What better way to make one of them take the chip.
Anger and fear flood through him like they haven't since before the bunker. He couldn't lose the one reason he had survived this long, as much as he was reluctant to admit it.
Ethan tears his eyes from Jaha, "Murphy-"
He isn't there, the crash of the doors echoing behind him. Profanities tear through Ethan's burning throat, boots squeaking against the tiling when he takes off to follow.
"Let them go," ALIE says to Jaha, just before he twists the handle and drives his shoulder into the door. "They'll come around."
"Murphy!"
He chokes on a breath when he makes it outside.
Ethan was sure he'd stepped out of the dropship all over again, staring open-mouthed at the scenery. But he can't stay in awe for long, the figure ahead of him merging with the shadows. "Murphy!"
Murphy's ignoring him, and it takes a lot of self-control not to turn around at Ethan's distress.
"Fucking hell-" It's been months since they last had the freedom of open land, and now that Ethan's finally gotten the chance, it's restricted by the shit he did to his ankle.
Sixty-eight god-forsaken days holed up in one room or another.
It was time to go home.
Hot pressure pricks behind his eyes because he's out. He's finally out.
He's about to see his people again. Find out what happened to those at Mount Weather. A lot might have changed in four months and it sits heavy in his chest. He's missed a lot, and he's never going to recover from that.
Ethan just wants to go home. But first, he needs to sort this out.
He needs Murphy.
When he finally pushes through the trees to the beach, it's to see Murphy already leaning against the boat they'd arrived in. Facing the other way and completely ignoring him. Slowing to a stumble, Ethan narrows his eyes.
His ankle twinges down the incline, a stab of pain up his calf, and he ends up rolling to a stop like a starfish in the sand.
Exhaling sharply, Ethan groans, "I'm good."
Murphy rolls his eyes.
Spitting sand from his mouth, Ethan kneads at his leg and glares across at him. He sees the same boy too scared to be loved. He sees the sheet he'd hung through the roof. And understands why Murphy can only think the worse.
He pushes back the lump in his throat and stands, exhaling slowly. It's getting dark out, more appealing to his recently sensitive eyes.
"Stay away from me," Murphy demands, catching the movement from the corner of his eye. It feels wrong in his mouth, sending ice through his limbs.
Ethan huffs, "I just wanna talk."
"Go talk to Jaha."
"Jaha-" Ethan releases a heavy breath, pinching at the bridge of his nose until it hurt, "-is the reason you hate me right now."
He steps over boat wreckage to get closer and gestures sharply towards Murphy. "You're the one he personally wanted to come here, so why in the hell would he offer me something and not you? Get a grip, Murph, it doesn't make any fucking sense."
A horn blows in the distance.
They share a pointed glance. Despite the distance, talking through a look is a feat they manage to accomplish even now. All that time in the bunker learning each other's tics and subtle changes in expression.
Proving the noise wasn't something they imagined - a side effect of seeing the same four walls for months - they turn their attention towards the sea.
Ethan notices the light first, has to shade his eyes from the torment. It's a boat, a large one at that, pulling into shore.
Jaha moves out from the trees with Gideon in tow, their bags packed.
"Great, we got company." He curls his lip, feeling a stiffness in his limbs that wasn't there before.
Seeing Jaha only serves as a hurtful reminder. Ethan survived his own personal hell in lock up, but what for? Just so the reason he didn't take the chip could ignore him?
Murphy looks up and over, "You're leaving, huh?"
Jaha gestures toward them. "So are you."
"Fuck you." Ethan challenges.
Swiping a hand across his nose, Murphy casually refuses, "Not with you I'm not."
At least that was something they agreed on.
Ethan sprawls across another sunken boat nearby, and levers back against it until he feels the satisfying crack.
He's tired of speaking up and getting shut down.
He's just tired, in general.
"I'm sorry we kept you in the bunker, John. Is that what you want to hear?" Jaha says, eyes dark and searching for buttons to push. "But the truth is I already knew you were safe. And with all the things that we had to do, I needed the time."
"What I wanna hear is why you're lying through your fucking teeth." Ethan snaps, shoving away from the boat and-
Gideon stops him.
Ethan backs off, hands up in mock surrender.
What he doesn't catch past Gideon's shoulder is Murphy flinching forward, his eyes wide.
"We converted a nuclear warhead into a power source." Jaha continues.
Murphy settles back down.
"With the added power, ALIE completed the work she began with her creator 100 years ago."
Ethan scrubs recently calloused hands against tired eyes, then cups them over his ears to block Jaha out. It was like playing a song one too many times. As soon as you heard the first beat you were scrambling to turn it off.
Jaha didn't have a button to press, unfortunately.
"Whatever, okay. I'm still leaving this place in the rowboat." Murphy smacks the wood to get his point across.
"I need you, John. And I need Ethan too."
A beat of silence. His eyes fall, "Of course you do." Shrugging an arm out to sea, "More food for the sea monster, right?"
The boat trip built on faith was so long ago, but it still feels so raw. The difference between then and now, after the lunatic locked them away in separate captivity, is scarring.
And wasn't that just reminiscent of the Ark?
Jaha breathes out sharply, pulling the chip from his pocket. "Let me prove to you what we can do."
"Listen to me, I've seen what she can do."
"No, you haven't. Not even close."
