Chapter 2

Aid through Direction

When he heard the front door shut followed by the creaking of the gate, Viktor knew he was finally alone. Peace and solitude at last. He let out a long sigh.

It was not that Viktor had disliked having Ren around as he recovered, quite the opposite in fact. Having Ren close at hand meant that he could make sure the boy was keeping up with his studies and he could monitor how his body was adjusting to the augmentation. Most importantly though, it meant that Viktor knew Ren was giving his body the time it needed to heal. It seemed as though Ren was incapable of turning a blind eye if he saw someone in trouble and there was something he could do about it. More than once, he had come home from his hero business in need of stitches only to reopen them in another fight the next day. Ren would always insist that it was a necessary fight though, and that if Viktor was there when it happened, he would agree his choice.

Viktor was not sure if he would agree with Ren's reasoning for his next fight or not, but that was not a thought he was going to concern himself with today. He had other tasks to tend to and they were ones he would rather go about doing without Ren being unnecessarily nosey at his side.

Viktor took another drink of his tea, pulled a folded up letter from his pocket, and reread it. The letter was a request for aid from the Church of the Glorious Evolved. They were a group of others who, like him, believed that the only way for humanity to rise above its suffering was to rid itself of the frailty of flesh and the burdens of unreliable emotions. The future they saw was free of lung blight and other illnesses, it was free from human error resulting in unnecessary deaths, and it was free from the destructive impulses brought on by reckless emotions. It was a beautiful future they envisioned for Zaun. And Renatus did not care much for them at all.

"I dunno, Doc," he had said, "they kinda give me the creeps and the more time around them we spend, the worse it gets."

"We cannot afford to be particular about our allies," he had responded.

"I know, I know. They're helping us and I'm not saying they're bad people. I would be a hypocrite to say so just because they are more into augmentation than I am. All I'm saying is that a couple of them make me feel uncomfortable and I'm looking forward to when we don't need to rely on them anymore."

That was something they agreed upon. Viktor did not want to feel indebted to this group in the long term. Though they shared his dream for a better Zaun and held many of the beliefs he did, Viktor did hold some reservations about the Glorious Evolved, particularly in regards to how they viewed him. He had always wanted to be revered for his creations and celebrated for the advancements he would bring to humanity but the way the Glorious Evolved honored him was more fanatical than mere respect. The way they lavished praise upon him, deferred to him whenever he was present, and had been asked more than once to outright lead them left Viktor with the impression that they were more infatuated with the idea of him and what he hoped to achieve rather than what he was actually doing.

"What I am actually doing, it is not glamourous," Viktor thought as his eyes came to rest on the cracked tiles of the stove's backsplash, "priority number ten."

But even if he wasn't spending the bulk of his time stabilizing his life and Ren's, he was not sure he would want to lead such a group as the Glorious Evolved.

"Their infatuation with me is as unreliable as any other human emotion. Strong emotions will lead to irrational behavior and fanaticism is profoundly gripping motivator."

Again his eyes came to rest on another area of the kitchen that needed repairs.

"As I told Renatus, our allies are few and we need aid. I am fortunate that those who offer it share my vision for Zaun."

Not even his apprentice shared the same vision as him. Viktor understood that their difference in opinion on the importance of human emotion was a contributing factor in Ren's discomfort around the group and so he tried to refrain from dealing with them when the boy was at his side. He was the master though, and Ren the apprentice so he would carry out his business either way. Not having to listen to Ren's grumbling as he did was a pleasant side effect of him being able to return to his hero work.

Viktor promptly finished his tea, cleaned his mug, and snapped his mask back on. He closed his eyes for the moment the lights in his lenses flashed as they powered on and, when everything had completed its start up, he gathered what he needed for the day and headed to the door. Emberflit was double locked, once by a more traditional lock and once by a bootlegged version of a Piltovan hextech lock that Moyna had acquired for him. It had been keyed to only open for the shared shards in his staff and Ren's leg. The house was still not as secure as Viktor wanted it to be though. He had hoped to have fully functional guard automatons but due to the cost it would take to construct them, creating them had to be moved all the way down to priority seventy-two. Until then, the locks and alarm system would have to do and he would keep his ventures in Zaun limited.

