Chapter 2
The world spun and spilled inward, drowning him in a barrage of senses. Reality weighed heavy. So heavy. There wasn't a heaviness before. He was free then. What was then? Where was then? Why did it leave him? No… why did he leave it?
Him. What was he? A whisper. A hum. A frequency. Frequency. Molecules swimming through the air. They were slow here. Barely colliding. Reminded him of... breath clouded as it exhaled. Cold. That was it. The room was cold.
He didn’t think it should have taken him that long to figure that out. A distant ache thrummed far, far away. He looked inside. Electric charges are hotter than the stars shot along synapses. Glands and veins stretched and grew like roots. Parts of him grew and died and Rotted and Regrew and ADapted And EXPanded and DIEd ANd EVOLVED EVOLVED EVOLVEDEVOLVEDEVOLVEDEVOLV-
He looked outside. Too much. It was all too much and too little at once. He tried to stay outside. Focus on the… what was it? Solid surfaces pressed against one side of outside. Physical. That's it. A vibration thrummed through the air, startling him. Sound. He forgot that. He made that. He hummed. This was not new. He made another sound. Lower. Less good. Maybe? Ugh, emotion was too much to tackle right now. Another sound. That hum again. It was distant. Was it sound?
He looked around. Actually properly looked. Light entered, refracted and detected and organised, sending signals shooting back to the inside (no notinside no No NONONONO) and he perceived the world. He was getting the hang of this.
How well could he pilot a body though? That was the real question. That's what they called outside. He was standing now. The instinct was probably a good thing. Upright on the two lower… things. They were wobbly. Definitely new. The surface they stood on was of a very low vibrational frequency. Cold. Must remember that it's cold. He sensed it, his feet shifting and tapping on the surface. He didn't think most people assessed the frequencies of an object to determine its temperature. They just… felt it. How lucky they were.
A faraway instinct told him that most people didn’t see the glowing marks though. They were everywhere, scattered across the floor and all over the surfaces of the room. Sprinkled across tools and tables and other things that his brain hadn't caught up to yet. (That was what inside was!) He put his foot over one on the floor. Same shape, just smaller. A print of sorts. Foot… print. He looked at one splayed across a table. It matched the end of his upper limb, but smaller and wider. The longer bits spreading out from the centre were far, far shorter. What was it… hand. Handprint. That annoying instinct was back. As well as that hum. It was louder now. Calling him to something. But the instinct was more… grating. Didn't let him focus. These things didn't feel new at all, so why was he piecing them together so slowly? He looked back at his hand and clenched it a few times. The motion felt familiar, comforting. Why were his fingers so long? And so purple? It's cold but it's not that cold.
He took a step. Shaky, but sure. His right leg buckled slightly and dragged. Nothing felt wrong. No pain, just a strange numbness everywhere. Why was his leg doing that then? It felt so familiar, so annoyingly close that he made another sound, a grinding low rattle. That hum was nearly screaming at him now, pulling him closer and closer. Closer to what?! He almost yelled out.
He looked up.
Oh.
Probably that.
A body lay limp in the air, suspended like a bug on a mobile. Metal carved and curled across its form protectively with a blue cape pinned into place by the steel plates like an afterthought of style. A third arm hung from a clunky pauldron on the body's right shoulder, as inert as the rest of the body, save for a dim pulsing light at the palm. But the face… concealed in metal like the rest of the body, the harsh, cutting lines of the mask both daunting and oh so familiar. Five glowing points strung up by beams of light suspended the rest of the body. All on the face. Three on the forehead. Two on each cheekbones.
And then he remembered.
Viktor. He was Viktor.
And he was a monster.
He tried to take a breath. He couldn't. There was nothing. No mouth, no esophagus. No lungs. He lifted his hands to tear open his throat, just to get the air in, just to feel something. But his flesh froze him. Gnarled and twisted like a long dead tree, the rotted purple like a long dead corpse. His fingers were too long, his palms were too small. His nails capped off with a golden shine like an elegant flourish finishing off a purple-coated nightmare. He stepped back instinctively and whirled around as he collided with a solid surface with a low thunk..
