Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Time seemed to slow as her shimmer-enhanced physiology allowed Jinx to reflect on the irony of her situation. Despite Ekko's incredibly passionate last minute intervention, despite all the effort she had personally put in to stop a potentially apocalyptic event, all her personal growth it still ended with her blowing herself up with one of her own creations and taking a beloved family member with her.

Still, Jinx thought, out of all the ways I could have gone out over the last couple years this is probably the most poetic. There's something in that I can appreciate .

Jinx readied herself, looked back up, closed her eyes, and pulled the pin. For all their sins, she did still love her sister and she wanted her last sight to be of Vi, the one member of their family left who hadn't been horribly corrupted by Shimmer.

Suddenly, Jinx was distracted from her (literal) last-minute ruminations by something completely unexpected. If she hadn't been in such an elevated state of consciousness she might have completely missed the gentle and completely incongruent sounds of waves gently lapping at a foreign shore. Instinctively, Jinx's head snapped towards the sound.

Falling through the main structure of the Hexgate, there were plenty of odd runic and organic arcane remnants. However, Jinx noticed one odd oval that seemed to be a window into a beautiful beachscape she had only ever seen in postcards that had somehow made their way into Zaun kitsch shops. Thinking quickly, Jinx finally released her grenade but threw it behind Vander (Warwick?) instead of releasing it between them like she had originally planned.

Jinx's genius and ability to make split-second decisions paid off once again. The blast shattered Warwick (Vander?)'s shoulder and back and with them, his grip on her while still shielding her from the worst of it. Jinx flew to an unknown future she couldn't fully believe wasn't a final hallucination of her desperate mind.

She escaped into the waves.

A beach.

When Jinx came to, the waves had carried her all the way to a beach. Jinx had never experienced a beach before, at least not like this. Beaches per se didn't even exist in the undercity, and the beaches of Piltover were gorgeous, well manicured, and utterly artificial. This beach was perfectly wild, leading into an impenetrable jungle. Jinx had never seen anything like it. Not only was this beach completely untouched by any industrialization (or Progress, she thought sarcastically), but it seemed like it was more full of...life than anywhere she had ever been before. Which was odd, since even to her still-hyperactive senses, there weren't even any animals around.

A completely empty beach.

Never in her life had Jinx been in such a calm, empty environment. Even in solitude, the undercity was filled with bugs (beetles especially), but the absolute stillness of the beach was absolutely unnerving. Jinx had learned the hard way how important it was to be sensitive to her surroundings and search for possible threats. On this beach, there were no threats. There was no movement. There was no other life.

Maybe I died after all, she thought, and I'm just... waiting for everyone else. If that's the case, I'm glad it's empty. Even from Vi's obnoxious cop girlfriend. She was really turning it around by the end there.

But I can't be dead.

She's not here.

With all her time and energy invested in stopping Ambessa's coup and whatever happened with those robot-mannequin-things, Jinx had not had a lot of time to sit with her grief. She had before, of course, for a while in Stillwater, but the result of THAT was her attempt to pointlessly detonate herself. Fortunately Ekko had... convinced her (Jinx blushed a little at the memory) that that was not the way to break the cycle she was looking for. Still, that left her with a huge amount of grief that had to go somewhere and apparently, that somewhere was here.

On this totally empty beach.

Or, not totally empty.

Now that her adrenaline and Shimmer levels had calmed down to something more closely approximating a state of rest, Jinx was able to better appreciate the non-living, non-threatening parts of her environment more. And she saw that, right next to a beautiful sparkling stream leaving the jungle, a shaded alcove under a strangely unique rocky outcropping that, if she didn't know any better, looked like a fairly comfortable bed, if one was excessively interested in tropical décor. Jinx walked over.

Upon investigation, she found that this “natural formation” would, much to her surprise, be as perfect a shelter as she had envisioned from afar. Not only was there essentially a ready-made bed with access to clean water, but as she got closer she found that there were small fruits attached to the branches of small bushes growing out of the cracks in the rocks that themselves didn't seem to follow any rules of geology or geography Jinx was aware of. Not that she had ever been truly interested in that particular subject

Even still, this is bullshit. Jinx smirked. But it's not like I have any other options. And Frankly? I have had an absolute hell of a few days. I deserve a nice rest with a free bed and mystical plant room service even if I absolutely don't trust it.

Officially claiming the “bed,” Jinx dramatically flopped down. Jinx rolled around, experimenting with the surprisingly comfortable surface. However, there was only so much comfort and relaxation without getting seriously bored. Luxuriously stretching, Jinx picked up a nearby stick ( Had that always been there...?) and, lacking any other supplies, began to draw.

Jinx found the sand surprisingly and gratifyingly easy to draw in. She started as she had always started, with simplistic, cartoonish designs but she soon grew unsatisfied with those. She had no audience, no one to keep up “Jinx” for. So, after a while and with nothing else to do and no desire to leave her perfect shelter in case someone else washed up on the beach to claim it, she began to get more artistic, and more personal.

Without even really consciously thinking, Jinx had drawn a portrait of Isha. The first person in a long time that made Jinx feel she could do something good in the world. The first person in a long time who made Jinx think about family as anything other than a source of hardship and pain. Jinx drew Isha as she had first seen her, a small, orphaned child abandoned in the streets of Zaun. So much like she was and could have been.

Could have been,even more, without me getting in her way .

Beginning the familiar patterns of self-flagellation, Jinx was surprised to find her heart wasn't really in it as much as it had been in the past. Yes, Isha might have survived without Jinx, but when they had first met Isha was being chased by a bunch of thugs who didn't exactly seem to have “child welfare” written all over them. Even if Jinx had just let her go on her way, there was no guarantee that Isha would be any safer without her than with her.

Damn, Ekko really did a number on me. If he's this good at convincing it makes sense how he was able to get the Firelights to be such an annoyance to me and Silco for so long .

Finishing her portrait of Isha (which had turned out surprisingly realistic) Jinx almost subconsciously turned her mind to Silco. She began sketching.

What a fucking mess, Jinx thought while tracing the outline of Silco's face. I don't know if I'll ever really be ready to think about what happened there.

Silco made her. She never would forget that. And, as much as she sometimes hated herself, she never could bring herself to fully hate him for that either. There were things that, even at her lowest, she had loved about herself and those things bore the indelible mark of Silco as much as her more violent and unstable tendencies.

Didn't stop me from killing him, though .

Fearing she would be abandoned again, she had turned her weapons on the man who had helped her become an expert with them. At the very last moment, she realized her mistake. He would never have abandoned her. His absolute dedication to the ideology of Zaun had driven him to kill former allies and bend the undercity to his will through his undisputed mastery of the intricacies of the chem-trade, but he had finally found the one thing that could compromise his total dedication to his dream embodied in her person.

Despite everything else, despite all her complex and evolving feelings about how he raised her ( Drowning??? Really???) she could never truly bring herself to hate him for that.

Of course, thinking about Silco led her to think about Vander, and thinking about Vander led her to thinking about Mylo, Claggor, and many others for whom she carried guilt for their untimely deaths. By the time night fell, Jinx had created a calligraphic alphabet of personal loss on the sands of the alien beach. Looking over what she had made, she saw that it was beautiful.

Satisfied, and feeling lighter than she had in...maybe ever, Jinx took water from the stream, returned to her plant-bed, and fell into a deep and blessedly dreamless sleep.

When Jinx woke the next morning, after eating a breakfast of the seemingly inexhaustible berries and washing herself in the river, she felt the first sign of anything active in this mysterious beach-jungle other than her. She heard the stirring of the wind.

No...

Despairing, Jinx ran over to her portraits. There was nothing she could do, the poritrats were beginning to blow away.

In her grief, she barely noticed that the growing sandstorm wasn't behaving like a sandstorm should. Her panicked attempts to find something to cover or protect her precious memorials to those she'd lost were completely unimpeded by the blowing winds or the rising sand. Instead it felt almost like a caress. Instead of a horrific cloud that would spell death for her as open and vulnerable as she was, the cloud looked like golden flecks, almost like a floating lanterns.

However Jinx was not in the state to notice all this. She was distraught that all her work from the night before was destroyed.

No, not destroyed. I have my stick, I have my talent, and I have my memories. I'll remake it again. I am JINX. I survived a weird arcane robot invasion I am NOT going to let some pesky wind stop me .

Jinx began to recreate her portraits. But this time, she chose some slight variations. This Isha was the Isha of their beetle fights, this Silco was Silco-the-Baron not Silco-the-Father. This Vander, Jinx recognized what had been done to him, and that his final, bestial form was still a mutation of a man who, in his own way, had been her father.

She drew her birth parents this time, too.

Once again, it was nightfall by the time she was done. Jinx recreated her entire memorial, with all its new variations. She felt almost..good that she got a second chance. This time she was able to explore aspects she hadn't before. Satisfied, she once again went to sleep on her comfortable plant bed

___________________________________________________________________________________

The same thing happened the next day. And the next day. And the next.

Every time, Jinx recreated her memorial with some slight variation to better capture the character of the people she'd lost. And every day, the wind would rise and take it away. Jinx experimented. She tried to draw it on different sides of the rocks, to try to protect the memorial from the wind. She tried breaking off some of the branches of the berry-bushes to act as a sheild. She tried to make the drawings in riverbed clay. She even tried squishing the berries and painting her memorial on the rock face itself. Every morning, the winds rose and took away her work from the day before.

Gradually, her grief evolved. Constantly reflecting and recharacterizing the people in her life she'd lost helped her work through her feelings. The first time the memorial was destroyed was painful. By the twentieth, she was almost anticipating the changes she would make to better represent Vander, or Silco, or Isha, or any of the others this time. Jinx had developed a personal rivalry with the wind. Talking to it and challenging it to do its worst or making prideful boasts that THIS time, it would not be able to whisk away her artwork.

However this time, Jinx did something different. Jinx added some people who still lived.

She added Vi, at long last her beloved sister, and Ekko, who her subconscious had dared to hope would become her beloved partner should they both survive the attack on the Noxian occupiers.

When she was finished, she shook her stick at the sky and yelled,

“You REALLY think you can make ME give up?! I am JINX! I jailbroke Stillwater! I saved Piltover even though they BARELY deserved it! I became a symbol of resistance without even TRYING! You'll have to do a lot more to stop me!”

Laughing, Jinx returned to her plant bed and went to sleep.

By this time, when the wind rose, she was ready. And she had begun to appreciate the visual affect. She had started to imagine that the visual flares of gold were the results of the efforts of a whole tiny city, celebrating some sort of festival dedicated to Jinx's love, and loss.

She watched this time, wondering if, after this many iterations, she would be able to come up with a new way to represent everyone today. Her line of thought was totally interrupted after she saw that the wind had not taken her whole memorial this time. No. Vi's and Ekko's portraits were left alone.

Ah.

I see.

The wind wasn't trying to get her to give up. The wind, who had in its own way become her friend or rival over the last few weeks, was simply reminding her that she did not have to carry guilt, or live only for and with the memories of the dead. She could live for the living, too.

In the midst of this final, beautiful, send off of those she had lost, Jinx fell to her knees and cried. Not pure tears of loss, but full body, complicated sobs of catharsis. There was grief, to be sure, but also relief. She finally felt like she could let go.

Of course... . if I let go of all this death, all this killing, who am I? Who is Jinx without those bombs that killed my family, the rocket that obliterated the Piltover Council, or even the guns that kille Silco. Isha died using my weapon to protect me from what remained of my own father, who was only made into such a monster because I thought I could save him via uncontrolled explosive. If Jinx isn't just all that... then who is Jinx? I think I caught a glimpse of her, when I was with Ekko, but...

Deep in thought, and with other sounds muffled by the last gusts of wind, Jinx didn't hear the first sounds of any other activity on the beach. But gradually, she heard it get louder, and louder. The sounds of hooves.. no... rabbit's feet? But they were moving like hooves? And nothing else had been on this beach for weeks!!

Somewhat started, Jinx whirled around and saw one of the most extraordinary things she had seen in her entire life.

What she first thought might have been a Yordle but upon closer inspection, appeared to be a massive mouse was riding some sort of rabbit...deer...thing that she had never seen before. While still stunned by the strage pair's approach. Jinx could barely believe she hadn't started fully hallucinating again when the mouse waved a stick at her and said.

“Excuse me, we were wondering if you had seen anything odd or out of place here? Our hearts had the feeling that someone nearby needed help.”

Chapter Text

Jinx was baffled enough she had temporarily forgotten how to speak. She had spent close to a month on her own, drawing and redrawing icons of her lost and she had never expected to see a talking giant mouse and what looked like a creature from a books she vaguely remembered Vi reading to her as a child.

Seemingly oblivious of her paralysis, the mouse(?) hopped off the back of the... that and moved closer to Jinx. It wore an orange bandanna and carried a small stick. The mouse bowed apologetically.

“I'm sorry, I was so excited to get here I completely forgot my manners! My name is Somewhat, and this is my close companion Juniper! Who are you?”

The specific question snapped Jinx back to reality, or as much of a reality as one could consider her current situation.

“My name is Jinx. Hello...Somewhat. Juniper” She waved awkwardly. “Are you sure you're not a hallucination? I've been known to have some preeeeetty vivid ones.”

“Oh no. I'm not a hallucination, although I suppose you wouldn't have any way to tell. But you'll have to trust me I pride myself on being very reliable.” Somewhat puffed out their chest at this, and Juniper made a small huff of agreement. Jinx would have found it absolutely adorable if she still wasn't fully convinced this was real. Or that she wasn't dead.

“Well, if you are a hallucination I suppose there are worse things going on. At least you're not telling me everything is my fault or that anyone I get close to dies.” Jinx's attempt to play this off as a joke utterly failed to hide her deep sadness. Having learned over their travels that it was never best to confront these things right away, especially as a stranger, Somewhat took the opportunity to change the direction of the conversation.

“You remind me of someone who was there when I first came in to the world with my purpose. Are you a Huntress?”

The “I'm a Jinx” response her brain had started forming at the words “are you” was completely smashed aside at the term “Huntress.” Jinx had no idea what about her communicated anything about hunting. She didn't even have any weapons. Hunting was something rich Pilties did. Like Caitlyn. Jinx's prosthetic finger subconsciously extended. However the term Huntress clearly meant more than just “a woman who hunts” to this...Somewhat. So instead of her usual rut of self-deprecation Jinx asked:

“What's a Huntress?”

“ A Huntress is a hero! Or at least that's what the Blacksmith tells me. 'Paragons of Virtue and Glory' were the exact words she used but I think hero is better. I didn't get to know Ruby for very long but she and the others seemed very nice. I always feel like I knew them more than I remember but I went to the Tree between whenever that was and my current purpose.”

Jinx decided she could only process so much of that at once. If anything, she was just glad that being suck on that beach for so long meant that she had some space between the fundamental challenges to her understanding of the universe she had been experiencing. So instead of asking any questions about why a blacksmith would be talking to a metal-less giant mouse or clarifying how a tree could delete one's memories, she decided to focus on the part she felt confident answering.

“I'm not a hero.” Jinx said softly. “I'm a...” She stopped. “I'm not entirely sure what I am anymore, to be honest. But definitely not a Huntress, whatever that is.”

“I think you could be.” Somewhat replied. Jinx was taken aback by the sudden seriousness with which the giant mouse was speaking to her. “When I look at you I get the same feeling I do when I saw the Huntresses. And the Blacksmith told me I needed to trust my heart and I will.”

Jinx was finally convinced she wasn't hallucinating because none of hers had ever tried to convince her that she had the potential to be some sort of vaguely defined mythic hero.

She sat down in the sand. “Thanks,” she blew a strand of her hair out of her face “but I'm not sure I'll be remembered much outside of some pretty bad things I did. I'm not exactly from around here, and back home I'm not considered a safe person to be around. I think there are only a few people that might even like me, and two of those tried to beat me to death at least once.” Jinx pointedly ignored her memories of Stillwater's prison population treating her like some kind of savior. They didn't know she was only there for Isha.

The indefatigably cheerful mouse seemed to take all this in stride. “Oh! I see. It sounds like what you need is the ability to see yourself from outside yourself.” Somewhat made very meaningful eye contact with Juniper, who moved over and sat down near Jinx.

“I don't know if that would be...helpful.” Jinx seemed to withdraw into herself a bit. “I have a lot of good memories and I don't think I want those illusions shattered. See how they really see me. You know. Despite everything the last interaction I had with my sister was a good one. Poetic, based on our history. I really believed she cared about me and I don't want to risk being wrong.” Coming back out of herself a little she said. “It's irrelevant anyway because unless you have some sort of magic mind reading ability I don't know about I'll never be able to really know.” Considering that she was talking to a giant talking mouse, she did have some concerns on that front.

“That's true, I don't have anything like that.” Jinx relaxed.

