Chapter Text
Jayce stepped into the sphere, his hands clenched tightly around his hammer, fingers flexing. He gazed up at the floating form of his partner attached by glowing threads at the center of the strange and ethereal structure he himself had created.
Jayce couldn’t think clearly. He felt angry, he felt sorrow; it was as if his feelings were fragmented and split within himself. And those fragments were fighting each other in his head.
He looked up half-crazed through his too-grown out hair, eyes catching with Viktor’s. Viktor looked down at him, solemn, his eyes no longer familiar to Jayce. Jayce raised up his hammer. It was hard for him to see past the swirling colors of changed irises to see the slight tinge of fear in Viktor’s eyes.
Viktor’s thoughts were also scattered. He had been looking through a myriad of scenes within the network he had created. He had known Jayce was on his way, that he was changed, but was this really how it had to be? Viktor could now see the destruction that seemed inherent in every human being. He understood just now what that meant for him and Jayce and suddenly knew what Jayce was here to do. But Viktor was still human….partially. He couldn’t help a fragment of fear slipping through. He didn’t want this to be the end of their story.
Viktor had a moment's hesitation, and mulled over it in the space of his mind, before finally he felt the closest to the surface of consciousness in months.
“Jayce.”
He remembered the words he had wanted to say straight from the heart. What he had felt on occasion, but had never been able to fully grasp until now.
“I’m sorry I left.”
Jayce twitched. A shot went off. Viktor was looking down at Jayce. Viktor was looking out at his commune. He was seeing Ambessa’s soldiers cross the entrance. The sisters were there. Their poor father and the girl they had seemingly adopted. Citizens of the undercity. He was supposed to help them. Wasn’t he helping them?
Suddenly his connection was severed. He fell, now untethered, to the ground and began to sense parts of himself that had once roamed now shunted back into his own mind. A feeling of emptiness in his shoulder. Not pain. An absence. A wrongness.
Something shrieked outside, a cacophony of wailing that was inhuman in its very nature. Viktor’s vision outside of himself began to blur. He could just make out Reveck by Vander, approaching him holding…something. A final call Viktor made out before his connection waned. Stop him.
Jayce lowered his hammer to the ground, breathing heavily. He’d done it. But he hesitated at the last second. A minute shift in his aim. He had been sure he would hit Viktor’s core. He had been sure he would keep his promise.
He couldn’t do it.
Viktor lay on the ground, leaned up against the side of his structure; his breath came slow and shallow. The blanket Jayce had given him laid across his lap. The upper chunk of his left shoulder was missing. A normal human would have died from it. Viktor was anything but that now. A fragmented self of regret screamed in Jayce’s head. He felt immobilized with indecision. What did he do now? What did he want to do? He just stood there for a moment. Trying to organize his thoughts together.
He walked over to Vikor and raised his hammer again. He couldn’t do it. He had to do it. But he couldn’t. And so all he could do was stand there in limbo. Viktor didn’t look at him the entire time. Jayce wondered if he waited long enough then Viktor would pass anyway. He didn’t want that though did he?
Jayce didn’t know how long he stood there before he heard a set of footsteps approaching from behind. A voice called out. Familiar. Jinx.
“Whoa! What are you doing? Back up Piltie! I don’t have my gun but there’s way more of us than you! Leave the metal man alone! What the hell did you do?” Shock hits her face as she looks between the fallen body of Viktor and back to Jayce.
Jayce turns, coming face to face with a mostly familiar group of people. Jinx stood in front, Vi at her side, and a small girl he didn’t know. Caitlyn was there as well, looking more confused compared to the rest who wore faces of angry bewilderment. A large…creature stood behind them. Jayce couldn’t bring himself to care.
Jayce spoke, not moving his weapon away. “Stay out of this. He was already supposed to be dead. I should have let him. I…” He paused before he looked at Jinx with scorn.
“You’re the one who attacked the council room.” He pointed his finger at her. Vander gave a warning growl.
“He wouldn’t be like this if it…” Jayce suddenly felt a righteous anger. He finds himself immediately in full agreement in his mind. He moved the hammer away from Viktor and turned it on Jinx.
“He never would have ended up like this if it wasn’t for you!”
Jinx held up her hands, but her face turned to confused sorrow. “What? What are you talking about?”
“He was in the council room with me. With Mel. He died from the blast. I had to bring him back because. Of. You.”
Jinx felt all the color drain from her face.
“Are you saying he- Why didn’t he say anything then? Why would he even help me then huh? That makes no sense!”
Her eyes darted between everyone, looking for some sort of clarity. Caitlyn gave Jinx a hard scathing look. Hatred. Jinx knew it well.
“I attacked the people who were ruining my home. The Council. I- I wouldn’t have hurt him. I didn’t know.” She started to cradle her head between her hands. Vi looked distraught.
