Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

It’s not quite waking up if you’re already awake.

You were clearly in the middle of something when you suddenly gained conscience, yet you can’t remember anything leading up to that moment.

Jayce Talis sits on a couch in a dark room, glowing with the flicker of warm light from the fireplace in front of him. Book shelves and various antique décor and furniture line the walls of the room. Only a few items really stand out to him: a green stained glass desk lamp, an old globe that likely holds liquor inside, hammer and tongs from the forge seemingly out of place laid out on the floor before the fireplace. However, the room as a whole is completely unrecognizable. He has no idea where he is. His head swivels slowly, mind in a haze as he tries to inspect his surroundings, unable to fully soak in what his eyes roam over. He’s confused, but calm, he feels no threat towards his well-being- in fact, he feels completely at ease and perfectly safe.

His attention lingers back to the large globe that doubles as a liquor cabinet. ‘Didn’t… Dad used to have one of those?’

“Ah, you’re awake.” A low, sensual voice comes from his right. Jayce is abruptly aware of the feet resting in his lap as his eyes follow up the connecting legs and torso and face to now recognize Viktor. He holds a worn paperback book to his chest as he addresses Jayce, a mixture of fondness and guile behind his amber eyes. “You looked exhausted when you came home, I could tell you needed that nap. Feeling better?”

‘Home?’ “O-oh, yeah. I just uh… seem to be having a hard time coming back from it. You ever have that happen?”

“Of course, it’s perfectly natural. You will come to your senses, I’m sure of it.” Viktor tilts his head as he says this. Jayce feels as though the man is looking inside of him, searching his mind and soul for something. Jayce averts his gaze, shooting one quick glance back to the blue lamp before settling on the feet in his lap. He relaxes and huffs out a soft chuckle.

“Did I fall asleep giving you a foot massage or something?” Viktor scoffs playfully in response.

“Now that you mention it, you had made the offer before you teetered off.”

“I’m sorry, let me make it up to you. How’s your bad leg do… ing?” Jayce trails off, his hand rubbing up and down Viktor’s calf, noticing immediately the lack of either leg brace. But Viktor is fully clothed in his uniform still. Jayce racks his fuzzy brain as to why or how Viktor wouldn’t at least have on his primary brace under his clothes. “Did you… did you take off your brace and put your clothes back on? I don’t understand, I thought that one needed tools to remove-“

“Jayce, what are you talking about? What brace?”

“The brace! The- the two leg braces, the one I made you and the medical grade one that’s like, attached to you… with...” His face scrunches and his blood pumps and little things start returning to him. “With pins, Viktor.”

“Jayce.” Viktor warns. Jayce dares to feel around on Viktor’s leg some more. Something is off. This is wrong. Panic sets in his bones.

“How is this possible? Just all of a sudden, no pins, no brace, I don’t… Vik, I don’t even feel the calcified tissue in your calf, how does that just vanish? Was it the hexcore?”

“You’re not going to drop this, are you?”

“Of course no-“

It’s not quite waking up if you’re already awake.

You were clearly in the middle of something when you suddenly gained conscience, yet you can’t remember anything leading up to that moment.

Jayce Talis sits on a couch in a dark room, glowing with the flicker of warm light from the fireplace in front of him. Book shelves and various antique décor and furniture line the walls of the room. Only a few items really stand out to him: a pink stained glass desk lamp, an old globe that likely holds liquor inside, hammer and tongs from the forge seemingly out of place laid out on the floor before the fireplace. However, the room as a whole is completely unrecognizable. He has no idea where he is. His head swivels slowly, mind in a haze as he tries to inspect his surroundings, unable to fully soak in what his eyes roam over. He’s confused, but calm, he feels no threat towards his well-being- in fact, he feels completely at ease and perfectly safe.

His attention lingers back to the large globe that doubles as a liquor cabinet. ‘Didn’t… Dad used to have one of those?’

A head of soft brunette hair rests on his right shoulder, the snap of a book closing yanks his attention to the man cozying up on him. Viktor rests his worn paperback book in his lap and sighs softly.

“That was useless. I didn’t get anything out of that.” Jayce hums in acknowledgement.

“What were you reading?”

“Hmm? Oh, the book.” Viktor tosses the book to the cushion next to him and smiles up at Jayce. “Forget the book. I’m just happy to have some time with you like this.”

