It was cold. So, so cold.
Everything was completely pitch black and empty. He could just barely feel something behind him, pushing on his back. If there was gravity, that was its only sign of existing here.
He put a hand in front of his face. Or, at least he thought he did.
Nothing. Nothing at all. Just him and the dark. Was he dead? Was this the real hell? He couldn't quite remember who he was, couldn't be quite sure of anything- but something told him he probably did enough in his lifetime to deserve it.
Then there was a flash of light.
Something constricted on him.
Another.
A fuzzy image of a small figure very close to him.
His neck felt tight. He couldn't breathe.
He blinked and saw it again, longer this time. The figure started coming into focus. Floppy ears, brown hair and bits of fuzz, the son of his wife- his own adopted child.
Peter.
Peter's hands were wrapped tightly around his neck. The child's dark, deep black eyes seemed glazed over, like there was nothing really behind them, in some sort of trance. He didn't know what he was doing, not really.
He gasped for air and tried to look around for the rest of the vision again, groping about in the nothingness as it fell through his fingers once more.
But when he got a glimpse, he wished he didn't. Farther away, a man with a cold stare was in the corner of his vision, sitting at his desk with head resting on his hands and watching the exchange take place as he begged for his life and his lungs started running out of air. Still, cool, calm. Utterly and completely uncaring about what he'd just told Peter to do. Shadows danced behind him. He wasn't human. Not at all. The furthest thing from it.
Who was he?
He couldn't remember his own name yet- but that man. That monster who'd hurt and killed so many people... Who hypnotized him to do his bidding, who he'd tried and failed to stop- it was just on the tip of his tongue. Did he have a tongue in this void?
Irving Braxiatel.
Did he kill him to stop him from telling Benny his plans? Was this death? Or was it something else? Something more... sinister? Or did he just pass out, and he'd actually wake up any second?
Then he heard it- the muffled words of a strange man's voice, and... numbers. A very long string of them, beamed directly into his brain. Jason had absolutely no idea what they meant, but whatever they were, they seemed important-
Jason.
That was his name.
He was Jason Kane.
And he was waking up. That's all he knew. He'd been dreaming. And now he was waking up. After all this time. Finally.
A tiny line of light to the side of him was practically blinding after all this black. And the light was growing, slowly. It expanded around Jason, enveloping him. There was something there, but he couldn't see that either. Too much light.
It took a minute or so for his eyes to even remotely adjust. It hurt still. Both the imagined pressure on his throat still, and the blinding. But he was growing accustomed to it, slowly. Very, very slowly.
When he could actually see anything again, he realized the light was never really that bright after all. In fact, it was quite dim and cool. It seemed to be some sort of storage room. While odd that he'd wake up here, this particular one seemed oddly familiar. And that was rarely a good thing nowadays.
Stretching his very numb limbs and realizing he'd been lying down all along, he attempted to pull them back and get up. It wasn't easy, but finally he got them to cooperate and move roughly in the way he wanted them to. It felt like he hadn't done this for years.
Something particularly concerning, he realized, was that after he got up he got a closer look at what he had been inside. Something that was never a good sign at all.
A casket.
How lovely.
Well, that seemed to confirm one thing. He had been dead, really. And Braxiatel had killed him, or at least thought he did. He had to find Benny, warn her about him, what he was really willing to do and how much power he really still had. Tell her how much he loved and missed her, even though it only seemed like it had been hours ago. And take down Brax before he could hurt anyone else.
There weren't any weapons inside this storage room. Only cleaning supplies. He groaned with a disused and somewhat scratchy voice. He could've gotten a broom handle, but realistically that was only a way to make him angry and get killed faster with how strong Brax could really be.
Sighing, he groped around until he finally found the door. At least it was unlocked, he really wasn't in a state where he'd have enough precise enough motor control to pick it. Taking a large breath and holding it, he pushed it open a crack. The light outside was even brighter than in here, as would be expected. He mercifully let his eyes adjust a bit again before he opened it all the way.
Finally, he swung it around and he could really see what was outside. A familiar sight, Jason wasn't sure if it was calming or filling him with the worst kind of dread.
The Braxiatel Collection mansionhouse.
Jason knew where Benny would be. It seemed the right time, she'd probably be grading in her office, or working on necessities with Braxiatel or Bev so the Collection wouldn't collapse or get invaded again. Or be getting hypnotized, or blackmailed, or forced to stay if she found out about this- but he was being optimistic... for now.
