Jinx watched the armored man remove his helmet.
His face was purple, the same shade as the exposed pieces of flesh where the armor did not cover him fully. He still looked human, but only barely. His face had the shape of a man's, with a nose, a mouth, a jaw.
And tired eyes.
It was not from this fight. It sat deeper, like someone had carried the same nightmare for so long that even winning a battle could not lift it.
The man reached into the helmet and detached the inner mask. Four tubes connected it to the tank mounted on his back. He unlatched the tank, set it beside Logan, and put the helmet back on without the mask or tubes. The face disappeared behind metal again.
Then he leaned down and placed the mask over Logan's mouth and nose.
Jinx's hand tightened in Logan's hair.
"What is that?" Vi asked.
"This was made for people already touched by the Void," the armored man said. His voice sounded rougher without the mask, but still steady. "It will slow the corruption. It will not remove what is already inside him."
That meant the man in the armor was corrupted too.
Vi looked at him. "Thanks."
He gave no answer.
Then Vi frowned. "Don't you need it?"
"I can endure without it for a while."
Jinx stared at the tank.
Breathing masks. Tanks. Chemicals. People surviving on things they should never have needed.
The question came out by instinct.
"Is that shimmer?"
The armored man turned his helmet toward her.
Then toward Vi.
Then Vander.
"Zaunites?"
The three of them looked at one another.
Vander answered first. "Yeah."
"It predates shimmer," the armored man said. "Something older. Combined with another substance just as old."
Jinx did not know why, but the answer made the back of her neck prickle.
The man's helmet tilted toward her again, then toward the folded suit Vander still had nearby. "So this is the potential of your minds."
He said it almost to himself.
...
Ekko arrived with Bluebell.
The meep looked small again, about the size of a yordle, no longer the great glowing shape that had carried them through the Void. He floated close to the platform, eyes wide, his little hands going straight to his head as he saw Ahri and Logan.
He made a sound like grief.
Ahri lifted her head.
Jinx had no idea how she was still awake.
Her blood had soaked into Logan's torn clothes and into Jinx's gloves.
Ahri saw the meep and smiled.
"Do not worry," Ahri whispered. "I only need a little of your power. Logan needs healing. The corruption has to be removed."
Bluebell shook his head fast.
He pointed at Ahri, then at the wounds, then made a firm crossing motion with both little arms.
Jinx understood that one well enough.
Vi did too. "He's right."
Ahri blinked slowly.
Vi crouched near her, keeping weight off her wounded leg. "I'm worried about Logan too. We all are. But whatever you are, goddess, spirit, fox nightmare, I don't care, you can't do anything like this."
Jinx nodded. "Yeah. You're leaking everywhere."
Ahri's gaze moved to Logan.
Bluebell made another gesture, slower this time. He held up both hands and spread them, then pointed at the ground.
"This is going to take time?" Ekko guessed.
Bluebell nodded.
There was a patch of strange soil near the platform's center, dull and gray. Bluebell drifted over it, pressed a tiny seed into the dirt, and held both hands above it.
Pink light gathered between his palms.
Jinx watched in silence.
Spiritual power, probably. The seed trembled, then cracked. A thin gray stem pushed out of the soil.
Logan moved in her lap.
His fingers twitched. The mask muffled his breath, but not the small sound that came from him.
"Damn girl," he murmured.
Jinx froze.
For one stupid second, she thought he was talking to her.
Of course he was talking to her.
Ahri's hand found Jinx's.
It was cold and slick with blood, but she squeezed anyway.
"Remember what I told you," Ahri said.
Jinx swallowed hard. Her eyes burned again. "You're making it real hard to hate you when you act like this."
Ahri looked at her for a long moment.
Then the corner of her mouth twitched, almost amused despite everything.
The flower continued to grow. Pink petals began forming at the top of the gray stem, folding outward one by one. Ahri looked toward Bluebell.
"That is enough," she whispered.
Bluebell shook his head and kept pouring power into it.
A minute passed.
The flower finally opened. It was small, about the size of an apple, with five soft pink petals and blue pollen glowing at the center. Bluebell plucked it with care and carried it to Ahri.
He held it out.
Ahri took it and ate.
The effect came quickly.
A pink aura wrapped around her body, faint at first, then brighter. The shallow cuts across her face sealed. Torn skin knitted around the places where the spines had pierced through. The blood did not vanish, but the wounds began fighting to close.
Bluebell pointed at the spines.
Then at Vi.
Vi's face tightened. "We need to pull them out?"
Bluebell nodded.
Then he turned back to the soil and planted another seed.
She looked down at her gauntlets.
She released the locks one by one. The gauntlets came off with heavy metallic clicks and dropped beside her, leaving only the thinner gloves of the inner suit beneath.
Vi moved beside Ahri and crouched carefully.
"You ready?" Vi asked softly.
Ahri nodded once.
The armored man took a strip of cloth lying across Logan's chest, a piece that looked like it had once belonged to Ahri's dress. He offered it to her.
Ahri took it and bit down.
Jinx stared at the cloth.
