Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jayce was lost in thought as he moved through the academy halls. His mind was filled with blue and gold: the colors had filled his dreams since he was a child. The vague dreams that somehow actually became his reality.

Eight years ago, he had been traveling on a research trip for the Kirammans through the ruins of the ancient city of Shurima, the namesake of the lower Runeterran continent. The legends had said that the once thriving-civilization had fallen in a single night.

Now, smaller cities dotted the desert region. Traveling markets and merchants would pass through the ruins as a reprieve from the desert sun.

It was at one of those markets that he found himself drawn to a stall. The wares were typical crystals, several Jayce had already had in his room at home. But he had found himself drawn to one in particular. It was roughly cut and small, the size of a pea. It also was the same hue of blue that he saw nightly in his dreams.

The vendor had tried to warn him away, saying the blue stones were better off as explosives. At Jayce’s disbelief he offered to give an example.

Jayce had watched a demonstration and felt the power of the stones. The charged air and smell of ozone was so similar to the feeling of his own alchemy.

The vendor, seeing that Jayce was still not scared off, had sold Jayce his whole stock.

Jayce had packaged them carefully and kept his new findings and ideas of what the blue crystals could do away from his reports to the Kirammans.

Five years ago, he had nearly killed himself.

Not in a lab accident like his mother had always feared, but from finding himself desperate on a ledge.

He had spent years following the drive of his dreams, feeling them just out of reach.

The progress on his research for the blue crystals had nearly slowed to a halt. He believed they could be a source of power, an alchemic amplifier even.

In his research, when Jayce had placed a shard within his transmutation circle, he found his results were exponentially larger. The crystals were nearly like magic, Jayce had begun noting them as ‘hex crystals’ within his journals.

The hex crystals were eerily similar to the Philosopher's Stone, and he had known he had to keep his research secret until he could prove its viability and how to use them safely. 

Any past research into the Philosopher's Stone was at best shut down, at worst, the researcher would spend the rest of their days in prison. A Philosopher's Stone not only was able to be an amplifier, but it was able to be the material as well. No equivalent exchange. It broke the founding law of alchemy. 

The common knowledge of the cost to create one, however, stopped many from trying: human lives.

Jayce believed that the little hex crystals possessed power that could rival a Philosopher's Stone. Jayce had tried to find the vendor he had bought the crystals from to no avail. He couldn’t locate where they had come from despite how he had tried searching the region himself. He could only hope that the little stones held no human cost. The energy that came off of the crystals seemed too arcane to have been created from human lives.

He had theorized that if the small crystals were combined into a proper gem, the power they could generate would not just be able to be used to power an alchemic circle, but even be the source of material for the transmutation: an endless supply of energy and matter. If he could just get the crystals to combine and activate safely, that is. And if he was able to prove his theory, he would be able to secure the funding he needed to search the ruins properly for the source of the crystals.

But the path forward was a slippery one. And all it took for Jayce to fall was an accidental explosion and partial destruction of the research wing of the academy.

He had been put on trial, his research confiscated. 

Jayce had tried to defend himself to the Piltovan council and the academy. He wanted to help the people as a whole, to try to find a sustainable power source for machinery, to have alchemy be more widely accessible to those in need. To be able to wield it like magic through the combined force of the hex crystals.

The academy wanted him expelled and research destroyed. However the city-state’s council needed more time to decide on their official ruling.

With the blue of his dreams taken away, Jayce found himself standing on what remained of his lab’s floor, staring out at the city and the rubble below.

It had been an exceptionally warm night for spring. The sky had been clear and the stars shone brightly above the city, the moon bright and full when his future was dark and bleak.

Jayce specifically remembered three things about that night.

He remembered the lightly teasing accented voice that wrapped around his heart and pulled him from the edge with a quiet, “Am I interrupting?” and the anger that had coursed through him as he turned around.

He specifically remembered the way the all-too-knowing golden eyes met his in the moonlight. He felt seen and known as they worked through his equations.

And he remembered the way those golden eyes and bright smile had lit up in the fantastic blue of their successful transmutation circle.

Five years had passed since then. Since they met and proved it was possible to get the hex crystals to generate the proper power for an alchemic circle, earning the Piltovan council’s approval to continue their project for the betterment of the people. As a result, the academy was forced to keep Jayce. 

It had been five years since Viktor had become his lab partner in their venture to perfect the hex gem.

Jayce grinned as he picked up his pace, leaving the administrative building and jogging across campus.

Nothing could ruin his mood today, he decided.

He slowed to a walk as he approached the academy’s science building. He even started whistling as he passed the security desk and stepped into the elevator. After the meeting he had just had with the head of the academy, Professor Heimerdinger, he was ready to take on the world.

“Jayce?”

He broke the whistle mid-tune at the sound of Viktor’s voice in the lab.

Viktor sat on his stool, a soft smile on his face with his golden eyes watching him.

Jayce smiled and walked over to him.

Four years since they had moved in together.

Three years since their small ceremony and move into a proper house off-campus.

Jayce cupped Viktor’s face in his hands and pressed a quick kiss to his lips before brushing his hair away and pressing another to his forehead.

Viktor huffed fondly, though Jayce frowned as he more felt than saw Viktor stifle the sudden cough the noise had prompted.

One year since Viktor’s diagnosis.

Eight months since Jayce had started looking into less-proper alchemic theories in the middle of the night or when Viktor napped in the lab.

Viktor waved off Jayce’s concern as he asked, “What’s got you in such a good mood?”

And after six months of arguing with the academy directors—

“We’ve got the academy’s approval and funding to look further into medicinal alchemy.”

Jayce loved seeing the spark return to Viktor’s eyes. He walked backwards to their chalkboard, covered in different runes and diagrams for the hex crystals and gems, and flipped it to the side that held different sets of runes and circles. New theories were scribbled every which way, Jayce’s handwriting messily colliding with Viktor’s at several different spots on the board.

“If we could just find someone who knew how alkahestry worked…” Viktor sighed as he turned in his stool to grab his cane, standing carefully to follow him to the board.

Most of the world, including Piltover had taken to alchemy as their preferred science centuries ago. 

Alkahestry, a now-ancient art, had been rumored to be able to utilize the flow of the earth and focused more on healing. It was something that was mentioned as an afterthought in most medical journals and textbooks, usually noted to be an archaic science.

Jayce picked up a piece of chalk and gave it a quick flip, catching it right in front of Viktor’s nose, determined to keep both of their spirits up. 

He had been a constant witness to how the diagnosis, the clear lack of a cure and the sickness itself had taken a toll on Viktor. The way he tired quickly, how the chronic pain of his leg grew to nearly each joint in his body, how he lost weight quicker, and his eyes got dimmer as his coughing fits grew worse. 

But they had time. 

The doctors had guessed that there would be a few more years before the sickness would become dire. 

“Maybe we can get the gemstones to help and we can make pseudo-alkahestry,” Jayce posed, raising an eyebrow.

Viktor cleared his throat with a wince, before nodding with a smile. “Perhaps.” He glanced at the door then back to Jayce. “What of the council? I can’t imagine that they’re going to be happy about this change in our research.”

Jayce shrugged and set the chalk back into the built in groove of the board. “I couldn’t care less about what they want.” He stepped up to Viktor. “Besides, Mel has been supportive of this project and she can work to get the rest of the council behind her.”

“You’ve seen how she butts heads with her mother.” Viktor pointed out. “The council has quite liked the general since she arrived.”

Jayce pressed his tongue into his cheek as he thought about it. Ambessa had come from Noxus in an apparent peace treaty with Piltover after a dispute over some mines in the mountains. Now the Piltovan city-state and the Noxian empire wanted to work in tandem. Ambessa had been quick to help build up the Piltovan State Alchemist Program within the military since she arrived two years prior.

The council since then had been pushing them to complete a proper hex gemstone. They hadn’t been clear on exactly how the hex gems would be used, only telling them that they wanted the Piltovan State Alchemist Program to have access to it. 

Both Viktor and Jayce had told the council that they would not allow for their research to be used by the military, arguing that they wanted the alchemy that it would produce to be able to help the civilians of both Piltover and the sister city-state of Zaun.

Jayce was forever thankful that Heimerdinger was fully behind their project and as it was created under the academy, was able to help them block the council from forcing their hands.

They had created seven nearly perfect gemstones, and they were working on a <eighth>, but they had started to run low on the little crystals. Until they could properly source more, they were unable to finish the eighth and the creation of others was put on hold. Not that the council or academy knew that. The both of them agreed to be as evasive as possible when reporting the quantity of completed stones.

Jayce watched as Viktor started to lean more heavily on his cane as he sighed. He reached out and tilted Viktor’s head up with his knuckle so their eyes would meet.

“I’ll deal with Ambessa personally if I have to,” he vowed. “But I’m not going to let anyone stand in the way of finding a cure. We’re going to find a way to help you, Vik.” And knowing how Viktor was, he added. “You and everyone else who could get this.”

His partner nodded, his smile soft again. “I know, Jayce.”

~ - ~ - ~

Jayce stretched as he saw the street lamps flicker to life outside. It was Wednesday now and they had been working long hours in the lab since they had gotten Heimerdinger’s approval two weeks before.

“We should get heading home, V. I’ve got to get over to Sky’s to help her with automail attachments.” Her current client was a bit heavier-set, so the prosthetic he needed was a little heavier than she felt comfortable attaching to the man on her own.

Viktor hummed. “You go. I’ve got to finish this.”

He turned to find Viktor seated on his stool, papers and pencils strewn all across the desk with a gemstone sitting in the middle of a chalk-drawn circle. No runes were written in the circle, those were written on the different papers on the desk.

“Viktor,” Jayce sighed. “You need to rest.”

“I will. I’ve nearly got this equation.” Viktor wasn’t even looking at him, still writing on the paper below.

Jayce crossed the lab and pressed a kiss to the side of his head. “Promise me you’ll be home soon?”

Viktor turned and shifted so that he could properly kiss Jayce. “Yes, I just want to finish this. I’m close.”

He nodded as he squeezed Viktor’s shoulder, he knew how it was. “Alright, I’ll see you around nine, then?”

With a soft hum as his answer, Jayce kissed Viktor’s cheek, smiling as his husband moved to swat him and turned to leave.

~ - ~ - ~

Jayce startled awake and sat up on the couch. 

Looking around, he found the living room was still lit by the soft yellow light from the table lamp. He winced as he swung his legs out and settled his feet on the ground, knocking into the book he must have dropped as he turned in his sleep. His back would certainly not be thanking him the next morning for sleeping here.

He rubbed at his eyes as he turned to the clock that hung on the wall. And rubbed them again to make sure he was seeing the time right.

Nearly two in the morning.

He hummed as he stood, stretching his back. He must have been too deeply asleep when Viktor got home. It happened more than once that his husband would find him dozing on the couch and leave him to suffer from a sore back if he was unable to rouse him.

Jayce clicked off the lamp and trudged to the bedroom across the house, content to get his revenge on Viktor in the form of sticking his now cold feet against the other’s sleep-warm legs.

He carefully opened the bedroom door and slipped inside. He closed the door gently and turned to the bed.

His sleep-addled mind was quickly starting to wake up.

The moonlight shone through the blinds of their room allowing just enough light to show that there was no Viktor-shaped bundle under the blankets.

“V?” Jayce called out as he turned on the light, despite knowing he wasn’t in the bedroom. The room hadn’t been touched since that morning when they left.

Jayce flicked the light off and opened the door to the hall, quickly walking over to the bathroom. Another light switch on and off. No Viktor.

“Viktor?” Jayce moved into the kitchen next, light on then off.

He glanced at the living room, feeling his annoyance grow. He knew there was no Viktor there either and he had a gut feeling that when he checked the front door area, he would find that Viktor’s shoes were not placed next to his own.

Jayce let out an aggravated huff at finding he was right.

He turned quickly and went to the bedroom, grabbing for the pants and button-up he had previously worn at the lab. 

Viktor had promised him and no matter how deeply he slept, he would have heard the phone ring. So that only meant that despite how his health would suffer, Viktor had decided to pull an all-nighter.

Jayce shoved himself into his shoes and cursed as he locked the door. This spring was oddly cold and the night air was a shock compared to the warmth of the house.

Walking to the building their lab was in was a short thing, shorter with his fast pace to get out of the cold. He knew exactly what he was going to say to Viktor.

He would tell him how worried he had made him.

That they needed to leave the lab together next time.

That he needed to take better care of himself.

That he loved him, despite all the worry he put Jayce through.

That they would figure this all out together as a team.

Jayce nodded at the guard on the first floor of the building and went straight to the elevator. He huffed as he got closer to their lab door, seeing the light coming from under it, proof of where Viktor was.

Jayce was annoyed, but knew that when he or Viktor were on a roll it was hard to step away. Closing his eyes, he counted to ten as he grasped the handle.

“Viktor, you know we talked about this,” Jayce started as he opened the door, eyes adjusting to the brightness of the lab.

Jayce froze mid-step.

He wondered if he was still dreaming, asleep on the couch maybe moments from waking up. Because the scene couldn’t be real.

His feet carried him forward as his mind tried desperately to catch up, his eyes catching on everything.

The red splattered over the notes Viktor had been working on earlier.

The stool knocked over, the cane not far from it.

And Viktor on the floor near the table with their lab phone, blood painting his lips, hand and floor around his face.

Chapter Text

Jayce winced as he shifted in the chair, his back aching from being hunched over the hospital bed. Arching his back and rolling his shoulders, he carefully kept hold of Viktor’s left hand.

He leaned back over the bed, his own left hand rising to grab the dangling wedding band attached to his necklace before pressing his closed fist against his cheek as he resumed his previous position. His thumb rubbed over the matching golden ring on Viktor’s finger, keeping an eye on the monitors in the room and listening to the hum of the machines and Viktor’s now- steady breathing.

It had been two days since Jayce had found him collapsed, blood everywhere, in the lab and he hadn’t woken up since. 

The chair on the other side of Viktor’s bed was empty for the time being; Sky had stepped out to get coffee. She had nearly crashed through the door that first afternoon, completely out of character for her normally calm and reserved self, after getting Jayce’s call. Since then, the two had talked in hushed tones. Sky had taken on the task of letting both Caitlyn and Mel know. 

It was just Jayce alone with his thoughts in the room now.

He wondered how long Viktor had been holding off on telling him about his worsening symptoms.

Viktor had been more tired the last few months, sleeping in later than usual. It had been too easy for Jayce to dismiss that as a result of Viktor staying up too late reading and researching.

He had been losing weight, Jayce could see that clearer now with how small and pale Viktor looked on the stark white hospital sheets. 

Viktor’s coughs had gotten more frequent lately, but he always shooed Jayce away for hovering around him. Jayce had been so sure he would know when Viktor’s lungs would be worse. Their doctor had previously warned them to look out for Viktor coughing up blood as the disease progressed. As the one who normally washed their clothes, Jayce had seen Viktor’s handkerchiefs, each one used was pure white, not a stain or dot of red to be found.

It wasn’t until he was alone in the waiting room that first night as emergency department doctors and nurses looked after Viktor, that he found the answer to that. Wringing the one thing of Viktor’s he had been able to keep before he was taken back, he tried to distract himself. He smoothed the handkerchief out in his lap, running his fingers over it, over and over as he watched the doors. He felt the raised bumps of stitching for the red thread of the ‘V’ and then the golden thread of the ‘T’ in the lower corner that his mother had stitched into the cloth as a wedding gift.

He had frowned as he felt some odd bumps in the fabric near one of the top corners. He ran his fingers over it a few more times before he finally tore his eyes away from the door to look at the imperfection.

He had raised the cloth to the light and felt his world start to fracture.

A simple array, something a child learning alchemy might be taught, stitched in white thread.

A cleansing array.

Now Jayce did not have any idea how long Viktor had been coughing up blood, and he wouldn’t know until he was able to confront his husband when he woke up.

He had gone to all of Viktor’s appointments with him, wanting to know as much as he could about how to help Viktor, how to stave off the progression of the disease until they could find a way to treat him. The doctor had never given an indication that Viktor’s disease would progress so quickly. 

They had caught it early on, they had years.

Now their doctor could only shrug unhelpfully and say that the scans they were able to complete that night showed that the sickness had grown rapidly since the last they had done months prior.

Now Viktor has six months. At most.

Jayce had collapsed in the chair at Viktor’s bedside at the news, legs unable to hold him.

He had only just gotten the approval from Heimerdinger and the academy to research medicinal alchemy. It wasn’t fair. He hadn’t asked for this. His thoughts continued to spiral.

Staring at Viktor now, seeing the dark circles under his eyes in the dimmed lighting of the room, Jayce couldn’t bear to think of the warm hand in his own being gone in a year.

Jayce closed his eyes and sighed, lifting Viktor’s hand and pressing a kiss to the palm before returning it to the bed, clasping it tightly.

He thought of the research he kept on shelves he knew were just out of Viktor’s reach in the lab. Notebooks behind old prototypes and outdated alchemic textbooks.

Alchemists were dangerous creatures, with their ability to deconstruct matter and shape it into the image they sought, always striving for more. Some found themselves in the dangerous territory of playing god and thinking themselves invincible.

Jayce had thought himself different from other alchemists, happy to stay in a lab and work through the crystals to find a way to use them as an amplifier, to power machinery, and improve lives.

Now he knew that he was no different from the rest. The volatile hex crystals turned slightly safer but intensely more powerful hex gems were stepping stones.

Jayce knew from his early research on the hex crystals that their power could potentially be compared to the Philosopher's Stone; a foolish goal of alchemists of old - the elixir of life and immortality. The ability to override the alchemic law of equivalent exchange. The incredible cost of human lives to create a single fragment of a Philosopher's Stone kept many from researching further.

Jayce had learned in his brief research of the Philosopher's Stone of the other alchemic taboo: Human transmutation.

It was something that was never talked of in schools, a subject that was only briefly mentioned in books in the restricted areas of the academy libraries.

The cost of human transmutation was immense. The few recorded cases had shown to have caused catastrophic rebounds and none had been successful. Deformed monstrous bodies were created, though none ever seemed to have lived past the glow of the transmutation circles. 

Jayce had theories for what that was and plans for how to counteract it. One of which being the hex gems.

His current journal was filled with notes and thoughts on it. When Viktor had first been diagnosed, Jayce had stayed up late and researched what he could. He had quietly filled their house with items that would be needed if it came down to it.

Jayce had decided then, at the mere thought of a shortened life with Viktor, that he would do anything to make sure Viktor lived.

Water: thirty-five liters.

Carbon: twenty kilograms.

Ammonia: four liters.

And really, the basic composition of a human was simple enough.

Lime: one-point-five kilograms.

Phosphorus Eight hundred grams.

Salt: two hundred and fifty grams.

A soft repetition of knocks made Jayce jump, startled out of his thoughts.

Turning to the door behind him, Jayce let his necklace go, feeling the ring drop against his chest.

Mel stood in the doorway, looking over Jayce to Viktor. He saw the way her shoulders slumped out of her normally graceful posture, a tired look on her face as she chewed her lower lip.

Despite being the Radiant Alchemist, Mel rarely wore the military uniform, more often opting to dress in lightly colored dresses and pantsuits. Her hair was carefully pulled into a braided bun, and the white and gold pantsuit she currently wore showed she had clearly spent the day with the city’s council.

“How is he?” She finally asked as she stepped farther into the room. Jayce noticed the small briefcase in her hand that she set by the door; it was rare for her to bring work home with her.

Jayce shook his head and then shrugged as he turned back to Viktor.

“Still breathing.” For now. Jayce shook his head again at the dark thought and squeezed Viktor’s hand again.

He heard the soft click of her heels on the linoleum as Mel entered his periphery and the scrape of the chair Sky had used as she pulled it closer to the bed. Jayce appreciated both her and Sky stopping by. He knew Caitlyn would probably be by later in the evening; she had been busy training new recruits lately.

He watched as she carefully reached out to Viktor’s face and moved some of his hair away from his cheek, ever-careful of the oxygen tubing that ran underneath his nose, before settling back into her seat.

Viktor had been wary of Mel at first. Despite how she supported their research, he hadn’t trusted her. 

It wasn’t until one day she caught them hastily trying to hide their notes, flipping the freestanding chalkboard hard enough that it had spun for a solid ten seconds in the process. Rather than reporting them to the council, she started laughing at them. 

She had said that while she was interested in their research, she agreed that the power of the hex gems should be limited to helping the people and not be applied to the State Alchemist Program. Mel had also added that if either of them did become state alchemists that they would then be placed under her guidance and she wanted nothing to do with that, knowing that they would be nightmares to try and manage.

From then, Jayce had watched as they began to talk more. When Mel had found out Viktor’s parents were the artisans that had worked on some of her favorite installations in Piltover she had gotten this excited gleam in her eyes. When Viktor found out that Mel painted, he encouraged her to have her pieces added to the academy and government buildings, saying that her work was powerful and emotional.

Jayce knew that Mel had been reaching out to her own contacts to see if there was something they could do for Viktor’s illness. If there was a chance that another nation in Runeterra had a treatment for this disease, Mel would find it.

Jayce glanced at her and saw how she had gone back to biting her lip. She had something she wanted to say, and Jayce could only hope it was something that would help Viktor. 

They sat in silence again, the beeping of the heart monitor and hum of the machines the only noises until Sky joined them again.

“Oh, thank you,” Sky said with a quick upward glance. “I’m so glad you’re here,” clearly directed at Mel. “Can you please get him to eat something? Move around some?”

Jayce frowned. Maybe sitting alone hadn’t been so bad. “I’m not leaving, if he wakes up while I’m gone–”

“I’ll send someone out to find you, I promise.” Sky turned back to Mel again, this time holding up her hands pleading. “Please help me out, Viktor will kill me and him both if he finds out Jayce hasn’t been taking care of himself.”

Mel laughed quietly and patted Viktor’s arm as she stood.

“Of course, Sky, I’m happy to help.” She walked to the door and picked up the briefcase. With a glance over her shoulder, she raised an eyebrow at Jayce. “Are you coming?”

~-~-~

They settled on a bench outside with sandwiches from the hospital cafeteria. They watched the occasional person walk past, the change of shifts for doctors and nurses as the afternoon turned to evening. 

Jayce realized that they hadn’t said anything to each other since leaving Viktor’s room as he was crushing the paper the sandwich came wrapped in in his hand. He barely remembered eating. He must have been hungrier than he thought. As he wiped at his mouth, he grimaced, briefly wondering how he must look, not having shaved in days.

He glanced at Mel to apologize for being poor company, only to find her staring ahead; sandwich wrapped on the bench between them and her grip tight on the briefcase’s handle.

“Mel?”

She blinked and then glanced at him before resuming her stare at the tree across the path.

“Since my mother came to Piltover, the Piltovan military has been looking into a disease that’s very similar to Viktor’s.”

Jayce held his breath and fully turned toward her. This was news he had hoped she could bring him, but hadn’t expected.

“I’ve asked, and the medicine they’ve developed would likely cure Viktor.”

Jayce didn’t think beyond that there was a cure for Viktor out there. Not just somewhere in the world. But in the very city they lived in! He grabbed Mel’s shoulders and turned her to face him.

“I’ll pay. Whatever the cost, it doesn’t matter.”

He hated how she looked away, unable to meet his eyes. She shook her head, swallowing hard.

“It’s…only available to those currently in a government position.” She shifted and he saw the silver glimmer of the State Alchemist pocket watch chain at her hip. Mel fiddled with the briefcase’s clasps, not opening it.

Jayce wondered if the earth had opened up below him.

“Mel, no.”

Jayce let go of her and stood.

Not this.

“Jayce.” She watched as he started pacing in front of the bench they had sat on. “I’ve tried. I’ve fought to get him the treatment. I begged the council.” 

He stopped his pacing as Mel’s voice broke, his back to her. 

“They denied me. This is the only option they’ve given me.” Jayce heard the rough jingle of the briefcase. “If you were to become a state alchemist, Viktor would be able to get the treatment as your husband.”

Jayce pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes as he turned and resumed his pacing.

“Mel, I can’t. It’s not just my research, it’d be our research that would belong to the state.” As he turned, he lowered his hands and continued walking, not seeing anything as his mind raced. “What little control we have over its use will be gone.”

He could hear Mel nod by how her earrings chimed.

“Yes. However, we can doctor the research you’ll have to hand over. We can make it look like you’re not as far along as you are in it. That will help and perhaps buy us time. We can limit what they take from you so you can still own it.”

