Chapter Text
Jayce woke up with his head pounding, like the metal at his forge being hammered into place. Bursts of color danced through his vision and he felt his stomach twist viciously. He thought he might throw up for a moment before everything froze, the spinning sensation coming to a halt.
“Fuck,” Jayce groaned.
His limbs felt as heavy as lead as he attempted to push himself up, but as he tried his hands sunk deep into the ground- the warmth of it enveloped his aching hands. His eyes blinked open with confusion only to be met with sand blanketing his fingers. The warmth of the sun beat down on it allowing an almost gentle warmth to seep through his skin where his body met the soft earth.
Where was he?
“Professor?” He called out, his voice weak, “Ekko?”
But as Jayce looked around he saw no one, he was no longer at the base of the Hexgate and there was no sign of his companions. With shaking arms he pushed himself up and looked around, wincing as the sun shone down on him and reflected back off of the smooth sand.
“What…”
His breath started to quicken as he processed what had happened. The Hexgate had been corrupted. The wild magic they’d seen on the leaf was growing at the Hexgates, Hextech was no longer safe . His mind ran through the memories of shifting color and his vision warping as if being stretched and molded into something new, but no matter how much he tried he couldn’t recall how he got here…or where here even was.
Instinctively, he reached down to grab his hammer, but there was no sign of it. The panic started to build in his body like a livewire sparking and thrashing inside of him as he struggled to understand what had happened. With a grunt he wiped his hand over his face, and as he did, small sparkles of hazy color flashed in the corners of his vision. Deep breaths, he had to breathe, he could figure this out.
Jayce slowly looked around taking in his unusual surroundings. To his left was a creek running alongside the sand, overshadowed by a small cliff top and behind him was a dark rock wall shooting out from the sand like it had forced its way through the earth. The gurgling water occasionally shined with something unnatural, but the soft bubbling of it was almost peaceful. Jayce stared into the shallow water and focused, he needed to stay calm, he had to be calm, it would be okay, it would be -
A small boat floated to his feet. Its bow bumped repeatedly into his shoe as the water pushed and pulled at it.
With quick shaky breaths, his head darted up looking around for its owner, but still there was no one. Or no one he could see at least. Cautiously, Jayce reached into the water to pick up the small toy before the water could pull it further downstream. The gears attached to its side slowly rotated before coming to a halt in his hands like an animal giving its last breath. Something in his mind itched as if this was important somehow, but everytime he tried to reach for the thought it vanished like air under his fingers.
“Hello?” Jayce called out, after a moment of silence only filled by the gurgling of the water, “Is someone there?”
Standing up from the riverbank he looked around, the boat fit snugly in his palm, and for a moment he felt like he was small again. Like the snow storm was back and he was gripping onto anything that felt real.
“Hello?” he called again, a little bit louder this time, “Whos is this?”
He wouldn’t say he was proud of how far he jumped when he felt something touch his back.
Jayce spun around quickly, his hand raised to strike whatever or whoever was here with him, but at the sight of a child his body froze. The kid was thin and small, and the way he looked nervously up at Jayce with his coattails still gripped in his small fingers, like he was worried the man would hurt him somehow, made Jayce feel sick. For a split second Jayce saw the child in the shimmer factory, his eyes wide as Jayce attacked him.
“I…I’m sorry,” Jayce mumbled quickly, dropping his hand to his side, “Is this yours?”
The kid’s golden eyes seemed to light up at the sight of the boat as he nodded slowly. His brown hair was wild around his face and his clothes were disheveled and dirty like he had been wearing them for a little too long, and something about him pulled at a memory deep inside Jayce. The child slowly reached out to it with one hand, his eyes trained on Jayce’s face the entire time like he was waiting for the toy to be pulled away again any second.
“Here it’s okay,” Jayce said softly, kneeling down to the child’s height, “Take it.”
Before Jayce could say anything else the boy lunged forward and grabbed the boat out of his hand. He pulled it to his chest just as quickly as he stared at Jayce with wide untrusting eyes. He almost stumbled as he stepped back and Jayce had to stop himself from reaching out to steady the kid. He seemed afraid enough without Jayce trying to touch him. That’s when his eyes caught on the small wooden cane clutched in the boy’s other hand. He couldn’t help how his mind immediately wandered to thoughts of his partner. He knew this must be an Undercity kid with how disheveled he looked and the gold in his eyes looked almost too similar to Viktor’s own…or at least his eyes before he changed .
Before he left…
"Did you make that?" Jayce asked.
Again, the boy just nodded his head sheepishly. However, now his eyes seemed more curious than distrustful. Jayce was getting somewhere.