He crept his way through the halls in hopes of not being noticed. Not a single person seemed to be around, which was either a good sign or a terrible omen. Finally, stepping past all the chandeliers and priceless art, up a staircase despite his aching muscles, and through another door, he made it to the outside of Bernice's office.
'Professor Bernice Summerfield: Head Archaeology Chair, Teacher, Artifact Consultant' was what the plaque on the door read. Missing a few credentials there. But it was just the formal stuff, and that hadn't seemed to change, at least.
Reluctantly, he knocked twice.
"Come in!" he heard her shout.
Bernice Surprise Summerfield, oh he missed her so much. Just hearing her voice muffled through the wood was something magical and warming.
He opened the door, slowly. The scene he saw was not something he expected.
It was certainly her office alright, that much was clear. Messy with old drinks glasses and food containers, floppy screens, paper and other media strewn across the place, that was just so her. And she was there, having several holoscreens up with various documents, but there wasn't anything bothering her at all. Everything seemed completely normal. But... she seemed older. Not stressed, or anything of the sort. But there were small age lines on her face and a few strands of grey in her dark hair.
"Benny," he murmured, softly, sadly.
She perked up at the sound of his voice. Not the sort of perking up you'd expect from your ex-wife, regardless of the situation. A sort of confused and startled sound.
"I didn't think you were allowed in the mansionhouse-" she raised an eyebrow and frowned, before she finally got a proper look at him.
"Probably not anymore, but c'mere," he approached the desk as she stood up and walked toward him to meet in the middle. He tilted his head and leaned over, but before he could offer a kiss, something startled Jason very much.
She'd slapped him. Hard.
There was a dawning realization on Benny's face as she processed it all. He was her Jason. The look of love and concern in his eyes, seeming a little younger, and not seeming to know- it couldn't be anyone else. But her frown fell into a glare, dark eyes boring into him.
"What did I do this time?!" he shouted in exasperation.
But she very much wasn't in the mood now. It had been so many years now, and she thought she'd moved on. And if anyone from the Collection was meant to have a double out and about the universe, (provided the clones were gone anyway-) Jason Kane was not supposed to be one of them. Not at all. It was wrong and strange. Trying to understand it, it took a while for her to find the words, and what she finally came up with was a sternly toned, "I'm not interested anymore. I'm just. Not. Interested."
Confused, but trying to accept her feelings all the same, Jason fell back. "Oh, okay, alright. -Why? Benny?"
"Long story."
Before two very short dig trips, she had visited the Oracle a few weeks prior, against all better judgment. Something about things lasting, but being turbulent. This must have been it.
As if on queue, a powerful presence made itself known behind them. An aura of darkness and evil and fear. But also love, and warmth, and genuine concern. Bang on the dot and speak of the devil, Irving Braxiatel popped by for a visit. Tall and impeccably dressed, exactly as he remembered. But not quite as cold, it seemed.
"Well- this just got a bit complicated," Brax mused, frowning at the scene unfolding.
Falling into her chair, Bernice muttered, "It has, rather," and grumbled.
Puzzled and now more than a bit worried, Jason shouted. "I'm already lost. Really, what did I do? What the hell is going on!?"
Brax cleared his throat awkwardly, but still loomed over him. Their height differences seemed staggering right about now. Not that they wouldn't, given that he was standing right next to the man who murdered him in cold blood. But there was an air of... doubt. Brax rubbed the back of his neck.
"Erm, well, it seems in your absence, Bernice has- uh... moved on..."
His eyes darted between them. That left just so many questions. "What, how- how long has it been? Braxiatel- why is she willing to stay around if she'd know what you did, and if you mean what I think you do, then who with?"
"You have no right being jealous..." she muttered, not explaining herself in the least until she had time to garner an idea of what was really happening.
"I just wanna know! I am your ex-husband, aren't I?" Unfortunately, the lack of context was getting to him. Yes, he was used to being slapped by Benny. No, he was not used to things being like this, whatever this was.
So Brax did his best to do so in her stead. "Unfortunately I can't answer all of your questions, Jason Kane- aside from the very last one. The- uh... person that she's currently become involved with is, erm... me."
"What- Benny?!" They could both see it in his expression. Jason didn't judge her decisions often, because he usually really didn't have the right- but this was definitely something different. They probably should have expected that. Not everyone was approving so far- the information had spread in the past weeks, but if anyone deserved to be angry, it was him.