The glass tank before him revealed the truth. The rotted twisting that covered his hands had extended to his whole body, emaciated to the point of inhumanity. His joints were protruding and deformed, akin to a marionette, its paint and coverings peeled away to expose mechanical guts. He wasn't even sure if a doll's hips could appear that disconnected from the legs and still remain attached. But clearly whatever cruel magic held him together didn't care for such rules. The flesh that still clung to his bones was bound by strips of the same warped gold that tipped his fingertips, like shackles and chains tethering him to this grotesque form. But the worst was his face. Or, lack thereof. He could still see the edges of his humanity in the corners of the mask, eyes stretched open in horror. But even the horrified remnants of his old self were overshadowed by the terrifying coldness of his new face. It could hardly be called that. Plain and simple and horrible, it almost looked like an arrow pointing upwards, devoid of any discernible features that would identify it as a human face. No nose, no ears, no mouth. No wonder he couldn't breathe. Only a pair of eyes, sunken into that awful shape, gleaming gold from within.
Fear and disgust and pure panic flowed through him, replacing the blood he probably no longer had. The thought filled an overflowing dam with yet more disgust, despair, panic, yet the eyes showed nothing of his internal turmoil. Just a vague, low-lidded boredom shone out of his eyes as he clawed desperately at this mask. It was no use. No amount of thrashing and tearing would remove his own face. He shattered the tank in front of him in his desperation. A thick, pale green liquid flooded the floor of the strange room. He collapsed to the floor, knees sunken into the solution. And yet he felt nothing. Not the sudden texture change, not the thickness of it, hells, he couldn't even tell if it was warm or cold. A buzzing from the back of his head told him he could if he just focused, but what was the point? He was locked inside this monstrous form, sealed inside so perfectly, only the faintest glimmer from his eyes could escape. He dimly wondered if this was his punishment, for all the years he wished for a body he could control, just for once in his life. Nonsense, the buzzing buzzed, and yet here he was.
A scream ripped from a throat that had no escape, and yet it echoed around the cold room, making the suspended figure shiver. That low buzzing grew in pitch, growing more noticeable over the cacophony in his head. He was stuck. Trapped. He fell forward, his hands sinking into the viscous fluid as they pressed against the floor. What could he do? How could he even begin to live like this? Piltover and Zaun would see him only as a monster now. And they would be correct. Not just for his appearance, but for what he had done. The harm he had caused. Nothing could hide him from their rightful fury now, least so his appearance. How could he face them now? His fingers balled into fists, painfully digging into his palms. How could he face anyone? His people, his professors, his peers.
How could he face him?
The buzzing finally adjusted, a radio frequency tuned in.
Jayce.
“Viktor.”
A lovely tone spoke in the low thrum of the room. Warm, golden hands reached into his view and gently cupped his face, drawing it upwards like a flower to the sun. There he was. Jayce. Happy and young and beautiful. So beautiful. He was so pleased to see that smile that he barely registered how much younger it was. His face was unscarred and clean-shaven, the academy uniform pressed cleanly to his body, which seemed to blur and glow at the edges. But right now, all he cared about was the relief that creased in the corners of his eyes and spilled down his cheeks, how he could feel his thumb rub against the sides of the twisted mask he now had as a face. But Jayce’s wide smile just broke into a grin, with a choked off little laugh.
“I nearly lost you there love. Again.”
More laughter tore from Jayce’s throat as a hand wrapped around the back of Viktor’s neck and drew it closer, breathing a long-held sigh of relief as their foreheads pressed together.
⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆
Instantly, the grayscale reality melted away around them. The nightmarish body melted away in chunks until his soul was bare and pure and him once more. The cosmic colours they had been traveling for who knows how long now seeped back in around him, swirling close and bathing him in its ethereal beauty. Even all those stars now seemed to twinkle ‘you’re home!’ His giggles harmonised with Jayce’s and his hands found their way snaking around him in response, holding him close and almost shaking with relief. It was just a dream. It wasn't real. He was here again, with Jayce. He was safe. He was home.
Jayce pulled away for a moment, noses still just an inch from one anothers.
“You know, you really have to stop doing that.”
Another burst of giggles broke from Viktor's throat as he closed the gap between them and pressed his lips to Jayce’s. It felt like a sip of cool water after a warm summer day. He felt Jayce relax and sigh, melting against his lips.
It was only when he heard a sharp gasp that he became aware of the presence of a third. He swung his head to the left to see… him? At this point in their journey, both Jayce and him had seen so many different variants of one another, but they almost always looked identical. This man was clearly a different person. Although, the differences were small. Thinner nose, longer mouth, closer eyes topped by delicately arched eyebrows rather than his bushy, thick ones. But no one could deny the resemblance. Brothers in flesh, rather than twins, divergent to all the others. Possibly in more ways than one, if the glimpse he saw into his mind had any truth.