“I know, I’m sorry I’ve been so busy. All the networking and socializing with donors, it’s not where I want to be, I promise.” Jayce rubs at the back of his neck out of guilt, his fingers grazing at the prickly blunt hair at his nape.

“And it’s not where you belong. As you said before, your place is with me in the lab.”

‘I said that?’ “Well… that is where I feel most myself. Even when we’re stressing and struggling with a tough project, it’s where I’m happiest.” Viktor takes his hand into his own and rests his head back on Jayce’s shoulder.

“It’s almost like we were meant to find each other.” Jayce tilts his head at the implication, it feels familiar. His gaze flickers back to the lamp quickly, but he doesn’t really look this time. An instinctual reflex. “I’m so glad we have finally put this awkwardness behind us, we spent so many years silently toeing that line of friendship and romance.”

‘Wait, when did we-‘

“We just need to stay together and we will accomplish such incredible things. I need you by my side, Jayce.”

“Hey, of course, I’m not going anywhere, V. I’m right here.” Jayce swings his arm over Viktor’s head and around his shoulders, bringing him in tight for reassurance.

“I’ll never leave you again, Jayce.”

It hits him like a slap to the face. Flashes of Viktor wrapped in his blue blanket, skin and flesh made into  this new purple metallic element, staff tapping on the floor with each step as he walks away from Jayce’s reach… walks away from him.

His breathing builds up as a manic energy churns in his stomach, eyes darting all over the room. Jayce turns where he sits and grabs Viktor by the shoulders tightly.

“I can fix it! Please don’t go, I’m so sorry I broke my promise! I said the wrong things, I made it about me! I-I made weapons for Caitlyn and I sullied our beautiful dream, but please, just give me a chance to fix it, Viktor! I, um, I have this idea for tools to help the workers in the mines. There’s this, uh, these gauntlets with the hexgem that will make lifting heavy objects and crushing rocks so easy, like it’s nothing, right? And this hammer-“

“Damnit.”

It’s not quite waking up if you’re already awake.

You were clearly in the middle of something when you suddenly gained conscience, yet you can’t remember anything leading up to that moment.

Jayce Talis sits on a couch in a dark room, glowing with the flicker of warm light from the fireplace in front of him. Book shelves and various antique décor and furniture line the walls of the room. Only a few items really stand out to him: a bottle of perfume sitting on the desk, an old globe that likely holds liquor inside, hammer and tongs from the forge seemingly out of place laid out on the floor before the fireplace. However, the room as a whole is completely unrecognizable. He has no idea where he is. His head swivels slowly, mind in a haze as he tries to inspect his surroundings, unable to fully soak in what his eyes roam over. He’s confused, but calm, he feels no threat towards his well-being- in fact, he feels completely at ease and perfectly safe.

His attention lingers back to the large globe that doubles as a liquor cabinet. ‘Didn’t… Dad used to have one of those?’ Now slowly back to the bottle of perfume, ‘Mom.’

From behind, he startles when the backside of fingers and a warm hand trace up the side of his neck, up behind his ear, and into his out grown hair- the other hand, flat, splayed fingers roam over his shoulder and across his chest to hold him in a half-embrace. The sensations ease the shock from his body, Jayce melts into the touch and his muscles relax completely. A breath fights it’s way out of his throat, one could easily mistake it for a whimper.

“There now. Isn’t this preferable, Jayce?” Jayce closes his eyes and basks as Viktor’s low, seductive voice washes over him. All he can muster is a hum in response. “This is a good look on you. Letting go of the manicured, polished image you thought Piltover desired,” the hand in Jayce’s hair moves smoothly to his beard, giving his jaw a good run through before tipping his head back by the chin, “and just. Being. You.” He’s growing overwhelmed by all of the touching Viktor is doing, it’s unlike his partner to engage in so much physical contact, even Jayce isn’t this handsy. But he can’t complain about what he can’t fully digest right now. He feels warm, almost sickly, floating in a pool of uncertainty and indifference because honestly, if he could think clearly, he would find that he doesn’t even care that this feels wrong.

Viktor feels wrong.

He feels wrong.

