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Tracking down Jayces address was way harder than he had imagined. It used to be so easy. At least one person knew where Talis was at any time, he was a counselor after all. Everyone had their eyes on him.
But since hextech wasn't invented here Jayce remained an ordinary man not the treasured "golden boy" he was in his original universe.
But Ekko kept at it. He needed to return home at any cost.
Finally he was led to a small house just outside Piltover in the top levels of Zaun.
He brought his hand up and knocked loudly three times.
Nothing.
Then. clank clank CLANK. A metallic sound as someone approached.
Hope returned to him as the door opened.
Only the man greeting them wasn't Jayce.
"Can I help you?" He said keeping the door only slightly open. Just enough for Ekko to peek in.
His hair laid just over his shoulders, a few grey streaks peaking through the brown locks. Two moles dot his face. A cane leaning on his side. He's skinny, barely taller than Ekko and yet almost intimidating. A hairless cat circles his legs.
"Viktor?" Heimerdinger interrupts. Ekko had heard that name before. Jayces lab partner. The second half of hextech.
"Professor?" He looks confused and almost shocked.
"We came here to talk to Jayce." Ekko finally spits out. "Does he not live here?"
The man who was apparently named Viktor looks back at Ekko.
"He does." He said slowly with a concerned look on his face. "What is this about?"
"We just want to talk." The door begins to shut.
Oh no you don't.
Ekko shoves his foot in between the door. "Please. This is important." He locks eyes with him. Pleading. Viktors eyebrows twitch for a moment.
"Oh my manners, come in." He finally seems to snap out of it and opens the door further.
Their home was small. The furthest from Jayces old lavish place and yet it felt much more lived in. They sit down in a small living room. The cat follows them, Ekko making himself comfortable on a chair.
"You drink tea, Ekko?" Viktor asks. A familiar question. He chuckles "no it's not quite my taste."
"Just some water then." Heimerdinger is uncomfortably quiet. It's hard for Ekko to pinpoint why.
"Jayce is still at work but he should be home soon." Viktor tells them.
"So you live together. Why?" Ekko asks. He was aware that Jayce called Viktor his partner but it was more in relation to his work than anything else, right?
"Why wouldn't we?" Viktor laughs and holds up his left hand. "Kind of a natural step when you've been married for three years, no?"
A small golden ring shines on his ring finger.
Ekko looks to Heimerdinger who seemed more surprised than anything.
"Besides," Viktor looks at the professor sternly. "He needed a place to stay after you kicked him out of piltover."
That was different.
The professor's eyes widened. "Ah" is all he lets out. The skinny man takes a deep breath. "But we don't hold grudges. There's nothing to gain in resentment." Viktor states.
The door clicks open.
Jayce has had a truly shitty day. For one, three of his coworkers came down sick so he had to work overtime again. Then one of the pipes burst and he figured that out. When he went to shower after drenching himself in sweat all day the hot water had been used up so he was hit with ice cold water. And on top of that his leg had been acting up all day.
All he wanted right now was a nice calm evening with Viktor. Just unwind and relax. He fished his keys out of his jacket pocket and opened the door.
"I'm home V." He sighed. His partner greeted him in the hallway with a warm hug. "Long day at the forge?"
Kissing Viktor really felt like coming home. Their lips met and finally everything was fine again.
"As always." He sighed. "At least I have one good thing to come home to." He caressed his cheeks letting his fingers hover over those perfect moles. Rio rubs against his legs chirping.
"Can you take a look at my leg? It's been weird all day?"
Jayce mumbled and stumbled into their living room only to pause in the doorway.
They weren't alone. There was a kid, around academy age, and him. Looking at him. Staring.
"Why is he here?" Jayce spits. "Came here to mock me Professor?" He jokes and it feels like venom on his lips.
"Jayce." Viktors hand is on his shoulder and he remembers to breathe again. "They came to talk to you." Ekkos brain feels like an old machine rattling away trying to process what's been thrown at him.
Jayce throws himself on their couch. Sighing in relief as the weight is finally lifted off his leg. Viktor sits next to him patting his lap and Jayce knows what to do. He pulls up his pants to reveal his prosthetic and lays it gently on Viktors lap.
His partner begins to inspect it.
The verry leg he lost during the break in, before the professor exiled him, and now he has the nerves to sit in their living room and look at it with that expression on his face. What even was that, shock, regret? As if he didn't know.
