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Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap.
Scraping against rock mindlessly with one goal in mind: he needs to get back to where he belongs. Nothing’s right here. If they can contain it, surely…
Speaking of which, where is he? Walls decorated in gray, jagged rocks surrounding him…
The powder falls delicately, decorating his dark pants in gray, and he can’t seem to get it off. No matter how hard he tries, it always ends up getting messy.
Especially when he has other things on his mind.
Something about the world feels hazy—trapped in a spinning ball—for once, he’d like to admit that he’s been working a little too long. Not only that, a lot of things here have been… confusing, to say the least.
Footsteps approach from behind, but the sounds of metal scraping against stone covers it up, and the incoming individual remains unnoticed.
Until she speaks.
He misses her.
“What’s up, tick-tock?”
His heart stops. That voice, it triggers a warm, distant feeling in his mind—
Powder!
His heart flips, greeting the girl he used to…
The dark, damp cave doesn’t permit it, and he can’t seem to recall those words.
“Jinx,” he scowls, ripping the goggles off his head. The strap snaps loudly and the metal metal stool behind his legs screeches against the stone. She smiles, a figure illuminated by the floodlight behind him, pale except those violet eyes shimmering.
He leans forward, gloves scraping against his soot-stained knees. A cold body but a warm face; he eyes her up and down. “How did you get here?”
Twirling her hair, she grins. His muscles tense when she appears, right in front of him, her blue bangs grazing against his cheek. Ekko’s frown twitches, wanting to give in, but he assures himself that she’s just taunting him.
The girl cocks her head. “Is that any way to greet a friend?”
He sighs, taking a seat on his stool, chin resting on his dirt-covered gloves. “If anything, Jinx… you are still my enemy.” His words don’t project, filling the cave with an uneasy silence. She sways, pondering, and his eyes catch themselves on her short hair.
Forcing himself to look up at her, he stares at her back while she strolls in the other direction, keeping his arms crossed into his chest. Everything about her is a memory—distant and different, but full of powerful emotion and beauty.
She returns, a frown on her face, and her eyes shine with the blue that lights the crystals.
“But what about Powder?”
And she’s always back.
He finds himself rising from his seat abruptly, the delicate clinks of metal and stone alerting behind him. “…What about her?” he stutters, quickly adjusting his posture. “I don’t see her… here.”
With a blink, everything’s cloudy—he leans back, floating—and in a moment, she’s behind him, tinkering with his tools. Brushing off his pants, he realizes that the powder is gone.
It’s a blessing and a curse.
Showing off the gadget she’s made, she extends her hand into the air. He curses under his breath. From across the cave, he stares longingly, and he wonders if she would really…
With a playful grin, she holds it forward, and his expression melts. “Come look, silly!” He rubs the back of his hand against his moist forehead. No matter what, he’ll always be there. She lets it drop, and he darts forward to catch it.
And like clockwork, she’s standing behind him, a simper on her tired face.
Scrambling for the screwdriver, he tumbles onto the ground, and a song escapes her lips, decorating the cave with her joy.
The charming laugh that he’s heard in his dreams for so, so long.
“You are my biggest regret,” he says.
“Are? Hum-hm…”
He paces in circles, tool in hand. There’s so much that he can’t say. But there’s only one thing that she needs to hear. “I shouldn’t have given up on you, —.”
Her eyes, like crushed candy, sparkle blue. “And you never did, did you, —?”
…What? What did he—she say?
Is it really her?
Was it ever about who she was? In every universe, it was always somehow the blue-haired girl with shimmering eyes, the one that he would let himself fall into. She didn’t know that, but he’ll make sure she will. On everything in this world…
Clutching the steel tool above his chest, he advances. “If I ever see you again…”
“You won’t,” it echoes, and he pulls his hands to his heart, as if he were embracing her.
“Bye-bye, Ekko.” Her smile, his name, like a blade, through his heart. A ringing interrupts as she opens her mouth, and he yearns, yearns to run, run from the world, chained by the metal clinking on the rocks below his rugged boots.
His lips part, but at this time, she’s not ready to meet him.
Powder? …Jinx? It doesn’t matter who you are.
I’ll hold you. I know I can—
He cries, but his words are lost in time.
Always. It always is.