"She is finally not halfway in and out," Shields said. "Lie her down on the floor. Now that she's down, I have some things to discuss with you."
"Okay."
"This is only one side of her, healing and beautiful. She is marrying a wicked mage who will be manipulating another side."
What? "Excuse me?" He was about to get his journal out again, until she just busted out with that. This whole conversation just took a turn as she handed an envelope to him.
"She talked about you several times," Shields said to him. "You created very brilliant inventions. You are very, very smart."
"Yeah. How can I help?"
"I don't know if you can help. I know very well that one discipline does not translate into another. But. Even she seemed sure that if you knew, you might be able to help. I convinced her otherwise," Shield admitted, "because she doesn't know everything."
Ooh. "I am not gonna like this, am I?"
"The more you care for her, the more it's going to sting," she admitted.
He shook his head. "Spill it."
"The Laurents are a heritage family of hidden mages. Their power is that when they touch someone, they can own them by inserting power into them. Everyone in the village was either stuck there through power by making a deal, or by being born there. The power wanes in everyone, usually within 24 hours. If it fully drains, a terrible death that boils your blood happens."
"So, you have to stay."
"Yes. However, Anatoly Jr. is about Powder's age, and he fancied her."
He wrinkled his nose. "Fancied is definitely Piltie talk for shit I better not be guessing right." He ripped open the envelope and took out the card inside. "You are cordially invited to the wedding of Powder-Jinx Laurent and Anatoly Laurent?" Nuh uh! "He can cordially invite my fist to his punkass face!"
"He chose her for marriage. If she doesn't comply, I'm sure he'll act like his father, who killed his mother's closest friends one by one by denying them the power to live. Selfishly, I know that the first would be-"
"You and Cake." Yep. "She's doing it for you and Cake." Man. "I knew something was up, she was telling me about what drove her to stay with Silco like last minute regrets. And that kid of yours, that sudden instinctive yell of 'don't change me', I didn't miss that!"
"Yes, but, it still gets worse."
"I know, I remember what you said before this whole transition. Get on with it."
"Powder-Jinx, as she is now. Is sweeter. Nicer. Hasn't touched even a gear in over two years. Fancy accent. Culturally taught."
"Yeah, I get it."
"First you need to understand the Laurent's power. A touch seals you to them, but it also increases or decreases certain power stats within someone. It's like if for all of your life you walked fine, then one day, you just found yourself stumbling around for some reason. You lose all the training for walking. Now, imagine that for other things. Attack. Defense. Regeneration even, being stuck unable to even scab up."
Okay. Don't get mad, she's just trying to find a way to get to the main point. "Yeah."
"Okay. They can also see the weakest points in a person's life and the strongest points in a person's life. Just the points. But once they get pulled into that moment, the illusion of them stays for just a few seconds. Frozen in time."
Oh. Oh yeah. He wasn't going to like this at all.
"They snap out of it quickly but retain the power levels they had when weak. For five minutes, they need to survive him. If they can, they are let go, as well as five other people they want to release."
"I bet Jinx uses that one all the time." She'd hate being trapped like that.
"Not as often as you think. She does try now and again, but a crying child overcome with grief over killing her family, who would run from fights with regular people, doesn't fair well in a fight against a mage."
Good point. That would probably be the weakest spot. "Remind me to get those power changes he can mess with later. What's the memory power?"
"The memory power lets them stay that way. He wants to break her into two. The PJ you've been seeing will run the village and hold responsibility, but she isn't what he really fancies. He loves to fight Jinx."
Damn it, he knew it was coming! "So he's doing what, just taking her back, fights her for a good time and then back to PJ?"
"Basically, yes. He does it with several of her weak points and strong points. His favorite strong point is where she just slouches and then asks about you and about her flying balloon. Her spirit is so high apparently she is flat out 'tasty'."
Ugh! "So just out of thin air, he plops her into war."
"Yes. There's no reoccuring damage but-"
"-but he shouldn't be doing it!"
"No, he shouldn't, and her shimmer abilities seem to delight him the most. Right now, he is dabbling. I'm afraid, without fear or morals of his father, what he will do when she is flat out his wife. I'm afraid what she will do. Then what she will regret. I haven't told her about this, it would overwhelm her knowing that he does that."
"Agreed." She was already overwhelmed. "That's why you have her call herself Powder-Jinx, and encourage others to call her something different." To help keep her together, when she did find out.
"The Laurents don't go around touching everyone's hands all day, there is a lot in preserve. About a year worth of power for 100 people. She wants to give the code to the preservation storage area to her sister, Vi."