“You could be yourself around me. Just you and I. Once we complete this new dream, end the world’s suffering, usher in a new age of peace and enlightenment- you and I can exist as our true selves. No societal expectations, no fear, no insecurities, just infinitely expanding minds and paralleled beating hearts aligned in ways previously inconceivable to the human conscience. I would never judge you. I would always, only ever love you, Jayce. Only you.” Jayce finally cracks his eyes open to gaze up at Viktor, the love in his expression is dark. Viktor’s voice echoes faintly off to his left. Around the desk with the perfume bottle. He feels as though time has slowed as his head tilts and his eyes move towards the source of the disembodied voice that grows louder and louder.

“Only you

Only you you

I thought

Only can show

Dreamless solitude

Only you

Only you can show me this. ”

And like a vehicle slamming the brakes, the fog and malaise leave his mind and body, everything hits him at once.

Jayce is awake.

“No, Viktor!” Jayce tries to push himself off the couch and out of Viktor’s grasp, but in this astral, dream-like place, Viktor holds all the power. With an exasperated sigh, Viktor effortlessly pulls Jayce back into his seat with the arm around his chest, the other hand now wrapped tightly around his throat.

“I grow tired of this. This stubbornness against a chain of events you started, Jayce. You broke your promise to destroy the hexcore. You revived my lifeless body with no regard to my personal wishes or autonomy. You turned our beautiful dream into weapons of death and destruction.” Distain drips from every word like a poison as Viktor continues. Jayce claws desperately at the hand squeezing his windpipe. He knows this isn’t real, that he doesn’t actually need to breathe in this plane of existence, yet his brain is still processing this as a physical threat and the waves of primal terror and fight or flight rush through his noncorporeal veins. “And after months of separation, I forgave you, Jayce. I forgave you, and you proceeded to kill me. You blasted a hole right through my chest, my heart, Jayce! And I forgave you still!” Viktor's hand rakes over his chest, finger tips like claws caging over Jayce’s heart. “Finally, when I come to you and offer you redemption, an olive branch, you have the nerve to deny my forgiveness. To refuse me. After everything you’ve done, after everything you’ve put me through, all I wanted was for you to join me in something beautiful of your own free will. You took my heart, Jayce… so now I’m taking your choice.”

The fingers pressing into Jayce’s chest begin to glow and sink into his flesh. He would scream at the horror of it if he could. His legs kick frantically, his body twists back and forth as he tries desperately to wrench himself out of Viktor’s clutches. This thing, this man who wears the façade of his partner, hushes him like a mother consoling her crying child. His hand fishes around inside, tauntingly, before grasping Jayce’s pounding heart and pulling it out of his chest slowly. Jayce’s body goes stiff until the heart is pulled out completely with a snapping sound from its detachment. He is now fully limp, yet so, fully conscious and aware of his situation.

Viktor removes himself from Jayce completely, sauntering around the couch to stand in front of the only true friend he’s ever known. He wants him to see.

Heart still beating in his hands, Viktor cradles it carefully, smiling down with a tenderness that does not belong in a moment like this. He closes his eyes, his chest emits a cold white light and he gently presses the organ into it, engulfing it entirely before fading and disappearing.

Viktor straightens and meets Jayce’s tear flooded glare.

“Now we will never be apart.”

Jayce gasps roughly, shooting his head up from the desk in the lab he had fallen asleep on. Whipping his head around wildly to look for Viktor and take in his environment, he pushes himself to his feet, knocking over his chair in the process.

“Wha… Where… No no nononono,” Jayce stumbles his way to the hand washing sink in the corner of the lab to splash water on his face. Fists grip the edge of the sink, trembling still while he tries to calm himself. He meets his reflection in the small mirror on the wall above the sink, hardly recognizing the man staring back at him. Long wet strands of hair stick to his damp face, age lines from months of dehydration, starvation, and trauma, a beard he never dared considered growing in the past, dark green shirt a stark contrast to his usual pristine white and gold themes.

He runs his hand over his chest and breathes a sigh of relief at the feeling of his heart beating. A small comfort.

“Come to me.” Jayce snaps around, scanning the lab erratically for Viktor… but to no avail.  

He is wholly and utterly alone.

“Fuck.”

Chapter Text

A quiet unease blankets the whole of top-side Piltover. An anticipation that makes your bones feel tight, your teeth vibrate, and leaves an unsettling sensation in your chest cavity. Like something resides in there, squirming and slithering in an endless knot, ready to burst out at any given moment.

