AN: Please forgive me for two things. One, that this update took three weeks (life has been a little brutal lately). Two, that there may be some sneaky typos that get through my proofreading here, as I wrote this at daft o' clock after having already spending the previous seven hours writing another project. I do hope you enjoy this all the same, and if you could leave a review, that would be much appreciated.
He'd lost count of how long they had been trekking through Vaults. Long enough that it just felt like a way of life for Rhys now. Maybe this was it. Maybe this was karma finally catching up and planting her boot squarely between his butt cheeks for all those unsavoury deals on Hyperion. All those poor schmucks he got fired on his way to the top.
It occurred to Rhys that if he was getting bored and disillusioned with this situation, then Jack would almost certainly be —
It was at that exact moment that Rhys realised something was very, very wrong.
He was leading the way. Handsome Jack was not walking in front of him. In any other situation involving any other person, this would mean that said walking companion would be walking behind him.
But Handsome Jack was not any other person. He didn't walk behind anyone.
Spinning around with such gusto that he twisted his ankle and narrowly avoided crashing to the ground, Rhys' eyes darted left and right over the grassy field they'd been trudging over.
"Jack?!" He yelped — he told himself he was only worried because the guy was his main gunslinger against any of the horrors the Vaults might throw at them. "H-hey, Jack?!"
"Stopped walkin' about a mile back," AI Jack appeared in front of Rhys, making the man jump. He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder to emphasise the point, then shrugged. "Something about this suuuuucks and we're never gonna catch uuuuup. To be honest, between you and me? Sort of agree with him on this one."
"Oh, for the love of...why, why didn't he just say something?" Rhys complained.
"Well he did," AI Jack pointed out. "He literally said we're never gonna catch uuuuup."
"No I—goddammit, okay, guess we're backtracking for this fricking diva!" The CEO threw his hands up in the air in exasperation, before stomping through the AI and back the way he'd came. After about twenty minutes of furious power-walking, Rhys finally found the man lying flat on his back. He might have been worried that Jack's heart had decided enough was enough and packed in for good, had Jack not been lying there with his arms firmly crossed over his chest, sulking horizontally.
"Seriously?" Rhys greeted him, peering down at the other.
"Yeah," Jack replied, not moving a muscle. "Seriously. This is dumb. This whole thing is dumb. The Vault is dumb, the Warrior is dumb, the stupid alien Dum-Dum is dumb—"
"Wow, they never highlight the fact you're a poet alongside your long list of achievements..."
"—and this whole thing is dumb. We're not gonna catch it. And y'know what? So what if we don't?!"
"Jack, we've gone over this...we can't risk the Warrior getting out of the Vault system. It'll destroy everything."
"Nah nah nah, it'll kill everything. 'Cause that what I said. I said kill. And y'wanna know how many people I care about on Pandora? Hm? Go on, ask me."
Rhys sighed, sitting himself down. These sorts of conversations weren't short ones when it came to Jack. No doubt they're run in verbal circles for a while.
"...That's not the point, Jack."
"Well, maybe it is! Think about it. Vaults allll over the fricking universe. People got lured in, killed by the Guardians, right? But the last few years? We've been going in and kicking these Vault monsters' butts!"
Rhys had tuned out a little from Jack's rant, but found himself narrowing his eyes in curiosity at what the other man was saying now. He...kind of had a point. "The four Vault Hunters who beat the Warrior before are out on Pandora. So if it bashes its way out, they'll band together to do their stupid little hero act," Jack started laughing at the thought, but made a valiant effort to continue, "and then stop it again. Meanwhile, even if we catch this sucka and put it back in its playpen, that solves literally nothing. These Vaults are being popped open all over the place, pumpkin. One by one. Seal one up ain't gonna change jack. Or Jack. So Jackie ain't moving."
"You're...gonna leave it to the Vault Hunters?"
"No!" Jack sat bolt upright then, a face of fury directed squarely at Rhys for even entertaining the idea. "No, I'm fricking using them. Like I always do! They're dumb, I'm not, they can deal with this crap like I know they're gonna, 'cause they have a one track mind. Kill-big-monstaaaah, shooty-shooty-looty, that's all they got!"
