Heimerdinger was glad that he called it right that Ekko would trust him. When dealing with a mage, it was best not to overstay a welcome. Seeing his backup now coming, he felt braver as he addressed the one person he was ignoring. He never wanted to change the Miss in it. "Mrs. Margaret."
Mrs. Margaret was watching everything from the sidelines the whole time. She didn't scold her son at Miss Shields body on the ground. Didn't say anything. Just waited. "I tried, Heimerdinger."
"I know you did." It wasn't easy raising a power user. With their power growing up, they wanted to express it, so public was never a place for them. Hiding them in private among citizens wasn't always easy. Sometimes making their own small communities was just the better way to handle it. But, without exposure to new things, living in the same village all of their lives, they were used to being fauned on. Getting exactly what they wanted without interference.
Dr. Schwartz was barely holding onto Miss Charlotte Kay who was screaming and desperately trying to get out and reach her mother. Fortunately, Miss Jinx's sister Vi was on it. She grabbed and held her securely, even picking her up. The child screamed 'don't change me', but Miss Vi held on quite tight.
"I carried over a thousand of those containers," Sevika said as she came over toward him too. "Who to watch for?"
"The sharpshooters when far away. Anatoly when close," he said to her. They couldn't just leave things like this. Stealing from a power user would have dire consequences, their actions just put everyone at the village at risk. "I want to make a deal with you, Anatoly."
"Heimerdinger, don't make a deal," Mrs. Margaret insisted.
"I know the risk." Heimerdinger gestured toward Miss Jinx. "Give us one year to innoculate our area with her. Then I will bring her back, along with myself, to serve out a hundred year sentence."
"Heimerdinger," Ekko muttered.
"It's nothing to me. It's everything to their village." He would honor it too. "Unless, I don't have to. If we fix Miss Jinx's mind without you, then you'll let this fascination with her go."
Anatoly was thinking hard.
"Professor," Ekko said again, "he said her neck, legs and arms were at a ten."
Oh! "That's terrible news! She is very weak, Ekko, hold her arms and legs tightly, don't let her kick. Really support that neck."
He glared at Anatoly and spoke to him again. "In that time, you cannot hurt one villager. You cannot mess with a single person's memory or power level," Heimerdinger warned Anatoly.
"Starting now?" Anatoly smirked.
"I want Dr. Schwartz and Miss Charlotte Kay," Heimerdinger insisted. He would have to figure out the power levels, but it would be worth it.
"So, you don't need who, her?" He randomly pointed to a child. "Bring Tomato here."
"Uh." The one near her didn't, probably her father, but another one started to grab her, while another villager started to hold him in case he fought.
Anatoly took the young girl they brought toward him and held her. "Tomato, how old are you again? Cake's age or so?"
The girl was quiet, but nodded.
"Do you like Cake?"
She nodded.
"Are you Cake's best friend?"
She nodded. "Is her mom okay?"
"No," he said casually to her. "She's dying. Cake is having a bad day." He looked toward Heimerdinger. A stern warning.
"Ekko, hold her still!" Heimerdinger insisted. Unfortunately, there was a crowd, and this was the risk and the way it would be. Whether it was a child, a man, or a woman.
"We can't just leave her to him," Ekko said, the gracious heart that boy had been.
"Ekko. He will use anyone here, to stop us. If we give her up, you're giving up so much more." This was the problem with these situations. He had hoped to ignore it. It wasn't fair. That poor girl did nothing wrong. Her father was clearly fighting because he knew something would happen, and they were holding him back. Anatoly was everything.
"When's the last time you played with Cake?" Anatoly asked her.
"Um. Yesterday me and her and Flute played hide and go seek with Watchclock."
"Oh yeah? Did you have fun?"
"Uh huh. Cake won though, PJ taught her hide and seek really well."
"Yes, PJ is pretty good at that," he said to her.
He was just wasting their time. It wasn't fair! It wasn't. Miss Vi clearly looked like she wanted to take off. "Such a move would put that girl at risk of her own death." He wouldn't mince words with her. "Ekko has Miss Jinx. You have Miss Charlotte Kay. You risk either thing you are holding, to save more." Still, the look in each of their eyes. They were getting a very good idea of what was at stake. Everyone from the random villager to the mercenaries in the crowd was their enemy, and unfortunately, would sacrifice each other for the greater good.
The greater good being the village.
"Why did you come back now?!" Mrs. Margaret shouted at him. "Look at what you are doing, Heimerdinger, you are going to get more people killed, just like I did! We can't fight against the village, why did you even bother?! Why did you come back?! Leave us alone!" She screamed. "You are doing this!"