Currently, the other Viktor was floating in a kind of bubble. As it jolted around the man, Viktor remembered the gyroscopic nature of the Hexcore, the hypnotic twists and turns mirrored in this new prison for his warped reflection. The memory made his head throb, and he forced his attention back to the man. His mouth hung open and his eyes were wide with shock. He saw his jaw twitch, like he was about to say something, but before a word could escape his lips, Jayce waved a hand and the web-like gaps in the membrane surrounding the man were filled, blocking any line of sight. Viktor turned back to Jayce with a frown.
“I believe I'm missing something. Jayce, what happened?”
Jayce turns back to him, guilt shining in those wide eyes. A hand wavers in front of him, hesitating to grab Viktor’s.
“How much do you remember?”
Viktor pinches his lips together and slowly holds his hand out in response. Jayce takes it eagerly, squeezing their fingers together.
“We found a new universe. Trailing at the outskirts of our limits. We decided to take a leap and try to connect with it, maybe hoping to spread to new horizons. It was...so different. I wanted to see just how different, map our trajectories, analyse the catalysts that spread our stories apart. But…”
Viktor feels his mind growing fuzzy, like a photo being burnt by sunlight. It ached to think about. Jayce squeezed his hand again, his other reaching up to Viktor’s face. He jerked back, his head burning. Jayce quickly withdrew as to not get burnt.
“You tried to link with him as usual.” He says, nodding his head to the anomaly. “But something was… off. I think our assessments were wrong. I don't know what happened, but the psychic link didn’t work. Next thing I know, our mental protections are just… gone. And you were being dragged away.”
Jayce’s face twists, his frown lines shadowed by the celestial light. Viktor instinctively rubbed his thumb between his eyebrows, an old gesture his mother would do to his father. The fond memory served to brighten both of their moods as Jayce sighed and leaned into the touch. A small laugh huffed out of Viktor’s nose as he traced the arch of Jayce’s cheek with his thumb as the man kissed his palm. After a while, he spoke.
“Viktor… I think I messed this up.”
Viktor sighs but doesn't bring his hand away.
“Tell me.”
Jayce took a steady breath and stood back, slipping from Viktors grasp.
“I just had a flash, about… everything that happened before. It was just you getting dragged away again. It was a nightmare. But.. I don't know how it happened.”
Jayce spoke in a higher tone, shaking his head.
“I think maybe I was somehow saving you..? With the arcane. The stars were flying, as if responding to me. But all it had to work with were those horrors flying through my head. The commune, the battle, everything.”
Jayce looked off into the distance, chewing at his lip like it owed him money.
Viktor stayed quiet for a moment, just absentmindedly rubbing Jayce’s cheek with his thumb. A sudden thought sunk into his head like a cold splash of water and he brought his hand away.
“Wait. is all of that real? That nightmare, it's what I have to go back to?”
Jayce’s eyes met his much wider than before and his head began to shake in a panic, immediately reaching out to comfort Viktor. But it was his turn to step back, eyes twitching back and forth as unpleasant memories began to resurface. It wasn't a dream. He had to face it again. Jayce was rattling off frantic apologies, hands waving in front of him like he was trying to cast a spell to undo the damage he caused. Viktor felt his words fade underneath the whine in his head until his thoughts finally clicked into gear. He raised his hand, and Jayce fell silent.
“You created a spontaneous physical form for me to inhabit in a physical world, from nothing but the arcane and your panic memories. This is a remarkable discovery, Jayce.”
Jayce’s eyebrows furrowed, no doubt confused, but Viktor’s mind had shot by long ago, faster than a hare in a forest fire.
“Despite the circumstance, this incident poses remarkable implications for the scope of our power. Manifesting a perfect, functioning replica from a hazy memory out of nothing but magic? What else could we generate with more time and effort? The possibilities to explore…”
Viktor trailed off as he watched a faint greenish hue spread up Jayce’s arms. He looked up and met worried-filled eyes.
“And of course, more importantly, it is certain we can fix this mishap. Do not trouble yourself Jayce. We will solve this, together.”
A small smile creeped onto his partner's face, twitching hesitantly at the corners. Jayce raised his arms for a hug, and Viktor quickly obliged. Temperature didn't really exist in this plane, but he swore he could feel a faint relieved heat washing over their forms.
“Alright that's enough. Let me go!”
Jayce chuckled a little and released him, although not without a quick kiss to the cheek. Viktor didn't address it.
“First things first, control test.”
Viktor sighed and shifted, reaching his soul out to the stars. Jayce did the same in unison, their souls floating away like balloons slipping from the hand of a careless child. The cosmos soared around them. It was so difficult for them in the beginning. They treated everything like a physical place, grunting against the current. But they quickly learnt that delicate precision was a better travel companion than brute force, slipping down the tides of time in a giddy rush. The freedom was intoxicating.
