Chapter Text
Viktor was gone.
The lab was a mess, the notes and schematics that had accumulated in their shared space over the years together were haphazardly strewn across the tables and countertops. Meanwhile many of the tools and instruments that once saw daily use sat untouched and started to gather dust. The whiteboards that were once home to their shared musings and calculations, then Jayce’s stress induced note taking as Viktor slept cocooned by the Hexcore, had been frantically erased and turned to face the walls. Still looming in the center of the room, with a cutout impression of his former partner like a final centerpiece to a monument of all his mistakes, lay the cast off shell of the Hexcore’’s cocoon.
Kneeling on the floor, Jayce runs his hand along the edge of his partner’s form in the shell, an action he’d repeated so many times since Viktor’s departure that he was on the verge of wearing it into a whole new shape altogether.
He sighs and presses his forehead against the empty shell.
Why hadn’t it been him that got caught in the blast? Why did it have to take Viktor, who already had such little time? And how was Jayce supposed to just let his partner, the man he’d shared his days, nights, and dreams with for 7 years just die like that? It isn’t fair , he thinks to himself, not for the first time, before a surge of familiar guilt overwhelms him. This was his own fault.
Maybe if he hadn’t been so wrapped up with the council he would’ve noticed Vitktor’s health declining earlier, and could have done something. Maybe if he had just stood a little closer to Viktor’s side in the council room on that day, he could’ve protected him. Maybe, just maybe, if in the moments just after Viktor emerged from the Hexcore, in that intimate moment they shared, if Jayce had just held him a little tighter, he wouldn’t have left.
Jayce’s heart aches in rhythm with the injuries on his back thinking of that moment. Seeing Viktor alive in front of him had caused a surge of affection like he’d never felt before. Before he could even think about it, he’d pressed his lips to Viktor’s, and things had escalated from there. Viktor reciprocated just as enthusiastically, as if they were both trying to make up for all the years they could’ve spent sharing this instead. Even Viktor’s altered body hadn’t dissuaded them, Jayce pressing his chest into Viktor’s while the other man thrust up into them with ease, physical strength like he’d never had before granted to him by the Hexcore. Jayce had called Viktors name until his throat was hoarse, still saying it softly even after they had exhausted themselves (or at least Jayce had, Viktor hadn’t seemed winded at all, or even broken a sweat).
In that all too brief time they embraced in the afterglow, Jayce had felt like things finally might be okay. Sure Viktor wasn’t his usual witty self, but he had just come back from the dead, he just needed time. Sure his body had been changed, but even without the threat of death, Jayce had realized then, he would love Viktor regardless of the form he took. Had loved him for god knows how long. Maybe since the beginning.
And then Viktor had left. His words “It was affection that bound us together” piercing through Jayce more painfully than that blade had on his back. The thought that what he and Viktor had just shared had just been a passing whim was too much for him to bear, and in that moment he was too upset to think about going after Viktor. Surely he’d return eventually right? Even though his parting words had rung with finality. He just needed space, they’d had arguments before but in the end, they’d always worked things out.
Jayce sighs again, going to stand and his back protesting at the motion, sending pain down his body. It’s been over two weeks since Viktor left, and sleeping in the lab was not doing any favors for healing the deep gash, but Jayce finds he can’t muster up much energy to care. As if in response to his injury being strained, his stomach roils with nausea, nearly doubling him over just as he got to his feet. Subsisting off the leftover rations he and Viktor would often leave stashed in the lab for long nights or last minute deadlines was not going to be sustainable for much longer, clearly.
Jayce slowly makes his way back over to his normal desk spot, shifting stacks of notes, half-started projects, and used mugs aside to sip listlessly at tea that had long since gone cold. Any of the academy janitors that tried to make their way in, he had shooed out, assuring them it wasn’t necessary. He really didn’t need anyone seeing how pathetic he was in Viktor’s absence, and more than that, his own aborted attempts to clean up the lab had felt almost dismissive. As if he could just move on in Viktors absence as easily as reorganizing their notes.
Jayce lays his head on the desk and curls up in on himself. When Mel had returned to the lab to check on him shortly after Viktor's departure he’d blown her off, and though he hadn’t said what happened in her absence she’d surely worked the gist of it out on her own. She’d returned again later, but Jayce had locked the doors to the lab by then, and staunchly ignored her pleading to let her in, to try and help. He hadn’t particularly wanted to see anyone or potentially be dragged back into answering to the council. He hadn’t seen Caitlyn since his brief visit to the Kirammans before Viktor awoke either. Or spoken to his mother at all recently, aside from passing along a message to Mel just after the attack to let her know he was alive.
God he was awful. First betraying his former mentor by kicking him off the council, Viktor leaving him behind, and now Jayce couldn’t seem to spare any energy to be decent towards the remaining people who cared about him. He had to pull himself together, even if things felt pointless in the other man’s absence. Not now though. Tomorrow would be the day. He closes his eyes and quickly loses himself to sleep
The Hexcore pulses before him, contracting inwards and outwards like a set of overworked lungs.
With each breath in, plant matter around it wilts and shrivels, and with exhale, it surges back to life, now tinted purple and gold.
Leaves and grasses shift and wrap together, becoming dark hair. Stems and roots arrange themselves, twisting together to create a familiar thin form.
Then, on the next inhale, said form is reduced to dust.
Exhale. Life returns to the dreamscape.
Inhale. To ash again.
Exhale. The plant life begins arranging itself again, but this time more slowly, a new, tiny form, emerging. Each inhale of the hexcore now doesn’t reduce this form to lifelessness, only pausing its growth. It is lichen like, growing in a place most life forms would find inhospitable. Another breath and-
“-ce! Jayce!” Jayce bolts awake at the call of his name. Groggily, he swings his head around looking for the source, only seeing an unfamiliar white haired young man standing against the lab wall. Before he can ask who he is, the familiar voice pipes up again, and he looks down to see Heimerdinger.
“Goodness my boy you are a heavy sleeper,” A snort from the man in the corner “How long have you been sleeping in here? I’d expect Viktor to have kept you from bad habits like this, at least a little. Where is he anyway?”
Jayce huffs a laugh, but there’s nothing humorous in his tone, and he shifts his gaze back to the cast off cocoon. “There’s a lot of things you’ve missed while you were gone professor.”
The three quickly catch each other up on their respective situations and begin brainstorming what could be causing the arcane to behave so strangely.
“This situation with your tree seems serious, I’ll help you get to the bottom of it.” Jayce stands and reaches for the Mercury Hammer, but Heimerdinger’s voice interrupts him.
“Are you quite sure Jayce? Your knowledge would be invaluable, but forgive me, you look like you could use rest my boy. In a real bed this time.” He eyes the bandages around Jayce’s torso with clear concern.
“Heimer’s right, you kind of look like shit man. But hey, if you wanna trudge around the Lanes like that, more power to you.” Ekko gives an indifferent shrug before he turns his intense gaze back on Jayce. “I just need to know what's wrong with my tree, and soon. If you’re gonna slow us down we’d all be better off if you stayed here.”
Jayce runs his hand across his face. Did he really look that bad? He hadn’t bothered to look in a mirror in awhile.
“It’s fine. I’m fine. What you’re dealing with has to do with the arcane, which means it's almost certainly related to Hextech, which means it's my business too. Besides there’s parts of Hextech you’d need me in order to gain access to anyway.” All things considered, Jayce is a bit grateful to have a problem drop itself in his lap. Something to work on and puzzle through would be better than continuing as he was.
A day or two to figure this out might clear his head, and maybe then he’d be able to pick up a few pieces of his life again.