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The first few thoughts running through Jack’s head, as he stood before the hologram of his dead boss, were questionable to say the least.
He probably should have wondered why; or how this was even possible, but he already had an inkling that Nakarama-yama’s drive was involved somehow. He really never should have stuck that into his head, knowing whom it had belonged to. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Out of all the things he had expected, Rhys Strongfork was not one of them. He was not sure what was weirder; the fact that this guy made a hologram of his boss, or that Jack himself was undeniably intrigued. Not to mention a little impressed by it, because this clearly was not simply a pre-recorded vision or nothing, this walked, talked and acted like the real thing, hell if someone had tried to sell him as a projection of the real deal, no doubt people would have actually been sold on it.
Jack was not ‘people’, he knew his way around coding like this, and it was some pretty good stuff, damn you Naka-whatever-it-was .
There is a weird feeling in his chest just then; it brings him back to the present. The hologram is right in front of him now, and seems to be waving it’s hand around inside his torso, an almost disappointed look painted across the pixelated face. He reacts as anyone would to this; he jumps back with a small yelp.
“Wha-what the actual fuck-” He pats down the fabric of his shirt down, trying to remove whatever ‘imprint’ the other’s hand had left. Logically there is nothing, but it makes him feel better anyway.
“ Jack!? ” He hears Nisha yell at him from downstairs, but he purposefully ignores her in favour of the yellow pixels in front of him.
He lowers his voice, hissing at the hologram: “Why were you doing that?” He is not really expecting an answer, the Atlas CEO was known for reflecting questions on a daily basis. He was notoriously hard to negotiate with, a manipulative little minx.
Jack vaguely remembers his best friend mentioning that all the guy had to do was; spread his legs, and she would probably straight up agree to anything. He called her a whore, but he could not deny that he honestly would have too. Their dead boss was a fine ass twink with homicidal tendencies, and it was low-key hot, sue him.
Speaking of said dead boss.
“This is less than ideal, but it will do, at least you work for me,” ‘Rhys’ is looking at him, appreciatively? “Imagine if you had been Hyperion, ugh gross.” There is a gagging motion followed by that, and for some odd reason it makes Jack just a tad bit offended.
“You, uh, you know you’re, y’know-”
“Dead? Yeah I gathered that, thanks.”
Jack throws his hands up in mock surrender at the tone that meets his inquiry. “Wow okay, relax, princess, just a question, don’t get your gold crown stuck in the ventilators.” He does not necessarily mean to be, but provoking is one of his specialties, and perhaps a coping mechanism, nonetheless he has a big mouth and it talks on it’s own now and then. So the response he gets is not one that surprises him.
The hologram in front of him stutters for a moment, clearly feeling undignified, before it launches at him.
He proceeds to react, like a mindless idiot who forgot what he was dealing with, and falls back over the edge of the second floor, down into the rubble below. He distinctively hears a snort of laughter before his vision is jumbled from the ungraceful landing.
When he recovers, it is Nisha’s lively face in front of him instead of the yellow pixels. It is a welcome sight.
“Nish’ if I’m ever about to open my mouth and get us in trouble again, hit me.”
“Jack,” Comes the deadpan response. “You’d be six feet under already.”
Nevermind, it is a horrible sight.
-* _ * - * _ *-
Jack wants to tear out the tongue of this grease ball’s mouth; so he never has to listen to his hour long, no he is not exaggerating , monologues ever again.
Vasquez, this is the son of a bitch who bested him at his own game, and then had the nerve to demote him in the process. He deserves so much more than just his tongue ripped out, oh no, he has so much more in store for this shithead, just wait until he gets his hands on-
He almost does not catch the shovel as it is thrown at him, caught up in his murder-fantasy. If it was not for the gun pointed at him, he would have probably used the shovel to bludgeon the guy. It seems that he does not have to anyway, as Nisha apparently has more balls than he will ever have, as she throws hers right back at the dickbag.
She is the one who threw it, not him, so why is it that he is the one who ends up getting clocked in the face for it? He did not even say anything, yeah he high fived her, but come on.
“No way, is that Assquez ?”
He becomes aware of their new observer with a start, as there is a voice coming from next to him, and the words take a moment to catch up with him, but when they do; he doubles over with a roar of laughter. “Hah, no, no fucking way,” He straightens up, wiping a tear from his eye. “Shit, that was gold, kiddo.”
Nisha is regarding him like he has lost his mind, maybe he has, he is seeing dead people.. Dead person. Not plural, yet at least.
