Ethan Mars and Norman Jayden sat in the car together, driving to the old warehouse on the docks to save Ethan's son, Shaun.
When Ethan stopped the car, he looked at Jayden. Jayden looked paranoid and ill.
"Norman... are you okay?" Ethan asked.
Jayden looked over at him quickly. "Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be fine?"
Before Ethan could respond, Jayden opened the car door. "Shaun's he'e? Let's go save him; he doesn't have a lot of time!"
Ethan nodded obediently and got out of the car. The two of them then ran into the warehouse.
Ethan ran to Shaun. "Shaun! Shaun, can you hear me?! Daddy's here, son!"
Jayden slowed to a halt behind Ethan, which the father only half noticed. He shook his head as if to clear it.
"Norman, help me open this grate!" Ethan pleaded without looking over.
He then froze when he felt a gun against his head. "N-... Norman...?"
Jayden laughed in a low voice. "Why did ya save 'me', Ethan?"
"What do you mean? I couldn't just leave you with that abusive lieutenant."
Jayden loosened his grip on the gun, but only a little.
"Don't shoot." said Scott Shelby from behind them, startling Ethan. "He's the one, John. The one father willing to do anything for those he loves."
'John...? Who's he talking to, exactly?' Ethan pondered as he turned to look.
Jayden backed away toward Scott. "Y'sure 'bout that, Scottie? He decided t'save Nahman first..."
Ethan was now even more confused. "Norman... Are you alright?"
Scott laughed, making Jayden smile warmly at the so-called private investimagatorrator.
Ethan stood. "What have you done to Norman?"
"I helped him submit to the truth. He is no longer Norman Jayden. He is John Sheppard... My brother." Scott wrapped his arm around Jayden's shoulder and the two clung together.
"You're lying!" Ethan shouted, afraid of losing not only Jayden, but Shaun as well. "Norman, come on! Snap out of it! You still remember me, right?!"
"I know of ya faintly, and I know that Nahman loves ya, but I know nothin' of y'personally."
"He... He loves me? Truly?"
"He did."
"That can't be true... No one could love a failure like me..."
"And if you don't save your son, no one ever will." Scott replied coldly.
"Give me Norman back!"
"Just give up, Ethan. Jayden is John's now, and John is mine."
Ethan growled. He didn't have time to argue with either one of them, so he grabbed the pole nearby and started trying to force the lock on Shaun's grate off with it.
"Where the hell did Madison go?! Fuck!"
"... Madison?" Jayden frowned, wearing a worried expression.
Scott whistled. "See, Ethan and Madison are really close. He loves her and she loves him, but he refuses to admit that it's mutual."
"What?!" Ethan yelled as he kept working to rescue Shaun. "That's not true!"
"See, he's lying even now!" Scott sighed. "I wonder if he ever lies to Shaun like he lies to you, Jayden..."
Jayden looked at the floor.
Scott barely held back a chuckle. "Get ready to run, Ethan, if you know what's good for you and Shaun."
"I-" Ethan was cut off when the lock on the grate was shot off.
Jayden looked completely enraged as he held his gun out. "I'll let ya pull Shaun out and make su'e he's okay, Ethan, but then ya'd bettah start runnin'."
Ethan rolled his eyes with a frustrated sigh before he pulled Shaun out of the well and started to perform CPR.
Shaun started to gasp for air. "D-dad...?"
Ethan felt so relieved that he forgot about Jayden's threat - he was reminded of it by a somewhat-gentle hit over the head.
"Shaun, no matter what happens, I want you to know that I love you more than anything in the world." Ethan gently kissed his son's forehead before he got up. "Can I at least have a ten-second headstart?" He asked Jayden.
"..." Jayden nodded.
Ethan started running like mad up the stairs, not wasting any time in getting up the ladder onto the "second floor". As he started running to get to the roof access stairs, Jayden was already half way up the ladder.
Scott stood in front of Shaun. He shrugged. The boy did not respond.
Madison Paige got to the warehouse in time to see that lieutenant Carter Blake had arrived again with a fleet of men ready to shoot.
"Dammit, you just can't let Ethan live, can you?! He's not the Origami Killer!" She screamed at him.
"That's not the only reason why I'm here!" He roared back.
"Then what are the others?!"
"I'm going to kill Ethan, kill Scott, and arrest Norman!"
"What?!"
"Deal with it!"
"No, not you! Look over there!"
Blake looked where Madison was pointing; up and to the right. He saw what looked like Jayden chasing after and shooting at Ethan.
"What the hell is Jayden doing?!" Madison shouted.
Ethan kept running, Jayden keeping a good pace behind him.
"Ethan!" He heard to his right. He looked down and saw Madison, as well as Blake and a ton of cops.