Mel stopped his pacing by putting a hand on his shoulder as he turned again facing away from her. She spoke quickly. “I’ve got a military contract for three years. As a state alchemist, you would have military funding, which is better than what the academy can offer you. I have a clause written into your contract that you would never be called for combat. I’ve made sure that you would only be a researcher.”

Jayce bowed his head as he grasped at his ring on the chain around his neck.

He thought of Viktor.

Of how excited he had gotten when they had gotten the first hex gem to properly combine. The way his golden eyes had glowed as they tested it out as a battery.

The way Viktor had laughed as Jayce had peppered his face with kisses at their wedding.

How his face had been blank at his diagnosis and quiet he had become.

The blood on the floor and Viktor out cold in their lab.

How Viktor hadn’t woken up yet and how sick he looked in the hospital bed.

Opening his eyes, he saw that the sun was starting to set and smiled bitterly. 

The solution was simple.

After all, hadn’t he vowed that he would do anything to make sure Viktor lived?

~ - ~ - ~

Jayce returned to the room alone, having seen Mel off.

He stayed in the doorway, watching the slow and steady rise and fall of Viktor’s chest. Still asleep. He must have made a noise as Sky turned to face him.

“Ah, you’re back!” She gave him a small smile as she stood. “No change for him yet, but I think he’ll wake up soon.”

Jayce nodded, feeling numb and hoping that this would work.

“Jayce. What is that?”

Blinking, he actually looked at Sky and followed her eyes to his hip.

“Shit,” they said together, for entirely different reasons.

Jayce quickly stuffed the silver chain farther into his pocket from where it had crept out. When he looked at Sky he saw her looking from him to Viktor, mouth agape as she struggled to find words.

“Don’t say anything?” Jayce moved to stand at the end of the bed, his own eyes drifting again to Viktor then back to Sky. “I promise, I’ll tell him.” He found his mouth was shockingly dry, and he had trouble forming the words. “It’ll help him. It’s the only way, Sky. Please?”

She bit her lip and he could feel the concern emanating off of her.

“Okay.” Sky took a breath. “I’m going to take Viktor’s side though if he gets mad at you.”

Jayce nodded and Sky shot him another look as she gathered the bag she brought with her.

“Let me know when he’s up.” She glanced again at his pocket, nodded and then was gone.

Jayce didn’t know how he would tell Viktor about what he had just agreed to, what he had just condemned their research to, even if it was only a fraction of it. But he would figure it out. He had time now.

It was a few hours later that he heard the shift in Viktor’s breathing and held his own breath, tightening his hold on Viktor’s hand.

“Jayce?” 

Jayce’s breath stuttered out of him at the roughness in his voice as he looked to Viktor’s fluttering eyes.

“I’m here, V.”

Chapter Text

Jayce set his chisel down and wiped at his brow with his forearm as stepped back from his work bench. 

The fire from the forge was a familiar heat. He had spent so much of his time here. From when he was a child watching his father working at the anvil, hammering at metal and creating tools, to when he took on parts of the family business when his father passed away. Since starting at the academy, Jayce had lessened the amount of clients that he worked with to manage his course load and research. Now it was only a handful of automail shops that would request his work.

Picking up a cloth, he rubbed at the metal he had just finished working on, cleaning it of the shavings still clinging to the recently etched runes. His grip on the leather handle tightened and Jayce looked over at the similar pieces sitting across the bench. The hammer he had worked on to be used in the Zaunite mines was, broken down now: being reworked. 

The new shaft was composed of multiple pieces, each etched with a different rune. Twisting these pieces would form different combinations of alchemic circles that the user would then be able to activate: ‘improving’ the hammer from an aid into a weapon. 

Jayce wished he could talk to Viktor about this change in the hammer. He always had a habit of finding the little errors that Jayce missed. But this was the price he was paying for what he was turning their dreams into. 

It had been a little over a month since he had signed on to be a state alchemist. He kept the pocket watch in a false back in his notebook. He had yet to find a way to tell Viktor about how exactly they were able to get ahold of the medicine he was taking now.

A shot, once a month. And soon he would be cured.

Jayce slid the pieces of the hammer shaft back together, listening as they clicked and locked into place. He looked over at the Atlas Gauntlets he had also made for the mines and sighed. Those had been modified as well, neat half-gemstones settled inside each glove.

These were two pieces of their work that he and Mel had been unable to hide from the city council as they had advertised them at the academy’s Progress Day celebration the year before. Jayce had also presented the council with three of their eight hex gemstones and the one that was still incomplete and wasn’t nearly as powerful as the others.

He had been allowed to take these three hex gems back to his forge, with the promise of using them to empower weapons. Ambessa had kept her hand curled around the imperfect one, assuring him and Mel that she would see to it that it was used for research purposes. Jayce had felt his gut twist as she walked away with it, but there was little he could do.

The next day, Viktor had been able to get his first treatment and the work he would have to do going forward for the city-state was the last thing on his mind. It was worth it. 

Viktor wouldn’t agree, he knew. There was no question in his mind that Viktor wouldn’t have touched the medicine if he knew.

But anything was worth it if Viktor would be well again.

Even simply crafting a new tool, a new weapon. Because a gun could be little else.

Jayce’s only solace was that he knew who would be receiving the hex-rifle he had worked on. Caitlyn would know to use it carefully.

Jayce checked the clock on the far wall, near the door and away from the severe heat of the fire, and cursed. 

He grabbed the bag of soon to be automail bits and pieces he had made days ago and hefted it over his shoulder before hurrying out and locking up. These would help him sell his current lie to Viktor for why he was in the lab less and less.

Since that day he had found Viktor in the lab, he hadn’t let him stay alone in the building. He was worried that despite the improvements they were seeing in his health, he would pass out again with no one around to help.

And here he was running late.

Jayce’s mind was quick to pull up images of Viktor on the floor as he hurried to the academy’s science building. He knew he was being ridiculous. Viktor had regained some color in his face since taking the medicine. His breathing hadn’t improved as much as Jayce would have liked, but it wasn’t worsening anymore. There was still a wheeze to his lungs that Jayce would hear when he laid his head on Viktor’s chest. Jayce assured himself that it was only the first dose, more improvements would come with additional treatment.

“Mr. Talis!” Harold, one of the evening security guards, greeted from his desk as Jayce stepped through the doors. “Your husband was just telling me! I didn’t know you helped the automail ateliers!”

Jayce blinked as he found Viktor leaning on the side of the desk, cane in the crook of his elbow. He wondered briefly if it had been a bad day and Viktor had sought out someone to be near in case he fell, because most days he had nearly had to throw Viktor over his shoulder to get him to leave.

Viktor gave him a smile before nodding to the bag Jayce carried. “Those are for Sky’s The Limit.” he told him.

“Ah, Sky’s a lovely girl. I remember when she was a student!” Harold laughed as he smoothed out his white mustache and leaned back in his chair. He regarded Jayce again, “My niece has got an automail arm; an automobile accident some years back. Said that The Limit was the best of the best. Maybe she’s got some of your work on ‘er!”

“Maybe!” Jayce let out a choked laugh and nodded.

The truth: Sky had asked him for automail pieces, but he had finished them a week prior. The rest of the time he had spent in the forge working on weapons.

“Well, Harold,” Viktor seemed to sense that Jayce wasn’t up for chatting. He set his cane to the floor and winced as he pushed off of the desk. “Same time tomorrow, eh? We’ve got to get these to Sky.”

“Yes, yes! You boys have a good night.”

~ - ~ - ~

“Jayce?” Viktor called from his spot by the bookshelves.

Jayce hummed, looking over a sketch that Viktor had drafted on the chalkboard as a potential alkahestry circle. 

He was tired. 

Between the work he had been doing in the forge, his meetings with Mel, and the research in the lab, he was running thin. He was also getting noticeably behind in the research on alkahestry.

Viktor had been talking theories earlier that had gone right in one ear and out the other. He hadn’t realized he’d actually dozed off to the sound of his accented voice until the chalk Viktor was holding hit the wall next to his head. When he looked up, he’d tried to laugh it off and apologize, but Jayce had seen the worry in Viktor’s eyes.

“Why are the hex gems up here? Behind these books?”

He turned and immediately dropped the chalk in his hand as he scrambled over to where Viktor was standing precariously on his stool. His hands gripped at Viktor’s hips to keep him steady.

“Viktor! You–”

“And why,” Viktor looked down at him, one hand gripping the top shelf, the other balancing both an alkahestry book and an open lock box, “are there only four of them?” He raised an eyebrow at him. 

Viktor let go of the bookshelf and leaned into Jayce’s hold, letting himself be lowered from the stool.

Jayce bit his lip as Viktor turned around after setting the box on the desk near his notebook.

“I, uh, have been testing something in the forge.” A half-truth could work here, he figured.

Viktor’s eyes narrowed. “Testing something with the, while admittedly safer, still volatile gems that we both agreed we wouldn’t test without proper safety equipment and each other?”

“Ah,” Jayce stuttered. “It’s a surprise, Vik.”

Viktor huffed. “Jayce. What exactly are you hiding?”

“Hiding?” A high-pitched noise left Jayce’s throat. He heard voices outside the lab, sounding as though they were arguing much like he and his husband were. One voice was familiar and the other not. “Who’s hiding?”

Viktor held up a hand. “Do not try to fool me. You’ve barely slept. You’ve been acting off lately.” Lowering his hand, he looked hurt. “Why won’t you tell me what’s going on?”

“Viktor,” Jayce breathed out, placing a hand on his notebook. He supposed there was no time like the present. He didn’t want to tell Viktor, but he couldn’t take the look in his eyes either.

Both jerked when the door to the lab slid open; the notebook hit the floor.

A shorter woman with red hair strode into the lab, a large envelope in her hands. She walked right up to Jayce and saluted. 

Jayce briefly wondered if the floor would swallow him if he willed it hard enough.

“Officer Nolan here to deliver notice to the Mercury Hammer Alchemist.” Her blue eyes were cold as she pressed the envelope into his hands.

He didn’t hesitate to rip open the letter. His eyes scanned the document, catching on words.

Mandatory duty.

Viktor scoffed, as he bent to pick up his dropped notebook. “Mercury Hammer? He is no alchemist of the state.”

Conflict. 

An ally’s need for aid.

He could hear the sound of metal being scuffed through the static that filled his ears.

The Noxian fortress of Delverhold, south of the Noxian border with Freljord.

Viktor’s rough gasp. “Jayce.”

Up to three years of service in the field.

“I am his commanding officer; I told you that this order wasn’t valid!” That was Mel’s voice. When had she arrived? “He’s not to see combat.”

Report to the station.

“The order came from someone higher than you,” Officer Nolan’s voice was more distant now.

The date of departure: the very next day.

“Tomorrow at zero seven hundred hours, Mercury Hammer.”

Jayce looked up then to Mel who was now in between him and Officer Nolan as the officer walked to the door. Mel looked as though she had been slapped.

“Mel?” he croaked out and quickly took a breath, not realizing he’d stopped.

She looked at him and then beside him, her eyes softened. 

Jayce’s breathing stuttered again as he remembered Viktor was right there.

“I’ll…I’ll get this sorted.” She turned and quickly left, leaving the two alchemists alone in the lab.

Jayce turned to find Viktor gripping the silver pocket watch in his hand.

“V, say something, please?”

He watched as Viktor’s thumb swiped over the smooth back of the watch before letting it drop. Viktor caught it by the chain, the quick flash of his open palm let Jayce see that the imprint of the Piltovan state symbol, a gear, stayed.

The watch swung back and forth between them.

“I was going to tell you. I just–” ran out of time. The words didn’t form, couldn’t form.

Viktor looked up at him, eyes frigid.

“What are you wanting me to say, Mercury Hammer?”

Jayce physically recoiled.

“The state owns not just our research now, but you,” Viktor’s voice was low, unshaking and full of fury. “Why would you do this?”

“They don’t know about those,” he gestured to the box on the desk. It was a small solace he could offer. It was met with narrowed eyes and a tilted head.

“Jayce, why?” Viktor set the watch on the desk. Jayce wished he had slammed it. “Our dream, our alchemic theories! They’re gone now.”

“It was the only way!” The exact words he should not have said. He ran a hand through his hair frustrated. 

“The only…” Viktor inhaled so quickly it made him cough and Jayce lurched for him. He was met with Viktor’s elbow in his chest, keeping him back. “The medicine, Jayce?” His voice shook now as he leaned against the desk. “It is not worth it!”

Jayce stood up straighter at that. He knew that Viktor would say that. But Jayce knew he was right about this.

“It’s worth it to me. I’d let the world burn if it meant you would live.”

~ - ~ - ~

The walk home that early afternoon had been quiet, Viktor purposefully walking faster than Jayce and then becoming like a ghost once they were through the door.

This wasn’t what he wanted. This wasn’t what Jayce had asked for. And this was a horrible way to leave things.

Mel hadn’t been able to get the order reversed. She had been told Jayce would be a researcher at the fort, helping to help refine and adapt the alchemic weapons as needed.

He was trying not to think about it. Maybe three years would be quick. The last three had certainly gone by quickly. In the blink of an eye, really.

Jayce worked on packing the bag that Mel had handed him after she had come back to the lab. He wanted to run. To grab Viktor and get away, maybe to Zaun or somewhere farther south. Somewhere warm and far from the frigid winter winds and cold that were sure to be near the Delverhold. 

But he had signed the military contract. 

If he deserted or refused to follow orders, it would cost him Viktor’s medicine. And he couldn’t allow that, nothing could get in the way of Viktor’s medicine.

Mel had known when she had brought Jayce his military gear, she could see the hesitant way he reached for the bag. She then saw how Viktor was nowhere to be seen and quietly promised him that she would go to his forge for the hex-weapons he had created. It would give him more time with Viktor. 

A small mercy that felt meaningless as he stared at his bag, alone in their bedroom. He could hear his husband moving through the house. But Jayce couldn’t go looking for Viktor. He wanted to desperately, but he was the one that caused this hurt. 

He stared at the bag that was left open and wondered what else he needed to pack. 

His mind was murky. Cycling between worry for Viktor while he would be away, anxiety that he would be away at all, the fact that he didn’t really know what he would be doing. He would be away for so long. So much could happen in three years. He had been so afraid of losing Viktor and now that they have the rest of their lives in front of them, it was his own life that was being put on the line.

“Breathe, Jayce.”

Jayce jerked and opened his eyes, gasping as he felt Viktor’s cool hand on his cheek. He didn’t know when he had come in. 

Viktor glanced at the uniform that had been in the bag previously, now hung on their closet door and then back to Jayce.

Viktor’s eyes were red and Jayce realized with a twist that he’d been crying. 

Jayce reached his hand up and cupped Viktor’s to keep it pressed against his face. He watched as Viktor bit his lower lip and swallowed hard.

“I brought these from the albums downstairs,” his voice and accent was thicker now than it had been earlier. Jayce looked at where Viktor had nodded to. Pictures of them both were tucked into the bag now. Some from their wedding. Others from birthdays or other events.

Jayce shook his head. “Viktor, I can’t. If something happens to these–”

“We have copies,” Viktor interrupted and sniffled, zipping the bag with his free hand. “And even if we don’t, I know your mother does.”

Jayce nodded and found himself longing for the murky way his thoughts had been before. Staring into Viktor’s golden eyes, his thoughts now were clear, sharp and concise. 

Three years was far too long. He was going to miss Viktor too much.

“Vik,” Jayce started.

Viktor shifted closer, shaking his head as his thumb rubbed along his cheek. “I will continue to research alkahestry. And I will write to you to keep you updated.”

Jayce nodded, swallowing hard as he let Viktor take the lead.

“You will write to me and keep me as updated as you can. You will stay as safe as you can.”

Another nod. It felt easier listening to Viktor.

“I…will continue to take the medicine,” Another small step. Jayce wrapped an arm around Viktor’s waist. Jayce moved his hand from holding Viktor’s and instead caught the tear that started running down his cheek. “And when you come home, I’ll be cured.”

Viktor’s hand moved slowly from his cheek and into his hair, pressing their foreheads together.

“Promise me, Viktor?” Jayce whispered. If they wrote to each other, maybe the distance wouldn’t feel so big. If Viktor would be cured at the end of this, then it would all be worth it. 

“I promise, Jayce.” A moment after Viktor threw what weight he had at Jayce and they landed on the bed easily. 

Their lips pressed hard against each other, melting together. Hands gripped up and down arms and sides as their clothes came off. The bag had been kicked off the bed at some point. There was a brief pause as they worked Viktor’s leg brace off before Jayce pressed him back against the sheets again. 

In the early morning hours, Jayce lay curled around Viktor, head laying on his husband’s chest. He listened to his heartbeat and the wheezing breath in and then out, steady in sleep.

The sound, as horrible as it was, had grown to be a comfort. A way to know that Viktor was still there with him. As it lulled him to sleep, he wondered if the next time he saw Viktor, would the wheezing be gone?

~ - ~ - ~

The train station was bustling. State alchemists and enforcers from all over Piltover were saying goodbye to their families.

Viktor briefly thought of Jayce’s mother and how he would have to write to her in her travels.

Overall, Viktor felt numb. The pain in his lungs, in his leg, all of it was nothing compared to how he could feel his heart fracturing. 

He let Jayce lead him through the station, their hands tightly intertwined. He hated the sea of blue that was around them. The color Jayce now wore, too. Completely different from the whites, reds, golds and occasional greens of his usual wardrobe.

They were neither late, nor were they extremely early. Just exactly on time.

The state alchemists and other soldiers started loading onto the train and Viktor felt his heart twist. 

Despite the lies he had been fed for the past month, he knew Jayce meant well. But he couldn’t help himself from screaming mentally that he didn’t want this. He didn’t want to be cured if it meant Jayce was leaving.

“Promise me?” Viktor’s voice was quiet, he barely heard himself over the noise all around them.

Jayce, of course, heard him. He threaded his fingers now through Viktor’s hair, pulling and pressing their foreheads together. “I promise, Viktor.” 

The train’s final whistle blew and suddenly Jayce was the only one in blue still on the platform.

Anxiety jumped up Viktor’s throat. “I love you, Jayce.”

Jayce smiled and kissed him hard. Teeth nipped at his lip, tugging as he pulled away. “Love you too.”

Jayce turned then and jumped onto the rail of one of the train cars.

Viktor kept a hand pressed over his lips, he tried to keep the feeling of Jayce there as he disappeared onto the train.

Viktor was sure, as the train left and grew smaller and smaller into the horizon, that he had never felt so hollow.

Chapter Text

As Viktor sat outside of the hospital, waiting for Sky to pick him up, his latest treatment coursing through him, he felt the hollowness in himself open to an unending chasm.

He had gone from having only six months left to live, to having a cure, to…this.

~ - ~ - ~

Viktor had never been a fan of hospitals or doctors. He knew they did their jobs and were educated and trained in the latest medicines and procedures. But that knowledge did not make visits any easier for him. At least the gossip he would hear from the nurses and staff made them somewhat interesting.

Like what he had overheard sitting outside of his doctor’s room.

“Did you hear about the Radiant Alchemist?”

“Yes! She went with all those other state alchemists!”

“She was previously exempt, though. General Medarda wasn’t very pleased about her going.”

“Well I think it’s good. She’s showing support, after all.”

The two nurses’ voices faded as they continued down the hall.

Viktor had kept his eyes downcast as they passed. It was a bitter reminder that this conflict Noxus was in had pulled not only his husband but also both Caitlyn and Mel away.

He wondered how pulling state alchemists from another country would help smooth tensions. It only seemed like things would worsen.

He also wondered when he would get a letter from Jayce. It was nearly halfway into April, two weeks since Jayce had boarded the train. He knew it would take time, but he was impatient. Two weeks of nothing but moping wore on him. He had barely made it to their lab since Jayce left, the energy to exist feeling too taxing. 

The door near his chair opened.

“Ah, Viktor, good you’re here. No husband today?” Viktor grit his teeth at the mention. Dr. Reveck seemed unbothered and held the door open gesturing inward. “Come.”

Dr. Corin Reveck, the doctor assigned to him now that he was a patient at the military hospital instead of the civilian one that was much closer to home. The man was thin, his face gaunt and skin pale, looking almost translucent in the fluorescent lighting of the hospital room despite the time the man had spent in Noxus. His receding hairline made his head look perhaps bigger than it should have.

The man’s bedside manner could certainly use some work.

He had asked Viktor how he had been feeling since his last visit, and noted what he said on his clipboard. When Viktor had mentioned his lack of energy briefly, he had hummed but said nothing further on the subject or whether it was normal.

“Dr. Reveck,” Viktor had rolled down his sleeve, wincing at the tender spot on his shoulder from the shot. He tapped at the crinkled paper of the patient bed he sat on. “I was never told; how long will I be needing these injections for?”

The doctor turned to him, small eyes narrowing. “However long your body can handle them for.”

“Come again?” Viktor frowned. He must have heard wrong.

“This—” he turned away from Viktor to the counter in the room. Dr. Reveck held up the vial for Viktor to see: the strange light purple liquid that was the medicine he was taking. “—is Shimmer, a variant of it. It’s something that enhances a person’s abilities. After an injection, the subject will be able to do more, but its effects decrease until the next dose. The person is left needing more.”

Viktor tilted his head, thinking about the last month. How he had been able to do more. Climbing shelves when Jayce had been in the forge to get to books they had not had time to review before. The way the transmutation circles he worked on without the hex gems took longer to wear him out.

How the last week it had felt nearly impossible to leave the bed.

Viktor had chalked it up to depression, the lack of appetite and the drained feeling since Jayce had left sitting coldly in him. His coughing and pain in his lungs had returned in earnest.

“We typically have had good results until around six or seven months in. Then the subjects tend to decline. The last one was able to live on for another year. The bodies just aren’t able to keep up with the Shimmer and it becomes too taxing. They lacked a necessary component.”

He wondered how he could have become so dependent on the medication so quickly. It must have something to do with the chemical makeup of the drug he realized as he listened to the doctor continue on. Viktor, of course, had heard of Shimmer; how it had ravaged Zaun years ago when he had been a child. The way it made people act inhuman and how their eyes would light up with a purple glow. How it had disappeared suddenly.

A variant indeed. Viktor hadn’t noticed any of the signs of using Shimmer until the doctor pointed out the withdrawal effects.

The crooked smile and gleam in Dr. Reveck’s eyes as he fully turned to look at Viktor made him flinch.

“I think you’ve got potential, Viktor.” Dr. Reveck pocketed the vial and patted it. “Your body is weak, yes, but I think that your will to live will give you more time. I’d estimate eighteen months.” The doctor chuckled as he walked out of the room. “Yes, I think eighteen months would do nicely.”

~ - ~ - ~

Viktor had not missed the way the doctor had spoken. As though Viktor were just one of his test subjects.

He felt nauseous at the thought of it.

Just what had he been putting into his body?

Did Jayce know what this was? That this was not a cure? It was not even a proper treatment.

No, Viktor decided, swallowing hard and pressing a hand to his mouth as the other kept his cane close. Jayce could not have known. He was so convinced that this would be it.

Did Mel know? Viktor hunched over and worried his lip between his teeth. Closing his eyes, he thought it over. Mel was the one to recruit Jayce while he was unconscious and unable to stop Jayce, tell him he didn’t want this, that it was a bad idea. 

But he thought of the last time he had walked with her through the art gallery on the north side of the city. He’d had a coughing fit, his handkerchief’s transmutation circle hiding the blood easily. The activation of it had caught her eye as she rubbed his back, though. He could tell she had noticed and was worried, but Mel had not pushed him for answers. Instead, she pointed out a sculpture on the far side of the room and insisted they look at it next.

No, Mel could not have known. They were friends, he knew he could trust her. She would not have tricked both him and Jayce. If she had, she would not have followed him in a show of support to the Delverhold.

If neither Mel nor Jayce had known about what the cure really was but it was given at discretion of the Piltovan Council–

Bile was out of Viktor’s mouth before he realized it. He coughed around it and fought the urge to vomit again.

“Viktor!”

He looked up to find Sky’s parked car, hearing the door of it slam shut as she jumped out of it. He grimaced at her, unable to open his mouth in greeting in fear of throwing up again.

She offered him a towel that she must have kept in the car, and he took it after a moment with a nod of thanks. Sky waited until he had finished wiping his face to ask. “Do we need to go back inside?”

The shiver that raced its way down his back hurt, and Viktor shook his head sharply. He could not go back.

“No need,” his voice was rough-sounding to his own ears and he could see how she winced. Adjusting his grip on his cane, he stood, careful of the spot he had left on the ground. “It’s a side effect of the medication. The doctor warned me of it.”

Viktor decided as they walked to the car that he could not tell her about the Shimmer. 

