Morning came too quickly, but Jinx hadn't slept. The dark circles under her eyes betrayed the restless night she had spent, mulling over every moment of the evening, every detail of Ekko's gaze. Every word he hadn't said.

She jumped when she heard the door open abruptly. Lux entered, her face worried but relieved at the sight of her.

— "Jinder..." she exclaimed, softly. But before she could say anything else, an imposing man appeared at the door. Sir Aldric, he bowed respectfully before speaking.

— "Miss Crownguard, I have important news. Your brother... he's back."

Lux's face lit up instantly, and a radiant smile played on her lips.

— "Garen?" she breathed, almost incredulously.

Aldric nodded.

— "He'll be here shortly, he left as soon as he heard about the events."

Lux placed a hand on his chest, her smile becoming softer, almost nostalgic.

— "That's... incredible. Thank you, Sir Aldric."

The man bowed again and left the room, leaving the two young women alone.

— "Are you going to tell him about me?" she asked, her voice sharp.

Lux shook her head immediately.

— "No. Not yet. I..." She hesitated, her gaze wandering for a moment.

Jinx tilted her head, noticing a detail she hadn't seen before. Lux was nervously scratching the skin on her wrist, a tic she had never noticed before.

— "What's wrong?" Jinx asked, narrowing her eyes. "You look weird."

Lux's head snapped up, but a flicker of worry flashed across her eyes before she could hide it.

— "Nothing! I'm just... nervous to see my brother again after all this time. That's all."

Jinx crossed her arms, unconvinced.

— "You're a bad liar, Crownguard."

Lux looked away, her nervousness palpable.

— "Listen, I have to go to the council of influential people. They want to talk about what happened last night with the explosion. Stay here and don't go out. It's too dangerous."

Jinx opened her mouth to retort, but Lux rushed out before she could protest further.

Alone again, Jinx clenched her fists, her mind racing with a flood of theories. Lux was hiding something, it was obvious. But what? And why was she scratching her skin like that, as if something was eating away at her from the inside?

She leaned against the wall, her thoughts swirling endlessly. Lux's strange behavior, Ekko... and that figure through the smoke.

— "Everything is a fucking mess," she muttered, burying her face in her hands.

Jinx wandered like a lost soul through Lux's room. Her fingers slid over the crisp sheets, the smooth surface of the desk, and she finally sat down heavily on the bed. The room was too tidy, too bright. Too foreign.

She rubbed her temples, memories of the night before running through her head. The screams, the gunshots, the explosion. The look in Lux's eyes when she'd returned. Was that look... different? More distant? More wary?

She shook her head violently, but the thoughts clung like invisible chains.

"She's afraid of you now," a sly voice whispered in her mind.

Jinx gritted her teeth. No. Lux wasn't like that. She'd promised not to judge her. She'd promised to stay. But maybe that was before she'd seen what she really was. Before she'd known about the blood on her hands.

She ran a shaking hand over her face, tears threatening to spill. Did she know? Did she understand?

"When she knows everything, she'll let you down," another voice, Mylo's, taunted. "Like always."

Jinx gripped her hair, her breath coming out in short gasps.

"Shut up," she whispered.

But the voices didn't stop. Mylo, Claggor, Silco. Silco, especially.

She stood abruptly, almost stumbling, and headed to the adjacent bathroom. There, she could silence them. Just for a moment.

Lux's bathroom was a different world. Sparkling white, with fluffy towels folded neatly, a mirror without a trace of dust. But Jinx paid it no mind. She turned on the bathtub, letting the icy water fill the basin, the noise drowning out the chaos in her head.

When the water reached a sufficient level, she knelt down and plunged her face into it. The shock of the cold bit at her skin, but she held on to the feeling. It was real. More real than the shadows that danced in her mind.

She stayed that way, her breathing slowing, until her lungs protested. When she finally lifted her head, panting, water dripped from her hair, from her eyelashes. The drops were a strange hue: purple, almost fuchsia.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror above the sink. Her eyes rimmed in black, her skin pale, the blue locks plastered to her face. She looked like a stranger. She looked like Jinx.

"You didn't break the cycle," a soft, almost sympathetic voice whispered.

Her stomach knotted.

Silco.

She slid into the tub, the icy water rising around her shoulders. Her thoughts drifted in spite of herself to that fateful night, years ago. She remembered her shaking hands holding the gun, the blood flowing from Silco's wound, and the way her body had sunk into the oily waters of Zaun.

