Chapter Text
She was usually reading him a story at this time. When his father came in, Viktor knew she was sick.
He sat up in bed, watching his dad go to the trunk by his bedside, opening the hatch and pulling a book from its spot.
“Is mom still not feeling well…?” He asked, to which his father nodded. “She wishes she could read to you, but she doesn’t have the strength to get out of bed.” He sat on the edge of Viktor’s bed. “She would have picked this one tonight,” he tilted the book on it’s worn spine, showing the cover to Viktor.
It was a good story, he recognized it when he saw the golden rabbit engraving on the cover.
He moved a bit closer to his dad, looking at the small illustrations that decorated the page as his father read to him.
His father began.
“ Long ago, the great Frith made the world.
He made all the stars...
... and the world lived among the stars. ”
He turned the page.
“ Frith made all the animals and birds...
... and, at first, made them all the same.
Now, among the animals was El-ahrairah, the Prince of Rabbits.
He had many friends...
... and they all ate grass together. ”
Viktor got a bit closer, looking over the carefully inked drawing of El-ahrairah, munching away on plants and grass.
“ After a time, the rabbits wandered everywhere...
... multiplied, eating as they went.
Then, Frith said to El-ahrairah:
‘Prince Rabbit, if you cannot control your people...
‘...I shall find ways to control them.’ ”
His dad turned the page.
“ El-ahrairah would not listen, and said to Frith:
‘My people are the strongest in the world.’
This angered Frith, so he was determined to get the better of El-ahrairah.
He gave a present to every animal and bird...
... making each one different from the rest.
When the fox came, and others like the wolf and cat...
... the hawk and weasel...
... to each of them, Frith gave a desire to hunt and slay the children of El-ahrairah. ”
Viktor thought of the Enforcers he saw outside, walking the streets.
“ El-ahrairah knew that Frith was too clever for him, and he was frightened.
He had never before seen the Black Rabbit of Death.
‘My friend,’ said Frith, ‘have you seen El-ahrairah?
For I wish to give him a gift.’
‘No, I have not seen him.’
So, Frith said, ‘Come out, and I will bless you instead.
‘No, I cannot. I am busy. The fox and weasel are coming.
If you want to bless me, you will have to bless my bottom. ‘ “
Viktor shifted his weight to be more comfortable. His dad glanced at him. “I’m fine,” Viktor said. His dad nodded, continuing:
“ ‘Very well. Be it so.’
And El-ahrairah's tail grew shining white, and it flashed like a star.
And his back legs grew long and powerful.
He tore across the hill faster than any creature in the world. ”
Viktor rested his head on his dad’s shoulder, his eyelids growing heavy.
“ ‘All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies.
And whenever they catch you, they will kill you.
But first, they must catch you…’ ”
Viktor closed his eyes.
“ ‘...digger, listener, runner.
Prince with the swift warren.
Be cunning and full of tricks...
...and your people will never be destroyed.’ ”
~~~
Viktor wasn’t unfamiliar with waking up in hospital beds. In fact, it had become such a normality in his life that this time he barely recalled why exactly he was in this bed.
He tried to remember, but there was a blockade in his head. Almost as if his memories were a long document, and right as he was about to get to an important detail it was abruptly ripped off at the end.
Let’s see…
The Council had just casted their votes on the independence of Zaun, he remembered that.
Then there was…nothing.
He instinctively reached for the button on his bedside, clicking it once before attempting to open his eyes.
Oh thank goodness, his room was relatively dim, not too hard on his eyes. He could see shapes, but they didn’t move.
He was alone.
Viktor tried to pull himself up, but…
No, that was too hard. He’d stay down for now.
He tried to relax again, but something was biting in the corners of his mind, like a fly buzzing in his ear.
Where’s Jayce…?
He opened his eyes again. Jayce? He remembered Jayce…
A small sliver added to the mumbled details of what had happened, a memory of his partner, one second standing beside him, and the next practically wrapping his whole body around him.
Shielding him from…something.
What was it?
A voice rose up in the muffled white noise of his mind.
“Viktor?”
Jayce…?
He felt someone squeeze his hand. He squeezed back. It wasn’t Jayce’s hand, this hand was much smaller than he was expecting.
Caitlyn.
“Caitlyn…”
“Viktor!”