But Viktor quickly found himself caught. The parent snatching the loose string as it drifted from the small, inattentive hand. He gazed at the stars for a beat and let himself be pulled back. Jayce was at his side, as always.
A silence hung between them, before Viktor spoke.
“Seems like we're here for a while. We should get comfortable. Maybe some plants would compliment the endless nebula’s”
His words were dry and biting, glaring a hole through the webbed cage.
A warm hand settled on his shoulder. The gentle comfort grated at him, but he didn't let himself push it away.
“I don't know, I think a nice rug would suit it more.”
Viktor turned and saw the apology shining at the edges of Jayce’s eyes. He decided to seize it first.
“I am sorry Jayce. I am in no way mad at you. I suppose being free for so long, only to be chained to a physical reminder of your sins… it's a distressing position, but I do not blame you for it in any way.”
Jayce only nodded as his eyes drifted towards the cage, his face unreadable. But when he turned back, he was smiling again, holding open his arms. Viktor shook his head, scratching the non-existent skin of his arms.
“Not right now. We need to figure out what's happened, as clearly as we can. Then we can start to plan out a solution.”
Jayce nods along.
“Then, should we take a peek at the lifeline?”
Viktor nods.
“My thoughts exactly.”
Once the dust had metaphorically settled, once the wounds had scabbed over and the tears had been shed, it was inescapable that they would explore. Learn. Dive deeper. They had to plunge into the unknown once more. At least it was only their lives at stake this time.
Or so they thought. But as they faded through the cosmos down, down, down, they realised it wasn't just them. It was everything. Literally everything, more or less. A million timelines woven out before them like the most elaborate tapestry imaginable. And they knew they were only seeing a fraction of it, the tiny strands that they were.
Of course, this revelation wasn't exactly easy to take. Jayce ended up throwing up from the panic, which they didn't even realise was possible. So a day of discovery on all fronts! It took them both a while to acclimate to the scale, taking measured visits to the place. But now, it was easy. Very easy, when they were together. Viktor thought of it as a blimp ride. Thrilling and beautiful, but not something to stick around on. Jayce still felt queasy if he studied it for too long.
⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆
Their minds shuddered and pressed together as their metaphysical bodies melted away into the cosmos. All that they were and all they ever could be, stretched out on a single branch of an infinite tree. They were dust specks, not flying haphazardly through existence, but caught in a beautiful transcendent orbit beyond their understanding. But they had a purpose here. They adopted a diverting current and floated out to the fraying strand, straying from the main branch so far that you couldn’t tell if it was even connected at first glance.
They settled over the line, assessing its twists and turns while carefully positioned so infinity couldn’t peek into their peripheral. But something was wrong. Other than the distance from all other timelines. A small twinkling mass was pulsing, tangled deep into the fibres of the story. One that wasn't there before. They both assessed it closer, recognising the purplish erratic light splattering out. Viktor’s consciousness shuddered and pulled back, while Jayce held him steady. While smoothing out the creases around the edges of the wound, he began to unpick the webby strings from the timeline. Viktor joined him after a beat. The anomaly was sticky and reluctant to leave. It squirmed against them and thrashed its tendrils deeper. Jayce paused, estimating objectives while Viktor worked like a man possessed; he pulled and pulled and pulled.
The anomaly squealed and buzzed, only aggravated by the onslaught. Finally, it snapped at the intrusion. Howls and murmurs echoed through the space, the frequency itching at both their consciousness. The universe shuddered and twinged at the irritation like an overstrung violin. That wasn't the troubling part however. That would be the very real, very human scream that wailed from its centre. Both Jayce and Viktor straightened at the sound and quickly squeezed through the gaps in the anomaly, shrinking and swerving to dodge the webs till they found the source of the scream. A small gleaming life, caught in the web, tied in the tendrils. It pulsed and flickered in the hellish glow surrounding it, and Jayce reached out, settling its frantic beats to a steady rhythm. He brushed against its bindings, and the anomaly immediately reacted, tightening its grip on the life and pulling it deeper, hiding it from view.
⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆
It was all they needed to see. Jayce and Viktor broke apart, silent and pale-faced. Or they would be if they still had blood. Viktor let out a hysterical giggle at the thought and brought a hand to his mouth, turning his gaze back towards the cage.
“He's trapped in it. Whatever I did, we can't undo it without killing him.” Jayce spoke, voice shaky.
“Equifinality principle, Jayce. There are other options we haven’t explored.”
Jayce’s eyes were still trained on the cage.
“Murphy's Law. No matter what we do, it'll go wrong.”
