Archive of Our Own ^beta

The lab was oppressively hot, but Jayce Talis refused to open the windows or draw back the heavy curtains to let some of the festering heat escape. She was afraid that if she did, she would let Viktoria escape with it. 

Jayce wasn’t holding her lab partner and dear friend hostage. She’d never dream of such a thing. But, as it happened, Viktoria’s body and, as Jayce liked to imagine it, her soul , were at odds with one another at the moment. 

Her body was still on the table where Jayce had haphazardly placed it, arms shaking more from anxiety than the strain of carrying her as she’d fled the explosion in the Council chambers. Her body was still on that table because it could not move. It was not what Jayce was afraid of losing, because in many ways, if Jayce let her doubt creep in, it was already lost. 

Viktoria’s eyes were glassy and grey. Her body was stiff and cold. Her mouth was slightly cracked, and earlier this morning Jayce had nearly started sobbing as she was forced to shoo a pair of mating flies away from it, all clasped to one another like they were trying to become one singular organism. 

But Viktoria on the other hand– 

“Jayce, I believe we need to accept this,” Her voice echoed, and Jayce turned, catching a glimpse of the Hexcore, the damn Hexcore , spinning, it’s many faces parting from one another as if taking a deep breath, and from inside its swirling, impossible space, purple wisps emerged, wisps that soon formed the phantasmal shape of Viktoria, present but not alive. A soul without a body. 

For lack of a better word, a ghost. 

“Accept what, exactly?” Jayce wasn’t trying to snap, but her tone sounded sharp anyhow. She’d hardly slept for the last forty-eight hours, mainly dozing off in fits and starts. At the moment, she must have dozed off while standing up, or at the very least her mind shut down its processes long enough that she forgot why she’d gotten up from her desk in the first place. 

She turned back to it at once, taking a seat to return to her notes and wipe her brow, but Viktoria followed her, silent and drifting. 

“I am not going back in my body, Jayce.” 

Jayce opened her mouth to protest, but Viktoria leaned over, not quite overtaking her vision, seeing as Jayce could see through the purple haze clear to the other side of her. 

“ Look at it. Really look. I know neither of us studied biology, but we know the signs of death. My body has gone stiff. It won’t be long now, especially in this heat, before it starts to bloat. The longer it sits there, the less habitable it becomes, and you are no closer than you were last night, or the night before that–” 

“Do you think I’m not trying?” Jayce sounded more desperate than enraged, and she knew it. 

“I did not say that. I am just saying… Perhaps, rather than trying to resurrect me, it would be safer for you to… To do what I asked you to, in the first place.” 

Destroy the Core. 

“No. Not while you’re still inside it. I can’t , V.” Jayce tried to reason. 

“Isn’t it obvious? The Core is dangerous. It’s gotten out of hand. I– I can see that better than anyone else now, from here, from inside of it–” 

“It’s not dangerous if it’s keeping you alive. It’s serving a purpose. A good purpose. And I won’t get rid of it until you’re out. ” 

Viktora fell silent after that, and Jayce felt her shift away, pulling back from her like a fleeting breeze on a hot day. 

“Like your weapons served a purpose?” Viktoria finally said, her words striking Jayce across the face. 

“I– I thought you were dead. I was so certain of it. I– I needed–” 

“You needed to feel in control,” Viktoria supplied, “Just as you do now.” 

“It isn’t about control!” Jayce snapped, spinning her chair around rapidly, only to be met by Viktoria’s utterly placid expression as she hovered there, inches above the ground. 

“What is it about then? Piltover? You aren’t focusing on them , either. While you’ve locked yourself in here with me… Do you have any idea what Caitlyn is doing? Or Ambessa? ” 

Jayce stiffened. “You don’t know, either.” 

Viktora nodded. “But I at least know that whatever it is, it isn’t good. I know you feel as though this is a mistake that you must correct, Jayce, but how long do you think you can hide away in here? Nevermind the effect the heat is having on you, the physical toll– They won’t let you hide away in here forever. Not when you’ve armed them. And not when there’s a warrior at the gates, equally hungry for those weapons.” 

“What do you want me to do, then?” 

”Destroy me.” Viktoria stressed, yet again. “Let me go. Take Hextech, take the parts of our dream that were good, and right , and get them as far away from here as possible. Without you and I… They’ll have nothing.” 

