(Story is not mine, Belongs to their owners)
It starts with a moonshot, a few hours later.
They're barely moving, too tired and hot and thirsty to do much of anything, when suddenly there's thissound, and they look up to find something firing from Helios. "About time," Rhys says thankfully, assuming it's Yvette finally coming through for them and sending them the supplies they requested so long ago.
The moonshot is coming right for them, though.
"Looks like that tracker is working," Jack laughs at the look on their faces, no doubt.
Rhys and Vaughn jump out of the way of the moonshot. It hits the ground and opens to reveal a car driving into the distance due to the momentum, before it turns quickly and heads back toward them. The car looks very familiar, even if the color is wrong, and a knot forms in Rhys's stomach.
That's not help.
The car stops suddenly in front of them, kicking up sand and dust into the air, leaving them coughing. Rhys scowls as the window rolls down to reveal Vasquez.
Great. As if the day couldn't get any worse.
Vasquez gets out of the car, smirking at them all the while. Rhys hates his stupid face.
He gets out of the car with a red Hyperion shotgun in his hand. "Fancy meeting you two here," he says calmly, with that smug smirk and tone of his voice. "Here I was, out for a nice drive… and I land right on just the guys I was looking for."
"I thought you wanted a black car," Rhys can't help but say.
Vasquez laughs. "I see what you did there. That's funny. You steal my car, you make jokes about it. That's good, that's great stuff."
He steps forward threateningly. Rhys and Vaughn share a quick look before they both back up, away from the man with the gun.
"Look," Vasquez says, "I know we had a deal…"
Deal?
Rhys thinks back to the death race, when Vasquez called him right in the middle of it. Oh, right. Vasquez offered him a deal; set Vaughn up for the fall, turn on his best friend, and he could be allowed back into Hyperion and they'd forget this whole thing ever happened. Yeah, right! Like he would turn on his best friend.
He would never do that.
"And while I don't like to go back on an agreement…" Vasquez continues, still walking toward them until their backs are pressed against a large rock formation behind them, "made man to man… the circumstances have changed."
Rhys opens his mouth to tell Vasquez where to shove his littledeal, when-
"That's right," Vaughn suddenly snaps, causing Rhys to blink at him, tearing his gaze away from Vasquez briefly. "We did have a deal."
Rhys stares at Vaughn, something painful clenching in his chest.Ouch. Fuck.
"You convince me to double-cross my best friend, and the day isn't even really over when you're double-crossingme?"
Each word Vaughn speaks is painful in Rhys's chest.
Vaughn, what…?
"Wow, Vaughn," he manages weakly, causing Vaughn to at least flinch and look at him finally, "wow."
Vaughn gives him thislook, all doe-eyed and apologetic, before he glances back at Vasquez. "Should've known better than to trust a snake like you," he says to the guy.
Rhys keeps staring at him.
His best friend.
Who… turned his back on him. Betrayed him.
Was going to just hand him over, let him take the fall, take the blame, let him be killed…
And why?
It makes no sense.
Rhys tries to think of a reason Vaughn might do this. He can't think of one. Vaughn never seemed like the type to betray him before, so to suddenly have him saying these things, making a deal with Vasquez behind Rhys's back…
It fuckinghurts.
Rhys trusted Vaughn. He had Vaughn's back.
He turned down his chance at getting out of this unscathed simply so he wouldn't have to turn on his friend.
And yet… Vaughn went and turned on him.
He thinks back to Vaughn's words through the night.
He said Rhys was a good friend.
Rhysisa good friend.
Vaughn… not so much.
Ithurts. Like hell.
He's almost glad he's dehydrated right now. At least then there aren't any tears at the sudden ruins of a friendship he thought was true.
"Don't be like that, little guy, it's the way of the… uh…" Vasquez trails off briefly. "Listen, I'm gonna go see if I have a shirt in the trunk, 'cause your body is making me uncomfortable. Hold tight."
He turns his back on the two of them and walks toward the car, confident they won't escape.
He's right.
He has a gun and a car; running won't save them.
And right now, Rhys doesn't even care to try and run.
He folds his arms across his chest, something he does when he feelshurt, and stares at Vaughn, who is looking at him again. All wide-eyed and apologetic.
Rhys's eyes narrow into betrayed slits.
