The Sixth | Ekko

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Ekko didn't kiss her again after that, instead taking her hand and getting her to sit on her bed. He still had yet to tell her about Derora being taken, and he dreaded the anguish that it would bring her.

His expression had closed off, and Momo worried he regretted kissing her.

She burst into tears once more, her breaths skipping as her body shook.

Instantly alarmed, Ekko pulled her into his arms, hugging her from the side. 

"H—Hey—it's alright," he whispered into her hair, the tremors he felt coursing through her body rattling his insides with an overwhelming need to console her.

Six continued to cry, despite Ekko's words whispered against the top of her head.

"Y—You regret it... don't you?" she asked, her throat throbbing.

His eyebrows furrowed for a second before slackening once he realized what she was referring to.

"No—No never." His voice cracked as he imagined the heartache she must've been feeling from thinking that.

She slowly pried herself from his front and looked up at him with a sniffle.

"Then why did you look so... regretful?"

Ekko stared at her, reconsidering his original intention of telling her about Derora's kidnapping. He could tell how vulnerable the emotionally raw moment they just shared had left her. Her reaction to the news would be exacerbated and would probably send her spiraling towards a panic attack.

So instead, he lied.

Well, sort of.

"It's just something with the Firelights that's all. Something's wrong with the chemical reaction in our crystal bombs, which left some of the Firelights without defence during a mission while you were unconscious. Some of them got hurt."

It was true. There was an unknown issue with their crystal bombs, which led to Chub and some of the others suffering minor injuries from the runts. Thankfully, none of them had been struck by the weapons of Daunter's men since they took them out swiftly despite the issue with their crystal bombs. If they had, things would've been a lot worse since they could've been poisoned, given Daunter's men still used shimmer poison on their weapons.

When he got back to the treehouse, he tried taking apart one of the bombs but Vi had interrupted him before he could diagnose the issue.

Luckily, his conversation with Vi had shed a little light on where Derora and Scar might've been taken.

When Ekko mentioned the runts ran into a hole in one of the walls of the fissures, Vi revealed she heard there was a lab located somewhere underneath Piltover. She explained how Caitlyn learned of its existence during her temporary alliance with Noxus.

A man named Singed ran his operations there and was the rumored creator of shimmer. He worked closely with Silco during his reign.

Ekko wondered if Singed was somehow affiliated with Daunter now, and the one who'd been turning chireans into runts.

If that were the case, that would make Scar's situation more urgent.

The question of why Derora had been taken too remained without an answer.

Ekko also revealed to Vi that an Enforcer showed up during the heist.

Vi said she would see if she could get Caitlyn to agree with helping them with an infiltration, which would help increase their success rate and also allow them to collect information on a possible traitor within their ranks.