"Madison...!" He stopped and put his hands up as surrender.
Jayden stopped as well. He was still aiming at Ethan, but he looked almost scared. "Is that ha'?"
"Yes."
Jayden was quiet for a moment. "She looks pretty."
"I guess."
"... Do ya love ha'?"
"No. She's actually kind of annoying."
"... ... I'm sorry, Ethan." Jayden let his arms go slack and fall to his sides.
"What? He's not going to kill Mars?" Blake growled as he watched.
Ethan smiled a little as he timidly approached Jayden. "No, Norman. I'm sorry."
The two of them hugged and Ethan kissed Jayden for everyone below to see.
Madison's nose started to bleed. "Oh... This is... mmm. Am I the only one a little hot under the collar?"
Blake snarled and held his radio tigher. "OPEN FIRE!"
Madison looked at him in shock. "NO!"
Blake smiled as his men took aim.
Jayden noticed that the guns were now pointed at Ethan and himself. "... Ethan?"
"Yes, Norman?" Ethan mumbled, too busy snuggling Jayden to notice their predicament.
"Don't tense yer body."
"Huh...?" Ethan suddenly found himself falling, and he screamed. 'He pushed me over?! Why?!'
He stared up at Jayden, time seeming to slow down. He heard a gunshot and saw a burst of red from Jayden's left shoulder.
"CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE, FOR GOD'S SAKES, CEASE FIRE!" Blake screamed frantically.
The police officers stopped shooting, but by then Jayden had already been shot several times.
The agent wobbled on the conveyor belt that brought him closer to death every second. He coughed up some blood.
'I'm dyin'... I can't see straight and I hurt... I'm... Ethan. Ethan, whe'e's Ethan, is he okay?' Jayden struggled to look down without falling forward. He was relieved to see that Ethan had been caught by Scott. 'I knew I could count on him... even if he is the Origami Killah...'
Scott gestured for Jayden to let himself fall.
Ethan watched numbly as Jayden shook his head. He couldn't take his teary eyes off of Jayden. 'Why... Why did he do that?! He could have let me get shot with him or jumped and saved himself, but instead he risked his life for me?! Why?!'
"WHY?!" Jayden heard Ethan scream.
Jayden tried to reply, but he felt too weak. Against his will, his legs buckled and he fell forward.
Scott hurried over and caught Jayden, laying him gently on the ground. Ethan rushed to the agent's side.
"Jayden fell!" Madison informed Blake before she ran to check on her two favorite men.
Blake stood there, feeling incredible guilt. "Fuck... Fuck, if I hadn't given that order... Fuck! If he fucking dies because of this... FUCK!" He kept cursing at himself. "DON'T JUST STAND THERE!" He screamed at Ash, who stood near him. "CALL A FUCKING AMBULANCE!"
Madison got to Jayden and the others in time to see Ethan start bawling.
"I'm sorry!" He cried. "I'm so fucking sorry, Norman! This is my fault, all my fault!"
Madison looked at Scott. Scott had his back turned and he was shaking his head solemnly.
'He's wrong... It's my fault. Trying to get John back, I've killed him...!' Scott thought.
Madison then turned her attention to Jayden, who was staring at her.
"I... I-I feel like I... like I've seen ya befo'e..." He said weakly.
Madison was forced to shrug in response. She started to tear up as well, despite her efforts to show no emotion.
"E-Ethan..."
Ethan looked at Jayden.
"Be with ha'..." He gestured at Madison, whose face reddened.
"What...?"
"Be with Madison... I won't make it and I've had time t'think, so I don't mind anymo'e..."
Ethan shook his head frantically. "No, Norman. You're going to make it through this. You're going to make it through this, and we're going to make Blake pay! Together!"
Jayden tried to laugh at the idea. "That'd be nice..."
Blake suddenly walked over to them; everyone except for Jayden gave him a cold glare, Ethan especially.
"An ambulance is on its way. Does anyone know first aid? It might take a minute for the ambulance to arrive." He asked calmly, sounding sincerely sympathetic.
"I..." Scott cleared his throat. "I might know a little bit."
"Then get working."
Scott told the others to back up, which they did, as he started trying to help Jayden.
Ethan stormed over to Blake and grabbed his shirt, tugging him close threateningly. "If Norman doesn't recover from this, I'm going to make sure you wish you were never born!"
"I'm going to go make sure Shaun is alright..." Madison mumbled.
"Thanks, Madison." Ethan said before he turned his attention back to Blake, who surprisingly had no desire to counter and start a fight.
Scott kept working on Jayden until he felt the agent grip his arm shakily. "Jayden?"
Jayden gasped for air, nearly hyperventilating. His eyes seemed about to roll up into his head. "D-..."