“But I could take you to the Silent Milliner. Her tea parties are perfect for getting some outside perspective. Don't worry. I know her. She'd never do anything to hurt one of her guests. I've been a couple times and she's a very good host.”

“Oh, is it some sort of party trick where she summons ghosts? Oooh spooooky!” Jinx waggled her fingers in the air, once again trying to play it cool but visibly becoming increasingly agitated.

Somewhat shook their head very quickly. “Nothing like that, that would be extremely rude to anyone who is in the middle of deciding their new purpose! The Silent Milliner just shows you what you need to know most. And it sounds like what you need to know most is the truth about is how people see you.” Somewhat beamed.

Jinx felt like she'd been poisoned. She really didn't want to know what Ekko thought of her. Not really. The moments they shared before her attack on Piltover was something she would treasure for the rest of her life, but crucially they both had a strong expectation that they wouldn't make it back from direct combat with a professional military backed by arcane robots. They only knew they had to try. Jinx had never expected she would have to live with all the emotions that brought up. And Vi! Her last interaction with Vi had, she admitted to herself, been unambiguously heroic. She sacrificed herself to save her sister. From the monster that had once been her father, no less. She really didn't want to deal with any more “complexity of human emotion” or whatever bullshit. Sounds like something Caitlyn would talk about. Ew.

But she had to know. Not this whole weird perception thing specifically. She wasn't even really sure if she believed this Silent Milliner could do everything the GIANT TALKING MOUSE promised anyway. But Jinx was coming to realize that one of her greatest strengths was also one of her greatest weaknesses. She. Had. To. Know. The third dead father figure in her life was shot at a similar tea party she set up just sort of figure out where everyone stood vis a vis the subject of Jinx versus Powder. She was, admittedly, a little more stable now than she was then but still. Her drive to know was destructive. If she'd learned anything about herself at all over in years since Silco took her in it was that she had to sate this curiosity before she started abducting women from their showers. Again.

“All right.” Jinx breathed, releasing the tension that had accumulated as a result of her internal conflict. “It's not like I have any other big plans. Take me to see this 'Silent Milliner' person, whoever she is. I just can't promise I'm going to react all...Huntressy about it. Still not sure what those are, by the way.”

“Wonderful! Oh I'm so excited. She's fairly new to her purpose so I'm sure she'll be excited to have more guests, and I know Thrianta loves to put on a show. Juniper, is it all right if you carry her?” Somewhat turned towards the large creature who had thus far been content to graze on the small bushes around Jinx's impromptu bed. Juniper nodded, and arranged herself in a way that clearly implied Jinx should mount up.

“Do you talk too?” Jinx asked Juniper as she navigated her way across her back?

“Juniper says not in a way you can understand very easily. It took her years to get something figured out with Jaune.” Somewhat was right behind Jinx. “But fortunately she can talk through me! That's one of many reasons we're such a good pair!” Juniper stamped one of her hind legs in approval.

“So,” said Jinx once she and Somewhat had settled and Juniper had begun to move. “How do we get to this 'Silent Milliner' anyway?”

“Let's see,” Somewhat brought their hand up to their chin, looking quizzically at the multicolored sky. “Right now we're on the beach next to the Eurydisea, so I suppose that means we should go through Walrus' Carpentry before heading to the...” A pointed look from Juniper cut the mouse off mid-sentence. “You know, you're absolutely right Juniper. This time of year we absolutely will have to go through the Fleecy Forum. I'm glad you know this area so well.”

Despite her mounting trepidation, Jinx couldn't help but smile a little. She had always liked when Vi read to her as a kid.

_________________________________________________________

Several Hours (Days? Weeks?) later, Jinx was stuck wondering if it was possible for a human, even a Shimmer-enhanced one, to die of sheer amazement. She really thought she had seen it all. She had seen the Hextech revolution firsthand, side by side with what really should be called the Shimmer revolution although the “City of Progress” would never consider it that way. She had seen and almost been absorbed into some sort of hive mind robot magic cult-thing (Honestly she was not 100% clear on the mechanics of that one).

She, Somewhat, and Juniper had passed by several settlements (Acres, as Somewhat had called them) and each one was more fantastic than the last. More importantly, they all seemed to obey a sort of fairy tale, emotional logic. Nothihng she had seen over the last...however long had been what could be considered “physically possible.” Even Hextech had rules that didn't change depending on where you were. Gravity seemed to shift as well. She remembered thinking she was perfectly upright, then accidentally looking up and seeing several wooden horse creatures walking along directly “above” her. Jinx blinked, and then they were riding side by side with these horse creatures. She herself doubted they'd be able to move themselves in the “real world” considering their total lack of any visible joints. She blinked again and suddenly the trio was perpendicular to the stream of impossible horses.

Eventually, the trio approached a quaint looking village.

“Aha! We're almost there.” Somehwat said. “In the same Acre at least. Before we go, though, I think it would make sense to rest here a bit. The Milliner's parties can take a lot of energy and we want to make sure you're rested and ready to go.”

Jinx cringed internally. Wrapped up in the glorious insanity of her surroundings she almost forgot that her new mouse friend was going to make her face some uncomfortable truths about herself. Well, Somewhat was incredibly nice. If she said she didn't want to they would probably find a different route. But once the option was on the table, she realized she could never leave it alone. It was eating at her like a termite colony, and she had to see it through to the end even if she was afraid it was going to lead to a total internal collapse by the end.

“I think a rest would be nice. There's honestly only so much of this place I can take at once anyway.” She said, instead of voicing any of her concerns. Little looked very happy at this. Juniper knelt for them to dismount.

“Hello! How may I assist you?”

Jinx had not seen any person or potentially talking animal as they had approached, so the sudden voice set her on edge. Her eyes darted around warily, looking to see if there was potentially some sort of invisible creature she could track by movement.

What she saw instead was Somewhat talking to a rock. A rock that, as she looked at it, looked more humanoid than she first expected. And it was glowing. And clearly, this is where the voice was coming from. She relaxed. When she first got there she had begun a combative rivalry with the wind so a talking rock wasn't very odd. At least this one seemed to want to talk back.

“Yes, we'd like to stay here until the next Splaterday, if that is all right with you.” She heard Somewhat finish.

“Oh of course. We are happy to assist you. We have plenty of space for you and the Huntress. We are able to provide food and drink as well. I will guide you there. Please let us know if there is anything else you may need. We are happy to make you happy!”

“Thank you very much!” Said Somewhat with a small bow. “The Genial Gems are wonderful.” Somewhat beckoned her forward, and she and Juniper joined them in following this rock-person to their new lodging.

“Not that I'm opposed to hospitality from magic rocks, Jinx whispered to Somewhat as they were walking, “but I thought we were only staying for a night? And I told you I'm not a Huntress!.”

“Oh! Yes I forget if you don't know what Huntresses are you've probably never met the Rusted Knight. Well, for people that experience time like you, we Invented Splaterdays. Every day is Splaterday here. The Blacksmith told me that there are other days in other places, but here we only really need the one.”

“Ok sure. That makes about as much sense as everything else does around here. But stop telling people I'm something I'm not. I had enough of that at home. I'm just Jinx”

Somewhat looked at her apologetically “I tried to tell them that, but the Genial Gems' only experience with people like you is with the Huntresses of Team RWBY and the Rusted Knight. There was apparently someone like you who visited before, but they weren't around then. Neither was I, to be honest. So they have decided you're Jinx the Huntress.”

Jinx was somewhat mollified by this. “All right but just as long as they start calling me Jinx to my face. Who is this 'Team RWBY' anyway? I've got a bone to pick with them deciding my nickname. Although I'll be honest it's probably better than most of the ones people have assigned me.”

Just then, they reached their overnight stay. It looked like a small, extremely sturdy, rustic cabin. The Genial Gem opened the door and after making them promise once again they would ask if they needed anything, left them alone.

“Sorry about the unfortunate timing.” Somewhat said. “As I said before, I don't really know too much about them myself. I met them once and the Blacksmith has told me some more. How would you like to talk over some food? I'm sure you're quite hungry.”

Jinx was. Now that she wasn't being bombarded with impossibility she realized she was absolutely starving. About to ask what there was to eat she looked over to a well-appointed dinner table with a spread of alien but surprisingly appealing blobs of what she assumed was food.

“Sure,” Jinx shrugged, “beats more questions about me anyway.” She sat down and picked up a purple shape and tossed it into her mouth. “Woah this is actually surprisingly good!”

“I told you, the Genial Gems are the best!.” Somewhat said as they slid onto the chair opposite Jinx. Juniper had this point settled into a majestic bed built for her in the middle of the cabin, but was looking attentively at the pair as they talked.

“So, Team RWBY.” Somewhat began, as Jinx was far too invested in eating this new and surprisingly delicious food to prompt the conversation herself.

“As I said, I only met them personally once, but they had a big impact around here. They're why I'm me today! In fact, the Blacksmith told me that Ruby was one of the reasons I have this purpose.”

“Wait I thought it was a team. Is Ruby a person or a group of people?” Jinx said with her mouth half full.

“Both Actually. Ruby Rose is the leader of Team RWBY. Weiss, Blake, and Yang are the other members.”

“That's confusing,” Jinx remaked. “They should have made the team name something different. Why did they do that?”

“I'm afraid I don't know that.” Somewhat replied. “All I know is really what they were like when they were here. They taught many of us that we can grow and change even more than the previous tenders of the Garden thought. As a result, we have a much more vibrant relationship with each other, and ourselves.”

“They sound like real saints.” Jinx rolled her eyes. “If you all liked them so much where are they now?”

“Oh, they went back home.” Somewhat said. “They weren't from around here. Although they did teach us that non-Afterans could ascend too. We didn't know that was possible. Someone who came with them stayed and Ascended to become the Milliner!”

Jinx decided to leave her burning questions about Ascension aside for the moment so she could avoid having a foundation-shattering existential crisis. Instead he asked “Where did they go to? I'm sure the City of Progress would have snapped them up right away if they'd been anywhere on Runterra. Or we'd at least heard of four crazy people talking about coming back from a fairy tale land.”

“The Blacksmith told me their home is called Remnant. Or that's what they call it themselves. The Blacksmith calls it 'the first experiment' sometimes but that's usually when she's talking about other stuff that affects the Ever After.”

Jinx decided that she just wasn't going to believe anything about how the universe worked anymore. It seemed simpler that way.

“All right, well good for them. Maybe I should go there and visit them if I can ever leave here. Not like they liked me much at home and frankly they owe me with how much inconvenience they've put me through.” Jinx sighed dramatically.

“Oh! I think that would be delightful! All my memories of Ruby and RWBY are only good ones.” Somewhat smiled.

“But I think before we do any of that we should go to sleep. We want you nice and rested before we go see the Silent Milliner tomorrow. I know you're hesitant but I trust her, I think she'll help you a lot.”

Jinx would have fully believed that Somewhat had some sort of hypnotic power because as soon as they brought up bed she felt immediately tired. She knew it was because there was just so much else for her to focus on and she'd never been one to pay close attention to her personal needs, but still. This was the mouse's fault.

“I think that's a good idea too.” Jinx yawned. “But again if I come back from this Milliner place and I can barely speak you're going to have to take responsibility.”

“Of Course I will!” Said Somewhat, with total sincerity.”

Maybe I should be more worried than I thought. Jinx ruminated as she began to get into the luxurious bed the Gems had prepared for her. Oh well,if something does go bad I've made it a lot further than I thought.

Jinx slowly relaxed into a hypnagogic soup of emotions, part anticipation of what the next day might bring and part happiness that she was able to experience so many wonderful things in such a short period of time. And, Jinx thought, nobody hates me here. Somewhat and Juniper have been nothing but kind to me. I don't know if I've ever had that before...ever. If I somehow ever make it back, I'm going to tell Vi she has to live up to the example set by a giant talking mouse in the protective sister department.

Jinx finally drifted off, lulled to sleep by a barely noticeable, rhythmic clanging of a blacksmith's hammer upon an anvil.

Chapter Text

Jinx awoke and was immediately disappointed she couldn't continue enjoying the best sleep of her life. Not only was the bed the Genial Gems had made the most comfortable one she'd ever have the pleasure of experiencing, but she slept all the way through the night, no sudden awakenings, no nightmares, nothing. This was a new experience for her.

I've been too hard on this place. She thought while stretching and luxuriating in the Gem's hospitality. I can put up with reality not working how I'm used to if it means that I can sleep through the night like that. I haven't done that since....

After being unable to think of a “since,” Jinx begrudgingly sat up. Finally orienting herself to her surroundings, she noticed the cabin she and Somewhat had stayed in looked completely different in the morning than when they had arrived. She hadn't really been in a state of mind to process that what appeared like a cozy rustic cabin was actually made entirely out of gems. This meant that the entire village looked completely different under the light of the two (and I'm not thinking about THAT right now) suns. Walking outside, she observed that the Gems had aligned their home in such a way that it seemed like every minute there was a new balance of color and light. Jinx the Scientist saw that this as a brilliant feat of engineering. Jinx the Artist was invigorated by the idea that anyone, anywhere, could make a city this beautiful.

If this is what just resting here looks like... maybe I should trust Somewhat on everything else. Maybe this Silent Milliner will help as much as they say she will.

“Ah Hello! Did you have a good sleep?”

The subject of Jinx's thoughts ran up to meet her with the same boundless energy as usual. She wondered if Somewhat would ever slow down or even appear tired. She doubted it.

“Hello, my best talking mouse friend. I slept very well, thank you,” Jinx said, doing an exaggerated impression of a Piltovan high society heiress.

“Oh! Well I am delighted that you consider me your best talking mouse friend. Thank you very much! But I wanted to let you know that the Gems have prepared a breakfast for us before we head out to see the Milliner. Are you willing to join Juniper and me, or would you like to look at the village more?”

Any other time, Jinx might have interpreted it sarcastically, but the intentions of this giant mouse were so pure, and the village itself so transcendentally beautiful, that she knew she could take her time if she wanted. Still, she forced herself to look down.

“No, I think I should join you if I want to have any hope of leaving. Lead on, good mouse. To breakfast!” Jinx didn't know how long this impression bit was going to go on. That being said, Somewhat introduced her to a bunch of living rocks that seemed to thrive off hospitality so she was entitled to a running impression.

She and Somewhat met Juniper at a nice table the Gems had created out back of their cabin. She also noticed that it was shrewdly placed to elegantly refract sunlight into what she had assumed was an unlit streetlamp the night before it revealed itself as a kaleidoscopic ornament in the daytime.

“So,” Said Jinx through a mouthful of admittedly delicious food. “If I am going to this Silent Milliner person. You say it will help me. What should I expect?”

Juniper and Somewhat shared an excited look.

“Well, no two of the Silent Milliner's parties are the same, but there are always two parts.” Somewhat began. “First, she will need to get you a hat. She always makes sure everyone needs a good hat.”

“Never really been a hat girl,” Jinx said, “but sure I guess. I'd be willing to try anything at this point if it gets me to sleep as well as I did last night on the regular.”

“Oh, I bet she'll find something. I've never see anyone go away unhappy from the Silent Milliner. Maybe some sort of...un-hat. Anyway, Once everyone has their proper hat, she takes everyone to her garden for the Party.” Somewhat said the word with such import Jinx felt sure that whatever happened, this event was going to be memorable.

“The Milliner's Parties are always so interesting. There will be many other attendees, because the Milliner likes having lots of friends, and also an entertainment. The entertainment changes each time, based on whoever Thrianta calls the 'star of the party.' I was the star of one once. That's how I learned so much about Team RWBY! The Blacksmith sat next to me for a lot of it.”

“You've said this name a couple times,” Jinx said in order to crush her rapidly mounting anxiety at being the star of a social event in a fairy tale. “Who is this Thrianta?”

“Oh Thrianta is the Milliner's friend! You'll see him right away, he's very orange. He's very chatty, and really likes presenting. He's usually running the entertainment. You know, he kinda looks like Juniper, now that I think about it. Maybe without the antlers though. He also has arms and legs like you” Juniper nodded in agreement.

“So he's a rabbit person?” Jinx Asked.

“He's a Thrianta! There's no one else like him so it's hard to tell. I could ask him if he's a rabbit person, but all we can say for sure is that he's a Thrianta just like how Juniper is a Juniper.” Somewhat said as if this made any sense at all.

“Ok, whatever.” Jinx decided she didn't need to understand all the cultural nuances of what was, she reminder herself, a magic fairy tale land she still wasn't convinced wasn't the afterlife.

Jinx absentmindedly ate more of the food the Gems had provided, this time less a nutritious mass and more a handsomely arranged salad. It looked like food from a children's book illustration but it also tasted just as good as she had always imagined. In fact, it tasted better. Jinx was sure she had never had as good or as nutritious of food in her entire life as she had had in the two meals she had shared with Somewhat in the Genial Gems' care. It was like, and maybe it even was in fact, she was ingesting some sort of magic potion that made her more awake, alert, and feeling good.