The evacuation is under way. Brave and terrified civilians are stepping up to fight for their home. Caitlyn and Mel are almost unrecognizable to Jayce- organizing, delegating, ordering officers and soldiers who look to them with such reverence. Being leaders.

Jayce should be out there too. Would be.

But the warm breath that keeps washing over the nape of his neck when no one is there has him on the sharp edge of paranoia. The dark shadows that move in his peripheral are grating at his nervous system like nails on a chalk board. Whispers of beckoning and echoes of regretful words bounce from ear to ear making it near impossible to focus. Whenever he closes his eyes he can feel Viktor watching him.

The lab feels haunted. Or maybe he is.

When finally a slender hand rests on his shoulder, he wretches his body away, snatches a small hammer from the work desk, and reels it up in the air to strike… freezing when he sees her.

“It’s just me! It’s Mel!” Mel’s hands are raised up defensively, the glow of her magic shield flickering in hesitation. Jayce stumbles back and braces himself against the desk.

“Gods- wha- Mel! You can’t do that, you can’t sneak up on me at a time like this! What were you thinking?”

“Sneak?! Jayce, I called your name from the door several times. You just told me to come in!” Though her voice is stern, her eyes are flooded with concern rather than anger. His disbelief must be clear as day on his face as he takes a moment to process. He never heard her. He never said anything. “Do you not remember?” Their eyes lock for a fleeting moment before the suspicious man turns away, palms rubbing at his tired eyes.

“I’m sorry, I’m not-… What did you need to talk about? Have any volunteers arrived from Zaun yet?”

Slowly, “Not yet, but it’s still early in the day.” She pauses. “What was that?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean, you’ve been acting off since last night. More off than you already are. You pushed so hard for Piltover to take action immediately, gave them this grand speech, started barking orders, then you just disappear and hole up in the lab… doing what? And then this?” She gestures to the hammer on the table. “I’m worried about you.”

“The mission is the mission. I know what needs to be done and nothing is going to stop me from being there when it all goes down. Viktor-will-not-win.”

“He already has.”

“What?”

“…I said what aren’t you telling me?” Jayce looks at her from over his shoulder, his heart pounding in his chest. The hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he debates whether or not to mention the dark silhouette standing just feet away in his peripheral. It taunts him soundlessly. He takes a deep breath to steel his nerves.

“I’m handling it.” He probably should tell her what’s happening, instead, he leaves her with her concerns and doubts in silence. How was he going to handle this? Why did he say that? What is there to even handle? It’s not like he can wrestle a shadow or punch the wind tickling his neck. So far, all of this can be chalked up to psychological warfare, nothing physical, tangible. He’s not in any immediate danger, he just needs to summon that mental fortitude he built for the last several months in that dark, miserable ravine.

Jayce makes his way to the nearest washroom.

Enforcers and soldiers running around with heavy boots, all of those who remained prepping for the attack, noise of hustle and bustle and panic melt into a low rumble outside and in the lower levels of the building. Luckily, Jayce thinks as he locks the door behind him, the lab is located several floors up, leaving this part of the building empty. However, immediately the word “lucky” sits in his stomach like a bite of foul food. It wasn’t lucky for Viktor all those years, was it? The university of progress in the city of progress… not as accessible as one would think.

Jayce starts running hot water in one of the hand sinks. It’s cold in here. Cold enough to clash with the unexpectedly scalding water rushing out of the faucet to create steam. Jayce stares down at the water, unable to pull his gaze away, hunching over the marble counter, hands splayed out on the exquisite stone.

Such an extravagant room for several people to huddle together to piss and shit in. Pristine white marble, gold geometric accents everywhere, crystalline glass pieces dancing and clinking and refracting the light it encases on the ceiling, the aroma. This whole building. This whole place. Not an ounce of consideration for people with disabilities. It’s disgusting. This whole place is disgusting. So much decadence top side while the undercity suffers endlessly. So much progress- progress for who!? It’s their home too, why do such greedy hands get to hold all the wealth, all the resources, let their own people starve and ache and decay and claw and cry and gasp and suffocate and bleed and break and die and suffer and suffer and SUFFER-

Jayce rips himself out of his trance, blinking over dry eyes that were held open for too long against their will, gasping for the air he hadn’t realized he stopped breathing in, moving limbs and muscles that had been locked tight into place by a force unseen. He steps back, breathing raggedly, eyes darting wildly. The washroom is pitch black now save for a faint chilling glow. It emits far back in the reflection of the large mirror that runs along the wall above the counter. A glow that he checks and notes is not in the room behind him… only in the mirror. The mirror veiled in a thick fog. All four faucets at all four sinks are gushing steaming hot water and the vapor is palpable.

