Chapter Text
Viktor was not a popular professor. He was barely a professor at all, to tell the truth. A junior position in the biology department had come up two and a half years ago. He had gone from toiling as an assistant to teaching first year classes and filling in for the more senior professors when the occasion arose. It was boring. Biology was not even his field of study. Not that he had an official field of study, unless memorizing Heimerdinger’s insane organizational system, a thing built over centuries, counted. His life was a monotony quickly slipping through his fingers. His leg and back were failing. He felt old before his time and there was the ever-ticking clock hanging over his head.
There had been a promise of something more, once. An explosion. A journal that was meant to be destroyed. A theory so insane it barely made sense until you looked closer and realized that the science was sound. However, it was not to be. A child had died. He could still remember her still form. Her sister screaming over her body. The two brothers dumbfounded and tearful. A horrible scene. Heimerdinger had ordered everything to be destroyed. He had kept a few of the more interesting pieces though. And the journal, of course. Adding his own notes, fixing the original theory’s mistakes. A fun thought experiment that would be burnt upon his death, most likely by Heimerdinger with his unnaturally long life.
The man who came up with the theory was long gone. Exiled, Viktor thought. There was a trial. He hadn’t heard what happened afterwards. Sometimes, he imagined writing a letter, explaining that he saw the merit in his work even if it could never be put to any practical use. But Viktor didn’t know his address or even what country he had washed up in. Just the name. Jayce Talis. It was signed in elegant Academy script at the bottom of every page.
He was flipping through it again, pages so well worn, content half-memorized when there was a knock at his door. He sighed and put it away. He could see it now. A penitent first year begging for an extension. A colleague with a cold asking him to take their fifth period class. A high house heir with more money than brains demanding he change their grade even though they got every single answer on the last exam blatantly wrong. He took special pride in failing those students. He was one of the few professors who did.
“Come in,” he called out, already exhausted, already ready to go home.
The door opened and Heimerdinger stepped in. Viktor sat up straighter at that, sending a twinge through his back. He had vanished about three years ago. Viktor had barely kept his position at the Academy. He had bone to pick with him.
“Professor! What--” he spluttered out.
“Viktor! Goodness, is this your office?” the yordle said, pattering about, looking at his things.
“I—yes? You put me here,” Viktor replied.
“Did I? Hm. Much too small. But my! You are looking well. Much better than the last time I saw you.”
“I sincerely doubt that, professor,” Viktor said flatly. “Where have you been? After you left, I nearly—”
“Beside the point. I have a proposition for you.”
“Professor, with all due respect—”
“I am in need of your help,” Heimerdinger said, steamrolling over him in an instant. “My young friend and I are in a…pickle. I think you can help.”
“Pickle?”
“Yes. A colloquialism. It means trouble. Tight spot. Clusterf—”
“I know what a pickle is, professor,” Viktor said, wry grin. He found that he still liked Heimerdinger despite himself.
“Yes, well. You were always very clever. But may I…may I explain? Or…Ekko?” Heimerdinger said, poking his head out of the door and yelling into the hallway.
Viktor waited, amused. It was the most interesting thing to happen to him all week. All month, even. A moment later, a young man with dark skin and blond hair stepped into his office. Ekko, presumably. Next to him was a young woman with blue hair pulled into two buns. Viktor’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped.
“Powder?” he asked.
The girl jumped. Then she looked at him, head tilted to the side.
“Yes?” she replied.
“You must not remember me. I was…I was there, when—after the accident. I…spoke to your father, the large one—”
“Vander.”
“Yes. Him. I offered to help you get a place in the Academy, when, if, you were ready. Is that what this is about?” Viktor asked, heart leaping a little. It had been the least he could do and was not a repayment for what had happened to her sister, but at least it was something. No one else at the Academy had done anything for the poor girl.
“Oh. Um, nope. Too much to do at home,” Powder said with a self-conscious laugh.
“Ah. I see. What then?” Viktor asked tersely, turning back to Heimerdinger.
“An experiment! My boy, when I tell you I have seen the most wonderous things. Why—”
“What kind of experiment?” Viktor interrupted. He knew better than to let Heimerdinger get going when he started talking about the wonders of science.