Never really realized how much diet made a difference. If we had a food supply like this back home, we could have overrun Piltover in a day.

Finally, and somewhat regretfully, Jinx finished breakfast. She noticed that Somewhat and Juniper had already finished but had been waiting politely for her, chatting amongst each other in their inscrutable internal language.

This is nice. Even if we find a way to get me back, I don't know if I necessarily would. At least not right away. I think some time away would be good for me.

And maybe for everyone else too.

Jinx started to shrink back into herself, her body language becoming visibly more agitated, but before she could really begin her deep-dive into self recrimination, Juniper got up and started nuzzling her.

“Are you doing all right?” Somewhat asked, worriedly. “Was the food not good? The Genial Gems have never worked with a human before so if there is something they don't know they will fix it right away!” Jinx could see at least two gems approaching them on the off chance they might need additional assistance.

“No, no that's not it,” Jinx said as she hugged Juniper back. “I just, was thinking a little too much. A little too in my head, ya know?” Jinx could see the Gems recede once they had confirmed that their craft was, as always, exemplary. “Juniper pulled me out.” She fluffed the fur on Juniper's snout.

“She's very good at that.” Somewhat said. “I remember all the stories Juniper told me about Jaune. According to Juniper, Jaune had a lot of times like that. Mostly he would talk about two people named Penny, and Pyrrha. Juniper never met them but she said there was no way they would have blamed him as much as he seemed to think. Maybe it's something similar for you.”

Jinx was about to object, but then she realized that she really didn't know enough about this Jaune to explain how she was actually a much worse person and deserved to be sad and withdrawn. This, in turn, helped her realize how irrational her train of thought was getting.

“I'm not sure about that,” Jinx said, “but thank you. Thank you both.” Jinx regretfully let go of Juniper and stood up. “I suppose it's time, then.” Leaning back into her bad heiress impression she lounged dramatically on Juniper's back “Please, good mouse, take me to this Silent Milliner. I think I'm ready.” Jinx surprised herself with how much she actually seemed to mean it.

Somewhat noticed the abrupt change in subject matter, but graciously gave Jinx the out.

“Very exciting! I am glad you'll get to meet her. Well, Juniper? Are you ready to take us?”

Juniper made a small noise of agreement and Jinx and Somewhat mounted up.

“We'll go through the center of town to say thank you to the Gems, and then we'll head out,” Somewhat explained. “Then it's just a short ride to the Milliner because she's really close by in the same Acre.”

Juniper rounded a corner and Jinx saw that a crowd of Gems had gathered near the edge of the village to see them off. Somewhat waved and said some things to some of the Gems they seemed to be more familiar with. Jinx felt she couldn't let Somewhat lead all her social interactions, and besides, the Gems really had been nice to her.

“Thank you!” She yelled. “That was the best food and the best sleep I've ever had in my life. Your village is beautiful and I'll remember you forever!!”

“We are happy that we could make you happy!” Said the leader of the Gems. “We too, will always happily remember when a Jinx visited. So few have truly and thoroughly appreciated what we have made here as you have.”

Jinx was so shocked at the fact that the Gems seemed to have adopted “A Jinx” as something good that it totally diverted her feelings of embarrassment that she had been caught staring at the architecture. She didn't have time to sit with either feeling because that was the moment that Juniper had a clear path to start bounding across the landscape.

Juniper took them up a rising hill, into a suddenly very dense forest. The darkness and ominous trees made Jinx wary. She turned to Somewhat.

“Hey, you said this Silent Milliner had a whole party setup going on. Now I'm just a simple city terrorist, but I feel like this isn't exactly suited for a party. At least not one with lots of people. Or lots of people I'd like to be around.”

“Oh! The Acre looks like this normally. The Gems' village actually used to look like this before they started building. In fact, if you travel the whole Acre, it's actually more forest than anything else. But don't worry, we're almost there.!”

Somewhat mollified, Jinx turned back to face forward and sure enough, within a couple of...well, what felt like a short period of time Jinx saw the beginnings of a surprisingly floral landscape. As Juniper continued on, Jinx saw the development of beautiful and complex floral patterns, fewer trees, and nice ornamental pathways. She also started noticing cute little tea tables. Or they would be. If there were not so many of them. In fact, that was the only real oddity in this particular landscape. Lots, and lots, of tables, many of which seemed to be adequately prepared for a quaint teatime, just waiting for someone to sit down.

“What's with all the tables.” Jinx leaned back and whispered to Somewhat.

“I don't really know.” Somewhat whispered back. “I've never really thought to ask. I just thought it was a decorative choice. Is this many tables not normal where you come from?”

“None of this is normal where I come from. Maybe this is the right amount of tables for a fairy tale land with two suns.”

As they were debating the proper volume and placement of tables, Juniper suddenly stopped. Jinx and Somewhat popped their heads over to look at why she had stopped.

What they saw was a quaint little mansion that somehow looked both like a stately manor and a dollhouse that wouldn't look out of place in the poorest slums of Zaun. Right in front of this contradiction of a house, however, stood a fascinating figure. This figure was extremely, almost shockingly orange. It appeared to be a rabbit on its hind legs, with shining green eyes and striking eyelashes. The figure wore a white vest with black accents, and tiny pink ornamental chains.

“Aha, this is Thrianta.” Somewhat said to Jinx, as they hopped down from Juniper's back.

More of a Person-Rabbit than a rabbit-Person Jinx assessed.

“Hello Thrianta! I would like to introduce you to Jinx. She is from outside the Ever After, and I think a nice visit with the Milliner would help her feel a lot better.” Somewhat made a gracious bow to their new host.

“Welcome, welcome!” Thrianta's energy almost caused Jinx to fall over as she, too, dismounted Juniper. “She had been hoping you would come. It is truly my honor to welcome you to this estate. She'll be absolutely delighted to know she can host a party for you. I haven't seen her this excited since, well, since ever!”

By this point Jinx had found herself somehow sharing a very vigorous handshake with Thrianta.

“Well thank you!” Jinx got out through all of Thrianta's excitement. “I'll be honest, I am not really sure what's in store for me but Somewhat hasn't steered me wrong yet! I trust them.”

“Ah of course of course. Somewhat is a valued friend of this establishment. But where are my manners?! I should take you up to see her directly.”

“Just this way, madam, your companions are regulars and will know where to go but I must take you directly to your fitting with her ladyship, the Silent Milliner.”

_________________________________________________________

He knew it wasn't healthy. He knew he should probably stop, let go. He knew she probably would have wanted it that way.

But here Ekko was, once again, digging through the wreckage at the bottom of the Hexgate tower just to see if he could find anything. Something. Any remains.

He'd justified it to himself by saying that he had always managed to bring back something useful. There were plenty of valuable materials that Zaun generally and the Firelights in particular could really use. With Sevika as their advocate on the council, Ekko had gradually taken more and more of a public leadership role within the the undercity itself. He took his responsibility seriously.

Which is why he felt so guilty for this incredibly personal indulgence.

But he needed something.

His own feelings about Jinx were, he could admit, extremely complicated. There was a lot and he would probably spend years unpacking, probably silently, what exactly she meant to his community. And to him.

But what he did know is that he wanted something. He felt like he needed some item, some relic of her final, perhaps most selfless act. Maybe with that, he could have some closure.

However, today would not be that day. Today had been as fruitless as all of the other days. There was nothing. Well, that wasn't entirely true. There was someone else here.

Ekko whipped his head around bringing his blade into a guard position.

“Apologies, I seem to have come on the wrong day. I thought it was my turn to scour the wreckage.”

Ekko was shocked to see the recently re-appointed Sheriff of Piltover, Caitlyn Kiramman herself, in the flesh.

He brought his blade down, but not all the way. Caitlyn had proven herself but a cop was still a cop.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, warily.

“Same thing as you, I expect. Looking to see if there was anything left of...her” Caitlyn looked off to the side.

“Why,” Ekko asked suspiciously. “I thought the official word was she was dead. You shouldn't need anything more to confirm that if that's already the official ruling.”

“This isn't exactly...official business. I'm not here as the Sheriff right now. I'm here as a fiancee” Caitlyn looked like she had been caught doing something illicit. “I know it was my office that said she was dead but, I'm not entirely..convinced? I know it sounds crazy but I just, I found a fragment of one of her grenades around an air vent. An air vent that a human could have safely escaped from, if she somehow found her way in there.”

Ekko fully relaxed. “Well, if this isn't official business I suppose I can talk to you. Have you told Vi about your theory?”

“No.” Ekko realized this was probably the source of the law enforcement professional's guilty behavior. “I can't do that to her. I know the possibility would eat at her and I'm not even convinced myself I just.. have this feeling that won't go away. Like I need to be here.”

Empathizing with the Sheriff of Piltover was not how Ekko thought this day would go.

“You know, I started this thinking I could find something to bury. I felt like she deserved..I don't know. Something. Something to mark how much of an impact she had on both our cities.” Ekko confessed. “I... may have started thinking the same as you. Not fully until now, but I think I was getting there. But I wouldn't allow myself to hope.”

“You know there was a time where this would have been a mission to make sure she was dead.” Caitlyn had by this point started looking at the still-visible blast mark from Jinx's last stand high above them both. “I learned more, from Vi. About their history. About the deeply personal way that she had suffered from the strife between our two cities. I realized I might have reacted the same, presented the opportunity. I did react the same. I had a chance to deescalate, for everyone, and I burned it. If I didn't forgive her I would be admitting that I myself, deserved no forgiveness. I'm still not entirely sure on that front.” Caitlyn turned back to Ekko, a half formed smirk on her face that did nothing to hide the deep regret on her face.

“Why are you telling me this?” Ekko asked.

“Well you've caught me in the one secret I'm keeping from my fiancee.” Perhaps subconsciously, Caitlyn started fiddling with her hair. “I suppose there's not much point keeping much else form you. Besides, you also had a...complicated relationship with her. If anyone could understand me I believe it would be you.

“Well, you're right about that. I suppose that's why they made you the Sheriff.” Ekko crossed his arms and smirked. “I'll admit it. I got some perspective myself although I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you how. I thought about her differently after that.” Ekko moved closer. “That still doesn't explain how you're able to be absent from your official duties, though. I don't have a fancy official schedule like you do.”

“Officially, I'm searching the tower for any usable technology, or any potentially still-active Hextech. No other enforcers are proficient in Hextech weaponry so I made the executive decision to go in alone. My guard is outside if I need them.” Caitlyn looked back at the blast mark. “Of course if I find any that's a bonus. What I need are answers.”

“Look, I can't believe what I'm about to say either,” Ekko started, “But why don't we combine our efforts. We can call it some sort of joint operation for building trust, or whatever. I think that will even happen. But I probably know way more about Hextech than you, and I'll be honest in saying you probably have better detective skills than me. I think between us we can have a better picture of what exactly happened at the end than we would otherwise.”

“I think I'd like that,” Caitlyn responded. “It's honestly nice not feeling like I'm losing my mind over something no one else sees.”

“Well I'm not entirely sure you haven't just told me what I wanted to hear.” Ekko said, “But I think if we do this it will help build trust between our communities. Even if we're both crazy.”

“Well, we might be crazy but there is still one, crucial question we need answered.” Caitlyn said, “If she's not...here, and she's not anywhere in either city, where did she go?”

Chapter Text

Jinx crossed the threshold into the Milliner's Mansion and her first thought was that, from her limited experience, that Piltover knew nothing about real class. Her second thought was that she was surprised that the sparsely decorated interior (paintings aside) and high ceilings didn't feel empty at all.

The Milliner herself was as much of a character as everyone else Jinx had met in the Ever After. She skipped along, leading Jinx, Thrianta, Somewhat, and Juniper along the cavernous, cozy hallways of her mansion.

I feel like my brain is trying to insert joyful humming when she's skipping around all happily like that. Still, I suppose she isn't called the Silent Milliner for nothing. Actually, I don't think I'm even hearing her skip.

It was true, the Silent Milliner seemed like a void of noise wherever she went. Jinx was enhanced beyond a normal human. She could hear, even on the mansion's tasteful burgundesque carpet, each of her own and her companions' footsteps if she put her mind to it. When she put her mind to the Milliner she heard nothing at all. Not just the lack of impact on the ground, either. The Milliner was wearing a very fine, very complex five-colored garment: white, black, pink, orange, and red. More importantly, from Jinx's perspective, there were many, many small glass adornments. This was before Jinx even came to her HAT. The Milliner's hat was a full on diorama taking place in some sort of ice-cream wonderland. Tiny figures that appeared to be frozen mid-motion in some sort of metaphorical ballet were placed expertly all around her hat in a way that almost seemed to tell a story. Gorgeous and impressive as all of this was, it should have made SOME noise. Jinx's fight or flight response began to activate.

“Is there anything wrong?” Asked the ever-sensitive Somewhat.

“No....no...yes.” Jinx said. “it's just, and I'm sorry I don't mean to be rude,” she gestured at Thrianta “but it's just so unsettling that she's just no making any noise. What if she tries to sneak up on me?” Jinx was growing increasingly more agitated.

“I am most sorry, madam, but I promise you you are completely safe here. I know not what her purpose was before this, but suffice it to say she was VERY unhappy and has sworn herself to complete nonviolence.” Thrianta gracefully bowed to Jinx, “Although she is aware of the...effect she can have on those more used to movement making noise.”

“No, if anyone were truly to threaten her...” Jinx wondered if the light actually darkened around Thrianta or it was just her imagination at how threatening he suddenly looked. Both were possible here.

“But that is an unhappy topic and not why you are here in the first place. You are here to be fitted and, if you would deign to grace us with your presence, show off the Milliner's latest work at the Entertainment she has planned for this evening. Speaking of which...” Thrianta suddenly stopped. The Milliner had stopped her unnatural, silent movement in front of a door Jinx wondered how she had not noticed before.

“It is time for your hat fitting, madam, the noble knights and I must leave you here, although of course I have prepared tea for you while you wait for your companion your usual.” Thrianta winked at Somewhat and Juniper who both winked back conspiratorially.

Jinx was not feeling in on the fun. “You mean I'll have to be alone with her !?!?!?” Her agitation from before was coming back. She didn;t know if she could handle such silence.

Somewhat came up and took her hand. “It will be ok. I know you're probably not from a place that has a lot of silence like this, but the Milliner insists it's good for reflection. And we promise you,” Somewhat gestured back at Juniper “on our honor and purpose that the Milliner only wants to help.”

Jinx was still nervous, but Somewhat hadn't led her wrong so far. “Well, you railroaded me here.” She said “So it's your fault if I come out and can't tell what's real again.” Jinx tried to play it off as a joke but Somewhat nodded very seriously

“If that does happen, I will not rest until you are healed.” They said severely.

“You are both the best and worst mouse at reassurance I've ever met” Jinx said, and turned and followed the expectant Milliner, who then opened the door. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the room.

Total darkness.

Then, suddenly, a light.

Jinx found herself surrounded by a trio of floor to ceiling (Was there even a ceiling?) mirrors, underneath a spotlight. She couldn't quite tell where the light was coming from. The Milliner was right in the middle. Well, almost in the middle. The exact middle of the spotlight was a small, comfortable stool the Milliner gestured for Jinx to sit on. Hesitantly, and seeing no other way out, Jinx sat.

I probably would have freaked out about this back home. Jinx thought as the Milliner fussed around with some measuring tape. But if I'm being honest, everyone here has treated me better than I think anyone in Piltover or Zaun. Even Ekko, although to be fair “suicide by unrequited crush ” is kinda what I was going for there . Jinx almost began to relax. The Milliner had begun experimenting with some hairstyling and wordlessly guided Jinx to look up. Jinx looked into one of the three mirrors.

Powder looked back at her.

Jinx brain started to shut down. She was freaking out. She could see the colors flicker at the edge of her vision. She looked away.

Only to be met with Jinx as she was with Silco, before she found out that Vi was alive. Her panic increased. She stood up in a mixture of anger and fear knocking over the stool. She was going to force the Milliner to let her out, she was going to fins Somewhat and.....

And she suddenly felt calm. Not calm, just, not controlled by her emotions. She saw the Milliner holding a freshly lit incense stick of some sort. The Milliner gestured back at the stool, which was somehow back on its legs.

Jinx took a look around. She was still surrounded by visions of her past. Still feel the absolute grief, vulnerability, and pain associated with those memories. But she didn't feel as violated any more. In fact, she felt safe. The glass adornments on the Milliner's dress twinkled in the spotlight.

[No piece of art works without its proper context] The lights told Jinx. Somehow. Not the weirdest thing she had been exposed to even in the last five minutes so she accepted it.

[I simply want to take that full context into account. I deeply apologize for my delay in lighting the incense. I did not mean to cause you any distress] The Milliner twinkled at her.

“What did you do to me?” Jinx asked, more evenly than she had thought possible.

[The incense allows you to to feel without overwhelming your conscious mind. A perfect hat must encapsulate all of you. For the hat to fit comfortably, you, too, must be comfortable with all of you.]

