The gloved hand on his side was stupidly distracting and quite unwanted. Viktor briefly wondered about the Piltoverian social norms concerning personal space, seeing as Jayce, nor Vi, had any sense of it.

The cold scalpel continued to cut through his skin, tracing his spine. He could feel the warm blood drip down his neck through the stinging-

No. Don't focus on that.

He wasn't going to escape. That was a simple fact. All he could do was survive, don't let Jayce break him, but that was going to be impossible if he focused on the pain. Just... don't think about it.

But he supposed that this was already already a sign he was beginning to crack. Before this, he preached about facing reality, embracing the present and future.

Now, he would do anything to go back to those days.

A jolt of pure sensation rushed down his back, leaving a numbing trail. It was followed up by a weight and a shock that ran throughout his body. Feeling quickly returned, but his sensors alerted him to presence of a new augment.

His analysis revealed nothing about its intended effect, a detail which greatly worried him. That typically meant that it hadn't started to perform any active functions.

Jayce began to sew the incision shut. Today, or at least Viktor thought it was a new day, he was serious and focused. He only taunted Viktor minimally before telling him to stay still, and starting the operation.

Then a familiar metallic weight fell over it. Viktor could hardly believe it, hadn't Jayce destroyed his previous augments? But a hextech seal formed against his skin and the augment successfully connected with his internal sensors.

"You're welcome," said Jayce, his voice tart and bitter. If he didn't want to do this, then why was he? Nothing stopped him from just following his base desires earlier.

"Why are you doing this?"

The Defender replaced another augment on Viktor's back. He sighed, " You're really an idiot," and continued.

Viktor decided against speaking again.

Gradually, all of his machinery had been replaced, even his third arm. Now was his opportunity, he was still too weak to create a laser, but he had enough energy to stun Jayce. It bothered him that Jayce hadn't even disabled his weapons, it simply didn't make sense that he would do something as moronic as this.

Finally, he turned his back to the table. The Herald jumped up and deployed a quick burst of energy from his augment arm.

...but nothing happened. Then pain erupted from every fiber of his body, pure incomprehensible agony. It was a thousand sensations at once, the feeling of being burnt alive, of being submerged in acid, being sliced and torn into a million pieces, being skinned alive, they kept building and building till he couldn't even began to decipher them. He fell to the wooded floor, shuddering violently.

Beyond the tortuous pain, Viktor heard Jayce laughing.

"Holy shit, Viktor! You really are the biggest retard ever! I mean, wow, that's just, that was the best thing I've ever seen!"

The Herald tried to think of something to respond with, but he couldn't form a single thought. The agony started to slowly subside, and he hesitantly looked up at the Defender. He was smiling down at him, a wide wolfish grin on his face.

"...you're-" static broke through the weak speech, "you're a monster."

"If I'm a monster, " Jayce kicked Viktor onto his back and stomped his foot onto his armored chest, "then what are you?"

Viktor didn't reply.

He stared at the wood on the table. Whatever that cover he had been tortured and operated on was, it had removed all traces of what took place here.

A sinking feeling settled in his gut. There wasn't any evidence of what he had to endure here. The only proof he had was the new augment attached to his spinal cord and the modified state of his old ones. Neither of which would be considered proof to anyone but himself.

"Now let's get this out of the way," Viktor looked up as Jayce pulled out the chair across from him and sat down. "You can't tell anyone about these past few days."

The Herald stared at him.

"As in literally. You literally can't. Not will not or may not, you physically cannot. So trust me, don't even try. You've already seen what happens if you try to threaten my well being, which, by the way, telling someone counts, so just don't be stupid and you'll be fine."

"You expect me to act as if you did nothing," said Viktor. It was probably dangerously blunt, but Jayce just reacted with an amused smirk.

"Looks like you're not so stupid after all."

"Then what," he carefully watched his words, composing his speech so his outrage wouldn't leak through, "what was the point of all this?"

"Wow, way to be grateful. I already told you I wanted to fix you," his smile widened and he watched the Herald with a cocky glint in his eyes.

Viktor clenched all three of his fists. "You haven't fixed me."

The other snorted, "Not yet. It'll take a bit for someone like you, but I'll turn you into a productive normal member of society. One day, you'll forget all about your Glorious Evolution bullshit, and you'll get on your knees and thank me."

