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When Jayce entered the dome the high pitched, earsplitting, skull shattering ringing noise finally died down. In its wake there was a silence even more deafening, leaving him twitchy and disoriented by the sounds of his own footsteps. They echoed softly, intertwining with the unexplained, otherworldly twinkling noises that drifted over to him from somewhere far beyond these walls. Soft. Treacherous. Like the light filtering into the dome. Reminding him of the first, pale rays of morning sun through sheer curtains.
But the sun did not reach them here.
Amidst it all there was Viktor, hovering before him, remade body draped in deep blue. Magic feeding into him - or feeding off of him? - connecting him to something far larger, far greater, far more terrible, than either of them could have ever hoped to comprehend. But he did not seem terrified. Jayce had never seen him this serene and at ease. Or maybe he had, once, not too long ago. Though it felt as if lifetimes had passed since then.
Viktor was never quite as soft and beautiful as when he was about to die.
Resolve was a heavy weight on Jayce's mind, a sticky sensation on his palms as he gripped the Mercury Hammer, shifted his body. Tapping into the condensed magical energy now embedded in his wrist was not a conscious decision. Still it awakened. Powered up the weapon in his hands, forcing him to broaden his stance as it unfurled, to balance the heft of its shape.
For a split second the ringing shrieked through his mind again and he groaned, knees almost buckling under the weight of his task, but he held steady, lifted the hammer.
Then Viktor opened his eyes, iridescent white and blue, with only flecks of warm gold remaining, and Jayce's heavy, sticky resolve creaked and splintered and shattered.
He gasped, throat tight, not allowing enough air to pass into his lungs, and staggered backwards, convulsing. He had no recollection of releasing his weapon but the clatter of weighted metal hitting the ground still rang through the air, dissonant, contorted.
He squeezed his eyes shut, curling in on himself to grip his head in both hands as a wild, raspy scream tore its way up his throat. Images flashing before his eyes, twisted, terrible, all consuming.
The visions died down as quickly as they had started tormenting him and when he looked up again, shaking and gasping, Viktor was standing before him. Smiling in that serene way that made Jayce's skin crawl.
His Viktor never smiled like that. He smirked when making a snide comment, he grinned as he teased Jayce. Sometimes, if Jayce was lucky, he guffawed at a dumb joke, honest and unabashed, with his eyes crinkling and his teeth bared. But in all the years they've known and loved each other Jayce had never seen him smile like this. Lips soft. Eyes dead.
"Jayce", he breathed and even his voice sounded wrong, too smooth. Too kind. "You really came. I am glad."
Sparing not a single gaze at the weapon by their feet Viktor stepped forward, arms open, palms facing upward. He looked ... beautiful. Healthy. Young and strong, like the day they met. But there was no defiant glint in his eyes, no challenge sparking in his smile. It made Jayce ache more than the purple metal swirling down his arms and torso did. He could have lived with that, could have loved this new body for saving Viktor's live. But instead it had taken him from Jayce.
"What do you think of the commune? Did you see how happy everyone is?"
Images, again. Of serene, smiling faces warping into monstrosities beyond comprehension. Of creatures pursuing him, hunting him, torturing and devouring him, over and over and over again.
Jayce winced, glanced down at his weapon, up at Viktor. Beautiful, healthy. Distant.
Once again it was not a decision. He simply found himself surging forward, reaching, desperate and hurting, for the only thing that could ever anchor him. That could guide him through any storm. And if that person was hidden away right now, Jayce had no choice but to search for him.
Viktor's cheeks and neck were cold under his fingers, cold and unyielding as he cradled them, steadying them both as he pressed their lips together. Hungry, helpless. He kissed Viktor with all the fervour burning inside him, all the longing and grief twisting his insides. The panic scorching his throat. The greed writhing in his stomach.
Viktor remained perfectly still against him for a long while. Allowing Jayce to devour him with barely more than a kind smile against his needy lips. It was only when Jayce pressed closer, hands wandering to wrap his arms around Viktor's shoulder and hips, pressing their bodies together, heated flesh against cool metal, that Viktor showed any reaction at all.
