Chapter Text
He floated alone amidst a sea of stars, wisps of swirling iridescent energy rising up around him as he drifted.
"You could have had this, Viktor." Sky's voice echoed around him, causing Viktor to recoil in shock. "You could have had the Celestial Realm to explore, and the Arcane at your fingertips." She appeared before him, a shifting miasma of purple fractaline swirls. "But you rejected it. You burned off the gift the Arcane granted you and doomed yourself to death." She swam through the void around him, rotating her body so that she always faced him. "Why?"
Viktor recoiled. "Because you died, Sky!" He snapped, trying to drift backward away from her and awkwardly flailing around in the void. "The Hexcore is too dangerous to exist!"
She frowned. "If you wanted it to stop being a problem, why did you put it into Jayce?" She stepped forward as if on an invisible platform. "You don't know if he's going to come out of that cocoon at all-or even if the thing that comes out will still be him." Sky's path brought her right up to Viktor, who found himself immobilized. "If the Hexcore is such a problem, then why haven't you tried to kill it while it's immobile?" Viktor's eyes widened in horror, and he tried in vain to move away. "You have thought about it," Sky gasped, her own eyes widening slightly. "You've genuinely considered killing Jayce while he's stuck in the cocoon to spare him from whatever the Hexcore will do to him." She frowned, an uncharacteristic sneer twisting her lips. "And I thought you loved him." Her lip curled as she spat the word "loved".
"I-I-" Viktor couldn't respond to the apparition. For as much as he'd tried to bury his feelings for Jayce in his work and research, as much as he'd tried to distract himself with flings and later with his research when his condition deteriorated, he could never cleave out the affection for his partner. "I could not lose him," he finally got out. "He was dead, and the Hexcore was my only chance to save him." Tears came to his eyes at the memory of Jayce's body staring lifelessly ahead, a piece of metal from the councilor's table impaling his body side his being ripped off by shrapnel. (He was right there. Viktor should have died instead, why had he lived while the best person he knew had been consumed by the blast-)
A swirl of something behind Sky caught Viktor's eye. He looked over her head and gasped: Jayce, being wrapped in the cruel tendrils of the Arcane, sinister fractals growing out from his chest-
"AAAH!"
Viktor jolted awake from the nightmare as a loud shriek echoed through the lab, the blanket falling to the ground behind him. He shot up and grabbed his crutch, trying to ignore the pain in the stump as he turned to face the source of the noise-and almost dropped his crutch in shock. "Jayce?" He asked hesitantly, slowly rising to his feet and tightening his grip on his crutch as he regarded the altered form of his partner.
"...Viktor?" Jayce looked disoriented, his dark brown hair matted and his eyes (Oh Janna, what was wrong with his eyes-) unfocused and freaked out. "What... What happened?" He looked around at the room, at the desk and floor covered in blood. "What happened to the lab?!" Then he looked down at his hands and body, now transmuted into an unsettling metal-like substance, then back at him, his iridescent eyes wide. "What-what happened to me?"
Viktor took a deep breath, trying not to panic as he looked over his transformed partner. "Jayce," he repeated, "What's the last thing you remember?" He fought to keep the quaver out of his voice.
Jayce frowned, shaking his head. "The Council chamber..." he recalled, his brow furrowed. "We were trying to give Zaun independence." He frowned. "Then there was a flash, everything exploded-" he looked up at Viktor, realization in his eyes. "Was... Was I dead?"
Viktor grimaced, his eyes locked on Jayce's altered form. "Yes," he confessed in rising horror. The only part of Jayce that still had human skin was on his face-the rest was a familiar metallic purple, with patches of gold covering his body. The red-and-gold shoulder pads from his ruined coat had now fused with his body, an iridescent sheen coating them and hardening them to be metallic. Thick patches of gold coated the back of his fingers, hands, and wrists in a manner reminiscent of armored gauntlets, with similar patches across the chest and legs bearing the outline of old armor. Strikingly, the spot on his side where he had been impaled, and the place where his left leg had almost been torn off, were both coated in full armored gold plates.
But most notable of all were his unsettlingly-iridescent eyes, bearing only a hint of dull gold.
(Before he could stop himself, Viktor's eyes flicked down to look-yep, there it was. Decently-sized, and similarly lined with gold. It... Actually looked pretty nice, compared to the rest of the Hexcore's changes. He might've held the gaze for a full second too long before returning to the rest of Jayce's body.)