Jayce turned away once more, unable to face Viktoria and once again deny her request. She wasn’t wrong, was the worst part– She was echoing so many things Jayce knew to be true, so many failures that had piled up on her shoulders, burying her under their weight like Atlas. But she could not allow Viktoria to be another failure, the worst one of all. Losing her, only to have this sliver of a chance of getting her back… It was the only thing Jayce could focus on. The only thing left in the world that felt like it mattered and couldn’t be tainted. 

“Is Zaun far enough away?” Jayce asked after a moment. 

“Zaun? You mean where Caitlyn’s task force is currently running rampant? No, I can’t imagine so.” 

“But it’s better than here, isn’t it?” 

“What are you planning?” Viktoria asked, and Jayce turned, meeting her translucent gaze once more. 

“Trust me.”

Viktoria sighed. “I suppose I don’t have a say in the matter, do I?” 

Her form vanished without waiting for a response, the many faces of the Hexcore closing in on themselves, silent and cold. 

Jayce picked up the core as she left, holding it tight to her chest. 

____________

Jayce only realized the flaws in her plan once she was already in the Undercity. The first flaw was obvious– her choice to come to Zaun had been on a complete whim, a brief grasp of a memory of Viktor meeting someone down here, someone clever, someone she trusted. Someone who was meant to offer a new perspective for her, and perhaps could do the same for Jayce. The only problem there was that Jayce, in her infinite wisdom (or perhaps self-absorption) had never asked the name of this elusive friend. She had essentially come here to look for a needle in a very large haystack, with no descriptors other than scientific acumen. 

The second flaw completely caught her off guard. 

Noxian Checkpoints. They were crude, mainly established through manpower than actual guard stations or queues, but what they lacked in infrastructure, these fighters made up for in pure intimidation and a willingness to manhandle. 

Thankfully, they had been easy enough to get past– Jayce had only needed to wait for a particularly disgruntled Zaunite to cause a scene, and she was able to slip through their lackluster security. 

But how long before they had the structure to back up the muscle? 

Viktoria had been concerned about what Jayce was missing inside of their lab, and perhaps that hadn’t been unfounded. But still, despite the knot in her gut coiling ever tighter, she pressed on. 

Viktoria first. The rest later. 

As Jayce continued her trek further into the city, however, it was clear she’d attracted attention. Specifically the attention of three men, one older than the other two, but each of them reeking of alcohol as they trailed behind her like flies. 

“Where you headed, sweetheart?” One of them called. 

“You need some help, doll? Your coin purse looks heavy. ” Another tried. 

There were no coins in her purse. Nothing to barter with. Only Viktoria, safe and protected inside of the Core. And she’d be damned if she let them get their hands on it. So, despite her better judgement, Jayce turned towards the men, pointing a finger accusingly. 

“I don’t have anything for you. Leave me alone.” 

“Oh… I’m not so sure about that,” The eldest chimed in, “I think you’ve got something. Doesn’t she, boys?”

Jayce had enough sense to know she needed to break out into a run, especially when she could hear drunken laughter and stumbling footsteps at her heels. However, she didn’t know her way around Zaun very well at all, and before she knew it, she’d backed herself into an alley, the other end of it just pure rock of the Undercity’s cavernous walls. 

“That’s a dead end, doll,” The second man teased. 

“Maybe she wanted us to catch her all along,” The first man suggested, grinning. 

Jayce tried to think quickly. Does she reveal her status as a Councilor? But then again that status was tenuous at best, and really more likely to make them more motivated to harm her than suddenly respect her. Does she fight? She doesn’t have a thing on her. Not even her Mercury Hammer, which she left sitting in the lab, a foolish sign to Viktoria that she didn’t need Hextech weaponry, that she understood it was a mistake. 

Look where it had gotten her now. 

The eldest man lunged for her, and while Jayce bent herself out of his way, his fingers found purchase around the drawstring of her bag, the very same bag that held Viktoria inside. As the bag was torn open, and the shifting of both of their bodies knocked the Core out into open air… Once more, it began to spin. Like a top that a child had put an excessive amount of force into, the Core refused to land– moving faster and faster through the air, its faces pulling apart from one another, once again giving way to Viktoria’s incorporeal form. 

”Shit!” One of the men, Jayce wasn’t sure which, hollered, and another one of them backed away so quickly that he fell onto his ass on the cobblestone. 

Viktoria hovered before them, and for the very first time, Jayce couldn’t see a trace of her eyes. The pupils and irises were utterly gone, instead a solid wash of white as she fixed her gaze on the men. 

