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Jonah Magnus who is now Elias Bouchard was used to changing his names and bodies as if he were changing coats. He felt little difference when he switched from Gregory to William to James and he felt little difference when he switched to Elias, but Elias was the body and the name that got to hold his most beautiful creation- his perfect Archive and Elias wore it as a badge of honor.
Elias was not expecting to love his Archivist as deeply as he does. He was certainly intrigued when Jon walked into his office door with a lacking résumé and already marked by the Web. Jon seemed to be cut perfectly for the role Elias assigned him and Elias, with growing admiration, watched and guided Jon’s development with devoted eyes and hands and it was immensely satisfying to watch him overcome all the challenges Elias laid out for him. When he was sent away to prison and was sat in his cell he spent his time fondly watching Jon walk his never-ending nightmare and oh how satisfied Elias was when Jon woke up and rose from his ashes like a phoenix. He hardly needed Elias’ guidance to blossom afterward.
Well, almost hardly.
After all was said and done and the Beholding walked the earth Elias did have to take some… less than desired methods to get Jon by his side. Using Martin’s body felt like wearing an ill-fitting glove. Martin, while surprisingly useful, did not deserve to have the Archivist by his side and Elias could not deny that he was more than slightly peeved that he had to dangle Martin’s life in front of Jon for his compliance to come back home. It was frustrating, Jon should have known that his place was beside his Watcher.
Ah, but it hardly mattered. He and Jon had all the time in the world, after all.
It was important that Elias worked to keep it this way. While Martin was a wonderful bargaining chip, there were other forces working to remove him from his throne. He and Jon (though with unwilling compliance) were able to stave off the powers so far, but there were always more uprisings to silence.
Elias walks through the institute hallways. His oxfords clacking against marble being the only sound that echoes throughout the corridors. The institute has been mostly empty since The Hunters and the Not-Them rampaged through its halls. The rest of his employees were picked off one by one once The Fears were let into the world. He personally watched each and every one of their deaths, it was the least they deserved. He was somewhat saddened to see Rosie be dragged screaming into the Spiral’s doors, but her sacrifice was undoubtedly worth it. Besides, the only scion that matters in the institute lies beyond the door in front of him.
Jon had mostly kept to the archives once Elias had brought him home. The only time he wasn’t in them was when he tried to escape through the tunnels. Smirke’s handiwork was no match to the powers the Beholding had granted Elias, and he always found Jon in the end. That was all that mattered in the grand scheme of things and Elias could handle whatever rebellion Jon threw at him.
Elias steps through the door leading to the archives and finds that Jon was indeed inside. Elias wondered if Jon felt sort a form kinship here, he himself was an Archive after all.
Jon stiffens at the sound of Elias closing the door. Even after all this time, Jon was still afraid of him. Elias is almost offended, or he would be if the expression of fear on Jon’s face wasn’t so charming. The things his Archivist does to him.
“Good evening, Jon.” greets Elias. Jon, of course, does not respond. He rarely speaks at all these days. Taken by some foolish notion that if he didn’t speak to or feed his god that the Beholding would finally abandon him.
It is truly a foolish wish that the Eye would ever let go of the being it loves the most. Jon would get no reprieve from neither the Beholding nor him.
Elias saunters over to the back of Jon’s office chair and drapes his head over Jon’s shoulder to peer at what he’s holding. It’s a mug of tea. A very specific mug. It’s a gaudy thing, a chaotic mix of holiday colors, little cartoons of ghosts and a terrible pun. The knowledge flows seamlessly into Elias’ head of a freckled man handing over a cup of tea, aimlessly chattering, his Archivist gives his assistant a bemused yet fond smile.
Elias frowns disapprovingly, it’s unwarranted sentimentality.
Elias moves the mug from Jon’s hands and gracefully sets it on the desk. He gently grabs Jon’s hand when he tries to grab it back. Jon clenches his fist in his lap but allows Elias to turn his palm over and trace his fingers over its many scars. Good. He’s learning.
“The Mother of Puppets,” Elias begins, “has been planning to rid the Powers from our dimension and revert us all back to the status quo.” Elias smiles thinly as he lets Jon rip his hand back. “You would think they would be grateful.”
Jon raises a brow in return. Elias chuckles in mirth, even when refusing to speak, his Archivist couldn’t help but be derisive.
“It is difficult for the web to expand its strings when the world now is so… unpredictable. But nonetheless, we must take precautions. Our master has granted me the gift of knowledge that it is Annabelle Cane that rises against us. Unfortunately, as you know well Jon, the Web like the Lonely and Stranger is more than quite capable to conceal their movements from us.” Jon tries to back away from Elias’ hands that come to cup Jon’s chin. Elias looks at him pointedly. “You know what I need you to do, Jon.”
