"You'll…take the fall?" Ezreal asked in an almost inaudible murmur, almost like he didn't understand that Jayce was saying. His left eyebrow cocked curiously as he listened to Viktor say his last words and then turn to leave, his metal shoes clicking on the shiny tiled hallway with each step. When Viktor was out of sight completely and the explorer heard the large double doors echo and slam shut, he took it upon himself to walk a few steps toward the Defender and then stop.

Dead quiet.

Neither of the Piltovians breathed or moved a muscle.

During the silence, Ezreal took the time to gaze up at the taller man's features, noticing something that almost made his heart stop. Jayce's voice might have been stern, but his face told a different story. What was that unfamiliar expression in the Defender's eyes? Fear? Confusion? None of those seemed to fit on the usually calm and collected inventor's face, and Ezreal actually felt the icy chill go down his spine.

"Jayce." he finally broke the silence, his voice cracking as he spoke.

"What the hell are you doing?"

He stood quiet for a few moments before finally speaking, his jaw clenched with every word. "Trying to save a man the world cast away." The defender's eyes trailing off to view the solid metal doors of the institute's main entrance. His face empty, void of emotion now. His chest rose with a hollow breath. "If am successful or not… well.. only time will tell the outcome." Jayce's head lowering, his hand thumbing at the bridge of his nose in agitation. He couldn't explain his motives to the young explorer without being called mad, though it seemed he was already being branded so.

His eyes closed tightly as his teeth sunk into his lower lip "I know you doubt me, Ezreal." blue eyes finally resting upon the boy "I don't expect you to understand what I'm doing, but— I want to help him. If not me then who else? You certainly don't seem to want to. Look at the people that are spawned from Zaun. Mundo… Do you think Mundo would comfort him after abandoning his cause? Or the tactician Swain? The man that never tolerates weakness?" the head of the man shook vigorously as he lowered his hand.

The hero finally crouched down resting his head into his hands. "Look at his life this way. Being left to live in the hell that is Zaun, never being comforted, never being told you're made for better things. Ezreal, that was Viktor's existence. When I went into his lab many years ago to destroy the arcane crystal. I saw pipes, covered in darkness and grime. His acolytes? Empty husks of men that became scientific playthings." He finally ran his hand through his hair pulling it back to press it against his forehead. "Imagine if that was your life, Ezreal. If all you knew was that collection of metal, rust and hopelessness. It takes its toll. I'm surprised he's still alive."

Ezreal listened carefully and intently, but no matter how much Jayce tried to paint Viktor in a sympathetic light, it still didn't change Ezreal's opinion. The Machine Herald had been seemingly permanently engraved into the explorer's mind as a psychotic madman who cared little about the people around him and obsessed over what he considered perfection.

This is a man who has insulted me, practically taken me hostage, threatened to hurt the people I love…

…and yet, Jayce wants to defend him.

Always the hero. Always the damn hero.

Staring up at Jayce with his own sad blue eyes, the explorer shrugged limply and sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets as the amulet flickered lightly with a golden hue in response to his swirling emotions. He trailed his gaze to the floor, the corner of his bottom lip pulled into his mouth.

"I know you just want to do what you think is right, Jayce…"

He slowly raised his eyes again, brow furrowing in frustration. He gritted his teeth as he looked at the Defender, internally conflicted and fighting within himself while he struggled to keep the words inside. He knew it was futile, and after another few silent seconds, he spoke, the words clear and blunt.

"…But you can't save everyone."

Ezreal kept staring, his expression hardened.

No remorse, no regret.

Ezreal wasn't blind, nor was he naive to the way Jayce was feeling. He could blatantly see the disappointment the Defender's iced eyes, and that alone made the explorer's heart begin to beat erratically, the amulet pulsing accordingly with flickers of gold. He felt like he was drowning, and he wanted to scream and shout at Jayce, to grasp his collar and shake him and somehow make him understand that Viktor changing for the better was as likely as Cho'Gath deciding he never wanted to eat anyone ever again.

The air within the walls of the Institute was heavy, stale, and each time Ezreal desperately tried to fill his lungs, it felt like he was trying to inhale bars of lead, making the uncomfortable pit in his stomach grow more heavy with each breath.

The fact that Jayce was now walking away from him only made it worse.

"There's a world of difference between people like us, and people like that man." Ezreal called out, shaking finger pointing accusingly toward the space that Viktor had previously stood in a few minutes back even though Jayce's back was to him and he was unable to see. "I'm not saying you and I are perfect, I'm just saying that there's some people that you shouldn't even try to help because they're not worth your goddamn time! He might be brilliant, but there's a fine line between genius and fucking insanity!"

The explorer's gruff voice got louder the more distance the hero created between them until finally it dwindled to nothing.

"We all have flaws, Jayce." Ezreal spoke softy, knowing the Defender probably didn't hear him. A couple summoners rounded the corner then, and Ezreal quickly shot them a glare, causing them to promptly scatter away like cockroaches.

"Is he a gifted scientist? Yes. I'll give him props for that. He's gifted as shit. Is he a good person? No. Why can't you see this, Jayce?" the explorer's voice cracked audibly as it echoed through the empty hallway. "Why try to save a man's life when just yesterday he wouldn't have thought twice about saving yours?"

It pained Ezreal to speak to Jayce like this, and he never thought he'd ever see the day where he'd grow the slightest bit untrustworthy of this heroic man he'd grown up with, and he felt a lump in his throat and a burning sensation in the corners of his eyes as he took a ragged, sharp breath.

