makingthisupasigo | And the stars look very different today...

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And the stars look very different today...

It was a way out. But it wasn't home.

Truthfully, after Norfinbury, anything would be better than that place, but the cold truth was--there was no way to find his own universe out of the endless multiverse, even if Norfinbury's busted technology had worked properly. He was stuck, here, with a megalomaniac Flynn--granted, a Flynn that managed to open up a portal out of there. Maybe that's what it took to get out of Norfinbury.

Or, Peter thought sometimes on bad days, Norfinbury only released you once you became the twisted version of yourself it wanted you to be. A specially-designed virus inflicted on countless worlds.

Besides, he ought to know something about that.

He didn't stay long on earth, he couldn't. Maybe it had something to do with the mystery of how they were revived in Norfinbury, their bodies recreated or cloned or healed, or maybe it was something that was gonna happen to him anyway, but he could feel the Light burning inside him, inside his head almost as soon as he landed. A desperate need to take to the stars. He'd managed to create a ship and took off.

Time passes, and scientists notice something odd about several exoplanets they're monitoring, especially ones marked as 'earth-like' or other planets in zones that could make them potentially habitable. Bright bursts of light and changes in the composition of the atmosphere or surface, it was inexplicable. Possible evidence of intelligent life? If they didn't know any better, especially with the rocky planets that now somehow boasted extreme changes, it was like something was terraforming them.

There was cause for alarm when Mars suddenly turned blue and green a few months later.

Meanwhile, a small blue-and-orange ship that looked suspiciously like a slightly more organic-looking Milano was racing towards the earth.

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Ezekiel was gone.

Ezekiel was gone and Jacob didn't know how or why but he knew there would be one person who knew, and he had a bone to pick with him.

He storms into Flynn's throne room, ready to find the nearest bottle of Fanta and crack it over his head.

Y'know, before his will was eventually subverted. His tattoos are starting to flicker--they haven't done so in awhile, they'd hardly done so since...the pendant. There was so little autonomy he had these days, and he honestly wasn't able to tell where his thoughts and emotions began and ended and where Flynn's began and ended. It would have been even more horrifying if he wasn't so used to it. Perhaps even the 'used to it' was a thought not his own. The horror had become a new normal, a baseline for whatever scrap of life this was, whatever existence he could now call this.

Who was he now? Was he still himself? Just a puppet? A body? Was he even Jake Stone anymore, or was he merely a satellite Flynn, an extension of his will?

Was there any thought he could possibly call his own?

"FLYNN?!" he calls out both verbally and mentally as loud and angrily as he can.

Flynn is lolling on his wingback, feet propped up on the armrest when he can feel Stone's raging emotions long before he enters. He tilts his head back, rolling his eyes in annoyance and wonders if he should just stomp his defiance out – but then lets him have it. After all, he's been expecting this.

And he is kind of looking forward to this.

He sits up with a smile, unperturbed by the angry cry and beckons him closer. "There you are. I was JUST about to call you. It's time to celebrate. We did it – well, I did it. Earth is save, Peter's giving up."

Jacob stops in front of that ridiculous 'throne,' crossing his arms.

"He just gave up." The driest look. "Just like that."

Clearly that wasn't the case, but he wasn't in the mood. And anyway, Flynn seemed delighted, so this was really happening?

"What did you do?"

But there were other important things at hand too.

"Where's Jones? I can't find him anywhere."

Edited 2018-04-20 00:34 (UTC)

This time he rolls his eyes for real. "Of course not just like that."

Honestly, Stone.

He stretches his back like a cat, arms above his head. "Made a little deal! Genius, really, should have thought of it a lot sooner? It's quite simple if you know how Peter's mind works."

Flynn swings his legs down, sitting up properly. "I wanted him to leave Earth alone once and for all. He wanted to not be lonely anymore."

He shrugs nonchalantly. "So I gave him Ezekiel."

Suddenly it's like the world just turned ice-cold and there's a rushing noise in his head. He can't think, he can't hear, he can't do anything expect focus on the fact that--

--Quill has Ezekiel.

Quill, the maniac who destroyed Flynn--actual Flynn.

The madman who was trying to take over the galaxy, who was trying to take over earth.

He never forgot those memories he'd glimpsed, of what Peter Quill was capable of.

And now Ezekiel was with him?!

"You--" his tattoos glow brightly, they can scarcely keep up with his rage. "YOU GAVE HIM EZEKIEL?! HOW COULD YOU?!"