Jon grits his teeth and averts his eyes. Elias gives a sigh of exasperation, he was always so difficult these days. He almost misses the days when Jon was still a naive researcher that would unknowingly trip over his own feet trying to impress Elias.
Elias moves his thumb to slowly slide down Jon’s cheeks to his jaw. His cheeks are still gaunt but now lacks the sickly hue that they had when Jon was still denying his true nature. Elias supposes that forcing Jon to extract statements from the poor souls he brought to him had helped. His Archive’s health is of the utmost importance to him. He had given Jon exactly what he needed to grow and flourish all these years and it was a shame that Jon was still denying him the tools he would need to continue to do so. No matter, it was only a matter of time before Jon finally succumbed and Elias, in the meantime, will continue to sculpt him into obedience.
Elias moves his thumbs to the Archive’s throat. “Jon, we both know that I will eventually get the answers I want from you.” Elias says the power of compulsion flowing from his lips as he begins to lightly press his thumbs against Jon’s trachea, “So it would be best for you to comply now before I have to do something unnecessary.”
Jon begins to struggle to keep the words behind his lips. It’s useless of course, a book cannot stop itself from being read and Jon cannot prevent Elias from dragging the information he wants out of him. It is only till Elias can hear the tape recorders in the room switch on and see Jon’s eyes begin to glow a ghastly green that he gives Jon a thin smile and finally lets go. So perfectly moldable. Jon parts his lips only to have the sound of a tuning radio fill the air and with a sharp, inhale of static Jon speaks with a voice that was not his.
“I hadn’t known where to go after mum and dad hid me inside the dumpster. I tried to follow them but I remembered mum said that I had to listen to her now no matter what, or else the monsters would get me. I was a good girl, I listened to mum and dad even when I began to hear the screams. I was brave, I was a good girl, I didn’t even make a peep. Not even when the thing with too many arms and not enough skin slowly began to open the lid.
And then all of a sudden a shot echoed through the air!
The monster flopped down dead and a woman with curly hair pulled me out of my hiding place. I screamed. Whoever these people were I wouldn’t let them hurt me and my parents!
‘Hey, hey shush, it’s okay. Hey it’s okay, it’s okay’ said the woman who found me as she set me down and kneeled down in front of me.
‘Is she okay?’ a large freckled man asked.
‘I think so.’ said the curly-haired one as she looked over me. She lifted my arms and checked for any scratches. ‘Are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere?’
I shook my head. I didn’t hurt.
The curly-haired one sighed in relief and turned head and shouted behind her ‘Babe, is it dead?’
‘I think so!’ someone shouted in return as I peered over to see a woman with a blindfold poke the monster with a cane. ‘If it’s not, it’s not going to get up anytime soon.’
The curly-haired lady turned my head away, ‘Hey, don’t look over there, okay?’
I nodded. Mum told me not to look at monsters, that’s how they can find you.
‘We need to find out where we are going to take her’ said a woman with a hijab while holstering a pistol. ‘We can’t take her with us.’
‘We should take her to one of the shelters’ said the freckled man ‘they should be able to protect her.’
A dark-skinned woman who was watching the outside of the alley interrupted, ‘The shelters are in the opposite direction of where the Distortion is camping out. Mother would not be pleased if we were to get off track.’
The freckled man spluttered and looked back at the woman in the alleyway. ‘Well, we can’t take her to Helen! We don’t even know if she’s on our side!’.
I didn’t know who Helen was but I knew that I didn’t want to meet her. ‘I wanna go with mum and dad!’
They all got very quiet and the curly-haired woman took my hand. ‘Sweetheart, what’s your name?’
‘Millie.’ I told her.
‘Millie, we couldn’t save your parents… I- I am so sorry.’
‘What do you mean? Where are they?’ I tried to look behind her shoulder but she turned my head back to her face.
‘Millie, I’m so sorry but your parents are-’
‘Shut up.’ The woman who was looking out of the alleyway rushed over to us. I gasped. Her skull was dented and full of spiders! She reached over and tried to cover my eyes and ears.
The nice curly-haired lady slapped her hands away. ‘Annie! What the hell?’
The monster with the broken skull looked at me in disgust. ‘The Watcher is using his Archive to listen in on us.’
The woman holding me looked scared and angry and the man with freckles rushed over shouted ‘Jon!’ he looked at me desperately as he talked to a man who was not there ‘Jon! Jon, it’s going to be okay I promise we will-”
Elias slapped his hand over Jon’s mouth. “That’s enough Jon.”
Jon’s face is wet with tears and Elias cannot help but sigh and rest his head against Jon's forehead. “That’s enough.” He repeats, this time softer.