"Look," Vaughn whispers urgently, "I told him I would sell you out, but I was never gonna do it. I was just saying whatever he wanted to hear to get that jerk off our backs. I wasn't gonna follow through with it. Please believe me. I swear, Rhys, I would never betray you."
Rhys stares at him. Tries to summon up the will to believe him.
Can't.
Because Vasquez offered him the same deal, but he didn't take it, and Vaughn is smart. He knows better than to trust Vasquez, to attempt to get him off their backs that way. He's only apologizing because he was caught and turned on by the man he trusted over Rhys.
His supposed best friend.
Rhys says nothing. Vaughn's expression falls.
"Rhys?" he whispers. "Please believe me."
And then Vasquez is coming back over to them, having not found a shirt in his trunk. It's easier to focus on him and his own impending death than on Vaughn's betrayal, and the pain in the back of his throat.
He doesn't process the fact Vasquez has anything in his hands before a shovel is thrown at him. He barely manages to catch it before it knocks the air from his lungs, and another shovel lands on the ground at Vaughn's feet.
"You two freaks start digging," Vasquez says, smirking at them. "I wanna see a decent grave going before too long."
Vaughn slowly picks up the shovel.
Vasquez looks at Rhys.
Rhys glares back at him. Tries to think of a way out of this. Thoughts are too scattered because of the wholeI thought you were my friend, Vaughn…
"Let's work this out," Rhys says without thinking, mind working on auto-pilot.
He can feel Vaughn's eyes on him.
"We're way, way past that," Vasquez says, keeping a light grip on the gun.
Think, Rhys.
"You and me, we could, uh…" Rhys trails off there, because there's not really anything he has that Vasquez could want. He could tell him about Jack and offer that as a trade for both his and Vaughn's lives, but he knows Vasquez. He knows he'll betray them, kill them both anyway, and take what he wants. So there's really no point in trying to talk this out.
He's quiet for too long.
Vasquez steps forward, suddenly slamming the gun into Rhys's chest, effectively knocking the air from his lungs. He gasps, losing his grip on the shovel. It clatters to the ground just in time to be out of the way as Vasquez suddenly head-butts him in the mouth.
"Rhys!" Vaughn says.
It hurts – the pain is sudden and sharp andouch. Rhys holds a hand to his mouth, wincing painfully. Out of the corner of his eye he sees blue flicker to life. Vasquez takes a step back, holding his forehead where he hit Rhys in the mouth, seemingly equally pained. Good. Serves him right.
"Ughh! Damn," Vasquez says, wincing. "Damn that smarts. I think I did that wrong. You got a tough noggin. It looks so easy in the movies…"
"Amateur hour," Jack says. "You gotta aim for the bridge of the nose, dum-dum." Rhys glances at Jack out of the corner of his eye, and finds the hologram watching him now. "How is it every time I show up you idiots are in a worse situation?"
Rhys sighs, running his cybernetic hand through his hair – a nervous habit. Great. Now not only is he going to die in the next few minutes, but he's going to have to be picked on, too. Just great.
The day can't possibly get any worse.
"You're not helping," he mutters to the hologram.
Vasquez straightens up, removing his hand from his head, revealing a red mark from Rhys's mouth. Good. Serves him right. Asshole. "Alright, fun's over," he says. "Looks like we'll be settling for the shallow variety of grave." He brings the gun back up, leveling it with Rhys's chest. "Rhys, you die first, and then he can load your body into the car. I'll bury Vaughn myself."
"What?" Vaughn asks shakily.
"Yeah, they want this idiot's body for something up there," Vasquez says, confused. "Something, ah… important floating around in his head."
Rhys glances at Jack, catching his eye briefly.
"This is a prototype," Vasquez says smugly, glancing down at the gun still aimed at Rhys. "Most advanced gun Hyperion has ever made."
"Someone's overcompensating," Jack comments in Rhys's ear, sending shivers down his spine becausewow, Jack isreally close to him suddenly. If he actually had to breathe to speak those words would be ghosting across his ear, all breathy and warm andno, he does not need this right now.
He tries his best to just ignore the hologram in his last moments of life.
The gun charges up, an orb of energy surrounding the muzzle, and Rhys swallows thickly. This is it. This is the end of his life.
