~Within an hour~
"AGH!"
"You're lucky," an old clinic doctor said, eyeing a bloody shard before setting it down on a metal platter. "As far as I can tell your internal organs are fine. You'll just be sore for a while."
Covered in a cold sweat and with no painkillers, Atlas gripped the operating table while biting down on a bit of leather. Painkillers were too expensive and with his shop no longer a place he could return to after spotting more thugs approaching with wooden boards, he needed to save his coin.
All he could do was grab his savings and a few belongings, stuff them into a bag, and stumble back out the back window.
"But," the doctor continued with a grimace as he applied ointments and antiseptics, "you still need to be careful. Infection is more often the killer than the wound."
"Thanks," Atlas wheezed after the bandaging was done, slowly sliding his shirt back on and dropping the completion payment into the doctor's hand. "Do you know a spot I can lay low for a while? Safely?"
The doctor frowned.
"The Sump. Or maybe you can find refuge Topside but I wouldn't have a connection for you to use. You're the lad running the shop on the street corner leading up to the Last Drop, right?"
He nodded and the doctor sighed.
"Luck ran out?"
Atlas nodded again, his body still trembling from the painful treatment.
"I'm honestly impressed they let you stay that long considering how quickly they ran the rest of us out!" the doctor chuckled. "I used to live close to the Last Drop myself until Silco took over. Shame really, I liked that spot."
"Don't you feel angry?"
"Eh, I did. I still do. But time moves on and I've found business to be just as good over here as it was there, and," the doctor smiled faintly, "I'm an old man. Not much I can do even if I wanted to."
------
~Meanwhile at Atlas's Shop~
Jinx stared up at the now boarded-up shop where Atlas once lived. The spot where his stall used to be was now empty and the lights that used to flicker in the top floor were gone.
It still felt wrong for her to be snooping, but...
What he doesn't know won't hurt him, she thought, grinning mischievously to herself.
"Serves you right for running away so fast!"
"You didn't even say goodbye," she complained aloud to herself, making an open-air gesture as if someone was there. "Who even does that? I thought we..."
She made juggling-like motions, staring at an invisible Atlas with a stupid blank stare. "Ya'know, had a connection? I confessed to you!" She straightened and glared, pointing a finger at him.
"You're scared but come on! Grow some balls!"
After several blinks and her angry temper slowly dying down, she glanced back out at the street at some onlookers staring at her as if she was crazy.
"What are yah looking at?" Jinx shouted, storming toward them and pulling out her pistol. A weird smile twisted on her face.
"You think I'm crazy? Well I am!"
BANG!
Her gun smoked after firing into an old wooden beam past them. A few let out startled yelps and they all immediately dispersed. She let out a disgusted scoff before holstering her pistol.
Turning, she brushed her foot along the stone pavement where wooden pegs had left their imprints in the ground and the memory of when they first met surfaced.
---
~Flashback~
"Hey," she heard a young boy barely older than her calling out and holding a freshly made tart. "Want one?"
She sniffed and the sweet aroma perked her up, quickly stepping over to his stall through the crowd.
It had only been a few months since Vi abandoned her. At this point she hadn't found the ventilation shaft she now called home and was still living in the Last Drop with the unfamiliar faces of Silco's thugs startling her at every turn.
"Yes," Jinx said, spinning a coin onto the wooden counter.
The boy glanced at it and smiled.
"Keep it. It's on the house."
"You might regret that," Jinx responded, gingerly taking the tart in both hands.
"Why's that?"
Her head swayed side to side, her heart tightening as she remembered Vi's slap as if it happened seconds ago.
"I'm a Jinx. My name's Jinx!" she said, growing more confident with herself. "You might lose your stall. Or I might blow it up! I might blow you up if you make me mad!"
She looked up and glared. He wasn't nervous at all but instead giving her an amused stare.
"I mean it! Take the coin!" she snapped before taking a bite. Immediately her eyes widened. It was a delicious berry tart with a sugar glaze and she really wanted another to take home but after saying what she just said...
Her expression began to darken, becoming more downcast at her own actions until another tart hovered in front of her face.
"If you blow up my stall then I can't make any more desserts," he grinned. "Don't worry."
She couldn't hide her surprised expression, nor the subtle smile.
"Thank you..." she muttered, taking it and darting away.
"Wait! Your coin!"
She glanced back at his conflicted expression as he picked up the still spinning coin.
---
Crunch
Jinx's boots crushed broken bits of glass as she wandered around back of Atlas's Shop. Her gaze trailed the scene. There was blood on the ground leading up to a larger splotch on the windowsill...
"No...!"
She rushed over to the boarded-up window and inspected it. The glass was shattered and peering through the gaps between the boards she could see signs of a struggle inside.
Her heart began to race.
"No... go away," she whined as shadows of Mylo and Claggor rose around her, laughing. She could hear their mocking calls.
"Jinx."
"You got him killed."
"He shouldn't have trusted you. After all you work for..."
"Silco," Jinx breathed, and the visions vanished in a blink.
---
~Silco's Office~
Silco's door slammed open and Jinx stormed in enraged, her hand twitching over her gun. Silco, ever composed, met her with an expectant calm and evenly said, "I heard."
"Why did you do it?" Jinx demanded sharply, glaring at him.
"It wasn't us."
"You sent the thugs there!"
"Who are now dead," Silco snapped back, and Jinx flinched. "I lost two men today. Do you believe cowardly Atlas achieved it?"
Jinx's expression began to falter and Silco pressed forward, unforgiving and cold.
"No. That boy was safe because of me."
Letting out an irritated sigh, Silco stood up and turned away from her to look out his window at the streets below. His tone became quietly suggestive.
"But I think you had a run-in with our potential culprits this morning."
"...The Firelights?" Jinx asked in a croaking whisper.
Silco didn't answer, nor did he turn to look at her expression though his gaze shifted slightly. He heard her shout, angry, desperate, and upset, before storming right back out.
It was only then Silco turned silently.
"Kill him."
His cold gaze shifted to Sevika, his right-hand woman, who had been silently seated on the office couch through it all.
"Are you sure? He can recover with a few Chemtech augments."
"He's a liability and he failed," Silco answered coldly.
She nodded and stood up, readjusting her cloak before asking, "What about Atlas?"
"Find and kill him."