Bernice stepped around him uncomfortably to stand by Brax, then took hold of his hand. Thinking better of it, she then instead crossed her arms to look suitably cross and condescending. "You were off goddess knows where, doing a crukking Schrodinger's cat!" There was clear denial of the pain she was experiencing from seeing him. But shouting at him was how things tended to go if she got hurt. Same old story, really.
Braxiatel rolled his eyes and chuckled softly. With smug sarcasm, he tutted. "You were doing the cat this time, Jason? Honestly, have you no shame?" he smirked.
"But Brax?!" He still couldn't get it through his head- at best he thought this whole thing had been one-sided. Evidently not.
"At least Brax came back!" she yelled, before growling a bit.
"Benny!"
"JASON!"
At this rate of change, things were going to escalate soon. But Brax took Benny's hand again before she started sharpening her claws for a catfight, and she froze in place, realizing what she was doing. Softening to a state of tired annoyance rather than the precipice of true fury, Bernice just groaned and put her free hand to her forehead. "-I need a drink. When's the Rabbit getting here?"
Irving counted it over, then unfortunately gave what wasn't quite the desired answer. "Umm-...Tomorrow." Glancing at Benny, then Jason, he added, "Maybe I should leave you two to... talk."
Wishing to no longer have any part in this row, Brax turned tail and walked out of a door. Not the door to the hall, he wanted to stay close and listen in while still not being in the fray- but the door over to her bedroom. While he trusted Bernice, if anything happened between them other than fighting, he'd be around to stop that in its tracks.
Fortunately not noticing the direction Braxiatel took and focusing back on Benny, his face fell from anger and frustration to worry. "Did he- did he really kill me? I sort of remember, him, Peter- but Benny..."
She wasn't sure what to say to that. Yes, Jason had definitely died to a Brax. No, he wasn't dead now. And also, no- that didn't technically happen and he shouldn't exist in the wider universe now at all. But this Brax obviously remembered some things the old Brax did? There was too much hitting her at once and he needed to know that. So in response, Bernice turned cold. "That's a more complicated question than I'm willing to unpack after not seeing you for over a decade."
" That long?"
"Yes, really- I don't know everything about this timeline, but it's been more like fifteen years for me." That didn't really explain anything, and she knew it. But she couldn't really bring herself to care.
"Timelines...?"
Wonderful. She told him about that, didn't she? That was why he killed him, and if he thought she actually knew all along? Not helping matters. "Irving Braxiatel! I'm gonna need your help on this one!"
He huffed in a particularly indignant Braxiatelian manner, and stepped back through the door. Rolling his eyes, he explained, "What do you want me to say? I don't even know all of what that Brax did and what I do know about, I find largely unsavoury."
He didn't have to know about the nightmares. Nobody had to know about the nightmares. Benny somewhat got the idea of his memories being out of place, he thought. But while he barely remembered much about this Jason other than what he did to him, deep in his bones he still hated him more than any other sentient being. He'd been a problem before, and Braxiatel made problems go away. But they'd pressed erase on that, and evidently this particular problem decided that he should occur again.
Suffice to say, Jason wasn't even remotely convinced. "I don't believe you Brax, don't play dumb with me. I'm not gonna be a pawn in any more of your games! You're a monster and that's all there is to it, Brax."
Bernice shot him a glare at the 'monster' comment. "No. He's. Not. Really! He's not even the same Braxiatel. Different timeline. That one... sort of died horribly..." she trailed off. No, not the best way to phrase things- but it was a start.
"I like to think I'm much nicer than him!" Brax harrumphed, then crossed his arms.
"Largely, yes. You are," she affirmed, patting him on the back soothingly.
Jason looked back and forth between the odd pair, still trying to rationalize it. Regardless of if he really wasn't as awful as before, it didn't make a lick of sense. "But you're just okay... with him? Is he even your type?"
"That's what I said!"
"My type is much broader than you two may think," Benny said through gritted teeth.
Jason scratched the back of his head, trying not to sound too condescending about it. "Apparently..."
Very slightly smug from the comments, and being the one beside Benny and not the other way around, he laughed softly. "I think that's a good thing, right? A little variety never hurt anyone, huh?"
Benny tapped her foot. "While it's great to finally see you after all these years I'm still extremely angry. Things got set right back then, so where the hell have you been?"
Jason scratched the back of his head again. "Erm... a storage closet three halls away?"
"WHAT?!" she screeched.
Brax swallowed awkwardly. "Admittedly I haven't explored all the corners of The Collection... How this was missed though is simply beyond me."
