#vikayce

Rating: M Pairing: Jayce Talis/Viktor Chapter: 6/7 (25,000 words) Summary: Following Jinx’s attack on the Council, Viktor slips into a strange, unnatural coma. It falls to Jayce to release him.

💥 set after the S1 finale 🔨 canon divergent 🩹 fix-it of sorts 🧠 bizarro dream states ❤️‍🩹 angst with a happy ending

An expanse of metal awaits him.

Artificial light washes the place in a purple hue; the walls are threaded with thick coils of wires, and electricity crackles beneath his palms, following circuits only it knows. Jayce pushes himself up and takes in his surroundings. At first glance, the room has more in common with Singed’s claustrophobic hideout, carved into the very rock of the fissures, but Jayce recognizes the fixtures of their Piltover lab under the eerie shadows: the steam-powered equipment, the chalkboard, the fading echoes of their laughter and good-natured arguments.

Beyond the windows, the Hexcore’s spiraling arms spread immense and labyrinthine. His ears strain for Piltover’s usual noises, but the place is quiet save for a low rumble thrumming under his hands and the rhythmic hiss of energy rippling along the branches.

His eyes slide to their origin point. Their nexus is seated on his usual stool, long, thin fingers laced together in his lap, one slender leg crossed over the other.

“So you’ve found your way here,” Viktor says.

Not a dream, not a memory, not a fantasy. This is the real Viktor, all of him, with a few extras: a purple glow fights with the gold of his eyes, and metal plates cover his limbs, fused to the braces fastened around his leg and midriff. Within the cavity of his chest, the glow of the Hexcore pulses to the steady beat of his heart, silhouetting ribs against paper-thin skin and sending light rippling along the tangled web of arms around him.

Metal, but alive. Jayce shudders, remembering the pulse that guided him at first. A literal heartbeat, it turns out. “What … What’s all this? What is this place?”

Viktor sighs. “Someplace you shouldn’t be. I tried to get you to turn around, but I forgot just how pigheaded you can be sometimes.”

Heat flashes across Jayce’s face, and the back of his eyes burns. Not exactly the welcome he expected. “All this time you knew I was here?”

A wry smile curls Viktor’s mouth. “How could I not? You’ve been about as subtle as your hammer. It’s a wonder I could keep this place together at all with you barging in.”

“Barging in? I’m trying to save you from—from this thing,” he retorts, gesturing towards the Hexcore pusing inside Viktor’s ribcage. Jayce fists his hand and presses it to his mouth. How he wishes this was just one more nightmare he could break out of. “God, Viktor. Tell me I’m not too late.”

The expression on Viktor’s face softens at that. “Jayce, I don’t need saving,” he answers, his voice infuriatingly placating. “I saved myself.”

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