Jinx was surprised to feel a sense of relief when the Milliner (Or her dress?) finished explaining. She was even more surprised to find herself wanting to explore her relationship with Powder, and all the other versions of herself. At least outside of the context of a high stakes murder/tea party. She would have to see if the Milliner would package some of this incense to go. Stable Jinx was an oxymoron, but one she found she was liking more the more she got to know her.

Newly recommitted and resilient Jinx returned to the stool. She once again looked at the Powder-mirror. She saw herself right before that fateful raid that had first exposed her to the crystals that would shatter her world forever.

She turned to re-observe Chembaron-era Jinx. Wow I really was a lunatic she thought after seeing the deranged smile and wild eyes looking back at her. I wonder why Ekko changed his mind? Why he came to save me?

Turning back to the Powder Mirror, while the Silent Milliner seemed to be having a fierce internal debate about materials, Jinx was fascinated to discover that Powder had aged. This was a Powder that could only exist in a world where neither Hextech nor Shimmer became part of everyday life. This was the Powder that might have come to be had their little heist gone very differently. I'm sad for her, but she never would have been able to survive what happened. No, I am not Powder. I'm not HER either

Jinx thoughts and eyes strayed back to the Chembaron-Jinx Mirror while the milliner was creating a sort of mold base to work from. Or perhaps it would be better to say Zealot-Jinx. This was a Jinx who was fully behind Silco's ideals for Zaun. This was a Jinx who could have adorned herself with the skulls of her enforcer kills, if she so chose. This was a Jinx that had never learned Vi was still alive.

Much as I hate to give credit to one of my hallucinations, killing really IS a cycle, Jinx reflected. There was no way SHE was going to survive for long either. She would have gone down fighting and been happy for it. Embarrassing as it is to admit, I think I do want to be alive .

I want to have the chance to really reconnect with Vi . Maybe my commitment to this idea will go away outside of this fitting room now that I'm paralyzed thinking about how it will go but right now, I want it.

A flashing light to Jinx's left caught her attention and reminder her that there was still a third mirror she had yet to look at. Jinx turned to see the Milliner tapping her foot impatiently.

[This really won't work if I can't see you from all angles, you know].

Jinx didn't bother replying because this last mirror portrayed her as Jinx the Savior. This was a Jinx who could have taken on the mantle of responsibility the citizens of the undercity had placed upon her during the worst of the enforcer crackdowns. This was a Jinx who fought for what was right and didn't just lash out to survive. This was a the Jinx that had come into being just before the absolute chaos that led to her fall into this impossible world.

This was the Jinx she wanted to become. At least, this Jinx would be her starting point. This is the Jinx that could begin to make amends, if possible. This Jinx could survive because this Jinx would not be alone. In the clarity of the Milliner's incense, Jinx realized that she could become what she needed to be. She could conquer her fears. She could make amends. It would be hard. She knew that. She knew once the incense faded she wouldn't be able to process her emotions with this much ease. But she would have the memory, she would know it was possible, if difficult. She would....

In her newfound commitment to herself, Jinx had not noticed that the mirrors seemed to be getting larger. The Milliner had faded out of her field of view. Slowly, as she focused on herself, her vision became consumed by a deep, peaceful, blue.

_________________________

Jinx woke up.

She didn't remember going to sleep.

Somewhat startled she jumped out of bed (and when exactly did she go to bed?) and began taking stock of her surroundings. Immediately, Jinx felt exhausted, like she had been running for days without a break.

Still, I should at least figure out if I'm even still in the same mansion. I wonder where Somewhat and Juniper are?

Jinx found herself in a very nice, well lit room that had none of the baroque simplicity of the main part of the mansion. In fact, it was rather small and evoked a coziness that Jinx had heretofore not experienced. Soft light illuminated the room in such a way that evoked the dawn she experienced while she was still living with Vander, before the Hextech Skyscrapers pushed the undercity even further into the darkness.

Next to her small bed, Jinx noticed a beautifully carved nightstand with a small plate of curious pastries, a glass of water and a note. Figuring that she'd probably get a quicker sense of what was going on by reading, she picked up the note, sat down on the bed, grabbed her glass of water (which she realized was actually the most delectable lemonade she'd ever had the pleasure of tasting) and began to read.

Dear Jinx,

Thank you so much for letting me work with you. I have not yet had the

chance to work with someone with so much human complexity. I think you will

be delighted by what I have come up with in the end. Please try it on. If you like

what I have created and are willing to show it off Thrianta and I have created an

entertainment we believe you will find most enlightening. You will be wearing my

latest creation after all. We will, of course, stop if it turns out more distressing

than informational. You will not have the benefit of the incense this time.

Graciously Yours,

The Silent Milliner

P.S. Somewhat and Juniper are very excited to see you. They were both

quite concerned while you were gone.

Jinx finished the letter, fighting a wave of dizzyness as her hazy memories of the surprisingly emotionally intense hat fitting process came closer to her conscious thoughts. Putting the letter down on the table she looked around the room for her new hat.

There, on a chest-high hat rack in front of a mirror (had those always been there?) was...Isha's hat?!

Jinx heart beat increasingly fast...this felt like a cruel joke to her...surely the Milliner wouldn't taunt her for her loss...?

Approaching trepidatiously, Jinx noticed that on closer inspection, it was not Isha's hat. Coming down slightly from her state of high anxiety, Jinx realized it was more like an homage to Isha's hat. The designs were different. It was obviously made for Jinx, and didn't have the goggles. The designs were completely different. The more Jinx looked at it, the more she realized the genius of the Milliner.

This feels like something I would have gotten around to making myself as a tribute to her if I had...made it out of the Noxian coup attempt.

Ah, I see. That's the point.

This is a hat that could only exist for a Jinx who had decided to live. This hat was for a Jinx who broke the cycle by making amends and grieving instead of going out in a blaze of glory. This hat was for the Jinx that was able to ask for and possibly even receive forgiveness. Maybe even more crucially, form Jinx point of view, was that this was not a hat for Powder who could have been, but a hat for Jinx who could yet be.

Almost wondering at her own movements, Jinx took the hat off the rack. She put it on

This looks...almost right.

Jinx turned around, looking at the hat from different angles in the mirror.

I'm not her....yet. But I could be. This doesn't feel like when beloved Vi kept trying to make me Powder again. Didn't realize it would take a mystical glass lady to be the first person to see me for EVERYTHING I am but I have to admit, it's kinda nice that it's happening.

Jinx realized an errant tear had somehow made its way down her face when she wasn't paying attention. She wiped it away and steeled herself to go back into company.

I'm actually kind of surprised that I haven't been freaking out more. I didn't realize how much I needed to be in a new place. I want to go back, eventually, but I think this freakish dreamland has actually been great for my mental health.

I haven't heard any voices since I got here, I think.

Prepared and filled with a truer confidence than she had felt in a long, long time, Jinx opened the door.

Thrianta, in much more formal wear than she had last seen him, was there to greet her.

“Aha, very good ma'am. The entertainment is ready, if you are willing. The Milliner would love to have you and I believe your friends have already taken their first seats.” Thrianta addressed her with enough panache Jinx thought the performance had perhaps already started, at least for her.

“You know,” Said Jinx, returning to her reliable Piltovan heiress impression “It's been a while since I've attended any fancy entertainment. I think I would be delighted.”

Thrianta bowed gracefully and lent his arm.

Jinx politely took it.

They both stepped out into the garden.

Chapter Text

Caitlyn almost wished she could stop thinking about her fiancee's missing sister.

Truly, she reflected, really makes one think about the extremes of human emotion considering she killed my mother.

But I suppose I understand her more now after...everything.

Yes, Caitlyn was no longer as convinced of her moral righteousness as she once was. In a perfectly just society, she should probably never be let near the levers of power ever again. Nor would she necessarily want that. However in the imperfect society in which she and, crucially, everyone she cared about lived, Caitlyn remaining Sheriff of Piltover was the best option for the most amount of people and for long-term peace between Piltover and Zaun. Somehow. Her...past misdeeds as well as her newly public relationship with Vi meant that she was begrudgingly accepted by hardliners in both Piltover and Zaun. At least enough to not cause open violence.

So maybe it was no surprise that she was drawn to a politically uncomplicated mystery. Caitlyn had begun to understand that Jinx had never really wanted anything that happened. While helping Vi come down from a particularly brutal 2AM night terror, Caitlyn had begun to get a bigger picture of how Jinx became the way she was. Given her own recent actions, she understood more why Jinx had done what she did to kill her mother. Cait wasn't in a place where she could ever forgive Jinx, per se, but a lot of the hate had been washed away by the unfortunate river of shared experience. It seemed to Caitlyn that if Jinx was alive, she was not going to interfere in a politically charged situations where both sides had measurably ruined her life.

Cait loved simple detective work. She felt satisfied solving a mystery. That was frankly part of why she had joined law enforcement in the first place. Youthful idealism aside. Working on this particular case was unlike any other. It was easy for her to get time to investigate the site, given everything that had happened. But she had run into a wall. A wall of the Arcane. Given the death, disappearance, or political unreliability of all the remaining academy staff (and she wasn't thinking about Jayce right now) she didn't really feel she had any hope left.

Until she ran into Ekko doing the same thing. Vi had talked about and every interaction since their encounter near the Hexgate base had confirmed that the Zaunite was incredibly talented with both arcane and non-arcane engineering. The fruits of their collaboration had led to even more interesting and non-politically treacherous tidbits that Cait would loved to have followed up in more detail if she had the time or more resources.

Ekko had told her that based on the evidence she had been able to get her teams to preserve right after the incident and what evidence they had both gathered from what still lingered indicated that there was...something else, at work here. Cait initially feared she had stumbled on something related to the mysterious Black Rose organization Mel had alluded to before she returned to Noxus, presumably to combat them more directly.

Ekko had said that if this Black Rose were able to do what he had caught inklings of, there would be absolutely no need for subtlety. He said that what he had been able to calculate indicated that the whole “Glorious Evolution” had opened the door, so to speak, to something else. Ekko wasn't sure exactly what else, but whatever it was wasn't local, and it was a small part of something that, based on the arcane afterimages he was able to find, was much, much bigger. So big that whatever was acting was not anywhere near Piltover or Zaun. He then said something about “alternate realities” and didn't seem to notice that he was actively crying which unnerved Cait somewhat but she was put off from asking by the fact that he ruled it out as a possibility and that he really, really, didn't seem to want to talk about it with her.

Which meant, to Cait, that if Jinx was alive she was probably on another continent.

This would explain how not even a trace of a trace of her was found, if she had am arcane intervention that took her away. If it weren't for the fact that it was only made possible due to a crisis no one could have predicted, Cait might have thought that Jinx planned it.

But unfortunately, trying to track down her fiancee's sister who had been transported to somewhere extremely far away from her centers of power was distracting from the increasing day to day crises that seemed to be popping up. She had almost missed that people seemed to try to be hiding certain elements of Stillwater's operations from her.

She had wanted to burn the place down after Vi had told her what it was really like in there. She knew, intellectually, and a little bit in how Vi carried herself, but hearing it said from someone she had increasingly begun to think she loved more than anyone in the world was another thing altogether. However the same social forces that kept her in a position of influence also prevented her from doing anything about it. For now. Because “in these unstable times, criminals need something to fear.” She had tried to gather data on the abuses inside the prison that could be able to change those narratives but was being stymied and her obsession with someone who, best case, had been transported to another continent had almost led her to miss movements to destroy those records. Her loyalists had arrived too late to save some precious documents from being burned but they did manage to nab someone who had not yet given up who he was working with. Old Caitlyn might have been able to get that information by now, but new Caitlyn was dedicated to being the “good cop” Vi seemed to think she could be.

So she was stuck with a minor insurgency within her own ranks, various remnants of Chembaron quasi-militias (another problem encountering Ekko had been surprisingly helpful in ameliorating), and a public in both cities that had a lot of reasons to hate each other with various levels of justifiability.

If Jinx were here, Cait thought, maybe she could burn down Stillwater for me.

An Idle fantasy. Even if Jinx were able to hear it was unlikely she'd want to come back to a place where her personal legacy and relationships were complicated to say the least.

Wherever she had gone.

Cait shook her head. Mystery was something she could deal with another time. She had law enforcement to reform.

I hope Jinx is relaxing on a beach somewhere. I never thought I'd ever say that but she almost died saving my wife (am I allowed to think that yet?). Given everything that's happened, I think I can finally let it go.

But where is she....?

--------------------------------------------------------------

“Welcome, one and all, to another one of the Silent Milliner's grand parties!!!!”

Jinx was more surprised that she was not surprised that the Afteran response to Thrianta's grand pronouncement was not the standard cheering and clapping that one might have expected at a more human concernt. Instead, all possible manner of strange noises, light shows, and other forms of communication came out that Jinx found she somehow also understood perfectly.

“Ooh, I hope you'll like thise.” Somewhat said, sitting beside her. “I really liked the one she made for me. I think it's making even more sense now that I met you. But I know you're not exactly from around here so I don't know if it will work quite the same way.”

“Well, if something goes horribly wrong I know my mouse in shining armor and their trusty steed will come to save me.” Jinx joked while giving Juniper a soft pet that was maybe a little more due to anxiety that she was willing to admit to herself.

Somewhat's eyes grew wide. “Oh of course, but I forgot to mention that a key part of these is---”

Suddenly, Jinx found herself at a different table, surrounded by different creatures. There was no time to ponder this sudden change. The entertainment had started.

“This is the story of a girl who was both right, and wrong.”

Jinx was already upset by suddenly being taken away from Somewhat and Juniper, and dealing with something based on her life story, however anonymized, almost led to her trying to fight her way back to wherever Somewhat was and ride Juniper to...somewhere.

But then she caught a glimpse of the Milliner's lights.

She remembered how that this woman had somehow known and exposed all her deepest vulnerabilities, and then helped her. There were things in there that Silco never knew. Even Isha never knew. Things that had happened to her or that she had done in her periods of isolation that she had not known anyone could know. The Milliner did not use any of that to hurt her.

For the first time in her life, Jinx found herself trusting someone. She...relaxed.

And doesn't that feel unnatural.

Jinx watched the girl, more differentiated from her than she had feared, go through several key misunderstandings. The main plot thread so far was that the girl heard most of a crucial sentence or found almost all the key evidence. Based on what she knew, she was making the right choices. But based on what she was missing, those choices turned horribly wrong.

Suddenly, the tables shifted again. Jinx found herself with another group of strange beings, including one of the Gems she had met earlier.

“Oh hello again! Have you ever attended one of these before?”

“No, I have not.” Jinx grinned lopsidedly at the small gem-being. “I'm not exactly from around here you know.”

“Oh, this must be why I am meeting you in this rotation. I would love to help you by explaining how these work.”

“Please do,” Jinx said.

“Its quite simple. The Milliner wants to bring people together. This is a custom we have adapted somewhat from our occasional visitors from remnant. We are brought together to talk about the story with different individuals to get different perspectives that could help inform our own purpose. For instance, I am interested in how the girl's lack of knowledge interferes with her ability to make her own choices. It makes me glad that we have so much ability to reflect and learn, especailly now that Somewhat and Juniper have found their purpose.”

Putting aside the knowledge that her adorable companions had been leading some sort of information revolution, Jinx was both scared and intrigued. She might have to convince Ekko to start doing this style of theater, but she was concerned about how all these innocent people thought about her.

“All the wrong decisions she's making, do you think that makes her a bad person?” Jinx asked, tentatively.

Apparently oblivious to Jinx's trepidation, the Gem replied “Oh no. I think that she can only act on the information she had. I think if she had the full information, she would make a different decision.”

Jinx was beginning to feel a little more at ease, but she knew that the worst was yet to come.

Another shift, Jinx found herself watching the next section.

This one was a lot less pleasant. Loosely speaking, this was the period in Jinx life where she had killed Silco, Vi's obnoxious girlfriend's mom, and done a lot of other horrible things. She was not looking forward to the judgment passed upon her.

Once again, the Milliner didn't quite portray her allegorical self in the way she might have expected. Jinx saw the girl suffering from increasingly severe psychological issues, not driven by trauma as she might have expected, but by the fact that in this girl's mind, cause and effect seemed increasingly disconnected. The absence of key information over and over in her life and the resulting consequences had frayed her connection to reality. She, instead punished herself and lashed out at those around her because she no longer felt that it was possible to do anything good. Maybe, it was implied, just maybe, the girl could break her curse by intending bad and accidentally doing good. If that didn't work, maybe she wanted someone she loved to punish her for her failures.

Jinx had never thought about her past this way. She had never thought about the degree to which she had been so disconnected from everything during those worst years. Her basic instincts had been to sort things into categories of good or bad and then deal with them violently whenever Silco told her to. Or she felt she needed to.

