Chapter Text
When he woke up, Jayce felt as if he were in a familiar place. He recognized that warm breeze, that soft grass brushing against his face.
For a moment, he felt like a child again—a child who, after the most terrifying moment of his life, had finally found peace. After the blizzard, he had been safe with his mother, wrapped in warmth, surrounded by a meadow full of life.
But he was no longer that child. He was a man who had believed his life was about to end, only to awaken in a new place.
He sat up slowly, pressing a hand to his head, a low groan escaping his lips. Blinking against the light, he took in his surroundings: the grass beneath him, the wildflowers swaying nearby, the snow-capped mountains in the distance. A butterfly flitted through the air, startled by his sudden movement.
Then Jayce noticed his hand—the familiar warmth still there, the grip he had clung to in what had felt like his final moments. He followed the path of his arm and found that he was still holding his partner’s hand.
The moment he saw Viktor, he was pulled back into the past. When he had stood in the middle of a bombing, with corpses under the rubble. When he had seen Viktor, wounded, motionless, broken.
Jayce had run to him, pushing aside anyone who stood in his way. He had knelt beside Viktor, first putting a hand on his cheek, begging him to wake up. Then shaking his shoulders in desperation. Finally, putting his head on his chest, anxious to hear a breath, a heartbeat.
At that moment, in the Council room, he had heard only the most terrible silence.
Now Viktor was not hurt, there was no blood on him and his skin did not shine with shimmer. He seemed asleep, as Jayce had found him many times in the laboratory after hours of continuous work.
Despite that, Jayce could only feel panic. A panic that didn't leave him until he put an ear to his chest and listened. And there it was. The breath every time his lungs took in air. The beat of his heart keeping him alive.
Just like that day in the Council room, Jayce cried. He held him in his arms and hugged him with all his strength. Viktor still hadn't woken up, but he was alive. Nothing else mattered.
Just like when they were in the middle of the anomaly, he held him as if the rest of the world was fading away.
But Jayce had to get out of this trance. He had to investigate what had happened, figure out what to do now… He had to take care of Viktor.
He raised his head and looked around. The meadow felt familiar, but Jayce couldn't tell for sure where they were. He didn't even know if they were still in their own universe.
Jayce was wearing the same clothes he'd worn into battle, but Viktor only had the blanket to cover himself. Jayce wrapped it around him and took him into his arms.
He carried him just like he had that day, after the bombing. But now Jayce couldn't run. He carried Viktor and walked slowly, trying not to hurt his leg. He had no direction, just went down the hill.
After a few minutes, he could see a dirt road. That was enough to give Jayce hope and he walked towards it. If there was a road, there was civilization, there was someone to help them.
The road brought help faster than Jayce expected. He had barely started walking along it when a new sound joined the wind and the birds in the meadow. A carriage was approaching. Jayce tried to get its attention instantly.
“Help! Please! Please don't leave without us…!”
It was enough for the carriage driver to hear him and stop. He stared at them through his glasses and Jayce held his gaze, pleading for his help.
The man wiped his glasses and looked at them again.
“Could it be…?” he murmured. “Jayce Talis? Is that you?”
***
When he woke up, Viktor felt everything.
The bones in his body, the air grazing his skin. He felt the electricity of pain in every part of his nervous system. He felt the fabric wrapped around him, keeping him warm. He felt the pressure on his chest until, instinctively, he opened his mouth and took a deep breath.
He felt every memory. Every choice, every action that had led him to this point —to the end. Until everything had dissolved into blinding light and then... nothing.
When he opened his eyes, he saw only black. But it was a comforting darkness, not the kind that marked the end of life. As his pupils adjusted, the faint glow of moonlight filtering through a window revealed that it was nighttime.
Viktor tried to sit up, his joints creaking in protest. His bare feet touched the wooden floor, and his left hand instinctively reached out for support that wasn’t there. He tried to stand, like a newborn fawn following the instinct to walk.