The relief in her voice was soothing, he dared to focus his vision on her.
She had a few scrapes, but she was alive.
But she wasn’t there, if his memory was correct. Where had she been?
He slowly sat up, his mind finally tuning into reality, the gears slowly beginning to turn again as questions bubbled up.
“Where’s Jayce…? What happened…? Where-“
“I don’t think you should sit up yet-“ Caitlyn said, trying to push his shoulders back against the bed. “You’ve been in and out of surgery-“
Surgery.
He had been asleep long enough that they could perform multiple surgeries on him.
“Caitlyn,” he swallowed to moisten his throat. Water would be great right now, his voice sounded dry. “Where is Jayce?” He repeated again.
“There was an explosion.” She quickly said, moving from his bedside and going to a small table in the corner. “It…it took awhile to get through all the ruble…” She laughed, but it sounded like a cry. “Really shows how bomb-ready we are. We should really work on that.”
Caitlyn hunched over the table, and Viktor remembered the faces in the room.
“Your mother—“
Caitlyn didn’t respond. She just sank to her knees, like ice melting in the hard sun. She almost seemed like she was dying herself, begging to some higher power to let it not be true.
It was hard to watch.
He wanted to get up and comfort her, but his body wouldn’t obey the commands to get up. His fingertips met the cold touch of his crutch, but his delayed grabbed caused it to take a tumble forward, hitting the ground.
Viktor silently cursed himself.
To his surprise, a familiar face picked his crutch up, setting it against the wall again. “You shouldn’t get up,” she said. “Not like that.” Her voice was…strangely emotionless.
She moved to the corner, to Caitlyn. “Hey, c’mon,” she whispered softly, helping the girl to her feet. “He’s alright,” she said.
Caitlyn nodded, turning back to the bed. “Viktor, you’ve met Vi,” she said, trying to compose herself again.
They exchanged a nod. “Not properly, forgive me,” Viktor said. “I’d wish it was under different circumstances.”
“Ditto,” Vi offered back. “I was acquainted with your partner, Jayce.”
Jayce. They still had not answered his question.
“Where is Jayce?” He asked for what seemed to be the twentieth time. The answer wasn’t reassuring, uncomfortable silence with tension that could be cut with a knife.
“Do you want some water Viktor?” Caitlyn asked, moving away from the conversation and heading back to the table. He could hear the sound of water rushing from a pitcher.
“Cait-“ Vi said.
“We’re still looking through the ruble-“ she handed the water to Viktor. He immediately sat it on the small shelf beside him.
“Where is Jayce?”
“He’s-“
“He’s missing.” Vi finally said. “They didn’t find his body.”
“Vi!”
“Well he has a right to hear it straight!”
Another cold reality hitting him in the face like a punch to the nose. He leaned back against the bed again, hands clasped over his mouth.
Missing…?
How could Jayce be missing? How do you lose a whole person?
“What do you mean missing…?” Maybe he hadn’t heard right.
“Viktor, you have to understand, there’s a lot of debri, even now they’re still going through it—“
“But he was right next to me-!” Viktor could feel heat rising in his veins. “He was right in front of me! He should have been near me! How could you not find him?! He’s the largest person in the room—!”
His voice broke into a fitful cough, he buried his mouth into the crook of his arm as he waited for the fit of coughs to pass.
“—they’re not looking hard enough,” he wheezed, grabbing his crutch properly this time, as if he was going to be looking through the rubble in this state. “He’s in there, probably badly hurt, and you still haven’t…”
The idea of Jayce Talis being dead was out of his mind. He wouldn’t even humor the idea.
“You’re not going,” Vi stood in front of him. “Look, I know it’s a shitty situation, but there’s nothing you can do but get better.”
“Please Viktor, give us time. When we do find Jayce, you’ll need to be well to be there for him,” Caitlyn said. “You’ll be the first to know when we find him.”
Viktor leaned forward, resting his body weight against his crutch as his head rested on his fist around the handle. He didn’t answer, he took shaky breaths through his teeth as he closed his eyes.
He felt the weight of the bed shift as Caitlyn passed a hand over his back.
“You have to find him…” Viktor whispered, tilting his head to look over at her. “Please…”
Caitlyn nodded. “We will, we will find him.”