He could not tell Jayce when he wrote to him either. It would tear him apart to find out the truth of the cure. He would probably do something foolish to try to get back home. And that thought made Viktor’s eyes tear up.

By Dr. Reveck’s estimations: he had a year and a half.

Jayce was gone for three years.

Leaning back against the cool leather of the seat, Viktor let his head rest against the window of Sky’s car as she drove him back to his house.

He promised Jayce he would be cured when he came home, that he would be alive.

If Shimmer would not cure him, Viktor would have to cure himself.

~ - ~ - ~

April 4th, 990

Viktor,

I’ve been trying to figure out what to write to you for ages, but I promise this letter is going out with the first ones from the fort we are in. No one knows how frequently we will be able to send or receive mail yet. But I’m hoping that I can get Caitlyn or Mel to pull some strings for me and keep sending letters to you.

I kept starting and stopping letters, not knowing how to say what I need to say, that I miss you.

I know I can’t change what happened, but I do wish I had had the courage to tell you sooner. Maybe you could have helped me with the adjustments I made to the hammer.

I’ve been working on a shielding component, but I can’t get the alchemy to trigger fast enough to be of any use.

I know, I know how you feel about the tools being turned into weapons. I cannot apologize enough for that. However, I can tell you now: I have four of the hex gems, and I gave our incomplete one to the council. Cailtyn’s rifle is powered by one. The hammer is powered by one and there is this girl that Caitlyn met a bit before the deployment, Vi, she has two halves in the Atlas Gauntlets. Please know I was absolutely careful with dividing the gem.

I think you would like Vi. She’s from Zaun originally. She joined the Piltovan army to try to find more answers about her father. She hasn’t said much else on it, but she’s brash and loud and the complete opposite of Cait. 

You know that I am stationed at the Delverhold. It’s large and I’ll admit I’ve gotten lost more than once. It’s…cold here despite the time of year. No snow for now though, I hope it stays that way.

I’m not sure what the goal here is, or how us being here is meant to ease the conflict. Mel thinks that perhaps with Piltover aiding, tensions here will ease. Vi thinks that there’s more going on. And I’m…I don’t know. I just want to be with you.

All my love,

-Jayce 

April 26th, 990

Jayce,

You have impeccable timing as always. I will admit I was worried that perhaps you would not be able to write after all.

It is comforting to know that there is someone from Zaun in your party. I would trust her instincts if she tells you something. Though I can only hope that Mel is right. If she is, perhaps you’ll be able to come home sooner.

Your mother wrote. I have added her letter with mine. Please try to send her something, too.

It may take a while for her to receive it, her group is traveling through Shurima for the time being.

In regards to the hammer, I am not certain how much help I can be from this far, without having seen the changes you have already made. However, are you able to add an acceleration rune to the circle? A slow-acting shield would be dangerous at best, I have sketched the rune I have in mind below.

Stay safe and aware.

Always yours,

-Viktor

The letters helped Viktor keep track of the time passing better than his failing body could.

In each, he could hear Jayce’s voice: his amusement, his concern, his worry, his love.

And while he longed to tell Jayce about the Shimmer injections, he continued to keep it from him, feigning better health in his letters despite his steady decline.

Viktor had pushed out his appointments with Dr. Reveck, trying to delay the next treatment, not wanting to fall further into dependency on the drug. But Harold, the man meant well, had called an ambulance for him when he could not stop his coughing only a few days late for what should have been his next dose.

At the hospital, he had been given another dose and Dr. Reveck had patted his braced leg.

“Do try to keep the next appointment, Mr. Talis. It would be unfortunate if your health were to decline so rapidly.”

June 6th, 990

Vik,

It was my turn the other day to walk in on Cait and Vi. Mel gave me no warning on this even though she knew they were together.

She said it was payback for the times she walked in on us at the lab…Which I suppose is fair enough.

I’m trying to learn some of the local recipes here, there’s a stew I think you’d like.

We’ve been able to have more meetings with the people of Freljord and Noxus. I think having Mel here is really helping to keep things calm between the leaders that are meeting.

For the alkahestry circle you mentioned in the last letter, have you tried….

June 30th, 990

Jayce,

You cannot keep scribbling your alchemy notes in the cookbook, love.

The lasagna recipe is completely illegible now, you know.

Sky and I have been going to a restaurant that reopened in Zaun lately. I am…not sure you would like the food, but you have surprised me before with this. Jericho’s is an old favorite of ours. 

Also…I have seen the papers about the explosion. I hope you are staying safe…

Human transmutation was not his goal. Not exactly. But the foundation of the forbidden alchemy was the base of his own research.

Viktor used his good days, the days immediately after the Shimmer dose on his research in the lab and the academy library.

While there was not as much information he could properly gather in his time on the academy grounds, he was able to store away materials he would need. He made orders and requests under the guise of furthering the hex gem research.

On his bad days, he stayed home, easily able to find the notes Jayce thought he had hidden away in the house.

His husband thought himself clever, but he had clearly forgotten that they knew each other’s alchemic encryptions. Viktor knew what books to pull and what pages to flip through to see more details and notes for where to look next. While Viktor preferred to keep his encryptions to books on organic chemistry specifically, Jayce had a more chaotic approach.

“Alchemy was born in the kitchen, V!” his love’s favorite callback. His encryptions were in the cookbooks on pages he signed with his name and some of the more flowery romance novels that dotted their bookshelves, again signed with his name. And his notebooks that he kept under the bed. The pages that were, unsurprisingly, signed with his name.

On his worst days, he stayed in bed and tried to focus on breathing without coughing. Little breaths, shallow ones. If he breathed too deeply, he would be coughing for ages. Those days he warred with himself, a part of him wanting Jayce to be with him and craving his comfort. Another part glad that if this was his end, if he was not able to fix himself, that at least Jayce would not have to watch him wither.

August 17th, 990

Viktor,

I’m sure you’ve heard from the radio or the papers by now. It’s getting worse again. Things are fine at the fort though. Don’t worry.

I miss our proper research, I miss our late nights, I miss your voice, V… 

It pained Viktor to see the letters where Jayce was clearly hiding from him. Hiding his suffering and anxiety. The letters were usually shorter. If Jayce was with him, he would speak similarly. Short, abbreviated sentences. If Jayce was with him, Viktor would just have to sit quietly and wait, leaning on Jayce so he would know he was not alone, and wait for Jayce to open up to him.

But Jayce wasn’t. He was far away and the letter was already over three weeks old.

The tensions with Freljord rose and fell and rose again rapidly the last few weeks with no official declaration of war. But it was a fine line, and the chances of a swift return dwindled by the day.

October 3rd, 990

Jayce,

I have looked over the hammer schematic you sent me again. I have sketched some runes at the bottom of the letter for you to look over, I think these may help with what you are looking to do.

…

The project I’m working on now is nearly done. I’m hoping I’ll have results to inform you with the next I write.

Love,

-Viktor

Viktor sighed after sealing the envelope; prompting a wet heavy cough.

It was nearly time.

~ - ~ - ~

Viktor thought over the last few days as he walked home from the post office, his latest letter to Jayce now sent.

Tonight would be the night. Four days prior, he had his latest dose of Shimmer. 

The drug’s helpfulness was proving to be less and less and he now seemed to reach his peak concentration of the drug in less than a week.

Dr. Reveck had seemed excited. Had been hinting at a new specimen for his experiment and the progress he was making. It was almost as though Viktor was now an afterthought. It had not mattered much to him, though; he had just had what he decided was his last appointment with Dr. Reveck. Not that the man would know that. If all worked out, he planned to stay quiet and never show up to his next appointment with the man. He would not need the treatment anymore, anyway.

He had spent the next few days gathering the items he needed from the lab and slowly taking them home. Harold had offered to drive him the night before and he had been immensely grateful for it.

When he got home from the post office, Viktor was out of breath and trying to breathe as shallowly as he could while still getting enough oxygen. It took time for his breathing to even out. He left the door unlocked.

Viktor moved through the living room and thought of how Jayce would put on the radio, somehow convincing Viktor to sway with him around the room. The nights they would curl together on the couch with the fireplace going.

He turned on the light in the kitchen and propped the door to the basement open before flicking on that light as well. Turning back and looking at the kitchen, he thought of how Jayce would hum while he cooked. Of the times Jayce would come up from behind him and hold him while he helped make dinner.

He eyed the counter where he had left envelopes with Jayce and Sky’s names on them: his explanation and apologies.

Viktor’s heart was heavy, but he knew that he needed to do this. A glance at the clock had him walking back through the living room, down the hall and into their bedroom. He still had time for now, but if he let himself get caught in memories, he would have to rush.

He had invited Sky to dinner in two hours. However, there was no dinner. Viktor knew it was potentially cruel, but if it went badly, then at least what remained of his body would not be left alone for long.

If his transmutation went how he hoped, he would be able to laugh it off and say he forgot. Then he would treat her to one of the restaurants down the road.

In the bedroom, he went to the dresser and picked up the pouch he had placed the hex gemstones in to bring them home, the lockbox left in the lab, now empty.

His and Jayce’s research had led to these little blue gems: polished, refined and powerful.

He would only need one, Viktor decided. He took it from the bag and set it on the bed next to Jayce’s notebook. He held tight to the other three.

Using his cane, he lowered himself to the floor, wincing, the strength and mobility the Shimmer had given him wearing off quicker with each dose.

Viktor pulled out a box and picked up the photo album they used for the picture taken at their wedding. He teared up seeing Jayce’s crinkled eyes and bright beaming smile in the photos. He touched his husband’s image softly, fingers gliding over picture after picture until he reached the back cover.

It was bulky, and had a small door to it. Jayce had always had a penchant for hidden panels and false bottoms. The door opened and in it were little items from the day. Some colorful confetti Jayce had found in Viktor’s hair that night. The flowers that had been in their lapels, pressed and preserved.

To Viktor, there was no safer place to put remaining hex gemstones.

Placing gems carefully into their wedding album, and tucking it back into the box under their bed.

Viktor stood shakily and plucked the gem and notebook from the bed, turning off the light and closing the door.

He held Jayce’s notebook, having found this one in the desk drawer in the basement. He traced over the Talis symbol etched into the leather and thought of the night before.

He had reviewed and thought about correcting Jayce’s notes on human transmutation. He did not want to think of the monstrosity that would have been formed with the amounts being so far off. But in the end, he had taken the notebook and, while it pained him to do so, tore out the pages with the proper notes from Jayce on human transmutation. In their place, he put a piece of chalk and a small note of, ‘I’m sorry. I love you.’

He had taken the papers he tore out and carefully tucked them into the fireplace, before setting a match and watching his husband’s secret work go up in flames. Viktor’s eyes had stung, but he could not risk Jayce trying to transmute him back to life.

After watching the smoke as the small fire died out, Viktor had gone into the basement and set the notebook inside the desk that they kept there.

Now he leaned against the desk and observed the circle. His cane rested in the crook of his elbow as he considered what he had set out, looking for errors.

The circle itself was really just that. A circle. A starting and an ending point.

There were shapes drawn within it, a way to direct the flow of the energy that would be put into the transmutation.

There were runes written within the circle and shapes, to help with the specifics of what needed to be done to the matter within the circle.

The true power of an alchemic circle came from the alchemist activating it. The intent that drove the power, the energy into the circle to deconstruct and reconstruct. To manipulate matter, to alter what was put into it with what it could be.

In a low basin, Viktor had laid down the ingredients needed to make an ideal set of human lungs: items he had ordered with Jayce’s new state alchemist funding and things that he had taken from their lab.

All he needed to do was enter the circle with the gem in his pocket and press his hands to the circle with what he wanted clear in his mind.

Viktor cursed and rubbed at his eyes. 

He had to do this. 

He needed to.

With the Shimmer still potent enough in his veins, he would be able to activate the circle with the help of the hex gem. If he waited any longer, put this transmutation off for even another day, he would have to wait for the next dose of Shimmer and from Dr. Reveck’s previous experiments, he knew that past the seventh dose, his body would start to break down faster, and the treatments would become less and less effective.

Viktor was not going to let himself continue to be Dr. Reveck’s experiment.

He was not going to let himself continue to slowly wither and decay.

Because if he was going to pass before Jayce’s return, Viktor figured he may as well do it now.

He was either going to leave this basement with a new set of lungs, or he was going to break his promise to Jayce sooner than Dr. Reveck had been predicting.

Viktor held onto the cane and pressed his forehead to the body-warmed red of the handle. With his eyes closed, he could pretend it was Jayce for a brief moment.

“Jayce will understand,” he whispered quietly, gripping the metal tighter before leaning it carefully against the desk.

He took off his shoes, leg brace, pants and shirt: no need for extra material in the circle to complicate things. He picked up the chalk he left outside the circle and drew over his chest one of the final directional runes he would need before he walked to the center of the circle with the gemstone.

With no aid to help himself to the floor, he roughly collapsed, wincing at the contact.

Taking a slow breath, he closed his eyes and thought of Jayce. Greeting him at the train station on his return. Sitting side by side in the lab. Laying in bed, their bodies intertwined.

He had both everything to win and everything to lose.

Another breath in and he cleared his mind.

Another breath out and he focused on his intent.

Another in and his hands pressed to the chalk lines he had drawn on the floor.

Another out and Viktor opened his eyes as he pulled at the intent and his energy and the energy pulsing from within the hex gem to bring power and life to the transmutation circle.

Viktor’s eyes grew wide.

It was working.

The blue glow of an active circle lit up the room. The items he had put into the basin were disintegrating, he could feel a pull on his body. He felt it deep within him.

It was working!

Until it was not.

Alchemic rebounds were always dangerous. At best, the product you hoped to create was damaged and materials wasted. 

At worst was death.

The blue light turned red and Viktor knew it was too late to stop the circle. Once a circle started, it could rarely be stopped. Viktor looked down at the single hex gem and wondered if he should have risked more of their research after all.

Only when he looked down, he saw that his hands were pressed onto what looked like an opened eye as large as the circle itself. The grey iris stared back at him and Viktor watched in horror as it blinked once.

When the eye opened again, little black arms came from the ground that the eye was projected on. Viktor could feel them wrapping around his legs, torso and arms. He couldn’t rear back from the floor if he had wanted to.

Viktor let out a panicked shout as the arms suddenly tightened. 

He was unable to fight back against the tentacle-like arms and found himself pulled forward into the eye. 

Chapter Text

Viktor gasped as his eyes flew open and immediately closed them again in pain.

Holding his hand over his eyes, he tried to open them again. Squinting, he turned his head from side to side, not seeing anything but pure white around him. As his eyes adjusted, he lowered his hand and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Where…am I?” His voice echoed with the sound of his breathing, the silence was deafening.

He turned around, wobbling a bit without support. Frowning, he noticed how while his right leg was weak, it did not hurt or feel particularly strained.

Looking up, he staggered back, finding a massive door in front of him, stretching high above him. There was what appeared to be the tree of life engraved on into the black slabs of stone in front of him.

“What is this?” Unsure of what was going on, Viktor took a step forward, and pressed a hand to the door. No answer, none to be given.

“Did…the transmutation fail? Rebound?” Viktor pressed his hand harder against the stone. Was this really what came after? “Did I die?”

“Not quite.”

Viktor jumped as a voice came from behind himself, and drew his hand away from the door. There was no one there before, but now when he turned there seemed to be.

A being with no features, glowing brightly a pure white with dark particles giving it shape, was sitting on the floor. 

“How…?” Viktor looked around, there was no way this thing could have shown up without him knowing. Viktor frowned, growing frustrated. He had more questions the longer he was wherever this was and was no closer to any answers. “Where did you come from? Who are you?”

Viktor flinched as a mouth formed on the being and it smiled, teeth large and human-shaped.

“I do love when people ask me that.” The being stood slowly from its position, standing with hands on its hips. Its voice was not quite masculine nor was it feminine. It was a fusion of something familiar and yet foreign. “After all, I am called many things by you humans.

“I am the world. I am the universe.” The being started walking toward him, waving its hand above its head lazily. “I am God. I am Truth.”

Viktor found himself frozen, unsure if it was from fear or something that this thing was doing to him. He did not know exactly where he would go, but this being felt dangerous, especially if it was claiming to be a god.

“I am All, I am One.” 

Viktor’s eyes widened at the phrase and he could see the smile grow even wider as it approached him. It leaned in close to his face. “I am also…you.”

Viktor gasped as he felt a tug backwards and glanced down to find the odd arm-like tentacles wrapped around his arms, legs and waist once more. He grunted as he struggled against the way they restrained and pulled at him.

“The door is open and now you will see the truth.”

The arms tugged hard and Viktor let out a short scream as he flew backwards into the darkness that the stone doors had opened up to reveal. 

The doors slammed shut and Viktor could not help but let out another shout as he tried to struggle against the hold that was on him. He could see nothing but darkness now and he could feel the arms move along his body. It was terrifying and he was helpless; there was nothing he could do.

Suddenly images lit up before him, flashing rapidly with an aged film quality as they flew by.

He saw Piltover. The council building. He saw it destroyed. Tanks in the streets. He saw the sky being dark and red light dancing around. Bodies everywhere. Jayce unmoving on the ground. A being above it all, runes glowing on its body.

He saw a desert. A kingdom. He saw the hex crystals, bright blue and glowing. 

He saw himself dressed in pale white robes and Jayce beside him, picking this other version of himself up and spinning him around. They smiled at each other, surrounded by beakers and scales. A blue orb surrounded by smaller stones with runes carved into them. He saw himself on the ground in the center of a circle, too pale, chest still. The glowing orb, now a purple color, was nearby and Jayce was activating the circle.

Viktor tried to reach out to this other Jayce’s image, wanting to stop him but unable to do anything but watch as the arms held him in place.

He saw a bright red flash and saw the same arms that held him rise from the ground. An image of the world, a section of the southern continent lit up in the ominous red glow of a large transmutation circle. Another flash and Jayce was on the ground, Viktor’s body gone and in the smoke that rose up were glowing purple eyes and a face that looked uncannily like–

Viktor cried out as he was flung back outside the doors, staggering as the arms released him and he was blinded by the brightness from before.

“How was it?” Eerie laughter echoed around him.

Viktor winced and looked up. The being, Truth, was still there.

“What was that? It was–” Viktor felt sick remembering the visions of Jayce that he saw.

“The past. The future.” Truth shrugged, uncaring. “You alchemists really like messing things up, huh?”

Viktor shifted, unsure how to respond; his thoughts swimming and head aching.

“You and that other human. You can’t seem to stay away from those stones.” 

Viktor swallowed hard. 

“A simple small rift was all it took and you both fell for the lure it cast for you like the fools you were.” Truth laughed at him. “Like the fools you are.”

Viktor seethed, he was no fool and he told Truth as much.

“Yet here you are,” Truth’s head cocked to the side, its mouth smirking. “You committed the ultimate taboo.”

“I’m not reviving the dead.” Viktor argued, moving a fist to his chest. “I’m reconstructing my lungs.”

“Augmenting yourself, defying death,” Truth waved its hand. “Human transmutation, taboo is taboo, whether it is the act of reviving or replacement.”

“What was that? That I saw in there,” Viktor changed tactics, he was not going to change its mind, but he could get more information.

“You know, deep within you.” Truth shook its head and started pacing in front of Viktor, no sound coming from its footsteps. “You and that other alchemist destroyed the ancient city and will be responsible for the destruction of the future city.”

Viktor stepped forward, approaching Truth carefully, keeping quiet.

“This was the start of it all.” Truth’s eerie voice echoed as it held up its hand and revealed the hex gem in its grasp. “Foolish humans playing with things they don’t understand. Easily influenced, easily tricked. 

“These stones, they were never meant to be in this universe.” Annoyance crept into its voice as it tossed the blue gem in the air and caught it. “Using a Philosopher's Stone at least pays the toll. This bypasses alchemic laws completely.”

Truth stopped moving and turned to Viktor.

Viktor got the distinct impression that Truth was glaring at him.

“The being you created back then has grown more powerful. It will not stop now and it will destroy all. The being acts below your feet without you ever knowing the way it’s orchestrated your life’s events. Fool.”

Swallowing hard, Viktor felt like he was nearly at the edge of understanding it, the images from the darkness still flashing through his mind.

“Let me see it again,” Viktor requested, turning to his right. “If I can know more about how to stop it–”

“Can’t.” Truth laughed as Viktor tilted his head to face it again. “You’ve seen all that you can for the toll you’ve paid. Time’s up.”

“Toll?” Viktor asked as he gasped in pain. Looking down his eyes widened in horror as his left leg started disintegrating.

“This toll! Of course you knew there was a price to pay.” 

Viktor looked up at Truth as he collapsed to his right, his weaker leg unable to hold the weight of his body on its own. He watched in horror as he saw his leg reappear from the knee down on Truth. 

“You didn’t think I’d take your weaker leg, did you?”

Viktor grabbed at his left leg, mind racing. He knew he wouldn’t be in this realm much longer if he didn’t act quickly. He gasped as Truth’s face was in front of him, centimeters from his own.

“It’s the law of equivalent exchange. Right?”

“Equivalent exchange,” Viktor ground his teeth together to fight through the pain. “I stop this thing, return it to you, and it pays for all the equivalence that has been lacking. In exchange, you tell me more about it.”

Truth was suddenly back in its original position Viktor had first seen it in, sitting down and Viktor’s leg was…whole on himself again.

“Stop the Hexcore?” Truth hummed. “And how do you plan to do that?”

Hexcore? Viktor sat himself up, mirroring Truth’s position as his breathing started to return to normal. He glanced at the imposing door behind him, realizing he did not need to go through it again.

“I’ll need more information about its creation. I know you know about it.” 

Truth nodded.

It felt like hours had passed and yet none at all. Time was impossible to track in the blinding whiteness of the void.

“You might actually be able to do this, Alchemist.” Truth sounded almost pleased. “Alright. You have until then. Until the Promised Day to return the Hexcore to me so that I can dispose of it.”

Viktor nodded.

“Your toll must still be paid.” Truth stood now and Viktor watched as the hex gem that had sat between them disintegrated. He winced, leaning forward and gasping as his right leg began to appear on Truth’s glowing body from foot to knee.

“Why–” Viktor grit his teeth.

“While you need to pay, the gem can assist you this time,” Truth shrugged before smirking. “And I’ll be taking something else as well: some insurance that you will get this done.”

Viktor collapsed farther to his left as his right hand began to unravel. 

“Hey, that’s not–!”

“Just until you return here.” Truth now gained Viktor’s right arm up to his elbow. It waved the arm and hand around like it was showing it off.

“You have until the Promised Day to return the Hexcore here. Succeed, and you will have your arm restored. Fail, and you will remain here, within the Door of Truth and have no chance at being reborn again.”

Truth leaned in close to Viktor’s face again, smirking widely showing off its large teeth.

“Good luck, Alchemist.”

Viktor blinked and then let out a scream as darkness and pain overwhelmed him.

~ - ~ - ~

Sky hummed as she parked her car on the side of the road, thankful that there was a spot close to Jayce and Viktor’s home. The rain had unfortunately not let up since she had left her house, darkening the evening sky prematurely.

She eyed the length of the path leading to the small porch and front door; if she was quick, she shouldn’t get too wet.

Taking a breath and counting to three, she swung open the car door and dashed for the house.

She leaned against the door as she panted, glad for the overhang that kept her from getting completely soaked as she knocked on the door.

She couldn’t hear any movement from inside. Not Viktor shuffling to the door or calling her in.

Odd.

Sky knocked again, louder this time.

Nothing.

With an annoyed groan, she reached into her bag to try and find the spare key. She immediately felt bad for getting annoyed. Viktor probably fell asleep, his medication had been wearing him out more and more lately.

She was worried about him. She didn’t see the miraculous improvement that she thought they would see in Viktor. Instead, he seemed to be getting worse.

Viktor would only ever shrug off her worries; he would say that it was supposed to get worse before it got better.

Sky was skeptical: she hadn’t thought this treatment was like that from how Jayce had talked about it. She had considered writing to Jayce about it, but held off. She did not want to worry him unnecessarily, especially if this was just how this new medication worked. 

“There we go,” Sky breathed out as she found the key and slid it into the lock.

Sky frowned immediately. The door was already unlocked.

Carefully, she opened the door, unsure about how Viktor was doing if he had managed to forget to lock the door.

“Viktor?” Sky called out, seeing his shoes placed near the door. The majority of the house was dark except for the light on in the kitchen.

Sky toed off her shoes and peered over the back of the couch as she passed it to see if Viktor was asleep on it.

She grew warier as she entered the kitchen and found it empty. There was no food being cooked for their dinner and no Viktor either.

