Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prologue.

Rhys stood in a dark hallway, up a head was a dim white light, but with each step the tunnel stretched. Rhys looked around and assessed the situation, he was in a dark hallway, but with every foot fall the tunnel stretched further. Rhys glanced around him, and took in the scenery, he was in a darkened hallway, the more he advanced the further the light went. Rhys surveyed the area, he gathered that he was in a dark hallway, at the end was a light, the closer he got the further it went.
Rhys started running.
“So, he won’t remember anything,” a Vaughn asked.
“No, and everything is completely synthetic but looks and acts real,” The scientist said. “His memories are fake and you remember where you fall into his story, as his “bro”. You rehearsed it right? You know the key words?”
The tunnel kept on stretching further and further away from him. Rhys decided it was time to outsmart this tunnel, he turned his back on the light and ran the opposite way.
“So, wait,” Vaughn paused. “Everything in this bot is real, even like human functions?”
“Anything you and I can do, he can do,” The scientist replied. “But just help him socialize. The more you socialize the more he learns. He’ll build his own backstory more has he goes along. Think of him as a human sized super computer.”
Rhys rotated on his heel and he was right, the light was right behind him. Rhys grasped the rim of the orb, it was a portal.
The synthetic twitched on the table.
“He is waking up,” a female scientist said.
“Just remember don’t tell him the origin of his existence,” the scientist said hurriedly. “He’s the only one of his kind, an expensive prototype. Stick with him.”
“Uh, aren’t all siren’s female,” Vaughn asked.
“Yes,” The scientist replied. “Hush, he’s waking up.”
MONTHS EARLIER:
“Are you really going to go along with this,” Yvette said, keeping in step with Vaughn as they headed down the long Hyperion hallway. “I mean, don’t you have a lot on your plate already?”
“Think about it this way, the more dough means more lunches for you,” Vaughn shot his best friend a sideways glance. “You’re gonna enjoy it. Besides, I still have to pass through the interviews before I can even apply for a bot handler.”
“I would rather you be with a loader bot, this is a synthetic,” Yvette said. “Eventually replacements.”
“Are you worried about losing your job,” Vaughn asked. “You’re the best..best.. best in whatever you do.”
“You don’t even know my job description, do you,” Yvette said. Vaughn shrugged. “And you call me your best friend.” Yvette shook her head.
“To be fair, Yvette, we all just got hired and you have a very long title,” Vaughn said. They stopped at a large door, with the words “Robotics” displayed across with yellow print. “Okay, I got to go.”
The door slid open.
“Let me know if you see Handsome Jack,” Yvette called as the doors closed.
IN THE NOW:
Rhys lifted his hand and placed a palm against his forehead. He groaned.
“Y-you alright there, buddy,” Vaughn asked. He shot glances at the scientists who were quickly and quietly exiting the hospital room. “Do-do you remember anything, how you feeling?” Vaughn touched his glasses and got access to Rhys’ echo eye. Vaughn watched Rhys blink. This was going to take some getting used too.
“Ugh my head,” Rhys groaned again. Rhys slowly sat up. Vaughn nervously approached the synthetic. “Vaughn?”
“Y-yeah buddy,” Vaughn asked, he placed his hands on his hip.
“Yvette isn’t mad at me, is she,” Rhys said.
Vaughn knew one of the questions of the interviews was who his friends are and who he hung out and talked with the most, luckily for Vaughn he only had Yvette and that weird guy in accounting who always enjoyed “water cool” talk.
*Weird. They must have programed Yvette into Rhys’ code.* “No, why would she be mad,” Vaughn asked. He pulled out his ECHo and messaged Yvette. *Rhys knows you, just go with it. Tell you later.*
“Because I fell over and off the second-floor railing and landed in front of her,” Rhys gave an embarrassed smile. He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sure I embarrassed her.” Rhys swung his legs over the bed.