Ethan rolls his eyes, ducking from Gideon's reaching hand to saunter across the sand, "I had to put up with this bullshit for forty days, if I have to hear it again-"
Gideon's second attempt succeeds, catching his arm and dragging him back.
"Okay I know you've gotten used to getting handsy with me, buddy -" Ethan bares his teeth, twisting fingers around the tightening hand, "- but that doesn't mean you can do so whenever you damn well please."
Murphy's shoulders go taut, legs uncrossed and a hand pressed against the boat. He's like a stretched rubber band, waiting to spring from his place.
Then, "Gideon, go wait for me." Jaha orders.
Ethan tugs away from Gideon's loosening grip and releases a sputtering sigh, shrugging his - Murphy's - jacket back on as he joins them.
Murphy sets his gaze on Jaha, a sarcastic smile breaking free, "How is it possible that he sounds even crazier than before?" There's a sardonic lilt to his voice that sends a similar smile to Ethan's lips. Blue eyes meet green, a brief acknowledgment.
"Tell me about it."
Jaha holds out a hand, the chip on show, "I can tell you about the City of Light, but you won't understand until you experience it yourself. Ethan's confused because he's yet to take the chip."
Murphy's quirk of the lips is entirely humourless, "And that's supposed to take me to the City of Light?"
"No pain. No hate." Jaha glances briefly at Ethan, to which he frowns, "No envy."
"No, thanks," Murphy says wryly, eyes not entirely glaring but narrowed in a coming promise.
"John-"
He cuts him off, a firm conviction. "No."
Ethan stares at the side of his face, and can't look away.
"Pain, hate, envy." Murphy looks up, a strained huff of amusement, "Those are the ABCs of me."
And without them, he wouldn't be Murphy. Like a cocktail mix, you take the good with the bad. Without them the rest of the alphabet wouldn't exist.
Abruptly back to fierce, "Okay, you get rid of them and there's nothing left." Murphy glances at the chip, "So why don't you get that thing out of my face?"
Jaha doesn't blink for a moment, keeping hold of Murphy's challenging eyes.
Ethan's going crazy. The charm of John Murphy is like a rising flame. Get too close and he'll get burnt. He already has. But it's the only thing he wants.
Jaha turns to Ethan, chip in palm.
"That's try number thirty, Jaha." He scoffs, smacking the hand from his face. There's a wetness to his eyes glinting in the moonlight. "What makes you think I'd take it now?"
"For the same reason John's not taking you on that rowboat," Jaha says, smiling.
Murphy's brows pinch together when Jaha pockets the chip in his jacket and says, "Decide later." Leaving them be.
Ethan glances at him. "You'd leave me here?" He asks, voice low.
"Why not go with your dear-old friend Jaha?" Murphy fists his hands in his pockets.
"For the same reason I haven't taken the damn chip!" Ethan snaps, the voice crack heard clearly by the both of them.
He's afraid if Murphy keeps looking at him like he's the enemy, confinement wouldn't be his breaking point, this would be.
"I'm not with Jaha. I'm not with ALIE. They lied to you and it's so obvious after listening to his bullshit."
"I saw you leave," Murphy whispers, the red around his eyes telling, "I saw the doors close after you left me behind." He stands from his leant position against the boat, regaining his height.
Ethan has always been a few centimeters taller than him. So why is Murphy currently the one prevailing? He flicks his eyes down, and takes note of Ethan's planted feet, the way one is taking more weight than the other.
"Did you watch me walk out with my own two feet?" Ethan cocks his head, stepping closer and tilting his chin up. "Or did you fill in the blanks to fit your nightmare?" His fingers twitch.
Heart thudding in his ears, Murphy glances at Jaha. Something was wrong, deep down he knows it, but he refuses to feel the same pain he felt in the bunker alone. Not until he's sure Ethan is telling the truth.
They're close enough to feel each other's breath, and Ethan only adds to the heat, "Jaha slipped you one lie and you're so hurt by it that you latched on and won't let it go because you're scared that if you start to care again you'll only get more hurt. Prevent it before it happens, right?"
Murphy's eyes flinch. His throat bobs.
Their shared gaze is broken the moment a woman's voice calls out.
"John? Ethan?" She sounds surprised, "I don't believe it."
Ethan spins around, bumping his shoulder into Murphy's.
It's the thief from the Deadzone.
"Emori?"
Ethan scrubs at his eyes, hard. But still, the picture before him prevails, "I must've stepped through another dimension when they let me out of the basement."
Murphy sends him an odd glance.
"What are you boys waiting for? Come on." Emori's tone is nothing but cheerful.
Ethan kicks at the sand, shrugs, and starts walking toward the boat.
Emori grins.
Murphy looks at him, again, with a hint of suspicion. "So you are going with Jaha?"
Teeth clinking together, Ethan turns back around to meet his eyes, "Fuck Jaha. I'm following the Deadzone siblings. You got any better ideas?" He gestures to the sea, "No way am I dying by loch-ness monster."
Hitting his hand against the rowboat again, a slab crumbles under Murphy's fingertips. He swallows a wince and doesn't waste a second to follow.
"Change your mind?"
They barely give Jaha the satisfaction of a glance.
"Bite me," Murphy counters.
Ethan risks glancing at his back, "Gladly."