With his home as secure as it could be, Viktor made his way towards the Church of the Glorious Evolved. The congregation that had reached out to him was located on the lower reaches of the Entresol in a neighborhood that had gained the nickname "Little Sump" after a major chemical spill two decades ago. The bricks along the streets of this neighborhood were an uncommon off-white color, having had their original colors bleached out. Whatever chems were in that spill also sealed the bricks so that not even the Gray could keep them stained for long. Cisterns had been installed into the streets to serve as temporary holding pools for the chems as the clean-up crews did their work but nobody had ever bothered to remove them. Now they sat, their dark, iridescent mixtures collecting ever changing combinations of runoff, until they overflowed and someone was paid to pump them empty but never hired to finally remove them.

Through this neighborhood Viktor walked, pebbles of congealed chems snapping under his metallic steps as he made his way towards the church. The building was not at all like some of the grand structures made to honor the Aspects or Ascended of old, but rather was a converted office building. New construction in Zaun was expensive but repurposing a building (or anything else) was second nature to the city's people. The building's façade had been decorated with an unusual sculpture of interwoven arms all reaching upwards. Looking at this sculpture quickly revealed that these limbs were in various states of augmentation, from fully organic to completely robotic.

A group of people stood before the building and bowed their heads as Viktor approached. A tall woman with a several small machines strapped firmly to her stepped forward. Viktor knew her. Her name was Brynne. She had joined the Glorious Evolved after lung blight had forced her replace her lungs or die. Now she sought to replace her other faulty organs one by one. Just last month Viktor had aided with replacing her heart for a mechanical one much like his own.

"Viktor," Brynne said, her voice tinny and modulated, "we thank you for coming."

Viktor gave a quick nod and pulled the letter he had received from his pocket.

"Is the patient you wrote about prepared?" he asked.

"Yes," she nodded, "we have recorded his vital information and medical history for you. It awaits you in the preparation room. The patient herself is already in the operating theater."

"I do not wish to delay."

"Of course."

She handed a coin purse over the Viktor, its contained hexes making a clinking sound as he took it.

"Please, enter," she said, stepping aside one he had pocketed the purse, "and be welcome as you guide another towards perfection."

The inside of the building looked as much a place of worship as it did a medical facility.

There were rooms for creating and improving augmentations, space set aside for people to engage in physical therapy after receiving new limbs, and everywhere art celebrating the augmented body was visible. One particular painting always caught Viktor's attention. Every time he saw this painting of a nude, heavily augmented woman he could not help but think of the salacious drawings Ren would sell, specifically that of a buxom robot he frustratingly referred as "Lady Science" after Viktor had let the phrase slip once.

Viktor pushed the thought from his mind and made his way towards the most important room in the building; an operating theater that could seat nearly a hundred spectators. Stepping into the preparations room, he got to work immediately. He read the information about his patient, sterilized his robotic arms, covered himself with a clean coat, and slipped a glove over his sole organic limb. Satisfied, he entered the theater.

All above him, members of the Glorious Evolved filled in the raised seating around the theater. Four other members stood on the ground floor with Viktor, prepared to assist him however he needed, one of whom had two additional arm-like claws attached to his chest, positioned inferior and medial to his arms, and was already holding a metal tray for his tools. And there on the table, already blissfully under the effects of the anesthetics, was Viktor's patient.

According to what Viktor had read, the woman had been a sump scraper for as long as Viktor had been alive. The pools she would routinely scavenge contained runoff from a dye factory, so her skin was often stained unusual colors. Because of this, she had missed the early signs of sump rot forming on her hand. If caught early, it was a common enough ailment that it could be treated successfully, but the dyes in her skin had hid it until it began to spread. The variety she had contracted was a particularly nasty one that ate away at the flesh, leaving painful open lesions in the afflicted area. That was where Viktor came in. He was to replace what the rot took with a new augmentation.

