Chapter Text
“Rhys!”
He felt Vaughn slam into his body, arms wrapping tightly around his torso before he could react. A million thoughts began to race through his mind as he stood there, mouth gaping and eyes bugging out of his skull- but muscle memory kicked in a second later, and then he was holding onto his friend in a desperate hug.
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god-” Vaughn squealed into his ear, shoulders shaking so much that Rhys could feel his ribcage rattle, “I can’t believe I found you.”
Rhys wanted to agree with the sentiment; he’d been terrified of the possibility that his friend was dead and gone- but the words got caught in his throat. There were too many things, emotions, memories, new experiences that he wanted to tell him, but it got lost in the mess of his brain as he tried to rationalize the situation.
After a long pause, where Vaughn seemed content in just hugging, the shorter man pulled back.
He kept a warm smile on his lips as he spoke, eyes brimming with what looked like astonished tears, “How did you get up here?” he asked and then added quickly, “You- you look so different. And your arm- did you break it?”
Rhys opened his mouth to reply, hoping to reattempt some words, but Vaughn was caught up in his rambling.
“Me and the girls have been looking for you- or at least I have. Not that they didn’t care!” Vaughn rushed out, gesturing wildly with his hands, “They just thought you were dead, so we grieved. Or they did. LB missed you so much. Did you know that robots can cry?” Vaughn began to speed up in his talking like he was nervous, “I didn’t. But, I bet he’ll be so happy to see you’re okay. I mean, you look great. Minus the blood, which, by the way, whatever just happened was super scary. And that suit? It’s-”
“Hey, pipsqueak, is your tongue on fire or something? Slow the hell down.”
Vaughn puttered to a halt like a car running out of gas. His eyes widened at the voice, a twitch sporting in his brow as reality seemed to crash down upon him. Rhys didn’t blame him; Jack was good at sneaking up on people and catching them off guard.
Rhys followed his friend’s line of sight back towards the screen above him. Jack stared back, his feet kicked up in his digital space like he was watching a soap opera instead of Rhys’ personal life.
“What? Do I have something in my teeth?” the man asked at their prolonged stares. He used his pinkie finger to scratch at one of his canines, despite their obviously being nothing, and then rolled his eyes, “Helloooooo, earth to dum-dums? God, I swear you both have the same dead look in your eyes, it’s like a curse was put on you middle-management dweebs-”
“Jack. Play nice.” Rhys cut him off, finally finding his voice. He wasn’t going to allow tension to erupt between them; Vaughn had been cautious of Handsome Jack back in the day; working away in the nights out of anxiety- contrary to Rhys who loved working for Hyperion. If he could get ahead of it, and make them both see each other in a good light, then Rhys was going to take it. It was too bad their first meeting had to take place in an office full of dead bodies.
“I am being nice. This is me being nice, Rhysie, relax. You’re not offended, right, four-eyes?”
Rhys cringed. ‘ Jack and his stupid big mouth’ he thought mournfully, casting a side-long glance at his friend.
To his credit, Vaughn didn’t look upset by the words. Rattled and bothered, sure, but judging from his still ajar mouth, he seemed to be still processing Jack’s appearance.
“Vaughn,” Rhys began, placing his hand on his shoulder, “Are you okay?”
The shorter man pivoted on his heel, a look of disbelief on his face, “Yeah,” he replied with a high-pitched hum, “I’m good…just processing.”
“Processing or short circuiting?” Jack commented unhelpfully, “You look like I just shat in your coffee-”
“ Jack.” Rhys said again warningly, steeling himself with a pointed glare. He was not in the mood to deal with his bullshit.
“What?” The older man frowned, “I’m being nice!” he tossed his hands up, “Stop yapping at me.”
Rhys’ eye twitched, “Excuse me- ‘ Yapping?’” he quoted.
“Okay, that was the wrong word to use. My bad.” Jack consented at Rhys’ volume raising.