Jon was still so very human. Still so very attached to those he calls 'friends'. Part of Elias loved Jon for his feeble attempts to hold onto his humanity, but a larger more possessive side smarts at the idea of Jon watching anyone else but him.
Elias twists Jon's chair around and sat on top of Jon's legs, effectively caging him to the chair. Elias moves his hand from Jon's mouth to wipe the tears away from his Archivist's face.
He lowers his head to rest upon Jon's shoulder and laughs. It's not a happy laugh. It's cold, cruel, humorless and knowing.
"Oh Jon," he says "your friends have certainly been busy."
Of course, Elias knew that the lot of them would try to ruin his centuries’ worth of work eventually. He’d just expected that they would be unable to hide from him. While the Web and the Lonely are effective at cloaking themselves, they shouldn’t be able to hide from the Eye.
Unless someone touched by the Beholding was trying to direct his attention elsewhere.
He was almost impressed. He always did admire Jon’s stubborn resolve, it’s a pity that Jon was foolish enough to try to use it against him.
“You think I didn’t know?” he speaks into Jon’s throat as he can feel Jon’s heartbeat rabbit quick underneath his lips. Elias chuckles again as he begins to lift his head so he can look down into his Archive's eyes. “I knew they have been planning something for weeks, and I’ve known that you’ve been doing your best to distract me from them.”
Jon glares up at him and Elias is pleased to see Jon finally look at him. Small victories do count for something. He was always fond of Jon’s eyes, big, bright and green. Elias traces his index finger across the lining of Jon’s lower eyelid, still scarred from the numerous attempts Jon took to blind himself. Another reason why Jon needed to be corrected.
Elias had tried to keep a hands-off approach for managing his archivist, but he could see that more direct action would be needed.
“You cannot protect them, Jonathan.” He whispers, measured cruelty leaking out of his lips “You never could. Would you like to know what they felt when you failed them?”
Jon was so much stronger than the man he was four years ago. He had grown into his role so beautifully and it has been significantly more difficult to tamper with his mind. But now, with his mental wellbeing so shaken, it was no challenge to implant just the right images and feelings into his head.
He let Jon crumble into his waiting arms as he screamed in agony and grief. Elias smiled into his hair. Yes, His Archive did look his best when he was broken and shivering in Elias’ arms.
And when Elias finally releases Jon from his suffering he is pleasantly surprised when Jon grips his hands around the collar of his shirt and shoves Elias backward into the desk. The lights begin to shake as the tape recorders begin to hum their symphony.
Elias is even more pleased when a rough and scratchy voice from disuse snarls at him “You did this to them. You’re the reason why they’re dead.” Elias shivers when Jon’s eyes glowing with fury and power meets his own “I should’ve killed you years ago.”
“No Jon,” Elias smiles “You were the one who allowed them to die.” Jon begins to shake even harder in rage. How adorable. “And while I find your attempt at intimidation amusing, we both know that the only way for you to avenge them is at my side.”
Jon’s hands are easy to remove from his collar and Elias brings them to his lips. It would be too easy to make Jon his way in every way now. He is so very vulnerable and enticingly terrified and enraged at the same time. However, Elias would not be satisfied if Jon surrendered to him unwillingly. Besides. Jon belonged to him in the only way that mattered anyway.
“Jon, you were the one who agreed to the deal. You gave me your life in exchange for his, it is unwise for you to continue to deny your nature and your allegiance.”
Jon scoffs and tries to rip his hands away. Elias lets him. Witnessing all of Jon’s grief and petulance was something Elias deeply enjoyed, however, he knew that his Archive’s continuous refusal of The Eye and his Watcher would only serve to destroy the world Elias built for him. It would be better for them both if Jon let go of his human attachments.
An Idea comes to mind and Elias walks around the desk to pick up the mug of tea. He frowns down at it. “I am a patient man, Jon. I am willing to wait for however long it takes for you to surrender, but I cannot promise you that your actions will have no consequences.”
Jon’s eyes lock with his and then they dart down to the insult in his Elias’ palms.
Jon steps forward and Elias sneers.
He lets the mug slip from his fingers and crash onto the floor into a million pieces.
He watches Jon jerk forward towards the shattered porcelain only to stop himself. Elias can't help but feel slightly self-satisfied. Slowly but surely The Archive is learning his place.
Elias casually walks over to the door and before he exits he raises his eyebrows as if he’s forgotten something important. “Ah, and Jon. I forgot to wish you a happy anniversary.”
Elias opens and walks outside of the office and pretends not to notice Jon gathering the broken remains of the teacup.
Elias doesn’t mind if it takes another ninety-nine years to finally break Jon, he will regardless take immense satisfaction in slowly rearranging his broken pieces.