Rhys rushed towards his office and closed the door behind him. He was trying to ignore the shimmery blue silhouette following him.
As Rhys was finally catching his breath, the silhouette of Handsome Jack went through the door.
"Hey, wait up Pumpkin! So that was your girlfriend back there? Nice little a-"
"You couldn't just stay put for five minutes?" interrupted Rhys.
Jack chuckled. He had appeared just as Rhys was managing to forget his "situation" and enjoy his time with Ashe.
"Agh, don't take it like that Rhysie." Said Jack, visibly amused. "You know, I would have enjoyed a bit of action. Man, it's been a while!"
Rhys was clearly not as cheerful as Jack was. He was embarrassed the former CEO had seen him in a state of arousal and was still not sure if Jack could share feeling while he was in… his head? The young man was not sure exactly where Jack's hologram was stored and he wasn't sure he wanted to know.
Rhys sat at his desk, holding his head with both his hands. He felt trapped. He wanted to act as if everything was normal but things were definitely NOT. And had he told the truth, everyone would probably think he was crazy. After all, how could he be seeing Handsome Jack? He had been dead for two years!
Giving up on the idea of working, he went out his office again, well decided to speak to Professor Nakamura.
"Where you going now?" asked Jack, still at Rhys' side.
"We need to know more about what is going on." whispered Rhys. Even if the corridor was empty, he didn't want to have any bad surprise.
"Yeah." Jack agreed, which surprised Rhys. It was the first time Jack had every said anything positive about what he was doing. "I don't actually get what is going on either. I mean, you said I was dead but clearly I'm still here!"
"You're a hologram." Cautiously said Rhys.
He had tried to explain to Jack his situation, but even him wasn't quite sure. He assumed it had something to do with the artefact he had touched, and the "Gortys Project". Nakamura had access to secret projects, surely he would know.
Rhys entered the professor's office without knocking, too preoccupied to care about social conventions. The professor was reading a document, tapping the side of his head with a pen, as if he was trying to remember something.
"Professor Nakamura?"
The professor looked up. He didn't seem too happy to be disturbed.
"What?" he rudely said.
Rhys felt his stomach tying into a knot. He wasn't sure where to start, the only person he had told was Vaughn and the conversation had not particularly gone smoothly. Vaughn had first thought that Rhys had hit his head or something like that.
"I have something important to tell you." Simply said Rhys.
The professor didn't seem impressed. He remained silent, still staring at the young man.
"About Handsome Jack." Rhys added.
Nakamura smiled, showing a chair. He was now clearly a lot more interested in what Rhys had to say.
The young man tried to be as thorough and clear as possible. He mentioned the lab he discovered, the Gortys Project and the artefact. When he started talking about the hologram, the professor's eyes started to tinkle.
Nakamura had numerous questions for Rhys, which he tried to answer as well as he could.
"Would you mind if I examined you?" asked the professor. "Running a few tests will help us understand what is exactly happening."
Rhys agreed.
"Hey, anybody cares about my opinion?"
Jack was standing behind the professor, arms crossed.
As the professor could not hear Jack, Rhys decided to ignore him.
Nakamura stood up and invited Rhys to join him.
"Follow me, please."