He's going to die here.
But suddenly the gun messes up, somehow.
It stutters, and the strange energy orb disperses. Rhys smirks, quirking a smug brow as he watches Vasquez attempt to fix it, looking all over on the gun.
"Any… last words?" Vasquez asks absently, looking the gun over.
Rhys chuckles faintly. "Two. Eat shit."
"Yeah, that's the spirit," Jack says somewhatproudly. It's… odd.
"I'll be sure to put 'ate shit' on your tombstone," Vasquez says, shaking his head.
"I'd be more worried about my tombstone if you knew where the safety was," Rhys says.
"You're hilarious. I'm gonna miss your…" Vasquez trails off, still attempting to find the safety.
"Okay, look," Jack says, suddenly stepping in front of Rhys, partially blocking his view of Vasquez and the gun. Only partially because the guyisa hologram, after all. "As much fun as it would be to watch this idiot kill you two idiots, I can't let that happen. I'm… I'm notinsideyou but I'm… Look, if you go,Igo. I've enhanced your ECHO-eye, so use it to hack something that can get us out of this jam. You can figure out how to pay me back later." He steps back to stand next to Rhys. "I've got your back."
There's this…feelingas Jack tries to clap a hand to Rhys's shoulder, like they're friends or something. It's so strange. It feels weird, and Jack's body just flickers and goes through him anyway. He wishes Jack would stop trying to touch him.
"Okay," Jack says, "mess this guy up."
Rhys activates his ECHO-eye with a thought, seeing the electric bits of the Hyperion gun and the car behind Vasquez. He goes for the car, hacking into it, and smirking when he realizes he can now see deeper subsystems than he could before. He now has access to other things… like the accelerator.
He activates the accelerator with a thought, using it to control the car.
While Vasquez is busy with the gun, Rhys quirks a brow and turns the car around so it's aimed at Vasquez.
Then, he sends the car rushing toward the guy.
Rhys jumps out of the way as the car smacks into Vasquez and through the place he previous occupied. Vasquez winds up on the ground, winded but not dead, and Rhys gets back to his feet, attempting to turn off his ECHO-eye, but it's taking longer than usual for some reason.
Jack is doing that loud laugh of his.
Rhys's cybernetic arm suddenly reaches out, fingers curling to point at Vasquez as Jack keeps laughing.
"Uh… what are you doing with your arm?" Vaughn asks.
"I'm… I'm not doing it," Rhys says, smacking at the arm with his flesh hand.
"Oh, hello," Jack says smugly, and next to him the hologram's hand turns palm-up. Rhys's cybernetic hand does the same.
Oh. Oh fucking shit.
Just fucking great.
Jack is controlling his cybernetic arm.
The hand moves off to the side briefly, and then toward Rhys's face.
"C'mon, let me hit ya," Jack says.
Rhys fights the cybernetic arm away with his flesh hand. "No, this is my arm! Get out!"
His grip falters briefly, and the cybernetic hand smacks into his face, momentarily blinding him from the pain. Jack laughs in his ear but vanishes in the middle of saying something. Hmm. Odd.
He doesn't have time to think about it though, because now Vaughn is running away.
He looks over and Vasquez is getting up.
Oh, shit.
Rhys moves to chase after Vaughn, then thinks better of it. Because Rhys is athinker. He likes making plans. He's good at it. It's not his fault if people don't listen to his ideas.
He uses his ECHO-eye to regain access to the car's subsystems.
He forces the car out of Vasquez's reach as the guy tries to climb inside it, presumably to run them over. Instead the car swerves around Vasquez and straight toward Rhys, stopping next to him to allow Rhys to enter said car. He gives up his ECHO-eye access and drives the car after Vaughn, leaving Vasquez shouting at him in the dust.
Vaughn keeps running, presumably thinking the car is driven by Vasquez.
Rhys drives in front of him and stops, throwing open the passenger door.
"Get in!" he snaps.
Vaughn does as he's told, immediately climbing inside the vehicle.
And they drive away from Vasquez and the desert heat.
xXx
"I'm sorry," Vaughn says quietly, after they're driving for a time. They're finally getting out of the desert, it seems; he can see greenery around them now.
Rhys ignores him. It's all he can do to keep calm right now. He's exhausted and pained and hurt in more ways than one. He doesn't want to talk about this right now. He just wants to get out of the desert.
