Nudged into the room by Joseph and the door promptly locked behind him, Jason arrived in Braxiatel's study to something he didn't entirely expect. Brax was playing chess with himself, lost in his own head. One hand moved the white side, one moved the black. Shadows surrounded him, his desk seemed to be a dark void stealing the light from the rest of the study.
Uneasy at the sight, Jason sat in a chair. He didn't want to get comfortable, he was stiff and alert- but it seemed as if it wanted to suck him in anyway, making him sink into the soft cushions farther than he ever had before.
"No, I won't lose this one-" Brax muttered to himself, seeming to try and restrain his own left hand from making a move before he had the time to think. "I'd win today if you just wouldn't cheat."
Jason cleared his throat, drawing Irving out of his thoughts, the shadows dancing around him retreating back to where they should be. His hands both relaxed, though he clearly seemed to have more focus on the game in front of him.
Jason did not seem happy to be here. Anxious, putting up what would undoubtedly become an aggressive exterior if the wrong words got said. There were obvious enough reasons for that.
"Ah. Hello. I've been waiting for you- sorry, I expected to be finished with this a little earlier." He looked a bit sheepish at talking to 'himself' in front of someone.
"Okay... But what's with the board?" Jason stared and pointed curiously, but in a fashion also rather unamused, given his past with this particular Time Lord. He knew what obviously, but considering Brax, the why was an important question.
Irving had the grace to brush it off, at least. "Oh, just a little battle between me and the monster inside my head," he explained casually.
Jason frowned. "Ha, ha."
Braxiatel rolled his eyes and his expression darkened. "Yes, I'm sure that it's very funny. If I must remind you yet again, just so that we're on the exact same page- the security systems are still trained on you, and as what I'm about to say isn't ultimately very pleasant, I currently have a personal forcefield active."
"Still afraid of me, are you?"
"Just cautious. I do so hate wasting my lives."
"What is it then?"
"Peter."
Jason's eyes widened, protectiveness overcoming his need to snark. "Peter? What's he have to do with anything!? And you better not be bringing him into this-" he pointed, almost snarling. Again, he was so sure about Brax's front. It wasn't a question.
Calmly, Braxiatel gestured for him to sit back down, and got another look at the board. "He was brought into them again nearly seven years ago, I'm afraid- for him, anyway. But he has to do with rather a lot... considering your cause of death."
Jason protested. "It wasn't him who did that-"
Irving sighed. "No, it wasn't. Peter was only the knife that Braxiatel was holding. But that doesn't make him any less linked to the event, does it?" Or the fact that Peter was the only other person here who was there.
He backed down a little, trying to keep his frustration in check. None of this would do any good if he went and got himself blown up. Jason wasn't stupid, as easy as that could be to believe. "Yeah, I... suppose. You're still not being any less weird with the talking about yourself in the third person thing."
Brax folded his hands and stared deep into his eyes. They really were alluring, it was no shock he was good at hypnosis, but at least this wasn't it, there was a difference. "Jason- I simply want to know why you're here. Exactly why."
"I- I just woke up in a casket!"
"And I'm growing more and more suspicious of that with each passing day," he answered coldly.
"And you think- what? I'm not the real Jason or something?" he scoffed.
"I'm not weighing my probabilities just yet. But the sudden appearance within a month of Bernice's return is awfully convenient." -For anyone but the people here, anyway.
"I swear, I didn't do anything!"
Haven't done, somewhat debatable. Yet to do? That was still a mystery. "We'll see. But whether you're actually aware of your circumstances or not, I doubt this was a spontaneous occurrence."
Yes, there was the Seal- but this couldn't be random chance, no. Something, or someone, was altering the timelines. And it definitely wasn't him for once. Even he couldn't do this, fetching someone from an entirely different reality. There was a reason he allowed Jason in the mansionhouse, why he wasn't hypnotizing him. Braxiatel wanted to see what he'd do.
"I died, I un...died. Isn't that it? You made Peter kill me, that's all I know."
"Is he really the last thing you saw before you awoke?"
"I- don't know. Yeah, I saw him. But maybe that wasn't it? Maybe there was something else. I dunno, life flashing before my eyes kinda killed it."
"And you?"
"...Very funny."
"...Do you remember the rest of our confrontation? I don't recall it very vividly today," he half-lied. It was a little fuzzy, but he mostly wanted to remember what precisely he was so angry about. Personal feelings were something he often failed to grasp to begin with- and that was discounting the fact that it happened to a different man. And if they didn't match well enough what he interpreted, perhaps that could help glean exactly how authentic Jason claimed to be.
Irving rubbed the inside of his left wrist nervously, feeling the smooth, unblemished skin that itched and felt like it should have a scar, but didn't. Of course she took that one. It was just another way to taunt him.
