The Sixth | Ekko

Chapter Twenty-One

Ekko went about his duties the best he could, though what he read in the file remained in his head like a wine stain on white carpet. It was a constant, no matter what he was doing.

It reminded him of the time after the war, when his mind finally got the chance to settle down and filter through everything that happened in the other timeline. He kept reexperiencing it through memories like a music player set on loop. Working together with Powder. Their laughter. Their dance. Their kiss.

It was his first kiss. Soft and gentle, handled with care. Knowing he wouldn't ever get the chance to experience one with her again had felt like an open wound back then. Now it was like a gnawing ache to his soul.

When he made it back to his original timeline, he thought he could fix things. And to some extent, he did.

He stopped Jinx from killing herself—despite it taking multiple tries—and even managed to persuade her to come back to the treehouse with him.

He remembered his shock when the Firelights seemed accepting of her when the two of them walked through the entrance together, and even more so when he learned about how she broke them out of Stillwater during his absence.

Nasha chopped the rest of Jinx's hair off after that, and Scar pierced Ekko's ears. Then they worked on Jinx's weapon together, combining their tech. He helped her make her air balloon hideout operational again. Helped her paint it before they painted each other. He remembered hearing her laugh for the first time since they were kids. Not like the times she'd do so menacingly during one of their scuffles, but how she used to before everything went to shit.

But now she was gone, and instead of reliving those moments in his head, his mind was set on another woman. Her sister. Someone who was equally as perturbed—maybe even more so.

It took him a full day to revisit her Stillwater file, and when he finally picked it up again it felt like he was about to dip his hand into molten lava.

He sat in his workshop and opened it to the page that came after the one he left off on. This one included a series of incident reports. He skimmed through them, reading how some of them resulted in her being locked away in solitary for extended periods of time. As he read further into the details, he found himself confused as to why she was the one being punished when it looked like the issues were started by other people.

He read on and then stopped when he reached a report that stuck out to him. This one, unlike the others, involved a prison guard. It took place in the cafeteria, where she received an unjustified beating from guard with badge #E485, until prisoner #516 stepped in and stopped it. The guard ended up getting his officers license suspended.

He wondered who prisoner #516 was. Was it Derora? Vi? And why would a prison guard attack her?

The questions stirred around in his head until eventually he found himself sitting on his bed with his walkie talkie in his hand. He changed the frequency to match the one set on Vi's before pressing the talk button.

"Vi? You there?"

"Uh—yeah—here, what's up?" her voice came back a few moments later, words separated by extended breaths.

Ekko raised an eyebrow down at the device. It sounded like she was running, or maybe even in a fight with someone.

"Are you busy? We can talk later if you are."

"Ye—Yeah—" her voice cracked. He heard her clear her throat. "I mean no—not busy—"

"...Are you sure? You sound like you're in a fight or something."

A bunch of muffling came through, the talk button seeming to get stuck on the other end.

"Cait—stop—just—hah—I need a minute—"