“Viktor?” Sky looked around, noting the open basement door before her eyes caught on what was on the counter. Quick strides brought her closer and she reached out to see what was on the envelopes.

Sky’s hand started shaking as she saw Jayce’s name, scrawled in Viktor’s neat looped handwriting. Then her own name on the other envelope. She touched hers and turned around, shouting Viktor’s name again.

She started to move out of the kitchen to search the bedroom, hoping Viktor hadn’t done something drastic, that it was an odd coincidence that there happened to be letters to both her and his husband. Then the light flickering in the basement made her pause for a moment.

Taking a few steps back, she frowned at it, and then started down the basement steps.

“Viktor!”

Chapter Text

Jayce nodded and offered a weak smile to the officer that was on mail duty as he took his letters.

Turning quickly, he made his way back down the hall of the fort. He knew the path from the mailroom to his bunk well enough now that he could walk it with his eyes closed. After two years at the Delverhold, Jayce had stopped getting lost long ago.

He passed Cait on his way, knowing that she had a letter from her mother waiting for her. They nodded tiredly to each other. 

There was little being done to aid Noxus and Freljord into drafting a peace treaty. Any of the early attempts, as promising as they had seemed, ended in sudden bloodshed. Freljordians claimed that the Noxians had brought a sniper after an official was shot dead. Noxians claimed that the Freljordians had planted a bomb after one had gone off causing several casualties for both sides at the agreed-upon meeting point. Everything was too fluid, and facts and rumors slipped between their fingers faster than the sand to the south. It was more a standstill now to see who would toe the line first. 

The tension within the Delverhold was another thorn in everyone’s side. The Noxians and the Piltovans did not mix well, their drive and ideologies around the war clashed. There was little need for the Piltovan enforcers and state alchemists that occupied the base, the Noxians and their own alchemists able to handle the Freljordians. Despite the appeals Mel had sent back to the Piltovan council and her mother, requesting the withdrawal of their forces, each request came back denied. Defecting at this point would be pointless, surrounded as they were by Noxian territory. Those that tried didn’t get far; scouts would find the deserters’ remains in the dense wilderness that surrounded the fort.

Over time, the Jayce and the others had adapted. Caitlyn’s precision had grown, she had taken to defending them from higher vantage points when she could. Vi would barely wait until the other side swung first, she was quick to analyze and react, ready to be on the frontlines hitting back harder. Mel’s golden bracers now had her unique transmutation circles etched into them, allowing her alchemy to rain fire down on the others.

And Jayce…he tried so hard to only be a researcher while there. He had tried to only make adjustments to the alchemic weapons he had created. When that wasn’t enough, he tried to only defend and protect, using the hammer he forged to cast an alchemic shield around his team. He hadn’t been able to conceptualize taking another’s life, even in defense of his own.

Until the time his hammer’s shaft had gotten jammed, unable to twist to create the transmutation circle for the shield, costing the lives of the two enforcers who had been with him as they were shot down while protecting him.

Not long after that, he, Vi and others had been sent to a nearby Freljordian warehouse. The way he had lost himself, firing the energy the hex gem generated from his hammer wildly, trying to take down those that had surrounded him, that hurt his companions. Until he fired a beam through a child who then had dropped from a ledge to the warehouse floor below.

He hadn’t told Viktor that, though. 

He hadn’t told Viktor about the first time he was on the field. Or the second, or any of the times following.

He hadn’t told him any of it, really. He tried to keep the worst of what happened from those still in Piltover. Jayce wanted Viktor to focus on his recovery: he knew that the medication he took wore him out from the letters he had written. 

Writing letters to Viktor was Jayce’s only escape from the frigid north, especially after the true attempts at peace talks had dwindled to nothing after the first six months. 

Jayce passed by glossy windows and wondered as he briefly saw an echo of his reflection if Viktor would even recognize him at this point.

Being on the border of the ever-expanding Noxian empire and Freljord meant that seasons other than winter were exceedingly short. The skies were always a shade of gray, overcast clouds blocking the sun even when it didn’t snow.

He’d stopped trying to shave the second time he had to patrol after a major snowstorm at the fort. The near-frostbite he’d gotten had taught him why many of the men at the fort grew out their beards. 

Jayce had let his hair grow out, too, finding little use in styling it within the fort. He avoided looking at mirrors whenever possible after that first summer, after the warehouse. 

Still, he knew that he was leaner than before. The rations at the Delverhold and the environment played a role in that. He knew his upper lip had cracked from the cold, it had bled and ached for weeks before finally healing as a split. And he knew that the bags under his eyes must be dark, for how little he slept. The fear of severe snowstorms and of the gunfire he would hear at all hours often kept him awake.

Jayce would try to find comfort in Viktor's letters in those moments. In thinking of Viktor, imagining what he was doing, of going home to him.

Jayce moved into the room and to the bunk he’d had to call his home these past two years. Settling against the wall, he set down the two envelopes.

One from his mother and the other from Sky.

Opening his mother’s first, he read through it, an almost real smile on his face as she asked about any recipes he had learned while sharing some of her own. She travelled often after he had married Viktor; she had said she was relieved that he had found someone else to look after him.

Folding her letter back into the envelope, he set it aside to tuck it away into his duffle bag the next he stood.

Opening Sky’s letter, he let out a short, soft chuckle as Viktor’s letter fell out from within it.

The two had started sending their letters to him together some time ago, around the time that Viktor said he was going to stay with Sky and help her out more at the shop. Jayce knew it was likely because their house felt too quiet with him gone and he couldn’t begrudge Viktor for seeking company.

He had asked once about the way they had started sending their letters together and Viktor had written back that it saved them in postage. Jayce had started sending his letters to both Sky and Viktor in the same envelope as well after that. After all, if the letters were going to arrive at the same house, what was the point in paying twice?

Sky’s letter was short. She complained about the quality of parts she had gotten from a different metal worker, detailing how she had a customer that kept wearing down her automail and how she couldn’t be sure if it was the customer’s or the metal’s fault.

For Viktor’s letter, Jayce took the time to kick off his boots and draw his legs to his chest, wanting to be more comfortable.

He had taken to folding Viktor’s letters and pressing them into a tin container he had alchemized when he finished reading them; he had tucked the pictures Viktor had packed for him in it as well. He kept the tin within the military-issued jacket, always with him and close like the chained ring around his neck.

Jayce sighed as he settled farther against the metal headboard. One hand held the letter, the other brought out his wedding band from under his shirt to hold while he read.

April 14th, 992

Jayce,

I have drawn some additional runes that may help calibrate Caitlyn’s Hex Rifle and adjust the tension for the Atlas Gauntlets. 

Do tell Vi to be more careful: I am certain you will not be able to replace the fingers if she loses one. Also, thank her for the recommendation at Jericho’s.

Jayce loved how their letters often felt like they were continuing a conversation: occasionally inquiring about each other, but largely continuing to discuss how Jayce could improve his hammer and maximize the hex gem’s ability. Writing about the hex gems like they had when they compared research notes helped the distance feel smaller for a short while.

There were topics they avoided—Viktor’s health, for one. Viktor would only ever answer those inquiries, if at all, with simple responses. Jayce had better luck when writing to Sky and typically directed those questions to her.

Occasionally the letters got more intimate, they would have Jayce moving from the bunks to the bathrooms. It amazed Jayce how easily his husband was able to switch between writing of science to writing about his need to push Jayce into the bedroom the moment he was home again.

For now, he sank lower on the bed, skimming the paper once, then twice, before reading through it a third time, letting the words sink into his head. He tried to hear them in Viktor’s voice; his heart ached as he found it harder and harder to remember the way his accent would wrap around certain words, the lilt to his voice and the soft tone.

While I cannot tell you exact details about the project I have been working on, I can say that it is going well despite setbacks. I’ll have another piece done soon, so long as things stay as they are.

Jayce knew this vagueness was necessary in case the letters were picked for inspection. Neither wanted any of their future research to have to be shackled to the military. While Jayce understood why Viktor was being vague about his experiments, it drove him up the wall. He wanted to know more, wanted to help Viktor like Viktor had helped him.

I’ve heard on the radio that it’s getting worse. Please keep yourself safe and do not be a hero.

I do not need a hero, I need my husband to come home.

Be careful, love. 

-V

Jayce traced the initial with his forefinger, his eyes lingering on the last few lines..

He had felt like something big was going to happen for a time now. The fact that Viktor had mentioned it as well made him wonder just what the Piltovan public was hearing back home.

A thump startled him and Jayce looked up to find Loris in the door to the bunk room.

“There you are,” the large man nodded his head toward the hall. “Radiant–” he glanced around the room, seeing it was just them. “–Mel, wants to talk. Got a letter from her ma about something.”

Jayce nodded and folded Viktor’s letter neatly, putting it into the tin and back into his jacket.

Loris had made fast friends with Vi and had his bunk in the same room as Jayce’s. The man was a wall of muscle and didn’t speak much but was always willing to listen to Vi’s rants.

He quickly shoved his feet into his boots and followed Loris out and down the hall.

Jayce was lost in thought as they made their way to the office Mel used, focusing on Viktor’s letter and thinking about the runes he had drawn.

His focus was disrupted when a thinner man bumped into him.

“Ah, sorry,” Jayce apologized, stepping farther to the side of the hall to avoid potentially running into anyone else. He had only made it a few steps when his mind caught up to him and he spun around. “Dr. Reveck?”

Loris stopped ahead of him and the doctor stopped as well.

“Ah, Mr. Talis.”

Jayce couldn’t help the way his eyes widened as he took in the way the man looked and how he shifted his weight farther back away from him. He wasn’t sure what had made him think that this was Viktor’s doctor: the man’s appearance had changed drastically since he had last seen him.

Dr. Reveck was completely bald now with a burn-like scar encompassing the entirety of the right side of his face. His left eye was the same as it had been before, small and severe looking. His right eye was milky-white. His mouth and nose were covered by a dark cloth. The lab coat had been replaced by a too-large military jacket, much like Jayce’s own, that hung open. The palms of his hands were wrapped in thick bandages that went up into his sleeves.

“Though I suppose it would be Mercury Hammer now, yes?” Dr. Reveck chuckled lowly.

Jayce nodded shortly, mind racing. “What are you doing here, sir?”

Dr. Reveck flashed a pocket watch and the skin around the dark eye crinkled like the man was smiling. “Couldn’t let you young folks have all the fun. They have a sense of humor with their naming, though. Singed Alchemist.” He gestured at his face. “I must say though, that hex gem they gave me saved my research.”

Jayce blinked. Dr. Reveck was the one who had gotten the partial gemstone? He mentally filed that away for later, there was more pressing information he needed right now like–

“How’s Viktor’s treatment going?” Jayce asked before biting his lip, nervous to hear from his husband’s doctor. He glanced around to find it was only the three of them in the hall. 

“I do not know,” Dr. Reveck shrugged as though ice hadn’t just been dumped down Jayce’s back at his nonchalance. “It has been…some time since I have seen him.”

Jayce stared at the doctor. Viktor hadn’t mentioned changing doctors, nor had Sky. Maybe they thought it would worry him.

“Ah, do you know who his new–”

“Singed, there you are.”

Officer Nolan appeared suddenly. She raised an eyebrow at Jayce and Loris before turning to the doctor-turned-alchemist. “You are needed by the gates.”

“Another time perhaps, Mercury Hammer.” Dr. Reveck turned and followed Officer Nolan, waving over his shoulder as he walked away.

Jayce started to call out and follow them, but was stopped by Loris’ hand on his shoulder. He turned toward him and found him frowning.

“We should get to Mel.”

Jayce nodded. Mel would have answers.

~ - ~ - ~

“Dr. Reveck isn’t a state alchemist.” Mel sat at her desk, papers fanned out in front of her, fingers steepled together. “He came with Mother from Noxus as the head researcher for that cure-all.”

Cait sat in a chair by the office fireplace, eyes moving from Jayce to Mel. Loris stayed by the door as Vi stared out of the window to the courtyard below.

“He’s the Singed Alchemist, he had a pocket watch.” Jayce paced in front of Mel’s desk. “He was the one they gave the flawed hex gem to.”

Mel’s eyes fell to one of the letters on the desk. She held up a hand as she skimmed through the contents.

“Mother mentioned sending someone, that their experiment was successful and could help us end this. No name, but perhaps it was him.” She frowned, looking up at Jayce. “I wasn’t aware he was an alchemist. Did he mention anything about Viktor?”

Jayce shook his head. “He said he hasn’t seen him.”

Maybe Viktor hadn’t told him because he didn’t want Jayce to worry, but perhaps he had told someone else? Jayce stopped suddenly and turned to Mel then Caitlyn. “Did Viktor and Sky mention him switching doctors?”

When they shook their heads, Jayce groaned and ran a hand through his hair, gripping at it. “Why wouldn’t Viktor mention that? He would tell me if something happened, right?” His gaze swung back to Caitlyn who was looking over to Vi at the window instead. 

“I’m sure the doctor that took over is capable of giving the treatments, Jayce.” Mel stood, leaning against the desk. “Viktor probably didn’t think it was a big deal. I’m sure he’s doing just fine. Sky said so in her last letter.”

Jayce knew he was being ridiculous, but his gut said something more was going on.

“Shit, what is that?” Vi’s fist made contact with the window as she tried to crane her neck to get a better view.

Jayce and the others joined her, looking out and seeing the crumpled form of an enforcer on the ground near the gates. A steel container appeared to be rattling and Dr. Reveck walked around it calmly.

“What happened?” Caitlyn’s hand found a spot on Vi’s tense shoulder.

“One of the guards was walking past that,” Vi jabbed her finger on the glass as she pointed to the container, “then a hand came out, grabbed him and just threw him!” 

Mel sighed and sat down heavily in her chair again. “That is likely what Mother was referring to in her letter.” Mel rubbed at her forehead, frustrated.

“Why did you want to see us?” Loris spoke up for the first time since he entered the room.

A moment passed and Jayce turned to Mel, confused by her sudden silence. 

Vi and Cait stepped back from the window to look at her.

Jayce watched as she stood and walked over to the wall opposite the fireplace. A large map of the region was posted there, pins marking the last several skirmishes with the Freljordians.

Mel tapped the map and turned to them. “We have orders to move out on May thirteenth. Tomorrow morning.” Her green eyes were sharp as she looked them over. Jayce held back a wince as he saw the location was near the warehouse he and Vi had been sent to attack earlier in their deployment. “I want you all to be careful. I’m not sure what we are getting into exactly the orders we have are merely to show up. The general and the rest of the council want this to be wrapped up. Now.”

Jayce was quiet but hopeful as the others looked at each other.

The conscription had been for three years and yet here was the chance to go home sooner. While he would still be indebted to the military for the remainder of his contract, he would be able to continue his service from the comforts of home. With Viktor.

And yet…He couldn’t find it in himself to get too excited. Nothing had gone like it was supposed to since they arrived at the fort. Jayce could only hope that whatever it was that Dr. Reveck—Singed—had brought, it was something that the Freljordians wanted and maybe this region would finally be able to be at peace.

As he and Vi left Mel’s office together, Jayce thought of Viktor’s letter again. He would have to wait to send his response until after all this. Jayce knew that the mail back to Piltover would not be leaving this close to whatever was going to happen on the thirteenth.

~ - ~ - ~

The station was bustling, 

Jayce sat stiffly on a bench off to the side, waiting, staring at the train ticket in his hand.

The third of June.

It was over. 

The details were blurry, fuzzy on the edges.

Singed’s experiment was a chimera.

The dots had easily connected in Jayce’s mind at the sight of it. The brief conversation with the doctor-turned-state alchemist, the look in his eye as he had mentioned that the gem he had received helped to finalize his work. His work, Jayce could now see, was fusing lifeforms together. From how the chimera had looked, it had once been a man but was now combined with a terrifying variety of animals.

In a horrifying way, Jayce realized he had dirtied not only his own hands but Viktor’s by handing the imperfect hex gem to Ambessa. As he saw the chimera rage on the battlefield, he felt a dizzying sense of despair at the thought of Viktor learning what their creation had helped to create.

While the chimera had been meant to go after the Freljordians, it had attacked anything that moved. Neither side was safe from it as it tore through limbs like paper.

Jayce had heard Vi shouting. He had run over and had seen the chimera with its claws raised and moving in a downward arch. He hadn’t thought as his feet moved on their own, propelling him forward. He swung his hammer out and activated its lightning field as a shield.

The beast roared as they collided and Jayce grunted as its long arm was able to land just past the shield and slice into his right shoulder.

He’d let out a cry as he shifted the runes inside of the shaft to charge the hex gem in the hammer's head.

Vi had been saying something, but Jayce hadn’t been able to hear her over the chimera’s roaring. He had winced in pain, feeling the blood run down his shoulder and suddenly the glowing red eyes of the chimera were gone. Jayce blinked and barely got a breath in before it was solidly knocked out of him. The beast had reappeared behind him and its claws tore at his back, throwing him forward and into a tree at the edge of the settlement.

He had heard Vi shout again, but he couldn’t see her. He had tried to roll over, to move at all, but he must have hit his head at some point. His vision faded in and out. 

Jayce had had a hard time focusing on anything after that. Viktor’s last letter came to the forefront of his mind. He’d been able to dizzily focus on that instead of the shouting and snarling that turned to static around him. He hadn’t listened to what Viktor had asked, Jayce hoped that Viktor would understand.

He remembered it growing quiet, like the fighting had moved elsewhere. He recognized Cait calling out to Vi. More voices and then nothing.

Nothing until he had woken up in the infirmary of the Delverhold with Caitlyn by his side.

She had told him what had happened. She had arrived too late.

The Atlas Gauntlets had been destroyed. The gemstones within them could not be found.

Loris and Vi had been killed. There was nothing to be able to bring back.

The chimera had gone missing.

And Jayce had apparently been in and out of consciousness for a little over two weeks.

And with him having woken up, once he had been deemed well enough to travel; he, Mel and Caitlyn could return to Piltover.

Home.

In the whirlwind of the last few days, he realized that he had never been able to respond to the letters he had been sent in May. Neither Viktor nor Sky knew that he was coming home.

He supposed it would be nice to surprise them, but found his heart twisting at the thought that there wouldn’t be anyone at the last train station waiting for him. A silly thing to hurt over when he was going home.

Without Vi.

Without Loris.

The time he missed recovering made it all feel strange. The other Piltovans at the fort had moved on; accepted their losses and had begun to return home. His emotions felt like they were frozen, locked away in his own head, stopping him from being able to fully or properly process the information around him.

The grief would catch up to him, he knew. He just hoped it would wait until he was home.

He could hear locals chatting, he caught bits and snippets of conversations as they passed his bench.

“The Machine Herald was in Imperial Bastion!”

“No, he was only recently in Demacia. There’s no way he could get that far into Noxus so quickly!”

“Well, tell that to the people he healed there, then! They saw him!”

“What strange powers he has!”

“He works miracles, I tell you!”

Jayce tilted his head as he listened, mouth pressed into a line as he thumbed at the date of the ticket. His other hand rubbed at his chest, feeling the tin with Viktor’s letters and the ring under his military jacket.

If only this Machine Herald had been around before. Perhaps he could have tracked him down and had him heal Viktor since he was so miraculous. 

He knew better than to think the way he was, but it was nice for a moment at least. If the Machine Herald had been able to help Viktor, then Jayce wouldn’t have had to join the military. Then Viktor wouldn’t have had to get so sick and suffer.

But Jayce did not regret the path he had chosen. He would do it all again if it saved Viktor.

“I’ve got your bag, Jayce.” Caitlyn’s voice broke through his thoughts. 

Jayce looked up and bit his lip. Caitlyn stood in front of him, both of their bags on her back. A tired and weak smile was on her lips, but not her eyes.

Jayce nodded and stood carefully, wincing at the wound on his back and the skin that pulled under the wrappings. He took a shallow breath to avoid further hurt and followed Caitlyn onto the train.

It only took a few minutes of squeezing uncomfortably past other passengers for them to find their seats and get settled. Jayce let his head fall to the window, feeling the glass tremble with the motion of the train preparing to move. Closing his eyes, he tried to redirect his thoughts, to happier times that would come.

Like surprising Viktor.

Jayce imagined sneaking in the backdoor of their home. Viktor would be so focused on reading in the living room. Jayce could nearly see him in their overly big armchair, brown hair nearly golden in the afternoon light.

He would be quiet for a moment, taking in the scent of their home, the peace and the sight. Jayce would watch as Viktor’s golden eyes moved side to side as he read, his mouth sometimes moving in the shapes of the words he read.

Jayce would move slowly and purposefully step on the creaky floorboard partway into the room. Viktor’s gaze would jump from the book to him.

Jayce wondered who would speak first; would it be him, saying that he was home? Or would it be Viktor, saying his name?

Either way, Jayce knew he would stumble forward and sink to his knees, curling himself over Viktor’s lap as he would hug either his waist or legs, whatever would be easier to reach in the moment.

He could nearly feel Viktor’s hand cool and steady on his back.

Jayce would lean up and wonder what had changed for Viktor in the years they had been apart. 

Would that spot on his neck, just on the underside of his jaw, still be shockingly sensitive and fun to tease?

Did he still take his coffee sickeningly sweet?

Was he really healed?  

It wouldn’t be long now until he could hold Viktor again.

Chapter Text

Water: thirty-five liters.

An escort from the council was waiting for them upon Jayce and Caitlyn’s arrival in Piltover. Mel was frowning as she was brought over to them from the car of the train she had rode in. The enforcers began to usher them into a vehicle outside the train station once the three of them were together.

The enforcers had said the council had some important news to share.

Jayce had felt his anger rise for the first time in weeks: Viktor had been waiting for long enough. Mel’s hand on his arm had calmed him as Caitlyn tried to argue with the officers. 

One of the enforcers had stepped forward, her voice and message firm: this news could not wait. It went unsaid: Viktor would have to.

In the end, Caitlyn only achieved a promise of the keys to the car after they had arrived.

Carbon: twenty kilograms.

The papers in his hands crinkled as he gripped them tightly. Words blurred, not making sense, much like the words spoken by General Medarda at the head of the council table.

Ammonia: four liters.

“Terribly sorry for your loss.” Cassandra Kiramman had said, her eyes soft in their sadness. Caitlyn was tense at Jayce’s side, her hand gripping his left arm. Mel stood in front of him as though she could shield him from what he had been told. 

“—meaning of this?”

“Mel, I told you, it was an experimental treatment.”

The words were indistinct, rapidly blurring together. He could really only focus on the words he had first been told and the certificate in his hand. 

Phosphorus: Nine hundred grams?

The state-given grave plot for his service. For his sacrifice to the cause. The obituary.

Lime: one-point seven kilograms?…one-point-four kilograms?

Viktor was dead.

He died over a year ago: October 1st, 990. the date seared itself in his brain.

Salt: two hundred and five grams?

The basic composition of a human was simple enough, it didn’t matter that he couldn’t remember the specifics. It didn’t matter. He knew the items he still needed were likely at the house. His notebook, tucked away in the desk in the basement, had the proper formula, the proper circle. It was fine that he only had the basics in his head.

He could not think past trying to remember what he needed for the transmutation.

~ - ~ - ~

Mel breathed heavily as she leaned against the wall.

They had left the council room in a flurry, Mel pulling both Caitlyn and Jayce behind her as she stormed out. They had not gone far, only down the hall and around a corner, but it was far enough.

She eyed Jayce. He had one hand on his necklace, the other tightly wrapped around the papers he was handed. His eyes were dull, breathing slow.

Her heart broke remembering the only thing he had said in the council room.

“Viktor’s…gone?”

Jayce hadn’t said another word since.

Mel looked over to Caitlyn, she was still holding tightly to Jayce’s left arm. She hadn’t said a word either.

Feeling her hands start to shake, she flexed them and turned them into fists. Mel stared at her boots. She didn’t know what to think.

Never had her mother mentioned that the treatment was experimental. She would have asked more questions. She would have ensured the safety of her dear friend. 

Something was not right. 

They had letters from Viktor, recent ones at that. He had answered questions in a way that could not be fabricated in advance. Things only Viktor would know.

Mel looked up and met Caitlyn’s eyes. The way her eyes narrowed, not looking at Mel but past her, told her she knew something was wrong as well.

Mel heard the door to the council room open, the councilors returning to their offices on the other side of the building than where Mel had directed her friends.

“Mel,” her attention returned to Caitlyn, watching as she squeezed Jayce’s arm once more. No reaction from the man. His eyes were glassy but the tears had not fallen yet. Caitlyn set her military-issued bag on the ground at Jayce’s feet. Mel only noticed now that Jayce still had his strapped over his shoulder. “Keep an eye on him for me. I need to speak to my mother.”