“Jack, I swear-”
“Um,”
They both froze, remembering the third party in the room and quickly looked to Vaughn, who was pointing between them both with a lost expression.
“What’s happening right now?”
Rhys didn’t waste a second more to explain. His best bro was right there, next to him, holding his elbow like a tether. After weeks of being apart, and so much that had happened, he was grateful to finally have someone to tell everything to (that wasn’t Jack).
“You know that drive that I got off of Nakayama?”
Vaughn’s brow furrowed, looking at Rhys with a frown. Almost like he had wanted Rhys to say something different.
“I guess?” he said after a long pause of peeking at Jack (who winked and grinned evilly when Vaughn flinched), “What about it?”
“Jack was in there.”
A look of understanding began to spread over Vaughn’s face suddenly, like the situation was finally dawning on him, “He was in the drive,” he clarified.
Rhys shook his head up and down, “Yes.”
“So…” Vaughn swallowed, looking back at Jack and holding the man’s gaze in a strange act of confidence, “He’s not real.”
Rhys winced in preparation before Jack’ loud voice even bellowed through the room.
“Ex- fucking- scuse me? The hell did you just say?” Jack glared, a red glint entering his eyes as he yelled, “Did you not just see me mow down ten people? Or feel that spray of blood on your chin? Can you not hear me talking to you right now? What do you mean I’m ‘not real’, dickhead?”
Vaughn took a step back, face dropping into something timid and fearful as Jack’s monitor began to move forward, “Well, I- uh- I didn’t mean that-”
Rhys felt his blood run cold; picturing something that he’d much rather not come to pass. He had expected a tearful reunion with his best friend, accompanied by a whirlwind of talking and exchanging stories, then introducing Vaughn to Jack. That last one had been the one he’d had the most trepidation about. But he’d envisioned being able to force them to become friends. Or at least…allies? Something close to that.
He looked back and forth between Jack and Vaughn, watching as an argument began to break out between them, and that little fairytail fizzled out like a wet firecracker.
“Hey,” he stepped between them, “Let’s not do this. I- we just found each other. Jack, could you give me and Vaughn some privacy”
The older man let out a huff and pouted, “But, I-”
“Please.”
Jack let out a few grumbling noises under his breath that sounded eerily close to ‘jerkface’ and then crossed his arms, rolling his eyes, looking like an exasperated old man, “Fine, whatever. You have ten minutes.”
He’d take the win where he could get it, “Thank you.” he said as genuinely as he could, and then, after feeling guilty, tacked on, “Handsome.”
Jack brightened, the compliment/pet name lighting something up on his face. Rhys jotted that down mentally as the man blipped from the screen, storing away that information for later on and then turned to Vaughn.
“So-”
“Rhys, oh my god, what’s happening?” The shorter man immediately burst out, an hysterical edge to his voice, “What is he doing to you? All those people he just killed and- is he holding you hostage? What’s-”
“No!” Rhys exclaimed, wide-eyed, “Jack hasn’t done anything to me. He’s- he’s saved me, dude.”
A crease formed in the others’ eyes, “Rhys,” his voice lowered and he stepped closer, looking around the room nervously, “He just killed people. In front of us. I mean, look at that.”
He pointed at a nearby corpse, it’s torso leaking red spongy goo.and crusting into the carpet.
It was gross, but…
“He did that to protect me.”
“He- what?” Vaughn reared back, “Bro, he killed everyone. He would’ve killed me!”
That struck a bit of cold terror deep within Rhys and he swallowed, “He didn’t know that was you though. You were dressed as Vasquez,” he bit his lip, “And- and why were you even disguised as him? You’re asking me all of these questions, but what about you? What’s going on? Where are the girls?”
