Jayce leaned against the wall, panting as he wiped the mix of blood and sweat off of his forehead. The acolytes inside Viktor's lab had given him more trouble than he had expected, even though there had only been five of one way or another, they had been "re-inforced" using Viktor's own hextech augments, which (admittedly) helped them pack quite the punch. He had prevailed, nonetheless, though still he knew he had not quite won yet.
Pushing off of the wall, Jayce took a deep inhale and began his trek to the next room of the lab, and hopefully closer to the Machine Herald himself.
He had not even passed through the door when he felt something quite suddenly-and quite forcefully- latch onto his ankle. He winced as it crushed around his already sore ankle, feeling the bruises forming from under the boots and fabric. Jayce turned to face his snare, feebly shaking his ankle in an attempt to let himself loose.
Staring up at him, to his surprise, was an acolyte-the only one who still showed signs of consciousness. He met her hate filled gaze, and a shudder ran down his spine. She was a frail looking thing, the smallest of the acolytes. Slight of stature with fine silvery hair, she also seemed the youngest-scarcely a breath over 17. Both of her arms and legs had been replaced with hextech artificial limbs,
and thus her small size betrayed her inhuman strength. One of her eyes was swollen shut and veiled by a stream of blood from a gash on her forehead, but the other was still wide and grey and full of the coldest fury Jayce had ever seen.
As he tried more forcefully to shake her off, likewise did her crushing grip constrict around him tighter, the threat of a broken ankle looming over his mind were he to let her continue undisturbed. "You will not succeed.." She whispered hoarsely, her voice resounding with a bitter chill through Jayce. She took several heavy inhales before continuing. "You have defeated us...but you shall not overcome our Master.." The unnatural points of her metal fingertips pierced through the leather of his boots. Roughly, this time, he kicked at her, but she would not relent. "You will fail, and you will perish.." Despite her ruined state, a steadfast conviction seemed to keep her alive. "...And nothing shall halt the Glorious Evolution.."
"Let go of me!" Jayce gasped out as the constriction grew ever tighter, kicking her outright, though she did not falter. "Viktor will be stopped-And as long as I stand, his plans to harm the innocent shall never come to pass." He could have easily ended this with a single blast of his Mercury hammer, but guilt clouded his mind and stayed his violence. To his shock, she seemed to halt. Her grip did not loosen, but it ceased to tighten as well. "Fool..." She croaked weakly... "He seeks only to destroy the flawed...then improve..." She gasped for air, straining even in breathing. "Viktor is a hero...he is a savior.. He shall usher the world into a st...ate of superiority.."
"Are you -kidding- me?" Jayce retorted suddenly, his blue eyes widening in disbelief. "Has he brainwashed you as well?" He gave another rough kick, this time her grip loosening slightly. "Do you /know/ what he's trying to do right now?" His voice raised in tone, almost angrily so. "He's trying to make the world as soulless and cold as himself! This "Glorious Evolution" isn't about improving the lives of innocent people, it's -twisted-!" How anyone could even side
with the mad techmaturgist was nothing short of baffling to Jayce. "He's warped you too-" He snapped, kicking her hand off almost completely this time.
The acolyte was silent for a time after Jayce's outburst, but more weakly she continued to hold on. At last, she spoke. Her voice was even slower, and it suddenly hit Jayce that she had not long to live. "You..know...nothing of our master." Her tone of voice, the look in her eyes-it had changed completely. It seemed now as if she pitied Jayce. Her gaze dropped and she rested her head on the floor, the simple act of looking up becoming too tiring for the Acolyte.. "We were all..broken..." She whispered. Jayce's stomach dropped as he truly comprehended, for the first time, that all of the acolytes-looking at them one by one- all had hextech augments in some form or another. He saw them, he knew what they were..But only now did he realize...
"..Defective, damaged...w-worthless..." Her voice was rusty and soft, and her last eye drooped closed as she neared death... "And Viktor saved us...The hextech augments that you view with contempt.." Briefly, she opened her eye, and closed it again. "His augments...they gave us all new purpose. We were worthless i-in the eyes of all other Zaunites...and f-for our crime of being defective, we were sentenced to die a-alone and disgraced on the streets..." Her breathing was reduced to a pained wheeze. Out of pity, out of sorrow, out of regret-out of /something/, Jayce took a careful step forward, and knelt carefully beside the acolyte, biting back a wince as he leaned in.. "He gave us purpose-h-he made us useful again-or useful f-for the first time in our lives... I-Is that the work of an evil man..?"
Jayce was loathed to believe that Viktor took them in out of pity. Perhaps the Viktor before would have augmented the wreteched street rats of Zaun out of compassion, but the Viktor now probably saw them all as willing test subjects more than anything. Still...She was not wrong. Zaun was notorious for almost being as pitiless and dog-eat-dog as Noxus. Anyone who could not stand up for themselves, work for themselves, or fight for themselves-they were as good as dead. Whether or not his intentions were altruistic, Viktor had undeniably saved his acolytes from an indisuptably grim future.
"We, w-who would be dead by now...nameless and filthy..." Her body was still now, the breath almost completely gone. Dried blood had crusted over her cheeks and plastered her hair to her face, and her voice was barely audible. "Viktor alone w-will remember us...A-and
that in itself is m-more than I...-th-than we could have e-ever dared to..h-hope for before.." Pouring in the last of her strength into her words, the acolyte stirred no more. Jayce knelt there for a time, saying nothing as he resisted the pricking in his eyes and the aching in his heart.
For a brief moment, he had begun to doubt himself and his quest.. But he managed to bring himself into standing position, and when he shook himself free this time, the Acolyte's hand dropped limply to the ground.