Tides of Zaun

I

Ekko crouched on a rooftop overlooking the chaos below, Zaun's industrial sprawl stretching in every direction. The city was alive in a way that made it feel like it was suffocating—cloaked in smog, buzzing with the sounds of whirring machines and clanking metal, the distant glow of neon lights casting an eerie haze over everything. Yet amidst all the noise, all the grime, there she was. Jinx.

She moved like a phantom through the streets, her blue hair wild and untamed, guns slung across her shoulders with reckless ease. Ekko's heart pounded in his chest as he watched her, the sight of her stirring something deep and unwanted inside him. He'd told himself that he was over her, that the Jinx he once knew—Powder—was gone. But here he was, perched in the shadows like a ghost, haunted by her presence.

His fingers brushed the edge of his time-warping Z-Drive, the tech he'd developed to give himself an edge in the war for Zaun. It was ironic, really. He could manipulate time, yet he couldn't erase the past. He couldn't go back to before everything shattered, when he and Jinx were still just kids dreaming of saving the world together. Now all that remained between them were the ashes of what could've been.

But Zaun needed saving. And despite everything, a part of him still believed she could be saved too. He wasn't naïve enough to think it would be easy—Jinx had become something else, something dangerous. But there were moments, brief glimpses in the way her gaze flickered, when he saw traces of the girl she used to be. And in those moments, he realized how much he still cared.

Tonight, Ekko wasn't here to fight her. He was here to watch, to understand, to decide if there was any way back from the madness she'd embraced. Because, deep down, he wasn't just fighting for Zaun. He was fighting for her.