Rhys awkwardly fiddled with his jacket as Vaughn drove.
They had tried to leave over an hour ago, but they gotten stopped so many times along the way by people asking questions. Most people would ask what they were carrying, and not being able to say the truth they both came up with ridiculous lies. The people seemed to either buy it or not care enough to risk their lives trying to stop them, this was Pandora and if you messed with the wrong person you were pretty much digging your own grave. So finally after 30 minutes they had gotten to their car and had been able to continue their long drive again.
Now Rhys sat in the passengers side as Vaughn drove, he would watch as the Skags ran alongside the car but eventually they would slow down, unable to keep up with the vehicle. He would also notice the few times where Vaughn had almost hit a few of them but would swerve out of the way, he would make small comments to himself after about the creatures, talking about their first time on Pandora Rhys hitting one and not wanting to repeat that action.
After a while of Driving in silence, as Rhys had nothing to say and was deep in his own thoughts of what had happened earlier, Vaughn glanced over to see that Rhys was silently looking out at the desert that surrounded them.
"Okay, what's up Bro? You are so quiet and that's not like you." Vaughn asked, his face was filled with concern as Rhys turned to face him.
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing." Rhys responded, his eyes sneaking a glance at the smirking Jack in the backseat.
Rhys was flustered over everything that happened earlier that morning, but he wasn't about to tell Vaughn what had happened with Jack. Instead he pointed to a small beat up restaurant alongside the road as they reached an old small town that Rhys hadn't stopped at before.
"Hey, why don't we grab a bite to eat. You have been driving for a bit now and It's almost lunch time anyway." Rhys said, trying to distract Vaughn from the subject for at least a little while. Gladly this seemed to work as he took his suggestion and pulled aside, parking the car and jumping out.
"What's wrong, Cupcake? You look a bit flustered?" Jack teased, a big grin twisted onto his face that Rhys didn't even have to turn around to see.
The brunette boy rolled his eyes and followed Vaughn in, ignoring Jack for the time being. The sooner he got him to his body the better, especially with the Risk of him finding out about...
Rhys thoughts were cut off by his best friends voice.
"Oh man, Jacks knowledge may actually help us with the company. I mean he did run Hyperion fairly well." Vaughn said suddenly as they sat at their table for a moment.
"Hopefully." Rhys muttered under his breath, watching Jacks face of amusement.
"Hopefully? Cupcake, I am the best at everything I do. Wait till you see it all your little Atlas will be massive!" He laughed, holding his arm out to gesture. With this he had gotten too excited and taken control of Rhys arm, holding his hands up after as he saw Rhys glared at him. "Accident, kiddo. Man don't kill me. Oh wait filthy bandits beat you to that." His voice had an annoyed tone as he spoke.
Rhys couldn't respond as the waitress had made her way over to the pair to take their order and afterward he would listen to the chatter of his best friend. He would also catch a few comments here and there from Jack that he wanted to ignore but it was hard since he was loud and right beside him.
Vaughn seemed to notice that something was wrong and he wasn't responding like he normally had.
"What is really going on, Rhys? You are acting weird." The shorter man asked, stopping in the middle of his endless chatter, his expression turning from excited to worried.
The taller man gave him a weak smile as he tapped his cybernetic fingers on the beat up old table that was covered by an old blue tablecloth. He had glanced around at his surroundings, mostly to see who was around them and luckily there only seemed to be about 4 people in the diner besides the staff and them. He brought his voice down to a low whisper as he spoke just in case. "I guess I'm just anxious for the entire Jack body thing. I mean if we get caught you know how many people would want us dead? People hated Jack on this planet and we have his body in our car and are planning to bring him back to life. Plus we don't know what's even going to happen and if it will work the way it is suppose to."
Luckily Jack didn't seem to hear this as he was distracted, watching the waitress rush around, trying to get their order ready. Rhys had followed his gaze until he was brought back by a familiar ring tone that startled him and made him look down. He answered the call immediately, not looking to see who it was and was thankful when it wasn't Fiona to rip him apart again, asking where they were and what they were doing.
"Rhys." A womans gentle voice came through, Rhys stood quickly, recognizing it. He walked outside without a single word to the others and shook his head as he ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up. He didn't care about that though, not now at least.
"Why are you calling me? Actually, no how did you even get this number?" He questioned, making sure no one followed him.
"It was not hard, Rhys. I know all of the old Hyperion employee phone numbers. But that is unimportant, how is it going?" She questioned, her voice sounding more stern.
"I think good so far, we are almost there. He doesn't seem to realize anything yet. But..I must admit this feels..wrong to lie to him like this." Rhys said, glancing around yet again to make sure no one was listening.
"It's for the best. Like I said Rhys when you upload him into the body you need to press the red button. If you press the blue one our plan won't work and he will just be himself." She said, her voice sounding sad for a slight second before she firmly spoke again. "Do it, Rhys. This will be more beneficial for us and him in the end."
"I guess your right. Anyway, I should probably go back now. I will contact you when it is over." Rhys said, hanging up and turning to see Jack standing behind him. He almost dropped his phone but caught it at last minute before putting it in his pocket and looking over at Jack. "W-Woah. What are you- How long were you there?" He stuttered, voice shaking as he spoke.