"How cooould you?" Flynn mimics mockingly, his attitude blasé. "Poor Zekie, off to live with the bad space monster, oh no."

He watches Stone's tattoos glow with an intensity that surprises even him but he doesn't let on to that. "How could I? Why wouldn't I?" He jumps off his 'throne'. "I just saved Earth. Didn't have to? Could have just let Peter take over. You know, I think he would've even given it to me to rule once he was done terraforming. Even less responsibility for me. Really, you should be grateful."

Not that his pride would ever agree to ruling Peter's planet but details.

"I thought you guys wanted to be Librarians," he sneers. "Being a Librarian is always about the greater good." There's a flicker of something at the words because they are Judson's words and-- no.

"At least like that he's had some worth."

It's horrible but the facts remain that they did save the earth.

Flynn saved the earth.

And he should be happy, but not like this. Not...not like this.

"You're putting a value on his life?!"

He grits his teeth and ignores the pain his tattoos are bringing on. "Did you...did you even ask him?! Did you ask him if that's what he wanted? You sacrificed Jones to that maniac--"

He stammers, the rage shifting to cold, abject fear.

"That maniac. You...you didn't even let me say goodbye!"

Edited 2018-04-20 10:23 (UTC)

"That's right."

Just that. To everything. Putting a value on Jones' life, sacrificing him, not letting Jacob say goodbye.

"Peter's motivation is loneliness. All that little Petey really wants is a friend. Someone who won't die on him, someone to share eternity with. At all cost."

At the cost of building a torture house to break the friend he already had.

"So I gave him one."

"Y...you..."

The realization hits him and it's like hitting a brick wall. He reels, stunned, blinking with the utter shock of it all.

"...you m-made Jones i-immortal and then shipped him off to Quill!?"

It not only was worse. The implications were devastating. He knows what it means to be Quill's friend. His immortal friend. Not to mention what that in itself might be doing to Jones--immortality wasn't something that people could just handle, and clearly all the immortal people he knew--except Jenkins--were mad.

Something inside Jacob snaps and he launches himself at Flynn, where he gets all of two seconds before his tattoos fire up and the desire to hit him is drained away with pain and magic.

Two seconds can be a long time and at the very least Jacob is rewarded by the surprise in the connection and startled expression on Flynn's face. That... wasn't supposed to happen, not even for two seconds.

"That's right." It's supposed to mirror his earlier cockiness but he can't quite hide the irritation at Stone breaking through his magic. How is that even possible?

He brushes off his clothes, collecting himself and sits again.

"Peter's gonna be happy with his new little plaything, Jones gets to eat pizza with his pal for eternity and billions of people on Earth are going to live their life happily ever after. It's a win-win-win. No, wait, it's a win-win-win-win, because I never have to see that annoying face again."

Jacob pants, that hurt and he leans rests his hands on his knees for a second, looking up with murder in his eyes.

"If anyone's got an annoying face around here it's you! I can't believe you, man!? You just sold him like a--like a thing!? And you turned him immortal--I can't believe this..." he trails off, muttering to himself.

Then he looks up, an idea hitting him quite suddenly, the realization only now just approaching.

"...you don't need me anymore. We won. You can let me go and..."

And maybe I can see Jones.

Flynn watches him with a stony expression on his face.

Then, eventually, just one word.

"No."

Jacob's stunned for a moment.

That quick bloom of hope drops instantly to his feet.

"N-no?" he stammers, he can't believe it. "No? NO?! Why the hell not?! You don't need me anymore!" There's a tinge of panic rising in his voice.

"Because I know you, Stone. You're not gonna give up. On Earth, on Jones, on this silly notion that somehow you can fix things. And I'm not interested in always having to look over my shoulder or have you interfere with my plan. I have to interest in you running after Jones and pissing Peter off." A long, drawn-out sigh. "He's so insufferable when he's pissed off and he'll be whining to me for decades."

Flynn leans back, shrugging a shoulder. "So no."

The panic is rising and rising and he's not sure if it's going to stop.

"Then just let me go to Jones and Peter, then! You won't have to worry about me anymore, I'll be out of your hair!"

"But I don't want you out of my hair."

Flynn's tone is mild.

"Here's what's gonna happen instead, Stone. You're gonna stay right here, and you know what? You're gonna get your chance at 'protecting the good, protecting other people'. Since apparently that's what one is to do and you seem to know so much about it. You're gonna stay here and you're gonna try and try and try."

And you're gonna fail. And you're gonna know what it's like.