“Hextech,” Ekko said.
Viktor blanched. His hand went automatically to the drawer that held Jayce Talis’s notebook. No one else knew that word. Jayce Talis had written it in the margin, a funny little half speech he intended to give when it worked. Viktor had it memorized. Jayce Talis’s personality shone through sometimes. He was charming, boyish, naïve, and wildly intelligent. Viktor wished he had gotten the chance to know him.
“How do you know that word?” Viktor asked.
“Long story,” Ekko shrugged.
“I think I have time.”
Ekko looked at Heimerdinger, who shrugged back, then glanced at Powder, who looked just as clueless as Viktor felt. Viktor stood. He made his way to the door and shut it, locking it decisively, and turning to the group.
“Sit. I can offer you sweetmilk or tea if you would like,” he said.
“Nothing for me,” Ekko said.
“I’m okay,” Powder said with a grin.
“A little of both, thank you. Do you have anything fruity?” Heimerdinger said, making himself at home, which was typical.
“Only black, I’m afraid,” Viktor replied with a small eyeroll.
“Like your soul?” Powder said, catching his eye and grinning.
“Just so,” Viktor said, smiling back as he went to make the tea.
There was an old electric kettle he’d rewired in one corner, on top of a small ice box. The faculty kitchen was down a flight of stairs. It was too much trouble to walk up and down several times a day, so he’d had to make do. Powder, to his small surprise, jumped up to help him, shrugging when he insisted it was fine.
“I’m good at tea. My dads run a bar and I’ve been helping since I was…I don’t know. Ten? What do you like in yours?” she asked, all charm.
“Sugar. And sweetmilk. A lot of both,” Viktor answered, going back to his seat.
Sitting was a relief. His back was getting worse. He had a brace, but it was uncomfortable and bulky. He had a design for a better one, but no one had agreed to make it. Too complicated, they said, too finicky. Which was nonsense.
He watched Powder, humming to herself as she made the tea. She was carefree, happy even. A far cry from the sobbing child he’d last seen. It was a relief. He had thought of her often. If he helped Heimerdinger, which he thought was very likely given how dull his actual job was, perhaps he could get to know her a little.
They sat in an awkward silence until Powder finished making the tea. Viktor took a sip. It wasn’t sweet enough, but he drank it anyway. Better to spare the girl’s feelings.
“Well. Now that that is settled, the experiment. Ekko and I were trying to create an anomaly in the very fabric of the Arcane. It—” Heimerdinger said.
“Impossible,” Viktor replied quickly, starting to fear this was a waste of time.
“No! We have…we can do it. We just need more information,” Ekko interjected. Viktor raised an eyebrow. The boy’s passion was inspiring.
“I…fine. If it is possible, then why do you need my help and what does this have to do with Hextech?” Viktor asked.
“Hextech is inextricably linked with the Arcane. To understand exactly what it is capable of, we need an expert. I am not from this universe,” Heimerdinger said seriously. “In mine, you and Jayce invented Hextech. You were the only ones who could. I believe that ability is still in you, my boy, but we will have to start from scratch. Ekko was able to copy down Jayce’s diagrams from the chalkboard in his apartment, but, well, they are incomplete.”
Viktor honestly had stopped listening after Heimerdinger claimed that he was from another universe. That was also impossible. The whole thing was impossible and beginning to feel a bit like a fever dream. Or a prank being pulled on him and a cruel one at that. But Heimerdinger, for all his flaws, was not cruel and there was no reason for Ekko or Powder to bare him any ill will either. It took a moment for his mind to catch up with the rest. When it did, he was left blinking, confused, and, for the first time in years, a little excited.
“That is…implausible. All of it is,” Viktor said.
“Many things are, my dear boy, but that does not stop them from being true,” Heimerdinger replied.
“And…and I can help,” Viktor said. Heimerdinger may have gone off the deep end with his other universe theory, but Hextech was real.
