Almost Two Weeks Later . . .
PJ could barely contain herself. It would be exciting to see who showed up. The guide was supposed to be returning soon. With him, should be whoever showed up. So! Do I get to be free or get married today? She'd know the answer soon.
Sevika wanted to be there, but she was part of the council, so if anything big happened, she might not be there. Ekko was busy being a leader and the shimmer was worse than ever over there. For sure, Vi would be there though. But.
Sevika, Vi . . . and Ekko actually made it?
She headed over. Wow, everyone made it.
"PJ, we need to see you," Margaret insisted.
Really? Everyone just arrived. She rolled her eyes. "One second."
Cake was of course not far. Nosy 11 year old would keep them all company.
"Hello," she said to each of them. "I am Charlotte Kay. That's Cake for short."
"Hey, Cake," Vi said the friendliest first. "I saw you before. I was preoccupied with my sister, but hello. You are Shields' daughter?"
"Yep." Cake gestured to everyone. "Do you all know each other?"
"Yes," Vi said again.
"Oh. How?" Cake asked. "Did you all grow up together?"
"Just me and that guy." Vi gestured to Ekko. "Definitely not Sevika."
"Then how does everyone know each other?" Cake asked. "Did you fight together?"
"I fought with Jinx to protect cargo," Sevika answered.
"And we fought to get that cargo," Ekko said to her. "I still can't believe Jinx invited you."
"I can't believe she invited you," Sevika said back to him almost with a hiss. She looked toward Vi. "I knew she'd invite you." She looked back toward Ekko. "But you?"
"And you tried to kill me," Vi said to her. "Don't try anything while we're here."
"Sensing aggressive tendencies," Cake said. "Want to talk about it?"
"No. She changed her tune being on the council I hope," Ekko said aggressively.
"That's not friendly either," Cake responded. "Want to talk about it?"
"I tried to kill all of them at least once, and vice versa, and so did Jinx," Sevika answered.
Cake just stood there. "Hmmm." She waved again. "Nope, not qualified for this. Goodbye." She took off.
Yeah, she definitely fit the strangeness of her mom. Ekko gestured toward Vi. "Looks like the bickering worked, they shouldn't think we are working with Sevika. You find out about the illusion thing from Jinx. I'm going to go find Dr. Swords."
Vi nodded and waited there for Powder. She glanced toward Sevika a few times, catching Sevika doing the same thing.
After a bit, Powder came back.
"Sorry," she said to Vi. "Looks like Ekko wandered away. That's Ekko for you."
"Yeah. Anyhow. You look pretty." Vi went towards her and held her hands. "At least you didn't go overboard with this. No train. Good."
"Nah. He wanted me in white, but I wanted a simple blue dress. Simple wedding. Thanks for coming. I'm sorry you didn't get to bring Caitlyn."
"It's fine. She said it'd give her ideas anyhow," she teased.
"Aaaand Sevika!" She greeted toward her excitedly, letting her balance loosen too far to the right. "You made it."
"I can't believe you invited the leader of the Firelights," Sevika said. "Why?"
"Why, Ekko?" Vi complained. "Not why Ekko, why you?"
"We fought together," Sevika said to her.
"Yeah, I know. Against Cait and I," Vi reminded her. "You worked for Silco."
"Let's all relax and focus on today instead of the bloodshed of yesterday, huh?" Powder pointed out. "Follow me. You guys hungry?"
That should be him. Ekko tapped his shoulder. "Are you Dr. Swords?"
He adjusted his glasses. "Oh. Yes, I am. You must be Ekko, Vi or Sevika. Or a guest of theirs?"
Yeah, that village was so small, he wouldn't have been able to creep around to get information earlier. "I'm Ekko. I wanted to talk to you about Pajamas medicine."
"Oh. Pajamas?"
"PJ."
"Oh. Hijinks medicine?"
"Yeah, hers," Ekko said. "I've never actually met someone who trained in medicine for this kind of thing. How do you make it?"
"Oh. Well, it all depends on the person."
"The person is Jinx," Ekko repeated. "Sorry. I'm always really fascinated by learning new things, and I can't seem to stop my curiosity ever since I saw what it did for her."
"Oh." He smiled. "Yeah. I wish Runeterra focused more on the mental aspect. It's focus is always magic. Gaining it, losing it, fearing it, etc. Everything in the world can be done with magic."