Vasquez clears his throat in the awkward silence that has laid to rest around them, bringing the focus back to him. “Right, you’ve really lost it out here, huh? Yeah I’ve heard Pandora does that to a man, really a shame to see you fall to such depths, John .”
Yeah that does it, Jack is gonna murder this fucker.
“I forgot how much this guy likes the sound of his own voice.” The yellow gathering of pixels presenting his dead boss are floating next to him in a laid back pose, but despite the calm posture, the hologram looks about as done with this guy as he is.
“You know, I was gonna wait for you to dig your own graves and all that, but I think I’ll just be doing us all a favour if I end this here,” The grease ball lifts the gun up, getting a better grip on it. He starts mumbling about something to do with prototypes, safeties, etc. The brunette has already tuned out, as his eyes follow the floating set of codes that circles his tormentor.
The hologram settles back next to him, looking somewhat pleased with himself, and Jack can tell this is going to be good. “Let’s ruin his day, Handsome .”
That should not have had as much of an affect on him as it did.
“I’ve tweaked your cybernetics just a tad, try and hack something, preferably that highly unreliable gun in his hands, but the car is an option too, though it would be a shame, it’s a nice car.”
He should be questioning how that was even a thing that could be done, tweaking his cybernetics, but the rush of fucking with Assquez is distracting, and he immediately jumps at the opportunity. Thankfully the guy is still fiddling with the gun as he activates his enhancements.
There is a feeling that envelops him as the plan sets in motion, and Vasquez flies back when the gun in his hands malfunction and blow up. It is powerful, he feels powerful, joyous, hell he feels so satisfied, but he does not quite recognise his own feelings.
It is because they are not his feelings, they are Rhys’, their feelings are merging, if only for a moment, they are one, and Jack’s body moves in tune with his boss, as he laughs beside him. It is a shock to his core, because it is not just a hologram next to him, yellow pixels, no, he is more than that, and both of them are now aware of this.
“Oh, would you look at that, what a price,”
“ No fucking way ,”
“Why the hell are you still standing there Jack? Get a move on!”
-* _ * - * _ *-
It is chaos, it is absolute chaos, and Jack is thriving in it. He does not do trust, but he did today, and he was right to do it. Rhys handed him this place on a fucking silver platter. This power he got served; it was like a drug, and he could easily get addicted to this, to Rhys. It is a dangerous thought pattern to have, and he is revelling in it.
Nisha seems to be having fun much like he is, but the two sisters they are tagging along with are throwing curses at him and his recklessness, like Phoebe, or whatever-her-name-was, actually had any form of plan, yeah right, she would have gotten their asses fried. He definitely chose right.
They make it out of the old Hyperion base in one piece, partially thanks to the loader bot that ‘imprinted’ on him, somehow that is not even the weirdest shit that has happened to him since he touched foot on Pandora, and find themselves face to face with someone new.
It is a whole new mess, this one Jack is not enjoying as much, apart from Assquez getting shotgunned right in his gut, that he definitely enjoyed. A shame he was not the one to do it, nor was Rhys around to witness it, he would have probably loved to see it.
Nisha’s: “Good fucking riddance” did help make up for the short comings though.
The weird sphere they picked up in the old facility turns out to be a tiny robot, and Jack cannot help but feel oddly fond of it, nor can anyone else it seems. It is terribly naive however, and while he himself is all for corrupting the small ball of sunshine, no one else is on board, and shuts him up as quickly as he tries to explain how the corpse came to be. Apparently his methods are unorthodox, and no one wants to listen when he tells them it is just a robot, not a fucking child. Nonetheless, he is banned from talking to it.
There is also the Assassin who joins them. The sisters’ dead beat dad might have completely screwed them over earlier in their journey, but hey, at least he cared enough to send them a bodyguard, because that makes up for good old abandonment. Athena is her name, she turns out to be kind of cool, she does however not spare him anything but mistrusting glares.
Rhys has history with her, so he tells him, and in turn Jack absentmindedly almost outs himself then and there, but he is saved by the hand, literally, his cybernetics give him one hell of a slap. He glares at his dead boss, but Athena is getting suspicious of him, so he gives her a dumbass excuse and disappears up on the roof of the caravan they are travelling in, away from prying eyes and ears.
“Sorry, but I don’t think I need to explain to you exactly why, telling the master assassin that I’m hanging out in your head is a really bad idea, yeah?” The hologram at least has the decency to look a little guilty, not that the brunette is buying it.
“No, no, I get it, it was a shit call on my end, kiddo, I got a big mouth on me.” He concedes.