But Jason nodded. For him, it had only been a few weeks ago, after all. "Yeah, feels like yesterday. I came in with the things that didn't line up, all the things you screwed with in our lives by changing time- Ms Jones, the Mim, Benny and me remarrying, our kids, and you bragged about what you changed and how, and Benny being special."
"Ah."
He was real. He was definitely real.
"Ah? Is that it?"
Braxiatel paused for a minute, and the board tapped as the black king went into check. He smirked at his edge briefly, then steepled his fingers and rested his chin on folded hands, smugness falling to a cold, near regretful frown. Irving looked away in guilt.
"...Do you know why I prevented the existence of Keith and Rebecca? And had a hand in the creation of Peter instead?"
"Because they'd take too much of her time?" he spat, verbatim.
Brax waved it off, but looked overall quite grim. Regardless of the actions that he kept, he couldn't stand when they were motivated by the same thing, and would make that clear. The black king escaped check and a white pawn advanced forward.
"Maybe, in that reality. Not here. Though, it was also me realizing that it was a result of my own actions after discovering them. It was self-fulfilling, too much had happened for them to be the reality."
Jason knew that wasn't the whole story. There was something in Braxiatel's eyes that let it through when his mask was down. "There's something else, isn't there? Also, that chess is really distracting- trying to play up a twisted metaphor, are we?" he rolled his eyes.
Irving chuckled. "You know, it wasn't at first, actually- and I could say the same thing. Your whining is a distraction from my game." Reluctantly, he pulled away from the board and attempted to stop fidgeting. "You know, not nearly all of my actions are motivated by greed, Jason. It's because Bernice loves Peter. More than you, me- anything or anyone."
"Of course she does. That's kinda how things always go." He shrugged, but the way he twitched suggested an odd defensiveness.
Brax's lip curled upward and he beckoned Jason forward, taunting. Or was it her? "Don't you love Peter too? Or do you still blame him for what he is, or rather isn't?"
"I love Peter-" he protested.
He then held Jason back from approach, simply so it would be easier to rub it in. "Yes, because he's Bernice's, and you grew fond of him. But never as much as you'd have loved Keith, or Rebecca- from the very moment of birth. You wanted them to be yours. Flesh and blood. Selfish in its own way, if you ask me."
"I'm not! It's not his fault-"
Braxiatel frowned in disappointment. "Yes it is. To you. Not as much as mine, but on the outside you'd want to be his stepfather, be a family, on the inside you'd trade him away for what you really wanted in a heartbeat." His eye contact didn't break, but Irving visibly moved his knight into a weak spot so it could be sacrificed. Jason stared at the knight and gulped, its fate all too familiar.
"I- I wouldn't."
"Yes, you would."
Jason stopped fighting Brax on that. Just weeks before he'd have made the choice if he had to, to hell with the consequences. If Irving was doing that much, it hardly counted changing a few things back, did it?
That was his flaw. Braxiatel was right. He was being selfish. He'd been selfish, ever since long before Peter was born. He tried and he tried, but it was no good. Jealous, caring about the wrong things.
That didn't make that Irving's actions justified though. No way in hell would anything, ever.
"...What's different about it now? What did you do, Brax?"
He answered by moving a rook, then putting it plainly. "Well, in that timeline it was because she loves Peter- that could be used to keep us close. In this one it's because she loves Peter. Who he is, what he is, wholly and unconditionally. She wouldn't trade him for anything at all, rip the very universe to shreds in order to save him. The child she already had and loves and cares for and had protected with all of her will in spite of the circumstances- versus the possibilities, the echoes, of different ones."
He got the sentiment, but Jason looked confused. He'd learned a lot about time over the years. That couldn't be right. He wasn't stupid. "You said there's another Benny. Wouldn't that make this whole thing redundant?"
"Ah- actually a good question for once," he patronized. "But you see, certain threads of time must be spun regardless of how they get used. Peter Guy Summerfield has a larger effect on history than you might see at first glance- and I'd met him before, in this different life I've led. The Peter here. I've grown to rather care for him myself, and our Benny would fight tooth and nail to ensure his existence over the completely unedited timeline. So, of course, there were things that had to happen."
Jason glared suspiciously. 'Had to happen' was a phrase he hated to begin with- who was saying it only made the vitriol bubble.
"What had to happen?"
He shrugged nonchalantly. "Avril Fenman's particular choice of asteroid to hide out in had to be here, for one. And a shifting of some dates for the timing to line up... -though several of those were actually accidental," he admitted.
"Including it being 2525 instead of 2625? Like it's supposed to be?"
"-The human calendar was an... unfortunate, but ultimately minimal side effect."
He stopped nitpicking so much. "I guess. There's someone else... Mira. What happened to her?" He missed her, and hadn't been able to find anything about her past an uncomfortable point. Braxiatel had to know.
"Who? Hmm... That name is familiar."
He took his mind off the chessboard and pulled out a datapad to search the employee database. A face came up soon after. His face looked grim.