She nodded once and Caitlyn turned the corner with quick strides.

Mel adjusted the grip on her own bag as she stepped closer to Jayce. She swallowed thickly, blinking away tears.

If Jayce wasn’t crying, she wouldn’t allow herself to. Not yet.

She felt torn. She did not know what Jayce was thinking. Jayce, who was an open book and had his heart on his sleeve, being so closed off and blank now. Mel didn’t know if he blamed her; she didn’t know how he couldn’t.

If not for her insistence that this would work, Jayce would have been able to spend Viktor’s last days with him. Instead, he had died over a year ago and alone.

“Ah, there you are.”

Mel tensed and turned around slowly.

Her mother leaned against the curve of the hall, observing them with an eyebrow raised.

“I’m not sure why you’re so upset by this. He had been excited to work with Dr. Reveck on this cure, he was a willing participant in the experiment.” Ambessa turned her hand over, as though inspecting her nails. “Anything for the pursuit of progress, yes?”

Mel grit her teeth as she took a few steps closer to her mother. Yes, Viktor liked puzzles. And yes, Viktor would have loved to have figured out a cure. But no, this was not what he would have wanted. And for Ambessa to be speaking of this so crassly in front of his grieving husband?

“He wouldn’t have wanted this,” Mel hissed. Her eyes flicked over to Jayce, who had not moved a muscle, before going back to Ambessa. “He wouldn’t have wanted you to wait this long to tell us of his passing.”

Ambessa did little to lower her voice. “Perhaps not. He did ask for Jayce, but we needed to be sure Mercury Hammer wouldn’t be distracted. He was needed at the Delverhold.”

Mel tensed at the noise that came from behind her.

A sob.

Eyes wide and horrified, Mel turned to find Jayce had crumpled forward, squatting on the ground with his hands over his ears.

“Mother,” Mel’s voice was low as she rounded on Ambessa who merely looked over her shoulder at Jayce.

They hadn’t needed Jayce. They hadn’t needed anyone at the Delverhold. There had not been any actual issues with the Freljordians until after they arrived.

She had told Ambessa this in her letters and told her this again now as she advanced on her mother.

Ambessa watched, an almost amused look in her eyes. 

Mel was frustrated with the way her mother was acting toward everything. The heartless way she talked of Viktor in front of Jayce. The way she had broken the news to Jayce, in front of a room of councilors. The way she denied Viktor at the end. The way she acted as though Mel was still a clueless child in front of her. The way she brushed off Mel’s emotions.

Mel nearly mentioned the letters she had received from Viktor personally. But something about the look in her mother’s eyes stopped her.

“Mel,” Ambessa placed her hands on her daughter’s shoulders, firm. Mel fought back the urge to shrug them off. “We probably should continue this conversation another time. Perhaps you can come see me later, yes?” 

Ambessa lifted her hands and turned, leaving no room for Mel to argue back as she walked down the hall.

Mel’s gaze found her military boots again. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to figure out just what her mother was trying to get at, what her goal was in this. 

“Good day, Captain Kiramman,” Mel could hear Ambessa’s voice echo from down the hall. She looked up and saw Caitlyn’s curt nod to Ambessa. Once the general had turned down the next hall, Caitlyn glanced behind herself and then started running to Mel.

“We’ve got to get out of here. Jayce should be able to stay with my family for now until I can figure something out.”

Mel nodded and took a breath as Caitlyn walked past her. Of course. Jayce shouldn’t be alone right now. Especially after what her mother had cruelly said. Being alone in the house he and Viktor had shared right now would likely only torment him.

“Mel, where’s Jayce?” The panic in Caitlyn’s voice was thick.

Mel could feel her heart start to race as she turned around.

There was no one there, nothing but Caitlyn’s bag open on the floor.

Her shoulders sank as she breathed out. She had failed Jayce again.

~ - ~ - ~

Jayce parked the military car on the street. He left the keys he had taken from Caitlyn’s bag in ignition as he jumped out of the car.

He had to be quick. He knew Caitlyn and Mel would be able to figure out where he had gone. The bruising grip Caitlyn had had on his arm as she tried to ground him told him she remembered what he had researched years ago. She knew what he was about to do.

He started for the front door before huffing, aggravated: he didn’t have the key. Pivoting, he went to the back of the house.

Jayce crashed through the back door to the house he had called home only a couple years ago. That door never did latch properly, a project that he had kept pushing off, thinking he—they—had more time. 

As he stumbled into the little kitchen, he coughed; the air was stale, an odd scent of stillness from the evident lack of movement in the house, further driving what the council had presented him with into his heart. The obituary and paperwork were crumpled in his fist even still. From the broken door, he could see the thick dust that had settled on the counters, the cobwebs that draped from the hanging light over their small table.

He coughed again, eyes wet as he made his way to the pantry, still stocked with the necessary items for what he needed. Dried lime, salt, the iron supplements, the ammonia from under the sink. He carried the items carefully in one arm as he still held onto the papers.

He knew he had the rest of what he would need in the stores they kept in the basement for at-home experiments. He thought through the remaining items: water, carbon, phosphorus, saltpeter, sulfur, fluorine, silicon…

Jayce tried to keep repeating the ingredients in his head as he passed the archway that led to the living room. 

If the thick dust and stale air hadn’t been the giveaway that no one had lived in this house for some time, that Viktor hadn’t been here for some time, the drawn curtains and sheets over the furniture would have done it.

The fantasy he’d had on the train played briefly in his mind as his eyes caught on the large armchair by the window. No afternoon light shone in, the windows were drawn. The chair was covered by a pale sheet, and there was no Viktor.

He stumbled down the stairs, dropping the ingredients on the desk as he reached for the light switch.

Jayce did not know how much time he would have before Caitlyn arrived. She would without a doubt try to stop him. 

But with Viktor gone, Jayce had to turn to human transmutation.

He had left his husband to meet his end alone.

Viktor had asked for him and Jayce didn’t even know he had passed. He hadn’t been there.

Jayce stopped moving, gasping. He hadn’t even known. Jayce had always thought he would. That he would be able to feel it, the moment Viktor was gone. But instead, he had been across the continent completely unaware.

He ground his teeth together. Viktor had promised to be here. Jayce knew it was childish to cling to that promise, but he couldn’t help but repeat it in his mind. Because Viktor had promised.

Jayce roughly pulled open the drawer to the desk and found his notebook there. It was safe and tucked away, just as he had left it. He dropped it on the desk and flipped the leather cover open to find torn pages.

Jayce’s breath caught. His research, circles, ingredients and amounts were gone.

In their place was a small piece of chalk. A note beside it on a scrap of paper and Viktor’s pretty, slanted writing.

‘I’m sorry. I love you.’

Jayce picked up the chalk. Viktor had known what he would do. Viktor had known.

Jayce dropped to his knees, a deep sob that had been building since he was handed the cursed papers ripping from his chest. The chalk fell from his hand as he gripped the small note instead. With the next sob that shook his body, Jayce curled forward on himself, pressing his face to the smooth cement of the basement floor.

His breath caught at the rough prickling pain across his forehead. Blinking tears away, he looked at the floor. Jayce’s free hand traced the spot as he lowered his head back down, this time frowning and staring across what was once a smooth surface, now with evident alchemic scars.

Jayce sat up, and crawled along the floor, his eyes scanning what should have been a pale even-toned gray floor, had odd rusted looking stains on the floor, almost like…blood pools. Almost like there was a massive alchemic rebound.

Thoughts flashed in Jayce’s mind.

Viktor had died on October 1st, 990. A fact told to him by the uncaring council.

The letters from Viktor that he had been getting. Packed away in a small tin tucked into his jacket.

The papers he was given. The bank notes with Viktor’s signature, a note from the teller that it was for future funerary plans. The plot that Ambessa had said she had paid for Viktor to be buried in. The obituary, cold, factual, no anecdotes.

The letters from Sky, who had not mentioned anything.

The little piece of chalk with the even smaller note.

Viktor’s promise of being alive.

The letters.

Jayce’s eyes widened and he grabbed at the tin in his coat. He unfolded the papers quickly, scanning for what he was looking for.

October 3rd, 990

…The project I’m working on now is nearly done. I’m hoping I’ll have results to inform you with the next I write.

Love,

-Viktor

Jayce rubbed his thumb over Viktor’s name and then carefully set the letter down and compared it with bank notes he had received. The signature was the same as the letter, dated for September of 990. Jayce breathed out slowly, heart aching as he then reached for the death certificate.

October 1st, 990

He turned back to the letters from Viktor again. His mind felt like it was turning back on again.

November 20th, 990

…of course you want to know about the project. But I can’t say much on it. You know why.

It was a success.

Sky and I have gone to Jericho’s to celebrate.

While this project worked, it proves there is still much for me to learn and has given me another project to work on while you are away.

I’ll keep you as updated as I can in the letters…

Jericho’s. The name stuck in Jayce’s mind. It was mentioned in several of Viktor’s letters. 

Jayce’s eyes widened. This was what he was missing. Viktor’s encryptions.

He knew his husband liked to use organic chemistry books for them. However, when those weren’t readily available, he took to using repetition.

He flipped through Viktor’s letters and found each one that mentioned Jericho’s.

A food stand in Zaun, one that Vi—his heart clenched at the thought of her—had mentioned that Jayce would like.

Looking through the letters that mentioned Jericho’s, Jayce’s eyes narrowed. 

Every time Viktor mentioned the food stand, he always said he had gone there with Sky.

Sky who had started to send Viktor’s letters tucked in her own.

Jayce gathered all of Viktor’s letters and the papers from the council, folded them together and tucked them into his coat. He needed to hurry, he didn’t have time to fold them properly to fit inside the tin right now. He was careful with closing it, though, looking at the picture of Viktor he had pressed to the lid of it, the grin on his face and the way it made his eyes crinkle made Jayce tear up again.

Viktor had been telling him something in these letters. 

If Viktor wasn’t dead, there was one person who would know.

He stood from the floor and stormed back up the stairs.

“JAYCE!” 

He nearly bowled Caitlyn and Mel over as he swung himself out of the back door.

“Jayce! You—” Caitlyn’s eyes tracked up and down him quickly, taking stock of him and clearly ready to tackle him if needed.

“We need to find Sky.”

Chapter Text

Jayce and Caitlyn got out from where Mel had pulled over on the side of the road. She wasn’t joining them, she had to get back to Ambessa. Caitlyn waved as the car drove off, but Jayce barely noticed, his eyes focused on the building in front of him.

The Limit: Sky’s home and automail shop.

The Limit was on the edge of the two cities, close to the bridge connecting Piltover and Zaun. A home made from combining two townhouses together. He knew that the majority of the first floor was used for her patients, seeing them and their surgeries. There was a small area for tinkering with parts tucked near the kitchen. The second floor of the building was both her living quarters and where she would do the majority of the automail builds.

The sun had set long before and the usually bustling street was quiet. Jayce knew that he and Caitlyn stood out far too much still dressed in their uniforms. The faster they were off the street the better. Jayce quickly strode up the  paved path to the front door of the clinic.

The business sign was off, but that wasn’t going to stop Jayce.

He pounded on the door, ignoring Caitlyn’s scolding hiss at the amount of force he used. He heard the sound of something being knocked over and a curse from inside. The sound of quick footsteps stilled by the door. Jayce looked directly at the little peephole in the door, frowning.

There was a muffled, “Jayce?” and then he could hear the door unlocking. “Jayce! Oh my god!” Sky launched herself at him, holding him tightly as she laughed. “I can’t believe it! You’re back so early.”

Jayce held himself stiffly, a deep sense of anger had filled him in the time it had taken to drive over. The anger kept him from reaching back for her even as she stepped away and looked at him, confused. 

She looked the same as the last he had seen her, hair piled into a high bun on her head and golden glasses framing her eyes. A pink sweater to combat the chill of the spring and brown slacks were visible from under the lab coat smudged with oil and grease stains.

Jayce couldn’t make sense of her confusion at his reaction. There was so much he could not make sense of right now and the lack of answers was driving him insane.

“Cait! You’re here too! This is great,” she clapped and tried to squeeze around Jayce in the doorway only for him not to budge. Sky let out a confused laugh. “Jayce, I, uh, would kinda like to see Cait—”

“Viktor died six months after I left and you’ve been sending me ‘his’ letters and yours, and you never mentioned it?” Jayce’s voice was venomous as he hissed the words through clenched teeth. 

Sky immediately frowned, eyes crinkling behind her glasses as he held Viktor’s obituary to her face.

“Jayce, maybe you should—” Caitlyn tried to speak but was interrupted by Sky snatching the paper from Jayce.

“What is this?” Sky frowned as her eyes darted over the paper.

“Why—” Jayce shook his head. “How have you been faking his letters?” His gut told him it wasn’t right, but he was angry and he needed to hear her say it.

“What?” Now Sky backed up, lowering the obituary as she stared incredulously at him. “I did what?”

“Sky,” Jayce’s voice was low.

“Jayce, you need to stop.” Caitlyn’s hand was tight on his arm, yanking him back. She continued over Jayce’s shoulder  “I’m so sorry, Sky. Listen, we can come back later.”

“Wait. Wait. No,” Sky’s head was tilted. “You think I faked his letters to you?”

Jayce’s only response was to narrow his eyes. He was shocked when she actually swore and smacked her own forehead, barely missing her glasses.

“I need to stop trusting you both,” she ground out as she looked back up at Jayce, her voice was dry as she laughed humorlessly. “You were made for each other, really. Promising me you’ll tell each other the important things and then saying nothing.”

Jayce’s shoulders dropped as he felt the heavy weight that had hung over him since the council room begin to lift. The way Sky was acting was making hope bloom painfully in his chest.

She turned back and started walking farther into her workshop, leaving the door open as she continued to rant. “He promised me he would tell you what happened. What he was doing, where he was going. But clearly he hasn’t.”

She stopped in the middle of the room when she noticed the two had not followed.

“Are you coming in? I need tea for this.” 

~ - ~ - ~

“Let me start with this: he’s alive and as far as I know, well.” Sky had led them to the back of her house, through the workshop and into the kitchen. Jayce caught her mumbling about what she would do to Viktor if she found out he was lying about being okay. She clicked on the stove and started gathering mugs as Jayce and Caitlyn carefully sat at the table.

Caitlyn kept her eyes on him, watching. But Jayce was quiet, the hope that was building in him was like a drug. He needed to know more. His eyes strayed to the stairs in the kitchen that led up to Sky’s actual home.

“I’m not sure where you got that obituary,” she reached for one of her tea tins. “But nothing in it is true other than his name and birthday.” A pause and then a short laugh. “And that he’s married to you.”

Jayce eyed the basket she kept in her kitchen full of old newspapers. They were good for keeping patients busy while they waited for repairs and helped to keep her workshop clean from spills, or so she had said years ago.

The kettle hissed and whistled, Jayce noted that she must have cranked the element with the speed it had boiled at.

Sky sighed as she set the steaming, steeping mugs in front of them before sitting down with her own.

“I guess,” she sighed again and looked up at Jayce, tired eyes meeting tired eyes. “Where should I even begin?”

“When I left?” Jayce’s voice was quiet, a far cry from what it had been when he first arrived. He found himself biting at his lower lip, worrying it between his teeth as he waited for her to continue.

Sky nodded, staring into her mug as she thought. “You know about the cure?”

“Viktor didn’t write about his treatment.”

“We were told this afternoon that it was experimental,” Caitlyn spoke quietly.

Jayce fought the wince as Sky frowned. “You could say that it was an experiment, I guess. Its goal wasn’t exactly to cure him.” Her hands toyed with the mug. “It was a variant of Shimmer.”

Jayce’s body tensed. He had been a child when the drug had flooded the streets of Zaun, dangerous and deadly. He knew that Piltovans had feared the rumors of what Shimmer could do and worried about those that used it or the drug itself crossing the bridge. It was miraculously gone as quickly as it had come and few talked of it now.

“Apparently the doctor Viktor had was the original creator of it. He had fled to Noxus when things didn’t work out in Zaun.” Sky fiddled with the tea bag’s string. “He was able to do more with Shimmer there. Viktor said he talked about himself a lot. As, ah, one scientist to another, I guess.”

“What was the purpose then? What was this experiment,” Jayce spat the word out, hating to think of it in terms relating to Viktor, “meant to do?”

“The Shimmer helped Viktor at first. But it more covered up his symptoms than actually treated them.” Sky tilted her head from left to right, not exactly answering Jayce yet. Her calm voice helped him relax the grip he had on his pant leg. “As his body got used to the doses, the Shimmer worked less and less.” She took a deep breath and a deeper drink from her mug. “The withdrawal between doses kept him in bed a lot until the end.” 

Jayce felt all of his earlier tension return.

“Sorry.” As though she could sense him about to spiral, Sky raised a hand. “Until he stopped the treatment.”

Jayce remembered Viktor’s prognosis before the medicine and a pit-like feeling started in his stomach. Six months. He thought the medicine he sold his soul to the military for would cure Viktor in what was promised to be a year.

“What happened after October third?” Jayce asked, his voice as tense as he was. He glanced at Caitlyn then at his mug.

He felt Sky’s hand thud onto the table and looked up. The annoyance on her face made the pit in Jayce’s stomach grow. “You know the date?”

Jayce reached into his jacket and took out the letters from his husband. He separated the one from October third and handed it to Sky, tucking the others away.

“‘The project,’” Sky huffed out a quick unamused laugh. “What the hell did he write to you about if he didn’t tell you about this properly?” she groused before shaking her head and handing the letter back to Jayce.

“Well. ‘The project’ was a success, I guess.” Jayce nodded, and Sky’s eyes flicked over to the clock. “Six months after you left, he invited me for dinner.” 

Jayce felt Caitlyn’s hand land on his elbow, like she was readying both herself and him for what Sky was about to reveal. Jayce was thankful she was there.

“I found him in your basement and ah—” A wince from Sky had Jayce thinking about how the basement had looked, the transmuted floor, the rusted stains on the concrete. 

“He tried to transmute himself.” The words tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop them. He stared into the tea as though it would help him understand better. His notebook’s papers being torn out made sense. The ‘I’m sorry’ note on the chalk made sense, it wasn’t only about tearing out his research. The state of the basement made sense. 

Questions still came to mind and fell from his mouth, filter gone. “What was he doing?” Jayce ran a hand through his hair, gripping at it. “What was he thinking? He was still living. What—” Jayce cut himself off as his hand moved to press against his mouth, his eyes bouncing around the light mug stains on Sky’s table as his mind wandered.

Did it work? Was he cured now? Did Jayce dare to hope for that? Something had happened and Viktor was currently living past their doctor’s initial prognosis. Did he only buy himself a little more time? The evidence of the rebound in the basement. The blood. What had happened? How had Viktor survived the transmutation?

And where was Viktor?

“I’m not completely sure.”

Jayce’s head snapped up. Apparently he had spoken out loud.

“Ah,” Sky sat back in her chair, looking tired. “He wants to be careful.”

Jayce propped his elbow onto the table leaning forward closer to Sky as Caitlyn let go of his arm. He was confused and trying to figure out what exactly to ask Sky without jumping down her throat. What exactly did Viktor need to be careful for?

“You guys actually only recently missed him. He stopped back last week to get his automail tuned up—”

“Automail?” The hand slammed from his mouth to the table. 

“Of course, he didn’t mention the automail. Why would he?” Sky groaned. “Right leg and right arm. He said he lost them in the transmutation. I’m currently making him some winter automail. I should be done with it soon. He said he’s got a trip north, I guess? He really doesn’t tell me much when he stops by. Usually it’s Ek—”

“North? What in the world is he doing—” Jayce cut himself off as he saw the look that Sky gave him.

“What about Viktor’s letters?” Caitlyn tilted her head as she sipped at the tea.

Sky shrugged a little, yawning. “Viktor’s got a circle of sorts for that. He tried to teach me it, but it made no sense to me, alchemy stuff never has.” Jayce’s eyes widened, he wondered if this was part of the project Viktor kept alluding to. “There’s a kid, Ekko, who helps him out when he is in Zaun; who usually brings me the letters from Viktor. I give him the letters from you all and a few days later he comes back with Viktor’s letters to you.”

“What about Jericho’s?” Jayce’s hand hovered over his jacket where the letters were. “I know it’s important, Viktor mentioned it and you in his letters a lot.”

Sky nodded. “When I need to meet with Viktor or the others, I go to Jericho’s. Ekko or someone else usually is there to lead the way from there.”

“You need an escort?” Caitlyn frowned.

“Even though Zaun is safer than before, Piltover doesn’t see it that way, at least since you all have been away.” Sky stood and took their mugs, Jayce’s untouched, to the sink. Jayce easily picked up on the fact that Sky wasn’t being as descriptive as before. She was holding back information. “They’ve been sending enforcers to conduct more patrols lately.”

“Why?” Caitlyn crossed her arms. “They should be staying within Piltover.”

“A lot has changed since you were properly in charge of the enforcers, Cait.” Sky leaned against the counter as she looked at them. “There’s a lot I don’t know either. But,” she raised her hands, “I can take you both over to Jericho’s tomorrow. It’ll have to be in the afternoon, I have tune-up appointments to do in the morning.” 

She moved over to the stairs and then looked them both over, contemplating.

“You can stay here tonight, I’ve got rooms you can use. And clothes for tomorrow, too. If you show up to Zaun in military gear, I can promise you won’t have the warmest of welcomes.”

~ - ~ - ~

Sky got Caitlyn settled in one of the downstairs patient rooms as Jayce waited in the kitchen, unsure of where he would be going.

Despite only having one true focus point, his thoughts were all over the place.

Viktor was alive.

Viktor had automail. How had his recovery been? He hadn’t been alone, Sky had been there, but Jayce hadn’t been.

Viktor was in Zaun…But not always? Where else did he go? What was he doing?

Viktor transmuted himself…Was it for his lungs? Did it work? Is he—?

Viktor had been taking Shimmer…Was it as excruciating to take as it had been rumored to be years ago? Were there lasting effects?

Viktor was alive!

Fingers snapped in front of his face and Jayce jerked in his seat.

Sky gave him a small smile before nodding toward the stairs.

Jayce frowned. “I’m not staying in one of the patient rooms?”

“Nah,” Sky’s grin grew. “I don’t think Viktor would forgive me if I did that to you.”

Jayce stood and followed her up the stairs, wondering what she could mean. It wasn’t as though her patient beds were uncomfortable. That was where patients stayed as they recovered from their automail surgeries, after all.

Viktor’s letter about staying with Sky made more sense now. Recovering from such intense surgeries alone would be impossible. Jayce wished he could have helped Viktor with that at the very least.

Getting automail ports added to missing limbs was considered a major surgery. Sky occasionally would have help from a young woman named Powder for limb replacements. Jayce hadn’t seen much of her, but Sky said she was a good assistant. 

The surgery consisted of working to connect the awake and fully aware patient’s nerves one by one to the permanent port that would have been fitted to them for ease of putting on and taking off the automail. Removing the mechanical limb from the port would be nearly painless, however attaching the automail would typically cause a severe jolt of pain as the nerves connected. Jayce had seen how the attachment would render some unconscious from the few times Sky had needed his help.

Jayce paused for a moment on the stairs, grimacing.

He knew the pain Viktor had dealt with daily with his leg and later his lungs, but the thought of him not only awake during the surgeries but unable to have any sort of pain medication or numbing agent for the need to make sure his nerves would be connected properly made him nauseous.

And Jayce had not been there.

He closed his eyes and shook his head briefly. He could think about this further once he was alone. Joining Sky on her home floor, he followed her down one of the halls.

“You know the bathroom is over there,” she pointed a bit farther down the hall. “You’re welcome to use it and you can stay in here.”

She opened the door she was in front of and stepped back, gesturing for Jayce to enter.

He stepped into the guest room, flicking on the light as his breath caught.

To the left was the bed, partially made, pillows adjusted to the way Viktor preferred them. On the bedside table was a framed picture of the two of them, similar to one of the ones Jayce now kept with him from their wedding. Next to that was the album his mother had made them.

His eyes travelled to the right and spotted worn cookbooks from their kitchen, Viktor’s favored chemistry books and several of their notebooks on the bookshelf.

Directly across from the door was an open closet that he found himself drawn to. He touched through each piece of clothing; there was a mix of both Viktor’s and his own clothes filling it.

“As you can see, this is where Viktor stays when he stops by,” Sky stayed in the doorway, arms folded across her chest.