But I don't want you out of my hair.

There's something cold and horrible twisting in his stomach.

"And you're going to stop me," he voices the implied conclusion. He's trying to keep the abject fear out of his voice, but it's not working. "Y-You don't need to do that. You can send me away. There are so many other ways to get rid of me, man."

Edited 2018-04-21 10:52 (UTC)

"Well, maybe you should have thought about that before running your mouth."

There's something that stirs in him at the words, a memory, strong and painful and ugly and something in him is crying out in protest at using these words but he grabs and strangles that part of his soul, throwing it back into the dungeon deep in his mind.

"So unlike us you and Jones are not insane, hmm? You think you're so much better? You think you can lecture me on survival, you think you're the good guys?" He smiles icily. "When I'm done with you, you'll be ready to go after Jones on your own accord. And your stupid notions of friendship and love will be nothing but memories to laugh at."

Edited 2018-04-21 11:06 (UTC)

That cold and horrible twisting in his stomach blooms into full-blown panic. He shakes his head, first almost imperceptibly, then he takes a step back, as if he's being attacked physically.

"No--no, no--" The horror's too much, he can scarcely stand it. "N-no--you can't--you can't do that!? WHY would you do that!? Why do you even care? We're nothin' to you, right? You're immortal, it's two seconds for you and I'm dead and gone and why would you even care what I've done to Jones!? Why does this matter!?"

Think, Stone, there has to be a way out of this because he cannot--cannot allow this to happen.

"Because I despise it."

Flynn's voice drops into a low, dangerous growl, eyes turning even colder than his smile. "You and Jones and your little play pretense. Your little 'frieeeendship'." Mocking air quotes. "Your stupid little games and nudging each other and protecting each other."

I despise what you two have. I despise that you gave up everything for your best friend while mine took everything from me.

"And I'm gonna show you that in the end it's all lies."

Peter is doing this to him. He doesn't care who sees him today, he just draws himself up in a corner and cries. Peter is really doing this to him.

"That in the end, it doesn't exist."

"Wh...wha..." It seemed so unbelievably, impossibly spiteful he can't believe it for a second. It takes him another second to find his voice again, and it's half-growl, half-incredulous.

"You'd destroy our lives because you're jealous!?"

His fear is almost abated by sheer anger, because really--

"This all seems just the tiniest bit pointless when you could just enter that thought into my head anyway? What gives? You're doin' it the 'slow way' around? Gonna make me believe that Jones is somehow against me, for real this time? Well, it won't work!" He knows he's probably going to pay for his defiance, but he doesn't care. He just doesn't care anymore what happens to himself. He can't let Flynn do this. "It does exist, just like good exists, the Library exists!"

"Shut up!" Stone's words make him so angry and--

--and he's yelling at Peter and he's so angry and he'll never yield to him, NEVER, because there is GOOD in the world and there is the Library and he'll never give in, he'll never stop caring, never--

He presses his knuckles to his temple. What is it with these annoying flashes lately?

"Oh, it will work. And in the end all of your pathetic little struggles and speeches and morals will have been for nothing!"

"Make me!" He knows just exactly how Flynn can make him, but right now, while he's got the will, he's going to make it count. Clearly it was getting to Flynn--

"I'm gonna fight, and I'm not gonna stop fightin' you. You know why it won't work? Cause good is real and I'm a Librarian! We're Librarians, and maybe you don't wanna be one anymore, but Jones and I still are, and you'll never, ever take that away from us!"

Flynn rises from the wingback, cold fury on his face and--

--Librarian, Librarian, Librarian, Librarian, he can't forget, he can't ever forget--

"Won't I?" He approaches, reaching out via the connection, because it's all there. "I can take whatever I want, Stone. I can take your memories of the Library if I want to. Of Jones. Of the goodness you oh-so-much believe in. I own you. I own everything that makes you you."

He's yanking harshly at the both connections, his thoughts and the tattoos, bringing him down to his knees. "See what a well-behaved boy you can be?"

His defiance falters, cracking and letting the fear through as Flynn threatens him, reminds him that he owns him, and Jacob grunts as he fights against the connections but it's too late, and he's yanked down, kneeling. He's shaking, he's so angry and afraid, so tired of being helpless, the cracks in his soul shattering further, his body not reacting to his own commands, he can't stand it any longer and he screams at him in frustration while he has the ability to, bellowing.

"Get the hell out of my head!"

cw mind control, mention of broken bones, violence throughout thread

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