The Hexcore is honestly hard to explain even to people who know technology well. Tony has an explanation for it that makes sense in his technological jargon, somewhat, but since it is an item of both tech and magic, it is unique. Jayce knows better what it is now, but it will always be Viktor's first and foremost. His mind, his creation. It is connected to his body and the cure he's designed for himself.

"That's what I keep telling him and telling myself. We've made a name for doing the impossible. There is nothing we can't do together, and even more than that, we now have help from others." Nadine, Tony, Alucard, Stephen. It used to be only the two of them against the world. Jayce is relieved to have a bigger pool of people to lean on. "We have the best chance we've ever had."

A chance. But not a surety. Jayce has been good at being the optimistic one, stubbornly refusing to see anything else but an end goal they can both live with. He never shares his doubts.

"Back home, he tried to do this alone, and he got worse. The last time I saw him there, he had accepted he was going to die. And made me promise to destroy the Hexcore." The only thing that could save him, but Jayce agreed. It was a hard thing to ask of someone who so desperately wanted to save you. "I kept hoping maybe we could make this stop-gap last forever. So we didn't have to take the chance. This operation could kill him just as easily."