Vaughn came up to him. “No, buddy, she was more worried about you. You did take quite a fall, good thing you have such a hard noggin,” Vaughn said. He smiled at the synthetic.
“Yeah good thing,” Rhys stood up on his long legs.
Vaughn stumbled back, this was the first time he’s seen the synthetic at full height. He knew that Rhys would be tall, but he didn’t know he would be THAT tall.
Rhys stretched and knocked a light with his metal hand.
“Careful Rhys,” Vaughn said hurriedly.
Rhys froze.
Vaughn’s eyes widened. *Oh crap, not even two minutes into this and I already broke it*
Rhys blinked and smiled. “Sorry, Vaughn, I’ll be more…careful…next time,” he held his metal harm to his side.
Vaughn breathed. “Okay, buddy,” Vaughn said. “Let’s go get you checked out.”

Chapter Text

Vaughn’s eyes dilated, perspiration beaded on his forehead and he could feel his heartbeat in his ears. He tried to keep in step with Rhys’ long strides, but the synthetic was set at a fast pace.
“Rhys, slow down, you’re too tall,” Vaughn squeaked out between breathes. Rhys came to a sudden halt and Vaughn stumbled past him. “What, what’s going on.” Vaughn looked nervously around the lobby, a young nurse sat at the secretary desk, waiting to “check” the synthetic out of the hospital.
“You told me to stop walking so fast,” Rhys said, tilting his head and smiling goofily at Vaughn. “So, I stopped walking.”
“I told you to stop walking at a brisk pace, I didn’t say stop walking, just walk slower,” Vaughn said. *Oh jeeze this is going to be fun.* Vaughn crossed the lobby and spoke to the nurse. “Oi, Rhys, come here.” He waved Rhys over. “Put you’re John Hancock here.” Vaughn said, tapping the blank place for Rhys to sign his name.
Rhys started at the paper. The nurse glanced questionably at Vaughn.
“I don’t…I don’t know how to spell John Hancock,” Rhys said, he took up the pen. “But I guess I could try?”
“No, Rhys,” Vaughn sighed. “No, that was just a saying, just write your name. Like what’s your name, Rhys.”
“Oh, its Reanimated Humanoid Your Siren,” A computer voice spoke out of Rhys. “R.H.Y.S.”
“Why “your”,” the nurse asked.
“Because this unit is programed to be Vaughn’s bro,” Rhys said in a computer informative voice. “Until the trial is over, or memory wiped. This unit belongs to Vaughn.”
Vaughn raised his eyebrows. He adjusted his glasses. “Ohkay, bro, you ready to come back now, buddy,” Vaughn asked.
“Come back, I never left,” Rhys said in his normal voice. He shot Vaughn a confused look. “Are you sure you’re not the one who knocked your head?”
“Just sign the papers, bro,” Vaughn said.
After what minutes seemed like hours, Vaughn and Rhys were out of the hospital and on their way to the cafeteria. Rhys kept talking about how hungry he was and wanting to eat ice cream. How much he wanted to eat ice cream.
Yvette met them at the entrance way.
Rhys hugged Yvette, apologizing how he must have embarrassed her. “I’m sorry, Yvette,” Rhys said stepping away. “I didn’t mean to worry and embarrass you, I just tripped.”
Yvette just looked at Vaughn, he shrugged. “It’s alright, Rhys, just don’t too it again,” Yvette got an idea. “Better yet, to make it better, why don’t you buy me lunch?”
Behind Rhys, Vaughn rolled his eyes and placed his hands on his hips. He shook his head, astonished at Yvette.
“Okay, I can buy you lunch,” Rhys said, smiling. He leads the group into the cafeteria.
Vaughn came up besides Yvette. “He doesn’t have any money, you know it will be me buying this lunch,” Vaughn said.
“Eh, however it works out for me,” Yvette smirked.
After a long day of Rhys’ first day “alive” Vaughn finally got the synthetic back to, apparently, “their” shared apartment.