This act ended with the girl standing before a large, burning household. Jinx barely had time to wonder if this was a real person or one of the Milliner's hat constructs writ large when she was suddenly whisked away again for discussion.

“Fascinating” A large winged insect-person said with a gravelly voice. “It seems those that live in the outside experiments do not have anything like the tree to help them in these situations.”

“What did you think of her?” Jinx said, trying and failing to play it cool.

“Well she certainly did what people would call 'bad things,'” Her conversational partner seemed thoughtful, “But it is in part because it benefited everyone for her to exist in this altered state. I assume it's an altered state, I do not believe I've met any humans like this besides yourself. I think based on what has been going on, she should not be punished. Rather, she should be made aware of the true nature and consequences of her actions and see if that changes anything. Of course without the tree I wonder if that would be possible...” Jinx was surprised that he could still manage a convincing ponder with four arms.

“You don't think she's..like..unfixable or anything do you? Like what if she wants to stay who she is and no ascend like you all do.”

“An interesting thought. I might have said something different before Somewhat and Juniper came around. I think that because so much of what she has done was shaped by what she percieved as betrayal, she'd have to be shown that she could trust not just those of us here, but people, like her, in order to change and grow.”

Jinx had gotten the sense that he knew why she was asking these questions and was keeping his responses to the play to be polite. Still, it made sense.

Although I need to also trust the world won't rip those I trust away from me, too.

Still, Jinx was beginning to feel more like a person who could change and less like a wraith incapable of dying properly when she was whisked away again to watch the third act of the Milliner's production.

Not-Jinx had been spiraling out. Things were not going well for her. Sudden, personal interventions turned Not-Jinx around and had begun to make things better. This was the part Jinx-Actual told herself it was all going to go wrong and she would catch up to reality.

But this part of the production took a turn from Jinx's life story as it had been told thus far.

Not-Jinx had people who loved her. These people were uncomfortably close to people Jinx-Actual had reached out to during the last moments of her time on Runeterra. The rest of the production posited that Not-Jinx, by continuing, and being vulnerable, and accepting the help of people who had her best interests at heart once they knew she was still trying to do good, could be the person Jinx-Actual had envisioned with the Milliner. Not Poweder, either. This was Jinx who was shaped by her past but not controlled by it.

Her final transition took her back to Somewhat and Juniper. Two of the people in this strage realm she could hide from the least.

“Ok,” she said. “I know we all know here. I don't have to pretend. What do you think? Can I be her?”

“Do you want to be?” Asked Somewhat.

“I don't want to want to. I want to be cool with who I am. You know, outcast rebel and all. Punk that not even the Sheriff of Piltover could bring down. But yeah I desperately want to be her. Or, you know, the me version of her.”

“If you want to I think you can.” Somewhat said. “But, I think that you can't be her here.”

Jinx was stunned. “So you're rejecting me?”

“Oh No!” Somewhat said. Juniper went and nuzzled Jinx. “But if there's anything I learned recently it's that we are nice, and I've loved spending time with you, but if you want to grow you have to do it with people more like you. The Ever After is fairly new to the idea of complex histories and emotions in the same way as you humans you see.”

“But I can't go back yet!” Jinx half-yelled. “I know I know but I can't go back yet! I'm not ready to see Vi now that there's not a crisis! Or Ekko! I did...what I did because I was pretty sure I might die! I never had a plan to live with the consequences of my actions! I'm only here because my stupid survival instinct kicked in at the last second! I can't go back!” She turned into Juniper to hide her tears.

“What if you didn't have to go back..there?” Somewhat asked.

Turning from Juniper Jinx was caught out of her spiral by the question.

“What, like go to Noxus? Hate to break it to you, I think my reputation precedes me. Maybe Ionia, but I think our beloved Cait has some connections even there.”

“Oh no, not there. Remember that Team RWBY I told you about? My understanding is they are from somewhere completely different. You could meet them?” Somewhat looked excited.

“You mean, get to a place with new people, recommended by the cutest mouse on the planet, and I'm literally on a different planet so there would be no way for the cops to get me?” Jinx stood up straighter, almost daring to believe it was true.

“I think so, yes. If I understand how the door works it takes you where you need to go. I think you need to go there so it should take you!” Somewhat smiled.

“I'll miss you though. I hope you'll have some way to come back sometime. But I also understand that humans need change that you simply will not get in a place that moves like the ever after.”

Somewhat ran up to Jinx and gave her a hug.

Jinx began to cry.

“I have never, in my life, had people treat me as nicely as you have here,” she began. “I d-didn't know that having a perfect vision of the right choice could hurt so much.”

“I know. I'm glad to have met you Jinx. I consider you a friend. That is very important to both me and Juniper.” Juniper nuzzled her hair in agreement.

After a few more minutes of incoherent sobbing into Somewhat's fur Jinx stood up, and realized that she was no longer where she once was. She was instead in front of a cyclopean door, filled with white light.

“How did I get here?” Jinx asked, semi-rhetorically.

“Oh!” Somewhat said. This means you're ready. 'It's not a place you go, it's a place you know!' as we say around here.”

“I'll miss you, Somewhat. So, so much.”

“I'll miss you too Jinx.” Juniper bowed in agreement.

Jinx walked up to the edge of the door. Hesitating before she stepped in. She didn't want to leave, but knew she had to. Furthermore, she knew somewhat would have wanted it that way.

“Well, I won't lie to you and say I'm not nervous. Do you have anything to help me one more time?”

“If you like me, team RWBY helped make me who I am. I want you to meet them. For you. And so you can tell them I said hello, and that thanks to an old friend I've been able to learn more about them than would have been possible.”

“Right,” Jinx turned away because she was quite frankly embarrassed at the amount of tears she had been crying. “Ok. Well then. I have someone to meet and an introduction. Ok. Well. Goodbye Somewhat, Juniper. I will never, ever, forget you.

“Goodbye Jinx. Thank you for visiting. I think I can speak for Juniper as well when I say we are glad to have met you.”

“Right. Ok. One last, tiny favor though. Juniper? Could you possibly like, push me in? I don't think I can-”

Jinx didn't know someone with antlers could deliver a headbutt so gently and lovingly but Juniper delivered.

---------------------------------------------------------

Jinx suddenly found herself in a sort of liminal, transitional space. It felt like it wasn't all there, and what little there was would cease to exist the moment she stepped away. It took her a second to orient herself to this half-nothingness before she was addressed by a figure she wasn't convinced existed before she started speaking.

“Hello”

“Uh...hello?”

“What an unexpected visit from an unexpected source. It is fascinating that the tree bought you here.”

“Frankly, I don't know who you are.”

“I am someone who, for lack of a better term, speaks for the tree. For this place. I am of it and in some way separate from it. Something I have been informed you can relate to.” The woman stood, and Jinx was awed by a surprisingly complex mechanical-organic body. She immediately felt somehow safe with this woman. Something about her projected this aura of certitude.

“Ok,” Jinx said, “Well, I have no idea what's going on here or why you're being so mysterious or gravitas-y. But hello. I was told I was going to have my social boundaries pushed in a healthy way. By an adorable mouse.”

“Ah yes, truly an interesting journey in retracing the pathway of a glorious evolution (Jinx somehow heard the wink in the voice of a face that had no eyelids). And you will. But I wanted to stop to give you something first.

The woman presented Jinx with a fascinating little artifact. It was like a sundial for two suns. One the on Jinx was used to and one...alien.

“I can admit this because no one else is here for me to be embarrassed for but..it's beautiful. What is it?” Jinx said while marveling at her gift.

“When you are ready, and when the time is right, you will be able to return home. If you maintain a connection while you are visiting and exploring, you will be able to return there as well, after some time. This is a door between worlds. It will work for you, and only you. Of course, you will also be able to bring people along as well.” The woman smiled.

“Why?” Jinx asked. “Why are you doing this? Why has everyone been so nice to me?”

“The Ever After is a garden, one grown in its own way from a tree. You have an immense potential for growth and change within you that would better be nurtured than wasted. You and so many others, but an accident of your circumstance allowed the tree to reach out when it would otherwise be prevented from doing so by laws of its own design. You are here, because you want to be here, and you want to grow. Why would we treat anyone any way but the best if they are coming ehre to act on our first and most valued impulse?”

Jinx was unused to people who talked so formally being this nice to her. So instead she simply muttered “Thank you” and looked down sheepishly.

“I think it is time for you to go, Jinx,” The woman saying her name made Jinx feel like nothing could ever hurt her again.

Forming a portal in front of her, the woman said. “It will be fascinating to see what comes next. Where you are headed will not be free of risk. But it will be an environment where you will not be made to suffer alone.”

“Thank you again,” Jinx said, more forcefully this time and making eye contact with the woman. “I don't know what I did to make anyone or any plant think I deserved this chance. But I promise you and I promise Somewhat that I will make the most of it.”

Under her own power this time, Jinx stepped once again through a mysterious portal and heard the gentle sound of waves.

Chapter Text

The first thing that Jinx thought was that being dropped into water like this was that Silco was right, and that the struggle against drowning was one of the surest proofs that somewhere, somehow, you desperately wanted to live.

The other thing she thought was that a mystical omniscient tree was unsubtly trying to suggest to her that she should learn to swim.

I can't even be that mad. I kept ending up underwater maybe I should learn more than the immediate panic survival basics.

That doesn't change the basic fact that I don't even know where to go next....

Where even am I?

--------------------------------------------------------------

Blake Belladonna was doing something that would have been almost unthinkable for the past decade.

She was relaxing. Intentionally

Or at least, relaxing as much as she was capable of. Because of her status both as the daughter of Ghira Belladonna and a member of team RWBY, Blake had been in the right position to be a crucial leader in the efforts to restore some sort of sense of normalcy after what could be described as surviving every apocalypse of every religion at once. Her sense of duty meant she had been running herself ragged, especially because the total political instability meant she had a once in a lifetime chance to really push for complete legal and social equality for the Faunus. Turns out rewriting the entire social order of an entire, albeit sparsely populated, planet took a toll on an individual and apparently it showed more than Blake thought.

Weiss had been the first to suggest she take a break. As one of the few real figures of standing from the once (and future?) Kingdom of Atlas/Mantle (The name was up for debate these days, along with so many other things) Weiss had noticed Blake's deteriorating situation at the various meetings they both attended to. Blake was always happy to see her considering how little “team time,” she had been getting recently, but she initially brushed Weiss off trying to convince her that she was fine.

Weiss had seen Blake act like this before. Weiss used that experience. Weiss, was merciless.

Blake had come back to the temporary tent she had been using in and around the vicinity of what was once and would be Vale again to find a recently recovered Ruby and a fully recovered Yang waiting for her.

Ruby's initial look of genuine concern made Blake seriously consider if her silver-eyed powers had somehow developed the ability to work on sentient people as well as Grimm. Ruby didn't even have to speak before Blake started feeling the pressure and Ruby's loving talk proved that her leader had lost none of her talent for rhetoric while she was recuperating herself.

Then there was Yang. Blake loved her partner. They were absolutely devoted to each other. The problem was, Yang was now increasingly confident in her feelings and their relationship. This was, normally, something that made Blake very happy. In this particular circumstance, her initial plans for political involvement were absolutely derailed by Yang's carrot and stick approach of talking sense into her even more bluntly than she had at Beacon and making extremely specific suggestions of how they could spend their time together if she were relaxed and healthy once Ruby had strategically stepped out to do Savior of the World things.

Blake folded.

With the enticing promise that Yang would come “check up on her” to ensure that she was “behaving,” Blake returned home to Kuo Kuana. Spending time there had genuinely improved Blake's health, energy levels, and she begrudgingly agreed it was a good idea. She was less begrudging when Yang did make time for her check ins and demonstrated to Blake the many benefits of spending time together outside of a crisis mode.

Truthfully, Blake had recovered and was ready to get back to work. However Yang had promised an additional visit and Blake had decided that she was going to take advantage of that and not leap back in right away. Yang was very persuasive when it came to relaxing. Blake found she loved being persuaded.

Although Yang wouldn't be there till the next day. To spend the time, Blake was getting back into some of her trashy (but only Blake got to call it trashy) fantasy romance novels she hadn't had time to truly enjoy for a long time. She had spent her time reading at a secluded beach her and Ilia had discovered in their White Fang days. As far as she knew, no one except her, Ilia, Yang, and Emerald Sustrai (and THAT was a very in-depth conversation she was going to have with Ilia sometime in the near future) even knew about it.

Which is why she was rather surprised to see a portal open up right off the shore above the water and even more surprised to see a very loud, very distressed sounding blue-haired woman fall out.

She may have been on vacation, but Blake was still a Huntress. Without a second thought, she leapt up to help bring the new arrival to shore.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jinx was getting increasingly distressed. For all Silco's obsession with ritual downing neither he nor anyone else had thought to teach her to swim.

Well, that wasn't entirely fair. Back home, it was really either swimming in still waters or, if you have the misfortune of landing in the river Pilt, hoping you were able to catch on something that wouldn't immediately drag you under and make your way to the riverbank where hopefully someone inclined to help would catch you or you washed out in one of the many outflows. All this to say that Jinx had never really been taught how to deal with waves and, being charitable, it was unfair to expect her to be taught the same survival skills as a Piltovan naval ensign.

Jinx was not inclined to be charitable, at the moment. In fact, she was getting increasingly agitated both at the various fallible mentor figures of her past and at some sort of near-or actual divinity that seemed to take entertainment from dumping her in water.

Suddenly, Jinx was yanked from the water.

Adjusting to her sudden change in circumstances, Jinx felt like she was on the cover of some sort of trashy romance novel of the sort that she assumed Caitlyn was a big fan of. A very strong woman, swinging from some sort of black ribbon wrapped around a large palm tree that Jinx had not been able to notice had grabbed her and before Jinx had time to notice anything more they both hit an actual beach and rolled off each other. Jinx was about to make a snarky comment about how perhaps her rescuer would have not fully coated her in sand (Jinx was still not great at sincere expressions of gratitude) before seeing that the sea wasn't the only thing this mystery woman had protected her from.

Two eel-like creatures had been right behind Jinx. They were black-colored, but in a way that looked like it was sucking in light. The only thing that broke up the black silhouette were what looked more like cursed bones than anything Jinx had seen in her life.

Eels don't have bones like that, she thought, before feeling a massive spike in fear when the “eels” didn't seem to be stopped by the beach and started slithering towards her.

“Run!!!” She screamed at her rescuer, who had somehow retrieved what Jinx could only describe as “a device” from the tree it had been attached to. Jinx could only watch in horror as this mystery woman (who seems to also have cat ears?) listed to her, but in the wrong direction.

This woman was running directly towards the creatures.

And shooting at them. Apparently the device she had used to save Jinx was also a gun? Jinx couldn't help herself from admiring the craft but was still torn between booking it as fast as possible and freezing in place from sheer terror. She settled for half-inching her way up the beach.

Jinx, apparently, need not have worried. The gun-ribbon was apparently also a sword, or could turn into one and this cat-eared woman performed a beautiful decapitation strike of the first eel that had risen to strike at her head. However the second eel, whether by intellect or instinct, had moved behind the woman while she was distracted

“Watch out!” Jinx yelled, but she was too late. The eel struck.

Or, was she? What Jinx had thought was her rescuer seemed to blur out of existence and somehow she was above the horrifying eel-creature. The cat eared warrior fired two shots at the creature before she impaled it on the point of her gun-sword-ribbon-device.

Jinx was deeply unnerved to notice that both of the now-dead creatures had disappeared into black smoke, leaving no remains or indications they had ever existed.

“What the hell was that? Also thank you for saving me, or whatever. But what the hell was that?” Jinx was babbling, at this point. But she didn't care. This woman that looked like a fairytale hero had been given modern technology had just saved her life from the ocean and what seemed like if the concept of fear was an amphibious sea creature. Jinx wanted answers.

<Oh dear I'm so sorry but I don't understand you.>

Jinx was shocked. In two stages.

The first stage was her shock at not being able to understand this person in front of her.

The second shock was how she had never questioned that she'd been able to talk to all the residents of the Ever After.

I mean, I guess that one lady was able to talk to me through a bunch of decorative jewelry. Maybe it's just something about that place. But then what about Juniper...?

Jinx snapped back to reality. She was alone, and vulnerable in a place she didn't know and couldn't speak to the one person she had met so far. This put her on edge.

Then, the woman surprised her by putting down her weapon, and making like a pacification gesture.

<Ok, well best I can, I want you to know that I will not hurt you. I'm sure this must be very distressing but we don't want to bring more Grimm. I don't know if you're getting any of this but I am desperately trying to be calm about this. I need Yang.> The woman seemed to be half-talking to herself but she was very obviously trying to put Jinx at ease. Jinx figured she could give this woman the benefit of the doubt.

The woman suddenly refocused on Jinx. <Oh, this might work> she seemed to have realized something. Then she pointed at herself.

“Blake.”

“Jinx.”

