Harness your hopes
Six hundred and forty-seven days.
Jayce was stuck in that cave for six hundred and forty-seven days.
They say you go insane after spending a certain time alone with no contact with anyone else, and Jayce was sure that was true, though could he really say he was alone with the husks above him always watching and shifting around?
He had tried talking to them before, though nothing ever came from it. But that didn’t stop Jayce from talking to them. It encouraged him, if anything. They couldn’t respond. Couldn’t judge or react to the words he was saying of the things he was doing. Jayce had grown so used to their blank and lifeless eyes [if you could even call them that], watching him.
He felt uncomfortable when he didn’t have something looming over him now. And comfort wasn’t something Jayce had felt in a long time. He didn’t know how long it had been, but he knew it’s been a while. He was worried for Ekko and Heimerdinger, but he was sure that the pair could likely handle themselves.
Jayce wasn’t sure how much longer he could handle himself.
Every day he felt like he was losing a little bit more of himself. Everyday he could feel the infection in his leg spreading, the rune in his wrist embedding deeper into his skin and eventually fusing with his veins. He was starting to become one with the environment around him, albeit it was a rather slow process that was taking its time.
And Jayce was sure that the constant lizards weren’t helping. They were infected by the same colorful substance that had been growing on his leg and skin during his time here, their eyes as pale and shimmering as opals, their bodies having just enough meat on them to keep Jayce from starving.
The water wasn’t in good condition either. There was no natural flowing point that Jayce could find, and there was rubble hanging over it. The scientist turned politician was lucky it didn’t have any brain-eating bacteria in it, though he wasn’t sure if he would have rathered that or not at this rate. The water was horrible. It tasted of dirt and concrete, leaving a gamey residue in Jayce’s mouth whenever he drank from it, and rain water quickly became a luxury.
Jayce couldn’t do this anymore. Couldn’t stay in this damn cave with the thoughts filling his head and the hallucinations playing games with his eyes, the phantom touches driving him mad and the urge to be held and to hold someone back rooting itself into his body bit by bit as time passed. It took everything in the man to finally stand up, the hand made brace on his leg being the only thing to support him.
Viktor would be impressed with the craftsmanship.
Jayce often found himself thinking things like that, thinking about Mel less and less each day.
Jayce loved Mel of course, but not in the same way as before. He saw he was primarily a pawn in a game of chess that Mel seemed to be playing with for her own gain, and it hurt. Of course it hurt. But Jayce knew it had been for the best for the time being. He couldn’t fault Mel for using him when he was so eager to please, when he wanted nothing more than to have approval and funding so that he and Viktor could make Piltover, and eventually Zaun better.
Viktor. Jayce missed Viktor more than anything, thoughts of the man filling Jayce’s mind and being the only thing to keep him going. Thoughts of getting back to his partner, of getting Viktor’s forgiveness for going against his wishes. Jayce didn’t regret reviving Viktor, nor did he regret bringing his partner back, but he never thought that the hexcore would do this. He never thought that the power of it could be this vast, and maybe even this dangerous if it was the cause of everything here.
Viktor would know. He would be able to talk some sense into Jayce and get him thinking rationally again, get his brain jumpstarted in a way that would help Jayce solve these stupid fucking equations the man had been scribbling on the cave wall for the past.. Jayce didn’t know actually, but it had been a few days at least.
Carving runes and equations and the anomaly into the cave wall, Jayce’s mind deteriorated with each passing second until one day he decided he was done.
Six hundred and seventy-four days trapped in the cave, and Jayce adjusted the brace on his leg, turning the handle on his upper thigh into the position it needed to be in, slowly forcing himself to his feet and wincing. The bone still hadn’t healed fully, and he couldn’t stand on it very well, but if Jayce had learned anything during his time here, he needed to push through the pain if he wanted to accomplish anything.
Briefly he wondered if this is how Viktor felt day to day with his leg. Viktor needed a brace on his leg nearly full time, and he needed to rely on a crutch to support his weight. Is this the pain that Viktor was in all the time? If it was, Jayce understood the lengths he went to feel better now. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he understood. Maybe not as well as he could, but he couldn't blame Viktor for using shimmer now.
Not that he ever did in the first place.
Jayce had blamed himself the moment he saw Viktor in the rubble of the Council meeting room, body broken. He had ran for blocks, his hands holding Viktor’s lifeless body while repeating a silent plea for him to wake up. He could feel Viktor’s broken spine with the way the smaller man was like a broken popsicle still in the wrapper in his arms.
Jayce hadn’t noticed the way Viktor’s leg and hand were purple until he had made it to the lab, and he hadn’t made the connection with shimmer until days later when he had found the empty vials days later during an emotional rampage where he had been throwing things around.
Jayce knew it was his fault for not noticing sooner. He knew that he should have been there for Viktor more the moment his health had taken a plummet, and he had no excuse for allowing Mel to take his attention away. He was wrapped around her finger, yes, but deep down Jayce knew. He was a selfish man and Mel was so willing to give him praise and comfort when he craved it. She was so attentive and her version of love was so addicting. Jayce never doubted that Mel cared for him, he knew she did, but her intentions were never just love.