"Mira- ah. We had one on staff once... but she died in the fall of 2502, during the Fifth Axis invasion."
That only confirmed his worries, so he had to lash out. "Oh, so you still bring people back, but not someone who helped me get to the bottom of your schemes."
"I told you, I figured things out and... changed the way the river flowed before the flood reached my dam to begin with. I could learn about what happens and plan for a certain outcome. But going back when an undesired outcome happened I haven't done, as much as I've wanted to."
There was one last thing on his mind. "The Axis then. You said you knew about them from Benny. Why didn't you stop them before they even got here?"
"Well- there were compromises that had to be made." He sighed, his hands seeming to move on their own again, a two-piece exchange occurring without him even watching the board. "They come here after Peter is born and partially even as a result of it, since the collapse of the Glass Prison was such a hit, it left others unprepared for when they grew stronger. I told you that he makes a larger impact than one would expect."
"What, so the Axis really was your fault?" The manipulation ran so deep that it wouldn't surprise him.
"Shush. I'm not finished. I've told you before- the occupation was three months. Far fewer people died. It was the best possible result given the circumstances of the big picture." He seemed a little smug about that, but that was hard to judge.
"What am I here for then? Is it the gloating again?" He'd completely lost track of Brax being suspicious of him- or perhaps that was for the best.
"You know very well that if I was actually proud of what I've done, I wouldn't be telling you these things. I couldn't get the perfect outcome with the mess that's already been made." In a way, somehow, of all people, Brax's little private meetings with Jason had become a confessional to profess his sins. Jason was a priest- a bishop. Except he might tell people- not that they'd believe him. From a pawn, to a knight, to this of all things. It was bizarre, but perhaps necessary, telling someone he wronged in some form, someone he despised but didn't want to hurt if it was avoidable- it was strangely liberating. Moving a piece accordingly, Braxiatel continued, "I didn't win the game, Jason. Just lost in a way that stabilized things and lessened the damage. Be it the Seal of Time, or the Daleks, or my own hand- something will always make me lose."
At those words, the black side made checkmate. His left hand flicked one finger and knocked the white king over, and he sighed in defeat.
It was a close game, but it spoke of inevitability.
Bizarrely- or perhaps unsettlingly, one of few pieces he had left at the end of the game... was his queen. Who in fact that queen was- that changed with time. But they both knew who it was now, starting out standing side-by-side with the king, being there to see allies be lost and watch him fall before her rather than just letting her be given up.
"'My own hand,' huh?"
Irving inhaled slowly and stared down at the pieces. "I believe that rather drives it home, doesn't it."
This turned the tides in Jason's own favour. All the sadistic taunting he was done with, he'd get Brax back. Jason grinned and chided. "Ahhh- but at the end of it, Benny is alive. Whatever the cost. You like to think so, anyway."
The shadows seemed to darken as the lightning flashed in Braxiatel's eyes with his glare.
"I don't think so, I know so."
He uttered his those words in a tone cold as ice, the same near whisper that the other Brax had used just before he killed him.
But Jason continued toeing the line. "You're sure?" He couldn't believe it, and he didn't want Brax to believe it either. It seemed deluded at best.
Brax's voice raised again. "More sure than I am of anything else, Mr Kane. Before- of course I still would. But especially now. We count on each other. For everything." He couldn't bear the thought of losing her in any way again, despite knowing he'd have to one day. And the longer, the more moves Braxiatel thought ahead, the more it concerned him. But not like this. Never like this.
A pawn here, a rook there- few mattered enough not to be worth the sacrifice for those he loved. He was holding himself back from letting much be lost to begin with, of course- but weighing the value of lives was something Irving was enough used to, whether he liked it or not.
And he knew exactly which lives he valued.
Jason's was not one of them.
He wasn't looking for an excuse to get rid of him, or currently suppressing an urge- but if this man got in the way, he wasn't going to go easy. Too much of a risk.
Jason crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair, evidently done with all of this. "Joseph better still have that hoverbike outside-"
Brax nodded, then smirked. "Yes. It's best that you be going, isn't it?" Just before Jason got to the door, he stopped him. "Wait one moment- one more thing. I believe you still owe the White Rabbit a bill or two. Jack requested you for washing the dishes today to make that up."
It seems that the whole time, Braxiatel hadn't been playing chess at all- not with Jason, at least. He'd been playing cards, and that insult to injury was his ace. Brax might not have been manipulating or controlling him- but toying with him? Why wouldn't he?
Not when they both wanted what they wanted.
Jason stepped through the threshold and let out a relieved breath as the door clicked shut behind him. Survived office visit number three. He only had to survive them as long as he was here, at least. He never wanted to have to go in that place again. But he did.
As long as he was here? He wasn't leaving... until he completed- no. That couldn't be it.
As quickly as that thought wandered past, it was gone.
It didn't matter. What did 'Epoch' mean anyway?