“Eh, I think in this case that's a slippery slope fallacy.”
Jayce’s eyes flickered from where they were locked on the bubble.
“Isn't that a debating term? Where’d you learn that?”
Viktor shrugged.
“Eh you sit in on enough lectures for Heimerdinger, you learn a lot about topics you don't care about. Did you know that according to certain behaviours, it's been proven that elephants think that humans are cute?”
Jayce finally looked back at him.
“Really?”
“No, I just thought that would get your attention.” Viktor said with a sly smile.
Jayce huffed a weak chuckle and dragged a hand through his hair.
“How can you be so calm about this?”
“Think of it in perspective of all that we’ve been through. Think of all the tools we have on our side on this turn. We have time, a stable environment, and most importantly, previous experience on how to deal with this exact circumstance. We have all the cards, Jayce.”
His partner only shook his head at this.
“There are still lives at stake Viktor. Not just him-” He said, gesturing to the cage. “-but this entire timeline! If the anomaly spreads-”
“We don't know that it will do that.” Viktor interrupts. “Remember that this likely isn't the same abomination that i- …that we dealt with before. Just a manifestation of your nightmares. There are so many factors at stake and it's ridiculous to skip to the very worst one!”
“Wonder why I'm doing that!”
Viktor realised too late that he had raised his voice when Jayce’s words responded, their accusing tone cutting through him. They were silent a moment more before Viktor sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.
“I'm not saying your fears are unfounded Jayce. It is simply irrational to panic in a fairly controlled situation. This… this is my nightmare too. That old monstrous form, the anomaly… do you think I'm not also scared of the implications of this? I have to live it! But one of us needs to keep a level head about it, and apparently it's not you.”
Viktor decided to let go of the dam and let the true fear seep into his voice. He pressed his lips together and turned his back on the cage. If he glanced at its twitching form once more he may actually start crying. He felt a warm hand press on his shoulder. He didn't shove it off, but he did flinch away. The hand tightened its grip for a moment before slipping off.
“I'm sorry Viktor. The guns-blazing route has become something of a habit. Meanwhile I left you to actually sort the problem.” Jayce gave a humourless huff. “I won't leave you alone in this. I promise. And I double-promise to keep this one.”
At that, Viktor chuckled.
“I suppose it's a bit easier to keep than the other one.”
Viktor met Jayces eyes finally and turned, letting the cage seep into his peripheral before immediately hiding it as he wrapped his arms around Jayce. He leaned his cheek to Jayce’s chest and his partner pushed his nose into his hair. Fingers traced circles into skin, and neither of them smiled.
“Time to go.” Viktor whispered after an infinite moment.
Jayce nodded into his hair.
“I’ll be right behind you.”
Viktor closed his eyes.
⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆
Then he opened them.
Properly this time.
Wait, did he even have eyelids?
Anyway, back to hellish twisted form. Even just looking at his hand made him want to puke. But seeing as he didn't have a mouth, that probably wasn't a great idea.
Shuffling in place, he felt it. A phantom ache in his right leg. He put his weight on it experimentally. Not the sharp stab of pain deep in his muscles, one he had grown accustomed to for so many years. No, it was more of a numbness. A restricting cold that wrapped around his calf, twisting into his thigh, hindering his movement. Despite everything, the feeling brought him comfort. That for all bodies this monstrous ‘perfection’, the weakness he had nursed for years had somehow crawled its way back to him. Maybe he wasn't so lost after all.
He took the time to properly survey the room. He seemed to be in a lab of some sort, musty and rotten, most surfaces thick with dust and cobwebs. Even the steel door seemed unused, almost rusted to the wall. The centre of the room was cleaner though, and clear paths had been tracked through the thick layer of grime on the floor. Still, it was obvious that the inhabitant didn’t waste time on things like hygiene. Inspecting the manic scrabbling pasted to the wall on peeling paper, it was evident they had greater plans on their mind. A dirty operating table sat tilted against the wall, certain stains still corrupting the surface. Glass tanks of glowing green liquid lined one wall, mostly empty except for a few mechanical instruments floating in the goo. However, the tanks seemed old, the glass foggy and cracked. A rather clean looking wall panel was noticeably tucked behind one. Interesting. A workbench sat at the heart of the laboratory, surrounded by tools and machinery and piles of books, as well as a still steaming mug.
Having exhausted all other topics to look at, Viktor’s eyes reluctantly fell on the body suspended in the air.