Calmer now, deep breath out, he gives a slow look over his shoulder to the… the door is gone. There is no exit from this room. Am I dreaming again?

“Not exactly.” A familiar voice echoes through the room. Blood feels like ice in his veins and his muscles scream in rejection, but Jayce brings his gaze back to the mirror. And there he is. That ‘Viktor’ shaped silhouette, blurred behind the condensation. “I am losing my patience, Jayce. You delay the inevitable. There is no me without you, nor you without me.”

Jayce huffs a single laugh, “You have no idea.” The dark figure turns and slowly moves down the length of the glass, a line being cut in the fog with a lazy finger. There is an air of menace behind it.

“I am curious about this. Your mind holds memories distorted by the arcane. Whatever you experienced. Whatever changed you.”

“You want to talk about change, look at yourself. My Viktor would never hurt people or use them as puppets. Working with the Noxians to attack Piltover. I know what you’re glorious evolution is and that you’re willing to let people be massacred for it!” The fury that builds inside of Jayce gives him the push he needs. Storming up to the mirror, to the figure behind the fog, he swipes his hand through the condensation in front of his face. To his surprise, a glowing white face, features crystal clear only where the veil was removed, iridescent colors swirling, multicolor eyes glaring up at him. “Tell me I’m wro-“ The momentum screeches to a halt. The mirror and the counter and anything else distinguishable disappears into the darkness around them and that white glowing extension of Viktor’s arm and hand lunge out and wrap around Jayce’s throat. Fingers so strong it cuts the word in half in his throat as he squeezes. Viktor’s expression of rage… slipping into something sad, pitying almost, as Jayce gags and gasps and chokes for air.

“Of course you are afraid. You do not understand.” His face firms up in resolution. He’s made a decision. Viktor looks Jayce in the eye. “I will make you understand.”

And with that, Jayce wakes up on the floor outside of the lab, gasping for air while Mel shakes him by the shoulders.

“Jayce! Oh gods, oh, you’re okay! You’re okay, darling, breathe. I think you may have had a seizure.” Jayce grabs her shoulder to cut through the chaos and get her attention. There’s no more hiding it.

“Viktor, Mel. It’s Viktor.”

Back in the lab, it’s dead silent. Mel sit’s in Jayce’s old chair and contemplates while he stands several feet in front of her, hands on hips, chewing anxiously at his bottom lip.

“Well,” she starts lowly, “I wish you had told me sooner. But I understand that this is all happening very quickly.”

“But you have magic now, right? Is there a way for you to block him from my head? I have to assume that he sees what I see, knows what I know. If I go out there or talk to anyone about the plans or look at everything getting set up out there- he would know about it. It would all be pointless.” Mel shakes her head and holds up both hands.

“Woah, hold on now. This magic is too new to me, Jayce. I’m practically an infant at this stage, I can hardly form a functioning shield. I have no idea what I can and can’t do with my magic. And you saw how powerful he was back there. I don’t know-“

“Right, but last time he was here, physically… kind of. Point is, you have the home field advantage. You have more power here than he does projecting into my head.”

“I don’t think that’s how that works.”

“We have to try something, Mel. I can’t do anything from here, he keeps messing with my head.” His tone deflates and shoulders drop as his eyes focus on the space behind Mel. Shocks of purple light, a lifeless body thrashing and jolting, a muffled scream. A horrible thing he had done. A selfish act of “love” that will forever haunt him.

“Jayce?”

“No. No, it’s… fine. It’s nothing I don’t deserve.” He closes his eyes to re-focus, opening again only once he’s ready. “What if I called him back?”

“What?”

“I invite him back into my dream to talk. Maybe you find a way to contain him or repel him-“

“If I could even do any of that, as you’ve already stated, we need to assume that he knows what you know. He would know it’s a trap.”

“Then don’t tell me what you’ll do.”