"I am not the one holding onto people, Mrs. Margaret," he told her. "That honor is being conducted by your son. The only people who are killing, are the people physically killing." Yes, he had to cross this road. "You weren't responsible for your friend and family's deaths."
"Yes I was, because I fought back! Not a single one would have died if I didn't fight back!"
"You fought back because you didn't deserve to end up that way and you knew it," he said to her, not yelling. "You weren't responsible for their deaths. Just like we are not responsible . . ." He hated to say it, but it would be what happened. This delay needed to stop. "None of us are responsible for anyone's fate here."
Anatoly, in a single swoop, dropped the young girl Tomato right next to Miss Shields. She died on the ground, shattering her neck. Her ears and eyes leaked black stained blood that burned into her flesh and onto the ground.
"Ekko, hold her tight!" Heimerdinger warned him again. Damn brat! If she woke up while she was seeing her dear villagers slaughtered, she would most definitely move! "150 years pennance, just make a deal!"
"Make me, Yordle," he said like such a spoiled rotten child.
Dr. Schwartz went over and scooped up Miss Shields. Oh, poor Dr. Schwartz. Except? There is no black tar death, she isn't dead yet. She would be soon.
Mrs. Margaret ran away. She just needed to run after seeing two cruel displays of power by her own son on the villagers. So far, she had probably kept her eyes closed to the truth. It looked like she was reaching a point where she couldn't do that anymore.
And if that wasn't bad enough? Miss Jinx was waking up and directly saw Shield's daily button on the ground that said 'Meh', not too far from where Anatoly dropped the child and killed it.
She was screaming as if she were stabbed. "Ekko, be holding her tightly!" He knew he would and it was the third ask but one mess up, and Anatoly would have her! She might break something fighting against Ekko's strength, but there were less chances of it than wailing her limbs out aggressively.
Another child actually came forward to Anatoly, quietly standing next to him. That was odd. Then, it had the power to actually kick Anatoly's knee from the side.
Breaking it.
A good and strong child! Clearly one of the mercenaries. Spoiled brat deserved to feel some pain. After trying to kill Shields, casting such a huge spell on Miss Jinx, and killing a small child, it was too soon to be able to heal himself as fast or change his pain tolerance. He was in the full blown pain of a human having broken their leg. Screaming too. Good!
The boy ran over to Miss Jinx. "Powder!" He was concerned for her, but she was in no condition to deal with him. Sevika came over and held him to keep him out of the way.
"One year. One hundred years," Heimerdinger tried again. Now that he was in pain, Anatoly would agree to the deal easier.
"Six months!" Anatoly screamed.
Even in that much pain, his fascination for Miss Jinx did not cease. "Six months, for one hundred years. Deal."
"Deal!"
It was the best Heimerdinger was going to get. It would be harder, but knowing Ekko, he would be up for the challenge.
Anatoly was clearly starting to get some of his power back though, recovery never took long, so it was time to go. With the deal struck, there was nothing else to do. He saw Mrs. Margaret, now back, but further in the distance. Crying. "I am taking Miss Jinx, Miss Shield's body, Miss Charlotte Kay, Dr. Schwartz, and this other little boy." He now earned Anatoly's wrath, they couldn't leave him behind.
Mrs. Margaret just nodded.
"You can come too," he invited her. "Things don't get better, Mrs. Margaret. I'm sorry I couldn't help before. I was . . ." Too scared. He knew the result would be something like this. He was two years too late for her, but he still could have saved her decades of this torment. That was something he would always have to bear, along with his other many mistakes in life. "I can try now, if you let me still?" One more push. "His sins are not your sins, and your husband's sins are not your sins. You never did anything wrong, you just tried to survive, and you did your best."
Mrs. Margaret continued to cry, looked toward Anatoly, but she ran over towards him. Finally!
"Mom!" Anatoly was still nursing himself on the ground. "What are you doing?!"
"Come on, Now!" Ekko must have already set the signal for his group. They were all running, so Heimerdinger followed.
When they reached the ship, Vi kept holding the crying kid Cake, so Ekko kept holding Jinx. She had gone unconscious again during the running. The doctor had brought the body of Shields for a proper burial.
Heimerdinger lowered his hood. "Ekko. I am assuming you have your shimmer factory still?"
Heh. Of course he was up on things. "Yeah. I'm slowly scrapping out the worthless shimmer and taking what we want."
"Did you keep the means to make it though?" Heimerdinger asked. "It is medicinal."
"Yeah, I know. I have the stuff," he said.
"Good. Now. What would you like to discuss first? How to innoculate Zaun quickly, or repairing Miss Jinx?"
"Repairing Powder," Vi answered for him.
"Right. He split her into two," Ekko agreed. "How do we fix that?"