His hands were the first to move, gliding across Jayce's stained and torn clothes, along his broad and heaving shoulders and even higher. One of them, blessedly cool and endlessly gentle, came to cradle the back of his sweaty neck. The other slid even further, elegant fingers scratching along his scalp and winding into long, tangled hair. The simple touch sent a shiver racing across Jayce's neck and down his back.
Jayce moaned, low and needy, delighted by the touch and the reaction, any reaction, to his helpless clawing.
Then Viktor's body and lips began to press back and Jayce felt such relief he could have cried. As it were he only bit back a wavering sob before pushing for more, parting Viktor's willing lips to press his tongue deep into his partner's mouth. Viktor accepted it without as much as a flinch, meeting it with his own. Other than most of his body the inside of his mouth was soft and slick and warm. Not quite as warm as Jayce remembered but maybe that was just his mind playing tricks on him. It was one of the kinder ones.
He almost tasted the way Jayce remembered as well, of cinnamon and cloves, only that now there was an underlying sizzle, electricity and ozone prickling on his tongue as he rubbed it against Viktor's.
When they parted Jayce was gasping, heavy and breathless, pressing Viktor against his body as if he feared for him to disappear. There was still that infuriating serenity in iridescent eyes as they looked at each other and Jayce swallowed, steeling his resolve. He would find his Viktor again, amidst the reserved kindness and sweet, fake smiles. Amidst the nightmare visions of terrible futures and past mistakes.
Taking a step back he finally allowed his trembling knees to buckle and moved to sit on the ground, legs crossed, arms reaching up and tugging on cool, firm hands. Viktor, with the same choice to resist he always had, allowed Jayce to guide him. His head cocked aside curiously as he came to straddle Jayce's lap. Falling back into an intimacy his new body seemed both familiar with yet unaccustomed to. He was heavy in Jayce's lap. Heavy and unyielding, but Jayce still pulled him close, wrapping both arms around him.
"What are you doing?", Viktor asked, voice quiet and lilting as he studied Jayce's face. First with detached, benevolent interest, contemplating his eyes, the new wrinkles and scars. The smudges of dirt and grime. The thick, unkempt beard. Jayce felt himself tremble under so much scrutiny, suddenly aware of the way he must look. But if there was any chance of reaching Viktor by letting him look his fill, he would let him do so for however long it took.
Finally, after an endless silence, Viktor lifted a hand to trace a cool finger along Jayce's cheek, curving up to rub along his crow's feet, then down to scratch through his beard. A gesture of curiosity and fondness that had Jayce's heart thump against his ribs with foolish hope.
"Jayce...", he whispered, hand stilling where it cupped his jaw. "What happened to you?"
You, too, have touched the Arcane. Your mind suffered.
Flashes of nightmares beyond comprehension danced behind Jayce's eyes and he flinched away for a moment, grunting with not quite pain, not quite panic.
Then it was over again and he looked back up into iridescent eyes flecked with gold, widened just slightly.
"I'm here now", he forced out, voice still pressed and breathless, before nuzzling his face back into Viktor's cold palm. "Viktor, I..." He was not sure what to say, grasping for the right words that eluded him again and again. This time though it was Viktor who leaned down, who brushed their lips together. Gentle, at first, then more insistent as Jayce met them with fervour.
The hand that had been cradling his jaw with gentle curiosity now gripped it tightly, pulling him up and forward into the kiss, while the other hand trailed across his shoulder and down his back to fist in his ruined jacket. Groaning into the kiss Jayce allowed his hands to wander as well, one arm wrapping around Viktor's waist while the other reached down to unceremoniously grab his ass and haul him closer. Viktor gasped into his mouth, a muted noise of surprise and delight, before licking behind his teeth again, pressing close.
The swell of his partner's ass was nearly the same, small and pert in Jayce's hand. But of course it felt different, firm and unyielding underneath the blanket. Jayce's blanket.
The longing simmer just underneath his skin ignited into a powerful, burning greed licking through his veins. He wanted, needed to be with Viktor. To feel him close, closer than this, to look into his eyes and see him there. And with how Viktor had studied and touched and now kissed him ... Jayce felt like they were close, so close, to being reunited.
He squeezed Viktor's ass again, wholly unsatisfied with how firm and unforgiving it was, and rocked his partner closer. Right against the hardness straining in his trousers. His body was yearning, almost as much as his mind, for Viktor. There was no need to deny or hide it. Not with the low rumble of interest Viktor let out as he felt the straining length.