Carefully Viktor pulled back the sheet covering the patient to observe the augmentation site. Beneath his mask a scowl formed. The woman's arm was in far worse condition than he had been led to believe. The letter had stated that her hand was afflicted by sump rot but the condition had spread up the limb towards the elbow. Lesions on the hand were open, with drainage soaking through the gauze wrapped around them and the sores more proximal to the elbow filled with yellowed pus aching to be drained. It looked agonizingly painful. Viktor had wanted to perform a transradial amputation out of caution before but now he knew he was going to do one out of necessity.

"Unacceptable."

Had he been properly informed of the patient's condition, he would have arranged to operate on her sooner. Likewise he would have demanded a swifter operation if he had known the woman still had her hand, but he had not anticipated that. He knew for a fact that several members of the Glorious Evolved were more than capable of performing an amputation, so why would they allow the patient to suffer unnecessarily for days?

"Because they desire to watch me work. Such an aberrant way of thought."

He placed his tools on the tray the four-armed man was holding and hailed over the other assistants from the Glorious Evolved.

"I cannot control their thoughts nor their desires, but I can direct them and I will make sure that a decision like this is not made again and I will aid the patient now."

Step by measured step, Viktor worked to perform the amputation, explaining to those gathered above what it was he was doing and why he was doing it. Normally teaching was something he enjoyed, but the annoyance he felt at seeing the lesions was still fresh in his mind. It soured the experience and when the audience gave a muffled applause as he finished removing the afflicted limb he felt that annoyance briefly flicker to anger. He dropped the limb into the arms of an assistant with less care than he should have.

"Like a performing monkey," he thought bitterly before suppressing the feeling growing within him, "No, I am teaching them. I am making it so this will not happen again. They are blinded by reverence. It is a poor excuse and I will make sure they will see the folly in it too."

As one assistant took the arm away another brought the socket base for the augmentation.

"This is important work. I cannot lose patience. This is for the betterment of Zaun."

Hour by hour Viktor worked, connecting nerves to wires and flesh to metal. His scalpel glided through skin, practice making his movements swift and sure. Skill made the procedure appear simple but Viktor made sure he was not careless in his speed. There was no benefit to cutting corners on this task.

When the limb was at last prepared, Viktor took the augment the Glorious Evolved had prepared for him and set it beside the patient. He examined it and found, to his approval, that the Church had done their due diligence in this at least. The augment was properly sized for the patient and well-constructed, if not simple. It would be more than enough to serve the woman in her daily life but Viktor could already feel himself wondering how he could improve it to be better tailored for the sump scraper's needs.

"Perhaps a sieve attachment? Or a wrist mount for additional thin fingers like the one Moyna has? It would be useful for retrieving objects from narrow areas. These both could be useful but these are thoughts for later."

Viktor slid the new arm against the socket and it clicked into place. Gently, he pulled back a flap of skin to test the augments connection. With a specialized tool, he applied stimulus to the wires and watched as the fingers twitched in response.

"Satisfying."

He tucked the flap of skin into its rightful place and stitched the surgery site closed. The procedure was complete. There was another round of muffled applause from the spectators.

Viktor gave several quick commands to the assistants and at once they set themselves in motion. The patient was moved to a gurney to be taken to a room for recovery, the operating table was cleaned, the bio-waste collected for incineration, and Viktor's tools gathered and placed on a separate tray from the others. Viktor then turned his attention up to the crowd and spoke a few final remarks before taking his tools and returning to the preparation room.

A long sigh left Viktor that was equal parts from fatigue and satisfaction. He stripped off the surgical gown and glove and sat down to clean his tools and augments. As he did, he heard the door to the operating theater open and close. He cast a quick glance over his shoulder and saw that the young man with the additional limbs was there, also stripping the operating clothing from himself. Viktor went back to his own task to give him some privacy.

