Chapter Text
Viktor found himself laying in some kind of universal texture, feeling alive yet numb, his consciousness echoing around and meeting weird frequences like a satellite would. Where was he? Was this what the afterlife looked like? No, it was impossible, it didn't feel quite like death, if so it would at least have been peaceful. His head was ringing as he tried to sit up, a buzzing silencing his thoughts as if not a voice but some out of body metaphysical energy was looking for contact with his being. The buzzing got lauder as nausea drove him to his knees, he gripped his head with his hands, pale and sweaty. Everything felt so intense yet so... irrelevant. As if nothing ever mattered but at the same time he was forgetting his life mission. He could not walk, not speak, not move, not think. Laying on the soft cushion spread around this prison that captured and restrained his entire being. But something was not right. This peace he felt was too mechanical, it was made up. Something was trying to take control of his mind, but he couldn't quite say what it was, or why it felt so off. The pain was real though, the only real feeling that kept him from drifting away. But what is pain if not a feeling of distress caused by external stimulation. And then it finally clicked. External stimulation. This was not real, or maybe it was, but out of what can be classified as reality. Reality. Yes, what a wonderful concept. He felt his brain melting as he started to wake up. His body wasn't hurting anymore but his limbs felt foreign to him. Clicking and screeching with every movement, as if motion was theoretical and the simple aspect of walking made of nuts and hinges. What was going on... not the time to find out. He extracted his heavy body from the circuit wall and approached the workbench.
"Jayce..." his voice was his but also not, some estranged octave lingering deep within his vocal chords. But he paid it no mind, feeling a burning desire for reassurance, to know he was still alive and breathing.
Jayce was using his half broken chair as support, resting his head over his arms, using the hard surface of the desk as a pillow. Unconsciously, when he heard Viktor's voice he jumped awake and hugged the other like his lifetime.
"I thought i lost you..."
Sobbing and shaking muffled into the other's chest echoed hollow, Viktor's embrace felt hard and cold.
"Viktor... what's wrong?" Jayce studied his partner from head to toe, his eyes doing backflips and scanning all over his "back from the dead" partner. No, something was definitely wrong, but what?
"You don't need your cane anymore? Let me see your leg." The man kneeled and checked the other's former dysfunction but found nothing. Nothing that he could describe as normal anyway. His leg and prosthetic merged together, the screws were now decorations over his metallic limb.
"This is the Hexcore's doing! Vik, you're cured!" The man hugged the other happily, as if all the fatigue he carried those past few days suddenly vanished at the mention of his partner's extended lifespan.
But Viktor pulled him away, his expression uneasy, his voice tame, but his once hopeful eyes dark.
"Jayce, something feels wrong, you need to destroy the Hexcore, please. I don't have much time, but i fear of what's to come."
"Are you kidding?" The taller one snapped.
"Destroy the one and only hope we have? Yes, ask me the world, Viktor, and i shall conquer it and give it to you, but your life in exchange for the Hexcore? I need you alive."
There was a hint on insecurity in the man's shaky breathing, maybe even doubt, but he shook it off quickly and continued to speak.
"Viktor, this is what we always wanted, to use the arcane for the greater good. To reshape the world into something better, to help those in need. And now you want to discard it all? What happened to you Viktor, talk to me..."
"You have to trust me, i cannot explain it but i know it's wrong. This is not what we wanted. It's not what we fought for, this thing is dangerous, it turbed Sky to ashes. We need to destroy it."
Jayce's eyes widened in horror. Was this true? The Hexcore consumed their colleague? How could he have missed such important detail?
"Jayce, listen to me, there is no such thing as a simple answer to solve our problems, we cannot rely on magic alone to change our predicament. Living beings are prone to evolve and adapt. That is the only way we can ever achieve survival through anything. We are of organic mater, Jayce. If we fail to evolve we must perish, it's the only rule our DNA carries. I fear we didn't find a cure but only awakened a primordial danger."
Jayce sighs in defeat.
"I understand. But Viktor, the Hexcore is gone. Besides, we are at was with the people of Zaine, we must use the weapons we created."
"JAYCE. WEAPONS? We agreed to never create anything of the sort. War isn't the solution, we will only provide greater suffering, please, you must listen. I need you to understand now more than ever... please."
"Do you not get it?" Jayce's voice rumbled angrily through the room.
"Half of the Council is dead. Our air is polluted, people are revolting and we have no other solution. Mel was right, we cannot stay still and watch anymore, a war is going to happen. No, it already happened, now we defend our people."
"But Jayce, the people of Zaine are our people too, we must-"
His words are cut short by the other's annoyance.
"We must what, Viktor, keep on making sacrifices? The people of Zaine chose this war when they attacked us, when they demanded independence."
Viktor snapped back:
"They wouldn't have had to if your people treated them fairly. You have no idea how life is down there."
Jayce glared back, a vein forming on his forehead, eyebrows frowning in anger.
"My people? Are you not one of us?"
"You keep forgetting where i come from, Jayce. I'm from the Underground... from... Zaine."
Jayce took his war hammer and rushed to the door.
"I hoped for us to be together in this, Vik... but i see you're not with me anymore."
And with that, he left.