“Jayce.”

“No, really, so the shield you made before, the magic you used. You didn’t know you could do any of that, you just followed your gut, your instinct- Do that again! Whatever you feel in that moment, whatever your intuition tells you. Follow it. That way I have no idea and neither will he.”

“And if I’m still no match for him?” The silence between them settles for a moment. He lets out a small sigh, stepping up to her and kneeling down on his good leg.

“There’s a reason we survived that blast in the council room, Mel. You saw the circle of protection that you left behind, and that was you without control. You are powerful. You just need to believe in yourself.” It was a nice pep-talk, but it did nothing to ease her doubts. In the end, she agrees because neither of them can think of anything else to do.

Jayce rests his head in the cradle of his arms, feeling like a school boy napping at his desk during break. It takes longer than he anticipated, but after a time, he drifts away into the darkness.

He stands alone in a sea of stars and swirling colors, an eternal and vast, all-encompassing night. But there is no sky, nor is there ground. No up or down. Nothing solid or distinguishable.

“Viktor?” His voice echoes gently into the nothingness.

“You weren’t wrong, you know? About Councilor Medarda’s powers.” Jayce turns to see Viktor circling him. He’s not as bright as before, aside from his head and hands, the rest of him is dark, full of hues of blues and greens. He seems… sad. “She is incredibly gifted, I look forward to seeing what she has in store for me.” Viktor stops moving, keeps his gaze cast downward. “But that will have to wait.” Jayce sees the opening, he needs to take control of the conversation, keep Viktor distracted for Mel to strike.

“Those memories you were curious about? I decided it might actually be a good thing if you saw them. To show you the truth.”

“And what truth is that?”

“That if you follow down this path, you will be filled with immeasurable regret and loneliness. There is no fixing it, there is no going back. You told me yourself, Viktor, in the future. Please,” Jayce reaches out a hand, “let me show you.” Viktor side-eyes the calloused hand and his confidence wavers for but a moment. Long enough to reach out in return.

Bursts of light shoot out from the delicate touch of their hands and flurry around them, as if being blown around by the wind. They both follow the lights frantically dancing around until they land, scattered all around them. Moving images emerge from their light, each a different individual scene from the last six months of Jayce’s life. The ones closest are the  most important, the ones Jayce needs Viktor to see and hear. A desolate world. Husks of humans weathering away, frozen in time as they were running for their lives or cowering together with loved ones in their dying moments. Deafening silence. Death and decay. The dolls. The fall- skip that part- the climb up the tower. Jayce’s transformed corpse in it’s final resting place. The mage, just about to turn his head as Jayce begs the question, “Why?”. Jayce turns to look at Viktor with hope in his heart… hope that shatters and leaves room for dread.

Viktor isn’t looking at the mage in front of them. He’s looking to their left, beyond Jayce, something they had passed quickly as he was being guided through the memories. Jayce notices quickly the colors inside of Viktor had darkened momentarily before returning a glaring vibrant purple. A purple he knows all too well.

“Viktor. Look at him, Viktor, it’s you! It’s always been you! Don’t you see?” Jayce throws a panicked look in the direction of whatever Viktor might be looking at and then back to him. “Listen to what he’s saying, you are literally telling yourself you were wrong, that this isn’t what you wanted at all!” Jayce grabs Viktor by the bicep yet it’s ripped away from him as his old partner pushes past with determination. “Damnit,” he hisses. Come on Mel, where are you?

“This. You fell somewhere… so very deep. That is what happened to your leg.” Viktor points to the moment of impact playing on loop, the crunch of bone, the splat onto the cold hard ground before blacking out. “And here-“ Viktor travels further away from area Jayce had curated for him. At least the distraction part is working, but Jayce can’t help but feel a stab of heart ache knowing that he couldn’t get through to him. That damn hexcore. “The loneliness, the despair.”

“All part of your plan to help me understand the reasoning behind your actions here.”

“You’re eating live salamanders, Jayce. Drinking from puddles like a dog.”