"Jayden..?!"
"D-... Don't... don't fehget about me... S-Scottie..."
"J-John...?"
Jayden's grip loosened and he let out a deep breath.
"OH FUCK! JAYDEN! GODDAMMIT, STAY WITH US!"
Ethan and the others looked over right as the ambulance arrived.
Ethan Mars stood quietly in front of a grave. He stared at it, lost in thought.
He sighed after a moment, and shortly after his cellphone started to ring. He answered it.
"Hello? ... What? I'm on my way." He closed his cellphone and looked at the grave again.
He left the cemetery and Scott Shelby's grave to jump into his car. For a moment, he hesitated.
'I wonder if Scott's really dead or not... Something tells me that he's not...' He shrugged it off and started to drive to the hospital.
When Ethan got into the hospital, he saw Norman Jayden sitting in the waiting room. A doctor walked over to him.
"Is he okay?" Ethan asked.
He was informed a little too casually that Norman not only had lost his memory and may have trouble forming new memories, but that he also was beginning to form a serious issue in his brain due to exposure to something that they couldn't recognize.
"In short," concluded the doctor. "He may need supervision to see if he's capable still of living a normal life."
"So... You want me to take him home with me?" How was he ever going to explain this to Shaun?
When he was finished talking to the doctor, Ethan went over to Jayden.
Jayden looked at him with this awkward look.
"Hi, Norman. Do you remember me?"
"..." Jayden shook his head.
Ethan sighed quietly and held Jayden's hands. "You saved my life, Norman. My debt to you will never be paid."
Jayden seemed confused, but he didn't pull away.
"The doctors want me to take you home with me for now. Are you okay with that?"
Jayden shrugged.
"Come on, Norman." Ethan gently tugged him along to his car.
He drove Jayden to his apartment, still the old one that he shared with Shaun, and let Jayden in. 'This could get awkward.'
Jayden looked around, but kept quiet.
Shaun hurried out of one of the rooms with a smile that faded when he saw Jayden. Their eyes locked.
Ethan looked between the two of them, and suddenly when he tried to look back at Jayden, he saw the wall. He looked down and saw that Jayden had fainted.
"Why is that guy here?" Shaun asked nervously.
"The doctors at the hospital want me to take care of him for a while. You don't mind, do you Shaun?" Ethan asked as he kneeled next to Jayden and tried to wake him up.
"As long as he doesn't point a gun at us again..."
Ethan sighed.
"Is he okay?"
"I think so. I think he just blacked out." Ethan picked Jayden up and took him into his own bedroom, laying him on the bed. Almost as soon as he did, Jayden jolted awake.
"Shaun!" He shouted.
Ethan looked back at him. "You recognized my son?"
Jayden held his head. "Yer his fatha'...? Y'must be..."
"Don't strain yourself to remember anything yet, Norman. Just rest here and make yourself at home."
"..." Jayden released his head. "Thank you, Mr. Mars."
It took Jayden only five months to remember most of what happened and sort it in order of before and after. Though there were still some blank spots, he had at least been able to remember Ethan's name.
He still wasn't certain, however, why he saw some things (like steam) differently than Ethan or why he sometimes felt intense cravings for something, cravings so strong that they made him feel like he would die without whatever it was he desired. He never told Ethan about the cravings since they sort of scared him. That, and when Jayden told him about the highlight of certain things invisible to the human eye, Ethan looked depressed.
One night he was sitting around thinking when suddenly he doubled over and found himself in a forest. "What...?" He looked around, confused. The forest looked familiar, but he couldn't determine why. "How did I get he'e...?"
It started to storm and Jayden begin to feel incredibly depressed, lonesome, and scared. He held himself and trembled, sitting on the ground on his knees. "What's wrong with me...?"
"Norman?" He heard Ethan call for him as he entered the apartment. Jayden found himself back in the living room, kneeling now behind the couch. He looked up as Ethan walked into the doorway.
Ethan almost instantly dropped the bags he carried and he hurried over. "My God, Norman, what happened?!"
"Wh-what? What's wrong?"
"Your eye! It's bleeding!"
Jayden thought about what had happened, and decided to keep quiet about it. Instead of telling Ethan about the vivid hallucination, he shrugged. "I... I don't remembah..." He lied.
That night, Ethan lay in bed. Next to him was Jayden. It still felt somewhat awkward to be sleeping in the same bed as him, but the only one who could tolerate falling asleep on the couch was Shaun.
Ethan could tell that Jayden was keeping something from him, something big that was causing him suffering. It made Ethan feel nervous.
'I wish he'd just tell me what's troubling him...'
It was then that Ethan realized that the entire situation felt... wrong.
