"You know that feeling, when your skin crawls? Like a thousand needles poking through every pore? Blood pounding through every vein? …That's just an itch, compared to what lives on me."~ Kai'sa, The Daughter of the Void
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vander swung his claws trying to catch Rictus and send him flying out.
Rictus let go of the glaive and dropped to the ground, reaching near his hips he grabbed a dagger wrapped in anti-magic runes and drove it into Vander.
Vander roared in pain before dropping the glaive and slamming both arms into Rictus. Rictus kicked off the monster's torso and rolled to his feet.
BUDEEWW
A bolt of blue shot toward him.
He raised the dagger in front of him and the bolt collided with it and fizzled out. The anti-magic runes glowed a bright green in response to the attack.
Rictus spotted Jinx's pistol pointed at him and then at everyone else in the room.
This would be hard to survive.
He smirked as he understood what this meant. His life was coming to an end. He held the dagger out in front of him, he wouldn't go down without a fight.
Rushing toward Vander, he leapt over the fist claw and then threw the dagger and Jinx.
PING
It hit her pistol and both dropped to the ground.
In the same movement, he landed back on the ground and kicked up his glaive. Catching it with his hand he swung it in a wide arc, cutting into Vander's body.
Vander let out a high pitched whine as he stumbled back.
Caitlin rushed in with her broken gun and swung it at Rictus. He raised his glaive to block it. As he did, Vi rushed from behind him and kicked him in the back of the knee. He lost his balance and stumbled. One of his hands leaving his glaive and holding himself from fully falling to the ground.
"ARGH!" Jinx yelled as she slammed her knee into his face, her eyes glowing purple.
Rictus was launched backward and into the metal frames holding up the glass walls.
Vander launched himself at Rictus and began mauling him with his claws, the canisters on his back pumping red liquid through him.
SWIPE
SWIPE
SWIPE
SWIPE
Blood erupted from him like a fountain.
Rictus's eyes lost their light as he died from the attacks.
"Vander stop!" Vi yelled as she tried to pull him back.
He didn't budge.
Jinx and Caitlin joined in.
Vander spun around and roared at them, his eyes bloodshot from the violence.
"Vander..." Jinx held out her hand.
He looked down at her arm and then past her at the horrified expression on Isha. Clarity returned to his mind as he looked back at the dead body.
ROARRRR
He roared once more before leaping out of the greenhouse and running toward the incoming army.
-x-
"What happened there?" Faye asked aloud as the explosion and the burst of air rippled past them.
Briar focused, her eyes naturally better than theirs, "The sphere. It happened there."
"The Noxians made it that far?" Daisy asked.
The people around them stared to fall. All of them losing consciousness like puppets with their strings cut.
Sydell bent down and placed a finger on the nearest person's throat. After a few seconds he moved onto the next person.
"The metal around us feels normal now." Rell muttered, "Viktor's magic.... that Arcane..... its gone."
"He is dead." Annie spoke.
The group turned to her.
"Tibbers said so." Annie said, "He feels more comfortable now."
Sydell looked up, "They are dead too. His magic. It must have tied their lives to his. Him dying created this chain reaction."
"What do we do now then?" Daani asked.
Briar pointed to the greenhouse, "Lets go get them and get out of here."
The group began running to the greenhouse.
CRASHH
The glass in the greenhouse shattered as Vander broke out and began running to the center.
The group stopped and stared at Vander and then to the others emerging from the greenhouse.
Both groups made eye contact.
"We have to stop him." Vi yelled.
"Rell." Sydell muttered. He frowned as he considered the fact that Vander was alive despite being tended to by Viktor's magic.
She nodded, as she let her magic flow.
The metal in Vander's body listened to her as his body began to float into the sky and return back to them.
In the distance, two figures came running toward them.
"What is that?" Jayce asked as he spotted a struggling Vander being pulled back.
Mel looked at the two groups, "Allies." She rushed to join them.
"Viktor is dead." Mel said as she looked at the group, "The army is closing in."
Jinx and Vi immediately found each others eyes and then Vander's.
The cure was now gone. Their father would remain this way forever.
"How?" Sydell asked frowning.
Mel turned to him, "I don't know. I found him dead when I got there." Determined to keep Jayce's involvement a secret.
"Why did you go?" He asked.
"He called me, talked through one of the people." Mel said as she pointed behind them but an expression of shock came over her, "Wha... what happened to them?" The people they were intent on saving were all on the floor.
"Died with Viktor." Sydell answered, "His magic. Connected them together." His eyes widened as he brought a palm to his face, "His magic...."
"What is it?" Daani asked.
"I thought that its coloration looked familiar. It looked closer to that." He pointed to Jayce's hammer. "Wait who are you?" He asked.
Caitlin squinted at him and her eyes widened, "Jayce?" Vi spun around focusing on the man with a panicked expression, "Jayce?"
He faced the two, "Caitlin. Vi."
"The man who invented Hextechalongside Viktor." Sydell murmured.
"What happened to you?" Caitlin asked as she rushed to hug him.
Jayce caught her and hugged her back.
"Answer this first Jayce." Sydell interrupted their reunion, "That weapon of yours. Did you make it?"
He shook his head, "I got it. From the future."
"The future?" Caitlin asked.
"The Hextech.... it glitched. I don't know when but it sent me, the professor and this boy from Zaun, Ekko, to the future." He held out his hammer as Sydell began to examine it.
"Little man?" Vi asked, "Ekko? What happened to him?"
"You knew him?" He asked, before falling to his knees and clutching his head, a moment later he continued, "I was the only one in that particular time I don't know about the others but I found a way to return."
"And kill Viktor." Sydell finished.
Jayce looked up at him, in shock.
"It was obvious, especially from what we know." Sydell said, he turned to the rest, "Remember what my father and Janna said? About Hextech?"
They nodded.
But Mel and Jayce looked confused, "Janna?"
"Goddess. Spirit of the Wind." Faye replied.
"Stories." Jayce grunted.
Pointing at Caitlin, Sydell said, "She saw her."
Caitlin nodded solemnly.
"Hextechresembles something. The Void. Endless consumption and corruption of all things. Viktor said that everything his magic touches becomes an extension of himself. we saw a trace of it when we were younger." He explained.
Faye frowned, "When?"
"When we stayed at that abandoned village on our way to Rakelstake." He said, "Our father left us inside and talked to Caalyx remember? My spider was following them. I heard a part of their conversation. Only dad's part. Caalyx was not whole then."
Sydell continued, "But that is what the Voidis. Corruption. With his dying... everyone connected to Viktor also began to die." He looked at the struggling Vander, "My question is... how is he not dead yet?"
As if waiting for his words, Vander's body began to spasm.
"What's happening to him?" Vi yelled as she ran close.
Faye swung her hand pulling VI toward them, "Don't!" She yelled.
Vander's body began to glow red. Fingerprints where Viktor touched began taking on the shade of molten metal. His eyes started to drip molten metal out of them. The metallic parts of his body heating up to impossible temperatures and they began to melt.