"I'm alive." Jayce looked over his transformed body, then looked back at Viktor, his expression brightening. "You're alive!" And with that, he lunged forward and threw his arms around Viktor in a tight hug, causing the Zaunite to freeze up. "Oh, thank god you're okay." His touch was cool and felt like fine metal cabling, a faint buzz underneath his metal skin like current running through a livewire. Viktor was frozen in surprise at the touch. After a moment, he reached out his arms and hesitantly returned the hug, his hand slowly coming to lay across his partner's metallic back. The Hexcore gave no indication of activity or recognition-just Jayce's normal affectionate embrace.
After a second, Jayce pulled back. "Are you okay, Viktor?" He asked, concern lighting across his face. "What happened here?" He indicated the patches of dried blood.
Viktor sighed. "That is... A long story," he replied, "That I will tell you later." He realized something. "Aren't... you cold?"
"It's weird," Jayce replied, "I don't really feel cold?" He looked at a purple-and-gold hand with a puzzled expression. "I don't really know how to describe it. It's like... A recursive impulse, almost? There's a weird charge in the air like when someone is messing with those really big electrical coils on Progress Day-but not exactly?" He frowned. "It's strange." He looked back at Viktor, his eyes wide. "We have so much research to do."
"Jayce..."
"I understand now, why you were experimenting with the Hexcore." Jayce looked himself over. "This is incredible!" He ran a hand over his arm. "Total transmutation of flesh into metal, and reinforcing the limbs..." He spread his arms and rotated around to get a better look at himself. (Viktor tried and failed to stop himself from glancing down again.) "This is a massive breakthrough!"
"It killed Sky." The words fell out before he could stop them. "And now it's part of you." Against Viktor's will, tears came to his eyes before he blinked them away. "Inextricably bound to you, because of me."
What had he done?
Jayce deflated. "Oh." He looked at his partner, remembering him standing on the ledge a few scant days ago, and immediately put the pieces together. "Viktor, I'm so sorry." Tentatively, he laced a hand on his shoulder. "I didn't know."
"And yet, I could not destroy it." He looked away. "I should have-but you were dead, and I saw no other option."
"Viktor, I'm alive." Iridescent, multicolored eyes met gold. "What happened to Sky is horrible, and I won't make light of that or downplay it. But I'm alive because of you-and we can make sure nothing like that ever happens again." His grip grew firm. "I promise." His gaze flickered down, then he blinked at a flash of bronze. "Wait, what happened to your leg?"
Viktor blinked at the abrupt topic change. "Ah, it is the prosthetic I was working on." He pulled up his pant leg to reveal the incomplete-yet-functional limb. "The Hexcore fried my leg when I was reviving you, so I needed to remove it." He indicated some of the dried blood. It wasn't exactly a lie, per se- it was still technically true, and he didn't feel inclined to tell Jayce the full truth. Revulsion rose in his gut. "That is where the blood comes from-I just forgot to clean it up." He flexed the toes. I need some time to get used to it, though-and to ensue the stump doesn't get infected."
Jayce frowned, looking increasingly disturbed, but accepted the answer. "Okay. We need to clean this up." He pulled one of the lab drawers open and pulled out a set of his spare clothes. "And you need to go to a doctor to ge the stump looked at as soon as possible." At Viktor's protest, Jayce continued: "Cauterized wounds can still get infected, and I don't want to make your illness worse." He slid his shirt over his metallic chest, faint hints of a purple glow shining through the fabric. "While you're gone, I'll try to clean some of this up."
Viktor sighed. He would protest further, insist that he was fine, but he wasn't going to change Jayce's mind on this-and he did need to clear his head and think about the events of the past few days. He picked his crutch back up and started towards the door.
Viktor?" He stopped and turned to look at Jayce, who looked worried. "I know that this," he indicated his Hex-Augmented body, "Is probably making you uncomfortable. And I know that doctors take time. But please: promise me you'll come back soon."
Viktor smiled sadly at Jayce, moving to take his partner's hand and forcing himself to look him in the iridescent gaze even as revulsion and horror swam in his gut. "It is affection that holds us together," he stated, "And that has not changed." And yet, he thought to himself, Our paths have diverged long ago. Can affection override the weight of guilt over what I did to you and Sky? "I will return when I can." (If only that were true.)
And on that final note, he let go of Jayce's hands and left him, and the lab, behind.