6 - Ekko

"Ekko!" Tilting my head, I saw Vi in the distance. My eyes stretched in realization—she has no idea that Jinx is alive, nor that she's here. How does one go about explaining that her dead sister is not dead at all?

As Vi came closer, she asked "You done with my crusher?"

"Not yet, I was busy with other things." My words were soft, calm. I was meaning to avoid any strong emotions to prepare for the breaking news.

"Took you five minutes to fix it last time. I have work to do with those!" Of course she got mad. My calm-and-collected conversation failed completely. I better tell her now before she gets any angrier.

"I know, but, crazy things happened today and there was no time-"

"Cut to the chase." She demanded, crossing her arms.

I took a deep breath. My heart was racing, I felt the moisture of sweat on my skin, not understanding why I was so scared. It was just a matter of letting it out. 

"Jinx is alive! Okay? She's right he-" I straightened my arm to present Jinx, but she was gone. I looked around, trying to spot her. Nowhere. I must be cursed.

I felt a firm grip on my shoulder. "Ekko, you need to sleep. Look, you're hallucinating now."

"I'm not hallucinating!" I yelled back, pushing her away. "She's really here! I spent the whole day with her and you want to tell me it was all in my head? Not falling for it." 

It was so irritating to watch Vi fill with empathy. She wasn't going to believe me. I'm convinced that even if were to be asleep when she came yesterday, we would have the same discussion. I grunted in annoyance, hating Jinx for disappearing again. She picked the perfect moment for it.

"Come on," Vi hugged me by my shoulder. I succumbed. "Let's go for a walk."

__

I gave up. I was on my way home now. I searched for Jinx everywhere: the tree, the diner, asked Scar if he'd seen her. I even checked the Inventor's Lounge. It was as if she was dust and flew away. At one point I started to seriously consider that it was all a hallucination. I mean, it made sense: why would she suddenly show up so many years after her death?

Before Vi left, she kept lecturing me about how I had to stop with my multiverse invention. That there was no point in "wasting" my energy and well-being on something that was pretty much impossible without the arcane. "It's making you crazy," she kept saying, "you already had a few of those episodes... remember when you tried to build a time machine to retrieve the arcane? Or, worse, when you tried to synthesize it? You're doing dangerous, illegal work. You need to stop this."

"Easy for you to say when the love of your life is always by your side." I huffed at her to defend my values and heard her sigh in dismay. I sensed her slowed movements. Her body language spoke of sorrow.

"You know, the night Silco took Vander away, I told Powder that I can't lose her and... I lost her. Then, when she was Jinx, I told her I wouldn't abandon her again and... I became an enforcer." 

Not knowing where she was going with this, I stayed silent.

"You're like a brother to me, Ekko. And I'm now losing you to- to her. And, sometimes, I go as far as thinking if I was ever even part of this family. You all did your own thing without seeing who was actually there for you." She looked up at me. "Since the war, I've been here for you. Through your great and terrible, but you've been too busy to notice." She looked away, as if my appearance brought her pain. We both stood still.

Overwhelmed by the events of today, her words numbed me. She tried her best to finally get to me but, again, with no success. It was as if I've been on autopilot for so many years that I was permanently stuck there. My entire purpose revolved around Jinx and I just could not see a life where it didn't.

"I'll pick up the gauntlet tomorrow. Goodnight." She said, before leaving.

By this time, I finally reached my apartment and, out of habit, took my key out, quickly realizing that the lock was broken, that's right. So she was really here then. I thought. I opened the door and saw the chair's back facing me. Below it were oddly familiar boots. Deja vu?

"I fixed the gauntlet while you were roaming the streets." Jinx said. I was infuriated.

"Goddamn it, Jinx! What goes through your head when you pull shit like this?"

"I can break it again if you didn't want it fixed. There's really no need to yell."

"That's not what I'm talking about!" I threw my jacket across the room in frustration. I breathed to calm down, didn't really help. "One moment we're talking, everything's great, the next, you're gone!"

"Yeah, I do that sometimes." She said it casually. Like this was some kind of completely normal, everyday thing. I was waiting for her to go on but, not a word.

"So?" My patience expired.

"So what?" Ugh. This girl...

"You owe me an explanation here. Why did you leave today? Why are you back!? What do you want, for fuck's sake!?" I stood exasperated, breathless. Waiting for her to finally talk. I noticed her mood shift, but I couldn't figure her out. She was so hard to read.

"If I told you I came to see you, would you believe me?"

Chills ran down my back. See me? "Are you asking or mocking me?"

"No, dummy, I don't mock. When have you ever heard me mock anyone?"

I rolled my eyes. "Literally, just now." I appreciated her trying to lighten the conversation but I needed to get to the bottom of this. "You're asking me, then. Hmm, I don't know Jinx, why would you possibly want to see me?" If we were in love this would be an easy-going remark, but, assuming Jinx never loved me the way I loved her, it only tensed the circumstances.