“Dude, we’re in the middle of a heist right now!” Vaughn threw his hands in the air looking fed up, “I needed to get in here for the beacon. It was supposed to be a super easy peasy job; in and out, lickity split. But then someone took down all the comms in Helios and I got marched up here. I think you can fill in the blanks for who did that. Now, me and the girls are probably gonna hunted down for the rest of our lives, because people will think we killed the CEO-”
Rhys slapped a hand over his mouth.
“Sorry.” he said, watching as Vaughn’s cheeks went red, puffing up in annoyance from being silenced like a child, “But listen to me: you aren’t in any danger right now.”
Vaughn’s eyes darted towards Barney ( oh shit, Barney…).
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” Rhys smiled anyways, “I guarantee your safety, bro. Yours, and Fiona’s. And Sasha’s.”
Vaughn smacked away his hand gently, “Yeah? How can you promise that? Handsome Jack is back in the big seat! He’s crazy!”
Okay, maybe that last part was true, but Rhys had faith in the man.
“Jack won’t hurt you. I swear,” he took his friend’s hands in his one good one, and gave him the best confident stare he could offer, “He isn’t a bad person, Vaughn. He’s helped me get to Helios and fight off all these horrible bandits and monsters. Without him, I wouldn’t be standing in front of you right now.”
A sliver of something grateful passed over Vaughn at that, but he kept his eyes firm. At least he didn’t remove his hands from Rhys’ as he continued to speak, “That doesn’t mean he’ll be good to me and the girls though.”
“Yes it does,” Rhys argued, “I’ll just tell him. You’re important to me. I would never let him hurt my friends.”
“Yeah? And what about Yvette?”
Rhys froze.
Vaughn did too, and they both turned to look at the mess of dead bodies as if they both suddenly had just realized the girl’s existence.
“She betrayed me.” Rhys answered honestly, “She tried to kill me.”
“I know,” Vaughn sighed, closing his eyes, “I know.”
“You do?” a bit of panic eased back from his voice.
“Yeah. As Vasquez, she told me everything. The whole evil monologue. A lot of nasty things that really surprised me. She said she’d orchestrated stranding us out there. Didn’t even cry when she thought I was dead,” he stopped and opened his eyelids again, “And when I said you were gone, she…she laughed.”
That didn’t surprise him after the last twenty four hours, but it still hurt to hear Vaughn say it out loud. Even more so when the man’s voice broke on the words.
“No.” He said anyways, thinking of their friendship over the years, “I didn’t.”
“I think she was just sick of being bossed around,” Vaughn muttered, “Jealousy probably got the best of her. She’s always been the most level-leaded out of the three of us. It was about time that she snapped.”
Rhys thought of the workload she’d been put under and shrugged, “We worked just as hard as her.”
“Yeah, but,” Vaughn made a face, “It was different for her.”
“I guess.” Rhys shrugged, “But look, forget her for a second. She wasn’t the person I thought she was. You are. You’re my best friend, man. And best friends look out for each other. So, I’m not gonna let anyone screw with you.” he thought for a second, “As Jack’s new second in command, I swear I will keep you safe.”
Vaughn nodded appreciatively. He seemed truthfully at ease for that devotion, but there was still something eating at him and Rhys could tell by the way he chewed at his bottom lip.
“Why do you still look anxious? Do you not believe me?”
“That’s not it,” Vaughn shook his head, “Of course, I believe you, bro. But,” he sucked in a breath, “I don’t understand the relationship.”
“Huh?”
“You and Handsome Jack,” he clarified.
Rhys felt his face go pink. Relationship? Was that what it looked like on the outside? Had Blake’s last words wrung true- ‘AI Jack looked like he was programmed to be his boyfriend’ ? Why did he feel butterflies in his stomach-?
“Is he like your mentor now or something?”
Oh. Rhys’ shoulders slumped against his will. Okay, well, sure, but that wasn’t really it.
“I guess.” he said more glumly than he intended. Clearing his throat, he went on to explain, “He told me I could be his vice president.”