"You were on the phone for a bit. I only just now got here. Why you so jumpy, Pumpkin?" Jack asked a slight grin on his face, looking around them before his eyes met the younger mans again.
"Stop teasing me, Jack." He grumbled, walking back in to see the food was at the table now, he simply started eating it and didn't say another word until he was done.
After paying the check he grabbed the car keys from Vaughn who looked surprised at this, considering the taller man drove for hours the day prior.
"We're almost there, I will drive the remaining time since I know the way to where we are going." Rhys explained, seeing his friend nod and his confused expression fade.
Vaughn happily obliged and hopped into the passengers side, fiddling with the radio station, he found a song that he knew and liked and started to hum with it after a long time of deciding.
"So how exactly did you find out about this place?" Vaughn asked after the song ended, turning the radio down a bit so they could talk.
"Oh ya know, heard rumors of the place and decided to check it out. Gotta get a leg up on any competition." Rhys responded, his voice sounded nervous as he spoke, seeing the blue glow from behind him and knowing full well that Jack had been sitting back there. He glanced into the rear view mirror to see the hologram and saw his lips curled into a thin line, eyes narrowed but he didn't look angry at the moment which was good, Rhys had realized he must have been concentrating on something. So he had tapped his fingers onto the steering wheel taking a deep breath and tried to find the words he wanted to. In the end he sighed and settled with something simple. "What are you going to do first when you get your body, Jack?"
Jacks attention seemed to be jerked out of the deep thought he was in and towards Rhys, a grin twisting onto his face. "Why do you wanna know? Wanna continue what happened in the bathroom?"
The younger mans face lit up and he grumbled a bit. "I'm not falling for whatever your saying again, Jack."
"What did he say?" Vaughn asked making Rhys jolt, almost forgetting his best friend was still there as Jack had all of his attention for the moment.
"N-Nothing!" Rhys quickly defended, hearing Jack say 'smooth' behind him with a snicker as he tried calming himself more. "He made up some crazy answer that wasn't serious at all. I don't know if he's going to..." His words trailed when he heard Jacks higher pitched snicker grow to a deep chortle in the backseat before he leaned back and stared blankly at nothing as if he were thinking about something.
It wasn't for a few minutes when Jack nodded and spoke in an oddly calm voice as all laughter had ended minutes prior. "I think I'd like to relax for once in my life. I've always been stuck in this chaos and for once I'd love to just relax. I miss sleeping, and eating and well living like a normal functioning human rather then being stuck in this annoying body where I have none of that. After then I can be the hero and all but first it's time to relax."
"Well, you can do all of those when we get back to Atlas after this." Rhys said, slowing the car and pointing to a large building that belonged to Hyperion when it was still running.
"Ah yes, I remember this now. It was one of our Pandora buildings that I built when I first became CEO and Nakayama and I created my AI. I remember all the technology inside of here and this should be fairly easy. If I remember correct you just press a button and I am myself in a body again. Oh but make sure you press the blue button." He commented, his voice stern as he spoke.
Rhys nodded and slid out of the car, glancing around.
"No bandits, lets do this quick before any show up and we have to deal with them." Rhys said, quickly rushing to open the backdoor where Vaughn had joined him at, both pulling Jacks body out of the car and towards the building. "Ughh, Jack why are you so heavy?!" Rhys groaned as they dragged his body towards the building slowly.
"Hey, Hey! Careful with my body, Babe. I need that in a few minutes." Jack said, his voice filled with excitement as he said the last part. Despite only being blue he could see the way his eyes lit up and brightened which made Rhys think back to his phone call earlier.
'You need to press the red button. If you press the blue one our plan won't work.' The words stuck in his mind as he thought deeply about what he was doing and what was right or wrong. Getting inside he saw the small chamber along with where he uploaded Jack into the computers before into the body.
The place was definitely Hyperion as the yellow logo stuck out clearly to Rhys along with the yellow on the walls as he glanced around.
After they sat him down Vaughn had been the one to hook him up to Rhys exact orders. As he was doing so Rhys had stepped back and turned towards Jack, asking if he was ready.
Jack had partially snapped, letting out a deep growl, asking him to go on and do it already so here Rhys was uploading him from his port to the computer.
"You ready Vaughn?" The lanky man asked, turning to look at him.
His friend gave him a thumbs up when he was ready on his side and Rhys nodded before turning his gaze to the giant computer screen in front of him where Jack flickered onto.
"Okay, lets do this." Rhys said, his Flesh hand hovering over the red button where Jack couldn't see it, ready to press it, he had accepted what he needed to do and was ready to go through with the plan he had set before.
"Rhysie, I owe you big for this." Jacks words cut Rhys out of his thoughts turning his attention fully to him. He was smiling at Rhys, a genuine smile that he rarely gave to anyone and yet here he was doing it again. Despite all of this though it wasn't until the next words spilled out of his mouth when Rhys eyes had widened in shock. "So...Thank you, Rhys. I knew I could trust you."
The lack of nicknames, the way he spoke. Handsome Jack trusted no one and yet here he was saying this.
Rhys let his lip turn upwards as he moved his hand and pressed the blue button.
"See you soon Jack." Was all he could spit out, before the sound of slow beeps became more steady from the monitor next to Jacks body.