"It's really good," Jayce said softly, pointing to the boat in the boy's hands.
With that Jayce earned a small smile, barely more than a twist of the kid's lips as his eyes darted around. Jayce tried to follow the boy's gaze but he was met with a colorful haziness that seemed to shimmer in the air like oil on water.
“Are you alright?” Jayce asked slowly, softening his voice into something he hoped was reassuring even though the grief he had been feeling for the past weeks was threatening to overcome him again, “Where’s everyone else?”
The boy’s eyes flitted up and down Jayce’s body as if he was studying him, searching for any evidence that this was a bad idea, and as he did Jayce’s vision flickered again with bright colors causing him to wince. The boy frowned slightly, tightening his grip around the boat and leaning into his cane.
“I’m okay,” the boy answered slowly, in an accent all too familiar from the years Jayce had spent in the lab, "And I don't think anyone else is here."
Jayce couldn’t help how his breath caught in his throat. This wasn’t him , he knew it wasn’t…but still his chest grew tight as the thoughts in the back of his mind started to get louder.
It couldn’t be…
“What's your name?” Jayce asked slowly, his mind running through a million possibilities of what could have happened with the wild runes at the Hexgates. But his thoughts were brought to a halt as soon as he received his answer.
Somewhere inside him he knew he had known it the whole time, but hearing it still made his heart ache.
“Viktor,” the boy, Viktor, responded, still cautious with his words, “You’re not from here…Who are you?”
“I…” Jayce hesitated, his mouth running dry as his vision danced at the sight of the boy, “My name’s Jayce.”
Viktor’s face, still round, untouched by age and years of work and illness, scrunched a bit at Jayce’s words. He tilted his head to the side and hummed in thought in the familiar way Jayce had come to love.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Viktor responded, his tone dropping just a bit and for a brief moment a flash of color seemed to cross over his face, as the boy’s eyes shifted to a chromatic swirl.
“Viktor…”
“How are you here?” Viktor asked again softly, as he gazed down at the boat cradled in his hand.
“I…I don’t know,” Jayce replied, “Where is here ?”
Viktor shrugged and pursed his lips in thought as he studied the much taller man.
“I’m not sure,” he responded finally, his voice soft.
Jayce couldn’t think of what to say, so he instead settled for nodding his head at his partner’s younger form. Viktor still seemed confused, his face tight in the way it always was when he got stuck on a particularly vexing equation.
“Do you remember me?” Jayce asked slowly, his chest tight with so many emotions he thought he might explode.
“I’m not sure,” Viktor said, before thinking for a moment and adding on, “I think I might.”
“Okay,” Jayce swallowed as warmth started to build up in the corners of his eyes, “That’s okay.”
Viktor hummed in response before taking a step towards the water, nodding for Jayce to follow. Every step felt painful as he let Viktor lead him to sit by the creek bed. Breathing started to feel harder as his mind provided him countless memories of sitting by Viktor’s side- the two of them laughing as they drank after the launch of the first Hexgate, Viktor leaning against his side as they went over equations together, Jayce waiting by a hospital bed praying his partner would just get up .
“I think you’re in my head,” Viktor said after a few seconds, his eyes, still sharp even as a child, trained on the slowly running water, “I…I see flashes of memory, I think. This isn’t real”
“That…yeah,” Jayce swallowed down the growing feeling of despair in his chest, “That makes sense.”
The two of them sat there for a while, Jayce too afraid to say something to ruin the peace. He had already ruined too much with Viktor, and even if this did just happen to be some weird Hextech-infused fever dream, he refused to ruin the moment.
“I feel…strange,” Viktor finally said after a while.
His voice was soft, much more gentle than it ever had been as an adult, and it made Jayce want to pull the boy into his arms- too apologize for all that would happen to him in the future or that had already occurred. Absent-mindedly, he wished they had met as kids. He would do anything to have had any more time with Viktor.
Jayce tilted his head towards him, “What do you mean?”
Viktor exhaled deeply and cranked the small lever on the side of the boat. The gears rotated slowly before clicking. When he put the boat back in the water its small wheels started to spin again, propelling it off somewhere Jayce couldn’t see. As it got too far away the hazy colors started to come back into his sight, like a wall of smoke he couldn’t quite see clearly through.
“It’s like I’m…like I’m looking through glass,” Viktor said softly as he watched the boat float away, “I’m here with you, but I’m also somewhere else. I can see what’s happening, but it’s not me, I don’t think.”
Jayce’s lips tugged into a frown as he met Viktor’s wide eyes, the golden color was dimmed by the presence of tears, softly running down his face.
“I’m scared.”