Jayce shook his head and continued the long and physically taxing climb out of the cave, his muscles aching and bones creaking, his hands blistered and becoming raw the longer he climbed and taking breaks when it got too dark for him to see, finding ledges to rest on.
Days.
It had taken Jayce days to finally make it to the top of the cave, and to finally be out of that pin of his own personal hell. He had collapsed onto his stomach, turning onto his back while wheezing, dark clouds over the sky and rain pattering down onto him. Jayce closed his eyes for a moment, swallowing the lump that was forming in his throat and opening his mouth, chapped lips split and getting some rare moisture from the rain falling onto his face, and into his mouth.
Jayce laid there for hours, his body fighting not to shut down on him and his leg throbbing and ready to give out. He couldn’t breathe, not in the way he was used to at least. His chest was tight and his lungs felt like they were filled with gunk and mucus. Jayce wouldn’t be surprised it they were, this place and those lizards were having effects on him anyways. But some sort of magic pneumonia wasn’t something he wanted to deal with, and he certainly didn’t want that to be how he died. He had things to do after all, like make it to the highest point possible.
And this time it wasn’t to contemplate killing himself.
This time, it was to see the Mage.
Jayce had been hallucinating them ever since he got here. But these hallucinations seemed more real than the ones he would see on the other side of the fire. Jayce would see the mage more often, and the hallucinations were always more solid. Jayce, for whatever reason, felt drawn to him, felt as though finding him and getting answers was his calling. And the calling was guiding him towards the highest point he could see.
Just getting there was a feat within itself. There was no set path, and every step felt like Jayce was walking on needles while the husks shifted and followed after him. It made Jayce feel uneasy, thinking that one of them was going to grab him at any moment. It never happened, and instead Jayce had to walk through what he knew was Piltover and see it’s citizens turned into the same husks, weather they be standing alone, in the process of running away, or in a little alley holding onto the ones they love.
He wondered if Caitlyn was scared when all of this happened, and if she was alone. He hoped that wasn’t the case, hoped and prayed that Caity wasn’t alone and scared, and had someone with her that she could at least hold.
More climbing and small breaks later, Jayce was almost there. He was close to the top, and all he needed to do was jump across these last few slabs of stone without slipping and falling to his death.
Easier said than done really. With his leg in the state that it was, and the way that his body was shaking, Jayce wasn’t sure he could do it. He was standing on the edge of on of the floating slabs, looking down at the ground that was far, far below him. There was a time where this wouldn’t have scared him, but now his stomach was churning and he had an acidic feeling in his throat, positive that he was going to puke.
The slab shifting was what made Jayce finally jump across to the next one, nearly slipping and half of his body hanging over the edge, Jayce’s fingers digging into the concrete and pulling himself up, bile forcing it’s way up his throat and onto the dirty surface in front of him. His throat burned and tears were stinging Jayce’s eyes, breathing fast and heavy.
He was almost there. He couldn’t give up yet but by Talos did he want to. Jayce wanted to curl up into a ball and make himself as small as possible, to just let the world go away and forget everything. But he couldn’t, and he knew he couldn’t. Not when he was so close, been through all of this. He wouldn’t make his suffering, and whatever happened here, all be for nothing. So taking a deep breath, Jayce came to his feet again, his body hunched over and taking the last leap while holding his breath.
His feet were on solid ground, the metal of his brace biting into his leg but still providing support for the poorly healed bone. His back was killing him too, the giant wound from the attack during the memorial service never fully healed, It had been in the process of it before he got here, but falling down into the cave made it open back up, no doubt infected now, and his spine was having it’s own issues from the fall and sleeping on a hard stone ground every night.
Jayce took a step forward, and then another, his eyes focused on the ground and the air around him the freshest he’s breathed in a long time, the warmth of the sun making goosebumps settle on his skin and then flowers. Purple and yellow flowers were growing around him, Jayce dropping to his knees and tilting his head up, being met with another husk in front of him, an overwhelming sense of dread filling his body.
He wasn’t sure how, but he knew this was him. Jayce knew that this was a version of him that had failed, the man closing his eyes and mourning a fate that he would most likely meet. Of course, that was until the Mage made himself know, Jayce’s eyes going wide upon seeing his face. He never thought he was going to see that face looking aged. Long hair that was graying falling into the mans face and growing facial hair. He didn’t even know that he could grow facial hair. Jayce felt like he was going to cry just from staring at the man, his lips parting and a single words escaping past them.
“How..”
It was a simple word, but it was loaded and heavy. It was the first time the man had really spoken since he arrived, and it made his throat feel raw and sore, the mage in front of him giving a sympathetic smile.
The explanation Jayce was given made sense, but it didn’t get rid of all of his questions. He didn’t have time to ask anymore though, because the next thing he knew was he was grabbing onto the other Jayce’s hammer, closing his eyes and standing as tall as his back could manage, a swirl of light around him and a blinding light.
The next thing Jayce knew was that he was nauseous again, his legs buckling and using the hammer as support. His eyes dazed and finally focusing on the floor, looking up and around him to see the lab, the door opening to the side.
“Hello?”