Chapter Text
Jayce drags himself bodily toward the commune-The place where he must end his best friend's life, because he was a coward who could not allow it to end in peace.
The starry cliffside where the purple dragon has made his den.
The red dragon climbs up the sloped rocks, claws once meticulously filed for politeness now broken and cerated. His lame wing is held tightly to his side and his body feels so much heavier than it used to.
As Jayce finally breaches the cliffs to the flat ground where the commune makes its home another flightless dragon is there to greet him, head low to the ground in submission or maybe curiosity. A pair of artificial wings is tucked to their sides.
"Hello. Are you Jayce Talis?"
"Who's asking?" Jayce growls.
Their eyes glow a shining white, then fade back to brown.
"The Queen has been expecting you. Come with me."
"The queen?"
The other dragon nods and walks calmly into the commune, expecting Jayce to follow. "Our glorious Queen gave us all that we have. He has healed us, given us a home, and a purpose. Soon he will bring so much more into this world," They say reverently.
Queen? Has Viktor appointed himself some kind of royalty? The mage didn't tell Jayce anything about that. And why a queen?
"He rests within the inner sanctum. There are no followers of our glorious Queen within. Will you be frightened by his majesty if you are alone with him?" They ask as they point a dull claw at the massive sphere at the heart of the commune.
"No. I...Won't be afraid..." Jayce replies.
He knows what awful deed he must commit and he has promised.
"Tread carefully," The dragon nods.
Jayce nods in return and walks in.
At first he doesn't exactly understand what he's looking at. The walls are nothing but endless honeycomb like cubby holes, some filled nearly to the brim with massive shining pearls, but most completely empty.
It's not like Viktor to keep a hoard, especially not one so selective of such a rare object.
He ventures further and finds Viktor, but not as he thought he would.
Viktor is thrice the size he was before Jayce fused him with the hex core, but that's nothing new to Jayce, nor are the beautiful, shimmering wings.
What's completely unexpected is that rather than a towering, quietly malevolent beast radiating magic and burning with pure power, Viktor is lain across multiple cushions to accommodate his massive, egg bound belly, stretched so thin with eggs that Jayce can see each shiny white pearl suspended in the corrupted purple and pink glow of his womb. They look exactly like the hundreds already stored in the walls.
The mage didn’t warn him about this.
"Jayce," Viktor says, lifting his head from his pillows but not making any extra efforts to move. It occurs to Jayce that he probably can't. "I have missed you."
The tip of the purple dragon's tail wiggles happily and he closes his eyes as he leans toward Jayce, stretching his neck to embrace him.
Jayce backs away instinctively.
Viktor finds nothing but air and opens his eyes. If any other time Jayce would think he looked hurt.
”I saw what happened...With Salo,” Viktor comments.
Jayce growls softly. This is what he was expecting, this is what he prepared himself for-
"I can't blame you. I thought of all the times he was needlessly cruel to us as well. How much he made others suffer for his own gain." Viktor admits. "But the way you devoured him was..." He closes his eyes.
He can't even stand to look at me.
No matter what Jayce promised, he does feel ashamed of frightening what little of his friend is trapped within this body Jayce forced him into, but...But maybe that means there's enough of him in there to be saved.
”Titillating,” Viktor settles on.
Or not-
"Come here, rest beside me." Viktor orders.
Jayce walks in a wide circle around the dragon's nest, wary. This has to be some kind of trick. Viktor cannot be serious.
"You must still be quite full, aren't you?" Viktor nudges Jayce into the nest with his chin. "I should have thought of that. Does Salo make a better meal than a councilor?"
Jayce huffs a puff of smoke. He can't do his original plan, he just can't-Ending his best friend for the greater good is one thing, but ending his best friend while he's so, so excessively pregnant that there's no chance he could defend himself is too far even after what he's been through.
"Let us enjoy our burdens together, yes?" The purple dragon pants the empty space in his nest.