Vaughn unlocked the door with the keys he was supplied with earlier that day by the management of the program. He was in awe when he walked into the two-bedroom apartment. IT was twice the size of his old one, set up the same way of his old one, but with new digs.
When Vaughn entered, to the right was the kitchen, small, but it was complete with working fridge and stove. All the burners worked on this one, Vaughn checked.
Around the green “L” shaped counter top, further into the apartment was the living room. To his right was the bathroom. Two stools sat on the outer side of the counter.
In the middle of the living room, on top of the beige carpet, sat two red leather chairs with a table in the middle, they faced a large wooden TV stand with cabinets on either side of the TV.
On either side of that were two rooms. That Vaughn guessed were the bedrooms. There was a yellow couch that sat in front of two large windows and randomly a large plastered white dog. On the left, opposite side of the room, sat a desk in front of some more windows.
“Maybe this program wasn’t so bad after all,” Vaughn mumbled to himself.
“Well, I’m going to go to sleep now,” Rhys said. “Good night, Vaughn.”
Rhys entered the bedroom on the right.
Vaughn to the bedroom on the left.
He walked in and saw his bedroom was set up exactly like it had been in his old apparent. He happily crashed on his bed.
***
“Hey Vaughn,” Rhys said from the living room. He was sitting on the couch, in a sweater and shorts, watching some romance show when Vaughn stumbled out of his bedroom, still sleepy.
“Yeah, buddy,” Vaughn said, rubbing his eyes.
“So when do I get to meet Timmy,” Rhys called over the top of the couch, he turned and looked at the astonished Vaughn. “What? Was there something I said?”
*That’s not possible, how – how does he know about Timmy? I met him later, after the interviews. Unless they were spying on me, this is Hyperion we are talking about* “When did I tell you about Timmy,” Vaughn asked. “I wasn’t aware that I had told anyone one yet.”
Rhys froze. He furrowed his eyebrows together, scrunched his face, “Uh, yeah, you told – told me, the other night,” Rhys said. He was trying to compute, his memories tried to fabricate themselves. “You told me not to tell Yvette, you did not know how she would react, you told me because we’re bros.” That goofy smile spread over Rhys’ face again. His computer brain proud that it was able to fabricate its own memories now.
Vaughn was quiet for a moment, “Yep,” Vaughn paused. “You’re right, I forgot I told you. Thanks for reminding me.”

Chapter Text

*Fuck, fuck, fuck, Hyperion knows about Timmy? Hyperion knows? That mean Jack has to know, has too, Handsome Jack knows I’m dating his vault hunter twin brother, fuck me. Fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.*
Vaughn reached for the coffee and dropped his change, it bounced, rolled off the top of the counter, and clattered onto the floor. The cashier dove down and picked up the run away coins.
Vaughn squinted at the name on the tag, “Sorry, uh, Miss. Liv, I…rough morning,” Vaughn mumbled, her waved at her to keep the change and cupped his black coffee with both hands. The cashier smiled and nodded.
Vaughn turned his back and scanned the café. He might have ran out of his shared apartment as soon as Rhys entered the bathroom. Vaughn wasn’t planning on going anywhere particular and sure as hell wasn’t planning on meeting anyone, but luckily he had enough spare change in his lose fitting gray sweats for a small cup of coffee.
Vaughn tugged down his blue shirt, he noticed much too late the stain of toothpaste from the night before. He rubbed a finger under his glasses across his eye. Can this day get any worse?
Vaughn crossed the room to a far corner of the café, a quiet little table with one chair and a view of Pandora. He placed the pads of his fingers on the glass, inside the small diamond shaped window. Because of the many inches thick glass paneling, Vaughn couldn’t feel the cold bite of space. Which is a good thing of course.
“Vaughn,” a too familiar voice asked, quietly.
Why yes it could.
Green and blue eyes locked with his own pair. A small smile spread across a freckled face, hands clasped at the cup of coffee at his chest, a cat on a pink shirt frowned at Vaughn from over the lid.
