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Ekko fiddled with the empty piece of paper as an airship stopped overhead. Writing her name was hard. That first letter… Did she die as Powder, or remain Jinx?
Vi thought she died as Powder; able to save her sister this time, and right all her wrongs. But Ekko wasn’t sure. Jinx chose her name. She didn’t answer to Powder, and hadn’t since that fateful night. Ekko had long thought the abandonment of the name Powder symbolised her desire to run from the past, and for a long time, before Vi returned, it did.
‘It’s Jinx now, Powder fell down a well.’
The sentence rang through his head. Why the name Jinx? To weaponize her failure, to wear it like armour. It made sense, it couldn’t hurt if you called yourself it; Embraced it to your dying breath. But that wasn’t running from anything, rather the opposite. What was running was the abandonment of her original name, and the avoidance of it all together.
It was oxymoronic.
Ekko sighed. How could he let her go, if he couldn’t even reconcile a name?
He knew deep down, even without the name wafting over his head, he’d not be able to let her go. The ghost of her lips danced on his, the feel of her touch and whisper of his name… He wrote down Jinx. Because their relationship had been jinxed from the moment he kissed Powder on this balcony, and allowed himself to dream of what could’ve been.
How foolish. He’d let her go for so long, but now he clung to her memory as if she’d ever come back.
Ekko folded the note. It was time to let old things burn. He set the paper on fire, and tossed it off the balcony.
“Who was that for?”
Ekko spun, jaw agape. “Jinx?”
“Is that what you wrote?” Jinx asked, folding her arms, smiling lightly.
“It’s the name you chose,” he said. He was on his feet, stepping over to her, reaching out for her.
Jinx stepped back. “I can’t stay, Ekko,” she said quietly as the smile slipped from her face.
“What? Why?”
“Vi needs her peace. I can’t let myself jinx that.”
“And me?” he asked. “What peace am I left with?”
“You saved my life, Ekko. I couldn’t leave without showing your efforts weren’t in vain…”
“I didn’t save you to lose you… I didn’t turn back time to watch you wisp away…”
“Give it a week, Ekko—”
“I gave it a week,” he said before he could think.
“What?”
Ekko hesitated. Should he tell her? Could he tell her?
“If you’re not going to answer me, I’m leaving,” she said, turning away.
“No! Wait…” Ekko stepped toward her, grabbing her shoulder before recoiling from the touch as she flinched. “Look, Jinx, when I was gone… I went to another time, a time where Vi died in that apartment, where you grew up, loved by Mylo and Claggor… and me… with Vander still alive and Silco by his side… I lived weeks of that—”
“This isn’t that dream.” Jinx didn’t turn around, still facing away—ready to leave.
“No. It isn’t… and I know it won’t ever be like that… but it was there I realised I couldn’t just let you go. It was there where I understood…” Ekko’s voice caught in his throat. “I could’ve stayed, I could’ve forsaken this world for that one, and lived my days with them…”
“So why didn’t you?”
“Because they weren’t mine. Powder there, she wasn’t you… wasn’t… wasn’t the girl I fell in love with… when I looked at her, I saw you… she isn’t and could never be the girl I choose to give my love to… you’re the only one, if you’d just take it.”
Jinx turned, eyes shining wide and vulnerable. “You… love… me?”
Ekko sighed. “I’ve never not loved you. I loved Powder, and never stopped loving you when you took the mantra of Jinx… and believe me, I tried to hate you… everytime you killed, every time you forsook me, left me… I’d curse your name, only to dream and dream of what could’ve been.” Ekko took a shaky breath and stepped toward her again. This time she didn’t flinch, and let him wrap her in his arms. “I don’t want to keep thinking of what could’ve been… I want to know what can be… no matter where it takes us.”
“Us?” she asked, pulling away and looking into his eyes.
“Us,” said Ekko, cupping her cheek and wiping away her tears.
A tear tracked smile broke onto her face, and she closed the gap, slowly, painfully, between them. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he traced his down to the small of her back. Jinx brought them close, Ekko followed her lead. Her lips met his. A breathless eternity ensued, only to pass over in four seconds. He didn’t need the Z-Drive to relive it; He need only to look into her eyes.
Jinx looked away, and he followed her gaze to the blimp. “Would you come with me?”
“I’d follow you to the edges of the map…”
Jinx took his hand, and went to lead him off the balcony.
“Wait.”
“What?”
Ekko ran back to where he’d been sitting, where his hoverboard lay and grabbed it. “There’s room for two.”
“I always wanted to ride one of those.”
Ekko grinned. “Now you get to live that dream.”
“Together.”
“Together.”