Written for a prompt at Dressing Room 3.
My life choices are dubious, I am well aware.
First in The Kingsman Cycle Series.
The Thing standing there isn't Harry Hart.
They had gotten a call on their way back from picking up Roxy. Harry had somehow managed to survive the shot, and had hidden out in the church while the world went to shit to recuperate. Apparently he had gone through and snapped all the sim cards and stumbled his way to a convenience store once everyone had stopped trying to kill each other.
At least, that's what Merlin told Roxy and Eggsy what happened.
But as Eggsy watched the Kingsman helicopter touch down, even before he saw Harry, he knew something was wrong.
The Thing that stepped down from the 'copter looked like Harry, with the same bespoke suit and public school diction.
Eggsy knew better than that.
He could see, the way the world rippled around Harry, as if the very fabric of the world was trying to pull away from him. He was moving through the world, rather than in it.
Eggsy could see the fracturing edges of his existence, something too great for the frail ape mind to comprehend stuffed into a sack of meat and three dimensions.
Harry walked over to them, Merlin embracing Harry enthusiastically and Roxy looking on in fierce joy.
Eggsy watched The Thing wearing Harry's face over Merlin's shoulder, and he could almost see the shift of great and terrible forms in those eyes.
Don't look too close Eggsy or you'll be gone luv. Don't look don't look don't looklooklooklook.
He tore his eyes away at the last second, and he could see the slow curving smile on The Thing's mouth, teeth white, and glinting in the dying sun.
They'll tear you apart, turn into nothing but a soulless conduit. A walking hole in the world. Dontlookdontlookdontlookdontlook.
The Thing and Merlin step back from each other and they both turn to look at Eggsy, who has been standing there in shock and horror the entire time. The Thing takes a step towards him.
"I am so very sorry you had to see that Eggsy."
Eggsy has to bite his tongue to keep himself from screaming. He keeps ducking The Thing's gaze, casting his eyes to a point over its shoulder. It's not much better. He keeps seeing the dark edges of its wrongness on this plane of existence, barest hints of the terrible thing locked into weak mortal flesh.
dontlookdontlookdontlookdontlookdontlooklooklooklooklooklooklookLOOKANDSEEGARYUNWIN
Eggsy feels his eyes jerked up into the face of The Thing without his permission. It hurts him more to see The Thing walking around in a suit of Harry Hart than it had been to see the man die. It had moved closer in the interim, just barely a foot between them now. The Thing reaches out and touches Eggsy's cheek, a touch that Eggsy dreamed about for so long, now turned into a waking nightmare he cannot escape.
"I promise Eggsy, I won't let it happen again," and The Thing smiles.
Eggsy's eyes widen, because he suddenly knows the terrible truth of it all.
The Thing standing there has always been Harry Hart.