“I don’t have a chair,” Vaughn said, mentally kicking himself.
“That’s okay, I do,” Timmy said, grabbing a back of a nearby chair and tugging it over.
The scraping echoed off the walls of the small room, it felt like time slowed down until Timmy sat down, to Vaughn’s right. Knees brushed against each other, Vaughn’s breath hitched.
Vaughn took his hand off the window and grasped the cup in front of him, blushing.
Timmy set his own cup down, placed his elbows on the table and looked at Vaughn through lidded eyes, resting his folded hands against his mouth.
Vaughn read his look well. “I haven’t been ignoring you,” Vaughn said, glancing from the corner of his eye. “I have been just busy with a side project.”
“Does this side project have long legs,” Timmy said before he could help himself. He mentally scolded his action but pushed on. “And for some reason started living with you, in the upper levels of Hyperion?”
Vaughn could feel his heartbeat in his ears. He gulped, his throat suddenly dry, but coffee too hot to sooth the desert. “It’s not what you think,” Vaughn hoarsely whispered out.
Timmy raised his eyebrow but stayed silent. A tactic he picked up from his alpha brother, his other half. The intimidating one. By now, on normal circumstances, Timmy would have broken down and just asked Vaughn plain out who the tall lanky one was and how all of a sudden, he started to hand out with his boyfriend.
But this wasn’t normal circumstances, Jack was the one who warned Timmy about the “new man” in Vaughn’s life. The one that “randomly showed up” as soon as Timmy, Wilhelm and Nisha left for a mission sent on by Jack himself. It was strange to have Jack outwardly act like he cared about Timmy’s relationship with Vaughn. Usually, whenever Timmy brought up that he was going on a date with someone, Jack just grunted. This time, since he started dating Vaughn, Jack seemed like he genially cared. Maybe he did, and maybe that’s why he warned Timmy about Rhys.
Tim has been building up what he was going to say to Vaughn in his mind since Jack told him the night before that Vaughn was spotted leading the lengthy one into an upper-class section of Helios. Timmy didn’t believe him at first, of course, this maybe his brother, but was he talking to Jack his twin or Handsome Jack, the handsome asshole?
His mind changed once he saw Vaughn twist a key into the lock of a new apartment, glance around, and the tall one follow Vaughn in.
Timmy’s stomach dropped after that. Jack, oddly enough, didn’t install cameras in the rooms of his workers. So, Timmy had no idea what was going on in there.
Ever since then, Timmy has been mulling over what he was going to say to Vaughn. If Vaughn wanted the tall one, than fine, he just needed to say it. If Vaughn denied the tall one altogether Timmy was sure it was going to break him. Despite their short courtship, Timmy found himself thinking of Vaughn fondly recently.
Strangely enough didn’t occur to Timmy was that maybe Jack was just trying to start shit. But you live and you learn.
Vaughn sighed. He took a breath, getting ready to speak.
Timmy steeled himself for the inevitable. But before Vaughn could say anything, Timmy cut him off. “No, matter what Vaughn what happened between you and the tall one, I don’t care, just tell me the truth, we can get past this, I want to get past this,” Timmy said hurriedly. “I like you too much to give this up.” Timmy motioned vaguely between Vaughn and he.
Vaughn looked confused at Timmy. He furrowed his eyebrows together, trying to understand.
“Say something,” Timmy said. “I am dying here, pumpkin.” Timmy gulped at the last words. Shit.
“Uh, well, okay, sweetie,” Vaughn crinkled his nose at the words. “But I have no idea what you’re going on about. I was just going to say that your brother hired me to be a participant in this side project that dealt with a new technology. “The tall one” is your brother’s creation, his name is R.H.Y.S. and he’s a synthetic.”
Timmy felt his face go hot, he burred his face in his hands, and placed his forehead on the table, embarrassed.