'For some reason, I don't feel like Jayden should be here right now... Did I mess up again? Isn't this the right ending? If it is, then why doesn't it feel right...?'
A few days later, Jayden decided to go alone for a walk through the city. Ethan seemed preoccupied, though he didn't refuse Jayden's idea. Jayden started to walk, looking around a little. He walked for quite a while, making it to the Carnaby District. He stopped there for a moment. Something about the word Carnaby set some hidden gears in his head into motion. He ignored it and kept walking until he came across the police station.
Right as he was walking by, Carter Blake stepped outside. He seemed surprised to see Jayden, but Jayden didn't entirely remember him - all he remembered was that he should be afraid of this man.
"Jayden?" Blake stepped closer, making Jayden back away.
"I have to go." Jayden said and tried to walk away.
"Wait, Jayden!" Blake grabbed Jayden's arm and pulled him back.
"Let me go!"
"Jayden, Christ! I haven't seen you in forever, and the first thing you do is resist me? I have something for you."
Jayden stopped struggling, but just a little. "What is it...?"
Blake discreetly slipped a tube of blue powder and a pair of glasses into Jayden's hands. "You forgot these at the station a few months ago... I thought you'd want them back."
Jayden looked at the glasses, examining them thoroughly. He felt a small attachment to them, but when he took another look at the tube of powder, he felt more of an attachment to that. "What are they?"
"What? Don't play dumb, Norman. That's your fancy glasses and your Triptowhatever."
"Triptocaine?" Jayden remembered the word and blurted it only to get Blake's hands over his mouth.
"You're right in front of a police station. Don't blurt the name of your damned drug, you lunatic." Blake whispered harshly.
Jayden started to feel those bizarre cravings again and felt his nose begin bleeding. He tried to get away. "Uh... I really have t'go. Thanks for giving me these back..."
"Wait, Norman. You're not just going to leave, are you?"
"What if I am?"
"At least let me take you out for a drink or something. We haven't seen each other in so long."
"I have to go." Jayden tried to sound firm.
"Come on, Jayden." Blake wouldn't let up, and he was beginning to annoy Jayden.
"Look," Jayden turned. "I thanked ya fer givin' me my things. I can't stay, though. I have to get back home so I c-" Jayden was cut off when Blake suddenly pulled him close and kissed him.
Something in his head clicked.
He was then shoved aside out of the blue and saw... himself? Another him was standing where he had been standing, and he kneed Blake in the stomach.
"Wh-what the hell?!" Jayden was too shocked to stop his 'doppelganger' from kicking the shit out of Blake. Jayden soon fainted from stress.
When he came to, he looked around briefly. He was in Ethan's bathroom, and he was kneeling in front of the bathtub. He was practically soaked. He glanced down and his heart stopped for a second. He was then stumbling backwards like a wounded dog, just barely holding back a scream.
Ethan was sitting on the couch watching TV when he heard something fall down the stairs. He looked over quickly and saw Jayden, soaked and looking like a nervous wreck. "Shit, Norman, are you okay?" He hurried over.
Jayden looked up at him, a look of crazed guilt in his eyes. "Ethan..." He started to cry loudly as he turned his head to the floor.
"Norman, what happened?"
"I-I dunno! I... It wasn't me! I don't remembah... I didn't want to!"
"What are you talking about?"
Jayden pointed up the stairs. "I'm so sorry! I... I woke up and... I woke up and he was the'e like that! I sweah to God I don't remembah anythin'!"
"He...? What...?" Ethan slowly walked upstairs and looked into Shaun's room.
Shaun wasn't there.
Ethan's heart started to race as he looked in the bathroom. He looked into the bathtub and started to panic - Shaun was face-down in the water and wasn't moving. One of the green papers from Ethan's office had been turned into an origami cow and had been placed on Shaun's back.
"No... No, SHAUN! SHAAAUNN!" Ethan cried out as he pulled Shaun out of the tub and tried to get him breathing again to no prevail. "SHAAAAAAAAUNNNNN! ! !"
Jayden realized that he had a gun on him for some reason. He pulled it out and didn't even bother to try figuring out where he got it from; he immediately put his finger on the trigger and shoved the barrel into his mouth. He braced himself.
"Norman, NOOOO!" He heard from up the stairs. He closed his eyes tighter and pulled the trigger.
Click.
The gun wasn't loaded.
Jayden took the gun out of his mouth and started sobbing again.
Ethan breathed a small sigh of bittersweet relief as he headed downstairs. "Stay right there, Norman. I'm... I'm going to call my psychologist for you." He said coldly.
Jayden sat against the wall next to the dresser and stairs and curled up there, bawling and wondering why he'd done what he did.