~~~
“ The wolf is howling in the forest of the night ,”
That was the only sound of them in the dark wintery void. Just the sound of his mother’s soft singing against the wind, and the faint glow of their red lantern. She sang softly, quietly, just enough that he could hear her.
“ He wants to, but cannot sleep ,”
The way forward was hard, the snowflakes felt like little razors tearing at his face. It hurt to open his eyes, it hurt to move forward.
“ The hunger tears his wolven stomach ,”
He felt her hand tightly grip him, pulling him closer to her as they continued. What little warmth there was, they shared between them, and only them.
“ And it's cold in his burrow ,”
He knew this song she sang. She sang it to him often, late at night when he was falling asleep and afraid of the creatures that lurked in the dark watching them. She sang it to keep the monsters away.
“ Wolf, wolf, don't you come here, ”
She sang weakly against the howling wind, against the blizzarding storm.
“ I will never let you take my child, ”
~~~
Breathing.
Something taken for granted everyday. It was automatic, something the human body didn’t even think about. It happened so smoothly and so seamlessly.
That was until, you couldn’t breathe.
Something is wrong, air doesn’t enter your lungs the right way, it's sharp and it hurts, but not breathing makes your chest burn.
It felt like hot molasses was in his lungs. Air stewed and got caught in the stick coating. It was almost like he was drowning in no water.
He had been awakened by a piercing pain in his back, but when he tried to move, he found things strapped over his body, keeping him in place. He twisted his body, struggling to get up.
Where was he? These lights were so bright, it shot pain through his temples.
“Please, try not to move Councilor Talis,” a voice said, and another sharp pain shot through his back.
This time, he was more aware of it. A harsh groan hissed through his lips.
“That’s a pity, I’d figure you’d sleep a little longer,” the voice said, the sound of something clinking into a metallic dish. It sounded like glass.
He felt two small prongs press into his back.
“W-where…where am I…” this place was unfamiliar to him.
“Doesn’t matter at the moment, I don’t think,” the voice said, another sharp pain stabbing through his back. He gritted his teeth, his head smacking back down onto the hard metal table below. “What does matter, is you’re alive. For now anyway. Glass is rather tedious to remove.”
So it was glass.
“Why am I here…? Who are you…? Where’s V-“ He was cut off by a stinging pain of prongs pressing into an open wound.
“You’re a man of science, I’m told,” his captor said, pulling another shard from his back. “You’re here to be a part of an experiment.”
Experiment…?
“I will discuss details with you later, but for now, we can’t take the next step with you like this,” his captor reached deeper into a wound. Jayce clenched his teeth tightly and shut his eyes.
“Broken equipment-” his captor said. “-Is no good. Isn’t that correct?”
Another small clink.
“I-I want to go home…” he said, trying to catch his breath. His lungs were burning. “Please…let me go home. I won’t tell anyone, please—“
“There’s nothing you could offer me to get you out of this Councilor.”
He heard the sound of a metallic clank, and then a liquid sloshing in a bottle.
“Now, this will hurt.”
A cold rag pressed to his back, and Jayce physically tensed, his back curving in to press against the table.
It BURNED, like fire to his skin.
Tears bubbled at the corners of his eyes as the rag pulled away, he fell limp against the table.
“You must be tired,” his captor finally moved so Jayce could see him. A part of his face seemed badly burned, perhaps due to a fire, or a chemical burn. The bottom half of his burned face was covered by a cloth, he couldn’t see his mouth.
“I’ll bring you back to rest.” The restraints on his body loosened, but he didn’t have the strength to get up. “Then, maybe we’ll try to eat again.”
As the table rolled, Jayce could feel his eyes getting heavier.
“Where’s Viktor…?” He would try for one more question. As long as Viktor was alive, he could deal with this. He could stay alive…
“I don’t know,” his captor responded.
He had a feeling he was lying.
“Please…I’ll let you do whatever you want with me, just…is Viktor alive…?”
“The body is extraordinary, Councilor Talis,” His captor said. “The will to live surpasses all other things, illness, injury, as long as the mind has a will to live, the body will follow.”
Was that supposed to be comforting…?
He heard a heavy door open, and the table was wheeled inside.
The room smelled like rotting meat and death.
“Try to get sleep,” his captor said, leaving him on the table. “You‘ll need it.”
“Wait…”
The door shut, and he was alone in the room that smelled like death.