Rhys considered it for a moment. It was a risk, but in truth, they were only getting slower as exhaustion and injuries piled up. He was sure they were even keeping pace any more; he could see further than Jack, and his Siren ability helpfully showed him that the gap between them and the Warrior was only widening. If the Watcher wanted it back so badly, they needed to lend a helping hand. And he had to admit, the idea of helping the alien maintain this weird hive-system slaughterhouse hadn't rested well on Rhys' conscience.
"Okay...you might not have people you care about anywhere beyond yourself, but I do. Vaughn's still out there, Fiona, Zer—" Rhys felt the daggers of Jack's suspicious glare cut off that particular name before a tantrum could start, "Zeeeeerrrrraaaa? M-my good friend Zera, yeah, errr, and er, yeah anyway, I don't really wanna let the Warrior get out to Pandora."
"Go chase it then."
"I can't do this on my own, Jack."
"Glad I was sittin' down for that shocker, Rhysie..."
Rhys inhaled. And exhaled.
Don't rise to it, he thought to himself.
"Anyway, I get what you're saying. So, how about this — the Warrior didn't kill this Vault's guardian, right?"
Jack looked around, then patted the soft grass either side of him.
"Seems alright."
"And I can see it already smashed through to another Vault. I dunno, maybe it couldn't find the Vault guardian here...anyway, that means the door outside is still active here. We stay here, I keep checking on where the Warrior is, and if it gets out into Pandora, we get out of here and stop it. But hopefully, the Watcher will pay us a visit before then and help us get it back to the Vault before that can happen."
Jack's lips pursed, twisting to the side a little.
"Why not just get out of this Vault, go our separate ways, fire up our companies and you just send me a text if the Warrior comes out the play, huh? We can do some epic crossover event! It'd be great publicity for Atlas! Aaaand, y'know, stopping the Warrior in front of a whole planet a-watchin' sounds like good PR for me too."
"Because we're trying to get the Watcher to show up here and give us a hand. We're just...going on strike."
"What's that?"
"Y'know...when you stand up for your rights as an overworked employee and refuse to do your job."
"...I don't get it."
"Look, never mind, just...let's find somewhere a little less out in the open," Rhys sighed, looking around. "We want the Watcher to find us, but not the Vault monster."
They had decided now would be a good time to do something fruitful. Something both of them could enjoy. After all, they were both grown men. They had, despite everything, grown rather close over their weeks of Vault-dashing. It was hardly surprising then that Jack's arms were around him, his lips close to Rhys' ear…
...with that unhinged laughter exploding mere millimetres from Rhys' poor eardrums as he once again failed to shoot a target 10 yards away.
"Oh my god, how?!" Jack wheeze, moving away from where he had been standing behind Rhys to guide his arms and, by extension, the handgun Angel had digistructed for them. "It's literally right there! It would be more effort to fricking miss!"
His whole face burning red, it was, at last, Rhys' turn to sulk.
"It's not my fault Hyperion guns have crappy aim!"
"...Y'serious? We're literally the makers of the most precise weaponry in the universe. It's our thing. You did work for me, right?" Jack snorted, grinning over at Rhys.
"Y-yeah b-b-but...but reverse recoil..."
"Oh, right, yeah, I'll give you that. You gotta actually shoot the thing for the stabilisers to kick in and make you accurate," Jack laughed. "What, ya wanna Atlas pew-pew?"
"You know, it's really bold of you to teach me how to shoot, Jack," Rhys drawled, glaring at the other man. "Reaaaaally bold."
"So long as I don't zig-zag wildly when I run, I'm safe from your bullets, Prince Charming," Jack nodded over at the bullet holes in the trees growing far to the right of Rhys' makeshift target. Then he sighed, walking back over to Rhys with a shrug. "But, your Siren powers don't seem to be much good for offence, so we gotta get you fighting somehow. C'mon, let's try again."
Rhys was still sulking a little as he turned back to face the target, Jack's hands clamping to steady his wrists as he trained the gun on the target.
"Stop thinking too much," Jack snapped.
"I'm trying," Rhys hissed, taking his eyes off the target for a section to side-eye the man. As he did so, he spotted AI Jack looking decidedly grumpy off to the side. Seeing the AI gave him an idea, and he tried to subtly nod at the program and jerked his head to gesture at the gun. The AI blinked, pointed at himself, and frowned.
Rhys nodded at he gun.
AI Jack looked at it, then broke out into a grin.
