A riot. A massacre. A monster.
She heard them all, half-true, half-bullshit, and pulled the pin on a grenade, listening to the ominous rattle as the timer ticked closer. She kicked it off the ledge and watched it tumble into the dark below.
But that wasn't what was on Jinx's mind.
"It wasn't her, it wasn't! I got confused, that's all!"
Her hideout was in an old ventilation shaft between the Sump and Entresol, a giant ventilation shaft. She made her home on the blades; the space was her workshop, her shrine for Claggor and Mylo, and the decorating everywhere were all her fun times.
Dolls hung above on wire like little judges.
KABOOM!
"Now he thinks I'm weak!" she hissed. "Sevika will clean up the mess! Sevika will handle it! Sevika's his Johnny-on-the-spot!"
"I'm not weak!"
Her thoughts buzzed like broken gears as she argued with herself and the dolls that looked like Mylo and Claggor. She wanted Silco to be proud of her and to respect her, to see her as capable. She wanted that more than anything.
She wanted Vi, too.
The sight of a girl who looked like her sister, Vi, on the airship had broken something inside Jinx's head again.
Anger twisted her face. She hurled another grenade over the edge and watched it explode. Bats scattered from the shaft with high, terrified screeches and Jinx's mind rewound to the day's earlier conversation.
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"You failed," Silco said to Sevika. "Don't let it happen again."
Sevika's jaw clenched. She started to leave, the steel in her stride ready to bite.
"Hold," Silco commanded. "There's a problem in Dredge Prison. Potential riot or…" He let the words hang and his expression darkened. "Something worse."
From her perch in the rafters, Jinx tilted her head. Her expressions flipped between wounded and furious until she watched Sevika freeze for the first time. She caught the unease and hesitance in her eyes before she briskly left.
Silco called her down later and let her help with the eye experiment, jabbed Shimmer into his crimson eye in some half-mad attempt to fix what was ruined. He scolded her softly, told her to rest.
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"Rest? He just doesn't want me Jinxing anything! 'Cause I'm nothing but a Jinx!"
She clanged a grenade against a toy airship that had the words in bold HAPPY PROGRESS DAY with sparks flying off. She collapsed onto her back and sighed with a small whining sound.
Then an idea popped into her head. Bright and dangerous.
"I'm not weak. You'll see!"
Sevika's serious face flashed in her mind and Jinx sat up, tapping her fingers along the razor rim of the floor like a curious kid.
More emotions flash. Anger, jealousy, and bafflement.
"He sent Sevika to do it! NOT me! Why not me? I can handle it!"
She arced another grenade into the dark abyss below.
Boom!
"I've got the flashy grenades, the flashy hair, the FLASHIER weapons! Sevika's got none of that! Just a gorilla brain and a gambling habit!"
A grin split her face as she rolled around. She giggled with a little cackle.
"I'll check on that later. For now…"
She sent the rest of the grenades down the ventilation shaft. One after another they detonated in a grand explosion.
"There's only one night like tonight!"
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~Meanwhile, in a Sump Alley~
Fearful, Shimmer-twisted humans scattered at the sight of him as he stepped into the alley. Their bodies were malformed with hunched backs, swollen tumors the size of softballs, ribs visible beneath skin as thin as paper. Most had missing teeth or half-melted faces, others had glassy eyes and lost minds.
The dark figure paused when one tripped at his feet.
The creature, once a normal man, stared up at him and his expression frozen between terror and madness. It let out a ragged shriek, voice shredded by years of Chem and Shimmer damage, and scrambled backward before tumbling into a desperate run.
"It's just a mask…"
Xander lowered his hood, reached up and pulled it off, staring at it in his hand.
Just a plain mask. Horned with narrow eye slits and a stylized demonic face. The kind you'd expect to see at a Diablo fan convention, not the depths of Zaun.
He frowned and put it back on, catching his reflection in a puddle of water. That's when he understood why they'd been terrified.
The mask had changed.
What had been a regular mask now clung to him like something alive, shifting and molding itself to his face. The bone merged with his skin, horns protruded from his hair, and his eyes burned like embers. The mouth, jagged and fanged, moved when he spoke.
"It even matches how I move," he muttered, watching the reflection mimic every word with unsettling precision.
He pulled down his collar and froze. The illusion ran deeper with his arms red and gnarled, his chest laced with bone ridges like a creature halfway between demon and man.
((A/N: See Fanfic Cover))
When he removed the mask, the feature shimmered before fading, leaving only his real face. A young, early twenties man.
"Good cover, I guess," he sighed, recalling some of the banners splashed defiantly with sludge. "If today's Progress Day… that means Jinx is going to blow up the fair to steal the Hextech gem."
He sat on a rusted metal barrel, the thought weighing on him.
I could stop Jinx, he reasoned, rubbing his temples. But then Caitlyn loses her motivation to free Vi. If I kill Silco now, the city'll collapse into anarchy. It's already dark and she may already be there.
He leaned back against the wall, staring up through the haze.
I can stop Jinx, break Vi out while I'm disguised, and then deal with Silco. Anarchy's inevitable but at least I can stop the suffering and a city massacre from war. If I'm too late to stop Jinx, then I'll deal with Silco instead.
Sliding the mask back on, he started to walk back toward the alley entrance.
The only problem left will be Jayce and the Hex Gates. If I'm going to be stuck here, I might as well stop the disaster I know is coming. But...
Why did the diablo skills crossover? And why am I not breaking down after killing so many people? Did the powers turn me into a psychopath?
Granted, if he didn't act the way he did, a fate worse than death could've fallen upon him. Dredge Prison was that sort of place. That may be one of his mental reasons, perhaps, while he left the alley and glanced around at several new deformed faces.
Shimmer addicts had gathered at the entrance, drawn by whispers of what others screamed they'd seen. Their minds were fogged by hallucinations, but some understood this and curiosity drove them forward to seek the truth.
They regretted it instantly.
"Stop," Xander said, catching one by the arm before he could flee. The man froze, trembling violently under his grip.
"Tell me," Xander's voice rose, distorted and low. "Which way to Piltover's Bridge of Progress?"