“Splendid! Let’s go then, posthaste! We haven’t much time and—”
“A moment, professor. I have a class in…two hours and I cannot simply run off to the Undercity,” Viktor said wryly, tapping his crutch for emphasis.
“I’ll get someone else to teach it. Now let’s—”
“Also, well, I, um, well, I suppose it doesn’t matter now,” Viktor said, opening the drawer and putting Jayce’s notebook on the table. “I may not have destroyed everything, like you asked, after the accident. There’s more at my apartment.”
He glanced at Powder apologetically, who was not looking at him. She was looking at the notebook, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, lost somewhere. Heimerdinger snatched it up at once with a small cry of triumph.
“Excellent! Oh, I should have given you a promotion years ago, Viktor,” Heimerdinger said, sliding from the chair and tucking the notebook under his arm.
Viktor wanted to snatch it back at once, like a child with a favorite toy. There was a strange possessiveness he felt over it. Like it belonged to him or someone he loved, despite never having officially met, or even seen, Jayce Talis. He’d been taken away by enforcers before Viktor had even arrived.
“Powder, you okay?” Ekko asked.
“Yeah, never better!” Powder said, shaking herself out of her trace with a grin. She stood, offered a hand to Ekko, and pulled him up after her. “Let’s go.”
Viktor took great pleasure in watching Heimerdinger obliviously bully the department chair into teaching Viktor’s afternoon Biology 101 class. The Academy rumor mill would be spinning by the time he returned, if he returned. If Heimerdinger was right, if they were going to create Hextech, he would never teach class again. The Academy had been his dream when he was a boy. Now he found the idea of leaving it more and more appealing.
The box of Jayce Talis’s things he’d managed to salvage was kept on a shelf in the back of his closet. He rarely visited them. They felt private, somehow. As if he were intruding. Ekko and Heimerdinger went through the box while Powder went into his courtyard to bother the stray cats who were waiting for him to feed them. After a moment, when he grew tired and annoyed by Heimerdinger and Ekko pawing through the box and the journal, he went to join her, two cans of tuna in hand.
“Here,” he said offering her one.
“Gross,” she replied, wrinkling her nose.
“It’s for the cats. I usually feed them when I get home from work,” Viktor said, reaching down the grey cat who had come to wind around his ankles.
“Oh, right.”
Powder opened the can and set it down in front of her. After a moment, a little calico appeared from the bushes. Powder grinned as she came towards her, belly low, and began eating like she’d never had a meal before. Viktor smiled. He knew that one. She was growing plump off his canned fish. Another cat, orange this time, came to headbutt Viktor’s calf.
“They like you,” Powder said.
“I feed them,” Viktor replied.
“Still. Must be nice.”
“Eh, I always wanted pets when I was little, but…”
“Not enough to go around?”
“Something like that. My parents saved every penny to get me into the Academy,” Viktor said, smiling slightly at the memory.
“Oh. Yeah. We couldn’t have pets either. My dad, the…big one. He’s allergic,” Powder said with a shrug, offering her hand to the calico to sniff.
“Hm. A pity. They seem to like you too.”
Powder smiled and began to scratch the cat behind her ears. Viktor watched her for a moment. He sighed. There was potential in her, he could feel it. He’d seen the way she’d eyed his books, the curiosity at the little inventions he made from scrap to keep his hands busy. She was young still. A little old for an Academy first year, but not unusually so.
“The offer still stands. If you want to go to the Academy, I will do everything in my power to get you there,” he said.
“Yeah, well, that’s very nice of you and all, but…I don’t know. I like working at home. With Ekko. The Young Innovator’s Competition is coming up and I think we have a shot. With the weird Arcane heebie jeebie gizmo,” she said, grinning.
“Is that it’s official name?”
“Yep.”
“Catchy, as they say.”
“Yeah, well. I’m quick,” Powder said with a shrug.
“And you are…fine with this? Using Hextech?”
Powder froze for a moment. Then, very slowly, she nodded, tucking a bit of her hair that had fallen out of her buns behind her ear.
“Vi…my sister. She wouldn’t want me to mope. Or limit myself just because she…you were there?” Powder asked.