"Aw yeah! Teamwork makes dreamwork, baby, even outta Rhysie's shitastic aiming skills! I got this, pumpkin, you just sit tight and squeeze the trigger!"
Never had regret hit Rhys quite so hard as it did in that moment. Still, the AI disappeared into the gun, the weapon vibrating slightly in Rhys' hands. At least the AI had the good sense not to start yapping through the firearm and give the game away to Jack.
"...Y'know that gun model has a really blistering firewall that burns up any unauthorised code, right?" Jack hummed innocently into Rhys' ear.
"What?!" Rhys leapt forward and away from Jack, throwing the gun up in the air and scrambling to catch it. "N-no! Oh shit, Jack?! Can you hear me?!" He yelped, screaming at the gun in his hands. "Jack, say something! I'm gonna get you outta there, I promise you! I'm gonna get you out of there! I'm gonna do everything it takes to make sure you get out of there! You don't belong in there!"
"...Yo."
Rhys looked up, his panic subsiding as he spotted the AI floating awkwardly next to the real deal. Both of them had the exact same expression of pity on their faces.
"He was messing with ya, dummy."
"I was messing with ya, dummy."
Rhys let his eyes close as he tried to calm his breathing down. Why? Why did he even bother caring about either of this duplicated jackasses? It was a strain on his life, his health, his blood pressure, everything.
"How did you know?"
Jack's eyes went wide, and he tilted his head to the side a little.
"Seriously? No, no, you tell me — what part of that whole shebang was subtle to you? It looked like you wanted to sneeze and it got stuck or something," Jack tapped the side of his nose with one finger.
"I think I preferred it when you guys hated each other," Rhys mumbled.
"Oh, I still hate the fleshbag," AI Jack interjected quickly. "This totally wasn't planned. This screw-up is aaaall on you, pumpkin."
Once Rhys had become consistent enough to shoot at least in the right direction, the pair had called it a night. The Watcher had not appeared, and Rhys could only assume the alien had not yet noticed their sudden lack of protest. He found himself sitting near the fire Jack had built, fidgeting and wringing his hands.
He had kind of hoped the Watcher would show.
True, they had a back-up plan. To try and calm his nerves, Rhys fell back on that plan now, and the markings on his arms began to emit an ever-brightening glow. After a short time spent searching, he found the Warrior many Vaults along from them, still carving out its battering-ram route. Sure, if it got out, they could scramble to get out and fight it out in Pandora with a full supply of resources behind them. But really, Rhys would rather it didn't come to that — if it got out, there was every chance they wouldn't be able to stop it before it killed someone.
C'mon, he thought to himself, willing the Watcher to show. Give us something.
"Still gettin' lost?"
Jack's voice brought Rhys' attention and vision snapping back to his current position, throwing the man dizzy for a moment.
"Y-yeah, it's pretty far away but still in a Vault."
"Cool. Maybe it'll stumble on a really big guardian that'll knock the snot out of him for us," Jack mused, sitting himself down next to Rhys. "Then we can just roll up, grab 'im by the ankles and drag him back. God, what a frickin' waste of time he turned out to be. Y'know how much I did to wake the Warrior? How much I sacrificed? God, just...nothing lives up to expectation any more."
Tell me about it…Rhys couldn't help but think to himself.
"You seemed pretty set on it. What made you so sure?" Rhys asked, doing his best to feign ignorance even though he knew damn well what had spurred Jack along this path. The man didn't answer right away, and Rhys more than expected him to tell him a lie or tell him to mind his own business.
But the scathing comment never came. In fact, Jack echoed a sentiment Rhys had already heard once before in Jack's voice, albeit from his digital doppelgänger.
"Don't usually like people knowin' about it, to be honest, but…you and me are pretty tight," Jack admitted, leaning back a little onto his hands. "Opened a Vault on Elpis, y'all know that. But err...yeah, the Vault treasure was a relic? Really...not what I was looking for. But turned out that was fine, 'cause I found something better. I got these visions when I touched the relic. The Warrior, all these Vaults, a fricking rampage of fire, and Pandora!" As Jack spoke, his voice began to lilt into a strange combination of excitement and then, sharply, numbness. "Pandora on fire. God, it was beautiful. Everyone who'd wronged me up until that moment, aaaaall of 'em burning 'cause of me. And boy did it feel good to see it."