“Go away. ” She said plainly. Her voice wasn’t frightening, at least not to Jayce… But the way she made the metal in the alley rattle, dumpsters and fire escapes and little metallic scraps all quivering and straining, like they were moments away from being flung out the other end of a cannon, was enough to make the men flee anyway. 

As soon as they were gone, Viktoria turned to face her, and Jayce could understand that hindbrain instinct to get as far away as possible. 

“What are you doing down here, Jayce?” 

“I was looking for that friend of yours. The one you consulted about our research,” Jayce admitted, albeit sheepishly. 

“But you don’t know his name,” Viktoria reasoned. 

“No…” 

“Or what he looks like.” 

“No, but–”
“Or where he lives.” 

“I realize that the plan was flawed. ” Jayce said, trying to free herself from this oddly familiar interrogation in such a decidedly unfamiliar context. “But I thought– If you trusted him, there must have been a reason. If you think that he could understand our research, be another pair of eyes on all of it… Then couldn’t he understand this, too? What’s happened to you?” 

“What’s happened is I’ve died , Jayce,” Viktoria replied, “And my… friend , he sees death as merely an obstacle.” 

An obstacle? What kind of research was this man doing? When Viktoria had come to see him, had it really been that desperate? Had she been that desperate? Jayce would have hoped that if she was, Jayce would have known about it. But at the same time, in what must have felt like her darkest moments, Jayce had been pulled too sharply into the light to see any of it. 

“I can hear your gears turning,” Viktoria continued, “you two would be dangerous together, I think.” 

“Either you tell me where to find him, or I’ll just keep wandering around Zaun until I find him on my own.” 

“And get yourself harassed or beaten up in the process?” 

“If that’s what it takes.” Jayce nodded. 

Viktoria sighed. “Stay close. I do not know how far I can stray from the Core.” 

Viktoria’s body vanished into a vapor before Jayce’s eyes, only casting a purple glow across the stone street below them. It was faint, but Jayce could have followed Viktoria anywhere with her eyes closed if she put her mind to it. 

____________

Jayce didn’t exactly receive a warm welcome as she arrived at this man’s lab, so much deeper into Zaun and much more secluded. Viktoria had dissipated, clearly worn out from so much movement outside of the Core, and when Jayce approached the entrance to this laboratory, immediately blinded by a pallid green glow that seemed to be seeping out of every possible shard of glass and vial of water in the place, she was also greeted at that same second by a large, looming figure, as skinny as driftwood, crowding himself into her space. 

“What do you want?” The man asked, his mouth covered by a cloth that puffed out from the very effort behind his words. 

“I… I understand that you know Viktoria, sir?” Jayce started, and immediately the man seemed to step back, like Jayce had uttered the right phrase to be let into a speakeasy (not that she’d ever actually been to one.). 

“I’m… Her partner. I’m Jayce.” 

Never had Jayce watched someone go through so many emotions so quickly. Hostility, to a brief, tenuous relaxed state, right back to trepidation and hostility. Really, she was putting him through a whirlwind, and given her guesses on his age, that probably wasn’t doing his heart any favors. How did Viktoria end up becoming friends with him in the first place?

“I know who you are,” The man replied, “You’re Heimerdinger’s latest focus.”

Focus? Maybe that was the best way to put it. Jayce hadn’t exactly been the man’s pupil, at least not in the most direct sense. He hadn’t wanted Hextech, but he had stood by to watch it take shape, and to supervise hers and Viktoria’s continued efforts– but in the end, he’d still tried to stifle it. In the end, he’d been driven away from the Council and seemingly the Academy by Jayce. 

Focus, then. Object of attention. For better or for worse. 

“I’m not here because of Heimerdinger,” Jayce promised, though she wasn’t even sure why, “I’m here because of Viktoria.” 

Reaching back into that satchel, Jayce once again retrieved the Core, handling the object with the utmost care. The man’s eyes seemed to light up at the mere sight of it, craning his neck for a better look at the runes carved into each individual panel, until his glassy eye glowed purple rather than green. 

“Viktoria… Viktoria’s in here,” Jayce explained. 

The man immediately snapped back to his full height. “What?” 

Jayce did her best to explain exactly what had happened that night to the stranger, as though she were back in University, giving a dissertation on her findings at the end of a class project. When she was through, she realized her eyes had darted down to the floor rather than continuing to make eye contact with the man, but when she met his gaze again, she was surprised to find it lacking any clear emotion for the first time since she’d encountered him. 

“You wanted to save her life, then?” He finally asked. 

“Of course,” Jayce replied. 

“Do you still want to save her life?” 

“Of course. ”

“Come with me.” 