The first thing he felt was the dizziness of lost equilibrium. Then came a sensation that eclipsed all others—one far too familiar.
He screamed louder than he thought his lungs could. His body crumpled, collapsing full length onto the floor. His hands clutched at his leg, pressing against the source of his agony as if it could bring him some relief. While he was sunk in that spiral, Viktor barely registered the world around him.
But a moment later, someone knelt beside him. A hand stroked his hair, so gentle, so full of love that it became the only sensation capable of cutting through the pain.
“Viktor…” The voice was soft, pleading. Viktor’s body shifted toward the sound and Jayce took it as a sign that he was listening. “Viktor, let me help you.”
He put his hands on Viktor's shoulders and pushed him gently back onto the bed. Viktor made no effort. The warmth of Jayce’s hands overwhelmed him, and he feared that if he made any movement the pain would return.
Jayce was able to sit him down on the bed, with his legs hanging off the mattress. He saw that Viktor’s body was shaking and he put a blanket over his shoulders.
“Easy, Viktor. I'm with you.”
He was still shaking despite the blanket, despite Jayce's hand on his back. Fearing it was too much, the man broke all contact between them.
“Don't worry. We're here, we're safe. I know it's a lot to take in, but…”
Viktor remembered the first time his nose had started bleeding in the lab. A terrible omen of his illness. The blood was coming out and he couldn't stop it. He didn't want Jayce to see it, he didn't want to keep bleeding, but he couldn't control what was attacking his body.
At that moment he felt the same way. Tears started to flow from his eyes, and he couldn't stop them. He wasn't sobbing, his breath wasn't short, but the torrent of tears wouldn't stop. And Jayce saw it.
He gently brushed his fingers against his cheek to wipe the tears away, only for more to fall immediately after.
When his breathing began to quicken, as if he had forgotten how to breathe, Jayce waited a few moments for Viktor to compose himself. When that didn't happen, he tried to comfort him as best he could. He placed a tentative hand on his back.
“Viktor. I'm with you, we're safe…”
“What place is this?” he gasped. “We shouldn't be here…”
“I know, I know, I didn't understand it either. But here we are.”
Viktor sobbed again, more tears filling his face. Once again unable to control his body and his feelings, he leaned towards Jayce, resting on his arm.
“I should have…”
Jayce did the best he could. He held Viktor in his arms and stroked his hair, trying to comfort him.
It reminded him of the way they had held each other before they had come here, in the anomaly, at what seemed like the end of all things. Viktor had comforted Jayce then.
“Easy. It’s alright, just take your time”
The whirlwind of emotions was running through his chest, destroying everything in its path. Viktor felt like he was losing control of his mind and his lips, the words coming out without him being able to think them through.
“I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Jayce, for everything. Forgive me…”
“I forgive you,” Jayce said quietly, but confidently. There was no compassion or doubt in his words, just simple, pure sincerity. “Everything is forgiven.”
That only made Viktor’s heart feel more, made everything hurt more. He moved closer to Jayce until he buried his face in his chest, in a desperate embrace. As if he was the light in the middle of all that doom.
Jayce caressed him as he kept crying.
“It’s okay. Let it out.”
When Viktor lifted his head, Jayce took his face in his hands, running his thumbs over his cheeks to wipe away the tears.
His eyes were filled with compassion and emotion. And before Viktor could understand what he was doing, Jayce kissed him on the forehead.
When Jayce looked at him, Viktor's racing heart went out of control, and he spoke once more:
"I love you."
He was feeling everything at once, all the human emotions. The ones he had repressed for months, the ones that he tried to hide and destroy.
He was falling apart, and Jayce was there to hold him, to pick up the pieces. He didn't say anything, just held him until exhaustion overcame him. Viktor fell asleep, or maybe he passed out. Somehow his body stopped shaking and his expression turned calmer.
Jayce wrapped Viktor in the blanket and laid him back down on the bed. Just like before he woke up, he didn't leave his side.