"Jayce," The boy speaks. "My name is Ekko. You already know the professor. We came to talk about your old research." And Jayce has to hold himself back. He chuckles instead. "This again. All that's behind me." Viktor hums and tightens some screws. "You don't have to worry anymore." And Ekko looks... alarmed? Worried? Shouldn't they be relieved. Shouldn't Heimer give him that speech again about how dangerous all of his research was and make him promise to give it all up.
"There," Viktor sighs. "The screws on the joints got loose. Should be better now." Jayce hums in aprecheation. He lets their fingers intertwine. "What would I do without you?"
"I'm serious Jayce. We need your help with this." The boy is frustrated. And Jayces mind blanks. "What?" Ekko reaches into his bag and pulls out shards of what once was a hex cristal.
No. Jayce can't think straight.
Blue. The walls close in around him.
Blue. He kicks the door.
Blue. He can't breathe.
Blue. Pain pain pain.
A dead girl in his room.
Caitlyn's shocked face. His mangled leg.
Blue smoke in his lungs. He's suffocating.
"Jayce" Caitlyn screams.
"Jayce" hands around him. Holding his head and he's safe again. "Breathe, Jayce, breathe. In and out." Viktors holding him close to his chest. He can hear his heartbeat. Rio jumps in his lap. She's purring, pushing her little head into him. "You should go." Viktor finally says. He's stern. Upset. Something Jayce rarely sees these days. "Now."
Heimerdinger begins to leave. Ekko doesn't stand up. He can't give up now. He's so close. "Don't bring that thing around him again." Viktor spits. The cat hisses at him.
Ekko takes a breath.
"I can't give up on this now. Please just listen to me."
"No," Viktor insists. "We are done here."
And Jayce feels something. Something he felt a long time ago. In the council room. When his dream finally died. Please just listen to me.
Viktor feels Jayces hand on his arm. "Wait." Jayce pushes himself back. "Let's just hear him out. Okay?" Viktors eyes soften. "Okay."
Ekko sighs, a spark of hope finds him again. Heimerdinger stands in the doorway. Uncertain. If it was up to him he would have never come here. But it isn't.
"We aren't from here." He stutters, unsure on how to put this situation into words. "What do you mean?"
"We aren't from this universe." Viktor raises an eyebrow. "I know this sounds crazy but we just want to get home. We've been stuck here for God knows how long. I feel like I'm slowly going crazy." Ekko blurts out and all the words that made sense in his head sound like nonsense out loud. "Right." Viktor slowly stands up.
"He's right." Heimerdinger backs him up. "Where we came from," Jayce pulls Viktor back down. "You two created something called hextech." And that word awakens something in Jayce. Something long buried beneath shame and regret.
"Magic harnessed through science." Jayces heart hurts. "You changed the world." The boy says. "But then something came to exist, this uh anomaly." Ekko searches through his bag and pulls out his notes. Shuffling through the pages. He shows them the sketch. "Whatever it is, it brought us here." Viktor and Jayce look at each other. "I don't know how to proof this to you but please"
Jayce breathes in. He stares at the pages. "After the break-in, in my apartment, after the girl died and I lost my leg." Breathe out. He looks at the professor. "You made me promise I would stay away from this... dream I had. This dangerous obsession."
The Professor looked at the ground beneath him.
"You exiled me from the academy from piltover and for a while I thought my life was over." Breath in. "But then I met Viktor." He caresses his partner's hand on his own. "And suddenly I had a new dream." Breath out. Viktor smiles at him. Warm. Safe.
"I didn't have to spend the rest of my life wondering what things could have been like. I don't want to continue chasing this dream when I know it was really just a nightmare." And Ekko loses hope once again.
"In this universe what are things like?" He asks and Viktor looks around the room.
At all the pictures on their walls. Little moments of their life.
"It's different. In more than a few ways worse." Jayce blinks. "We were at the brink of war and my people need me." Ekko speaks quietly. Jayces eyes meet Viktors. And they both know.
Jayce nods. It's time. Viktor stands up.
He gestures at Ekko to stand up.
"This is it" he thinks. "I'm getting kicked out." He steps to the side.
Viktor reaches behind him toward the picture hanging on the wall. Depicting the hairless cat snuggled up in a blanket. Their baby.
"I know I promised you I had burned all my research but," Jayce pauses. Viktor pulls the picture to the side.
"Some sentimental part of me had to hold on to it."
A notch sits in the wall, shoved full of books. "Take them." Jayce looks at Ekko. And he almost stumbles over himself. "They will help you get home."