The Sixth | Ekko

Chapter Seventy

-            Zaun, five years after the conclusion of Arcane

"Fuck—"

It happened again, the skin of his finger getting caught between a slim piece of metal for the second time as he tinkered with a new gadget that he was planning to use on his aeroglider for an upgrade.

He tossed it half-heartedly onto his workbench and huffed in frustration.

It'd been five years since Silco fell, only for Renata Glasc to take his place. And as unbelievable as it was, she was even more troublesome than Silco. Her power surpassed his, as she had built a fortune that had made her the wealthiest person in the undercity.

Somehow, she had clawed her way into just about everyone's interest, causing people to willingly join her ranks, despite the fact that she had reflooded the Lanes with shimmer, poisoning its citizens beyond that of the previous drug lord.

With the Firelights being one of her only enemies, their missions were becoming increasingly daunting.

Ekko struggled to find new ways to upgrade their gear beyond what it already was. There was only so much he could do before their boards and weapons became too complicated to use.

Once he had managed to cool himself down enough to continue, he reached for the gadget again but abruptly stopped when he felt something give way on top of his head. His dreadlocks fell from his bun, some of them tickling the top of his ears and his eyelashes. He reached up and found the pink elastics Jinx had gotten him to use years ago had snapped.

His jaw set as he clutched the withered hair ties in his gloved hand.

He wasn't sure why he still used them, especially after she showed up six months ago, revealing herself to actually be alive and apparently doing better with someone else.

"She accepted me for who I am," she had said. "Who I really am—a jinx. No sugarcoating it, just... accepting it without trying to change me."

Was he wrong for being angry with her? For leaving him behind and moving on? Then again, it wasn't the first time she'd done so.

He realized he was never the 'boy saviour', just someone for her to leave.

After that encounter, he tore every drawing he had of her off his wall—blue artwork reduced to crumpled balls of paper in a trash bin.

Would a relationship between them have even worked? They fought on opposite sides of a drug war, and she had killed multiple of his friends. He wouldn't be able to be with her without feeling the guilt of betraying their deaths.

He wondered if she felt the same way.

He jolted, his head snapping up as a knock sounded at his door, moments before it cracked open.

Inna peered into the room, seeing her son sitting at his workbench as he usually was at this time of day. She opened the door fully and stepped inside, a cup of steaming broth in her grasp.

"How's your work coming along sweetie?"

Ekko exhaled and let the hair ties fall out of his hand and onto the floor underneath his bench. His eyes skimmed through the things cluttering the tabletop, landing on a stray piece of red fabric. He reached out and retrieved it before using it to tie his dreads up into another bun atop his head.

"It's going good," he lied while accepting the broth from his mother.

Having his parents living in the treehouse with him was still a little strange, but he refused to let them go back to their old apartment.