Braxiatel was lost. Irving Braxiatel was lost. As if this day couldn't get much worse before. Offering a tired sigh and taking her cold coffee up from the desk, she muttered. "Goddess... Can't wait long enough for that massage you promised me now, can I...?"
"Benny... not in front of Jason. I'd rather not get shot today." But despite his words, Brax got closer to Bernice and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
"I'm not armed! Maybe I should've gotten a broom handle or something." He motioned about them. There was still fear in his eyes but his defensiveness was growing again at Braxiatel's words. "I just... wasn't expecting this."
"You're not the only one!" Benny shot back, before staring off in puzzlement again.
Irving rolled his eyes. "Well, getting stabbed with a broom handle isn't high on my bucket list either. It sounds like one of the less pleasant ways to regenerate. Especially if it was to Jason. That would be beyond shameful, regardless of which he may be."
She escaped her trance and calmed down enough to say something rational and reasonable. Putting an arm past Brax's waist and leaning in to rest shoulder to shoulder, Benny said, "What matters Jason- is that Brax is making me happy. I can't exactly say that for most of the time we were actually together."
And she was right. When they were married, or dating again, or anything really- it was practically nonstop on-and-off fighting. Regardless of how much love was really there, they were terrible for each other, definitely more so than her and Braxiatel, at the very least.
Trying to think of a rational reason for all of this, Jason just said what was on his mind, even if it wasn't exactly the most pleasant suggestion. "Maybe I should have gotten a broom handle. Are you sure you're not hypnotized?"
Brax rarely if ever seemed quite so appalled at something as that. He knew what it was like, and it left him utterly disgusted.
"I would never."
Her voice got serious and matter-of-fact. "Look. One thing even that Brax never did was hypnotize me. I think."
"And I would never hypnotize someone- anyone, for romantic purposes. There's manipulation for some gain and then there's the unpleasantness of grooming."
Jason backed off a bit, but puffed out his chest. "God- you really do love her. I suspected, but you'd always just say she was useful. Every time I asked you'd deny it. Turns out I was right, wasn't I?"
Bernice shot another glare. "You thought that about the old Braxiatel? Like I ever believed that. You really are jealous."
Brax shrugged. "I really don't know the finer details of the other Braxiatel's relationship with Bernice. If I did, I might know why you're still quite so angry with me."
"It was a whole lot more confusing," she remarked.
"Understatement of the century," Jason added.
"Yes, I got more than a little paranoid and evil in my old age. With any luck, I won't end up like that," he stated.
"You were doing evil things in what became a rather shoddy and violent attempt at working for the greater good. I can't wrap my head around it. You're not like that now. I'm still making sure it stays that way."
"Right, yes... that doesn't sound like me at all..." He muttered it, but knew that wasn't quite true. He still had to do some violent things for the greater good this time. Significantly fewer, yes- but violent all the same. And with a picture of some of those things, Brax knew that they were very much like him, end of the rope or not.
She patted his arm. "Hopefully not. Because your attempts are far from shoddy so far. I think he just got extremely carried away..."
This next thing wasn't a lie, at least. "Well, I can understand his desire to protect himself and his home..."
Finally getting that Benny was not intent on taking his side, Jason continued backing off. "Don't kill me again though, please. If that's really what happened-"
"I can't imagine why I would. With how different my plans evidently are, and Benny's attachment to you in addition to my traditional morals, I very much don't want to do so." He rolled his eyes at the end of it.
"Thanks, I suppose. Don't exactly like that much, but I'll live, I guess. Literally."
Pitching in again, Bernice spoke, "Jason. I'm with Braxiatel now. But I hope, even though we aren't raising Peter anymore and aren't bound as family like that, we can still be friends. And you can respect my choice?" she pleaded.
Reluctantly, Jason nodded. "...I will. I still love you Benny. Just, be careful." After a long pause, he stepped towards the door to the hall, then said, "Alright... then I suppose I'll get out of your hair then... Bye, Benny..."
"Bye, Jason..."
"Farewell, Jason."
Her eyes were slightly moist as he disappeared from sight. "I feel a bit guilty now... I shouldn't. But in a way I still do."
Brax nodded. There was something underlying in what he held for Jason Kane. "I do too. And I don't even know him. Not really."
Sighing, Benny stepped away from her work and towards her bedroom. "I- I think I'm going to bed early. Maybe sleep it off."
Brax nodded, about to go the same way Jason had. "Alright. Goodnight, Benny."
"Goodnight, Brax," she gave him a sad smile. "I love you."
"I love you too."
Both doors swung shut, and Bernice's office was finally left in a long, empty silence.
