorboards, nothing. Just the quiet solemnity and aching inside of her from seeing the girl she so deeply cared for in pain.
So she would only bring the girl closer still, brushing away her tears —as Natalia so often did for her— and promising she wouldn't let anything happen to her. That she would never leave, either. And Natalia would lean into her farther, and Jinx would feel every overwhelming, exploding emotion she thought she'd never feel.
Every single one of those moments, when she'd looked into Natalia's broken eyes, which stared so fondly back into her own, she'd wanted to kiss her.
She wanted to tell Natalia with every part of her that she would never, ever let anything take her away. And she'd wondered how Natalia would react to that promise, how it would feel to have her pressed against Jinx in an entirely new way.
But Jinx never had.
And it was now, at this moment, when Jinx was sitting atop the beams of the bridge leading to Piltover, waiting for her moment to strike, that Jinx was pondering this. She wondered if she had actually done it, somehow, some way, Natalia would still be with her now.
Maybe, in some impossible scenario, she would have been able to keep Natalia closer, that way.
Jinx sighed, the exhaling breath turning into a tormented groan at the thoughts that swam in her head. It was a never endless stream of "what-ifs," of "if I had done this."
I broke my promise, Jinx hung her head in shame, in frustration. I let her get away two times. I'm sorry, Nat Nat.
But she was going to rectify that mistake right here and right now. Whatever happened when they all appeared, whatever went down, Jinx's main objective was bringing Natalia home.
Vi, ultimately, can make her own decisions. Jinx reluctantly bit out the thought. If Vi wanted to find Jinx... she would. For now, Jinx needed to focus on the one person who had been there for her.
When she spotted them —Ekko, Vi, Natalia, Caitlyn— all together walking in unison, she couldn't help the jealousy forming like a cold ball of ice sitting in the pit of her stomach. But she didn't blame Natalia, not at all. It was the topside apologists who had filled her friend's mind with the false promises of equality and justice.
So instead of immediately taking action, she watched closely, ignoring the digging pain in her chest when she watched as Vi held Caitlyn tightly to her. Out of nowhere, Mylo spoke up.
Before he had the chance, she hissed, "It's just a goodbye hug! She wouldn't do that... not again."
Jinx watched Natalia give a very brief hug to Caitlyn, once again making Jinx itch with a new type of jealousy, before giving Ekko a curt nod and turning to lead Vi the other way.
Jinx raised her eyebrows. "Look at that," she snickered in her small euphoria high. "Sis is actually comin' home, Pow Pow."
———
"Thanks for everything, Catty," Natalia smiled genuinely at the blue-haired girl before her, squeezing her briefly before taking a step back. "It was... enlightening."
Caitlyn looked less than happy at Vi and Natalia's leave once Natalia turned back to look at her once. Though Natalia felt bad for leaving, there was no way she was going Topside to talk to the very same councilors who had ignored her city's plights and cries for help for generations.
She simply couldn't stomach that, not when she'd spent years having to do away with ignorant, naive enforcers who always believed they were in the right and that everyone below were just dirty trenchers that needed to be slew.
Natalia put a hand on Vi's shoulder as they walked on, seeing the red-head's conflicted expression. "You have to prioritize your own goals," she said earnestly. "You don't need to be sorry, Vi."
"I barely know my sister anymore," Vi whispered, her voice so small as her pace quickened. Natalia struggled to keep up on her shorter legs. "I... what's going to happen when it can never be like it was?"
"It won't be," Natalia was blunt, though her tone was as gentle as possible. "You're just... gonna have to get to know Jinx. She's still your sister. You just need to love her no matter what."
Vi flinched. "Of course I love her," she grit her teeth as she looked to Natalia, distraught. "But it's so much more complicated, now..."
"Always has been," Natalia deadpanned. "Listen, Vi. Jinx is not the same as Powder. Jinx has done things. I've done things. It was the price me and Jinx had to pay in order to survive and have any semblance of family."
Natalia took a deep, shaky breath, as they were now halfway down the bridge. "But Powder isn't totally gone. Not like Ekko has been saying. Jinx needs you. She doesn't need you to fix her, though. She just needs you to love her, just like you used to."
Vi nodded, and the rest of the walk back was silent. That is, until an exploding gun shot rang out for miles and miles upon barren land. In a split second, Vi and Natalia were sprinting back.
———
Everything was a blur of moments to Natalia after that. They had made it back just in time to see Marcus aiming his gun right at Caitlyn's head, Vi letting out a desperate cry, before thousands of firelights swarmed the bridge. More than they'd ever seen topside. More than they'd ever seen... ever.
But then the whole scene exploded with those thousands of firelights, which erupted into hot flashes of explosive light and stinging gunpowder as they all went off, one after the other after the other. They blazed unrelentingly in their violent heat, sending blasts everywhere in their wake.
Natalia heard ringing in her ears, before she blacked out completely— only awaking minutes later to the sound of crackling fire and despaired, pained groans.
Natalia herself couldn't help but let out her own. If her body had hurt before from her previous injuries, this was like an aching never felt before. Her side pains returned full force, worse than ever, and Natalia was certain she had broken more than some cartilage as she had been thrusted harshly against the railing of the bridge in the explosions. She rolled over on her side, retching violently at the stinging pain.