Jayce could only glance at her, not able to fully look away from the clothes. He gripped at one of the sleeves instead of turning around.

She continued with a quiet sigh. “Like I said before, I’m not sure what he’s doing exactly, or where he’s going, but I know he’s in Zaun a lot. And I know that he’s been helping people and that he has good people helping him.”

Jayce nodded, eyes trained on one of the buttons on a shirt, his eyes were stinging.

“Thank you, Sky,” his next breath was shaky. “For being here when I—”

 “No need for thanks, Jayce.” Her hand was on his shoulder, he hadn’t heard her get closer. “Get some rest; we’ll go to Jericho’s tomorrow.”

Jayce nodded again, still not able to look at her as she left and closed the door.

He waited to move until he heard Sky retreat to her own room for the night. He carefully took off his uniform and sat on the corner of the bed, keeping his boxers and undershirt on for now. Looking around the room again, he saw one of the trunks from the end of their bed at home was at the end of this one. Viktor had brought a few other little trinkets from their home here.

Jayce swallowed hard and looked at the pillows at the top of the bed and the one closest to him, peeking out from under the partially made up covers. Viktor usually slept with a pillow tucked between his knees, a way to keep the pressure off of his weaker leg. Jayce reached out to it now and pulled it into his arms. It did not quite smell as he expected it to, mostly of metal and perhaps oil. It made Jayce remember the automail leg that Viktor now had. He wondered if it made it easier for him to walk, if Viktor still needed the cane he had crafted him years ago. 

Jayce hugged the pillow tighter to himself, unsure if he would be able to sleep.

The day had been a whirlwind of emotions and while Jayce was exhausted from all he had felt, he could not get his mind to calm with all the information he had learned in the last several hours since he had gotten off of the train.

He let himself fall to the left, onto the bed properly, his eyes widening as he caught Viktor’s scent off the pillows at the top of the bed as he pressed his face into them. It was faint, Sky had said he had not been here in a week, but it was more than Jayce had been able to smell in years.

He turned his face to the side and pressed it into the pillow he still held tightly. He didn’t want to risk his tears making the faint scent fade faster. Eventually, he pulled the blankets over himself and settled in for a long night of trying to piece together the information that was still missing.

~ - ~ - ~

Mel stormed past a variety of enforcers as she made her way to her mother’s office. There were far too many of them in the council building after hours.

She threw open the door to the office and stalked right up to the desk that her mother was perched behind, looking all too victorious.

“Ah, did you catch up with the Talis boy?”

“What were you thinking, Mother?” Mel’s voice only shook at the title. “Why would you hide Viktor’s death like that? Why would you lie to me?”

Ambessa shrugged, setting the papers in her hands down. “It wasn’t a complete lie, just a stretch of the truth. We needed Talis and his work. We tried other routes to get it, you know. And when those methods failed, we had to aim a little closer to his heart.”

Another careless shrug and Mel clenched her hands, hating the way her mother spoke of her friends as though they were nothing.

“And Doctor Reveck?” Mel’s eyes narrowed.

“He came from Zaun. He sought protection and offered his services to produce something that would help enhance our people, make our soldiers stronger.”

Mel shook her head, not able to believe what she was hearing.

“He really has refined the effects of Shimmer, withdrawal aside, the strength and abilities it can provide are so much more than they had been in Zaun.” Mel felt nauseous, dying from a Shimmer addiction…She never would have wished that on anyone.

Mel was unsure if Viktor had truly passed on though. The whole display in the council room reeked of her mother’s showmanship. The way she had clearly been trying to antagonize Jayce further in the hallway did as well.

She swallowed hard and flexed her fingers, watching her mother but saying nothing more for the moment. It always felt as though Ambessa was always several steps ahead of her.

She was not sure what Jayce had seen that had stopped him from whatever he was about to do, but the Jayce that met them at the door had not quite hope, but a drive to him. And that made her believe that maybe, just maybe, Viktor wasn’t as dead as her mother wanted them to think.

“They are my friends. You used them. You used me.” Mel stressed again as she took a few steps back from Ambessa’s desk.

“Mel, you’re being too soft-hearted. Like your brother.” Ambessa scoffed and Mel felt as though she had been slapped at the mention of her late brother. “I’m thinking of our family, our people and how we can be sure that we will be able to properly lead all of Noxus to be the world leader.”

Mel scoffed. “And how exactly do you plan to do that?”

“With some help,” a voice came from the right, near her mother’s bookcase.

Mel tensed. That voice, that accent. It almost sounded like…She turned slowly to look at this newcomer and her jaw dropped.

“Ambessa, perhaps it is time that we finally tell Mel.”

The bookcase had been moved, revealing a door. And in the doorway was—

“Viktor?”

Chapter Text

Surprisingly, Jayce had fallen asleep quickly. The faint scent of home had lulled him. When he woke up, the sun was already high in the sky, shining brightly through the window of the guest room.

Jayce sat up slowly, wincing as his back and shoulder ached. He touched the bandages as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and groaned at the movement.  He would have to change out the bandages before he got properly dressed again.

Reaching for the framed picture on the nightstand, he couldn’t stop the small smile or the way his eyes teared up as he touched the glass over Viktor’s face. There were still too many questions, but for now he took comfort in knowing that Viktor was alive. He stood carefully and knelt next to where he had dropped his bag the night before. Grabbing a change of underclothes and fresh bandages, he went to the hallway.

There was the quiet noise from below, the sound of Sky’s voice, though he couldn’t make out the words, and another woman. Jayce leaned against the wall near the bathroom as he listened to the quiet murmurs through the house. It was strange. Not unwelcome, but not what he had grown used to.

With a swallow, he continued into the bathroom. 

Stepping out of the shower, he looked at himself briefly in the mirror, only so that he could see how to rewrap the bandages properly. His previous ones had no blood on them, likely from his mostly-peaceful sleep the night before.

Jayce’s eyebrows furrowed at the sight of the three deep lacerations over the entirety of his left shoulder blade extending down to the bottom of the right side of his ribcage. The military doctor had said he had healed well while unconscious at the Delverhold, but that it would take several more weeks of proper care before they would be considered healed. He had also noted that Jayce had been lucky that while the lacerations were deep, they had not affected his spinal cord.

His right shoulder had one gash still over the top of it. It was in a similar state to his back, still needing weeks for proper healing.

As he wrapped himself, he wondered if Viktor would recognize him. Turning, Jayce gripped the sink as he stared his reflection down properly for the first time in months. 

He considered going back to the bedroom for the framed picture and curating himself to look the same as he had then. Doing so would require that he cut his hair and stylize it like he used to. He would also have to get rid of the beard that had grown and return to being smooth-faced once again. However Sky hadn’t left out a razor or scissors, so fixing how he looked would be limited for now. Jayce shook his head and used the comb that she had left out for him to neaten his hair the best that he could. He carefully slid the undershirt over his bandages and returned to the guest room.

Jayce stood in front of the closet and dresser, considering the clothes that Viktor had brought with him to Sky’s house. His fingers lingered on one of his green shirts, he had worn it more times than he could count. After realizing Viktor seemed to get just as riled up at seeing Jayce in Zaun green as he was seeing Viktor in House Talis colors, he’d had the shirt custom-made. It was a deep green fabric with silver accents and buttons. It was shorter sleeved, ending at his elbow and cuffed with Talis red. He had added the black leather to the shirt himself, over both of the shoulders.

He carefully took the shirt off the hanger and draped it on the bed. Jayce walked to the dresser and took out a pair of  black pants to lay beside the shirt. He smiled as he found a pair of his black gloves in the sock drawer and tossed them onto the bed as well.

Jayce grabbed some more clothes from both the closet and dresser and tucked them away within his bag. He dressed quickly from there, tucking the letter tin from his military jacket into his shirt, needing to keep it close. He touched his wedding band to be sure it was still there as he did.

With a sigh, he grabbed his military belt and wrapped it around his waist, not fond of the fact that he felt comforted by the weight of the alchemically-shrunken mercury hammer at his side. The rest of his military items, including the state alchemist pocket watch, were stuffed into his duffle.

Hefting the bag onto his uninjured shoulder, he looked around the room again, eyes catching again on each of the items Viktor had brought into the room. Biting at his lip, he looked at the picture frame again before turning off the light and closing the door.

Jayce found Caitlyn sitting at the table in the same spot as the night before. She had a bowl of what appeared to be oatmeal that she was picking at in front of her. Her eyes were trained on a newspaper in her hand.

Caitlyn had traded her blue uniform for a purple shirt and pair of pants with—

“Are those thigh-high boots?” Jayce chuckled as he shook his head.

Caitlyn shot him a look from over her newspaper. “They’re Sky’s. She’s letting me borrow them. And the clothes. She thought that it would be best if we looked a little more Zaun-appropriate.”

“Yeah, Viktor—” Jayce started before swallowing hard. “He brought some of my clothes here.”

Looking over Jayce’s own outfit, she nodded approvingly. She then set down the newspaper and stretched out her arms, showing the mismatched sleeves, one an off the shoulder white cloth, the other a black long sleeve. “Zaunite fashion has certainly gotten interesting.”

Jayce nodded, having a hard time imagining Sky actually wearing that outfit.

Caitlyn gestured for him to sit as she stood and started walking around to the cabinets. He watched as she pulled bowls and silverware out of them.

“I could’ve done that, Cait.” Jayce started to stand until she turned quickly and shot him a look.

“She said we have to be quiet while she’s working. We don’t need you to break her dishware or something.”

Jayce frowned, but conceded and settled back into the chair. A few times when they were over for dinner with Sky, he had accidentally upended one of the dishware shelves. It hadn’t exactly been his fault, he wasn’t clumsy by any means; the kitchen was just rather small. He and Viktor would then spend the better part of those evenings fixing every broken piece with alchemy.

As she sat back down, Caitlyn placed the bowl and one of the newspapers in front of him.

“It’s better if we start getting properly informed about what’s been going on in Piltover while we wait.”

The clock in the kitchen read that it was a little after one; they would have another two hours until Sky would be able to help them get to Jericho’s.

Jayce nodded and had truly meant to read as he ate. However, his thoughts drifted and the words his eyes skimmed over were meaningless. 

Until he saw an article about the Machine Herald. Blinking, he folded the paper so that it was easier to hold and brought it closer to his face.

It was an editorial piece, stating that there was likely something more to what this Herald was doing though few were able to figure it out. 

There was no medicine. There were no circles.

The Herald would put his hands together and then touch the injured or ill person. Some healed within moments, others hours, but the results were always the same.

The sightings had started nearly a year ago. There had been sightings of the Herald within Noxus and along the coastline from Piltover to Demacia. He was seen in Zaun occasionally. The article noted that he had only been seen in Piltover once, seen near the academy. The article acknowledged what it claimed to be a rumor about the Herald stealing from the academy, as an attempt to explain the increased enforcer activity as of late.

There were theories that he had come from deeper within the Shuriman continent or that maybe he was an alien or creature of some sort.

Jayce snorted quietly as he read through the article. As fantastic as it would be to do alchemy with no circles, it was just that: a fantasy. A circle would always be needed and whoever had been reporting on this Herald clearly either did not research alchemy enough, or had missed the placement of the circle. The Herald must have the transmutation array somewhere on his person, carved into a bracer, tattooed onto his skin, something.

With a wry smile as he looked over the paper in hand, he thought of Viktor. Viktor had always preferred to keep his transmutation circles, and his alchemy in general, subtle. It made Jayce wonder about Viktor’s project that he had talked so vaguely about. Viktor had written about wishing he could have Jayce’s help with it and he hoped that his sentiment was still the same now.

The back door in the kitchen creaked loudly as it swung open and Jayce was on his feet with the mercury hammer fully summoned and charged.

The boy in front of him couldn’t be older than twenty, his dark skin was washed in the blue alchemic light of the hammer. His brown eyes were wide as he stared down the charged weapon to Jayce before frowning at him as though he were a mild annoyance.

Caitlyn hissed at him as he had knocked over the table and their bowls lay shattered on the ground.

“Sorry! I’ll be right back, that damn stray cat must have gotten back in again!” Sky’s voice came from the other side of the door leading into the automail shop.

Jayce was shifting the runes on the hammer to power it down as she slipped into the kitchen.

“What the hell, Jayce!” Sky hissed as she came up and grabbed his ear, pulling hard at it.

“Sky, shit, that hurts!” Jayce whisper-yelled back.

The boy in front of him snorted, drawing both of their attention to him as he shook his head and his white dreadlocks swayed with the motion in their ponytail, arms crossing under the large green coat he wore.

“What’re you doing here?” Her voice was low as Sky spoke to the boy.

“Needed to talk to you about, uh,” his eyes slid to Jayce and Caitlyn, narrowing. “That order.”

Sky rolled her eyes. “I need five more minutes,” she nodded to the shop’s door. “Then I can help you out. Until then, all of you stay quiet!” She let go of Jayce’s ear and he rubbed at it wincing. “And you,” Sky pointed to Jayce then the broken bowls on the floor. “Get fixing.”

~ - ~ - ~

Jayce shrunk the hammer back to its smaller state and into his belt as they waited for Sky to finish up with her current customer. He and Caitlyn had stayed by the picked-up table and the boy stayed over by the stove, staring them down.

Jayce would only admit to himself that he was embarrassed by how he had reacted. As much as he could try to argue that he was trying to defend Sky’s home from an intruder, he knew that the readiness he had to reach for his hammer was not alright.

It wasn’t until he saw Caitlyn move to sit down again, that he noticed she had taken apart her rifle in one smooth motion. Jayce had not even seen her snap it together. He supposed it was nice to not be alone in his overreaction to the situation. 

Looking over to the kid again, Jayce nodded to the cupboard behind him and asked, leading, “You like tea…?”

He frowned, clearly considering ignoring Jayce. “Ekko.” 

Ekko moved to the side to let Jayce walk over to get the water boiling. Jayce went through the motions slowly, to show Ekko he wasn’t a threat and to avoid making excessive noise.

“Sorry,” Jayce turned to face Ekko as the stove’s coils clicked on. “It’s a…habit.”

“Habit,” Ekko mused, a small smirk starting. He shook his head and continued. “Sorry for the door. Habit.”

Jayce bit his tongue as he nodded and moved back over to where Caitlyn sat, putting a hand on her shoulder to ground both himself and her.

As they continued to wait for both the tea and for Sky, Jayce wondered about Ekko, who was apparently familiar enough to Sky that he was used to smashing into her house. He remembered the name from the night before, or at least he thought he did.

“Oh good, you’ve got tea started.”

Jayce blinked and turned to the shop’s door as Sky came through it. She swept past them and straight to pouring the water into mugs and passing them out.

Ekko’s face screwed up as he flicked his tongue after tasting his immediately, having not let it steep at all. Jayce fought back a laugh.

“Do you have any letters?” Sky pulled out a chair to the table across from Caitlyn and gestured for Jayce and Ekko to take the remaining seats.

“No, you haven’t given me any, either.” Ekko turned the chair so that when he sat, his chest pressed against the back of it, his head tilting in Caitlyn and Jayce’s direction. “I see why, though. I’m sure he would have liked to know he’d be home so soon, though.”

Sky’s eyes rolled as Jayce’s confusion mounted. “They just came in last night. I didn’t have any idea about it either.”

Caitlyn’s eyes had been flicking between the two as they talked. “What letters are you talking about?”

“Ah, this is what I was explaining some of last night,” Sky sighed and gestured with her free hand to Ekko. “Ekko helps Viktor and I with the mail. Ekko brings the letters Viktor wants to send you all and I give him the letters you send him.”

Jayce’s breath caught, realizing the person both Sky and Ekko had been referring to while talking had been his husband.

Ekko caught Jayce’s eye and he leaned back. “Yeah, Viktor’s been traveling around a lot. He’s taught me how to activate this specific circle that sends the letters directly to him while he’s out.”

Caitlyn turned and looked at Jayce. “Viktor never mentioned traveling in his letters.”

“No,” Jayce’s voice was slow as he turned to look at both Sky and Ekko. Jayce mulled over the thought that this kid knew how to send letters directly to Viktor and yet Viktor never told him about it. This entire time, he could have been sending his letters and notes directly to his husband instead of waiting nearly a month at a time for a response.

“He probably didn’t want to risk the information about the array getting into the wrong hands if the letters were ever under review,” Ekko shrugged like the answer was easy.

And it could have been that, with how Viktor started sending his letters hidden with Sky. But that only gave him more questions, like why did he need to hide where he was? Was it only due to him succeeding at human transmutation? Or was there something more going on? It didn’t make complete sense.

“Why is he hiding?” Caitlyn leaned forward on the table as she asked the question that he couldn’t find the words to, her hands knit together under her chin. “Why has the Council declared him dead?”

Ekko’s eyes widened. “Huh, that’s…not the most surprising thing I’ve heard, actually.” But he didn’t elaborate further, instead grabbing a chain from his waist and pulling up a beat-up timepiece. “We gotta speed this up. Sky?”

Jayce frowned, but before he could argue about the topic change, Sky held up her hand in his direction, stopping him.

“The automail should be ready soon. I was planning on finishing it this afternoon, but I’ve got to take these guys to Jericho’s.”

Ekko shook his head. “You won’t be able to right now, they’re changing up the enforcers on the bridge again. I’ve got Dalton paid for the next thirty minutes, but after that it’s going to be hard to get over there.”

“What do you mean, ‘enforcers on the bridge?’” Caitlyn sat up straighter.

“Things have changed, Cait,” Sky looked down at her mug. “Maybe it’ll get better if you’re put back in charge of them again. But there’s checkpoints set up along the bridge now.”

Ekko stood from the table and stretched as he looked both Jayce and Caitlyn over. “If you guys are ready to go now, I can take you with me. We’ll skip over Jericho’s this time and head straight in.”

“You’ll take them?” Sky sat back in her chair.

“Yeah, it’ll give you more time for the automail. He’s getting antsy.” Ekko smirked as he looked at Caitlyn and Jayce again. “And I wanna see their reactions.”

~ - ~ - ~

Crossing the bridge from Piltover to Zaun went fine. They were only stopped briefly before Ekko had nodded under his hood to one enforcer who had waved them through: Dalton, Jayce supposed. 

The three of them kept their hoods up as they continued down into Zaun. Caitlyn’s shirt had a hood attached and Sky had found a black cloak tucked in the back of her closet for Jayce. 

“Stay close.” Ekko walked a few steps in front of them as they descended into the Lanes. 

The Lanes were lit up in neon even in the late afternoon. They were crowded as they always were the few times Jayce had gone with Viktor into Zaun.

Jayce turned as he heard a shout, hand twitching above his hammer but resisting the urge to hold it. “What?” Jayce was aghast as he saw an enforcer appear and grab at a man working a food stall.

“Keep moving.” Jayce turned back in time to see Ekko had grabbed Caitlyn’s arm and was pulling her along.

“Ekko, stop!” Caitlyn hissed as she twisted out of his grasp making him stop. “Enforcers shouldn’t be in Zaun.”

“Glad you think that, but welcome to the present.” Ekko glared at them both. “Now we keep moving before the enforcers decide to come after us next.”

Jayce glanced over his shoulder and quickly put a hand between Caitlyn’s shoulders to get her moving as she glared at Ekko’s back. There were a pair of enforcers watching them and while Jayce had been on the battlefield next to other officers and had previously trusted several of them with his life, something told him to run now.

Thankfully, Caitlyn didn’t fight Jayce or say anything further for the moment.

It was not until several blocks later that the feeling of being watched faded. Jayce waited a few minutes more before speaking up. “Ekko, why are the enforcers here?”

The boy shrugged, slowing down as he turned them right into an alley, not stopping. “Been this way for the last two years. They used to stick to the Promenade, but they’ve been working their way into the other levels. The Lanes is their latest area as of a few weeks ago.

“They’re looking for the Machine Herald,” he continued as they got out from the alley and onto one of the main roads again.

“If they’re looking for him, why don’t you just give him over? Then the enforcers would leave you all alone.” Caitlyn crossed her arms over her chest as she shook her head.

That made Ekko stop in his tracks. Jayce watched as he turned slowly to look at them; his eyes enraged and his mouth silently moving though no sounds came out. He closed his eyes and breathed heavily through his nose, his hands in front of him, fingers splayed out as he moved them slowly up and down, as though the action was calming himself.

“We don’t hand over our people.” Ekko spoke slowly, his eyes narrowing with each word.

Jayce gave a little nod as he looked between Ekko and Caitlyn, the tension between them high.

“Golly, Ekko, you sound just like Vander.” 

Jayce jumped, hand flying to his hammer, but he stopped himself from taking it out from his belt. Turning around, he found no one behind him. His eyes flicked upward and around the fire escapes but found nothing there either.

“Easy there, Jumpy, I’m not going to eat you.” The voice came again, but Jayce couldn’t find the source.

Ekko sighed, shoulders sagging. “Powder—” 

“It’s Jinx out here.” Her voice was dry in her reminder, but Jayce was already making connections.

“Powder,” Jayce repeated, slowly relaxing. “You work with Sky.”

“Worked. Past tense, Beefcake.” Jayce frowned but the girl’s voice continued. “Anyway~! Ekko. We’re cleared, you can stop leading these guys in circles.”

“I thought so,” Caitlyn muttered.

“Are you going to come out so we can go together?” Ekko called out.

Silence answered him. The girl, Powder or Jinx, was seemingly gone.

Jayce turned to Ekko, frowning. He really should have realized they were not going anywhere, his mind was too clouded. “If we’re not going to Jericho’s—”

Ekko lowered his hood before tilting his head to respond to Jayce. “The Last Drop.”

~ - ~ - ~

The Last Drop was a bust.

The scarred, slender man behind the bar had told them in a most uninterested, infuriating, tone that Viktor hadn’t been around in days and sent them on their way to the Sumps to look for people who may have more information.

Jayce was growing rapidly more irritated and anxious as evidenced by the way he had slammed the bar’s door open on their way out.

“He wouldn’t have left without upgrading his automail. He knows the risks.” Ekko assured as he walked ahead of him and Caitlyn. “Silco’s right,” his mouth twisted like he ate something sour. “He’s probably down in the Sumps, he’s been working with Mylo and Claggor on a project.”

Jayce pulled the cloak tighter and found himself wanting to pull the hood back over his head despite Ekko assuring them that they could keep their hoods lowered now.

Caitlyn kept pace with him, her eyes glancing around as they walked. There were less and less people out as they continued deeper into Zaun. There were more older buildings in disrepair and the air grew thicker. Every so often, there were a few patches of yellow plants that seemed strangely out of place among the slabs of cracked concrete.

He twisted the cloth in his hands. He wondered about the Machine Herald, if maybe he could do something miraculous like bring back Viktor’s limbs. Limbs that Viktor had taken from him in the alchemic rebound done in their basement. The alchemic rebound that happened because Jayce had left him alone to die and—

Jayce coughed, spit having gone down his throat wrong. It was effective in both distracting him from his spiraling thoughts and drawing attention to himself. He waved a hand as the other two looked at him.

Jayce thought about asking Ekko about what could possibly be in Sumps, but decided he didn’t want to be scoffed at.

Caitlyn apparently had no such concerns.

“We picked this area for a lot of reasons.” Ekko answered. “One was because of how polluted the area down here is. Another? This is the last place enforcers would ever go.”

They were quiet again as they turned into yet another alley. Surprisingly, there was another patch of yellow flowers.

“What’s with the flowers?” Jayce asked, stopping next to the patch and touching one of the buds carefully. Zaun wasn’t known for its ability to grow much of anything.

“They’re special. Mylo and Claggor had been working with these. The flowers help clean the air.” Ekko leaned against the wall as Jayce stood. “They’re working on improving the effectiveness of it. You can ask them more about it when we see them.”

Jayce nodded as Ekko pushed off the wall and they continued on their way.  As they exited the alley, Jayce found that the occasional dilapidated building gave way to a rocky cavern. The slope of the path curved downward until they were back to walking on a flattened rock path.

“Ekko! You’re back, man! And you brought people?”

Jayce’s jaw had already dropped when he started to turn. In front of him, holding several pieces of lumber, was Loris.

Loris, who was dead.

Who was clearly, evidently not dead.

“Cait?” Jayce kept his voice low, unsure if maybe he was actually imagining things.

“Ah, Jayce, I—” Caitlyn’s voice was strained, but Jayce kept his eyes on Loris.

“Jayce! Caitlyn!” Loris set down the lumber, grinning wide as he approached. “I’m glad to see you both back in one piece.” The man laughed, setting his hands on his hips.

“Loris, you get lost, bud?”