Viktor has invited Jayce into his nest twice, and that's already very...Forward. It's even more forward while he's so heavy with brood that he's rendered his limbs irrelevant to moving his own weight.
Jayce warms and takes a few hesitant steps onto the cushions. ”You’re…Expecting.” Jayce says. It’s definitely not in question.
"How did you figure that out?" Viktor snorts, leaning to give his belly a few affectionate licks.
Jayce stares as the dragon's tongue swipes over the skin, so taunt it may as well be see through.
Viktor pauses and tilts his head to look at Jayce. "Out with it."
”W-Who-..."
"Yes?"
"Who's eggs are they?"
"Mine."
"Yes, obviously!" Jayce snarls. "I meant-"
“Ah, I see.” Viktor exhales a puff of mist and looks at Jayce with a new, unreadable expression on his face.
”You do?”
"Have you become jealous, Jayce? Don't worry. The eggs are mine, and mine alone."
That releases tension from Jayce that he didn’t realize he was holding.
Viktor smiles, almost smugly.
"Would you have liked them to be yours?" Viktor purrs deeply, leaning to lick the swell of his womb some more.
Jayce stares at the stretched expanse of it, the sight of his partner in a den he dug, bred so thoroughly in a nest he made for Jayce's brood is easier to impose over the reality of him. It kindles something in his belly that was snuffed out when Viktor died.
”If there’s no father, how-“
"I do not know." Viktor replies calmly. "They just...Come to me. None of them have hatched yet and I'm unwilling to break open the shells of my potential young in the pursuit of learning what they are. In the time you’ve been gone I’ve lain…600, give or take ten or 20? Around a hundred a month.”
Jayce double takes in surprise.
Viktor uses the movement to nudge Jayce into the space beside his belly with his tail.
Jayce's chin lands on his ribs, nearly onto his egg packed womb.
Viktor doesn't seem to mind. He licks his snout. "My, your body is certainly putting Salo to good use," Viktor says, eying the remains of the councilor, sealed tight in Jayce's stomach against his starved frame. None will be wasted with as starved as Jayce is. "If I must choose, I rather like the idea of Salo becoming the meat that revitalizes you than having to return him to his council seat,"
He digs the tip of his snout into the firm spots of Jayce's underbelly, his nostrils flaring as he purrs so deeply the thrum crawls up Jayce's legs and tail.
The red dragon's stomach gurgles in response to the prodding and the purple shudders in pleasure.
"This close I can feel your body, Jayce," A warm tongue drags slowly against Jayce's chest, working its way down. "I can feel it as it so masterfully breaks the wyrm apart for all he was good for. Are you making him into nutrients for me? Mandating he contribute to society by making my partner stronger and fatter?"
Viktor presses a talon into Jayce's stomach, the body of the dragon inside crumbling as bones crunch and sinew rips beneath effortless force.
”I simply must feed you more,” Viktor purrs. “Stuff your needy body until you are in your prime once more, until you are fit to stay by my side for eons to come, until you are satisfied…”
Jayce tries to lean away but Viktor curls his tail around his hind legs.
"What a perfect consort you will be once I find them for you," Viktor nuzzles Jayce's neck and braces himself on his foreleg to cup Jayce's tummy with his other hand, feeling the large lumps of flesh and bone yet to be digested. "There is a glut of prey to fatten you with, those who can serve the world better as the rolls that will pad your belly,"
Jayce warms furiously and lays down, even if just to revoke access to his stomach and stop Viktor from doing...Whatever this is.
"Oh. Of course, you must be tired. How cruel of me," Viktor croons. "Walking all the way here with another dragon..."
The purple dragon rests his head on Jayce's back, as close to cuddling as they can get with his womb so...Apparent.
"Sleep, my precious Jayce...We will talk in the morning..."
Jayce returns the gesture, laying his head on Viktor's shoulder.
He allows Viktor's purring to drag him into sleep, exhausted.