"Except." Ekko gestured to his head.
"Right," the doctor agreed. "None of her treatment involves any sort of magic. I simply make it."
Ooh. "How do you make it?"
"Well, I am one of the few that is allowed to leave the village. I need to keep up on making my medicine, I can't just go to the nearest city and get it already made. Some ingredients, but not everything."
"So what is it they don't have? Like, unique plants that you grow on your own?"
"Oh no, I don't do that. I always stay ahead of schedule," he admitted, "that way when it's time to have the next batch made, I have already been to all the spots when I needed them and can make it easily."
Huh. "How ahead of schedule?"
"Six months."
She had almost a six month supply somewhere in that village. "Oh. Do you just keep it safely in your place?"
"No, no. I don't really make bottles and such, I don't have that many patients. So. Sanga takes care of it. She works in the beauty supply area. Jinx just asks for it over there. The rest is in a deep freeze in a powder form that I fix into shimmer liquid later."
"You use shimmer? How much shimmer?"
"Just to make it liquid, and in small amounts. The experimental work done on her, created something special that makes it so that she uses only small bursts of shimmer at a time. She also can't get the actual effects of an outside shimmer source, her body rejects using it."
That explained the vaccine part of it, it was something used against outside shimmer.
"There are no effects and it's just a waste product. It's truly amazing, like whoever created that, wanted to make sure the user was only protected and never hurt. So strange." He whispered lower. "Now, with Anatoly's magic, it runs through her differently."
Oh, good. He was going to risk starting to talk about the magic. Hw would play dumb and see how much the doctor would reveal. "She has something strange in her touch, right?"
"Yes. She's actually called Dr. Jinx here. She can cure several little ailments, but only for those who use Anatoly's magic."
"Does she stop the addiction and the high of shimmer too? The effects?"
The doctor moved closer to her, also whispering. "She can vaccinate against it, so it doesn't work. It basically gives everyone the same effect as outside shimmer on her."
"So no effect?"
"Pink excrement and urination until it's out. That's it."
Okay, the big one. "Is it temporary?"
"Well. You see." He waved at someone walking by and stopped talking a minute. Once they were gone, he continued. "The effect of what is going on is because of Anatoly's magic. If she ever breaks free from it, it will stop. You see, her body that takes in the shimmer? It also takes in magic in the same way. It doesn't give her the full power of the magic user, but it does change what she can do."
She can vaccinate against shimmer. "As long as she's tied." That was confirmed.
"Once again though, Anatoly's power must flow through," he muttered. "It doesn't do anyone else any good. Have you eaten yet?"
"No. Why don't we take a small tour of your place? It's the big one, right?" He gestured to the biggest place.
"As long as Moe and Joe or the mercenaries are around, I can't give you a little tour. They often get paranoid. But, I'll show you where Sanga is. She has an extra wide freezer where she keeps the powder too."
Yeah. This guy was good. He could already tell that Ekko was trying to gather the stuff. He wanted her out fully too.
Yep. He found it. The village was mainly round with houses and a bunch of stands in the middle. He saw a woman in the back of the one he wanted. She looked like she had zero fighting experience. "Hey. You."
She looked toward him. "Um? Are you looking for clothes?"
Nah, no fancy clothes needed for this. "Where's the meds for PJ, Sanga?"
"Oh. I thought she still had plenty." She moved around toward the back.
He jumped the stand to follow. He saw her name. "How many in each box?"
"Uh? Customers don't come back here," she said to him. "I can bring up some for you." She opened one of the huge boxes, and grabbed a way smaller box. "A month supply."
He grabbed the small box she had, and put it back in the huge box. He sealed it up and started to take it away.
"Excuse me, Sir?"
He just kept walking, finding the side door, and went through it. He stacked it in the back, and went back in. There was more of that. He just passed by her, while she went 'um?' and grabbed another box.
"Sir? You aren't supposed to do that."
Words didn't work in Zaun, and they weren't going to work there on him either. He took it out to the side door again, and went back in.
"Did you find them?" Vi asked as she saw him.
"Ma'am? Your friend," she implored. "He's moving boxes, behind the stand, and not listening."
"So? You want to play tattle-tale?" Vi warned her. "You really don't want to throw a punch, do you?"