Now that he was of a sounder mind, he assessed how clunky and awkward some of the enhancements seemed. The chest coverings were ok, but the pauldron and brace on his right leg seemed exaggerated and gaudy. Aesthetics were not the point of mechanics, but even so! It made the figure look more like a toy robot than a person.
Maybe that was the point. Cover up any remnants of humanity.
And maybe he was just trying to distract himself.
Viktor felt his fingers twitch as he looked upon the mask. Instead of the bright orange he remembered vaguely from the astral plane, the eyes glowed a dim gold, reflected in the undertones of the five finger marks on his forehead holding him up like a puppet. But then he saw something he had missed before. On the edges of his mask, just above the fingerprints, the material seemed to be dissolving. Or at least, it had been. All was still now, glowing specks floating motionless in the air. He limped forward.
“What is it?”
Viktor turned. Jayce was here, always with him.
But changed, just as he had. His partner lacked the full beard Viktor had grown fond of. Instead, Jayce’s face was clean shaven and scarless, the same face that had hunched over the only intact chair in a collapsing apartment. The same clothes too, his old academy uniform, wrinkled and dusty from that day's events. How odd.
“What? Something on my face?” Jayce joked after Viktor had stared too long without any comment.
“Yes. An entirely new one.”
A crease between Jayce’s eyebrows formed and he glanced down at himself, surveying his clothes and rubbing a hand over his face.
“It seems we both must make changes in this new world.” Viktor chuckled as Jayce’s hand lingered over his smooth chin with a frown. It also seemed they were both displeased with such a change. He glanced down at the warped purple skin of his hand. A physical manifestation of his darkest time. A manifestation that Jayce created from his own worst nightmares. At least Viktor could kind of forget what he looked like. Jayce had to look at him all the time.
His fingers clenched, creaking as metal and magic scraped against one another. A warped clicking sound echoed out, and only when Jayce glanced at him oddly did Viktor realise that he made it. He cleared his throat, despite not having a mouth to do so. Not the time for that train of thought!
“Jayce, I won't force you to be here. Maybe you should go back. I'm sure my counterpart would like some answers.”
Jayce glanced at the floating body and gave a little hum.
“He can wait a bit longer. You're not the only one who'd like answers as to how this all happened.” Jayce replied lightly, striding over to the figure and poking it with a single finger. It swayed slightly from the touch. “And stop stressing out. It’s not as bad as you think it is.”
Viktor chuckled, fists finally unclenching.
“I can't understand how you are being so calm with this.”
“Oh, so first you get annoyed that I'm panicking, now you're confused as to why I'm calm?” Jayce said with a raised eyebrow, glancing at Viktor over his shoulder.
Viktor stayed silent, watching the suspended figure lose momentum and go still. A sigh from Jayce drew his eyes back to his partner.
“It's… it’s like our old risk assessments for the hex gates. We would be up all night testing and retesting every possible malfunction till we’d make ourselves sick with worry. But when the morning came, it was never as bad as we thought. 90% of what we worried about was null, and anything else was necessary criticism. And I guess, it's different now, with you. Different than before.”
Viktor tilted his head to the side.
“Elaborate.”
A warm chuckle escaped Jayce’s throat and he walked over to Viktor, taking his hand gently. The physical sensation was non-existent, but Viktor’s fingers still tightened in the grip.
“It’s you. Not the Herald. Not the Hex Core. You. I can see it. I can see you. And you’re really not that bad, I promise.” Jayce says, pressing a soft kiss to his knuckles. He can barely feel it.
Viktor squeezes Jayce’s hand briefly. It feels like slightly tingly air, nothing else. His head dips in a brief nod before his eyes are drawn back to the body.
“I don’t think your counterpart made such a guarantee.”
Jayce’s face falls a little and surveys the figure again. His eyes trace across the cape hanging from the armoured man's back. Navy blue with a crimson inner lining.
“...Maybe not. They didn't seem too happy to see each other back there.” He says, taking a step away from Viktor and letting his hand fall from his grasp. “Looks like we’re on our own.”
Viktor dips his head a little and is about to reach out when Jayce swings around suddenly.
“Maybe we don't have to be. While the other me may not be so willing to help, there are still others that can! Cait, Vi, Mel. They may all be here! They can help us V!”
Viktor shakes his head.
“Jayce, everything in this universe is so far detached from what we know. It's possible that o- your friends are not the same people you know. They may be of the same inclination as your counterpart. They may have never met you. They may not even exist. It's too much of a risk to go looking right now..”
Jayce shakes his head. “This world is different, but it can't be that different Vik. We have to at least try.”
Viktor sighs.
“Let's just figure out where we are first. Find stable ground, then we can see about asking for help.”