<Hello Jinx> with a wave.

<H-hello Blake?> Jinx awkwardly waved back.

The woman across from Jinx seemed unreasonably excited to have established this extremely basic form of communication. Jinx was still deeply unsettled by the “almost been killed by demonic eels” situation.

<Ok, that works so far, let's try. Hmm, really basic. Maybe.>

<How did you get here?> At this the woman made a circular motion, so Jinx could only assume she was talking about the portal.

“Uuh, if I'm interpreting you right, a giant robot woman put me here. Well, before that it was an adorable mouse and their deer-rabbit friend. Or something. Juniper actually pushed me here.” Jinx mimed Somewhat's ears and Juniper's horns.

This seemed to hit the woman she was trying to converse with like a truck. She seemed stunned.

Then she suddenly rushed forward.

Jinx tensed herself for a fight, maybe thinking she had said something wrong, but the woman was on her before she could process it (and wasn't that interesting considering her shimmer enhancements)

Jinx found herself in one of the most sincere hugs of her entire life.

She really didn't know what to do so she just sort of stood there awkwardly until the woman, Blake, she supposed, jumped back suddenly.

<Oh! I'm so sorry I guess that might have been a bit much. I just had never expected to hear about Somewhat again. I...definitely need Yang for this. In the meantime, I can take you home give you something to eat, and a place to sleep.> Blake mimed eating and sleeping.

Seeing no other practicable option, and reasoning that people who liked Somewhat and Juniper that much couldn't be all bad. Jinx nodded and followed Blake.

“I'll be honest,” Jinx said, knowing she would not be understood. “The massive robot woman was right. It's really nice interacting with people who don't any any connections to the deaths of any of my family members.”

------------------------------------------------------

Jinx's trust in the tree's judgment had been restored. Going through the streets of this alien city, Jinx had seen a wide variety of new and different people, many of whom seemed to have some sort of animal trait. That was all very interesting, but less relevant to her immediate predicament than the fact that everyone seemed to LOVE her traveling companion. Jinx did not have a real grasp on the language, but even she could tell that Blake was artfully diverting people who seemed to want to pester Jinx with questions. The word “Yang” came up a lot. Jinx was interested to find out what that might mean.

Regardless, they eventually made it to what Jinx assumed was Blake's home, based on her familiarity with the guards(?!) and the massive, massive, enormous man that all the others deferred to except one mischievous tiny woman who also had animal ears who Jinx assumed was his wife.

Jinx learned their word for tea.

She also learned that if these people were politically anything like the Piltover council, they were the furthest thing from it socially. It was clear that the giant huge man was very important in these parts, but she could never imagine any one of the council members just, letting random people into their home as Blake's family seemed to do. The utterly delicious dinner they had provided (and tried very hard given the language barrier to confirm she wasn't allergic to anything) Had been interrupted more than once by messengers coming in and out, sometimes bringing citizens with them.

Blake herself tried to step in but her mother seemed to be able to stop her by invoking the “Yang” word again which was really not helping Jinx attempt to figure out what that meant. Whatever it was, Blake looked exceedingly embarrassed.

Regardless, once the meal had finished, Blake had guided Jinx to a room that was more luxurious than anything she had ever had in her entire life. This was not a huge barrier and Jinx knew that the aforementioned Piltover Council would be offended if they were asked to stay in similar lodgings but that just made Jinx trust Blake and her family more. That, at the fact that Blake had given Jinx a key to her room and showed her how to work it. Jinx was shocked by the amount of trust they were extending to a stranger, even once she remembered these people had no idea What She'd Done.

Well, I suppose “knowing Somewhat and Juniper” is enough. I wonder what her experience with them was?

However, now was not the time for that sort of thought. Or any thought. The sun was down, and Jinx was going to take full advantage and sleep in this delightful bed. Jinx took extra delight in locking her own door and laid down on the bed.

She was out almost before her head hit the pillow, and certainly not in a position to notice the fractured, alien moon outside her window.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Vi, who was really trying hard to not think of herself as VI Kiramman, at least for now, was extremely pissed.

Things were supposed to calm down.

She knew that she had spent a lot of her life in unhealthy avoidance of the political realities of Zaun and Piltover, and she knew that she had complicated plenty of things she had tried to simplify. Never let it be said that she didn't learn from her mistakes.

But everything was supposed to be fine! Both cities had had to unify to survive a coup driven by unethical science, philosophy, and a hunger for power. Vi wasn't naive, but she was very straightforward and liked to think that the “almost destroyed by an invading army even before the arcane robots,” would get even the most self interested to see that some form of unity and equality was in everyone's best interests. Apparently, people were idiots.

Worse, they were making her fiancee stressed.

Vi was on her way to combat some of the worst effects of political bullshit, heading to the workroom she knew Caitlyn would be at at this hour if she hadn't come to bed. Vi opened the door, and Cait didn't seem to notice. She was staring at something, muttering to herself.

“Hey, Cupcake,”

Cait jumped, clearly started.

“Wow,” Vi chuckled, “I didn't realize you were so deep in there. What are you looking at?”

“Oh,” Cait looked down guiltily. “Just...something I really probably shouldn't be focusing on, but it's a nice mystery to distract me from all my other problems.”

“Aww, don't worry cupcake,” said Vi, totally misreading the motivation behind Cait's guilt, “These idiots don't deserve your time anyway. Unless it's Ekko and Sevika. I never thought I'd be siding with her but she seems to make your life a little easier and I can't hate that as much as I might want to.”

“Well, she's a pragmatist. We don't like each other but we have a shared vision of how things have to go if we don't want a return to armed conflict.” Cait huffed, both out of annoyance at the current political landscape and relief that Vi had not interrogated her further.

“Well pragmatically you need to come to bed.” Vi smirked. “I've been on my best behavior to not make anything worse for you but I might start acting out again if you keep ignoring me for,” Vi looked over Cait's shoulder “technical drawings from Ekko.”

“Well we can't have that,” Cait walked over and kissed Vi on the forehead before pulling her into a hug. “Thank you. I needed to be pulled out.”

“Oh I have plenty of ideas about how you can thank me,” Vi raised her eyebrows suggestively, but they all require you to be in bed with me. Now.”

“Fine, fine,” Cait laughed. “What would I do without you?”

“I don't know but best case scenario you'd never sleep in another bed in your life. You'd just pass out over a table every night.”

“I'd put it down eventually.” Cait pushed Vi in mock outrage. “I was just, interested, that's all.”

“What was so interesting?” Vi asked, as they made their way downstairs to the bedroom they shared.

“Well, Ekko was looking into some of the arcane residue. You know, from the Hexgate tower. Maybe you don't know it's a very niche topic and we've lost most of our scientists. Regardless, there are some tiny elements of a patter or rune, or something, that just indicate a simple tree. Ekko says it's self contradictory, and that no simple tree could have caused that backlash. This has been very frustrating for him.”

“Hmm, sounds like our little man can't get enough of working with trees.” Vi smiled fondly. “Anything we should be concerned about yet?”

“Oh no, nothing to be concerned about. That's part of why he's so frustrated. To paraphrase him it's baffling that something that would have taken so much power be so totally benign seeming.” Having finally reached their bed, Cait sat down, gratefully allowing Vi to help her undress. “That's part of why it's so interesting. I keep getting drawn in into this mystery, because it has so little to do with anything that's going on.”

Vi gently massaged Cait's shoulders. “Let me know if you need me to punch anybody to get you more time on that. I mean it. People have been weirdly well-behaved lately I haven't had the chance to defend my fiancee's honor.”

Cait leaned back and gave her a kiss. “I would, love, if I thought that would help. Sadly, I do have responsibilities and have to stick with them.”

“Sure, but not tonight you don't. Tonight all you have is me.”

Cait laughed as Vi suddenly pulled her backwards on to their bed, before that laughter turned into a series of different noises entirely.

Chapter Text

It turns out, it didn't take Jinx very long at all to learn what “Yang” meant.

Yang was, as far as Jinx could tell, a force of nature.

Jinx had steadily been learning the language of this new region (Menagerie) and quite appreciated the immaculate balance of a frenetic work environment with a sense of emotional stability. She still had no idea what any of them actually did, of course, but it did seem to involve talking to a great many people, some with animalistic features like her hosts, some without. She learned the names of “Ghira” and “Kali,” learned that the family or clan or whatever name they shared in common was Belladonna, and got the sense that they were very important although they certainly acted much more humbly than any Piltovan aristocrat or Chembaron so she wasn't exactly sure. Frankly, Ghira reminder her a bit of Ekko, in maybe 10-20 years if the Firelights ended up winning the seemingly eternal internecine conflicts in Zaun, and was roughly 2 feet taller.

Elder statesman Ekko was an image that made her desperately wish for some guaranteed privacy but she supposed that she was just happy that the family had taken in an actual off planet alien (which Jinx figured out the first night she got a look at the broken side of this planet's moon), and had more or less settled into a routine.

Which was immediately disrupted when Yang Xiao Long showed up.

Yang was much more...energetic than anyone she had met so far. Immediately, Yang emphatically expressed gratitude to Jinx for something she was not advanced enough in her Menageran linguistics training to fully understand (especially with Yang's different accent) but did involve something about Somewhat and Yang's sister. It was not great for Jinx to imagine Yang as an older sister because Yang's personality was already dangerously close to what a 14 or 15 year old Jinx imagined Vi might have been like had she not “killed” her.

Worse, Yang was sensitive to this. Yang picked up on Jinx's clear distress and pulled back, but in such a way that it was clear a hug was on the table if Jinx needed it.

Jinx took the silent offer, which was absolutely a mistake for her emotional stability because getting such unconditional affection from her fantasy older sister figure (and I KNOW how fucked up that is) made her sob uncontrollably for the next several minutes.

Jinx understood what Blake saw in her. It took her roughly two seconds of observing their interactions to pick up on it. They were not subtle, but also very aware of and open about what they had going on which in Jinx's book made being around them far more palatable than being around her sister's class-betraying situationship with the cop-princess.

It was also not lost on Jinx that she was much more comfortable with physical touch with actual real aliens than with basically anyone from her own planet. Well, except for maybe Ekko. And Vi. On good days. She told herself that was because she was in survival mode, she was just adapting to a culture that clearly valued physical intimacy because she was alone and needed to. She also was self aware enough that this was an excuse to make her seem like a badass to herself.

The basic fact of the matter was that Menagerie did not seem as violent as Zaun.

Yes, Jinx had seen what Blake was capable of against those horrifying creatures Jinx was reeeeally trying to avoid thinking about. But Jinx figured that was a sensible skill if those things were common on this planet. She also noticed the armed guards posted visibly but unobtrusively around the manor. But they felt more like an emergency prevention feature for what was clearly some sort of political establishment as opposed to a tool of repression. Having interacted with and fought both, Jinx could tell the difference.

More than any of the justifications Jinx found, it was more that for the first time in her life, Jinx felt like she could be in a social situation with no fear it was about to erupt into class- or drug-based violence. There was just..something about the social dynamic here that failed to trigger her otherwise hyperactive survival instincts. Jinx almost started to...relax?

What's more, she noticed her hallucinations had started to fade in intensity. They had been lower intensity for a while, but frequently she would still half-hear or half-see something that set her on edge or into self-flagellation. That wasn't gone, but the incidents were fewer and when they did happen they were less intense.

I cannot believe how much being in a safe place helps. Once again, I absolutely hate how right Ekko was. That should be illegal.

Admittedly, this was not something he had ever said to her directly, but rather something she had picked up from one of the numerous pamphlets the Firelights had left lying around. It was comprehensibly written, so she assumed Ekko had had a hand in it.

She had also kept several of the better written pamphlets for “study.” It was deeply embarrassing trying to explain why this particular precarious stack of paper was so important to her when Isha had questioned why that particular one was always spared the worst ravages of their games.

Looking back, I can't believe anyone thought I was ever a genius. I think I was stupider than Vi about it, if that's even possible.

______________________________________________

As the weeks went on, Jinx continued to learn the local language alongside processing some emotions she did not ever think would see the light of day. Eventually, she was able to communicate a majority of her story to her hosts. She was a little surprised to realize that the Ever After sections were maybe the easiest for them to understand.

“I think what I'm most surprised about is that N-, no, she's the Silent Milliner now, seems to be such a force for good in the Ever After.” Blake said, leaving Jinx wondering what history the “N” sound hinted at.

“No, it actually makes sense if you think about it. It's still her, at the core. Think about it: it's like a helpful version of what she did. To Ruby.” Yang said while staring so hard into the floor that Jinx figured that maybe she should not ask the clarifying questions she so desperately wanted to.

Blake shivered “I suppose that makes sense. I guess I just...have a hard time thinking about it that way.”

“Trust me. Me too.” Yang's words had become far choppier and more succinct than Jinx was used to. It scared her.

But suddenly, Yang took a deep breath. “I'm sorry Jinx, this probably sounds really ominous. I would tell you but it's really Ruby's story to tell.”

“I know this isn't really directly related but I think you're a really good big sister. I want to believe she would but I don't honestly know if my sis would be that respectful.” Jinx almost whispered.

“Right,” Yang's eyes flashed red, which had startled Jinx the first couple times it happened but frankly wasn't the weirdest thing she had seen even on her home planet so she adapted to it fairly quickly. “You said. I can't wait for you to meet my mom, we'll have a lot to discuss about complicated family relationships.”

“Your mom?” Jinx asked, after drinking some of the tea Blake had provided that was working wonders for her throat after talking for so long.

“Let's see, abandoned me at birth, made me 'prove myself' to have a relationship with her, is now crucial to the recovery effort and the whole Mantle thing, and was outed as the last person we know of to have seen my and Ruby's mom alive by a vision Ruby had when she was deciding whether or not to Ascend. So yeah, not the easiest emotional waters to navigate.” Blake took Yang's hand during the list in a silent show of support.

Support that was backed up verbally when Blake deftly changed the conversation. “Speaking of, we actually were wondering if you would like to accompany us out, now that you seem to have a grasp on our language. We don't want you to feel like a prisoner here but we also thought you'd be more comfortable if you had someone you knew to help guide you. We figured someone from another planet wouldn't exactly know how things are done around here and it would be helpful to have an interpreter.

Jinx was suddenly on edge How did they know?

Blake smiled warmly and raised her hands in a placating gesture. “Sorry if this was a surprise, but we really only have one language here across all of Remnant. There's roughly two people on this whole planet that are even close to speaking more than one language and one of them is right in this room.”

Only one language on the entire planet??? Jinx anxiety was replaced by bafflement, figuring if they knew she was an alien this whole time and were still this nice to her they couldn't be that dangerous. But she was still baffled how a whole planet could have only one language. Zaun and Piltover barely spoke the same language and they were on top of each other.

“Yeah there's really probably less than twenty populated settlements worth talking about anymore. Vale has barely started to recover, even with all that.” Yang said, correctly reading Jinx's stunned silence.

Twenty? I never went to real school but I've sure interacted with Noxians and Noxus alone must have more than twenty cities. I think I met an Ionian once too.

“But, how...?” Jinx tried to convey how much she was struggling to process this information.

“Well, until very recently we were all connected by the CCT... uh that's 'Cross Continental Transmit,' sorry, so everyone was kind of on the same page and due to...events after the towers did go down everyone ended up clustered in Vacuo or some fortified places in Mistral or Menagerie anyway so there wasn't a lot of opportunity for languages to develop on their own.”

“Which is something you would know about you gorgeous adventurer.” Blake had the decency to look embarrassed at her sudden outburst of desire.

Blushing slightly, Yang explained: “Well since... look explaining it would take frankly too long and we'd have to teach you several new words but basically since a person who was causing a lot of problems is no longer causing those problems it's a lot safer to explore the world outside the Kingdoms. I've been going out occasionally with a few trusted friends and gathering as many historical relics or information as I can to see if there's anything that can help us out. Since a lot of those were written, I think the oldest we got so far was over two thousand years old, I'm having to do a lot of work to translate what they mean.”

“That is... fascinating.” Jinx said. “I'm usually more of a gears and circuits kind of girl but the idea of solving puzzles out in the wastes with no people problems to bother you is definitely appealing to me.”

“Well hey, I'm an all right mechanic but we always need people to maintain gear that far out if you...” Yang began

“Yang we are NOT taking a guest out into a Grimm and whatever else infested wasteland when she just got here. ESPECIALLY not on Menagerie. We don't even know if she's been trained.”

“Well, hey, don't count me out.” Jinx grinned at not-her-older-sister with a totally healthy amount of affection. “I may have never dealt with those horror things Blake saved me from on the beach but I've been in a few scraps in my time.”

“See, I knew you were a fighter,” Yang grinned back, oblivious to the emotional iceberg she was dealing with, “but in this case I think Blake is talking about Aura. Unless your world was also ruled by cursed immortals I wouldn't presume.”

“Aura?” Jinx asked, desperately trying to restrict her questions to ones that seemed answerable in under an hour.