"Is this guy . . . she clearly hates him?" He made sure.
"Of course she does. She only stays for us three. Her Sword, her Shield, and her piece of Cake."
Yeah.
"She even used to try and assassinate him when he wasn't looking. If he goes though, everyone goes."
"You and Cake, and maybe this Swords guy." That's what kept her there. "People die all the time. Getting her to care about that isn't always easy. When she forms attachments . . . there's still no guarantee if she has a stronger attachment to someone else."
"Yes. I also know that."
"You must because you know you just put yourself in a hell of a lot of danger to tell me this," he told her.
"I can't do this anymore. Cake was traumatized back when she was four, she hardly allows anyone to hold her hand or it starts up. All the secrets. All the lies. The fact that her life will be horrible. I even convinced Swords that it's all in the name of putting the village first. I can't do it, I've done it for eleven years and I can't do it anymore!" She started to cry. "They always say 'just ten years' but when your profession is so rare, they won't bite. They won't even give me a chance to fight weak! Not that I could weak or strong. PJ was going to set us free, but he even told me straight up the first day he never would."
Yeah. "It looks like PJ's Shield isn't as strong anymore. More than a few dents in it."
"Do you know of anything we could try?" she asked. "There's not even a whole two weeks left."
"Well, this was pretty last notice."
"Not really. I didn't think I'd get a chance to talk to you privately until the wedding day."
"No, you wouldn't have." He would not have gone. "The power balance that is set off is just the body not being able to counter balance the shifting swings in it's normality. Chaos ensues inside and then death. Each person would be different. Varying amounts of magic should taper it off. Some people would take days to cure. We'd be able to check out samples of blood, take it ahead of time, add a catalyst, and see if it's cured. We'd also be able to use those samples to see what's going on inside of everyone, to see who's going to boil first. If we steal enough of that preserved magic from the village, it would probably solve the problem."
"You really believe that." She smiled. "It wouldn't be such a big deal? So, we could be free? You are sure?"
"This binding touch interrupts the flow of power a person normally has. It's probably an inconvenience that it just can't get past. If it gets balanced, it should fix it. Where is her medicine, is it in the same location?"
"Oh. Swords would know that. She has about a month in our home."
"How do you get to it? How do you make it? Could Swords make her medicine here, or does he need anything in the village?" That was the more tricky thing.
"Power balance is like a second thought to you, you are more interested in getting that medicine."
"I already looked at mage magic with a friend once. I am not losing whatever is happening to her when I bail her out," he insisted. That also meant he wasn't losing Shields either.
Preserved magic. Medicine. Swords, Shield, and Cake. He needed to get all of that from the village. "Where is the village?"
"Hidden. I can't lead you to it. It's also guarded by systems that can only be opened from the inside. You are invited to her wedding though."
"Oh yeah." Wedding day was breakout day. That's probably why she was giving Vi a code, otherwise her sister is gonna flip.
"She should be waking up in about half an hour or so. Maybe an hour. We'll have to get moving very quickly back to Piltover once she wakes up. I am sorry that I had to take up all of your time left with her."
"It was worth it."
She did go down for a time, that medicine definitely had some kind of sedative mixed in.
"Will you define yourself by your name?" Shields started in on PJ once she awoke again.
"No, Shields. People can call me Mister Squiggly Wiggly anything, and I'm still the same person. Don't make everyone call me twenty different names for weeks again?"
"It's good. Don't worry about it, I shouldn't have said Silco Jinx," Ekko said breaking up the argument. If that's what it had been?
"Ugh." Jinx groaned and winced. "I'm really sorry."
"I get it, PJ. How are you now after a nap?"
"Better. Just." Her eyes were filled with sorrow and absolute exhaustion still, like she needed another four hours of sleep. Her voice was hoarse. "I screwed up."
He helped her up to her feet, keeping her close. "How do you feel?"
"Like I'm naked. No one was supposed to know this." She glanced toward Shields before moving to him. "Oh. You need blood, right?"
Blood? "No."
"Oh. I need blood."
"Did you hear voices saying that? Because you did grab a syringe and all that, and drew your own blood."
She shifted, looking away.
Subconsciously, she still wanted to tell him. Before she woke up, he took samples from Shields too. It would be better to keep her in the dark about the plans for now. All it would do was make her feel unsure about Shields. "Okay. It's fine, I don't care. About any of it, I just want you to be better, that's it."
"The other me wasn't broken, was she?" she asked gently. "The Powder. From the other world?"