Jayce pauses and nods, exhaling as he does so.
Jayce’s eyes trail over to the desk and he walks over, beginning to shuffle through the scattered papers. Viktor eyed his counterpart's staff and plucked it from the floor to lean on for now. It's easily enough, and he finds himself assessing the mess he had made earlier in his desperation. The shattered remnants of the glass tank are still scattered over the floor, however most of the liquid had drained off through a pipe in the floor. Convenient. But a slight slick shine from the drain made him pause. From where the liquid had drained off, a webby, gossamer sheen was sticking around the grate. Anyone else would have assumed it was some sort of oil residue. Unfortunately, he knew better.
“Hey, so from these papers, i think we're on the Entresol Level, but i'm lost after that. Could you take a peek at this?” Jayce asks from behind him, but Viktor was too busy with the nightmare unfolding before him. It couldn't have been there before. It can’t have been. They would’ve noticed it. And he realised with a sink to his gut that he was right, as a vein of lacy mold shimmered out of the drain and blossomed over the stones of the floor.
It was growing. Like a mold. Or a fungus. A disease. He’d infected this world, just like his own. He couldn't escape it. It was in his nature. His pattern. No matter how far he ran, it would always be right behind him. Calling to him. Even now, after everything, he could hear its song. It wanted to connect, to be whole once more. It missed him. Couldn't he tell how much it missed him? They belonged to each other. They were complete. They were sorry. It wouldn't hurt anymore. Just come back.
He reached out.
It sighed and sang his name. Not his name, his soul. He was with it again, interwoven, tied to everything. He could feel all the tools at his disposal, his purpose and meaning whispering soothing words in his ear. He was back. He was them. He was everything. An inseparable piece of everyth-
That's not your line.
“VIKTOR!”
Jayce was shouting his name. Again. Gods dammit he needed to get his ears checked. Or whatever his equivalent of ears were. Reality sunk back in. Jayce was at his face, trying to grab him. He was kneeling. They were both kneeling. When had he knelt? Focus Viktor. Focus on Jayce. What was he saying?
“Come on V! We gotta go. People are coming!”
Viktor snapped back to attention. He became aware of other voices outside of Jayce’s, angry and muffled. Too muffled to tell how many behind the bolted metal door. But for his current objective of laying low, just one was too many. He quickly sprang to his feet and ducked behind the tank he had spotted earlier, pulling away the wall panel to reveal a tunnel and ignoring the creeping cold up his leg. Perfect. He glanced back around the room for anything he might need, and his eyes fell on the floating body. Should he…
“V, we can't leave him. In the state he's in… there's too many variables. People could end up hurt.”
Jayce made an excellent point, as always, but by Janna, this was going to be annoying. He ran back up to the body and, after a confused moment, simply decided to grab and hold it to his chest like a broken doll. Immediately, memories began flooding his mind in a situation where it was already drowning. Chalkb oards, lau ghter, cheering crow ds morphing into terrified scream s, a suspiciously famili ar silhouette with a la rge ha mmer. For fucks sake, shut up! A sudden pounding on the door shook him out of the connection and he darted for the tunnel.
That could've been worse, he pondered. Some hazy memories and one other thing. A light burning inside a webby bubble. A light that was pulsing with rage.
Jayce is not going to have a fun time with this one.
Squeezing through the dim entrance, Viktor fled down the dingy tunnels, clutching his alternate self like a lumpy duffle bag. Skipping the crumbling ladder, Viktor leapt down a maintenance shaft. A freezing cold shot up his right leg and he collapsed, catching himself on his knees and clinging to the staff like a drunkard to a lightpost. Stuck on the ground for the moment, he decided to take in his surroundings. He seemed to be in the sewers under the lab, judging by the viscous green slime dripping from one of the many large outtake pipes scattered across the ceiling. His eyes searched along the walls before finding writing painted in chipped, orderly letters.
E/CPP435 → S/SD434
Ah. An abandoned Entresol Chem processing plant. His alternative was resourceful at least. And every processing plant needs a connected sewage disposal to the Sumps to get rid of everything the heads didn't want to sully their hands with. He pulled himself up as the cold began to dissipate in his leg.
“A word of advice Jayce. If you want to get anywhere in Zaun, follow the sewers.” Viktor says triumphantly, his voice echoing down the empty tunnels.
Well, not as empty as he thought.
“Who's there?!”
A voice broke through the drips and sloshes of the tunnels. Viktor only had time to glance at two shadows dancing across the opposing wall before he lept up, hiding one of the draining pipes in the ceiling, having to use his third arm to hold his other self and the staff in place as his limbs pressed into the walls desperately like an ungainly spider. His right leg shook with the exertion and his fingernails scratched into concrete from the effort to stay still.
