(..Pre-Council room explosion: what if they both got trapped in the alt world via the anomaly? Also, I gotta make some magic happy for Viktor to live through this)

Viktor didn't remember much when they got lurched into another world. The magic was corrupted, and when they went to inspect the Hexgates..

Teleportation was a finicky thing, he learned. For one, the Arcane enchanted metal on his hand and leg had flared, glowing as it spread further up. It seered, empowering compared to before. The runes he'd carved previously activated when they arrived, spit out into what looked like a ruined version of Piltover.

Jayce had vomited once they landed, the magic having clearly not taken to him well. Viktor didn't feel the same. They had four things: The Mercury Hammer, Viktor's cane, and the clothes on their back, and each other.

It was a blur when something.. things chased them. He distinctly remembered the way Jayce had made the fast decision of scooping him in his arms, adjusting him in a way that he could drag the hammer - the one weapon they had behind him. Viktor had yelled, telling him to leave - but Jayce had none of it. It wasn't until they started plummeting did they get separated.

The scream that tore from Jayce's throat as something broke in his partner's body was engrained in his memory, even if they both landed unconscious near each other.

It had to have been hours before one of them stirred. A soft pitter patter of rain jolted Viktor from unconsciousness. He was sore, he should've been dead. Breath hitching, he looked at his limbs - the way they pulsed with magic - the purple of his hand and leg spreading to anywhere he could’ve gotten hurt. Healed. It had accepted him.

Looking around, they were in some kind of.. hole. A ravine of sorts. Viktor had to think. Had to focus on surviving: Dripstone provided water, lizards - food, crawled around them with fallen wood. He rubbed at the wet dirt on his face, looking to his partner with horror as he remembered the scream.

That was eight months and fourteen days ago.