Had Logan also needed to go through something like this before?
The thought made her stomach twist.
Vi wrapped one gauntlet around the first spine near Ahri's collarbone.
"I'm sorry," Vi said.
Then she pulled.
Ahri's body arched.
The sound she made cut straight through Jinx. Muffled by the cloth, but still awful. The spine slid free, wet and dark, and Vi threw it aside. Pink light gathered around the hole. The wound began to close.
"Good," Vi muttered, mostly to herself. "Good. It's closing."
She moved to the next.
Jinx held Ahri down as gently as she could, one hand on her shoulder, the other braced near her arm. Ahri shook with each pull. The second spine came from the other collarbone. The third from her ribs. The fourth tore free with a sound Jinx wished she had not heard.
Ahri screamed every time.
Vi paused before the last one.
It was the worst.
The spine sat in the center line, buried deep, the point having come through Ahri's chest. Vi looked at her.
Ahri's face was drenched in sweat. Blood still stained her lips. She nodded.
Vi pulled.
Ahri's scream broke around the cloth.
Jinx cried then.
Ahri had crossed the Void for Logan, held him while he was broken, taken those spines into her own back, and still thought first about saving him.
Jinx had wanted to hate her.
Now all she could see was what this woman had given for him.
She could not stop it. She held Ahri tighter while the last spine came free and clattered against the platform. The hole in Ahri's chest remained open for one terrible moment.
Then the pink light gathered.
Slowly, the wound began to close.
Ahri sagged against Jinx. She breathed once, then again, rough and uneven but alive. After a while, she managed to sit up with Jinx's help.
"Thank you," Ahri whispered to the meep.
Bluebell had finished the second flower.
He brought it to her, smaller than the first but glowing with the same pink petals and blue pollen. Ahri took it.
She removed the mask and held the flower near Logan's lips.
"Jinx," Ahri said. "Whisper to him. Kindly. Keep him here."
Jinx wiped her face with the back of her wrist and leaned over Logan.
"Hey," she whispered. "Everybody's here now. Vi, Vander, Ekko, the cockroach girl. Even this very curvy fox woman is trying to feed you by hand."
She poked Logan's cheek lightly.
"So don't be rude."
Logan's mouth twitched.
It was small.
But it was a smile.
Jinx went still.
Ahri noticed too. She guided the flower to his lips, and Logan ate little by little without opening his eyes. Jinx kept stroking his hair, careful around the blood.
When the last petal disappeared, Ahri placed the mask back over his mouth and nose.
The bites closed first. Then the slashes. Then the deeper punctures across his body, one after another, knitting under soft pink light. Bruises faded. Torn flesh sealed. His breathing steadied beneath the mask.
His arm did not return.
Neither did his leg.
But his body no longer looked like it was about to give up.
Ahri let out a long breath. "This should heal the physical wounds. He will not die now."
Jinx closed her eyes.
Something massive dropped off her shoulders so suddenly she almost folded over him.
For the first time since seeing him on that platform, she could breathe.
Ahri looked at Logan's missing leg. "The leg will need him conscious. Probably in the Spirit Realm." Her voice softened. "The arm…"
She paused.
Jinx looked at her.
For one second, Ahri looked uncertain.
Then that uncertainty hardened into a decision.
"The arm will return too," Ahri said. "I will make it possible."
She touched Logan's chest. "Now we need to extract the corruption."
Bluebell floated closer and took one of Ahri's hands between two of his own. Pink energy began flowing from him into her, thin but steady.
Ahri watched it for a moment. "That is enough for now."
He let go.
Ahri turned to Jinx and took her hand.
"Do you want to come with me?"
Jinx frowned. "Where?"
"Into Logan's memories."
Jinx stared at her.
Then, despite everything, a weak smile pulled at her mouth. "I'm always happy to invade Logan's privacy."
Ahri smiled back.
"Sit behind him," she said. "Hold him tightly. Put your forehead against his head."
Jinx shifted carefully, easing Logan partly against her. She wrapped both arms around him from behind, holding him close. Her forehead pressed into his hair.
Ahri leaned in from the front and placed her forehead against Logan's. Her hand stayed locked with Jinx's.
The platform faded.
The Void pulled away.
Jinx felt herself fall without moving.
Then she was standing in Zaun.
An older Zaun. A house with stained walls. The air smelled like rust, old smoke. A door stood ahead.
Farther down the path, a younger Logan walked toward the house.
Ahri stood beside Jinx.
"This is one of the dreams," Ahri said. "We wait until it turns ugly. Then we act."
Jinx nodded.
Then she looked at Ahri.
Really looked.
Jinx's throat tightened.
Ahri noticed. "What is it?"
"Before," Jinx said, voice breaking. "I couldn't do this. I was holding him."
Ahri did not understand until Jinx stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her.
The hug was sudden, tight, and messy.
Jinx buried her face against Ahri and started crying again.
"Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."
Ahri stood still for a second.
Then her arms slowly came around the girl.
Ahri lowered her face and pressed a soft kiss to Jinx's forehead.