This time Jayce didn’t stop himself. Before he could think his arms were wrapped tightly around Viktor. His chin rested on his partner’s head, and a soft sob escaped him as Viktor hugged him back- not like he had in the lab the day prior. Then, Viktor had barely touched him, he allowed it to happen, but he didn’t reciprocate. The Hexcore had done its work and the Viktor he knew was gone. But now, the child version of his partner grabbed onto him like a lifeline.
Viktor’s small frame shook with tears as he buried himself into Jayce’s chest and Jayce couldn’t help but cry with him.
“I’m so sorry Vik,” Jayce exhaled breathily as he squeezed the boy closer to him, “I’m so so sorry.”
Viktor continued to cry into Jayce’s chest as the man wept into his hair. Jayce tried to comfort him, to shush the boy and tell him it was okay, that he’d find a way to get Viktor back, but his throat was filled with barely held in sobs. He couldn’t lie to Viktor again, not anymore.
“I…Why am I here?” Viktor gasped, “What’s happening?”
“I’m sorry,” Jayce said through his own tears, “I’m sorry V. I don’t know. I had to save you. I had to.”
The two stayed together for what felt like hours to Jayce before Viktor’s sobs changed from heavy gasps to shaking breaths.
“Can you stay?” Viktor asked, his voice weak as his small hand fisted into Jayce’s jacket.
“I…I don’t know.”
Viktor whined at that and pulled himself closer like he was trying to disappear in Jayce’s arms.
“This means you’re still in there though, there’s part of you left” Jayce said weakly, trying to sound more confident in his words than he really felt, “I’ll fix this. I promise. I’ll get you back.”
Viktor sniveled and nodded his head against Jayce’s chest, “Please.”
Jayce almost broke down again at Viktor’s voice, so broken and small.
“I’ll do anything,” Jayce promised, “Anything Viktor.”
Jayce’s mind swirled with idea after idea of how he could possibly fix this. Of how he could bring Viktor back without killing him in the process. He wasn’t sure if he could. Without the Hexcore Viktor would have died that night after the explosion had mangled his body far past what it could survive.
But Viktor the child didn’t have to know that. Jayce would figure it out. If there was a way he’d do it.
“I’ll get you back I promise.”
Viktor nodded, his mouth quivering as he looked up at Jayce, “Thank you.”
Jayce wanted to respond- to tell him how much he cared, to try to talk him about how to fix this, to tell him he missed him so so much- but as he opened his mouth a sharp pain shot through his skull. He groaned and leaned his head forward into Viktor’s shoulder as the pain started to become unbearable, it was like a flame burning through every vein in his body as a heavy colorful fog fell over his eyes.
“Jayce? Jayce…”
The voice got quieter and quieter as the pain became near overwhelming, and then, when Jayce opened his eyes again Viktor was gone.
“Jayce?”
Jayce’s eyes shot up from where he sat on the cold white floor of the Hexgate. Professor Heimerdinger stood over him, his eyebrows drawn together in concern as Ekko stood a few paces back, trying to seem uninterested in the situation.
“What? No no no,” Jayce said through panicked breaths as he pushed himself off the ground, almost knocking the professor over in his hurry. His eyes darted across the floor until he found the small patch of wild magic and shoved his hand back down onto it. The professor yelped and spoke in quick panicked words as he tried to pull Jayce back, but all Jayce could focus on was his hand against the small colorful patch of ever changing magic. Again and again he slammed his hand into it until his knuckles were bloody, but nothing happened. There was no flash of color, no disorienting spinning as the world around him morphed… there was no Viktor.
“No,” Jayce sobbed as he let his head fall to his hands, his body shaking as he leaned against the ground.
“Dear boy, are you okay?” Heimerdinger asked frantically as he pulled Jayce up by his shoulders and looked into his eyes.
Jayce tried to respond, to say anything, but his mind was spent. He needed Viktor back more than anything. Viktor would know what to do, he always did.
Without a word Jayce shook his head and fell forward against Heimerdinger as he sobbed into the yordle’s shoulder. The professor seemed shocked as he froze up at the touch, before he sighed and patted Jayce’s shoulder in a semblance of comfort.
Jayce wasn’t sure how he got back to the lab.
The last thing he remembered was crying and begging to go back at the base of the Hexgates with Heimerdinger. His eyes cracked open in the dark lab- the lab he used to share, and he couldn’t help but cry. Like a child, he brought his legs to his chest and shrunk against his chair.
He would start his research soon. He would fulfill his promise if it killed him. He would get a chance to tell Viktor just how much he meant to him.
But for now he was a child again, stuck in a storm waiting for someone to save him from the blinding snow.