Minutes passed and Viktor head a voice next to him.

"Viktor,"

He turned to the voice beside him and saw the young man standing there. Now that he had removed his surgical cap and mask, Viktor recognized the man.

"Lazar."

"You remember me," Lazar said, a smile appearing on his face, "yes, it's me. It has been some time since we last spoke, doctor."

"It has been. I am pleased to see that you have continued your studies and are doing well."

"I have been, thank you."

Years ago, Lazar was among those who considered themselves to be Viktor's acolytes and had aided him around his old lab. But after its destruction at the hands of Jayce, Lazar, like all the others, abandoned him. By the looks of him though, Jayce's attack and Viktor's subsequent vilification did nothing to shake his belief in the Glorious Evolution. The last time Viktor had seen Lazar, he possessed only one augmented arm but now, in addition to the two smaller robotic limbs, he saw that the young man had augmented his other arm as well. Furthermore, he had joined with the Church of the Glorious Evolved and was working with them as a nurse.

"Those arms," Viktor said, indicating to the smaller limbs protruding from Lazar, "are they your own creations?"

"Heh, yeah, they are," he responded, "inspired by your hex-claw too, though not as impressive. They're not as flexible and don't have a laser, but they can hold a light steady and hold tools while I work," he made the claws click open and close, "Sometimes all you need is just an extra pair of hands. They did their job well today I thought."

"They did," Viktor nodded, "your craftsmanship has improved considerably."

"Thank you."

Lazar's cheeks tinted red.

"I plan to continue working on them," he continued, "I've been reinvigorated to work since have become more public and it was an honor to be allowed to work alongside you."

"It was important work that we did today."

"It was, yes."

Lazar smiled again but it faded as he continued to speak.

"Viktor, I wanted to apologize to you."

"What for?"

"After the destruction of the lab, I fled. I was a coward and it fills me with shame every time I think of it. I am sorry Viktor," he bowed his head, "the future you work towards is more important than my single life. I should have seen it. I should have never stopped following you."

Viktor never begrudged any of his acolytes for running away. It was an understandable decision; being near him was a risk factor.

"You are forgiven," Viktor said.

The look of relief on Lazar's face was immediate.

"Though I do not believe there is anything to forgive," he continued, "your actions were out of self-preservation, not malice. And more importantly, you have not abandoned your vision for a better Zaun."

"No, I have not."

"Then, as I said, there is nothing to forgive."

Viktor finished cleaning his last tool and packed it away. He could sense Lazar's desire for approval and knew that if he were to prevent the unnecessary suffering he witnessed in the theater from happening again, speaking to the young man was the most likely way to achieve that.

"Lazar," Viktor said.

"Yes, doctor?"

"If you do desire to aid me, there is something I want you to do."

"What is it?"

"Do not allow a patient to suffer as the woman today was. That hand could have been amputated immediately and I suspect the only reason she was allowed to spend days with open wounds was because those here wanted to see me perform the amputation."

Lazar lowered his head again.

"Do not look from me," Viktor said and the young man's attention sprang back up, "I am disappointed that it happened and I want you to ensure that it does not happen again. Can you promise to do that?"

"I can, no, I will do that."

"Good. And remember, it is not so important who is doing the work so long as the work is being done. Zaun will not become better due to the work of one man's hands alone."

"I understand."

Viktor nodded and collected his belongings.

"I must go now," he said, "I should return home before my apprentice does."

"Your apprentice?"

"Yes. I have a suspicion that he has injured himself by doing more than I had advised him to do and, if I am correct, I need to reprimand him and see that these injures are taken care of."

He headed for the door.

"Good-bye, Lazar. Keep well."

"Yes, uh, good-bye, Viktor."

And without further delay, Viktor left the Church of the Glorious Evolved and returned to Emberflit.