"Rhys? I'm sorry."
"I heard you," he says, not unkindly, but not pleasantly either. It's this dull, flat sort of tone he usually hates and tries not to use on Vaughn, but he's too exhausted right now. He doesn't care how it makes his friend feel. Are they even friends anymore? Fuck, he doesn't know.
"I would never betray you," Vaughn tells him timidly. "You have to believe that."
"He offered me the deal too."
Vaughn's quiet for a moment. When he speaks again, his voice is full of shock. "Oh, really? What… What did you say?"
"I told him no," Rhys says flatly, giving his friend a dull look before returning his gaze on the road, right foot pressing down on the accelerator a little more, causing them to speed up.
I told him no, and you told him yes. You sold me out. You were going to sell me out.
And it fuckinghurts.
Rhys never had a lot of friends growing up. He came from a poor part of Eden-5; his parents had little to do with him for the most part, busy trying to earn a living, which was understandable. At the age of thirteen he was caught in a bandit raid, half of him blown to hell and back. He lost his left eye and his right arm. He was born left-handed, but had been raised ambidextrous, so losing his right arm wasn'ttoobad. It could have been worse.
Nevertheless, only having one arm and one eye was terrible.
He was a freak.
The planet fell into a depression of sorts, with all the major companies searching for vaults and riches and everything across the universe.
His parents couldn't afford to feed him anymore. None of the kids his age had anything to do with him after he lost his arm and became a cripple.
His parents sold him to Hyperion to be part of their experimental cybernetics program. It was a win-win, to them. They got money for handing over their son as a 'volunteer', and Rhys got his arm and eyesight back. Simple. It was a long and painful process, though, back in Tassiter's days of running the company. That guy was a grade-A asshole. Thank god Jack killed him.
Maybe that was one reason Rhys looked up to Jack for so long.
He took out the man responsible for a lot of unnecessary pain on Rhys's part.
The experimental process of getting a cybernetic Hyperion limb, and an ECHO-eye, was painful and dangerous. Most of the subjects died. It was painful to learn that, to his parents, that wasn't a downside. They couldn't afford to feed a cripple like him. If he had to die, at least it wasn't by starvation, and they technically did what they could for him. In their eyes, this was fine with them.
That hurt.
Betrayal always hurts.
But he didn't really havefriends. Didn't understand the concept.
Not until he met Vaughn when they were twenty and twenty-one, respectively. That was six years ago.
Six years of friendship, and Vaughn is willing to just turn on him.
It's painful, and it sucks, and Rhys doesn't have time for this shit.
Vaughn was his first real friend, hisbest friend, and Rhys would doanything for him. Anything.
And Vaughn was going to sell him out.
Betray him, like everyone else.
First his parents, then those scientists and engineers at Hyperion, then Fiona and Sashanotlooking for them, and nowthis. Vaughn betraying him.
It hurts worse than losing a limb.
And he's well-acquainted with that feeling.
"Rhys…?"
Vaughn's quiet voice breaks him out of his thoughts. There's a lump in his throat. Swallowing hurts.
"What?" he asks weakly, feeling utterly drained.
"You… You're going to break the steering wheel…"
Rhys takes in a shallow breath and looks down to see that his cybernetic hand is indeed close to crushing the steering wheel with his tight grip. He relaxes said grip and looks back at the road ahead.
They're finally out of the desert.
"Are you…? I know you're not okay, forget I said that. Okay. I just. I'm sorry. Okay?I'm sorry."
"Please stop talking," Rhys says tiredly.
He's too tired and spent andhurtfor this. He can't do this right now.
"Rhys, please… what would you have done? I was trying to buy us time and get him off our backs!"
"What would I have…?" Rhys turns a glare on his friend. "I told himno! He offered me the exact same thing he offered you but you know what the difference is?Ididn't turn onyou."
He snaps his mouth shut and leaves it at that.
Fuck. He hates snapping at Vaughn.
Hates it so much.
It does nothing to settle the cold ball ofhurtin his stomach.
Lashing out isn't a good idea, ever.