Two sets of footsteps vibrated through the stone walls. A loud, obnoxious metal thud almost drawing out a softer, hesitant step.
“What in Janna’s name… you heard that too right?” The voice was as loud as the gentle drips of the outtake pipes.
“Of course I did. Do you think these enhancements are just for show?”
The second voice cut through the ambience with its impatience, as quiet the processions on Progress Day. A figure stomped under Viktor’s viewpoint, shining steel glinting in the dappled light. Viktor couldn't tell where the metal ended and the man began from the angry blur that strode under him. A much more hesitant figure loitered into view, trudging behind the angry metal one. Much more human. And far smaller. The younger man lingered at the edge of Viktor’s perspective.
“Are you sure this is a good idea? It's hardly as if he's gonna be happy to see you.” The smaller one said, looking around nervously. He frowned slightly and brushed his shoulders. Before Viktor had time to react, he glanced up.
He paused.
He screamed.
And before he could do anything else, Viktor was reaching out. His fingers felt magnetically charged, slotting themselves to the man's forehead. Instantly, a pearlescent webbing stretched across his face, his eyes glowing a pale gold. Something inside him hummed and crooned at the connection, a mental flash of a single light joining a hundred others. The satisfaction quickly gave way to repulsion and his hand drew back just as he caught a glint of metal. Before he could think, he was shooting out of the crawl space and darting away at a speed that made his head spin, as the metal man slammed into the smaller one clumsily.
The cyborg shook the body in his arms frantically, the man unresponsive and limp. That was… concerning. Why was it lasting..? Viktor took a step back, trying to ignore the cramp in his leg as the cyborg looked up at him. The fury in his eyes was quickly drowned in a barrage of reactions. Surprise, confusion, utter fear. His eyes fell on the metal body lying limp in Viktors arms, and he finally decided to lunge at him.
Far too slow, for one so “enhanced”.
Before the cyborg could blink, Viktor was behind him, fingers once again slotting against his forehead. Despite the enhancements, he didn't seem to pose any resistance to the arcane. It sang in pleasure as its markings grew across the scarred skin, the man's arms falling limp and dropping the smaller body in the waste.
Viktor cringed internally, remembering trying to scrub out sump stains from his favourite shirt as a child. His third arm reached round and held his alternate up and away by the back of his neck. Scooping up the small one from the filth, he held both bodies in his arms and rested them carefully against the wall.
The scene would have been sweet, with their heads resting atop one anothers, if not for the fact that their eyes were wide in awe, mouths gently agape as the markings on their face pulsed with a soft glow.
Viktor took a shaky step back, rubbing his fingers together and staring at his palm.
A shuffle behind him. He turned, and there was Jayce, looking at the frozen figures with an unreadable expression.
“Viktor, what the fuck was that?”
Jayce’s tone makes him take a step back.
“I.. I don't know. It happened so fast… I didn't have time to process what I was doing. Please Jayce…”
Before his partner could say anything else, a loud hollow boom echoed through the tunnels, accompanied by various shouts. Viktor gathered his alternate in his arms once more and raced through the tunnels.
Listening closely to the fading echoes behind him, Viktor somehow managed to keep a steady speed and keep an eye on the writing on the wall, despite the creeping cold persisting in his leg. The mystery pursuers quickly became the least of his worries. Scavengers, goons and simply the desperate sought their salvation in the sewage, and Viktor constantly found himself secluded in shadows waiting for the right moment to pass without detection.
After what felt like hours, a hazy glow spread through the tunnels. A dirty brown light like standing at the bottom of a pond. He had grown accustomed to it on his trips to the Sumps as a child, hunting for any busted part that might aid him in whatever tinkering he was toiling with. Seems like history liked to rhyme. He found himself standing in silence before an open pipe, surveying the familiar view of pollution and darkness before him. It was starting to hurt, how often his life felt like a broken record. Like no matter how hard he tried, he would never deserve anything else than the bottom. Only the reason had changed. But not even for the better. He felt a twist in his gut, stabbing painfully as he heard the feather-like footsteps behind him.
“We can't do this alone, Viktor.” Jayce’s tone was as cold as the sewage.
Viktor looked out once again, gazing across the visible line where the doorway between breakthroughs and blight were rotting and unescapable. A purpose crooned to him below. Hundreds of bright lights called to him above in the shining city. The Arcane hummed at his fingertips. Maybe all he really needed was perspective.
“Oh, my dear. But we are not alone.”