Ill Omen's Light (Lux/Jinx)

Chapter 15: Lost and Found

She found Jinx hunkered in the dark under an overhanging slab of concrete, hugging her knees, chin placed between them, staring at the toxic lake that bubbled in the distance. Lux might not have spotted her at all were it not for the faint, familiar glow of her eyes.

Lux dragged up the trolley with Singed's payment propped up in it. She kicked the brakes on and leaned to peer into the dark.

"Hey," Lux chirped.

"...hey."

Lux slid into the gloom to sit by Jinx. She wordlessly handed Jinx her forgotten rebreather.

"Dun need it."

"You wore it down here for a reason," Lux fussed, "On!"

Jinx glared but snatched it and clipped it around her mouth and nose. She kept glaring at Lux; beneath the luminous cup of the rebreather, Lux spotted her poking her tongue out.

That, at least, made Lux smile under the mask she wore, more literal than the ones she was used to.

"So," she said.

"Soooooo...what?"

"Are you going to tell me what that was about?"

Jinx snorted and shuffled closer in on herself. She shrugged.

"What? Old man Singed didn't spill all the sordid details about me behind my back?"

"He warned me that the Chembarons would come for your blood. Because of what he did to save you. I honestly think he's worried about you, in his way."

Jinx rolled her eyes, "Oh yeah, that. Whatever. They already hate my guts. Cuz they'd all be nobodies if it hadn't been for Silco."

A pregnant pause hung between them. Jinx stared out at the toxic lake as if she were seeing something there, some scene repeating in her head ad infinitum.

"I see," Lux said, finally.

Jinx sniffed and then huffed, muttering under her breath, the mutterings growing until they were a tumble of words all spilling out of her. As if she'd been bottling them up, and Lux's two words had knocked the cork loose.

"...and he cared more about me than the rest of 'em put together. He'd never have let them strut around like they own the joint if he-heh..."

She gave a harsh, bitter little laugh.

"...and they'd still have to lick Piltover's shoes if it weren't fer me. But they'll never admit that. It'd make 'em look weak. I'll always be the crazy girl who blew up the Council and started a war nobody wanted."

"Guess so," Lux said quietly, watching her.

Jinx leaned a little closer in the dark, cocking her head like a raven.

"'Cept I'll tellya a secret, Blondie: Everybody wanted it. Both sides of the river. Enforcers, Barons, people in the Lanes, people in the fancy Piltie towers. This whole town? Two big boxes o' matches. None of 'em had the guts to light the fire. Silco did. I did."

Lux pursed her lips and studied the animation in Jinx's features. The quickening of her breath. The way her brows twitched between manic excitement and ghosts of pain and hate.

"And that's why they're all afraid of me, Blondie. They'll always sleep with one eye open while I'm still breathin'. I'm the big bad boogeyman who burned their world down and got away with it."

"I can see how they'd see you that way," said Lux.

Maybe I should see you that way. But I can't. Maybe I never could.