Oh. "No." She started to pull away. "But it doesn't matter, I'll still be your friend, Jinx. Uh, sorry. Powder-Jinx." Gentle. If she pulled away, let her pull away. Just don't let her get too far. Touch. While she moved away, he touched her arm.
PJ bit her lip. "I am running out of time. This break couldn't have been at a worse time. I didn't even get a chance to tell you-"
"About the wedding, got it," he cut her off. "Shields told me. I'll see if I can come or not."
"Everything is taken care of, but we are running out of time."
"Running out of time." Yeah. Like Shields said, it took all of their time. "It sounds like your usually . . . better. How stressed are you really?"
"Meeting Vi and Sevika soon about this whole thing," she said to him. "You should stop by Vi's later afterward."
Hm. Sevika?
"I have to get going."
"Okay, okay. You know? Powder-Jinx is a hyphenated fancy name, and that doesn't suit you. PJ sounds like you are getting ready for bed. Piltie fancy or pajama fancy, I don't know which is worse."
She just hung her eyebrow at him at the irritation. "It's not PJ's, it's PJ."
"Or we could just call you Pajamas."
"Watch it, Mister."
"See? I always got stuck with Little Man, Mister, and Buster witcha all. Real personal names that couldn't possibly fit anyone else. I think Pajamas fits for you."
"Jinx is still available, tell Shields where to stick it," she said.
He couldn't help himself. It was her. She wasn't lost anymore, it was her again. There. Stable. "I don't know if I can make it to a village, I really gotta keep my eye on Zaun, but, if I can, I'll try. Okay?"
She nodded. "Yeah. It's okay if you can't make it, Ekko. It's free if you change your mind later. A plus one. Free food and lodging too. So. I knew you probably couldn't, but . . . what kind of friend would I be if I didn't at least ask?"
"Yeah. We'll see how it goes, Pajamas."
Once he was sure she was up to the hoverboard again, Ekko helped find a way to get them all safely to Piltover. They were just supposed to wait by the airships. "Come and visit Zaun again soon," he asked Powder-Jinx. "Without a band of mercenaries killing enforcers would be preferred."
"Hey, a girl's gotta make an entrance," she joked. She was doing so much better again. She was right back to the girl of that morning and last night. No. Not just that. She was the kid that was telling him about re-eating sweets off the ground. "If I ever get a chance to visit again, I'll take you up on that offer, Ekko."
It wasn't normally something he would do, but Shields words rang in his head. He moved forward and gave her a hug. He still half expected her to bat it away, but she didn't. At all.
She hugged back. Hugs with her were always different. With Vi she clamped on him like he'd disappear if she didn't hold on enough. With her?
/// "Stupid, stupid, stupid." He was pacing outside of Benzo's, holding his hand.
Powder saw him, she was just hanging outside too. She did that. Vander's kids always hung around somewhere like monkeys. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing! I just. Messed something up." He misplaced something in the store and he couldn't remember where it had been. "I took something to look at, and then I sat it somewhere when I had to start cleaning, and I couldn't find it. And. It was important to Benzo." He sighed.
"Don't worry, Little Man. I'll help," she told him. "Did you put it near a window? People steal everything."
"Yeah, definitely you monkeys would," he pointed out. Still. He wasn't cheery. He really let Benzo down.
"Don't cry, Little Man."
"Am not." He wiped nothing away from his face. Nothing.
Powder came over and gave him a hug from behind. He felt her chin against his shoulder. "I'll help. We'll find it. If we can't, we'll get Vi. She finds everything."///
PJ just nestled her chin on his shoulder. Front. Back. It never had been hard to get a hug from her. She did always like hugs. She probably stopped getting them when she went to Silco. "If you ever get tired of the mercenary life, come back to Zaun and see me, Pajamas." He felt her smile in his shoulder. Then? He could have sworn he heard the softest 'I'm gonna try'. Yeah, and he was gonna help. "What did you say?"
"Nothing," she said quickly. She moved away. "Thanks, Ekko. You better go. Enjoy your name day gift I beat Vi with."
"I will. Thanks, Pajamas."
"You know, I already have a ton of things-"
"Nah, Pajamas."
"It . . ." Ah, there was that pouty, frustrated look. "No, it doesn't. How do I fit Pajamas?"
"I don't know, how do I fit Little Man?"
"Fine, if I give you a cooler nickname, will you not do that?"
"Nope, it's sealed," he teased her. "Gotta go, Pajamas. Leading a village, can't play with you all day. Bye." He took off before she could say anything else.