Chapter Text
He was awoken by pain. Pain everywhere, in his veins, his muscles, his bones. Everything was hurting. He yelled in horror and glutched his gut with his robotic hand, bringing the other one to his face. He let out a loud groan as he found the plug in his head and pulled it out. The pain subsided and he stood up.
"J-Jack? Ohhh, fuck..." He closed his eyes once more and fell down on his knees. "Jack, god... what did you do to me!?"
"You'd like to know that, wouldn't you?"
Rhys groaned. He would recognize that beaming voice anywhere. Jack.
"The fuck is this!?" Rhys shouted without even looking at Jack. He heard the man chuckle.
"It hurt for me too. Don't worry about it." Obviously he would say that. He only cared about himself. "But I gotta say, I didn't look as good during it." Okay, now Rhys was confused. The man was complimenting him now? It made no sense. With knitted brows he lifted his head to look at the hologram. He looked the same- exept he was in colour.
"Wh-what the-!? How the- did you find a digistruction device or what?" By now, Rhys was fully awake, out of the pain reduced daze or whatever he was in earlier, standing up to view the man from a more normal angle. He noticed Jack shrug slightly.
"Nope, just, yknow, created a new body for myself long ago." As if it was a normal thing to do. "Now that that's over with, I'd like for you to follow me. Can you do that for me cupcake?"
"W...why would I do that?" Rhys spat out. "You told me... you said you were going to simply plug yourself into Helios and that it wont damage me in any way, but the next thing I know is I'm in horrible pain, you have a body and now you're expecting me to follow you?" Rhys couldn't believe it. He could barely stand and he was already being dragged around? He let out a fustrated growl as Jack latched an arm around him and guided him to walk. With great annoyance Rhys did as Jack wanted him to.
"See? That wasn't so hard was it now kiddo?" Jack gave a lazy grin as they walked to the opposite end of Jacks office. "You want to know where we're going cupcake?" To that Rhys gave a nod and Jack scoffed. "Ofcourse you do. Well, I wont tell ya. Guess why? Because the suprise is going to be way better if I don't."
"Suprise?" Rhys questioned. Jack nodded. "Er, allright." Silence overtook them. After they reached the end of Jacks office, Jack turned to him.
"You trust me right, Rhysie?"
"Trust is such a... strong word and-" Rhys started but the look Jack was giving him made him change his sentence. "Uuuuhh... I'm pretty sure I could say I trust you.."
"Good, good. Because trust is the most important thing here cupcake." With that, Jack raised a hand and pushed a part of the wall in, like a button. Rhys stepped back as the floor under them started shaking but Jack pulled him back. "Stay." The floor started to move downwards and Rhys hung on Jacks arm in slight horror.
"J-Jack, you're not going to launch me into space are you...?"
"We're already in space baby." Jack winked but continued. "But no, I'm not airlocking you, dummy. I'm showing you something."
"What-"
"Look."
And Rhys did. They had just gone through the thick floor and arrived somewhere completley different. There were trees everywhere, birds flying past them. He swore he saw some kind of creature hang in one of the trees.
"Jack... this is beautiful. What is this?" Rhys asked once they stopped moving, the stop making him come back to reality.
"It's a replica of the rainforests on planet Earth. There are animals from there here too. Like those monkeys over there." Rhys stared at the spot Jack was pointing at. There was a small creature hanging from it's tail there, it was adorable. Rhys gave a small smile.
"Woah..." He was lost with his words. His eyes wandered all over the place before locking with Jacks. His heart fluttered. "This is impressive... Jack, oh... I'm at a lack of words... shit, it's... it's so beautiful." He saw Jacks lips twist into a slight smirk. He looked back to his eyes, wich was hard for at the moment Jack had caught him staring at his lips, he licked them and pulled his lower lip between his teeth. Rhys swallowed.
"You think so, Rhysie?" Jack asked silently, taking a step towards Rhys. Rhys' eyes flickered away, looking around them, avoiding looking at Jack.
"Y-yeah."
"I also have other animals in here, like snakes. Alligators. A few skags." Rhys' turned his eyes back to Jack in terror, stepping closer to the wall.
"S-skags? Jack those-" He weakly stuttered.
"Aren't earth animals? Yeah, I know. I was curious to how they would react to eachother." Jack said with a shrug and grabbed Rhys by the shoulder, guiding him into the forest.
"Jack- what the heck are you doing?"
"I'm showing you one more thing."