"You're here now", he agreed, wasting no time reaching down and unfastening the patched belt. Maybe Jayce was imagining things but Viktor's voice sounded less calm by now, a subtle heat tainting the delicate lilt of his accent. "I'm so glad you came." Breathy, more honest than before.
Jayce jumped at the cool touch of metal fingers as they reached inside to wrap around his cock. Practised, familiar with its shape and weight, Viktor gave him a few skilled strokes before pulling him free.
If things were different Jayce would have loved to take his time. To lay Viktor out along soft sheets and explore every swell and dip, every curve and angle of his marvelous, reshaped body. To nuzzle and kiss and lick until he had relearned every inch, committed even the slightest change to memory.
As it was though Viktor was already gathering the blue fabric draped around his hips. Scooting forward. Sinking down, down, down.
Jayce cried out as his pulsing length was engulfed. Tight, wet. Cold.
He did not know what he had expected but it certainly was not this. From the few glances he had stolen back at their lab it had seemed like the Hexcore had rebuilt Viktor without any visible reproductive organs. Smooth like a doll, a vessel to use.
Apparently he had been mistaken.
His mind was still reeling, body twitching and gasping for air as he tried to wrap his head around this revelation, when he looked up.
There it was. A smirk. Crooked with just a few teeth showing.
"Surprise", Viktor teased, not giving Jayce any time to process what was going on when he already rocked his hips. It was a strange sensation, new and different, but still good. Still so incredibly good.
Looking up at his partner, smirking, rolling his hips in that same, teasing grind he liked when he was on top, Jayce could not help but let out a hoarse laugh of relief.
"Viktor", he grinned and his hands found firm hips, gently supporting their steady movement, even though he was sure it was not needed in the way it once had been. As he looked up at that sure smirk, that trace of mischief in blue-white-gold iridescence, Jayce felt a prickling and burning in his eyes. Relief and longing blurring his vision. Hope. Love. Fear.
He blinked the mist away and instead strained upwards, begging wordlessly for another kiss. Viktor obliged.
They kissed and moved together, pressing against another as close as they could. Tongues brushing. Fingers reaching, grabbing, intertwining. Hips picking up speed, greedy and desperate.
The smack of skin against metal rattled Jayce's bones but he could not stop, did not ever want to stop feeling Viktor like this. Being close to him again after an eternity apart.
At one point Viktor grabbed him by the shoulders, pushed him back and over until Jayce hit the ground and Viktor hovered above him. Still moving. Brown and white-blond hair falling over his shoulders, swinging back and forth with each smooth rocking motion of his hips. The otherworldly light illuminated him from behind, painted shimmering halos into the air around his head.
"Jayce", he whispered, the name like a prayer on his lips. Then again. And again. "Jayce, Jayce..." Gentle moans bleeding into stuttered pleas. Soft and yearning at first, then growing more pressing, more desperate.
"I know why you came", he finally choked out and before Viktor could finish the thought Jayce already knew where this would be going. His blood ran cold in his veins, icy spikes of terror shooting down his spine.
"No...", he gasped but Viktor only smiled. This time sad, honest.
"You have to do it. You promised."
As he spoke the rhythm of his hips slowed down again, body moving in smooth, sensual rolls to take Jayce deep inside. Squeezing around him, tight and wet and perfect, in the most delicious ways. Jayce met him halfway, sinking into Viktor's body, filling him, over and over. Viktor looked so beautiful moving above him, his strange new body felt so enchanting, Jayce lost track of their conversation for a few wonderful moments.
Then Viktor entwined their fingers, tugging one of his hands upwards, gliding across the smooth planes of his abdomen and chest, all the way up, to his neck. He very gently and deliberately splayed Jayce's palm against his throat, pushing his fingers to wrap around it. His neck was still delicate enough for Jayce's fingers to span around more than half of it.
It should have been solid metal, just like the rest of his body, but with the way Viktor had placed his fingers Jayce could feel a few dips where the material gave way to his touch, a few spots that were soft, malleable. Vulnerable. Where maybe the transformation was still incomplete.
"Like this", Viktor breathed, voice hitching with their joint movements. "I want you inside me. With your hands on me."
"Viktor, that's insane..."