“Hm, yeah you do, don’t you?”
Jack is unsure if he was meant to hear the quiet murmur of the other or not, but the implication was certainly not lost on him. He stares at Rhys, if not a little dumbfounded, because while he is not new to getting flirted with, this is literally an A.I. of the ex-CEO of Atlas, that he is currently carting around, not an actual person. He should not be as flattered as he is; he knows he is a kinky son of a bitch, but this is a whole new ball court.
“Uh,” Is the ever so eloquent response he manages to give.
“Listen, Handsome ,” The hologram floats closer to him so they are less than an arm apart, “You and I, we make a pretty good team, don’t we?”
Jack does not trust his own voice, so he nods at the inquiry instead.
Rhys smiles at that. “Yeah, I think so too, we have pretty similar ideals; I like that in my employees.” His cybernetic arm comes up to pat himself on the head, and it serves as a reminder of how much power the A.I. actually has over him.
“You’re technically not my employer anymore.” He has to open his mouth, of course he does.
The pixels stutter for a moment, his smile fades for a mere few seconds before it comes back, this one however is not as kind as the previous, and the hands that reside in his hair come to grip at his locks painfully. His head is forced back, and he dares not move under the stare of the other.
“You’re right, Jack,” It is the first time he actually calls him by his name, and he cannot help but fucking shiver at the sound of it. “You’re my vessel, and you know what that means?” He does not know what it means, and he should not want to know, but oh boy does he. “It means I own you.”
He is not aware that he has been holding his breath until he releases the air built up in his lungs. He should not be letting the hologram know how much he is affecting him right now, but there are a lot of things he should not do, and when has he ever really listened.
“So when we get back up to Atlarian, here’s what we’re going to do, okay, handsome?”
“Uh-uh.”
“You’re gonna upload me into the servers via my office, and once I’m in the system, once I have reclaimed my throne, you and I, we’ll run the show together, beauty and the beast, yeah?”
Jack has never really been a team player, but hell if this does not sound like a good fucking deal, especially coming from that sweet mouth. No wonder his reputation precedes him, there is no way he can say no to this. He does not want to say no.
“Fuck, yeah, yes, shit, you’ve got a deal, princess.” The hand in his hair loosens its hold, gliding down to pat his cheek, if not a little condescendingly.
“That’s what I thought, so no fraternising with the enemy while I’m gone, hm?” Rhys sends him a wink, flickering out of existence with his last words ringing in the air after him: “Enjoy your evening, Jack .”
He is not proud of his erection. Actually he is very ashamed of it, especially when the robots make themselves known to have witnessed all of his ‘one-man show’.
It is a long ride after that.
-* _ * - * _ *-
Rhys had to give it to him, Jack had an uncanny ability of hitting his head, one way or another. This time however; it left him unconscious, and the A.I. was not about to trust the younger con artist, Sasha, he thinks, to drag this guy back with her. She would definitely leave him for the Pandoran wildlife if she had the chance.
“I hope you don’t mind me taking over the reins for a moment, big guy.”
It is easy to fool the girl, not that he really has to try, apart from the immense self restraint he has to practise in order not to strangle her as she continues to berate ‘Jack’ for his recklessness. At least he did something, what the hell had she contributed?
He silently wishes she had gotten electrified back there.
When they finally get back in from their biometric garden adventures, the atmosphere is tense. It does not take an idiot to know what is up, at least not for him and Sasha, because they have inside information, and oh can Rhys not wait to let this cat out of the bag.
He spares the others but a glance, as he saunters over to Athena and throws an arm over her shoulders. “Athena, darling, you would not believe what we just learned about our dear old friend, Cassius over here.” He grins, it might come off as a little feral, but he imagines it is a good look on Jack’s face.
Nisha is not buying it, he can see that clear as day, she obviously knows her best friend, but she also has no clue what is actually going on, so Rhys rests assured for just a little longer.
“What are you going on about?” The assassin shakes off his arm, turning to look at him, only to have her attention stolen by Sasha as she speaks up, solemnly.
“Cassius, he, he’s Hyperion.”
“ You lying piece of shit! ”
He watches with poorly hidden glee as the noirette picks up the scientist and threatens him with her sword to his throat. The end result will be bloody and messy, which is not really his preferred method, but it will be satisfying nonetheless. He always loved a good drama.
“Well, isn’t this a perfect opportunity to finish what you started?” He goads from the sideline. “Finally, sweet, sweet revenge.”
“Don’t do this!” Fiona, the eldest sister, always the voice of reason, what a buzzkill.