She could barely process a thing, but she slowly realized if she did have a minor concussion as the doctor in the Firelight base had told her, this most likely wasn't helping very much.
Weakly lifting her head, she glanced back towards where she last saw Caitlyn after her entire stomach matter had been laid out on the ground before her in a pile of blood and bile.
Caitlyn was now on the ground, looking with eyes aghast at the sight of Marcus' dead body. Natalia swallowed harshly. The man was gone— just like that. In a snap of, if Natalia was predicting correctly, Jinx's long-nailed fingertips.
Vi was already up, somehow having narrowly avoided most of the small bombs just in time as she had been further behind Natalia. She looked at Natalia with an apologetic gaze, before skidding to a halt in front of Caitlyn to help the girl with her deep leg wound.
Natalia attempted to pull herself up, just barely managing to balance her torso on her shaky elbows as she looked up towards the exit of the bridge, hearing footsteps approaching and another abrupt gunshot, making her flinch.
Her head pounded, and she could hardly make out the shape in front of her before they were already bending down, slipping their hands underneath her knees and waist and picking her up as she let out a cry of agony from the shifting of her broken bones poking into her insides.
Natalia blinked the dust from her eyes, overjoyed to see a familiar, manic face above her, despite not being able to express it.
"Jinx," she gasped, tears rolling down her face at the excruciating pain.
Jinx looked back down at her, slight panic flickering in her blue eyes before she looked at Caitlyn and Vi before her, let out a disbelieving scoff as she glared at Vi, specifically. Her lips curled up in a snarl at the sight, before another figure joined the party, standing in front of the other two protectively as his eyes held nothing but venom and despairing hatred.
"Well look who it is," Jinx bit out, her voice out of breath and strained. "The boy savior."
Natalia's body suddenly shook with a cough, and blood came spurting out of her mouth like a fountain. Oh god. There was definitely something not right with Natalia, and the feeling of losing her grip on reality was terror inducing.
Jinx seemed to be snapped out of her thoughts, and she glanced down at Natalia's condition, seemingly thinking. There must have been something going on that Natalia wasn't aware of, because she heard the faint ticking of what sounded like a pocket watch from just feet away.
But it went nowhere. All she felt was the shifting of movement below her, and she assumed Jinx was taking her somewhere. Somehow lugging around both Pow Pow and the weight of Natalia, and something else, Natalia realized, all at once with little effort.
Then, she felt the cold ground slowly creep up her back again as she was propped up against the railing. Her delirious mind clouded in confusion, and her lolling eyes searched for what was in front of her.
"Stay awake," Jinx pleaded, letting her voice fall to such a level that only Natalia could hear the gentle, shaking tones underneath it. "I have to finish this, for Silco. For you. It'll be all over soon, then we can be free."
"Jinx," Natalia's eyes welled with tears and her words came in quick gasps of her fluttering lungs. "Please don't."
But Jinx was already up and facing the boy before her. Natalia barely knew what happened, after that. All she heard was the sound of metal against metal, rage against rage. The rest came in snapshots for Natalia, like she had been watching the situation through a series of photos taken of the event in chronological order.
She tried to stay awake, she really did. But when the next explosion went off, the sound much further away than Natalia would expect, she couldn't help but succumb to the inky screen of blackness.
———
Jinx was screaming and writhing underneath Ekko's impossibly strong body as she watched Vi drag Natalia's unconscious body away. All she wanted was to finish things off and be done with it so she could take Natalia home. And now Natalia was being taken from her for the third time.
Mustering up all of her strength, she wrestled to get out of Ekko's hold. "Vi!" She screeched, voice desperate and violently enraged by the situation before her. Mylo merely laughed at her, the same chord of sniveling repeating over and over again in her mind like a broken record.
"Vi, you get back here! Vi, please. Please!"
Jinx couldn't take this. Not when it was all too similar to the memory so many years ago that she'd tried frantically to scrape from her mind and forget. Here she was again, on the ground, begging for her sister to come back to her. To not leave her.
If Vi had taken everything from Jinx before, this was Jinx's entire world she was taking now. Not only running herself, removing her own presence from Jinx's life, but also Jinx's best friend and everything.
Jinx could only continue letting out her shrill cries and snarls of outrage as she fought Ekko's grip with every ounce of energy she had in her. At points she would manage to knock him off her, leading to her trying to run in the direction Vi had taken Natalia, before she would be dragged back.
Being silenced by a few blows to the face, Jinx could only helplessly sob by now, looking up to her old best friend with the utter most broken expression. The look in his eyes only made it worse, and it was enough to drive her to the edge.
Vi was gone, again. She must hate Jinx. Her old best friend was gone, and he hated her. Silco would soon hate her for her failures. And the one person who did love her was either about to die or be stolen from Jinx, forever.
Without thinking of anything else, Jinx pulled out one of her deadliest bombs, fully prepared. When Ekko had stopped, staring into her glassy eyes with almost regret, she let it fall to the ground next to them.
It was efficient, in Jinx's mind.
Two birds with one stone, huh?
———
Notes: ahhh sorry this took longer to get out than my other chapters usually are and it's less, but I've been busy with school!! I rlly rlly hope you guys like this chapter I'm not sure how I feel about it yet