“Right, you know like, ugh, how to describe,” Yang began.

“An inner force that protects you from harm that you can also extend through weapons or other attacks.” Blake finished.

“Yeah, that.”

“Assuming this isn't some sort of.... uh ….. Jinx gestured with her hands”

“Symbolic?” Offered Blake

“Sure, yeah, assuming this isn't some sort of symbolic thing I have not had that, no. I have been the subject of illegal experimentation,” A claim that made both Blake and Yang's eyebrows shoot up. “But nothing mystical like that.”

Blake and Yang shared a look. “Well, look. Somewhat and Tree sent you here for a reason and clearly views you as a Huntress. Would you like one of us to unlock yours? I can't imagine it wouldn't work.” Blake said with more confidence than she felt.

“Yes.” Jinx said. “Especially if this gets me to move like you did on that beach. I need everything I can get if I'm going to survive around here.” Jinx's joking fell flat even to her. She might not have feared violence from any of the people she'd met but there were still those creatures out there.

“I can do it.” Yang said. “I did it for Ruby when we were younger and dad was still... struggling.”

“ Yes, I think I would like that.” Jinx said.

Hey Vi, sorry, I know I said I've always got your back and that's true but I still have a lot of emotions to work out and at least I'm not shooting anyone this time. Was her silent apology.

“All right, I think it's best if you stand up for this.” Yang said, walking over to Jinx. “Now you of course have no way of knowing this but lots of cultures have this as a pretty ceremonial thing with occasionally a speech to go along with it but I was raised on a farming island populated by some of the most deranged people on the planet. So we're going to do this simply. May I touch your face?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, now match my breathing.”

Jinx did. She felt herself relaxing, and sliding into a comfortable rhythm. She closed her eyes. After a few breaths, she wondered if this process was going to go anywhere when suddenly she felt something erupting out of her.

Her eyes snapped open and she was surrounded by a field of soft, blue light mixing and intermingling with a similar gold field surrounding Yang.

Jinx took a breath. She felt like she was taking in more air than she ever had before. Suddenly her entire body felt healthier than she ever had in decades of being raised in Zaun.

The light faded, and Yang sat back down to catch her breath.

“Sorry, I forget how much that takes out of you. Anyway, uh... if you want.” Yang paused for another breath.

“If you want you can train with us. There's about to be a big Grimm-clearing push anyway and we'll need as many Huntsmen and Huntresses as we can get. You don't have to participate, of course, but there will be many training opportunities.

“Look, Somewhat said Huntresses were the best. I can't let them down, can I?” Jinx smiled at Blake.

Blake smiled back. “No you certainly cannot.”

“But we're not going to get into that right away.” Yang said. “Probably best to get you acclimated to a whole alien culture before you start making any decisions about whether or not you want to get involved in any big monster-slaying expeditions.”

“Jinx of 6 months ago might not have agreed with you but a delightfully handsome young man convinced her that her bodily safety was worthwhile or whatever so I think that is smart.”

Blake's eyes flashed “And THAT is a story I will need further detail on. I can tell you about me and Yang as a trade.”

Jinx cackled as Yang groaned.

I think...I'm going to like it here .

Chapter Text

The undercity and all the associated class based violence that came with it were not new. The idea that the undercity was Zaun, not just as a place name but as a political and cultural entity district (if not fully separate) from Piltover was extremely, extremely new, and had been at war for more of its limited existence than it had been at peace. This was all to say that there was not a real definition of what it meant to be “Zaun” in and of itself. The new, fragile, peace had the people of Zaun dealing with the questions of their identity outside of resistance.

Ekko wished he was a little less important in providing the answers.

It wasn't as though the Firelights were the only group trying to make a case for a vision of a future Zaun. There were various remnant chembarons, both those who tried to hide it and those who were proud of what they were doing. Then, of course, there were the Glorious Evolutionists, those who remained of Viktor's followers. They weren't excessively powerful or persuasive, considering recent events, but they did live in the remains of Viktor's commune and they were unstable and unpredictable. Sevika was an important leader, but since she was a (surprisingly effective) council member and was focused more on keeping other problems out of Zaun she couldn't really help out locally. Besides, her personal attitudes and experiences meant that she wasn't incredibly helpful in terms of creating a Zaunite identity outside of war.

That left Ekko. As the leader of a fairly self sufficient community who had fought against both Silco and the Enforcers, his group had a history of reliability that most Zaunites couldn't exactly ignore. On top of that, he had been...intimate (although most Zaun residents did not know how intimate) with Jinx right before the last battle against Viktor and the Noxians. Jinx was still extremely popular as a symbol, and her disappearance had capped off a growing popularity resulting in her de facto canonization as a saint of freedom in the undercity. The fact that Ekko had gone into battle with her, with her heraldry (for lack of a better term) painted on his gear and body, gave him a lot of credibility with the general public that was hard to ignore.

He just wished there was someone else.

Despite being good at it, Ekko did not really want to be a political leader. Frankly, if you asked him what his perfect ideal future was, it was that Jinx had come out of the battle with the Noxians unscathed, she could be the one to provide moral leadership for the people of Zaun, and he could just sit at home working on science projects. Jinx wasn't here, however, and Ekko had a sense of responsibility that meant he had to take on a public role where he could do more good than anywhere else.

So that was how he ended up here, in what he still thought of as the Firelights' hideout, talking to a very energetic young woman named Zeri about a plan to make Zaun more like the Zaun he had seen in his Arcane odyssey.

“... and so we found out that using this particular device, we can actually 'burn out' shimmer pollution and make some of those areas actually liveable.”

Ekko realized he had not been paying as much attention as he should.

“It doesn't matter if your lightning gun works, you know that part of the reason those neighborhoods are so bad is because they're chem baron territory. Firelights moving in risks igniting another gang war.”

Ekko was frequently thankful for Scar's presence, but especially lately, when Ekko felt his mind wandering more and more. He had to be so focused on the big picture he was losing some of the detail. Scar always managed to catch what he let slip.

“Look, we don't want escorts. I'm not a stranger to rough situations. I've fought with chempunks on my own, you know. I just need more information about potential targets so we can help clean up our city. Maybe some other technical help too I don't know I'm not as familiar with that stuff.”

“And what happens if the chembarons decide they don't want you poking around?” Scar asked. “The ones that have survived this long are not exactly known for their polite warnings.”

“We can handle ourselves!” Zeri's face was cocky, bordering on arrogant. “I'm not scared of any of them. Intimidation and numbers, that's all they have.”

Ekko thought about what had happened to Vander. He thought about the whispers of other things lurking in the parts of the undercity the Firelights had no influence over. He realized, too, that Zeri was going to go in whether they agreed with her or not. If he had learned anything from Jinx it was that you could not stop, but you could channel.

“Ok, we'll help you out.” Ekko said, shooting his best “I'll explain later” look at Scar. “I'll even give you some suggestions for some good places where it's particularly bad. Give me a couple days to have everything written down and I'll get you what you need.”

Zeri launched into a very excited and very thankful patter, which Ekko started to zone out of. It had been a long day.

I wish you were here.

He knew it wasn't healthy. Cait (and when had he started using that nickname?) knew it wasn't healthy. But they were both enabling each other in this. It was a scientific, arcane, forensic, all the ways you can think of to investigate something what happened to Jinx had been a mystery. Neither of them could resist a mystery, especially when it seemed to distract from all their very real, very ugly problems as unwilling political figures.

But if you're not here, where could you have gone?

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Jinx felt something different in the air. There was more of a buzz in the Belladonna household, and her more frequent outdoor excisions with Blake and Yang had just felt more than they had when she first started. She asked what was going on, and Yang had told her only that her sister was coming, and made some reference to “normal knees” that she assumed was some idiom she didn't have the context for. Still, as she, Blake, and Yang went to the Menagerie docks, she felt almost a physical sense of anticipation in the air.

“Aha, there she is.” Yang said, pulling Jinx back into the moment.

“Plan Phobos?” Said Blake, confusing Jinx, who thought they were just there to pick up Yang's sister Ruby.

“Nah, I think one of the local cops caught on to that shortcut we used last time. Plus, we don't have Ilia. I think we gotta try Deimos.” Yang started kicking her motorcycle into gear. Jinx wondered why she brought it, only two people could ride on it at a time. True, she had further to go than Blake or Jinx based on some unclear work she had to do earlier in the day, but it seemed to Jinx it would make sense to drop it off first.

“I didn't realize we'd been compromised. Ok, Deimos it is.” Blake turned to Jinx.

“I'm sorry this is probably very confusing, but based on everything you've told us you'll probably think this is fun. Just follow my lead. Consider this... part of your huntress training?”

Now thoroughly baffled, Jinx opened her mouth to ask a question when the ship passed close enough to land and a bomb went off.

Or that's what it felt like. The crowd's potential energy suddenly had somewhere to go and they started cheering louder than Jinx had heard any crowd cheer in a long time. Disoriented, Jinx looked around to see what could have possibly caused this.

Her answer came in the form of a brilliant streak of rose petals across the sky. Mesmerized, Jinx watched as a this floral bolt flew though the air and landed itself... right on Yang's bike and materialized into the form of her sister Ruby Rose.

“GO GO GO!!!” Ruby slapped Yang's shoulder and Yang gunned her bike into full gear, zooming off into the streets and back alleys of Menagerie.

“Ok Jinx, with me Run!” Blake took off, and Jinx was able to follow her thanks to her modifications and light aura training, but Blake was using her superhuman (superfaunus? Jinx was trying to be polite) training to really push the speed in a way Jinx found difficult to keep up with long term. The way they ducked and dodged around the crowds who had started following them all of a sudden gave Jinx the impression that Yang's sister was a bit of a big deal around these parts and the fact that she had to figure this out meant that Ruby did not necessarily want to be a big deal. Which Jinx could respect and relate to. She loved being on an entire planet where no one knew her history. Plus, Blake was right. This was fun.

When they finally reconvened at the Belladonna manor she found Ruby and Yang sipping some tea and chatting animatedly with Blake's parents.

“....of course dear, we consider you family at this point,” Kali was saing, as Jinx and Blake walked in.

“Aaah still doesn't mean I don't appreciate it. Especially the tea. I can't believe Yang hasn't brought any to Patch.” Ruby took a sip and let out a contented sigh, ignoring Yang's offended expression.

Ghira headed off the sibling fight “As the Chieftain of Menagerie I have to say your creative methods of getting here are a not insignificant traffic hazard, but as a person who has spent my own time in the limelight I can't fault you for it. I only wish Kali had had a motorcycle like yours back in our early White Fang days.”

Kali smiled as she turned towards him. “Didn't stop you from riding my...”

“HELLO, FAMILY, WHO I AM RELATED TO,” said Blake, louder than was strictly necessary as Jinx laughed. Ghira had the decency to look embarrassed but Kali remained shameless as ever. Yang's face was studiously devoid of all expression.

Upon seeing Jinx, Ruby put down her teacup and hopped up. “Aha!” She said, “You must be Somewhat's friend that Yang wrote to me about” She stuck her hand out for a greeting. “My name is Ruby Rose, completely normal woman.”

“Well thank you, Ruby Rose. My name is Jinx, also a completely normal woman where I come from.” Jinx said with the same amount of truthfulness.

“Yang was right, I like you already.” Ruby grinned. “But seriously though it is so great to meet a person who doesn't treat me like a celebrity.”

“Interesting, why would I treat you like a celebrity?”

“You're not getting it out of me that easily. Yang, make sure she never learns how to read.”

“Aha! So I should start reading to get more information on whatever it is that made you famous.”

“Uuuuuugh,” Ruby slumped back, defeated. “Fine, whatever. I'll enjoy it while it lasts though.”

Jinx giggled, and was shocked at how at ease she seemed with this new person after such a short interaction. Ruby seemed to have a way about her that just made Jinx she could feel like she could trust her with anything. Normally, that feeling alone would make Jinx more suspicious but it seemed like Ruby didn't actually WANT to be trusted with anyone's great secrets. Her complaints about celebrity seemed genuine.

“Oh, actually, speaking of!” Ruby perked up while Jinx was ruminating. “We get to make Weiss the celebrity focus again for a bit. That's part of why I came, because the thing is on, and we need you, Ghira.”

“Oh good. I was worried Mistral's history of discrimination would mean they would fight it but I suppose it's difficult to argue with someone who has memories of actually being there.”

“Well, I also had to yell at some people. I'm going to get some good out of this.” Ruby said

“Right, because this all happened totally by accident and not as a result of anything you did,” Yang had a look of wide eyed innocence when Ruby snapped her head around to glare at her.

“First of all, as I've said, it was mom's plan and you know it.” Ruby said, met with an eyeroll from her sister. “Second of all, I need you to stop referencing things in front of my only island of sanity in this broken world.”

“Are you...doing all right?” Now that the conversation had returned to the topic of Jinx, Blake had noticed she was crying.

“Y-yeah.” Jinx said, wiping the tears she hadn't noticed on her sleeve. “Sorry, I just, I have a really complicated relationship with my sister and we were fighting, literally, for a long time and I want to make up with her and I want a relationship like you have and no one has made a big deal about me being a literal alien and it feels like that should be a bigger deal and...”

Jinx was cut off by the most comforting group hug she had ever experienced. She broke down and just started sobbing.

------------------------------------------------------

After Jinx had cried out her emotions, she and the three quarters of team RWBY present on Menagerie returned to Jinx's room in the Belladonna manor to decompress with a smaller audience.

“Seriously though, it is weird that no one has made a big deal about me being from another planet.” Jinx said, “Like back where I come from this would be an international incident and probably cause at least one war. Why is everyone so cool?”

“Well,” Blake started, “Having not been here you wouldn't know this, but pretty much everyone on the planet has had their understanding of the wold challenged frequently and violently over the last five years. We already sort of knew there was life elsewhere because of one of these incidents and frankly at this point people aren't really concerned about someone who poses no threat.”

Jinx gasped in offense that was less mock than she wanted it to be. “I'll have you know I was wanted by both the Piltover enforcers and half the chembarons by the time I came over here. And I only got the Firelights off my ass by getting their leader on my ass.” Blake's eyes gleamed, piecing together more of Jinx's romantic history.

“She means you didn't break the moon.” Ruby said irritably, although Jinx could tell it wasn't at her, “Oversimplifying thousands of years of Remnant's history, we made some alien's mad and they broke the moon, and the result of that situation was everyone else's problem forever.”

“Well, not all of it forever,” Yang smirked. “A certain big element of that was..”

“Yang, if you say one more word, I'll kill you for real.”

Yang and Ruby both laughed, threatening to restart Jinx's waterworks but the insane information she had just received combined with the fact that the women around her seemed to have a personal connection with something that involved the fact that this planet's moon was unnaturally shattered meant her curiosity was overriding her desire to know more.

“Wait... so I'm not the first alien who's been on this planet? Man I thought I was special.”

“You are special, Jinx,” Said Blake. “First of all you're the only alien visitor that hasn't committed unspeakable crimes on an individual and societal scale, and secondly you're the only alien visitor that really, truly, is on our level. Ruby calls them aliens as a way to simplify but they were worshiped as gods for an amount of time that is truly incomprehensible. Even today, after everything we know there are still people who worship the Brothers because the faith evolved so long without them that they were essentially worshiping completely different entities. You are someone who we can actually, meaningfully connect to and surprisingly enough, you remind me a little of myself, before I met Yang. That's part of why your story intrigues me, and why I want to learn about this...Ekko? Did I say that right?”

Jinx nodded.

“Plus, I've always been a sucker for a good romantic story.” Blake said, blushing and looking at Yang. Ruby muttered under her breath that Jinx didn't recognize but felt spiritually she could translate as “filth.”

“All right,” Ruby said, more audibly. “While I'm sure this is going to be a fascinating story I think we need to get to bet. We need to get up early tomorrow to catch the ship to Mistral, where I can hide in my own cabin and not have to hear about any books my dear dear sister might have written in the recent past.” The fact that Yang started laughing hysterically at this while Blake's blush became even more pronounced informed Jinx a great deal about the subject matter of said book. Ruby just sighed and left the room in a burst of rose petals. Jinx was still getting used to the fact she could just...do that.

“Joking aside, she is right about the early start,” Yang said. “I think it would be a good time to go to bed. I'm sure you must have a million questions, Jinx, and Blake and I will answer as many of them as Ruby is comfortable with. We'll have a fair amount of time on the ship and unless there's a significant Grimm attack we shouldn't have to deal with too many sudden distractions or missions.”

“That sounds good to me,” Jinx said, “Plus, I feel like I would like to tell you about Ekko. I didn't want to leave him when I did stuff just, went bad and there was only one option and, well, we can get to the rest tomorrow.”

“I think I'll understand more than you may realize.” Blake said, wistfully, “about everything you've been hinting at.”

On that ominous note, Blake and Yang left, leaving Jinx to her own exhaustion and curiosity.