When he didn't receive a response, Jayce shrugged and continued, "I guess you could call this the first step of your rehabilitation."

"You gave me my augments back. Why?"

"Holy shit," he laughed, "You still haven't figured it out? Like I was just going to dump you back at the Institute naked and limbless! Yeah, it would have been funny, but then people talk and, you know, they just don't get me. They'll all be flapping their mouths, 'oh Jayce, you handsome bastard, look at what you did to poor lil' pathetic Vikky!' and I'll explain myself, but quadruple amputees are pretty persuasive, even if said amputee is you. So then they'll toss me in jail while you keep doing your creepy little shit and mutilating babies while everyone fawns over you."

"Then why?"

"You're going to have to elaborate. I'm afraid your accent's a bit too thick." Jayce snickered at his own joke.

Viktor's anger and frustration spilled over and he stood up, knocking the wooden chair over, and slammed a fist against the table.

"TELL ME WHY!" he yelled, his vocalizers screeching at their loudest, "EVERYTHING YOU'VE DONE TO ME, WHY!?"

The new augment went off without warning and Viktor fell to the ground, the metal on his body loudly clattering against the hard flooring. Jayce tsked as he writhed and calmly stood up, approaching till the Herald was trembling at his feet.

"Don't talk to me like that."

He clawed useless at the Defender's ankles, himself not sure if he wanted to cause harm or plead for forgiveness. All he was certain of was that he just wanted everything to finally just stop.

Through his broken glitched voice, he forced out, "sorry." He repeated it several times, as often as he could manage. He knew he looked pathetic, begging for forgiveness at a psychopath's feet as he shook uncontrollably, but even that was clouded over by the pain.

Finally it subsided.

"Fun fact!" the cheeriness of Jayce's voice just made everything worse, "We're connected now. When I want you to hurt, you hurt. When I think you've had enough, then it stops. Three rules to remember, don't tell anyone, don't attack me, and don't piss me off. Now get up, you're scratching my floors."

Viktor obeyed. The aftershocks still rang through his body, but he ignored them.

"When I tell you to, you're going to leave and head back to the Institute. Write a letter to your cultists or acolytes or whatever, with a bullshit excuse explaining why you didn't see them. If anyone asks you about your trip, which I doubt will happen since no one gives a shit about you, you're going to give a vague ass explanation. Make sure your stories don't contradict."

He nodded.

"And make sure no one sees you coming out from the woods. Not only is that creepy as hell, it's suspicious as fuck."

Another nod.

"Now get the hell outta here."

That sentence was the best thing Viktor had heard since he left with Jayce that night. He turned and tried to both restrain his endless relief and not rush out while remaining upright on his unsteady legs. The other augment must have overloaded the others with pain signals, that would explain his trembling limbs.

He set his hand on the handle of the same door he opened several days ago. The same door that marked the start of this insanity.

"Wait."

Viktor froze. Of course he wouldn't be done yet.

"You haven't thanked me yet."

His grip on the metal tightened, "Why would I thank you?"

"After everything I've done for you, I think it's the least I deserve. I've been planning our time together for a while, working out all the little details to make sure that it'd be perfect. I'm taking on your responsibilities now, gotta make sure you don't do something we'll both regret. Hell, I even augmented myself, just for you."

"You," Viktor looked back at Jayce. He was smiling gently, all relief from his exodus turned into dread, "augmented yourself."

The Defender tilted his head to the left and brought a hand up to pull his shirt collar in the opposite direction. On the revealed nape of his neck was a tiny piece of metal. It would have been impossible to spot if not for Viktor's vision enhancements, and even then, he'd have to be looking for it to see it.

"I told you. We're connected now," he looked back at Viktor, "so don't you agree I deserve some thanks for everything I've done for you?"

No.

He didn't say that. He had to pretend, he was so close to leaving, his pride was already crushed into pieces, it shouldn't have been difficult.

But it really was.

"Jayce," he looked back to the door and opened it, "thank you."

He walked out into the early morning woods, not bothering to look back. Not even when he heard the sound of laughter behind him .

[half title drop? idk i really like the word rehabilitation lol vi and cait are going to be in the next chapter yehaw thank u all for reading and reviewing! your words really do mean a lot to me, especially on a story i thought i'd be the only one who'd enjoy lol

if you have anything to say, be it a criticism, kudos, or to say i'm gross, please do! thank you for reading!]