Viktor wakes up on a seemingly empty field.
Immediately, he sits up and touches his chest looking for a heartbeat. When he finds it, he frowns, unsure about what it means. Then he notices his hands: pale and scarred from one too many mistakes in the lab, but his own hands. If he looks carefully, there's a purple sheen to them that is reminiscent of the Hexcore.
It sinks then that everything that happened was real.
His head hurts with the weight of the knowledge of the universe he had a glimpse of, it hurts with the knowledge of what he did to his beloved city. A sob escapes his throat as everything crashes down on him: the people he tried to save, those he killed, the destruction he leveled on the city that gave him everything. His shoulders shake with violent crying when he remember them. Mel. Jayce.
He cries, he grabs fistfuls of grass and rips them off the ground, he punches the dirt beneath him with enough strength to rattle an entire planet. He cries until his throat is hoarse and his body is spent, until there's no more tears left to cry. He wants to sink into the ground and let the elements take his body. He deserves it. Wherever he is, it means he survived while everything else he loved perished.
His empty stare is lost in the horizon while blood dries on his knuckles and a drop of sweat runs down his neck. Then he hears a voice calling out his name, as improbable as his own survival.
"Viktor!" the voice calls, coming closer.
He knows he's completely lost his mind when a second voice joins the first one, softer but just as surprised and desperate as the first one.
Out of the corner of his eye, a shadow takes the shape of a woman who loved him once but who cannot love him anymore, not after everything he's done. Behind her, the man who brought them together struggles to catch up.
When Mel's hand touches his shoulder, a shiver runs down his back. His eyes immediately go to her face, filled with worry and unease.
"Viktor?" she tries again, a frown appearing on her face.
Stunned, Viktor tries to find his voice but nothing comes out when he opens his mouth.
"What's wrong?" Jayce asks, but the words are directed at Mel, not him.
"I don't know," she says, without taking her eyes off him. "Viktor, come on. Say something."
After the longest minute of his life, all he manages to croak is a meager "what?"
Jayce walks around Mel to crouch by his other side, entering his field of vision with a concerned look on his face.
"Viktor, you're okay. You're safe now," the man reassures him, he takes one of his hands and frowns at the bloodied knuckles. "What happened?"
Mel puts her hand on top of Viktor's, a soft caress that Viktor does not deserve. It's enough to spur him into action. He takes his hand away, cradling it to his chest, and says "I've completely lost my mind."
The hint of a smile breaks on Mel's face. "You wish you could get rid of us that easily."
Her lighthearted tone breaks through the fog in his mind and he folds into himself, sagging to the side. Mel catches him and wraps her arms around him without hesitation, rocking him slightly. Viktor realizes he's crying against her shoulder, mumbling apologies that get lost between sobs. Suddenly, another set of arms wraps around both of them, holding them together in their shared sorrow.
Eventually, the sobs subside until all there is between them is silence. Jayce pulls back and sits next to him, grabbing his wounded hand, while Mel sits back on her thighs, her hand on Viktor's.
"What's going on?" he asks finally, his voice hoarse.
"I wish I could explain it, but I don't think I can," Jayce says, using his sleeve to clean Viktor's knuckles. "I thought it was all over. I was ready for it to be over."
"You may have been ready," Mel says, "but neither of you thought how that would make me feel, did you?"
"It was over." Viktor's voice trembles when he says so. "There was a flash, then there was nothing."
With a sigh, Mel says "you're right, it was over. You were gone. Both of you. And I was left alone to go back to a country that exiled me when I was still a child. Do you think the people of Noxus welcomed me with open arms when they found out I killed their best general? I left before the sun set that first day back.
"It turns out my magic is quite unique and some people wanted it for themselves, so I had to fight. During one of those fights, I encountered a necromancer. See, my power reflects those of others and when the necromancer used his, I could use it myself. I didn't know what I was doing, but I knew that I needed my men to fight by my side, to take a stand with me one last time."