The man ushered Jayce deeper into his lab, passing by all manner of experiments that would turn a Piltovian professor’s stomach in a heartbeat. It would have turned Jayce’s stomach, probably, not too long ago – But there was something else residing there, this heavy stone of guilt and desire to see this through to the end, that kept her anchored and pushing forward. 

It took the stranger a moment, but eventually he managed to activate a door clearly hidden from the outside world in this already hidden lab, revealing…

A girl. Lying inside a coffin of glass and gold. Her eyes were closed, her hands resting on her stomach, body frozen in a perpetual placid state. Her room was immaculately kept, smelling of roses where the room just beyond its threshold smelled of blood and ozone and decay. She was frozen, absolutely, but more than that she and everything around her was preserved. Kept safe. Like an art gallery with only a singular, most adored piece. 

“My Orianna… She is much more complex, you see.” The man began. “Her body is failing her, yes, but also her mind. Her soul needs a safe place to abscond to, someplace wholly new, but that can still sustain her. I have to wait to create that place,” He glanced back at Jayce. “But Viktoria needs to do no such waiting.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“You’re an inventor, aren’t you?” The man pressed, “You’ve created things. Countless things, enough things to get an entire city to sing your praises. What I am telling you is here, I am trying to create life. ” He reached out, cupping Jayce’s hands as she held the Core, practically lifting it to her face. “You already have life. You have the heart. The engine. And you have the very essence of Viktoria. All she needs now is a shell.” 

“I– I already have her body. Her body is still in the lab. I am just trying to get her back into her body–” 

“Do you love her body? Or do you love her? ”

The question was so simple for the man to ask, and yet it slammed into Jayce’s chest like one of her ill-made gauntlets. Jayce had known, for a long time now, that she felt a deep connection to Viktoria. That she had wanted her to be safe, yes, but also to be content. Acknowledged for her contributions, rewarded for her efforts… remembered, after she was gone. Jayce told herself that that is what any partner would want for another, but as Viktoria’s condition worsened, and then, as she held her lifeless body in her arms… She had to realize that this feeling went beyond what most partners would do for one another. 

“I love her,” Jayce admitted. “I don’t want to lose her. But I don’t know if she’ll forgive me if I… If I keep pushing. ” 

“That is her decision to make,” The stranger said. “But at least she will be here with you to make it.” 

“The body is gone.” The man continued. “There is no going back now. I think you knew that before you ever made the decision to come here. But Viktoria is not gone.” 

He ushered Jayce out of the doorframe, closing the secret entrance to his daughter’s room, continuing to preserve her as perfectly as he could, not letting too much of the real world touch her. Jayce realized, now, that she knew the feeling. It felt like tightly drawn curtains and sweltering heat and sleep that would not come. 

“You simply have to usher her into a new form. To stay with her, to stay with any of our loved ones, we simply must help them evolve.” 

____________

Upon leaving the scientist behind, Jayce’s plans once again changed on a dime. Whereas before she’d been trying to get away from her lab, now all she wanted to do was return to it, to have access to her tools, her notes, her forge , in order to start really working on a solution for Viktoria. 

But, of course, she’d once again let Noxus slip her mind. 

Just as Jayce was beginning to make her way up back towards the first tilted rows of Zaunite houses after traveling down into the depths to meet Viktoria’s stranger, she caught the eye of two armored men, one bearded and the other completely clean shaven and bald, practically glistening in the neon lights. Despite how much they stood out, Jayce herself couldn’t seem to blend in much better, as they noticed her right away. 

“It’s her ,” The bald man hissed, “the Piltie scientist.” 

“Mi– Councilor. We need you to come with us. It’s import–” 

Jayce practically flung herself back in the direction she’d come. As soon as she made a break for it, the men seemed to drop all pretense of viewing her title (if she even still had a title) with any modicum of respect, tearing off after her like she was a small dog breaking loose from their yard. 

Jayce ran until her face felt flushed and her chest felt heavy. Thankfully she’d somehow managed to lose two trained warriors, but in the process… She’d gotten lost herself. Already on the outskirts of Zaun and desperate, it was far too easy for her to stumble down into a system of caves, someplace hollowed out and long forgotten, deep beneath the ground. Jayce had absolutely no idea where she was, and no clue how to find her way out. 

But that didn’t mean she didn’t try. 

She wasn’t sure how long she tried for, really. The walls all started to blend together, pockmarked and scarred from dozens upon dozens of pickaxes ripping the stone apart, dark and impossible to navigate save for through touch or the faint light of the Core. 