Nobody seemed to move. The air was tense. Silence. Then a creaking noise. Like metal plates being rubbed together. Viktor.
“Powder. It is….alright”. Viktor’s voice came out with what seemed to be great difficulty. It was quieter than how he usually spoke. “I saw your mind. I understand.”
Jinx let out a small noise of pain. She was lost, but not so lost that the words didn’t reach her.
Another creak. “Jayce.”
Viktor looked to his partner, and then to the ground near where he had fallen. The gear he has cherished for years had rolled far enough away to be out of his reach. But he tried to grasp for it anyway. Another thing Viktor considered still human about him in that instant. The futility.
Jayce lowered the hammer again. His mind screamed. He watched the small girl eye him warily before grabbing Jinx’s hand. She pulled Jinx around Jayce, towards Viktor and grabbed the gear on the ground before she went and handed it to him. Viktor took it from her with shaking fingers and let a small smile grace his lips.
“Thank you Isha”
She smiled back in kind. The other three moved over to join them, all of them eyeing the man warily. Jayce let out a breath of frustration. They didn’t see what he saw so of course they were acting like this. It was ignorance.
“You all didn’t see it. You don’t understand! What happens. I saw it. The future. The horror. I was unmade and made again. And now I’m back. I need to…I need to stop it. I promised. ” He shook his head.
Vi glared at him. She had started to lose her patience with this. This wasn’t the Jayce she knew. “What the hell do you mean? Are you gonna start making some sense? Cause from what I’m seeing you’re acting insane. Stop freaking out.”
Jayce frowned and ignored her, turning to Viktor instead.
“Viktor. Listen to me. You aren’t healing them. Not really. They aren’t human anymore. You’re being used. And I didn’t see it before and now it’s too late. I couldn’t prevent it, but I can sure as hell destroy it. You-” Jayce hesitated. He never thought it would come to this.
“You aren’t Viktor anymore, not since I put you with that damn Hexcore”
Viktor looked up at him, at first blankly, then with a subtle knit to his brows.
Vi speaks up again. “So what? You went and had some sort of epiphany in the months you’ve been missing then?”
Jayce gave her a look. “They’re being turned into abominations. Their will is stifled. You should write them off as gone. It’s the same with Viktor. Every second that he’s alive in this state he’s losing more of himself. I have to end it. It’s kinder to let him die while there’s at least some of him in there. You all need to step aside.”
Jayce gripped at the hammer again in warning. The large man, Vander, growled in kind. He looked one wrong move away from tearing into Jayce, but Jayce wasn’t in a self-preservation type of mood.
Jinx moved to be more directly in-between Jayce and Viktor and slightly in front of Isha. Jinx glared up at him. She stood resolute. Determined.
“He’s been saving our dad. We won’t let you take that from us. We won’t let you break up our family.”
Caitlyn's voice came out next to him, authoritative as it always was. “You aren’t in the right state of mind for this Jayce. We can talk about this. Figure out what to do. But we…I can’t just let you kill Viktor. The Jayce I know would never do this. He would find some other way”
Jayce looked over to her. “I wish there was another way. Believe me. But nothing is worth the risk.”
Caitlyn stood with her arms crossed, glaring at him. They all glared at him. Surrounded him. So many eyes on him. Jayce was wracked with indecision once again. His head hurt.
Jinx tapped her foot nervously at the atmosphere in the room before suddenly gaining a thoughtful expression on her face. Isha looked up at her inquisitively, tilting her head in question. Jinx hummed.
“Soooo if I’m not thinking of you as a completely crazy person, which I kinda am by the way, but if I wasn’t…You went to the future you’re pretty much saying? Right?”
She waited for Jayce to respond. He stared at her. Unimpressed. She got that look a lot so she didn’t mind one bit. She continued.
“Okay so you went to the future and went and saw the end result of what metal man’s been doing. It must’ve been pretty bad. Especially for Viktor himself. It really did a number on you at least cause you look really…not great. Now you wanna stop it. Which, okay sure.”
Jinx lets out a sigh.
“But then weren’t you missing for like…years probably. If you were time-traveling? So you weren’t in the present?”
Vi snorted. “Do we really have to entertain this right now? Ambessa is definitely getting closer the longer we stay here.”
“I’m getting there sis” Jinx groaned. “My point is, is that you weren’t there with him. I don't really know you guys but you both seem…close.”
Jayce pauses. “Excuse me?”
“You went into the future so you weren’t there with him. He was alone. I went crazy all by my lonesome. So believe me when I say I feel like he would too.”
She glanced over to Viktor who was still breathing out, albeit shallowly. He had a fearful sort of hint to his brows, but also seemed resigned to whatever might happen next.
Jayce glanced down at him as well. Viktor, noticing he had both of their attention, spoke up.