"Maybe you've changed. Not Viktor."

"And so have you." The hero's words shot out into the young explorer like a dagger in the night. "What abominations have we become to not allow forgiveness, Ezreal." He turned to face the blonde haired questioner and folded his hands in front of him, standing rigid before him.

"Tell me. What are we going to do with him? Would you have me throw him to the wolves of the Piltovian Government, as careless as they are? Have him laid bare in front of the institute, so that they'll enslave him to servitude? What would that do other than diminish a hope for change." Jayce carrying a strange sense of bitterness to his voice.

The man found himself questioning the intentions of the lion haired boy and his head lifted to give a pressured stare. "I'm actually quite disappointed with you. As I'm sure you are with me. Though I have my reasons." he corrected himself from any further questioning "Your animosity towards Viktor won't help him, and if you're so against him being what he is now, avoid my lab. It would be best for you I would think. Though I've come to hear you can't leave the institute regardless." A heavy breath caught itself on the stiff air of the institute. "Take out of this what you will, but I always must help a man in need. It's in my blood, my being; it was how I was raised. Be it for the worst or the best. Tomorrow needs a brighter future, Ezreal, and I must light our path."

The harsh words of the Defender cut through Ezreal's thick skin as if they were a hot knife through butter, and the explorer audibly gasped, his defensive shell he'd maintained until then shattering to pieces. It was in that very moment he realized how pathetically easy it was for Jayce to hurt him, and he stared into the eyes of the man across the hallway as if he had been shot through the chest, blue eyes widened and moist, though no tears were allowed to freely fall.

Avoid my lab.

The words stung him, and they repeated through his mind over and over. Avoid his lab?! This man that he had grown up with, that he had considered a hero, a brother, a best friend, was telling him to avoid him because of Viktor? The flabbergasted blonde swallowed down the lump in his throat and stared down at the floor, trying to find words.

It's not fair. It's not fucking fair.

"Years, Jayce." he stuttered, voice weak and lacking its usual power, at least for the first few syllables. Ezreal's fists clenched together and he stepped forward, arcane energy spewing out of the sides of the amulet and crackling as his strength somehow returned, fueled by rage. "We have known each other years, and you're telling me to avoid you because of a fucking psychopath randomly deciding that he wants to change for the better?! If that's the case, I don't need you anyway, Jayce, if you're willing to just throw your entire goddamn city-state under the bus for the good of one man."

Ezreal panted for breath, his eyes slightly glowing with the influx of emotions. More crackling, more sputtering could be heard from the amulet as seemingly harmless flickers of energy shot up and swirled around in the air for a few seconds and then evaporated into nothing. "A man in need, Jayce? Remember who you fought for before. Who you protected. Who you protected it from. It was for Piltover, Jayce. Remember that word? It's your fucking home." he spat out, the crackles amplifying in sound.

"You protected us from Viktor, and in a matter of seconds he managed to turn you against us. Look what you're doing right now, Jayce. Look what you're doing to me! Who's next? Caitlyn? Vi? Orianna, even? What about the professor? It's only a matter of time before you leave every one of us behind you because of a fucking ounce of hope that might not even be legitimate."

Catching his breath, Ezreal backed down, putting his other hand on his gauntlet to try and quiet the energy waves. "You think I've changed? No, Jayce. I'll say it again. You're the one who has definitely changed, and this just proves it even more. I won't go near your lab, or have any contact with you unless we're in a match together. This is what you want, right?"

He didn't wait for the answer before turning around and walking down the corridor in the opposite direction, head hung low and his lip quivering as he held in the tears. It was almost like a nightmare, but unfortunately, this was the reality that he'd now been tossed into.

His best friend had been turned against him, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

It was a cruel twist of events that set the corruption that would stain the relationship between the explorer and defender. He sighed when he watched the boy walk away. The young blonde haired prodigy's disapprobation troubled the older man greatly. The hero taking a step forward as if to call out to the boy but stopped his hand from gesturing towards him. His fingers collapsing into his palm as his arm dropped lifelessly to his side. An abandoned hero left to confront his decisions regarding the half-caste— alone. It was not a path he was unfamiliar with however. He had traveled this road before and it was filled with desperation and anxiety.

"Ezreal…" he whispered to himself. His feet turning him towards the door, welcoming the warm light of the sun. It would be a long way back to Piltover, but he would write the young explorer to warm his now acerbic disposition towards the hero. The pain of guilt riding the back of his mind. Words of avoiding his lab echoing in his consciousness. The hero knew the outcome, disrupted work, absolute madness and mental affliction.

What Ezreal refused to agree upon was Jayce's undying loyalty to the city of Pitlover. The Defender would sacrifice his life to protect the brothers and sisters of Piltover over the safety of Machine Herald at any time. As pitiless as the truth was. One day the boy would realize this. Even though all the years he had watched the young lion haired boy grow up, he found the prodigy had a strong will. Should anything come that Ezreal disliked, the other party would know and it was apparent he hadn't changed. However, the hero was mistaken that the explorer had blossomed into a more forgiving young man. A more trusting individual in his opinion seeing as Jayce had suffered the consequences of the wrath of Viktor.

As time progressed the more the words that poured from the explorer's mouth stung like a bittersweet poison. Coursing through the Piltovian's veins like a raging torrent of regret and sorrow. He buried himself in his mind as he took his first steps into the light, his hands in stride with his chiseled walk.

"One day the prodigy will understand my plight…"