Jayce spun around, there were only so many surprises he could take in one day.

“Vi?” Jayce gasped.

Ekko’s lips were pressed together, like he was fighting a laugh or a smile or both. Caitlyn had already taken off farther down the path.

“Cait!” Vi cried out as she was nearly tackled to the ground by her girlfriend. “Geez, watch it, Cupcake.”

As they straightened up, Vi grinned at him and Jayce felt like he was about to lose what was left of his dwindling sanity.

“Jayce, good to see you when you’re not bleeding out!” Vi called out, laughing, like this was an old joke between them. Vi and Caitlyn walked back up the path to where the boys were still standing. “I didn’t think you guys would be back in Piltover yet.”

Jayce looked between his friends, the two he thought were dead and the one that seemingly knew they were not.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost, bud.” Vi whacked his back hard, hand landing between his shoulder blades. It sent Jayce forward, breathing through his teeth and the pain as her hand landed right across the still healing gashes on his spine.

“Shit, shit, you’re still that hurt?” Vi panicked as she supported Jayce’s left shoulder, keeping him from completely falling to the ground.

Jayce panted roughly through his teeth, grinding them together. Blinking hard, he turned and glared at Caitlyn. She at the very least looked remorseful.

“I want to start by saying that I would have told you sooner if I could have,” Caitlyn defended herself.

“Caitlyn.”

“So,” Caitlyn started again. “Vi, uh, found her father. And he wasn’t well at the time so she and Loris left with him.”

Vi sighed and once making sure Jayce wasn’t going to fall over, moved bump shoulders with Caitlyn.

“No point in hiding it, Cupcake.” To Jayce, she said. “Pops is the chimera that freaky doctor made. I recognized him by the way he was fighting.” Vi looked down at her hand as she made it into a fist. Jayce stayed quiet as Vi continued speaking, glad for more clarity. “My sister had mentioned that there was this guy in Zaun who could heal nearly anything in one of her letters to me. So I figured we would go from the Delverhold to Zaun. We only got here maybe a week ago. Pops is doing better, but it’s still a work in progress.”

“I just,” Jayce sighed and shook his head, wincing at the pain across his back. He was choosing not to think too deeply about Vi’s father being the chimera Singed made. If he dove too deep into those thoughts now, he might spiral again. “Wish that you guys had kept me informed.”

“Jayce, I really would have told you sooner if I could have.” Caitlyn repeated, standing as well. “We just…didn’t have proper privacy. Or the right time. After the council meeting, I couldn’t just tell you that Vi was alive after what we heard.”

Vi and Loris shared a frown as they turned to Ekko. He shook his head at them but didn’t say anything. 

“Ah, speaking of the Herald.” Loris picked up the lumber he had been carrying before. “You should probably let him look at your injuries. He ought to be able to help you.”

“No.” He said immediately. A small, guilty smile started on his face as he shook his head. “I should have found this Machine Herald for Viktor before all of this happened. Until I know that Viktor is okay, I’m not going to ask the Herald to help m—”

Vi doubled over laughing, cutting Jayce off. Caitlyn looked down at her, confused.

“Vi?” Caitlyn looked at Jayce and shook her head. “What is it?”

“Little Man!” Vi gasped between cackles. “You didn’t tell them?”

“I figured Sky would have!” 

Jayce turned to see Loris turn away from him whistling and Ekko with his hand sliding down his face slowly.

“Told us what?” Jayce and Caitlyn spoke at the same time with varying degrees of annoyance.

Vi stood up, still laughing, wiping a tear from her eye while she shook her head. “Probably better to see for yourself at this point.”

Jayce groaned, pressing his hand to his eyes. He just wanted Viktor and answers.

Chapter Text

Viktor exhaled irritatedly, rolling his right shoulder tiredly as he set down papers on his desk. The automail port at his elbow was aching; he had been overusing his arm again. He rubbed at the muscle above it absentmindedly as he looked over the papers laid out across the desk.

There was very little information about chimeras, even in other countries, he had found. The Demacians he had befriended had little to give him when he had visited days ago and it was not safe to return to the Noxian settlement he had left a few weeks prior without his new sets of automail.

He had hoped to find an easy solution for Vi's father, but it seemed like meditation was the best thing for the man to try and reconcile with the beast he had been combined with. Even with the power of the hex gems, he did not have the power to separate the two. Even alkahestry could only do so much with the lives of both man and beast now intertwined.

Viktor ran a hand through his hair, shifting from foot to foot as he coiled a strand at his shoulder around his finger. Hearing the creak of his metal leg, he winced. Sky was going to kill him when she saw the state of this set of automail.

They had yet to figure out a decent metal that would be both lightweight and durable enough to accommodate the hex gemstones. The first attempt at adding whole gemstones to the limbs had ended with metal being embedded in the walls of Sky’s basement and Viktor needing a new leg, again. It wasn’t until the fifth attempt, with halved gemstones, that he and Sky were able to find a quasi-balance with the alchemic energy from the gems and metal and wired intricacies of the automail. The gemstones provided him with more ease of movement and adaptability when needed; but at the toll of degrading the metal over time.

Viktor’s eyes lingered on the map that was curled up on the side of his desk and his travel journal beside it. With a sigh, he moved the papers back into a folder and set them aside to review again later, instead rolling out the map across the desk’s surface. His fingers traced over the different points of previous conflicts that the Noxians had started.

The shores of Stonewall, west of Piltover.

The Silent Forest, just east of Demacia.

The Iron Pinnacle, north of the Noxian capital.

Each of these had been massive conflicts with a massive loss of life, the bloodshed immense. Just to the north of the Delverhold was the place where he had marked as the predicted fourth crest. And if that was true, Piltover would be the fifth.

The result was chilling when drawn out physically. The blood shed as a result of each battle created alchemic crests that in turn formed a continent-wide transmutation circle. It was something similar to what had destroyed the Shuriman civilization in a single night, only on a much larger scale.

Viktor’s fingers stilled as they lingered on the Delverhold. Jayce was there. At the place where he predicted the fourth crest would be carved. Or perhaps it had already been, if what he had heard while in the coastal Noxian town of Khworez was true.

Thinking of Jayce made the deep ache in his chest grow. Viktor missed him more than anything.

He had hoped that he would be able to see him when he next traveled, when he planned to set up his own fourth crest, a counterpoint to what the Hexcore had planned. 

Viktor wanted to see Jayce, wanted to find a way to contact him and meet somewhere outside the Delverhold. Viktor craved desperately to tell Jayce all he had done, all he had accomplished and the danger that the area held. If he could just get Jayce away from it all…

Viktor’s nail dug into the map, thinking of how the conflict between the Noxians and the  Freljordians had exploded.

His only solace was in Vi and Loris. 

Vi had revealed to him that they had been with Jayce after Viktor had treated her father. He wanted to be more frustrated with the little information that Vi had given him, but knew the woman was trying to keep herself together for her father and sister. All Viktor was able to get from Vi was that Jayce had been through a lot in his time at the fort. Something which Viktor had already figured out from what he was able to glean from the letters.

Viktor still had not received a response to the last letter he had sent midway through April. It was well over the usual time it took to receive a response from Jayce. Vi had not mentioned the conflict that Viktor had heard of while he had been in Khworez.  Viktor could only guess that Vi and Loris had gotten Vander away before everything had blown up. So they would not know how Jayce was after. If he was alright or if he—

Viktor flinched as he realized his nail had gone through the map. Huffing at himself, he lightly clapped his hands together and touched his fingertips to the page at watched as the paper mended itself.

Another ‘accomplishment’ he wanted to share with Jayce.

He shook his head, he could not let himself start to think that way. He had to believe that the Hexcore would not allow for Jayce to be killed as he had been marked as a candidate. No matter how much Viktor hated that designation for Jayce, he knew it was something that should keep him safe for the time being.

And perhaps he would be able to see for himself how Jayce was doing. Even if he could not find a trade caravan going into the area as he had in his other travels, Viktor could make the trek himself if he started from Khworez. Once Ekko returned from Sky’s, he would know how soon his cold-climate automail would be ready and maybe…maybe Ekko would have a letter from Jayce with him this time.

Viktor’s hands twitched with the need to hold something so he slid his arms into Jayce’s white House Talis coat that had been resting over his shoulders.

Viktor had alchemically modified the coat to fit his smaller frame better. He had also moved the actual House Talis insignias from the shoulders to be within the coat, keeping the little hammer shaped buttons on the front. He could have picked a more discreet traveling coat, but the need to have Jayce around him overroad his common sense. The coat rarely left him, and safe within his suitcase was a folder of Jayce’s letters, little things and the blanket from their bed. At first, Viktor had thought Sky was silly for bringing it to him while he was recovering. But having a piece of their home with him always made him feel a little more at peace.

The sound of a knock disrupted Viktor’s nostalgia and lifted his gaze from the desk to the door.

"It's open," he called and watched as Claggor stepped in, blowtorch in hand.

"Just wanted to let you know that Mylo and I have the filtration set up and have helped Huck with some more of the buildings for the commune." Claggor moved the goggles up on his head as he spoke, eyes glancing around the sparse room that Viktor called a second home as though looking for his next project.

Or more likely, avoiding what else needed to be said.

"And?" Viktor crossed his arms; there wasn't a need to report to him on everything that was accomplished.

"Aaaaand Powder's back.” Claggor's shoulders dropped. “She's…rather Jinx-y right now, though."

With a sigh, Viktor let go of the map, letting it curl back together. Picking up his cane from its resting spot against the desk, he turned properly to Claggor.

"I take it she's at the greenhouse?"

A one shoulder shrug was his answer. "She was heading there; Mylo is trying to keep her back." 

Viktor winced. It probably would have been better for Claggor to have stayed with Powder, he was less likely to set her off further if she really was in one of her spirals. "Let's go then."

Viktor stepped out of the building following Claggor. He looked back at the misshapen structure, made from the domed lid of a previous water tower. It was small and meant to be temporary. It had a bed, a desk, a small table and a few chairs. Recently, a kitchenette had been added in a corner and another corner now had a separate walled off bathroom, a privacy that his friends had built for him that he had come to appreciate. The only personal effect in the entire building was his small suitcase where he kept everything he travelled with.

He closed his eyes as he thought of his real home. The one that he would return to once this was all over. Once Jayce had returned and he had put a stop to what the Hexcore was attempting, he could collect his things from Sky's shop, from his spare room at the Last Drop, and go back.

A small sigh later and he was following behind Claggor again.

The commune, as the others called it, was more of a community project. A place for rehabilitating those that came to Viktor for healing before they went back to their normal lives. It was never his intention for people to stay permanently. However, some of those that had been healed and their families remained and helped build more structures out of the remains of what had been there before.

The healing he performed was not a gift from Truth nor was it something that the hex gems could facilitate. Viktor had learned how to read the rumored 'Dragon's Pulse' of alkahestry while healing from the automail port surgery. It had taken weeks of searching within himself and sitting stubbornly in Sky's backyard to finally feel it.

The thrum of energy that was ever present beneath his feet. The energy that lived within every living thing.

And once he had found the Pulse, the books he and Jayce had collected on alkahestry suddenly made sense. To Viktor, it was only natural to use this knowledge to help others, encouraging their bodies to heal themselves by coaxing and redirecting the energy within them. As he worked with the Pulse, he found ways to fine tune its use. He was not only able to trigger alkahestry circles from a distance as the books described, but he was also able to use both alchemy and alkahestry without drawing a circle. Viktor theorized it had something to do with the Truth, but he wasn't about to return to its realm to ask.

“Ah! The man of the hour! Just the Cookie I wanted to see!”

Viktor sighed as he neared the greenhouse, a few buildings away was Powder and a very frustrated and red-faced Mylo. Claggor grabbed Mylo’s shoulder as he passed and pushed him farther down the dirt path between buildings.

“Hello, Powder.” 

“I don’t see why he needs to be chained up.” The girl glared at him, as always, cutting to the chase. “He looks fine in there, you know that!”

Viktor knew it was triggering for Powder to see Vander in the restraints. It was part of the reason he tried his best to keep her from the greenhouse. He stretched his right arm out as he adjusted the grip on his cane, and pressed his hand to her back as he led her farther away from it. He walked them back toward the building he stayed in. The fountain near it seemed to have a calming effect and he hoped that it would help her again now.

“You know it is because your father requests it.” Viktor braced himself with his cane as he lowered himself to sit on the fountain’s ledge. 

While Viktor could not reverse the transmutation, he had been able to help Vander’s body find peace and process the changes through alkahestry. Vander had started to be able to shift between forms a few days prior. Still, he feared harming his family and had requested to stay within the commune at night. And then had gone a step further and requested that during and after his meditations, he be restrained, afraid that the beast would take over suddenly while his mind was weak.

Viktor did not like the situation either, but he understood Vander’s fear.

“Can’t you just, y’know,” Powder clapped her hands together before moving them apart and wiggling her fingers. “Poof! Magic him back to normal?”

Viktor shook his head, not bothering to answer her beyond that again.

“It's just,” Powder groaned and grabbed at her shoulder length braids, pulling hard as she paced in front of Viktor, jumping on the edge of the fountain and walking around it. “It’s not fair.”

“It is not.” Viktor nodded. “But I will keep looking for answers.”

“Demacians didn’t know shit, huh?” Her voice was dry and Viktor could picture her blue eyes rolling at him.

“No,” Viktor shifted his hips so that he could watch Powder pace the edge of the fountain. “But your father has made vast improvements in such a short amount of time.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Powder nodded, sullen.  A moment passed and she bounced back. She smiled brightly and clapped her hands together before pointing at Viktor. “I saw Ekko came back from Sky’s!”

Viktor chuckled at the subject change. “And where is he now, then?”

“I think he went to the Last Drop,” Powder hummed and spun around, continuing in a song-song voice. “He has a surprise for you!”

“The automail from Sky?” 

“Maaaaybe…”

Viktor shook his head, chuckling. He could only hope it was the automail. Then he could find Jayce. Or maybe it was a letter. Viktor would give up another limb at this point just to have something, anything, that would let him know that Jayce was alright after hearing about the Delverhold.

Viktor held his next breath in as he gripped his cane and pushed himself up from his seat. He breathed out slowly; he needed to keep moving forward and find the next best thing that he could do in the moment. If he allowed himself to wallow in his worry, he would drive himself insane.

Turning to Powder, he offered her a small smile. Perhaps he could help take her mind off of Vander as well. “Would you like to help me with—”

A shout broke the quiet of the evening, and Viktor stilled. 

Powder’s eyes widened with a mischievous gleam and wicked smile.

The shout came again, the voice achingly familiar and haunting. 

Viktor’s breath stuttered out of him. It couldn’t be.

He turned toward where he heard the voice.

“Viktor!”

Viktor startled when Powder planted her hands on his shoulder and called out, “Over here!”

She then jumped down off the fountain edge, jostling his shoulder as she moved past him. Powder turned to him briefly, pointing finger guns at him. “See you at the Last Drop tomorrow! Noon, don’t forget!”

And with a dramatic spin, she took off running between buildings, her hair flying out around her.

~ - ~ - ~

The way to what Loris called the commune was a blur.

Jayce could only focus on seeing Viktor again. He was practically vibrating with the need to see him, hold him. It had been too long. The last twenty-four hours had felt like weeks. His patience was frayed to the point of nonexistence. 

He knew Caitlyn and Vi were behind him somewhere. But all he could do was sweep his eyes around as a few other people, Zaunites mostly, walked past. He looked over each one, wondering if they were Viktor, if they knew where he was. Jayce wanted so badly to push past Ekko’s calm pace and search the area for his husband.

The yellow flowers grew in number, creating a field around a cluster of buildings. Each made from repurposed metals and structures, each one unique. But Viktor wasn’t outside of any of the ones within sight.

Despite how much cleaner the air was here, Jayce was finding it harder to breathe.

“Hey, Little Man! Big Man! Vi!” A voice called out approaching them and Jayce fought with himself not to shout as Ekko came to a stop. A smaller, slighter man approached them, dark hair wild on his head. “See you brought some friends.”

“Yeah,” Ekko’s nonchalance plucked at Jayce’s last nerve. “Mylo, have you seen Viktor?”

“Yeah, he was back by the greenhouse last I—” 

That was all Jayce needed to hear.

He took off running past Ekko and heard Caitlyn call out to him alarmed. That didn’t matter though, all that did was finding where Viktor was in this maze of buildings. As he went farther into the commune, he started shouting Viktor’s name.

“Over here!” It was the girl’s voice from the alleyway. Somewhere behind him, to his right. 

Jayce turned on his heel and ran in the new direction.

He heard the quick footsteps approaching from around a corner and as he turned to meet them, he nearly crashed into a blue haired girl.

“Hey there!” Her voice was bright. “Straight ahead, ya can’t miss ‘im!” Her blue eyes danced with obvious delight as Jayce was off again. He heard her call out behind him, “You go Beefcake! Get your Cookie!” and he had no idea what she was talking about.

That confusion left him as the close buildings gave way to a path. Panting, he swung his head from side to side. His breath stilled as he caught sight of a fountain to his left and the man standing frozen in front of it.

Jayce’s breath worked to catch up as he drank in the sight of Viktor in the evening light. His old coat fitted to Viktor, the tail of it hanging right above his knees. The deep red vest with golden buttons glinting in the fading sunlight. Viktor’s hair was longer now, easily reaching his shoulders, with bits of blond now mixed in. His eyes were as bright and golden as he remembered. He watched as Viktor reached out him with one hand as his other tightened around the cane.

“Jayce?”

He blinked, eyes stinging at the disbelief in Viktor’s voice. At the sound of his voice at all.

Viktor took a step toward him and then another.

Jayce blinked again and the next thing he knew Viktor was in his arms, the cane falling away. He moved to lift him, keeping up the momentum that had brought him so quickly to Viktor, to spin him around like he would after any successful experiment.

…Only to wince and wheeze halfway through the turn as his back muscles twinged in pain. He had forgotten for a moment that Viktor now had automail hidden under the black pants and white coat he wore.

Jayce barely let Viktor’s feet settle on the ground before his hands moved over Viktor’s body. One settled on the curve of his back and the other threading through Viktor’s hair. He pressed their foreheads hard together, fighting off the pain of the impact with choked laughter.

He nuzzled into the warmth of Viktor’s hand on his cheek, and heard the slightest click and creak as his right hand gripped and pulled at Jayce’s shirt.

“I’m home, Viktor.” Jayce’s voice was soft as he bumped his nose against Viktor’s cheek.

Viktor tilted his head and pressed their lips together, barely moving away to say, “Welcome home.”

Chapter Text

The door closed and Jayce turned, pressing Viktor against it, his head tilting as he peppered kisses along his jaw. He felt the cane press between them as Viktor held onto his shoulders. His head lolled to the side as he let out a low moan, giving Jayce more room to work with. Jayce pressed his lips to the underside of his jaw, feeling Viktor shiver and hands grip him tighter, a soft noise following his next breath. Jayce’s lips quirked up.

Found it.

Jayce flicked his tongue at the spot before sealing his lips over it again, pulling the soft skin into his mouth.

“I should be glad, mn,” Viktor’s voice shook as Jayce teased his skin, “you waited until, ah hah,” he shivered from feeling Jayce pressing fully against him. Jayce’s hands tightened on his waist. He couldn’t stop himself from panting and squirming against Jayce, wanting more and yet feeling overwhelmed after so long. “We were alone, eh?”

Jayce groaned into his neck, peeking at the dark colors blooming on Viktor’s pale skin. 

“I’ve wanted to do this every day since I left.” Jayce pressed his face to the skin again, breathing in deeply. “I was worried I’d forget the spot or that it wouldn’t be—”

“’s still sensitive.” Viktor let out a breathy laugh as he shivered again. Jayce’s beard left behind a ticklish feeling on the skin of his neck.

Jayce smiled, humming as he moved one hand up from Viktor’s waist to cup the back of his head. Nipping at the previously abused skin under his mouth, he grinned inwardly as Viktor melted against him with another breathy whine. He wondered if he could do as he had teased Viktor years ago and actually get his husband to come just from this.

That is, before he remembered why he had previously stopped incessantly teasing the sensitive spot on Viktor’s neck. Jayce tensed and quickly moved so that his ear was pressed to Viktor’s throat instead of his mouth.

“Jayce?” 

Before, he would be able to feel the strain of his voice as he attempted to suppress a barrage of coughs. Now, he only heard his concern. Jayce moved his head lower and lower until his ear was pressed to the steadying rise and fall of Viktor’s chest. The hand that gripped his waist stayed still as the one behind Viktor’s head moved to press against his back; helping Jayce to mold himself to him. All he heard was the quiet inhale and exhale of Viktor’s breath and his quickened heartbeat.

No rattle. No wheezing.

“Vik?” Jayce’s voice was weak and thready as he felt Viktor’s fingers move through his hair, pressing him tighter to his chest.

“It worked, Jayce.” He cradled the back of Jayce’s head with his hand as he used his automail to tilt his chin up. “I…was able to fix it.”

Jayce caught the hesitation in his voice and straightened up, his mind easily bringing up the image of the basement, of Sky’s description of what she had seen and the state of his notebook. “You transmuted yourself, Viktor,” he shook his head in disbelief as he looked up at him, Viktor’s arms moved to rest on his chest. Jayce gripped them, feeling the temperature difference and kept them pressed to his chest. “What were you thinking?”

“You became a state alchemist,” Viktor frowned before countering softly, “what were you thinking then?”

“I was thinking of you!” Jayce huffed, matching Viktor’s frown as he tightened his grip on his hands. 

Viktor was quiet as he raised an eyebrow at Jayce, the fingers of his left hand tapping against his chest.

Jayce winced then, realizing what Viktor was saying and let out a quiet, “Oh.” They stared at each other, their eyes slowly taking in the changes the years had brought. Jayce eyed the blond curling through Viktor’s hair. “But,” his voice quieter now than it had been before. “You are healed now?”

“Yes,” Viktor shook his head while grinning as Jayce tightened his hold again. “It, eh, only cost an arm and a leg.”

“That’s not funny, you know.” He glanced down and rubbed his thumb across Viktor’s right hand. Jayce wondered how much he could feel through the limb. Sky typically worked wonders on her automail.

“I would argue that it’s at least a little amusing,” Viktor leaned in and pressed a kiss to the corner of Jayce’s frowning mouth, smiling as it twitched upward beneath his lips.

Jayce caught his lips before he could move back and teased Viktor’s lower lip with his teeth. “I’m sorry, Vik.” He pressed their foreheads together. “I didn’t know about the medicine. I didn’t know it was Shimmer.”

Viktor shook his head minutely, barely disturbing how they were pressed together. “We couldn’t have known, Jayce.”

“Mel didn’t know either!” Jayce’s eyes flew open as his head tilted back; realizing that he couldn’t let Viktor blame their friend. He missed the amused look Viktor gave him as he continued. “She didn’t know. Her mother lied to her. Like she lied about your death and being buried at the military ceme—”

“She said I was dead?” Viktor’s amusement was gone as he pressed a hand against Jayce’s chest again, this time to separate them. He twisted his wrist to retake the handle of his cane into the palm of his hand as he moved back. Scowling, he walked over to the table in the kitchenette. 

Jayce followed, setting his bag down gingerly in one of the chairs careful of his back. He grabbed at the papers from within the duffle top and handed them to Viktor. Viktor’s eyes scanned the faked obituary and his eyebrows furrowed deeper. “What are they thinking?”

It made Jayce remember: Viktor was hiding from something or someone.

“Viktor, what is going on?” Viktor met his eyes, tired. “Why did they say you were dead? What else has happened?”

“There is a lot to tell you,” his husband sighed. “Did Mel and Caitlyn come back as well? It would be easier to explain it all once, with both of them present.”

Jayce nodded. “Caitlyn was with Vi and the others before I, uh, found you.” Jayce adored the small smile that grew on Viktor’s lips. “Mel went to see her mother, but she said she would go to Sky’s when she was able to.” And he hated how the smile was wiped off just as quickly.

“General Medarda has been tampering with forces she does not properly comprehend,” Viktor tilted his head back and Jayce struggled not to get distracted by the mark on his neck. “Mel should be alright for now. She is smart.”

Jayce groaned as he tilted his head back, he didn’t like the sound of that at all. Rolling his head back, he found that Viktor was looking at him again. He reached out and wove the fingers of their left hands together as he set the papers from the council on to the table.

“I can explain some of this now,” the grip on his hand tightened and Jayce could feel the warm metal of the wedding band, “as it does relate to my lungs and the automail.”