"I need your help with something." She finally said, turning to me. I couldn't help but notice the brightness of her magenta eyes. "Only yours. No one else. It's important." Interesting... She went silent for a bit. Only yours. No one else. Her words echoed in my mind.

"Okay..." I hinted for her to continue.

"Vi can't be involved. She can't know I'm here, or anyone, for that matter." It finally clicked why she disappeared when Vi showed up earlier. I suddenly felt terribly sorry.

"I thought you'd be smart enough to keep your... what did she call them? Hallucinations, to yourself, but turns out you're not as clever as I thought."

"I must ask you, though, why so secretive?" She got up, tapping my shoulder.

"Why don't you think about that to keep yourself busy tonight? And I'll reveal the exciting answer tomorrow."

While I was thinking of ways to protest, she headed towards the door and said, "By the way, about the gauntlet... you're welcome," and she went out, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

__

A mean cramp in my calf woke me up. I jolted in pain, and rubbed the bony part of my wrist firmly across the muscle until the contractions released. Happens when I stress. I slumped back on the bed and made a great effort to fall back asleep. It was around six in the morning when I gave up and got up. I did my usual push ups and pull ups while waiting for my breakfast to cook: a couple eggs and an apple. I practically swallowed it all before moving on.

By the time I finished my routine, my clock read 6:40 am. Still too early to get any substantial work done. The town would usually liven up at around ten. There was plenty of time to kill.

Naturally, I went straight to my work desk, and picked up my tools to resume my work. It wasn't long before I stopped. Why am I doing this? The point of this was to see Powder again, but now that Jinx was back, there was no reason to continue. The thought overwhelmed me. How did everything get complicated so fast?

I thought about what Jinx had said: that she needed my help for something important. The first thing that came to mind was that she messed up in Bilgewater and had no where to go but here. The part that didn't make sense was what she needed me for. Not Vi, not Sevika, but me. The puzzle frustrated me. I didn't have to suffer for long though, she said she'd explain today. Hopefully she'd keep her promise. I figured I should let Scar know I won't be helping him out today and quickly scribbled a note:

Hey Scar,

Please don't worry. I'm fine, everything's fine. Something came up yesterday and I still need to sort things out today. Run the Core discussions without me, and check on Farm Sector #3 if you have time. They had issues last week. I should be back tomorrow.

Thanks, man, as always.

- Ek.

When I came back after dropping the note off at Scar's place, all I had to do was wait until she'd come. And if she wouldn't, it'd be fine. One day of nothing won't harm.

I was reading when I heard a muted cry from the outside. "Uncle Ekko!" A childish voice shouted. I looked in its direction and saw Mika's head pop up through the window. He was jumping up and down as he was too short to reach it. I giggled to myself before I let him in.

"Hey little man! What's up? What are you doing up so early?" He skipped to my desk, placing a cylindrical model on it.

"Well, I saw the note you left for Dad, and I was bored. I need to talk to you quickly, before you get busy with other stuff," he said, trying to catch his breath from all the jumping. "I want to show you this new thing I made but the button, this one," he pointed at it, pressing it repeatedly, "it's not working and I can't fix it. Can you help me?"

"Sure thing, bud. Let's take a look."

Mika was probably the smartest kid I've ever met. Not sure where he got the genes from, because, his dad wasn't that... intelligent (sorry, Scar). As a baby, he would find my tools more entertaining than his own toys, so I started to teach him some things about screws and bolts. As he grew up he'd assist me with my projects, and then eventually moved on to creating his own inventions. I'd see him around frequently, since he'd periodically come by to ask for help, and, besides that, I'd take him to fun events in the city sometimes. He was quite fun to be around for a 7-year-old.

It wasn't long before we fixed his button. "There it goes!" I said, as we watched his device work it's magic.

"Woah! Thanks Uncle Ekko!" He chirped.

"What's it supposed to do?" I asked.

"You'll see later. Hehe!" He went for the door, but I stopped him.

"Are you still working on your Double Maker?"

"Oh, that. I duplicated coins a couple times with it to buy gum. But they would crumble after five minutes, so I gave up on it."

"But wasn't that your goal? For duplicates to crumble after a certain time?"

"Yeah, but five minutes is too short. I had to duplicate, then run to store, and run away quickly before they noticed. It was risky and scary. I can't figure out a way to make the time longer."

"We can try together, if you want?" I offered.

"Nah, I'm bored of it anyway. This thing will be cooler. Your head will explode from how cool-"

This time, it wasn't me who interrupted him. It was the knock on the door. 

A/N: Hands up if you like Mika 🙌 longer chapter this time, I wanted to get the deets in this one. Took me FOREVER but I wrote everything I wanted to so we're on the right track. How are y'all spending the holidays? Personally, I'm at my laptop 24/7 :D

Cya!

Word count: 1976