He tunes them out after that; of course Athena will listen to her little protegé rather than him, it is a shame, but what can you do?
Nisha nudges him in the side, from where she has appeared next to him. “‘The hell is up with you, Jackie boy? You hardly remember my name on a good day, yet you get Cassius’ on the first try? It ain’t holding up.” She regards him with a scrutinising look, and he would be lying if he said it did not intimidate him just a bit. He can see clearly why Jack keeps her by his side.
“Might have hit my head a little harder than I thought I did, fell off a damn ledge, y’know?”
Thankfully the conversation never gets to fully develop as, less thankfully, the door of the compound is blown open, and the force of the blow sends them all careening through the windows back into the dome.
Rhys does not get to think about what just happened, as he loses control of his vessel.
-* _ * - * _ *-
His face is missing, why is his face missing? Who the fuck steals a face ? Psychos do, of course they do, Jack should have really seen that coming, but Vasquez’s face? Really? To think even a Psycho could stoop so low, not that he himself was here to the exact same, no not at all.
He is acutely aware that the hologram is keeping a distance to the body in front of him, and when he turns around to confront him, Rhys looks almost queasy. The brunette cannot help but snort at the state of the A.I; a sound that alerts said individual.
“What?” He demands, giving him an affronted look.
Jack snickers. “What, his majesty can’t handle a bit of faceless corpse? I thought you thrived on this shit?” He drives home the words as he picks up a stick to poke at the dead man in front of him. A blood vessel pops in the process, squirting a few drops on the converse he is wearing.
“Oh my god, I’m gonna throw up,” He hears the ex-CEO exclaim. “Can coding even throw up? Hoo, we’re about to find out I guess,” His sentence is followed by sounds of retching.
He almost feels bad for him, almost . He throws the stick to the ground, kicking the corpse for good measure, before stepping up to the nearby alley way, where he hopes to find the culprits of the missing face.
Rhys follows him a mere few seconds later, looking immaculate as ever, not a trace of his earlier emotions. “I don’t quite care for the gorey methods of bandits, I enjoy the more refined ways..” He trails off, floating in tandem with Jack’s strides.
“Uh-uh, sure, kitten, sounds to me more like you’ve got a weak stomach.”
“You’re about to trip over a wire.”
Oh would you look at that, he is. He stops himself in time, carefully taking a step over said wire so as not to alert the sleeping Psychos he now is aware of; thanks to the yellow pixels reclining just above them.
He should probably thank him, but he does not. “Hey, would you look at that, the remains of a skin pizza party.”
“A what? No wait, nevermind I don’t want to know.”
Jack almost laughs out loud, until he remembers their surroundings, and simply sends a grin towards the hologram.
“What are you even waiting for, please just scan for Assquez’s face so we can get out of here, this place is freaky as hell.” Rhys has crossed his arms, he looks uncomfortable, which is the opposite of himself, he could not be less bothered in the moment. Especially not with his dead companion providing stellar entertainment.
“Relax, we’ll be out of here before you know it, princess.” The brunette mumbles, activating his echo eye, and slowly moving around the sleeping Psychos.
It does not take long to find ‘Giggles’ whose mask has the desired face splayed over it.
Jack spares a glance at the A.I. “You might wanna turn around for this, save face, y’know.” The exasperated: “Oh my god.” that follows after, makes it ten times better, and has him snickering as he goes to peel off the skin.
“You’re sick.”
He could not really argue with that.
-* _ * - * _ *-
“‘Hacky wacky’, that’s gotta be the worst shit you’ve ever said to me, and hell that’s saying a lot.” Jack grumbles to his ear piece, where Felicia, or whoever, is on the other side, as he continues looking through the servers. “It’s a bust, pumpkin, it’s on its own local grid.”
“In terms a normal person can understand?”
“You gotta find another way in, I can’t-” He stops talking as he hears the voices outside of the office, he recognises Wilhelm’s voice immediately. “Fuck, I’ll call you back later.” He does not give her a chance to answer before he severs the connection, turning his voice modulator back on.
“Vasquez, we had a deal.” Typical of the big oaf, straight to the point, but hey hold up, a deal? What fucking deal?
“Did we now? Why don’t you remind me what it was again?” He leans back in the chair and crosses his arms, regarding the elder with a cold stare.
“Don’t play coy, I get you whatever the hell is in Jack’s head, you give me your office. Instead you bring me a dead body that ain’t Jack. I should’ve never fucking trusted you.”