*Oh I am going to kill that asshole*
Vaughn just confusedly patted the shoulder of his bewildered, blushing, boyfriend, and sipped his coffee.

Chapter Text

“Hey, it’s your old pal here, Handsome Jack,” the well-known voice echoed over the intercoms.
Rhys glanced up at the speakers but continued his way, exploring Helios, for some odd reason this whole area seemed new to him. Though he had been working in the hub for about three years now, right?
He wasn’t stalking her.
Not necessarily.
More or less they kept bumping into each other, they were going the same way, Rhys kid himself.
But GOD was he beautiful.
Long silky black hair, one side of it was shaved, featuring two metallic objects. She had the most gorgeous blue eyes, blue as the Pandora sky, and finally, almost identical electric blue tattoos that Rhys himself had.
She was about two heads shorter than Rhys.
He tells himself that’s why he was caught off guard when she jumped him, knocking him onto his back and the wind from his sails.
He blushed deep maroon as she stood over him, hands on her hips and a smirk that seemed oh too familiar. A halo of light crowned her head as she looked down at the shook up synthetic, blocking the light from his face.
“You’re following me,” the angel said.
“N-no, not following,” Rhys said, meekly.
“So, you’re stalking me then,” the woman asked.
“No! We just happened to be in the same place at the same time,” Rhys said horridly, shrugging sloppily.
The siren sighed. She offered a hand for Rhys. She stepped off of him as she hoisted him up, surprisingly strong.
“What is your name, stalker boy,” she asked.
“Rhys, my name is Rhys,” Rhys paused. “What is yours?”
She cocked her head to the side and gave a slight smile, “I expected you to know that, stalker boy, Rhys,” she said. Rhys blanched and stepped back. The girl rolled her eyes again. “My name is Angel. You new around here? I haven’t seen you before.”
Rhys shrugged, “I’m not sure, I have been working for Helios for about 3 years now,” Rhys glanced around the looming hallway, “I don’t think I have been down here before.”
With her hands on her hips, Angel raised an eyebrow and shook her head slightly. “Probably not, since this is the area for people with hire clearance and I can clearly see your badge, that is attached to your hideous suit of yours, clearly states “middle management”,” Angel smirked. “So, you were stalking me.”
Rhys picked at his suit. He liked this suit.
Sensing that she hit a nerve, Angel took pity on the siren. “Okay, look my father doesn’t really allow me to get out much and talk to others my age,” Angel eyed Rhys. “Though I would say you have about 6 years on me. Either way, I’m not good with social interaction. I can…be a bit of a jerk sometime, I’m sorry.”
“Who’s your father,” Rhys asked, genially interested.
Angel’s eyebrows shot up. She looked dumbfounded at Rhys. “You have been here how long now?”
“Three years,” Rhys said.
“And you have no clue, who I or my father is,” She asked.
Rhys shook his head, confused and nervous to say the least.
Today was a strange day. First his best friend shot out of their shared room without a second thought or word to tell Rhys where he was going. Rhys gets to work and realizes that it’s his day off. Which is confusing because his calendar clearly stated that he had work today.
Now he is being accused of being a stalker, which might have been true, and scolded for not knowing who this woman or her father is. Jeeze he already said he wasn’t a stalker.
Angel smiled. “I think, Rhysie, we could be friends,” Angel said.
Rhys smirked and crossed his arms over his chest, “now, is it my turn to be scared,” he joked.
“So, Rhysie, do you like games,” Angel asked. “Like video games?”
Rhys shrugged. “I mean I haven’t played much.”
Angel grinned wider. “Well, here,” she pulled out her echo device, and tapped away on her screen. Rhys’ own echo than buzzed. “Meet me at that address in one hour, wear something more comfortable, and I will introduce you to Mario Cart.”
Angel then stepped away, “I have to go, but see you in an hour,” She ran off.
“But I didn’t give you,” Rhys looked down at the room code and address on his echo “my number.”
