Until The End Of Time//Rhys x Jack

I

"Hey Rhysie, I'm going to the lab, you feel like comin'?" Jack asked, excited. "Uh, sure. What's there to look at though?" Rhys questioned, pushing strands of his hair out of his face. Jack grinned at the question, "They made a time warping machine or some shit. It's in early development but who cares?" Jack said as he grabbed Rhys by his rolled up sleeve and dragged him over to the lab. His smile stayed on his face as they ran their way there. They entered the lab, and Jack immediately ran over to the little machine. His excitement was obvious. Rhys looked around at the other little gadgets, making his way over to the machine. "So we could change the past with his thing?" Jack asked, interested. "Yes, but it's in early development and being close to it or touching it could possibly send you back years and years in time. We haven't figured out how to control it yet, but it's powered on eridium and-" Jack sighed, "yadda yadda, who cares! Just let me see the damn thing." Rhys walked over, "Jack, maybe we shouldn't mess with this right now-" the woman Jack was talking to opened the glass that kept the little metal box contained. "Don't touch it." She said, voice shaking. Jack ignored her, and passed his hand over the box, Rhys gasped and grabbed onto his sleeve. Strange particles surrounded them, and Rhys screamed. Jack grinned, "See, nothing happened. Everything's fine-" his sentence was interrupted with a loud warping sound and a sudden loss of air and vision. Rhys thrashed around, not knowing where he was and trying desperately to breathe. He reached out somewhere for Jack, but he felt nothing there. Suddenly, he felt grass under his feet. He could breathe. He opened his eyes, still shocked. He looked down at his arms, his cybernetics were still there, and his scanner worked in his echo eye. He looked up, and noticed that he was surrounded by tall grass, in a field. "Holy shit! Is this Pandora?!" He asked quietly to himself. He scanned around, but the only thing that came up were question marks. His cybernetics didn't know anything about where he was. He looked at his feet, and noticed Jack laying at them. "Jack!" He basically screamed as he knelt down to the other man. Rhys grabbed ahold of his shoulder and shook him awake, "Hey, where the fuck are we?!" He asked angrily as Jack opened his eyes. Jack got up quickly, hand on his gun. "What the fuck is this place?" He whispered. Rhys shrugged, "I have no fucking idea. What do we do?" Jack sighed, "Walk, I guess. Which sucks. Fuck." Jack said as he stomped through the grass. Rhys walked behind him, confused. "I've never breathed air this fresh, honestly. Maybe this is Pandora in the past?" He suggested. Jack sighed, "I wouldn't know. Let's just hope we don't run into aliens." He joked as they kept walking. "So, how far back in time do you think we went?" Jack asked with a scowl. Rhys gulped, "I'm gonna say maybe 100 years?" Jack laughed loudly at that, "I wish." Rhys looked up at the sky, and his eyes went wide. "Uh, Jack. I think..." Jack turned around to look at Rhys, "What?" He asked, annoyed. "I think we're on Earth?" Rhys said dryly. Jack's eyes wandered up, looking at a blue sky with no Helios in sight. The bright sun made his eyes squint. "Holy fucking shit." Jack said breathlessly. "So, maybe we're really, really far back?" Rhys said. Jack nodded. "We need to find something to stay in, like now. There's tons of crazy shit on here." Jack said, continuing to walk. Rhys stumbled at first, but kept walking. "I can't believe this. What if there's other humans on here? What are we gonna do about my arm? This is like, really advanced technology." Rhys said. Jack didn't answer. Rhys kept looking up at the sky, amazed. He looked around at the healthy trees and ran his hands through the grass. He smiled, but kept walking.

Eventually, the two reached what looked like an abandoned house, or factory of some sort. "Why does this place look better than some of the professionally built houses on Pandora?" Rhys asked sarcastically. Jack let out a small laugh and walked closer to it. "We're gonna have to break in." He said, quietly. Rhys's eyes widened, "What if a person lives here?!" He asked, but Jack broke down the door with a kick anyway. He peeked inside, and nodded at Rhys to tell him it was ok to enter. Rhys stepped into the house, and looked around. Books and trash were scattered onto the floor, and blankets and ripped pillows littered the stairs. Jack ran upstairs, but Rhys didn't follow. He looked around inside the kitchen, finding old food and dining utensils. He gagged at the sight of a dead rat, aside from being on Pandora for almost a month. He grabbed an unopened box of "Twinkies", and had no idea what they were. He looked at the box, "BEST BY FEB92018." He read out, his eyes widened. Were they in 2018? He ripped the box open, and observed the food. "What the fuck are you?" He asked to the inanimate object. He ripped it out of its plastic, and bit into it. His eyes widened at how good it tasted. "Why don't they make food like this on Helios?!" He asked. "Because food in space sucks ass, cupcake." Jack said, amused. Rhys jumped and dropped his Twinkie. Jack barked out a laugh and grabbed his own. He bit into it and closed his eyes, clearly enjoying it. "Are you gonna have an orgasm or something? Jeez Jack." Rhys laughed, and Jack glared at him. "It's not my fault the pretzels you order suck, Rhys." He said. Rhys's laughing stopped, "So what do we do? Do we find... other people?" He asked. Jack shrugged, "I guess. I don't think we're going home anytime soon." He said, looking at the ground. Rhys nodded, and looked out the window. "Oh wow. Is that the sunset here?" He asked in awe, looking at the blue and pink sky. Jack moved next to Rhys, and looked out the window. He smiled slightly, and nodded. "Yeah. It's really nice." He whispered. "I don't think I hate this change all that much." Rhys said, staring at the sky. Jack moved away and walked into another room. Rhys quickly joined him. "I'm gonna set up the sleeping area, you can help. Scratch that, you will help, okay princess?" He said, back to his old self. Rhys sighed and helped Jack set up the pillows and old blankets to make a somewhat comfortable little sleeping area. Once they were done, Jack sat on the blanket, and sighed. "We're gonna steal a car or some shit tomorrow. Earth doesn't work like pandora, I'm a nobody right now. We're gonna have to sell some stuff, maybe." He said as Rhys sat next to him. Rhys nodded, "What about finding a real home? Or at least an apartment." he asked. Jack shrugged, "Like I said, I'll steal and sell some shit. We'll be ok, don't worry princess." He said as he laid down and pulled the blanket over him, his back facing Rhys. Rhys did the same and faced the opposite of Jack, quickly falling asleep.