"N-no."
"Good, then just go about your duties, and keep your mouth shut."
"That's all of them." A decent supply, more than enough. Just in case this plan took longer. He signaled with a mirror and the sun.
As his undercover Firelights came over, he took off to see if Sevika was done in the storage. But?
"You must be Ekko."
He turned. Someone about his age. This dude is scrawny. It didn't look like he'd put up much of a fight. If this was him? Just be careful. If it wasn't the mage? His kid self could have took down that guy. If worse came to worse, he could turn time back to get untouched. "Hey."
"You were . . . the frenemy?"
"Nah, just friend."
"Really? Didn't she kill a lot of your allies in the past? She was off the rocker nuts when she first came. Screaming at her tutor. No control. She was just this wild beauty of nature that couldn't be tamed."
"We were on opposite sides of a war," he said. "We aren't anymore."
"Right. And she isn't a wild force of nature anymore." He laughed like he made a joke. "Just kidding, she's definitely still wild. A ferocious little hurricane. The difference is I control the way she blows and how she blows. So many years of wasted potential over at that . . . Zaun place."
I don't want to talk to you right now. He had things he wanted to do, but he couldn't just walk off.
"Just going more and more out of her poor mind, that was so tragic. Seeing her in those rags, so dirty, so desperate for help when she first arrived. Had I not been in that meeting with my parents, they would have tossed her out. How do you even deal with that without healers? Do you just lock them up? Just watch people getting worse and worse until they finally end it-"
"Guess!" Go away already.
"Yes. True. Shield and Sword are always just as powerless as the rest of the residents here. It's hard to remember that they are actually worthy of being here for a reason."
"Every resident has to be worthy, huh?"
"Absolutely. If they aren't, they'll become worthy. She certainly became worthy, knew exactly what was called for. Really grew from all the weird fantasy in her head. Did you know she thought you had the power of time itself?"
Yeah, and there's no way she would have shared that. "Shields tells you everything."
"Shields notes and her diaries are always there, after every session, for easy access," he admitted. "I made it that way. I've known every odd little thing that has graced her head before, then and now. Have to, to see how far you can push. Otherwise, you are just fumbling around in the dark. So. I will just say this once. Mister. Buster. Backstabber. Savior Boy. Ekko. Little. Man. You would have killed her, if not for the shimmer. Even you are lucky not to be dead. So? I highly doubt you are here for your friend. There's no way you actually travel to different universes to meet different 'hers', so why are you here?"
Fine. Get this idiot off my back. "Same reason her sister and a seat of a council is. She was a menace to Zaun and Piltover, she's supposed to be in prison for a reason. She is a psycho maniac, and she actually came back after faking her death. I've been playing nice because I want to make sure she really is sealed away this time, and doesn't come back like a reccuring nightmare."
"Yes. I thought so." He looked so high and mighty for being 'right'. "You are here to make sure she stays put away and never comes back. I assure you, she won't be back. Even if she does still have to save your Zuan again, only her team will go."
"Good. Keep it that way." Go away already.
"Just make sure she continues not to know that. I don't want our wedding day marred in her memory."
"Last thing I want to do. I'm just playing the act," Ekko assured him.
"Fine. Do I have to bother with the invitation approximately nine months from now then?"
Nine months? What was- oh, hell no! "Nah!" What an asshole! Get the hell away from me already!
"I wasn't gonna anyhow."
What? He turned around. That idiot can be sly. He looked back toward Anatoly. He looked just as shocked. Nope, too much credit, she surprised both of them actually dropping in.
Ekko just looked at her, not knowing what to say. How to get out of it. He thought she'd start yelling something so he could take it from there. That's how he always had to handle her before as Jinx. Watch her movements.
But. There was nothing. No yell, no scream, no sudden gunfire or grenade. Just, a dissapointed look and she left the area.
He would have rather she threw a grenade or something.
"Don't worry," Anatoly said after she left. "I will make her better again. Shields!" he yelled.
Shields came almost running with Cake. "Yes, Anatoly?"
"Go watch my wife for me, make her feel better."
"She isn't your wife." It slipped out before Ekko could stop it.
"She will be soon. I already think of her as mine."
He was quiet while Anatoly finally walked away. I'm about to end your whole career.