"I'm sorry," Vaughn says quietly. "I'm so sorry, Rhys. I just… I didn't know what to do. I thought I could play him. I thought… I was just… I wasn't going to betray you. I just wanted him off our backs. You're my best friend, Rhys. I wouldn't… I would never betray you."
He keeps saying that.
Rhys isn't sure who he's trying to convince: himself, or Rhys.
"Let's just play the silent game," Rhys says flatly.
Vaughn, thankfully, stays quiet.
xXx
Vaughn looks at Rhys occasionally. His friend's jaw is clenched tight, muscles jumping haphazardly. He really messed up. He knows he did, and he has no idea how to fix it. He's apologized over and over again, but Rhys won't listen.
I wasn't going to betray you, Rhys…
He really wasn't.
He would never betray Rhys.Ever. They're best friends. Vaughn was always a nerd, always teased and picked on and bullied for it, and Rhys was his first real friend. When he realized his new roommate was a cyborg of sorts, he wasn't sure what to think at first – a bit terrified, maybe, from watching those old movies about cyborgs trying to take over the planet, but that was just the nerd in him showing.
Rhys didn't look like a nerd, but he definitely was.
He and Vaughn got along sowell. It was perfect. His first real friend, and his roommate, no less. It was the best.
They aren't roommates anymore, of course; they each have their own apartments on Helios now. Or, used to. Because they're blacklisted now, and that panic from earlier threatens to consume his mind again. They're blacklisted, and stranded on Pandora, and everyone's trying to kill them, it seems.
Vaughn wasn't lying earlier when he said he never felt so alive.
It's… exhilarating, being on Pandora like this, but it's also terrifying and unsettling because he's not used to this. He wasn't made for this. He is an accountant for crying out loud. He's good with money and numbers; not surviving onPandora. Mixed up with vault hunters and bandits and grifters and…
And now Rhys hates him.
It hurts, it really does.
He didn't think things through enough, and that's his own fault. When he accepted Vasquez's deal, he was merely trying to get him off their backs. He had no doubt Rhys would come up with a plan to get them out of this mess; he always had a plan B. He always came up with something out of nowhere. He'd get them out of this mess. They just needed time.
So he tried to buy them some.
And it backfired spectacularly.
The way Rhys looked at him… so betrayed… so confused…
He never saw it coming. He trusted Vaughn.
Which is great, because Vaughndidn'tbetray Rhys. He never would.
Rhys is his best friend – the only person in the universe who probably gives a damn about him, besides Yvette. Rhys has been his best friend for six years. Vaughn would never betray him, but Rhys won't listen to him.
Vasquez offered the same deal to Rhys, and Rhys told him no.
Vaughn should have said no, too. He just… didn't think things through…
And now Rhys hates him.
And he has every right to, because Vaughn messed up and broke Rhys's trust.
I'm so sorry, Rhys…
"S-So," he says weakly, before clearing his throat, hoping his voice sounds at least a little stronger now, despite how small he feels. "Where are we going?"
Rhys spares him a quick glance with his brown eye before looking back out the window. Rhys can't even stand to look at him.
I'm sorry…
"We could meet up with the girls in… um… Hollow Point…" Vaughn starts to offer, before remembering that Rhys is angry with the girls, too, for not coming back for them. It's just another betrayal in his eyes, he's sure. Vaughn swallows thickly. "Or we can go to Old Haven. We know where they're going to be eventually going, so… they can just meet us there…"
Rhys is silent for a long time.
The silence is uncomfortable and wrong. Usually, their silences are companionable and easy, but now… now it's suffocating, and he hates it. He just wants Rhys totalk to him.
"Rhys?"
"Hollow Point," Rhys says with that same flat tone as before, the one Vaughn really hates.
"Okay," Vaughn says, because at least Rhys is talking to him, right? "So we'll meet up with the girls?"
Rhys nods once, and says nothing more.
Well. There goes that.
"Can you ever forgive me?" Vaughn asks softly.
Rhys's grip on the steering wheel tightens again, a muscle jumping in his jaw as he grits his teeth, keeping silent.
"I wasn't… I wasn't going to betray you… I would never… You have to believe me, Rhys. You're my best friend, I… please forgive me?"
"I'll think about it," Rhys says finally.
It's not much, but it's more than Vaughn had before.
He nods and goes quiet, knowing it's what Rhys wants. He'll give it to him.
For now.