"The Hexcore won't let me go", Viktor pushed on, calm but for the way his voice wavered with the rhythm of their bodies. "You have to destroy it. After."
Glancing over at the Mercury Hammer for the first time he grabbed Jayce's other hand, pulling it to splay against his chest, tan fingers fanning out wide across the expanse of what had once been his bony ribcage.
"Please." Then, after the span of a breath: "Swear it."
Jayce's vision blurred, soft iridescence bleeding out as it was swallowed by darkness, Viktor's beautiful, expressive face overtaken by something hollow and haunting. Cold and unforgiving. A voice echoed between his ears, low, distorted. A plea, just like the one Viktor had uttered now. A promise he had already once given and broken, repeated over endless lifetimes, endless chances, endless possibilities.
Failure.
Each and every time Jayce had failed and brought destruction upon all of them.
When he came back Viktor's body had stilled above him, his head bowed low to press his forehead against Jayce's, eyes closed and lips parted.
"Swear it", he whispered again, weak and pleading, pressing Jayce's wide hands against his own chest and throat. Offering himself up to the only path still left for them to tread together.
Jayce saw it now, too.
This time when his eyes started burning and his vision blurred he did not blink away the tears. Instead he let them rise and spill over, allowing them to leave hot tracks along his temples.
The hand that had been pressed against Viktor's chest shifted to find the back of his head instead, pulling him close for a slow, lingering kiss. Viktor returned it with the softest noise at the back of his throat. Hope and trust and grief.
When they parted gold flecked eyes fluttered open again, patient. Trusting.
"I swear it", Jayce finally whispered back and the sheer relief on his partner's face almost made his resolve waver again. But he had made that promise more than once now. He had to finally keep it.
Rolling them over took more strength than Jayce was used to and he only succeeded because Viktor let him. Because he grew soft and pliant at Jayce's touch, giving himself over with absolute, terrifying finality.
Long, slender legs wrapped around Jayce's waist, strong and insistent. Pulling him closer, keeping him inside.
"Like this", Viktor nodded, baring his throat for Jayce's hand as strong fingers wrapped around it more firmly, searching the vulnerable spots his partner had shown him.
Hot tears dripped onto Viktor's cheeks as Jayce began to move inside him again, slow but with intent. Burying himself deep, joining them as one.
Viktor gasped, writhing underneath him, pushing himself up into the thrusts, up into the fingers closing around his throat.
White hot grief twisting his insides Jayce snarled, sped up his pace. Lifted his other hand to wrap it around Viktor's neck as well, slowly increasing the pressure.
"Thank you", Viktor choked out, voice more and more strangled. "Thank you, my Jayce..."
A wretched sob, clawing up from deep within his chest. Viktor's eyes, blurry through the sheen of tears, flickering and crossing. A violent twitch of his gorgeous new body as Jayce squeezed the life out of him.
Viktor's spasming muscles pulling tight around Jayce, luring him closer to the edge.
Something in Viktor's neck popped and splintered under the pressure yet the hands coming up to touch Jayce were gentle, grateful, as they dragged along his trembling arms. Fingers tangling in tousled hair to coax him down into another shivering kiss that was broken by a wet and strangled cry, a wild, helpless, desperate snarl.
Despite it all Jayce did not stop, did not let go.
"I won't fail you", he promised, his voice nearly breaking. "I swear it."
Viktor pulled tight around him again at the words, back bowing and body convulsing like it only ever had at the very height of his pleasure. He took Jayce with him, over that final edge, sobbing and snarling.
When it was all over Jayce gathered Viktor's lifeless body up in his arms, draping the soft, blue blanket over him as if to keep him warm. And he cried. Wretched and howling, until his throat was raw and his head pounding. Pressing kisses into Viktor's soft hair. Against his high cheekbones. Onto his closed eyelids.
Shaking and sobbing and whispering promises.
Finally, when his voice was gone and his vision blacking out Jayce lifted his partner's body, pressing it close to his own as he staggered under the new weight of it.
Laid him out against the far wall of the dome, comfortably tucked into the slope of the wall. Spread the blanket over him.
Then, with one last, wavering sigh, Jayce turned to retrieve his weapon. To finally keep his promise.
"I won't fail you, Viktor. I swear it."