— "I can't do it!" she screamed, but her voice was just a breath in the cold air of the bathroom.

She punched the water with her fists, splashes scattering everywhere.

Why was it all coming back now? She had managed to bury it. To forget it. But here, far from Zaun, from Piltover, in this cursed bright city, everything seemed to resurface.

She closed her eyes, tears falling in spite of herself. The drops mixed with the water in the bathtub, barely perceptible because of their strange fuchsia color.

----

Ekko advanced cautiously, his steps almost inaudible on the flagstone floor of the abandoned building. The air was thick, heavy with humidity and a musty scent, as if this place had been buried for centuries. Yet the traces left by Swain's agents were still fresh: footprints in the dust, scattered documents, hastily marked maps.

— "It's here," Mel whispered behind him.

She was quiet, but Ekko could hear the tension in her voice. Her gold ornaments, sparkling despite the dim light, contrasted with the surrounding darkness. Those marks, those golden flashes on her skin, were the visible manifestation of her magic. Ekko had often seen weapons, explosions, and powers in action, but what Mel embodied went beyond what he understood.

— "Be careful," he replied softly.

They stopped in front of a partially ajar iron door. It creaked as Ekko slowly pushed it open. The inside of the room was an organized chaos: chalkboards covered in notes, sketches of complex devices, and in the center, a worktable littered with tools, vials, and encrypted parchment.

Coordinates were written on a chalkboard. Ekko squinted as he tried to decipher them.

— "Demacia... and..." He paused, his finger following the notations. "Piltover?"

Mel leaned forward to get a better look. She scanned the documents with an expert eye, but even she seemed troubled.

— "These plans..." she murmured, pointing to a sketch. "It's some kind of portal, but not like the ones I know. It looks like..."

— "A rift between realities," Ekko finished, a dark glint in his eyes.

Mel turned her head to him, surprised by the precision of his answer.

— "Do you know what it is?"

Ekko nodded slowly, his mind drifting back to his memories of the Chronobreak, the device that had allowed him to travel to another version of the world, where everything seemed both familiar and foreign.

— "I've seen it before," he admitted. "Not exactly like this, but... let's just say I've touched things that should have stayed quiet. What Swain wants to do is much worse. He's not just trying to open a rift, but to manipulate the worlds connected to those realities."

Mel stepped back slightly, a shiver running down her skin.

— "What about me?" she asked abruptly.

Ekko noticed the note scribbled at the bottom of a scroll. A series of simple, yet meaningful words: "Priority targets. Mel Medarda. Activation potential: high."

"They want you for your magic," Ekko said, holding up the notes.

Mel frowned, her golden fingers trembling slightly as she picked up the document.

"My magic..." She shook her head, frustration leaking into her voice. "I don't even know what it is. It manifested after I returned to Piltover, during the war. All I know is that these marks are tied to my bloodline, but not to Noxus, or Demacia. That's something else."

Ekko crossed his arms, his gaze wandering over the portal sketches.

"What if your magic is the key?" he said softly. "They might want to use it to stabilize their rifts, or to strengthen the weapon."

— "Or to eliminate me," Mel replied darkly.

A heavy silence fell between them, interrupted only by the creaking of the building and the distant whispers of the wind.

Continuing their exploration, Ekko found a hidden compartment under the table. There he discovered fragments of shiny black metal, engraved with mysterious runes.

— "What's that?" he asked, holding them up.

Mel approached, her golden eyes lighting up slightly at the sight of the artifacts.

— "No idea," she said, almost fascinated.

— "We have to get this out of here before someone comes back," he replied.

Mel nodded, but before they left the room, Ekko placed a hand on her shoulder.

— "Mel, if you want to back down, now is the time. This thing, what Swain is trying to do, is not just a political conflict. It's a war against reality itself."

She looked up, her eyes meeting his.

— "I won't back down," she said determinedly. "If my magic is at the center of this, then I need to figure out what it is. And if Swain thinks he can use me, he's wrong."

Ekko nodded, respecting his resolution.

— "Then we'll find out what he's up to," he replied with a reassuring smile. "And we'll stop him."

As they left the base, Ekko felt a strange weight weigh on him. It wasn't just Swain's threat. His thoughts wandered to the figure he had glimpsed in the dust, that figure that looked like Jinx. The past, the future... everything seemed about to shatter.

Then came that face that had marked him so much in the other reality. Powder...