Anger, that is the sole feeling occupying his chest right now, pure unadulterated rage. Wilhelm sold him and Nisha, who he fucking lost on that shit planet they got stuck on thanks to him, out for a simple promotion? This is why his trust comes short, this is exactly why, because they always betray you in the end. Friendship? What a fucking joke.
Rhys makes himself known next to Wilhelm, he looks to be sizing him up, but Jack is not paying him any mind, too busy planning the demise of the traitor in front of him. He gets up from his seat, slowly making his way over to the man. “You’re right, buddy .” He smiles, ruefully. “Old Jackie boy is alive, which is more than I can say for your status after I’m through with your worthless pathetic life.”
Normally he would not try to pick a fight with someone like his ex-friend, big, burly, and built like a brick house, but he has the upper hand of surprise and a metal fucking arm; which is why he manages to get the other on the floor in single blow.
Powerful emotions, and adrenaline, makes you a force to be reckoned with, and Jack? He is revelling in it. He has got the traitor underneath him, relentlessly smashing his cybernetic fist down on his face in a blinding rage. He barely even registers the hologram trying to get in contact with him.
Suddenly his arm ceases movement, and that is when he comes back to, turning on a dime to the culprit. “ What the fuck are you doing, Rhys .” He hisses at the yellow form of pixels by his side. “You better fucking release me this instant, kiddo, or I-”
“You what?” Rhys challenges him with a levelled stare. “You don’t control me, Jack, I control you , remember?” He wiggles his cybernetic fingers in order to drive the point home. The brunette watches the movement with apt attention, successfully distracted.
“And this, while I enjoy the picture you’re painting, and your raw power, isn’t what I want, nor what you want.” The A.I. lets his arm go, and it falls down by his side, motionless.
“We can do so much worse to him once we rule this place, handsome, so let’s go, leave him for later, you won’t regret it, trust me. ”
Trust is fickle, it is always broken, but Rhys makes him want to believe in it, just for a little while longer.
-* _ * - * _ *-
Jack has never really been a patient man, not even during his best moments, so the fact that he has yet to shoot someone in the foot, is really a wonder. The scientists know it too; that is why no one even dares to approach him as he sits on the floor in the middle of one of their labs, tapping away at his ECHO device.
They are smart, he thinks.
It has been only an hour since he was called about the process of their experiment, and decided to come down to ‘supervise’ them, so they would not fuck it up. It was a shit excuse, no one bought it, but no one questioned him either.
The newly appointed CEO groans loudly from his spot on the floor. “Who the hell leaves this big of a flaw in their final blueprints, are these idiots looking to get airlocked?”
“I’ve been gone for a week, and they’re already trying to run around corners with you, handsome?”
Jack’s reaction is instant.
The ECHO flies towards the owner of the voice, who gracefully sidesteps the incoming projectile. “Real mature,” His former dead boss waves his hand at the scientists in the room, silently ordering them to leave for the time being. No one thinks to defy the man, and the lab is cleared within seconds.
He cannot help but be amused at the way their employees scutter out like bugs, but it does not last long, as he turns his attention back to what once used to be just a bunch of codes in his head. He gets up, spreading his arms in a greeting. “Rhys, cupcake, so glad of you to finally join me, not like I had to wait a week and a half for any sort of clue to your fucking whereabouts, only for you to bust out in a shiny new fleshsuit out of nowhere.”
The man in front of him has enough decency to look at least a tiny bit awkward. “Surprise?”
“What are you even; a robot with hyper realistic skin details?”
“Former body-double, we just prodded his brain around a bit.” Rhys grins, activating the echo eye implant.
“I expected you to say clone or something, not this shit.” He gestures to the other’s body. It definitely looked like the real him. Whoever it used to be had their looks completely rearranged. He is not sure if he finds this weirder than he would have the clone.
“Surprise, again?”
Jack snorts. “You’re a lot less threatening when you’re not a voice in the void, princess.”
Rhys, almost as if he realises he is actually physically real again, closes in on him, bringing a hand up to caress his cheek. “I don’t think I got to thank you for all your help, handsome.”
It is strange, for once feeling the touch of the man in front of him, and not just a fleeing static.
“You did, via company actions, but if you wanna use your big boy words, go ahead, I’ll listen.” Jack sends him a wolfish grin, circling his arms around the former hologram’s waist.
His Co-CEO tuts at him, a mildly irritated expression flitting across his face briefly. “You’re a menace, Jack .”
He would have replied, had he been given a chance.
Rhys pulls him into a heated kiss, and he cannot help but think, he finally trusted the right person for once.
_