A look of dread passed over Vaughn’s face. It reminded him of those moments where Vaughn would sigh heavily before a big workday, or the moments before Vasquez would approach to belittle them. Or worse; back on Pandora, where they’d made eye contact before having that fated meeting at The World of Curiosities.
“Vice president?” He repeated.
“Well, yeah,” Rhys nodded, slightly miffed at the lack of enthusiasm that his friend was showing. That had been both of their dreams since starting at Hyperion, hadn’t it?
“I can find you a better job now too,” he added on, “How does head accountant sound? You’ve always wanted to be the big dick in charge, right?”
“That’s…” Vaughn shook his head and trailed off. Why did he look so disturbed?
“What? Did I say something wrong?”
Vaughn opened his mouth-
“Alright, boys!”
They jumped, a yelp startling its way out of Rhys’ throat, despite being used to his partner jumping out randomly. Turning back towards the doors to the grand office, they located the source of the voice. Jack stood there, in holographic form again, a bright smile on his face, with cleaning bots roaming around his legs.
Immediately, the robots got to work, loading up bodies and viscera, their mechanical arms wiping sponges along the bloody carpet.
Rhys spared a look inside his subsystems, confirming the time, “I thought you said you’d give us ten minutes.” He told the CEO with a slight edge to his tone.
“I got bored,” Jack shrugged in response, “Plus it’s pretty rude to kick a guy out of his own office, you know. I could fire you both for insubordination.”
“Really?” Rhys raised a brow, “Wanna try it?”
“ Yeesh,” Jack tsked, “If you keep up that attitude, then I just might. Remind me, where’s the nearest airlock?”
He felt Vaughn stiffen beside him in fear. ‘Oh, come on,’ he mentally sighed, ‘he’s not gonna hurt us. Maybe annoy us ‘till we rip off our ears, but he won’t do anything’. He gave the smaller man a grin to say something along the lines of, ‘ relax’ and then patted him on the back before addressing Jack.
“So, did you need something? Or did you come back here to be a jerk? You’re freaking him out.”
Vaughn made a weak sound in his throat, tossing Rhys a look of betrayal, “Wha- I’m not freaked out.” He tried to assure Jack.
The older man didn’t spare him any attention though, smoothing over the conversation like he’d never even spoken.
“Yeah look, I’m gonna need you down in the hub five tics from now so we can assert your power over Helios, capiche, cupcake?”
For a moment, he wondered if Jack had misspoken, or he’d misheard. The man couldn’t have meant that he would be gaining control.
“I-“ Rhys swallowed, “ My power? Not ours?”
Jack nodded, “Yep. Yours . Everyone already loves me, baby-boy. I don’t need to do anything other than blip in, toss out some threats, and slap a hand on your ass to show you’re my numero dos. All you gotta do is pledge your undying loyalty to me.”
Ah. That sounded more like Jack.
“All good?” The man asked brightly.
“Yeah yeah, whatever. You can have me lick your boots after the ceremony-“
“Really?” Jack’s eyes went intense. An alarmingly horny look in his eyes that made Rhys cringe.
“That was so clearly a joke.”
“Oh. Yeah. Duh..” Jack frowned. Then, “Okay, well, see ya down there, kitten. Daddy’s gotta prep some stuff, but I’ll meet you on stage,” his eyes landed on the other boy in the room, “You too, mouse. Get down there.” He added and then blipped away.
“…did he just call me ‘ mouse’?” Vaughn mumbled in the resulting silence. The cleaning bots continued to whir around the room, doing their job, but that only elevated the awkwardness.
“Yep.” Rhys nodded.
“And he called you kitten.”
“Mhmm.”
“And he does that often?” Vaughn questioned, eyebrows lifting.
“He likes nicknames.” Rhys couldn’t help but feel defensive about it, a light pink scouring his cheeks, “It’s his thing.”
His friend’s lips hesitated somewhere between a grimace and a smirk, “And his nickname for you is…kitten?’
