The 'glorious evolution'. Oh, what a joke.

Nothing about what Viktor did was glorious. He almost destroyed the world, for Janna's sake--tried to change everyone into mindless puppets under the pretense that it would make humanity better, tried to kill people that had been his friends, and worst of all, he had hurt you so, so much.

And the Arcane had sent him back, after all of that. The Arcane had sent him back to the past, maybe in a whole other timeline, probably to make him fix everything that he did wrong. To try and make him save the world that he would end up trying to destroy. But none of that was on his mind.

The hallways of the academy were eerily familiar, save for a portrait here or a table there. So, probably an alternate timeline, Viktor thought to himself grimly, steeling himself. You'd probably be different here, then. Maybe you'd dress differently, maybe you wouldn't like him as much. You weren't his you. But you'd still be you.

His new body, the magic drumming through his veins made his step much faster than you would have ever seen it, feet barely landing on the ground as he made his way down the hallway to find you.

He burst through the door of the lab, the emotions hitting him all at once as he saw you sitting at your desk, your brow furrowing slightly in confusion as your gaze landed on him. It wasn't hard to understand why you were confused. He looked older than the him you knew, he supposed. More worn. Sadder.

"It's... it's you." Viktor breathed out, taking a shaky step forward to cup your confused face in his hands. "After everything, it's still you."