Viktor shrugged out of his coat, draping it over one of the chairs at the table, before sitting on it. Jayce watched him unbutton the cuffs and roll up the slightly billowed sleeves of his black shirt. He wondered for a moment about it, thinking the looser, lighter fabric likely helped the material to avoid catching in the automail, automail that he could see more clearly now. His stomach twisted at the sight of it, thinking of what Viktor had gone through. The structure itself was one of Sky’s sleeker models, looking so similar to the natural shape of Viktor’s arm.

Jayce moved the chair from across the table to sit closer to Viktor, watching his lips twitch in amusement, though he kept his eyes locked down on his hands. Jayce waited as Viktor toyed with his fingers as he thought over what he wanted to start with. 

“Human transmutation is forbidden as you know. It’s, eh,” Viktor started slowly, hesitating, “part of the reason I had to destroy the research you had done on it.” Jayce frowned but nodded, about to forgive Viktor when he caught the way his lips quirked. “Your equations were vastly wrong.”

Jayce scoffed. “Those were solid!”

“Solid enough to create a misshapen creature for a few moments, perhaps, but nothing remotely human.” Jayce wanted to scoff and argue further, dissect where Viktor had claimed he had gone wrong. However, the shift in Viktor’s posture made Jayce hold his tongue.. “I promise, it is nothing worth discussing in detail, but the cost would not be worth it. The Truth is ironic in what it takes as payment and I fear what you would have sacrificed for a result like that.”

Jayce focused on the way his husband’s voice twisted. “Truth?” 

Viktor nodded as his lips thinned. “Human transmutation will always result in a rebound, there is no getting around that. The rebound it causes is a direct gateway to the source of all alchemy, the being that dictates equivalent exchange: The Truth.” Viktor’s laugh was flat as he stretched out his automail hand, looking it over. “I thought that I could bend the rules, I was not trying to revive anyone. I was only interested in healing myself, by replacing my lungs.” Viktor huffed tiredly, glancing as he spoke to where Jayce sat tense in his chair. “Creating new lungs and replacing them with alchemy is still human transmutation. So, I went through the gate and met Truth. Truth was clear: it is not fond of you and I.”

Jayce struggled to stay quiet, biting at his lower lip. He wanted to interrupt, to press his lips to Viktor’s again, to ask questions, to get distracted. Hearing Viktor’s voice and sitting beside him after so long, Jayce found it torture to not press himself against him. But he wanted, needed, to know what happened while he was gone.

He satiated his desire for touch by reaching out and grabbing Viktor’s hands. He held them carefully, his thumbs rubbing over the backs of Viktor’s fingers, human and automail. Viktor met Jayce’s gaze with a small smile, gripping him back as he continued. “You know the legend of Shurima?”

“It fell suddenly.” Jayce wondered what this had to do with this Truth and them, but he answered Viktor readily. “Supposedly in one night.”

“One night, or a few hours, really.” Viktor nodded, then grimaced. “Going through Truth’s gate, all of this knowledge was crammed into my head. It’s more than a person can properly remember.” Viktor took a deep breath and Jayce held his. “The fall of Shurima was due to two scientists, magical blue crystals and them naively experimenting with a power they did not understand.”

“You’re saying—”

“This is not our first time working with hex crystals, Jayce,” Viktor sighed, meeting his eyes. Viktor knew this was a lot, but he hoped Jayce would understand. Jayce needed to understand. “The Truth revealed that we had developed the hex crystals into something that was nearly able to think for itself. It adapted and learned. We had called it the Hexcore.”

Viktor watched Jayce as he processed what he had just been told, his eyebrows furrowing. He squeezed Jayce’s hands, relishing in their warmth for another moment before pulling away and standing. He paused to motion for Jayce to stay where he was as Viktor moved away from the kitchenette and over to his desk again. 

“We had worked for the empire and with the help of the Hexcore, we had thought we had found a way to improve the lives of our nation. Through the Hexcore’s instruction, we began construction of roads and buildings, not understanding what was at stake, not knowing the cost that lay behind the promises it had told us.”

Viktor picked up the map he had been examining earlier, another one that lay curled beside it and a pencil, bringing them back to the table. He unrolled the smaller map of Shurima. He began marking the different places around the small nation, drawing in where the roads were. His hand hovered over the center of it.

“I was sick at the end of construction. Around that time, we heard of the battles, the slaughter of villages near the places we had completed our work.” Viktor looked over at Jayce then, seeing how his eyes narrowed watching the map. “The night I died,” he saw the way Jayce flinched, but kept talking, “fighting broke out at the capital. The Hexcore told you I could be saved.” Viktor drew the final mark on the map. “If only you activated the circle.”

Jayce stared in horror at the nation-wide transmutation circle in front of him. In a numb way, he knew that there wasn’t a price he wouldn’t pay for Viktor to live. If it took sacrificing a country…

Jayce swallowed hard as noticed: “This isn’t right for human transmutation.”

“It’s not.” Viktor shook his head. “The array activation created a hex crystal-infused philosopher’s stone.”

“And the Hexcore?” Jayce frowned. “It’s…here? In Piltover?”

“It is,” Viktor sat back down, not able to stop the small smile spreading across his lips as Jayce reached for his hand again. It was a relief to have him back and to know that he was safe. “And it’s working on something new. General Medarda has been working with it, I believe. It’s best to go over the rest of this with the others, I have got to give the others at the Last Drop an update on how things have been progressing.”

Jayce wanted to know more, but settled instead for gripping Viktor’s hand tighter and pulling his chair closer. He moved into his husband’s space, making him lean back against the chair. His eyes flickered from Viktor’s eyes to his mouth and back. “I need you to know, I’d do that again.”

Viktor did not need to ask what Jayce was referring to, he knew. Tilting his head and letting his nose press along his cheek as he got closer, Viktor whispered against Jayce’s mouth. “I know.”

Jayce let out a low sound as he surged forward, the awkward positioning of the chairs doing little to stop him from wrapping his arms under Viktor’s. The only thing that stopped him was when Viktor returned his embrace, his left hand gripped at Jayce’s injured shoulder and his automail pressed into the wounds on his back.

“You’re hurt?” Viktor jerked away from him immediately as Jayce lowered his head and breathed through his teeth. 

“It’s not bad,” he heard Viktor scoff at him. Jayce cursed himself inwardly, keeping his eyes trained on his boots. He felt how hesitant Viktor was as his hand reached out to his shoulder again. He breathed through his teeth, through the pain, and focused on their feet, seeing Viktor’s move as he stood and stepped to his side.  “Doc said it would just take a while to heal.”

Viktor seemed to be ignoring him with the way he started unbuttoning and pulling at Jayce’s shirt. Jayce cursed again, this wasn’t how he had wanted to undress in front of Viktor. He had intended for it to be through passion, not concern. Despite that, he helped Viktor, carefully moving his arms out of their sleeves. 

Viktor let out a low whistle seeing how much of Jayce’s back and shoulder was bandaged up.

“May I?” He tugged lightly at the bandage. He would need to see the extent of Jayce’s injury to determine best how to help.

Jayce sighed heavily as he nodded. After all, what was another roll of bandages? He started to point to where Viktor would be able to start unraveling it, when his husband clapped his hands together lightly. Jayce tilted his head to watch him, confused by the distinct ringing sound of an alchemic circle being activated. Viktor’s fingers touched the edge of the bandage and Jayce watched as it moved, unwrapping from him and piling neatly in his lap, alchemic scarring on some of the fabric.

Jayce moved before his mind really caught up with him, gripping Viktor’s wrists and turning them over, finding no circle tattooed on his flesh or carved into his metal. Meeting Viktor’s amused eyes, he only asked, “How?”

“A…gift, I suppose,” Viktor shrugged. “From Truth’s gate. All the knowledge; it provides me with the needed runes and allows me to act as a circle myself.”

“Amazing,” Jayce’s eyes were bright with the possibilities of what this could mean for their research.

“Yes, well,” Viktor’s cheeks had grown pink and Jayce wanted so badly for them to make their way to the bed he could see out of the corner of his eye. “I need to look at your back, love.”

With a sigh, Jayce shifted in the chair, watching as Viktor’s eyes moved over his injuries.

“What happened?” Viktor’s fingers were cool and careful where they touched around the flayed skin.

“A few weeks ago, we were supposed to go on one last mission, then we were told we could go home.” The words came easily with the soothing glide of Viktor’s fingers on him. “There was a chimera, brought to the fort.” He felt Viktor freeze and looked over his shoulder at him. He wasn’t sure how to tell Viktor that the hex gem he had given to Ambessa had been used or how to talk about the Singed alchemist. Jayce hesitated, afraid to bring back the memories of the snow and blood that had surrounded him. “The chimera attacked anyone, everyone, it didn’t matter. It was going to hurt Vi, so I—” he swallowed. “—I got in the way.” 

He felt the chill of Viktor’s automail fingers tilt his head, as he met Viktor’s warm eyes. The other man shook his head a little at him as he spoke. “My hero.” Jayce couldn’t help the small noise in the back of his throat as he felt Viktor’s lips press against his forehead. “These are from Vi’s father, yes?” Viktor asked quietly as he moved again to examine his back. He hummed to himself, thinking of how she had deliberately withheld information from him.

Jayce nodded slowly, “He wasn’t…” Jayce didn’t know what to say exactly about the man-turned-chimera. 

“Right in the head?” Viktor mused as his fingers resumed moving around the wounds on his back. “It took some time for him to come back to himself here.” He felt Jayce’s muscles jump as he tensed. He pressed his palm fully onto his uninjured shoulder as he spoke calmly. “Nothing as violent has your back and nothing that hasn’t already been mended.”

Despite wanting to ask further, Jayce let his shoulders slump as he tilted his head back. He put his hand over the one Viktor rested on his shoulder as he gazed up at him.

Viktor nodded before taking a careful step back, hand sliding out from under Jayce’s as he  observed him. His arms crossed over his vest, fingers drumming on his elbow as he shifted his weight off of his right leg. 

“I can heal these, Jayce. I—”

“No.” 

Viktor blinked, surprised to have been cut off. 

Jayce’s hazel eyes were narrowed as he stared at Viktor. “You just said human transmutation would always cause a rebound.”

“Yes.” Viktor felt warmed by his husband’s obvious, but misplaced concern. “Alkahestry, however, would not.”  

Jayce inhaled sharply, he didn’t even flinch as he sat up straighter and turned farther in his chair to look at Viktor. “You figured it out?”

Viktor gave a small nod.

“So. The mail circles that Ekko and Sky were talking about…” Jayce trailed off seeing Viktor’s grin growing.

“Yes. Ah, Jayce, I would have loved to have written to you about it.” Viktor reached for him and Jayce met him, holding tightly to his waist as he stepped into the space Jayce made between his legs. “But it’s not something that I could easily teach you in letters.”

“But you’ll teach me now?”

“I’ll teach you soon,” Viktor promised instead, golden eyes soft. 

Jayce laughed properly for the first time in too long, pressing his face into Viktor’s stomach. This feeling, the learning, experimenting and exploring with Viktor. He knew he had missed this, but the excitement he felt now made him feel reckless like they had with the hex crystals all those years ago.

His body shook with laughter as he pressed his lips against the deep red fabric of the vest. Jayce’s hands moved lower, to Viktor’s hips, kneading the skin beneath his shirt. He bit back a moan at Viktor’s sigh and the way his husband started relaxing into the touch.

“I need to heal your back before anything else, Jayce.”

Jayce couldn’t take the scolding seriously with how flushed Viktor looked. He did nod, though.

“You may feel tired after; I will be redirecting your body’s energy to focus on healing.” Huffing lightly, Viktor continued, fingers trailing again around the injuries on his shoulder. “With how old these are, you may still need to do some stretches to help your muscle strength return.”

Jayce nodded before sitting up straighter again, his hands moving back up to Viktor’s waist as a thought crossed his mind. 

“Have you heard of the Machine Herald?” Jayce saw the way Viktor blinked at him before one of his eyebrows rose. Jayce laughed, looking away embarrassed. “Heh, right, of course you have. Everyone seems to have. I just wish I had known this guy before I joined the state program, you know?” 

Viktor’s hands cupped Jayce’s face as he leaned down pressing a kiss to his forehead. Moving back just a little, he whispered. “You’ve known the Machine Herald for a very long time, Jayce.”

Jayce frowned as Viktor’s hands moved away to clap, charged and ready with an alkahestry circle in his mind.

“What do—oh.” He had planned to say more, but Viktor’s fingers pressed to the top of his shoulder and he could feel something within him shift, his body listening to whatever directive Viktor had given. And then he saw it, a full face mask hanging on the wall beside the refrigerator, looking similar to what he had read about that morning. 

Eyes wide, Jayce’s head snapped to look at Viktor, his mind clicking the pieces into place.

“You’re the Machine Herald.”

“One and only.” Viktor gave a little shrug, smiling. 

Jayce glanced down at his shoulder to find only a scar. “Viktor! It’s—It worked!” Jayce decided then that he could likely live off of Viktor’s laugh alone and wondered how he had managed without it for so long.

“Hold on another moment, Jayce. I’ve got to get your back still.”

Another soft clap and softer touch and the tingling sensation spread through him again. He closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of Viktor’s hand on his cheek again. 

“Are you alright?”

Jayce took a moment before responding, thinking over how his body felt now. There was a new weight, a tiredness in him that Viktor had warned him of. But as he rolled his shoulders, he could only feel the tension of their limited use from the past few weeks. 

“Yeah, but Vik,” there was something else nagging at him that he remembered. “You, ah, didn’t really travel to Noxus and Demacia. Right?” His eyes flew open when he heard Viktor’s snort. Seeing Viktor’s shoulders shake with laughter both lightened something inside and yet did nothing for the worried part that had asked in the first place. “...Vik?”

“I traveled some, yes. However, for the most part, it became a bit like the alkahestry circles and the mail.” Viktor’s hands had settled on top of Jayce’s shoulders, soothing them. “I can show you tomorrow, yes?”

Jayce frowned up at him, drumming his fingers on Viktor’s hips. Thinking it over for a moment, he decided he would have to pick his battles. “Yeah, I guess so, V.”

Because that concern could be shelved for the moment. Instead, he found something else to focus on as he felt Viktor’s hips shift, clearly favoring his right leg. Jayce watched as Viktor’s right shoulder twitched, but didn’t feel the automail follow the movement.

Viktor blinked, not expecting Jayce to have given up so quickly. He watched as Jayce’s hand left his hip to touch his right arm and—oh. The automail. Viktor had always been sure Jayce would understand, but now he felt the edges of uncertainty creeping up on him.

“May I?”

Viktor found himself nodding, letting Jayce move his arm lower to inspect it.

Jayce cradled the automail hand in both of his. Viktor was quiet as Jayce traced his fingers along the joints and plating, examining Sky’s work. He ran his fingers over the plating of the forearm, and pushed at the billowed sleeve carefully. Jayce knew that the port surgery was older now, but he still wanted to be careful, unsure if it would trigger a phantom pain for Viktor. As the sleeve started to fall back down, Viktor helped hold it up, letting Jayce look over Sky’s work without obstruction.

The port was right above where Viktor’s elbow should have been. The bolts that helped keep the port in his arm were the width of Jayce’s fingertips. He let out a soft grunt at the sight of them. The scarred skin around the metal was red with some irritation, but over all it looked like Viktor had healed well from the surgery. Sky’s work was, as always, beautiful. Jayce knew that the wires that connected to Viktor’s nerves were tucked expertly into the metal forearm, protected.

As he moved his hands over the metal, back down to the fingers, he imagined himself crafting Viktor’s automail. After all it was him who had made his husband’s leg braces and cane; it would only be fitting if he made him his automail, too. He let himself imagine working in the forge, carefully crafting the metal, the design and embellishments. Jayce also let himself ignore the fact that he didn’t actually have the slightest clue how to do the wiring. Just that the end product would be perfectly suited to Viktor and made from his own hands.

“I understand if you are, eh—” Jayce looked up from his hand to see that Viktor had turned his head to stare at the refrigerator instead of Jayce. “—perturbed by the automail. It’s alright.”

Jayce frowned before he brought the metallic hand to his lips, pressing kisses to the knuckles. He watched the shiver that crawled up Viktor’s spine as he turned to watch Jayce with wide eyes. “It’s part of you, V.”

Another kiss.

Another shiver.

Jayce grinned against the metal, before admitting. “I was thinking of how to convince Sky to let me help with your next set.”

Another kiss.

Another shiver and a lighter chuckle.

“You will be on your own with that request, love.”

Jayce laughed quietly with him before glancing down at his leg and back up again to the amused golden eyes.

“If you want me to strip, you just have to say so.” Despite the ease that Viktor said it with, his cheeks grew darker.

Jayce smirked as he tilted his head back. “I always want that, Vik.” He let go of Viktor’s hand as the man started sputtering. Jayce moved his hands to the front buttons of Viktor’s dark pants, a finger trailing over them teasingly.

“Jayce,” Viktor’s voice trembled with his body.

“It’s only fair, my shirt for your pants.” Jayce shifted in his seat, not able to hide his own reaction to Viktor’s voice with what was between his own legs. His fingers eased the buttons through their holes.

“Equivalent exchange,” Viktor’s laugh was breathy as he held carefully onto Jayce’s shoulders as his pants were carefully pulled down. 

Jayce’s eyes caught on the bulge in his underwear and wondered briefly if he could get away with pulling them down as well and ease that ache as well. That is until his fingers felt the semi-cool metal of Viktor’s leg. 

His eyes shifted to the port first, just above where his knee would have been. Like Viktor’s arm port, the skin was an irritated red. Jayce skimmed his fingers over it and heard Viktor hiss.

“Why is it so irritated?” Jayce knew the basics of automail recovery, but he wanted to hear it from Viktor himself. This was his husband's new life and he wanted to learn how this was affecting him.

“The metal of the leg is getting worn down from its power source.” Viktor carefully stepped out of his pant legs, having tightened his hold on Jayce’s better shoulder for a moment as he had kicked off his shoes. “The arm is the same. Sky and I have been trying to find a good metal for this, but it is a lot of trial and error.”

“Doesn’t automail get its power from your nerves and move according to that?” Jayce leaned further down to examine the leg plating.

“Typically. Yes,” Viktor sighed as Jayce’s hands found their way back to the port’s base, rubbing gently at the skin there. For a moment, Viktor missed the way Jayce would soothe his leg aches before, able to press deeply into the muscle of his calves. Despite that, he grinned, knowing Jayce would be excited about the next bit of information. “However, the hex gem greatly improves the quality of movement and mitigates the weight of the automail for the user.”

“You’re using the gems to power these?” Jayce looked up quickly. This was something they had been wanting to try for so long. To have their theories tested and proved right was amazing. “Do the gemstones create a lag at all between your nerves telling your limbs what to do? Or are there any difficulties with—” 

Viktor’s left hand cupped Jayce’s cheek, his thumb pressing lightly to his lips. “I’ve written several journals for you to look over. They’re with Sky now and there is more testing to be done. But the only major issue seems to be the metal used. It deteriorates too quickly. I have a theory that the gemstone may be too powerful of a battery for everyday automail, but I have yet to figure out a different source of power that would provide the same improvements.”

Jayce nodded, pressing a kiss to the thumb before it moved away. His thoughts turned to how Viktor had moved, even with the aid of the gemstone. “Your leg was still giving you problems, though.”

Viktor nodded, his hand now moving through Jayce’s beard in slow circles. “Sky had said that my leg's nerve damage would remain, even after automail surgery. There was little she could do to fix that.”

The surgery that Viktor had been wide awake and aware for. Jayce inwardly winced thinking about it. Outwardly, he kept his eyes on Viktor as his hand traveled up the edge of Viktor’s boxers.

“I am thankful every day that the cane you made is metal.” Viktor tilted his head to where the cane rested against the table. “It’s provided excellent support even now. And—Jayce!” Viktor jolted and fell farther into Jayce’s chest.

Jayce couldn’t help the gleeful grin as he palmed Viktor’s ass again. Viktor batted at his arm until Jayce withdrew his hand, still grinning up at him. His eyes strayed for a moment to the bed that was not so far away before returning to his husband half-dressed and half-hard in front of him.

Viktor let out an exaggerated sigh as his eyes rolled. Only a moment later, he saw the wild look in Jayce’s eyes, he could only widen his own as Jayce stood up quicker than Viktor had expected. His hands moved from Viktor’s hips to under his arms with the motion. Viktor blinked as Jayce suddenly swung him around, moving them away from the table.

“Jayce! Your back!” Viktor shouted around the laughter that bubbled up from his throat. His breath was partially knocked from his lungs as his back landed on the bed. Half a breath later, Jayce was on top of him grinning through a wince. “Idiot.” Viktor grinned, his mouth falling open with a moan as Jayce pressed their bodies together.

“Your idiot.” Jayce panted, kissing Viktor’s cheek and moving his lips lower to Viktor’s already bruised neck.

Viktor moaned as little shivers raced down his spine. Laughing breathily, he pushed at Jayce’s chest. “Pants off, love.”

Jayce groaned and pressed a kiss to Viktor’s throat as he sat up. “Only if your shirt follows.”

Viktor worked open the few buttons to his vest before starting on his shirt as he watched Jayce work his way out of both his pants and underwear, kicking them to the floor.

“Hips up.” Jayce’s hands were on the band of his boxers now and Viktor bit his lip as he moved his hips. Jayce made quick work to toss them off the bed as well.

“Someone is eager,” Viktor teased as he sat up to meet Jayce, both the shirt and vest falling off his shoulders.

“Viktor,” Jayce groaned, moving a hand through his brown and blond hair, guiding them back down to the mattress. He pressed his head to Viktor’s collarbone, feeling a sudden drop in energy as his body fell heavier over top of his husband’s.

“Mh, Jayce?” Viktor frowned, pushing Jayce’s hair out of his eyes.

“‘m fine,” Jayce knew Viktor had warned him but he hadn’t thought it would affect him so quickly. Jayce shivered as Viktor’s hands trailed down his back.

“Lie next to me,” Viktor coaxed, already understanding and pressing on Jayce’s right shoulder to influence his movement.

Jayce let himself fall to the side, his hand sliding down to Viktor’s hip. 

“Want you,” Jayce rubbed the skin beneath his hand. A moan fell from his mouth as he felt Viktor’s hand wrap around his cock.

“I know, Jayce.” Viktor soothed as he stroked. “This is enough for now.”

Jayce groaned as he bucked into Viktor’s hand. Biting his lip to gain back a little clarity, he shifted closer to Viktor, pressing their foreheads together. Moving his hand from Viktor’s hip to take his cock was an easy natural movement. Easier still was the way they pressed together, hands wrapping around each other, moving together.

Viktor panted, knowing that after so long without Jayce, the feeling of their hands together was enough to push him over the edge before long. Especially with the heated way Jayce was staring at him.

Jayce grunted as he moved his left hand under Viktor’s body, pressing at the curve of his back, bringing him closer. With Viktor’s eyes on him, he felt like he was on fire despite the way his body was wearing down. His mind was driven by this one last thing, the need to see Viktor come before he could rest. Jayce knew, from the short whines that punctuated his panting, the way his body was tensing and fluttering and near rolling of his eyes, he was close. 

Jayce knew he wasn’t much better; his hips rolled with the motion of their strokes. He couldn’t get enough of Viktor now, the way their breaths mingled between them, his scent all around them in the bedding, the way he moved as he was pressed against Jayce.

“Vik,” Jayce groaned and pressed his head against the pillow as he jerked as his hand lost coordination. He ground out Viktor’s name again as came.

Panting, he adjusted their hands to put more pressure onto Viktor’s cock. As Viktor’s hand started shaking, Jayce took over, controlling their pace.

“Please, Vik,” was all Jayce had to say and he watched the way Viktor’s eyes fluttered and his mouth opened in a silent gasp as his orgasm shook through him. 

Pleased and sated, Jayce blinked slowly, smile never fading.

He blinked again and Viktor’s body-warmed automail hand was pressed to his cheek, golden eyes watching him. Jayce tried to lift himself, he needed to get up and clean themselves up at least, then he could sleep.

“I’ll take care of it,” Viktor shook his head, pressing Jayce back down. His lips pressed to Jayce’s brow. “Rest now, Jayce. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

Jayce closed his eyes and he could feel himself starting to drift as he felt Viktor wipe away their mess. He was still vaguely aware as Viktor rolled him over, laying himself on the side of the bed closer to the rest of the living space. It soothed the still-wary part of him even further as Viktor pressed against Jayce’s back, curling his arm around him.

“Raincheck, okay, V?”

A quiet chuckle in his ear. “Alright, Jayce. Raincheck.”