Rhys huffed out a breath through his nostrils, “Jack calls everyone everything but their real name. It’s part of his charm.”
“His charm, eh?” Vaughn asked coyly. He was looking at Rhys just like he had done so in the past, every time they discussed Rhys’ fanboy-ish nature for their boss. Usually that conversation would include a bottle of wine, Chinese take-out, and Vaughn’s bedroom floor- but, there, surrounded by a blood bath in Handsome Jack’s office, it held the same weight. The only real difference was that Jack and Rhys were actually something now.
That thought appeared to dawn on Vaughn; his amused grin swapping out for something conflicted.
As they walked down to the Hub of Heroism together, Rhys tried hard to remove it from his face, even as they stepped over the corpses of Jack’s murderous protection.
“Look bro.” Rhys said, marching into the elevator, “Despite all his- erm- quirks-”
Vaughn snorted.
“-he’s been really good to me. Maybe a little sadistic and morally questionable at times, but,” the doors slid shut and he pressed the button for the lower floor, keeping his attention on Vaughn, “Overall, he’s helped me more times than he’s hindered me. Remember back at the ATLAS facility? He’s the one that got us out of there.”
That got the look on his friend’s face to shift. He turned towards Rhys with a dumbfounded open mouth, eyes wide, “He was there ?” he exclaimed.
“Well yeah,” Rhys crossed his arms and leaned back against the glass, “How do you think we got out of there completely unscathed?”
“I-I figured you were just getting really great at hacking.”
Offense filled him at that, “Hey, I am good!” he snapped.
“Well, you’re not at Handsome Jack level yet.”
There was a lighthearted teasing in the other man’s words as he spoke, but it filled Rhys to the brim with annoyance. Like a sharp stab of a needle in his wrist, it spread up his arm and over his torso, in a way that he was unused to. When was the last time he’d gotten mad at Vaughn?
“Where are the girls?” He asked randomly, hoping to change the topic and shrug off his strange emotions.
Vaughn’s shoulders slumped, “Security. I think they’re locked in the cells. Our comms went dead just before I entered-” he gestured upwards to where Jack’s office was located, “And the last thing I heard was Fiona yelling at a security officer so-”
“They’re on Helios?!”
It was Rhys’ turn to raise his voice. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he began to look frantically around the elevator, like Sasha and Fiona were going to pop out at any moment and throttle him.
“Uh yeah,” Vaughn snorted, “What? Did you think they’d just send me?”
“I-I don’t know! I just figured-” Rhys ran a hand through his hair, “They must hate me- fuck.” he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Thoughts of ditching each other on Pandora flooded into his brain. The girls had always been so much more confrontational. When he and Vaughn had made the decision to go to New Haven without them, they’d acted like he’d done it out of pure maliciousness.
They had to be angry at him now-
“What? No, dude, they’ve missed the hell out of you!”
His panic came to a grinding halt, “They… huh?” he asked, less than elegantly.
“Dude, we all grieved you. Fiona, Sash, LB, Gortys- hell, even August.”
“Really?” Rhys gaped. That couldn’t be true. The girls hated him, didn’t they?
“Dude, we all missed you.”
A warm feeling settled inside of Rhys’ gut and he smiled, about to say something more, when the doors to the hub finally opened and they stepped out.
It hadn’t changed since the last time he’d seen it; still big and metal, yellow painted on every surface like a tin box of highlighters. However, it was much more full than usual.
He’d expected a crowd- but he didn’t expect the mass of people when they entered the room. From wall to wall, workers stood, all staring up at an image that Rhys never expected to see; Jack, bigger than he’d been in the office, standing at over twenty feet, his blue toothy grin angled down at them all. He was mid-speech, arms spread wide, and around them, Rhys and Vaughn watched as people’s jaws dropped. Some folks had fallen to their knees like they were staring at a god. Rhys himself felt like he was staring a modern day deity above its disciples.
