Honestly Jayce doesn't know how he's standing right mow. How he's talking and thinking and existing. He doesn't have the best track record at knowing how to respond to trauma so perhaps he's going through the motions and that has to be enough. He is keeping sane. Viktor still has time. They can still fix the Hexcore. He feels far away for a moment and then back to her when she touches his arm, and he remembers to breathe.

"Yes, the Hexcore. It's almost complete. I have to get the crystal to power it." That is his task. He can stay on task. Jayce knows in order to get it he is going to do something shady, that is a reality they have already acknowledged to one another. But anything is worth it. "Then there are weeks of testing as he steadily declines, it's a race against time." Viktor has to make it, the weaker he is when they do it, the worse it'll be.

Jayce finds that his legs don't feel that solid so he is wise enough to find a chair and sit in it heavily. He put on a brave face for Viktor, acting as confident as he ever can be, but he puts his face in his hands. With Caitlyn, it's another story. "If this doesn't work there's nothing else. I can't do anything else."