Eventually, Jayce found a patch of rock that seemed somewhat smooth, and collapsed. She told herself she needed a chance to think, but if she was being honest with herself, all of this, all of it, was truly catching up with her. The lack of food, the lack of sleep, the pure desperation to have Viktoria by her side again, it had pushed and pushed and pushed until Jayce found herself right on the edge of something perilous that she couldn’t walk back from. She had to jump, she just had no way of knowing if she was going to hit rocks or make it safely into the ocean. 

Fumbling for the Core, Jayce once again clutched it in both of her hands, feeling its warmth for the first time in the cool stillness of the cave. The purple glow was stronger outside of the back, runes humming as though they were waiting for something to do. 

The man had told her, back in his lab, that this thing was the essence of Viktoria now. Strangely enough, there was a time before all of this where Jayce already might have believed him. When the Core didn’t hold Viktoria’s soul, but nonetheless seemed to occupy her every thought, echoing her every obsession. The Core had been Viktoria’s lifeline when she had been alive, been in her old body – and now, it seemed to be trying to make good on the belief she poured into it. Sustaining her, becoming her heart, her engine.  

There was no Core anymore. Jayce wondered distantly if there ever really had been. There was only Viktoria. Her desire to survive, her will to create, her inability to truly leave Jayce behind, even in the moments where it seemed like she might want to. 

Viktoria had evolved. Jayce had just been the one too slow and too foolish to see it. 

“I see you,” she promised in the darkness. “I see you.” 

Jayce raised the Core to her forehead, pressing one of the smooth faces to her own skin in a facsimile of an embrace. And for the first time since she held the Core out in utter terror towards Viktoria’s dying former body, the Core responded to her, buzzing against her skin like laughter. 

Jayce couldn’t help herself. She smiled. 

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. But I see you, Viktoria. I really do, now.” 

“Are you talking to it now?” Viktoria’s voice echoed. She didn’t pull herself out of the Core in that wispy purple form, but the faces of the Core still pulled apart anyhow, making room for her words to carry. 

“I’m talking to you. ” 

“I knew it was a bad idea introducing you to Singed.” Viktoria said in lieu of a response. 

“No, V, don’t you see? You’re here. We’ve been going about this all wrong. Your body – It was killing you. But now? We have a chance to start all over. I’ll make you a new body, a better body, one that’s powered by Hextech, one that can write and move and help , just like you want it to. You’re here , Viktoria. You never left me. It’s you that I love, not that body. And you’re right here. ” 

Viktoria was silent for a long while, leaving Jayce alone with the faint whirring and the fainter chill of the cave. But eventually? 

“You love me.” It’s more of a statement than a question, Jayce can tell just from her tone. 

“Of course I do,” Jayce swore. “I think I just got too lost to realize it.” 

“I know you did. I could feel you pulling away for so long. I tried to chase you, but I was never sure if you– I didn’t have the time to waste.” 

“We have all the time in the world,” Jayce promised. 

If Viktoria were here, she might think Jayce was mad for bringing the Core close to her again and kissing it like a lover, tender and slow, cautious and chaste as a lover would be the very first time. But Viktoria was here. And if the slight jolt of electricity was anything to go by, Viktoria was kissing her right back. 

____________

At the airship station, Jayce paid a courier to deliver a message to her mother. It was a promise that she’d write when she and Viktoria got where they were going, but where that was she couldn’t say. It had been hard enough purchasing the tickets and making it to the station with Noxus looking for her and her knowledge at every turn, she couldn’t put their chance at freedom in the hands of the Post. 

She also told her she loved her, of course. And that she hoped she understood. She really did hope for that. 

On board the airship, Jayce wandered to the lowest balcony. Most people were standing at the back of the ship, waving goodbye to Piltover, or whispering their goodbyes to Zaun. But Jayce carried Viktoria to the front of the ship, to the darkening sky and endless oceanic horizon. 

As soon as she was sure it was just the two of them, Jayce took Viktoria in her hands, holding her partner above the safety railing so she could take in the view. 

“When we land, I’ll find a blacksmith. They shouldn’t be too hard to come by. I’ll get the pieces I need, V, I promise.” She tilted her head, smiling down at the impossible engine of life and the arcane in her hands. “Do you want to work on the design while we wait?” 

Viktoria spun in her hands, gentle and slow, keeping the electricity that bounced between her faces to a minimum. 

Jayce smiled, holding Viktoria close to her coat as she ushered them back inside. 

She was taking that as a yes.