He looked powerful. The perfect image of a man returning from beyond the grave.
Rhys felt his chest swell with pride at the sight and he straightened his posture and angled his neck to stare at the space that his boss took up. Wow, he’s so-
“We should go back to Pandora while he’s distracted.”
A jolt went through him, shocked to hear the words come out of his friend’s mouth and he turned, offense on his tongue, “What? No, Vaughn, he’s about to make his speech. I want to hear it.”
He glanced at Vaughn, disappointed to see a frown persisting on his lips. Why didn’t he understand what Rhys was saying- Jack was their ally.
“Plus, why would we go back to Pandora?” he scoffed, disgust in his voice. The idea of willingly going back down to that hellhole of a planet made hives erupt on his flesh. He’d rather have get airlocked than go back.
“It’s not that bad.”
Vaughn had said it in a small, barely audible voice, but it was enough to make Rhys falter.
“Not that bad?” he rubbed his hand absently across the fabric of his suit. His nail caught on a chunk of guts and he flicked it off with a grimace.
“Yeah, and- and the girls have a pretty good gig going on at Scooter’s right now.”
“Am I supposed to know who that is?” He asked snarkily, making sure to face forward, eyes glued on the the image of Jack’s loafers strutting around the smooth shellac stage at the front of the crowd. He didn’t want to miss a second of Jack’s announcement. The way he commanded a room was invigorating; the way he gestured with his hands and let his eyes gleam devilishly down at his subordinates. Rhys would give anything to stand beside him as he aimed a finger gun at someone in the crowd.
“Rhys… he died.”
“Huh?” he ripped his attention away to look at Vaughn confusedly, “Who?” he asked.
“Scooter.” The shorter man replied briskly, eyes narrowing into a glare for the insensitive tone Rhys knew he was using. It didn’t matter though; Rhys didn’t have any recollection of someone named Scooter, and therefore, no emotional tie to the conversation. Was he supposed to feel sad everytime someone in their incredibly violent and bloody universe bit the bullet?
Vaughn’s voice turned bitter, “He died saving me and the others. You know, the guy who fixed up the caravan?”
“Oh.” Rhys hummed, “That’s…I’m sorry, buddy.”
He really wasn’t. And that made his stomach clench oddly.
Thankfully at least, his words calmed down the bubbling anger just below the surface of Vaughn’s glasses, and they both relaxed their posture.
“Fiona was really torn up about it. After this, can we make a memorial or something for the guy?”
“Uh, well, let’s see about that after-”
“And there, he is! The man, the myth, and my favorite little twerp who's just helped me shoot Jeffery Blake in the face, it’s- drumroll please- Rhys!”
Suddenly there was a spotlight being shown down on the top of his head, illuminating his figure and heating up his brown locks of hair. It blinded him for a moment; trickling into the soft parts of his eyeball and cyber-tech, before he took in the fact that he was now being faced with the attention of the room.
He stood there awkwardly for a second, with what he hoped wasn’t a dumb expression. His suit, he suddenly felt a bit subconscious about; the oversized shoulders and bits of bloody flesh still splashed across the front. His cheeks felt a bit sticky with blood too and held back the urge to wipe at them with a grimace. Did he look bad? Should he have cleaned himself up- was that what Jack had been hoping he do before coming down to-
“Hot damn! Look at you, little serial killer in the making!”
Jack’s voice, as ridiculous as he was, snapped Rhys back to reality. There was a giddy amusement in his tone as he waited for him to march towards his figure. And the look in his eyes, blown huge by his towering form, sent a current of confidence through Rhys.
“Get on up here, new Vice Pres! The people wanna meet their new boss!”
Sparing one last look at his friend, who looked back at him with a grimace, Rhys did exactly as he was required, and made his way towards Jack.
And under the glow of the lights and the watchful eye of Helios, he felt like he was right where he was supposed to be.