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Jayce landed on his shoulder as the factory exploded. His heart felt as if he had turned his own hammer on it and smashed it to a pulp. The Machine Herald. Viktor.
Soft humming could be heard coming from the ajar door of the lab. Jayce rounded the corner and he couldn't help the small smile that came to his face looking at how intense his partner was concentrating. It was a song from the Undercity with haunting undertones and a dark story, but Viktor seemed to find comfort in the dissonant notes. Jayce knocked softly to announce his presence, "Hey."
Viktor stopped humming but didn't turn around, pliers delicately placing a tiny rod into his newest invention. Canaries were for the undercity's diminishing air quality. He didn't want people to suffer his same fate. "Hello, Jayce. Could you hand me that Philips head over by the coffee table? I seem to have left it behind."
Jayce snorted, crossing the room to the small coffee pot that was never without its namesake. "Coffee at 2 again?" Jayce handed over the screwdriver as Viktor chuckled.
"Progress never ceases. You know this Jayce." Viktor sat up and wound up the metal bird. The canary fluttered on the desk, gears whirring quietly and the air filtering softly. He smiled up at Jayce, before devolving into a coughing fit.
"Viktor." Jayce bent down and rubbed Viktor's back in comfort. When his coughing subsided, "Let's go home."
Viktor huffed, stuffing his handkerchief back into his vest pocket, "I'm fine." He started tinkering with the bird in front of him, recording his findings in his notepad. Jayce sighed and settled in with his own cup of coffee, pulling out the design plans for the mining gauntlets.
Progress stops for no one after all.
Timber fell from the ceiling crashing around him. The ringing in his ears quieted his surroundings. Blood ran down his arm, causing his grip on his hammer to falter. He gasped- It's not Viktor. His vision blurred.
His mother sat at the table eating her dinner. "So, you're moving in with him?"
"Yes. The housing closest to the campus are rather expensive."
His mother gave him a look, "The Kiramman's offered a bedroom at their estate, until your apartment was finished."
Jayce sighed, "The Kiramman's estate is 30 minutes from the campus. The apartment is a five minute walk."
She was silent for a while, continuing to eat her meal. "Where did you find this guy?"
"He was Professor Heimerdinger's Assistant Mother, I've told you this." Jayce loved his mother, but somethings he wished she wouldn't meddle with. He wasn't ready to tell her why he and Caitlyn would never marry and part of it wasn't his place. They were better off as best friends.
And he definitely wasn't ready to tell anyone about his crush on his lab partner.
He clenched his teeth, grunting as he popped his shoulder back in. There was fire spreading, slowed down by the mysterious liquid that had filled the tubes. The smell of burning flesh was almost overwhelming.
Jayce sat there outside the hospital room with his head in his hands. Viktor was running out of time and neither of them was ready to accept his fate. He felt lost. The responsibilities keep piling up with no end in sight. His time with Mel had only caused him to almost lose Viktor, any stress relieved was back fourfold because of his instilled hubris. He couldn't believe himself.
He couldn't stop dreaming that evening had a different outcome.
Click
Clack
Click
Viktor stopped some 15 meters away from Jayce and he wanted to cry. The explosion had ripped away The Machine Herald's mask exposing the surprisingly still human face underneath, but there seemed to be nothing but resignation in his eyes.
Caitlyn walked into his forge, Vi trailing behind. Ignoring them, Jayce continued to repair his hammer that had been busted the night before. Cait leaned against his desk boring holes into the side of his head. "The Machine Herald struck a lab last night."
He grunted as the hammer struck metal, steady. Rythmic.
"He stole another hexgem supply," Vi gruffed.
"I'm aware." Jayce refused to look up from his work.
Caitlyn sighed, placing a tender hand on his shoulderblade, "We have to bring him in."
Jayce smashed the hammer on the anvil harder than he expected, inches off his work, "I KNOW." He glared down at his hands in disgust. Maybe if he hadn't ever made the weaponized hextech, he wouldn't have pushed Viktor away. They could have found a solution for Viktors fissure lung together, anything but this. "I know."
"It's hard, fighting against a loved one," Vi stared out the window, "But they've chosen their side. We just have to move on and try to help after they've been detained."
Love. What a load of shit.
Jayce spit blood to the side as he sat up, "... Why?"
Viktor starred at him, "You refuse to understand."
No, Jayce refused to calm his outrage! How the man he thought he knew could be- "You've been experimenting on humans!"
"Every single procedure was life saving." Viktor tapped his chest and stood straighter on his metallic leg. "Issues they never should have had to begin with if it wasn't the toxic sludge of Progress infesting their water supplies, the noxious fumes infecting their lungs as they're forced to slave away to provide crumbs for their own families and mansions for those above," Viktor's voice began to raise for the first time since he had told Jayce he removed his feelings. Viktor closed his eyes, "Progress should be for everyone, Jayce. Not just those above in Piltover, regardless of the decisions the council makes."
"Was progress worth your emotions?" Jayce leaned his head back, unable to hold back the tears any more. So many mistakes he had made to end up here, he didn't have any
"My emotions... aren't gone completely, merely suppressed despite my best efforts." Viktor pulled out his stun gun and Jayce fell backwards, his muscles spasming, "For instance, I can't bring myself to kill you." He turned and walked back through the burning rubble, fading away in the neon darkness of the lanes.
They were sitting in the end of a disused pipe overlooking the undercity. Viktor animatedly discussing his design changes for the new hextech water purifiers for the undercity. Jayce's arm sat comfortably just behind Viktor, not touching but close enough to transfer heat in the chilly night air. Jayce never wanted this to end.
Jayce screamed himself hoarse. Surrounded by the burning factory filled with experimented on corpses, he wanted this fucked up dance to end.