----

She didn't know how long she stood there, but a noise at the door pulled her out of her apathy. A soft voice called:

— "Jinder?  It's me."

Lux.

Jinx hesitated, panic rising again. What would Lux ​​say? What would she think when she saw her in this state? Would she be mad at him? Would she be afraid?

Lux stepped in cautiously, her gaze sweeping the room before settling on Jinx.

— "Oh my god..." she whispered, quickly approaching.

Jinx tried to sit up, but her legs were numb. Lux crouched down next to the tub, placing a firm but gentle hand on her shoulder.

— "Hey, it's okay. I'm here," she said softly.

Jinx avoided her gaze, her jaw clenched.

—"I'm sorry, about yesterday I-" she whispered, her voice breaking.

Lux shook her head, her fingers lightly squeezing Jinx's shoulder.

—"-You don't have to apologize."

Jinx looked up, surprised.

—"You... you don't hate me?"

Lux stared at her with an unusual intensity, a genuine warmth in her gaze.

—"Never. Why would I even hate you?" Lux whispered, with a calmness so genuine it almost made Jinx falter.

Jinx pulled away slightly, her brow furrowed, her gaze searching for signs of doubt or distrust in Lux.

—"You saw me... last night. What I did... I'm a monster, Lux. A monster who shoots, who kills."

Lux gently grabbed Jinx's shaking hands, her fingers wrapping around hers.

—"You're not a monster. You did what you had to do to protect people."

—"What if that still makes me a monster?" Jinx insisted, almost angry, as if she wanted to convince Lux to abandon her.

Lux smiled at her softly, a smile tinged with sadness.

—"Then I prefer a monster like you, Jinx. Because you're not defined by what you do in moments of panic. You're so much more than that. You're brave, loyal, and even if you don't see it, you have a huge heart."

Jinx blinked, lost in the wave of emotion. Lux's words seeped into her, scratching at the surface of her wounds. She wanted to believe them, but a part of her still resisted.

She wrapped an arm around Jinx's shoulders and gently pulled her out of the tub, ignoring the water soaking her own dress. Jinx let her, too exhausted to protest.

Lux wrapped her in a warm towel, then held her close.

After a moment of charged silence, Lux hesitated, her expression changing slightly. A budding embarrassment betrayed something she had been avoiding saying until then.

— "Listen... Jinder, there's something else I need to talk to you about."

— "What?" Jinx asked, immediately on the defensive.

Lux let out a sigh, her hands still wrapped around Jinx's to convey some semblance of comfort.

— "The man you saved last night. The one you pulled out of the rubble... He saw us together at the party, he wants to thank you."

Jinx's heart sank.

— "No. No, no way. Lux, I can't..."

— "Listen to me," Lux interrupted softly. "He doesn't want to do anything publicly. It'll be discreet, I promise. Just you, him, and me."

— "Why would I agree? Why... Does it mean that much to you?" Jinx asked, her voice wavering between anger and confusion.

Lux released her hands and stepped back slightly, crossing her arms, a nervousness clear in her demeanor.

— "This man... he's more than just a wounded man. He's an influential figure, Jinder. He wants to express his gratitude, and he also mentioned that this gesture could... strengthen alliances."

Jinx stepped back, as if Lux had just told her she was going to hand her over.

— "Is that why you agreed? For political alliances? Seriously?"

Lux stepped closer again, shaking her head.

— "No. Well, not only that. I agreed because it was the best solution. If I say no, it could arouse suspicion and create more problems for my family. But I promise you that everything will be under control. No one will know who you really are. And... I will never force you to go. If you say no, then I will find an excuse."

Jinx looked away, arms crossed, her thoughts swirling. She hated the idea of ​​being exposed, even slightly. It all reminded me too much of Zaun and Piltover, the accusatory looks, the whispers, the judgments.

Lux, seeing her hesitation, approached slowly and placed a hand on her shoulder.

— "I won't do anything that puts you in danger. You can trust me, okay? And... maybe this can help you too. You don't have to stay hidden forever, Jinder."

Jinx sighed, a mixture of frustration and fear. If Lux, she had to stay hidden... Forever.

— "When is it?" she finally whispered.

Lux seemed relieved, although a slight tension remained perceptible.

— "In two days. I'll make sure everything is ready by then. And if, at the last second, you don't want to go anymore, I'll find a way to handle it."

Jinx nodded half-heartedly, her mind already filled with anxiety.

Two days. Two days to prepare her mask, to suppress the voices, to avoid ruining everything.