“I was there for the aftermath. I…it was a terrible thing. I am sorry, that it happened,” Viktor said seriously. He had the urge to put a hand on her shoulder, but he had never been any good at comforting.
“Yeah, thanks. I…if something good can come out of it, I think it’s okay. Not…not her death, but the crystals. The journal. All of it. You get it?”
“Yes, I get it,” Viktor replied. “And the offer still stands.”
He gave the orange cat one last pet and stood to emphasize the point. Powder stood too, giving him a quick smile. There was an eagerness to her, a solidness. He was glad. He’d been afraid her sister’s death would ruin her whole life.
“Shall we go make sure they are not getting into too much trouble?” Viktor asked.
“Oh yeah. Great idea,” Powder said, taking his arm and leading him into the apartment.
The three of them had been working in a lab in an old airship hanger, on the propellors. And insane workspace. Powder’s. Viktor liked the chaos of it, even if he was half afraid of falling to his death. They made him sit and then showed off their work so far. It was impossible. It was exhilarating.
“Fascinating,” he said, running a hand over the diagrams done in Powder’s wild hand. “And what do you intend to do with it?”
Ekko told him. An anomaly, a little imperfection in the Arcane to use for their own purposes. Ingenious. Clever. The journal filled holes, the equipment made it all seem more real, and by midnight they had a working theory on how to proceed. Then it failed. Then they tried again. Then it failed and so it went on and on. Heimerdinger and Ekko slept. Powder and Viktor did not. By the afternoon of the next day, Viktor felt delirious. His back and leg ached. His throat was dry. His head hurt and his eyes felt as if they had been replaced with globes made of sand. They still hadn’t made any progress.
“Now what?” Powder asked when the ninth experiment failed.
“I don’t know. I…I need to sit, I think,” Viktor said.
“Yeah, I’ll take over,” Ekko said, heaving himself up from his chair.
Viktor watched them theorize with heavy eyes from his seat. It wasn’t going to work. They needed a new mind. Ekko and Powder were brilliant, geniuses, but they were Undercity. A more chaotic way of thinking. Reckless, willing to take risks. He knew it well. He saw himself in both of them. Heimerdinger was his usual self. Proposing an idea that turned into a long-winded explanation of a paper he’d read fifty years ago. They were getting nowhere. Viktor sighed and took up the notebook. He ran a finger over Jayce Talis’s name and wondered if it would be better if he were there. Then he sat up straight, cursed loudly at the sudden pain in his back, and doubled over, nearly dropping the book.
“My dear boy! Are you all right?” Heimerdinger called out, padding quickly to his side, followed by Powder and Ekko.
“A pain. It will pass, but professor. Do you know what happened to Jayce Talis?” Viktor asked through gritted teeth.
“Exiled, I think. But I don’t know—”
“We need to find him. I think…I think he’ll have the answer. Or an answer, at least.”
“I, well, yes, that could work. You two worked quite well together in my universe! With you two and Ekko and Powder and me, of course, I think we’ll crack it in no time!”
“Good,” Viktor said, sitting back with a sigh. The worst of the pain had passed. He let out a few hacking coughs, covering his mouth with a handkerchief. Ekko and Powder were looking at him with concern. He waived them off. When he took it away, there was no blood. He gave a grim smile and put it in his pocket.
“Where is he? Jayce?” Ekko asked.
“Haven’t a clue,” Heimerdinger said with a shrug.
“He used to be sponsored by the Kirammans. Perhaps they will know,” Viktor said, glad no one questioned how he knew that. There had been a period after he read the journal for the first time when he had been a little obsessed with Jayce Talis and looked up everything he could about him in the Academy files.
“Excellent! We’ll go right away!” Heimerdinger said, marching towards the door.
“Tomorrow, professor. I…I think some rest would do us all good,” Viktor said, leaning back.
“Tomorrow sounds good. I’ve got a shift at the bar anyway,” Powder said.
Heimerdinger wandered off, muttering about wasting time. Viktor smiled, nearly laughed. He could remember a Heimerdinger who wouldn’t let him so much as change a light bulb without a full safety write up. Perhaps he was from a different universe after all.