"Well, it's not going to be easy, or well, super fast," Heimerdinger admitted. "But, it can and will be done, if you are willing to play your parts, Ekko."
"My parts?"
"First of all, the memory magic is more like, um, very long illusion spells. Only, not on the outside, it's on the inside of the person. Now, the mage said there are two, but there are actually three. The real Miss Jinx will receive some time. She knows her past, her present, and will even remember the tragedy of what happened today. That isn't a moment in time, that is her. She is the balance, which is why she gets some time too. She can't be fully erased." Heimerdinger groaned. "He's just been dabbling in it, changing her here and there so he didn't know that. What a pathetic way to handle magic."
"Are you that good at magic?" Vi asked.
"Oh. Yes, I am pretty good," Heimerdinger said.
"Then can you fix her?"
"Oh. There is this thing about magic and the mind?"
"It's the reason we don't have much for when the mind gets . . . hurt," Ekko said to her. "Magic usually makes it worse in the end."
"Well. It worked for Vander. For a little while," she said quietly. "Shit. Nevermind."
Yeah. A lot of people went to Viktor for more than help with physical wounds. The more magic could touch the mind, the worse things could get for it. But. It was probably pretty tempting, and he couldn't fault her for bringing Vander to Viktor. "It wouldn't have been a good life to live like that for him."
Vi just nodded. "No. No, it wouldn't have."
"This is gonna be delicate, Vi," Ekko said to her. "Trust me, okay? We aren't messing with magic." He looked back at Heimerdinger. He didn't know what it would entail, but whatever Heimerdinger came up with, he'd follow. "Go on, Professor."
"Anyhow, that part of Miss Jinx, she cannot help with innoculation. She will start with varying amounts of time. It should be a wave of very short, than longer, and then short again. She will appear between each form, creating the balance between them in the change. Now. Once she fully doesn't show up anymore, it means the others are almost back to normal."
"Jinx." A little bit of time. That was it. "That punkass mage didn't want her to have any time." He wanted to erase her, and she knew it, and still tried to take him down. At her own expense.
"Now, let's talk about the other two forms that are staying separated. As I said, memory magic is more like a very long illusion spell. The longer they are left in that state, the more they will actually remember more. Everything he said about them being stuck forever in that moment was false, he's a novice. I know how to get the memories flowing into each other. It will only be a little memory at first crossing, but then it will expand until those sides remember just as much as each other. When that happens, the separation is over."
A sigh of relief from Vi. "Thank goodness."
"He needed one strong and one weak, and one balanced. He separated their memories with their power levels."
"He said he picked the day before a heist we had when we were little," Vi said to him. "He said the other one would be right after Jinx knew I was alive."
"Oh. Did anything particularly traumatizing happen on the day before a heist?" he asked.
"Uh? No," Vi answered. "It was like any other day."
"Mph!" He did not look happy. "That is not a default, he purposely chose a happier memory."
"Wouldn't it still be the same?" Vi asked. "She's probably still weak."
"Weakness has nothing to do with it, it's the base power. It is possible that perhaps he added the power levels correctly, but I doubt it. He is by definition playing with magic he has but doesn't understand, just like Jayce and Viktor did. He is using the magic that he does understand, his power level magic, to help supplement it."
Vi just looked at him in irritation. "Well what the hell does that mean?"
"His power level can feel the weakest and strongest moments in her life. He would automatically get those settings correctly for memory magic. That's probably where he started to play with it in the first place," he said. "Your sister, on an average day, is not going to have remarkably accurate power levels. When she found out you were alive, would that be considered a memorable time of strength or weakness?"
"Yeah," she said. "I saw her with the blue smoke, just like I always told her to do when we were kids. She lit it, and I came. She saw my girlfriend who was an enforcer, and things went a little bad. Then I was kidnapped by Ekko. Then, I followed him with Caitlyn. Then, she got . . . well . . . she fought with Ekko and then she looked really bad, but Silco picked her up. Again. Then. Then she got that shimmer treatment."
"Ah," Heimerdinger nodded. "That one. That Miss Jinx is your base level. Give that cure from the Miss Jinx of today or a child, and you will kill people. Only that Miss Jinx can pass it on. Good."
Good. "Then what's the plan?"
"The younger self will slowly fill in something that makes sense to it. Some lies will be necessary for her. Eventually, she can come to know the truth. That leads us to the more complicated one," Heimerdinger announced. "This is the one that will make or break a six month innoculation success. Miss Jinx. Sevika?"
Sevika handed Ekko an envelope as Dr. Swords went over on the other side of him. "How tough can you act?"
"I can't open it right now." He was holding Jinx. She opened it for him and let him read it.
And.
And.
No way. "You've got to be fucking kidding me, hell nah!"