“Starvation and fighting for survival with a disability and no one to help me. Just like your childhood.” Viktor stops at one in particular. Jayce curled up next to the fire at night, muttering to himself, crying silent tears. A rough finger digs into the dirt in front of him. It’s a drawing of a cake. And the muttering is Jayce singing “happy birthday” to himself. Viktor straightens and watches, fists balled at his sides. Jayce sighs and looks away. “Not my proudest moment. But something I’m sure you can relate to from your childhood.” Jayce pauses, though the silence between them is deafening, it’s drowned out with layers upon layers of Jayce’s months of misery. He takes a deep breath. “The whole point of this was to experience life from your perspective, Viktor. To live through your struggles, climb my way out on my own like you did from the lanes, to understand your motivation- why you think you want this so badly.” Jayce shrugs. He knows Viktor isn’t listening.

“How long did you live like this?”

“I don’t know. Six? Seven months? How long ago did you leave? It wasn’t long after that when the anomaly got me.” Silence falls between them again. The noises play on from each memory, overlapping in a cacophony of torment. Sobbing, yelling, squelching, crunching, thumping, over and over and over until-

“So, without this experience… without these memories, I would have my old Jayce back.” Jayce’s stomach sinks. Wait. “A Jayce that bent the rules, performed necromancy… A Jayce that would even beg to stay by my side.” No. Viktor glares over his shoulder at Jayce, eyes glowing that familiar menacing purple. Jayce stumbles backwards. He can barely get her name out of his throat.

“Me- Me… Mel…. Melll!?”

“She’s a little busy, I’m afraid.” A hand reaches over his head from behind, fingers on his forehead, and yanks-

Jayce’s head back into the waking world. It pulls his head so hard he loses balance in his chair and is sent flying backwards to the floor with a loud crash. He rolls over to his hands and knees, shakes his head clear from the shock and the fog, snaps his head up to Mel- All goes still. That’s not possible.

Mel sits in her chair facing his direction, as she was before he went to sleep, but her limbs dangle at her side and her eyes glow white. Illuminated fingers remove themselves from her head from behind, her eyes close and she collapses back into the chair, unconscious. The thing that’s not possible moves from behind her, hunched and moving in an unnatural way. Long hair drapes in front of glowing violet eyes. An unmistakable gaping hole in it’s chest with dangling and protruding bits inside. The hole leaves the structure of the torso unstable, that’ll happen without a large chunk of spine, assuming there was any skeletal structure in that metallic abomination. Everything above the chest shifts awkwardly with each dragging step, shoulders and head almost wobbling, swaying in reaction to each movement.

Jayce whips his head around to look for his hammer and spots it several feet away, leaning against the work desk. He fumbles over his limbs to turn and lunge for his only means of protection, but there is a loud mess of metal noises as Viktor’s should-be corpse collapses to the ground- half on top of Jayce’s legs, pinning him to the floor with his unexpected heaviness. Viktor’s pale face peers through the curtain of hair, eyebrows furrow as he reaches up slowly to drag himself up Jayce’s body.

“It is going to be okay, Jayce. I know you are afraid, I will fix that. I only want us to be together again.”

“Get off of me!” Jayce tries his best to kick and hit and pull and push, anything to get out of Viktor’s grasp. But Viktor’s body, even in this state, is too strong, too heavy, and Jayce is only human. “No. No!” Viktor drags himself up and up, painfully slowly.

“I’m not going to hurt you, I just need fix your head.” Jayce’s arm shoots out, reaching in futile effort for the hammer he knows he will not grasp in time. “If you just forget what the anomaly did to you, if you bring back my Jayce-“ Viktor is now eye to eye with him, straddling him at his waist, both hands press their fingers on the sides of Jayce’s head, buried into his messy hair. The panic turns primal, it’s like nothing Jayce had ever felt before as his legs twist and kick and buck and his fists pound and slam and push on Viktor to no avail.

“Don’t you dare! Don’t you fucking dare! No!”

“Just close your eyes, it will be over quickly.”

“Don’t touch my memories! Just kill me, Viktor, you win, just kill me! Don’t do this!” Tears splash down on Jayce’s face before those cold metal fingers glow and sink into his head. His eyes radiate a white light and his body seizes. Still, he manages to squeeze out, “N-no, Viktor. Please. Please stop.”

“I will take away all that pain.”

“Stop.”

“All of those months of torment.”

“I need them.”

“Any notion of a mission,”

“No, Viktor-“

“The anomaly-“

“Please.”

“Everything will be perfect.”

“I’ll never forgive you.”

“You can’t forgive what you don’t remember.”