Chapter Text

Oceans are scarier than a lot of people think, and they get scarier as one travels further out into them. The deep, emptiness, water that can kill you, and the fact that it can turn on you and crush you at any time and you'd be powerless to stop it tended to intimidate a lot of people. Oceans on Remnant, however, were all of that and worse because the way their moon was shattered along with naturally occurring floating islands of gravity dust made tides...interesting to say the least. Plus, the fact that what many of those on Runeterra would consider mythical creatures or creatures from good adventure literature were a day to day concern and, if unprepared, could obliterate you as easily as any storm and with far more malice.

All this to say was that Jinx thought she was prepared, coming from a seaside town, but she really spent most of the voyage intermittently throwing up. While she was able to swim, that didn't mean she was able to sail and especially not on a world whose gods literally abandoned them. Team RWBY had, very compassionately, traded off spending time with her in between their customary role as huntresses on a voyage watching out for greater and lesser Grimm. Currently, Jinx' stomach was more settled and she was having a nice and very illuminating chat with Blake about their past life stories. Jinx had her...complicated feelings about Yang but she found that Blake was the only one who really had anything like her experiences. And Regrets.

“...and so, I left him. I cut the populated part of the train loose and made my way further into Sanus and eventually to Beacon, where I met Yang, Weiss, and Ruby. I met Sun there too, actually, you'll probably meet him when we get to Mistral.” Blake took a sip of water.

Jinx love hearing Blake's story because it gave her hope for her own life. Maybe, maybe not to the same degree but, like Jinx, Blake had innocent blood on her hands. In what Jinx hoped to be a pattern for her future Blake had changed and found both redemption and happiness with a person she clearly loved deeply and unconditionally.

Shaking off her introspective fog, Jinx figured it was her turn to share a story.

“All right, I've put it off long enough. Plus you've been so hospitable and I know you want to hear it so I think it's time I told you about me an Ekko.” She choked out his name, still not quite believing she was going to share this story with a stranger.

She told Blake snippets. Blake showed a glimpse of non-romantic interest when Jinx described the hex crystals from the heist that had gone so, so wrong but she politely did not interrupt the flow of the story. Jinx had already told Blake the story about when she detonated the bridge, of course. She needed a fellow criminal to confess to. But this time she told Blake more about what happened afterwards. How she fought and lost to Ekko, where he had beaten her by channeling a game they had played as children. He had almost killed her until something, Jinx wasn't sure what but she could guess, made him stop.

“Mind you, I was still hallucinating frequently at this point, so I was not in my right mind and also my extremely broken survival instincts were still...doing whatever they were doing so I dropped a grenade trying to kill us both. Or maybe just him? As I said, it's all a blur. I regret it now but it was such a thing at the time I just, like I look back on it and I have to laugh. Like he beat me by using our past relationship? I'm smarter than that. I really should have picked up on something going on then if you know, I wasn't incredibly unstable. If this...thing the tree gave me works I would like to try again with him.”

“You're a very compelling storyteller. This particular story reminds me that once you learn how to read with our alphabet there's a book that Ruby is going to kill me for giving you,” Blake chuckled lightly. “You've probably heard us reference it before, it's become quite a sensation. Ruby's just embarrassed because Yang wrote it.”

“Yang wrote a book?” Jinx asked. “I'll be honest, I never really saw her as the book writing type. Kind of like my sister.”

“I thought so too, when I first met her.” Blake smiled fondly at the memory. “But she's a lot more complicated than she lets on. She's actually a huge literature snob, which you'll get to experience full force for better or for worse when we get to Mistral. I assume it comes from reading Ruby stories every night when they were younger” Jinx desperately tried to not imagine what it would have been like to have Vi reading her bedtime stories every night growing up and failed miserably.

“Anyway, yes she wrote a book that's all about how to have healthy relationships when everyone involved has a...compromised emotional state or a complex past. It's been very popular in a planet where we recently lost around 40% of our total population.” Jinx spat out the water she had just started to drink. Blake continued on as if this was not a shattering, incomprehensible tragedy. “She had a lot of time out camping and she hand-wrote most of it, if you can believe it. There's a beautiful chapter on grief, both shared and solitary, but the part Ruby is most embarrassed about are the chapters on healthy alternative sexuality.” Jinx laughed.

“Anyway yes, it is funny knowing how you feel about him now. I thought about the book because Yang wrote a lot, indirectly in some places, about how mad she was at me for a while and the fact that she didn't know she was in love with me made her madder. It seems...relevant to your situation.”

“Sounds like a book I might benefit from. Honestly I want to make a joke about 'only for the sex part' but you all are so disgustingly sincere and open all the time I might as well say I probably need the rest of it too.” Jinx stuck her tongue out, making a face of mock-disgust.

“Once we dock we'll get you some books.”

“I appreciate that.” Jinx said, and really meant it.

“But that all aside, you still have a story to finish.” Blake smiled at Jinx and rested her chin on her hands.

“Right.” Jinx took a breath. “Anyway after that incident I didn't hear from him for a while. Never knew quite what he got up to. I have to assume he was somewhere science-y though because he had this device with him that I have to assume helped him somehow with what he did next.”

“Oooh?”

“I had another hallucination. Big one, about my sort of secondary adoptive father, the one I shot, I told you about this yesterday.” Blake nodded, recalling their prior conversations. Blake had heard a lot of genuinely horrifying things from Jinx but she had learned that Remnant's first extraplanetary visitor rapidly switched between ironic detachment and soul-baring sincerity when talking about some of the more violent and emotional episodes of her past. The three members of team RWBY had learned that it was best to match Jinx where she was at any given moment.

“Anyway, I was about to end it. For real this time, no schemes, no complicated scenarios, just...”

Jinx trailed off, struggling with the memory. Blake, seeing the change, put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“I had some idea in my head that I was the end all be all of the cycle of violence and I could fix everything by just... removing myself from the board. He stopped me. Not only did he stop me, he said and did the right thing, exactly, for more than an hour, to convince me first that he was real and second that it meant something for me to keep going. I still don't know how he did it.”

“He sounds really, really nice.” Blake said, teary-eyed.

“Oh he is.” Jinx said. “He convinced me to do something about the multi-pronged invasion of our home which, honestly, I still have no idea what was happening and no one ever told me because during that battle is when I ended up going to the Ever After. We did, however, get to spend the night together first.” Jinx said, biting her lip.

“Ooh are you a details woman?”

“Never had friends I trusted with details before! But absolutely yes. So first, he took...”

Anything Jinx was going to say was interrupted by a sudden alarm blaring throughout the ship. Blake shot up, grabbed her weapon that had been stashed conveniently near Jinx's door, and began to run. Jinx followed

---------------------------------------------------------

Blake and Jinx stopped on the bridge of the ship. The captain was already briefing the other two members of team RWBY on board.

“...not too bad, but I'm concerned that because they're aerial we can't hit them with most of the ship's guns and they'll survive long enough to cause a panic and bring something worse. We're still in a deep sea threat zone and we're too far for Argus base to send anyone in a reasonable amount of time if a Sea Feilong or a Leviathan or something worse decides to notice us.”

“Right, how about the ship's guns we can hit them with? Don't ships of this type usually have a big gun on the front? We could load that with anti-flock ammo” It was almost surreal to Jinx to see Ruby fully combat ready. She was used to Yang's slightly awkward lovable younger sister.

“We do, but something broke in the automation since we left port. Of course we can still run the gun manually but its unsheltered.”

“Right, Yang, your weapons have the shortest range. Protect the crew as they run the gun.” Yang nodded and jogged out the door, deploying her weapons as she did so. Jinx was shocked to see that that little bracelet Yang was almost always wearing deploy into some sort of punch-shotgun. She was less shocked by the gun in the arm considering she had done something similar (albeit much more garish) for Sevika. She desperately wanted to see the engineering behind that.

“Blake, good you're here.” Ruby continued. “If Yang and the gunners can take out the clusters, we can cover any that slip through. We'll do Tanager.” Blake nodded.

“Let me help, too.” Jinx interjected. “I need to start learning somewhere. Plus, I'm the best shot in Zaun.” Begrudgingly, she allowed for the fact that her sister's obnoxious fiancee might, might, be better than her. She'd taken her finger, after all.

Ruby quickly looked at Blake, and Blake nodded, filling Jinx with a warm feeling of pride.

“Ok. Ruby smiled at Jinx, “Emergency bridge armory is right there: if there's anything left the crews haven't grabbed, stand with Blake and take out anything she doesn't hit. Now let's make it happen!” Ruby was barely out the door before disappearing into a rising burst of rose petals.

---------------------------------------------------

Jinx stood with Blake on the deck of the ship. They were behind Yang and the gunner crews, who were doing an admirable job so far keeping the Grimm mass away from the ship. Jinx could see, however, that they wouldn't get everything.

It was difficult for Jinx to tell what exactly this new Grimm was. It looked like a sort of undulating mass of small birds that sometimes formed a bigger bird before splitting apart. Largely the bird mass seemed to flow between the two states. Jinx assumed they might stay in bigger bird form longer if the ship's crew were not systematically targeting the bigger masses with some explosive ammunition she dearly wanted to get her hands on to examine.

“So uh, what's this one called?” Jinx asked. “I figure if I'm going to be a Huntress I gotta start learning some of the uh, terms and whatnot.”

Blake smiled, but her eyes remained tense and watchful. “It's called a Panther. Weirdly, same name as a big cat here on Remnant. Completely different etymologies from when we had different languages producing the same word. Rare enough that no one bothered changing it but I guess there was a nest here.”

“Aha, I see.” Said Jinx, only sort of seeing.

The time for talk had passed, however. Ruby had started firing, located higher up on the ship than Jinx and Blake. Blake tensed. Clusters of Panther started breaking through the defensive field of fire Yang and Ruby had set up. Blake and Jinx both started firing.

Jinx started firing too. Despite still feeling unsteady, she grounded herself within the motion of the ship. She made herself stable. She looked at these deeply unsettling, horrifying creatures and started shooting.

The dust-round carrying gun had a little less kickback than she was used to, that combined with the motion of the hell-ship (as she had started thinking of it) made her miss her first few shots.

Those were all she missed. Shooting was something Jinx knew how to do. Hitting a moving target was also not new. Jinx proved her adaptability extended to new planets, as well. Almost instinctively, she meshed with Ruby, Blake, and Yang to create an inescapable net of bullets. None of the Panther slipped through.

Jinx felt good. She had always felt a certain level of thrill in combat but that was always complicated by everything else. But this wasn't combat against a person. This was not something Jinx had to consider the ramifications of. These were pure monsters.

Jinx found she had a taste for killing monsters.

After what felt both like an instant and an eternity where Jinx's sensory experience was reduced to the crack of her new favorite pistol and the disintegration of the component birds of the Panther, the ship sounded an all clear. Not that it was needed, with all the cheering. Jinx slowly refocused on her surroundings. She saw that Ruby at least knew to take credit when she ha just fought for a ship. The crowd was cheering her, as well as Blake, Yang, the gun crew...

And her.

Jinx was being cheered for something that had few if any political implications. She had used her combat skills to protect people without hurting anyone else. She felt no guilt.

She felt good.

Well, good emotionally. Physically she was no longer in an elevated mental state where she transcended beyond her stomach. Jinx may have been a hero, but she was a very nauseous one who had just eaten some snacks with Blake before the Grimm attack.

Jinx ran over to the side of the boat and puked over the railing.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Violet (almost) Kiramman didn't bring it up a lot, especially not in polite Piltover society but not in Zaun society either for fear of causing a riot, but she really missed her sister.

Cait was really considerate to her. She gave her the space she needed to grieve and always reassured Vi that she was here, and she would stay. Once, while they were half awake, Cait even implied that Jinx might be alive, Vi didn't see a body after all. Vi told her about it over lunch that day and she seemed mortified. Vi appreciated that somewhere Cait was holding out hope that she herself had long abandoned.

Vi knew what she saw. She also knew how effective her sister's explosives were. She knew holding to false hope would only hurt her.

Still, she did really miss her sister. It was hard, rebuilding your love for someone after many, many mistakes but it had been worth it. Then suddenly taken away from both of them, in what was definitely a contender for “cruelest thing to ever happen to any family.”

Vi wanted to beat the shit out of something.

Cait had been saying some sort of nonsense about how she “loved her” and thought that “getting blasted and participating in questionably legal and definitely unsafe underground fights” was “bad for her.” She was, unfortunately, correct about this so Vi compromised by limiting herself to two drinks and only going to watch the fights, and if some drunk asshole decided to make himself her problem, well Cait could hardly take issue with that.

Cait also knew that a decade in prison followed by a series of violent episodes that always seemed to involve at least one member of Vi's family had played hell with her ability to open up emotionally. She was trying, and Cait was certainly helping, but sometimes Vi needed an outlet. So Cait, like the gorgeous, understanding, and compassionate fiancee that she was, simply kissed her cheek and told her to be safe before letting her out of one of the paparazzi-free hidden exists to their now shared home. Vi was trying to do this less, she knew Cait worried, but Cait was having her own struggles with learning to be vulnerable and while they were both trying, they weren't there quite yet.

So Vi was off to watch a fight.

It was nice and in its own way restorative to be back in the undercity. Vi felt complicated about it. She didn't have the same pride that many people did. She had suffered so much because of power struggles in the undercity. She'd suffered because of Piltover too, but many of the crises and losses in her life had come from undercity political struggles. She wanted everyone to just leave her alone and let her spend time with the woman she loved, away from everything.

But she knew that was unrealistic and she had to admit, thanks to a concerted effort things actually were improving. The actual shimmer production was way down, Hextech use was being moderated to not cause the severe pollution Ekko had discovered, and there was more of a cohesive society as opposed to a warzone between local gangs, Piltovan industrial interests and some unholy alliances between the two.

Still, Zaun was big. Bigger than a lot of people realized, and there were still places that were hidden from sight. There was a lot of work to be done.

Still Vi very specifically was here to not think about any of this. She arrived at what looked like an abandoned warehouse but she knew was the arena. She walked inside, paid for a shit beer, and took a seat. She knew people recognized her here but this was the type of place where people didn't ask questions or make comments. Something that Vi was less conscious of was that while people were initially uncomfortable, her presence there and the fact that they had not been shut down had convinced a lot of Zaunites that they had someone on the inside with the Sheriff.

The first fight was extremely satisfying, if not extremely unique. Two guys who she could believe were manufactured to be low level thugs for some criminal enterprise or another. Vi took some pleasure in seeing early who gained the upper hand, and it looked to her like they were both really trying. If anyone had been ordered to throw this fight, they were hiding it very well.

The fight ended when one of the generic thugs threw a fake hook to the body that he popped up and caught his opponent directly across the jaw. The recipient had been hit a few times already, and this punch pushed him over into a solid knockout. Vi cheered with everyone else, losing herself temporarily in the excitement.

It felt good.

Maybe I could be a trainer. Little risk to myself. Surely Cait can't get too worried about that.

The next fight, however, did not do as much to boost Vi's mood as she had hoped.

It wasn't really the fighter's fault. Vi knew they didn't need to dress to cater to her specifically. But unfortunately one of the fighters in the next bout was one of those Zaunites who still called themselves Jinxers. By the looks of things this one had gotten her hair dyed in the last 48 hours.

Vi didn't want to stomp out and make a scene. She didn't want to show any disrespect to the venue or the fighters. There was a way things were done here, after all. But she found it very hard to watch someone who was very specifically choosing to look more like her sister fight and potentially get beat.

So she didn't watch. Instead Vi let her eyes wander through the crowd. Aimless people watching that soon sobered her up when she caught the briefest glimpse of the distinctive purple of shimmer changing hands.

It wasn't that far from her. Vi, trying to be a surreptitious as possible, slouched down to get a better angle on the transaction. Her hope was the half full beer she was holding was enough to make her just seem drunk.

It worked, probably because the participants were so worried about being seen they had lost the ability to distinguish suspicious movement from the average chaos of the arena seats. What Vi saw didn't exactly shock her, but it was something she had to report to Cait.

Someone Cait had suspected for a while was involved in what remained of the shimmer trade was giving a vial to someone who Vi could tell was an Enforcer. Not an undercover Enforcer either, this was clearly someone who wasn't supposed to be there. Vi could tell because even while undercover cops were frequently very obvious, this particular one may as well not have been trying. She assumed he was only let in because of his apparent mercantile connections.

She knew that the testimony of the new Sheriff's fiancee against one of her political enemies wouldn't mean anything in the current contentious political climate. Still, there had to be something Cait could use here. Vi tried to commit as much as she could to memory, resolving to tell Cait as soon as she got home.

Good think I'm restricting my drinks. I just hope whatever I just saw is enough to help her. I don't want things to get bad for her again.

Vi didn't like to get involved in anything “political.” But anything that made Cait less safe was no longer political for her.

It was personal.