Rhys swallowed against a dry lump forming in his throat. This? This was the worst part of Jack. The part that he hated to see in any capacity. The part that made that voice whisper in the back of his mind that not only could this man not be saved, that he didn't deserve to be.
"B-but that's not why you opened the Vault?" Rhys stammered, half-hoping to root Jack back down on the ground again. Indeed, the older man blinked slowly.
"Wha?"
"You looked for Vaults before that vision, right? You had a reason to be looking before you saw all the...that."
"I...errr...well, y'know...treasure and stuff?" Jack replied, though his words were slower and less sure than before, as though all the energy had drained from him trying to recall why.
Rhys sat up a little straighter, leaning a little closer to Jack. It was oddly fascinating to see these rare moments where Jack's carefully-crafted ego fell away a little.
"Was it? 'Cause there are easier ways to get more money than busting open a Vault, Jack. Especially when you work for Hyperion. Wouldn't a promotion have been easier?"
"Well...y-yeah, but...that's not...there was something...probably?"
C'mon Jack...I'm trying to help you out here. And me. Kinda, Rhys thought. Then, sitting on the grass a little further to the side of them, Angel glimmered into view, legs crossed and hand clasped on her shins. She was watching Jack, but she was nearly as blank-faced as her father.
"There it is. He just shuts down if you try and tease out anything remotely not about him," she said bitterly. "I remember the first time I saw him do this. I cried. I just burst into tears 'cause I thought he was dying. Mom had to sit me down and explain it to me. That sometimes, Dad just...zones out. He goes away for a little while. Think that's why I thought after he came out of that Vault the way he did...that maybe 'Dad had just gone away for a little while' again. That he'd come back. But he didn't. That Vault turned all his dials up to eleven, and he didn't even try and fix it. He just lashed out at everyone. God, he can't even remember why he first started looking at Vault's cause it wasn't about him. He really is an a-asshole," Angel stuttered over the last word, as though it was strange for her to say.
God dammit, Jack, there's gotta be something. I know you genuinely wanted to help people once...that's gotta still be there somewhere, right? Rhys thought, trying once again:
"You said you're the hero. Why would a hero want to open a Vault?"
"I am the hero...I wanted to burn the bandits...after...that Vault…?" Jack half-slurred, eyes unfocussed save for looking uncomfortable. "I err…I don't wanna talk about it. Shuddup, Rhys..."
"Even if that were true, even if you just wanted to burn the bandits, you know that wouldn't do anything. You know it!" Rhys protested, nearly overwhelmed by the urge to grab Jack by the shoulders and shake him. "You know, my family? Long story short, they got crushed by Atlas. The whole reason I joined Hyperion was to take those bastards down. To make 'em pay. And Atlas did go down! The guys who screwed my father over got ground into the dirt, and it was meant to make me feel better. It was meant to make me feel how you think you're gonna feel if you burn every bandit in the galaxy. But it didn't. That numb cold in your chest? That's not gonna go away when you kill all the bandits to avenge her."
Jack's mouth opened, he looked as though he wanted to interject, but Rhys barrelled on with panic-induced confidence. "Yeah! I know about that! It sucked, it was a tragedy, and I'm sorry it happened to you and Angel. But that one bandit died years ago. Killing people who had nothing to do with it won't make you feel better. Has it ever made you feel better, hm? Up till now?"
"...Kinda?"
"Oh my god, you're impossible..." Rhys despaired, putting his head in his hands.
"Naw but...kinda?" Jack repeated, sounding a little more focussed. "'Cause I'm killing the bad guys before they can hurt other families. These bandits can't do to good, decent people what they did to me 'cause I'm gonna kill 'em before they can!"
"That doesn't make you a hero, Jack!" Rhys snapped, shocking himself for saying it. "Heroes don't see the worst in people. They don't just look at people and see their potential to do wrong. They have to believe in the good left in the world. And you don't!"
"Angel."
"No, 'cause you just think everyone's gonna betra—wait, what?" Rhys stopped his riot of words and stared at Jack. Even Jack looked mildly shocked at his odd choice of interjection.
"Angel. That was why I first started looking at the Vaults," Jack said, sounding unsure, as though waking from a dream and trying to recall the details. "I...forgot?"