A soft breeze blows through the space between them as Mel gathers her thoughts. When she continues, she sounds tired. "I don't know how I stopped the necromancer, but when I was alone I felt a pull. I walked for days until I found Jayce. We've been trying to reach you for two days."
Viktor frowns. "I just woke up. Today. I'm sure I would remember the days passing."
"I was unconscious when Mel found me," Jayce says. "Maybe you were unconscious for a while as well."
After a moment, Viktor speaks again. "I was dead."
Mel hums in agreement.
"I killed people."
Jayce sighs. "You weren't yourself."
"But I was."
"It's no good dwelling on that," Mel says. "What's done is done."
"Your mother is dead because of me," Viktor counters. "Innocent people died and I'm responsible for that."
"You didn't make my mother invade Piltover. She chose that path on her own. I warned her that if she followed that path, I would not follow. She made her choices and she paid for them."
"But—"
"I don't want to talk about my mother anymore," she says. "One day I'll forgive her for everything she hid from me, and maybe that day I'll mourn her properly. Now I need to know I'm not alone."
"You're not," Jayce says immediately. "If you can find it in your heart to forgive me for my part in creating Hextech and the mess that came after, I'll be by your side for as long as I live."
Mel looks at Jayce with a soft smile. She reaches out to touch his bearded cheek, her fingertips shimmering in gold.
"Jayce, if I ever blamed you, that time is long past. Do you think I would have called you from the dead when I was about to die if I was still mad at you?"
Jayce lowers his head sheepishly, leaning into her touch. Viktor watches the scene unfold in front of him and feels a pang of guilt in his chest.
Mel turns back to look at him. "Viktor?"
"I don't deserve this. Forgiveness. Second chances, none of it."
It's true, he doesn't. He should be put on trial, killed in front of the families of the victims. An example should be made out of him. The last thing he deserves is a chance to be with the people he loves the most.
"Maybe. Maybe not. I'm giving it to you anyway," Mel says.
"But—"
"Come on, Viktor," Jayce interrupts. "What happened to 'together or not at all'?"
Suddenly, Viktor is reminded of a night many months ago, before the war, before the Hexcore transformed him, before the attack on the council: the night when Mel told him you two are so good to me, the night Jayce found them lounging on the sofa, sharing stories of their rough childhood over a bottle of wine.
"You didn't wait for me tonight?" he asked, hurt slipping into his voice.
"General Medarda had things to share with Mel that she didn't agree on," Viktor replied. "I had to intervene before a painting suffered for it."
"Come on, Jayce. Don't pout," Mel said when she saw him do just that. "Come sit with us."
Jayce did so, slumping on the sofa as exhaustion weighed him down. "The Council—"
"Shhh," interrupted Mel. "No talk of work right now."
"But—"
"No buts. Just relax for a moment," Viktor said.
Jayce looked at them with a small frown. "Since when are you two scheming together?"
Viktor and Mel looked at each other. "We're not scheming," she said.
"Maybe not. But something's changed."
"Perhaps," Viktor added. Then he took Mel's hand in his own, bringing it to his lips and kissing it softly. "We've come to realize we've got more in common than loving you."
Jayce's face brightened. "I knew it! I knew you two would hit it off." After a moment, his face fell. "Wait, does that mean…?"
When Jayce didn't continue, Mel prompted "what?"
"Does that mean you two don't need me here anymore?"
Viktor leaned forward so he could look directly at Jayce's face. "Don't be a fool, Jayce. It's together or not at all."
His chest feels as if Jayce is trying to kill him all over again. It seems as if a whole eternity has passed since that night in Mel's studio, yet one thing has not changed: he still feels that something that pulled him to say those words that night. It makes his chest hurt, but underneath it all he feels overwhelming relief.
He still feels the same love that made him hold onto his last thread when he was dying, the same love that made him believe in a better, brighter future. Maybe he's not the same person he was back then, but if something remains unchanged, maybe it means he still has some humanity left.
Viktor looks up at Jayce and Mel, both wearing identical hopeful expressions. He notices Jayce has moved one of his hands on top of Mel's and, with an immense effort, Viktor drags his hand on top of both and says "together or not at all."