“If I am truly wrong. If what you say is to come to pass and is really so terrible, perhaps it is best for me to go. If there was anyone I would trust to stop me for the right reason, it would be you Jayce.”
Jayce felt tears well up in his eyes even though he had been trying to fight it the entire time he had been back. How long was he expected to keep this up. Why couldn’t this be anyone else’s responsibility? He was truly the worst man for the job. He couldn’t keep seeing Viktor like this.
“How can you lay there broken on the ground after I hurt you and say something like that. After everything I’ve done to you.” he sobbed out.
The hammer slipped free from his fingers with a loud clang as it fell to the ground. Jayce put a hand to his temple and began to sway slightly on his feet.
“What the hell am I supposed to do?” His face scrunched up into a grimace. “My head…hurts.”
The group looked around at each other with uncertainty.
Viktor spoke up again. “Jayce I need to…”
He suddenly stopped speaking. His eyes seemed glazed over.
“Ah. I-I see. Please give me a moment Jayce. She…Sky she wishes to speak uninterrupted. Though I suppose she isn’t…but a part of me always knew she wasn't…” Viktor trailed off mid-sentence, his body suddenly falling completely limp, his eyes now closed and moving erratically behind his eyelids. Isha crouched down to shake him slightly.
“Uhhhh. What’s he doing?” Jinx asked, crouching down to get a look at him.
“What are any of us doing?” Caitlyn grumbled off to the side.
Jayce walked slowly over to where Viktor was. Vander huffed aggressively at him and began to posture up, before he calmed at a small tug from Isha, and let the man approach.
“Viktor?” Jayce's voice came out gently. His previous anger and pain were replaced by worry.
Viktor’s body suddenly began spasming and Isha jumped back surprised, dragging back an equally surprised Jinx with her.
“Viktor?! Viktor what’s happening?!” Jayce yelled. He put a hand on Viktor’s uninjured shoulder.
“We need to just grab him and go!” Vi yelled off to the side. She stood near the entrance now, and glanced outside periodically.
“Viktor!” Jayce tries again. A gentle shake. Viktor’s eyes shot open this time, glancing around wildly. His eyes lock onto Jayce’s desperately.
“Ah. I’m back. She is in my head. Or it is. It looks like Sky but it’s…something else. It is upset. With me. With you.” Viktor gains that far off look again. He doesn’t see Jayce anymore. “No that’s not - that’s not helping. I thought you wanted to help...like I did. I- ” A small body shudder. His eyes closed again.
Jinx couches back down, determined. “Hey! I don’t get exactly what’s goin’ on but you can’t let other people in your head boss you around.” She poked the man in the side before anyone could object.
She turned to Jayce.
“I’ve got something to say to you Piltover guy so you better listen up. Cause this is important alright.”
Jayce looked at her, eyes still wet. He wanted to throttle her. “If you have an idea of how to help him I’m listening.” he ground out.
Jinx raised her arms in mock surrender.
“Okay. Okay. So…what I didn’t have for a long time, and maybe whatever you saw from future Viktor that he also didn’t have for a long time, was someone to help him with his head.” She paused.
Jayce waited for her to continue, eyes flickering between her and Viktor.
“That means you can fix this. You better. Fix. This.” She looked back at Viktor. Then to Vander. “I’m not gonna be losing any more family, and I’m not gonna be responsible for another dead guy that doesn’t deserve it. You hear me? I don’t need them in my head either! So you need to wake. The hell. Up!”
Jinx wound her arm back and gave a solid punch to the side of Jayce’s face, skin not quite splitting underneath, but Jinx was sure it would leave a solid enough bruise.. The sound of it echoed through the sphere.
Silence. No one moved. Then, slowly, Jayce reached up to cradle his cheek. It wasn’t the most powerful punch he’d ever gotten, but he felt his mind clear at least a bit. He could focus on the feeling. He was surprised he wasn’t angry at her punching him. He only felt disappointment in himself, something that seemed to be a standard occurrence in his life.
Jayce nodded solemnly after a moment, letting his thoughts process while Jinx watched him anxiously, before he ended up reaching for the blanket; the one he had given to Viktor. He had held on to it. That meant something. It had to. Why hadn’t he thought about that? Viktor had kept the blanket.
He tucked it around Viktor’s lower body. It didn’t matter if he said he didn’t get cold.
“Viktor. Please. Talk to me. You keep going away. To talk to it. Walk me through what’s happening. We’re partners. We do this together.”
Viktor’s face twitches. His eyes remain closed, but his mouth opens in response.
“I'm trying to. Reason with it. But it wants things I can’t give it. People. Creatures brought forth. I won’t.”
“Okay. Okay.” Jayce tried to think. “It wants that. We can’t give it that. Like you said. Maybe… we can give it something else?”
A pause. Viktor’s shaking slowed. “It needs to. It said it needs me to affect our world. To come through.”
“Alright okay. Shit. Does it need you specifically?”
Another pause while Jayce waited for Viktor to do…whatever he was doing.
“No. But we. It doesn’t. I don’t know how else.”
“We can find another way. We’re some of the smartest people in Zaun. If anyone can do it, we can. The breakthroughs we’ve made together. We can do anything. You hear that you…you damn…damn thing. We can do anything so you better give him back!” Jayce begins to feel his anger resurface. How dare this thing use his partner like this. His friend. His- Jinx placed her hand at Jayce’s wrists and gave a small shake of her head. He wanted to snap. He wanted to push her away. Make all of them leave him and Viktor alone.
He takes a deep breath instead. He needed to remain calm. He could feel his mind beginning to fracture again. He needed to remain in control of himself.
Viktor spoke up, gentle and quiet, as if still far away. Why hadn’t Jayce noticed before how far away he had been. Why had he let him go?
“I'm trying. To tell it what you said. It's angry. I don't know if I can. I feel like I'm losing myself again. Jayce. I can't see you. “ His eyes opened but appeared unseeing. Still silver and blue and gold all at once. Ethereal. Inhuman.
Jayce moved his hand from Viktor’s shoulder to the side of his face, the most human part of him that still remained. “Please. I promise I'm right here. I meant it. I'll always be right here…”
Viktor’s body continued to shake. “Viktor? Viktor!”
“Do something!” Vi yells over, “We're running out of time. Ambessa is on her way and she's really keen on getting ahold of him so you better hurry.” Her eyes are glued to whatever she sees outside the sphere.
Jayce shudders. He turned his attention back to the broken and shaking man.
“Please. Please give him back to me. I'll do anything you want. Just….just” Jayce cradles his head downward. A small tear escapes and falls down the side of his face. He wasn’t going to let Viktor down again. But he had to believe in Viktor too. They were partners. He had to trust him.
He looked up. Determined. “Please Viktor. You’ll find a way out of this. I've never met someone so smart. So ambitious and still…still the kindest man I've ever known. I…”
“I’m sorry I left.”
No reaction. More tears. Jayce spoke again.
“I love you”
Jayce put his head right at the edge of the wound he gave Viktor. Now his body was the one that was shaking. They were both shaking.
A sudden gasp. Movement. Viktor suddenly sprang back to life, upper body shooting up, finding resistance in the larger body weighing him down. Viktor gave Jayce a once over. The long messy hair, the unkempt beard. The tattered clothing. It seemed they had both been through a lot. Viktor felt his stunted emotions slowly begin to trickle back. Stronger than they had been in months. Still not quite right. But more than he ever thought he would get back. It was almost overwhelming. Intoxicating.
Viktor brought a hand to Jayce’s back. Gentle. Jayce let out a sob and his chest was moving erratically.
“Jayce.” It sounded warm. Viktor didn’t think he would sound warm ever again.
Jayce pulled himself slightly away from Viktor. As much as he could stand to; just enough to get a look at him. What greeted him made tears fall more freely from his face. He made contact with the familiar honey gold eyes of Viktor. His partner. The man he now realized he had always loved. The one he thought he would never get back.
Jayce pulled him into a hug again. It felt similar to the one they had shared back in the lab. But there were differences. It made Jayce upset; he didn't notice it before. How not present Viktor had been then. Things he had just written off as shock at the time. This time Viktor hugged him back so strongly Jayce hoped his own body would break from how much he wanted it.
“We need to move.” Vi said, gentler this time.
The two backed away from each other slowly. Reluctantly.
“Are you…are you back?” Jayce asked. Viktor nodded, a bit dazed.
“I ah- I had to make a deal, but we can go over that later. It seems, as always, that time is of the essence.”
“You don’t have to tell me about time.” Jayce let out a grimace.
Viktor gives him a calculated look.
“There is much pain in you. You will have to tell me what happened.” Viktor flicks his gear over between his fingers. “Isha, would you please keep this safe for me.” He held the small item out to her. She gave a swift nod and went to grab it, patting his hand briefly before going to stand closer to Jinx.
“Some part of me is still connected to it. We have so much to discuss. All of us.”
“Yes we all have much to talk about but it’s time to go.” Caitlyn spares a glance at Jinx before looking back to the rest of the group. “You all need to follow me if you want to get out of here. Understand?”
Everyone gives a nod.
“My…the people I- They will hold back Ambessa’s forces. It will buy us time.” Viktor said in a sad sort of tone.
Jayce grimaced but gave a nod of assent. He helped Viktor rise to his feet, trying not to look too much at the missing chunk of his body. He pulled up the blanket, wrapping it protectively around the much smaller man. Viktor smiled in thanks.
Jayce picked up his hammer off the ground and went to stand next to Viktor as they all followed Caitlyn out into the noisy sounds of battle.