**An hour later **
Rhys nervously stepped up into the elevator and typed in the room number. Luckily it was deserted saved for one elderly grandma who got off on the 5th floor.
Rhys shuffled off onto the penthouse floor. He had researched the room number in the Helios directory before going on this adventure. He got so spooked to where he was going that he almost chickened out.
Almost.
But then he remembered how Angel didn’t have many friends.
And since he was partially annoyed with Vaughn for not coming back to the room or trying to contact him, Rhys felt like he needed to make more friends too.
So, he took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.
There was loud footfalls, collecting closer to the door and it flung open, Angel stood inside.
Rhys could barely catch his breath before he was grabbed by the hyper siren and yanked into the room.
“Dad,” Angel called over her shoulder and she dragged Rhys into the den. “My friend that I told you about is here, we’re gonna be in the den, not bugging you ok!”
As Angel shut the den’s glass doors, and yanked the curtains down, Rhys heard a grunt in response from another room.
“This is your controller,” Angel said, tossing it at Rhys.
Rhys looked up and saw a split screen. He chose his character and the game started.
It was a mad house, a slaughter. Angel didn’t even have to throw the blue shell but Rhys suspected that she did, just to show off.
He took sideways glances at her as they played. His heart fluttered.
By the time Rhys made it home, he had somehow ended up making plans with Angel for more video game adventures and officially exchanging numbers.
When he left Angel’s father had gone back to work. They had ate pizza from takeout and watched that new It movie. Angel laughed the entire time and Rhys hid behind a pillow.
Rhys was smiling when he opened his door, he caught the mug that was tossed at his head without a second thought.
“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN,” Vaughn yelled.
“Out,” Rhys said. Setting the projectile weapon down on the counter. He raised an eyebrow at Vaughn “Where have you been?”
Vaughn felt heat rise to his cheeks. “W-with Timmy,” he said, tugging at his collar, then realized he was doing it and dropped his hands. But not before Rhys noticed red marks highlighting Vaughn’s collarbone.
“But you still haven’t answered me,” Vaughn said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Where have you been??”
“I met someone,” Rhys said. “Oh, not like that. No, she kind of attacked me and then invited me over to her place. Well her father’s place, she lives with her father, though I didn’t see him, I just heard him grunt from his office.” Rhys shrugged. “But we ended up watching movies, eating pizza and playing video games.”
Vaughn sighed. “Oh yea, no work today,” Vaughn said.
“Yeah, I’m going to bed,” Rhys said. Rhys stretched and headed to his room.
“Oh, bro, you didn’t tell me her name,” Vaughn called after him.
Rhys paused in the doorway, “Angel, her name is Angel.” And closed the door.
Vaughn’s eyes got wide, he saw his life flash before him.

Chapter Text

In the days following Rhys’ initial meeting of Angel, he had not seen hide nor hair of her since. Vaughn was the main reason for that. He became PAINFULLY clingy since the initial day they spent time apart from each other.
Now it seemed as if he was always at Rhys’ elbow.
It was just exhausting. The more time he spent with him the less he was has with Timmy. Rhys pointed that at and to his dismay, Vaughn responded with “he’s on Pandora for a Hyperion Vault Hunting mission.”
Great, which meant Vaughn was going to stick to Rhys like the clothes on a bandit on a hot Pandorian day. Wonderful.
Rhys clenched his teeth and gave out an unconvincing smile.
Well if anything could get worse, and believe me it could, Rhys had officially re-met his boss for the first time from getting released from the hospital.
Hugo Vasquez was the bane of Vaughn’s existence. Vaughn made that very clear. But to be honest, Rhys just didn’t seem that affected by Vasquez’s attitude.
“What do you mean, you don’t care,” Vaughn asked, surprised. “I mean, the guy is a total right git to you most of the time.”
“I dunno,” Rhys said shrugging. “I mean, to me, he just seems, I dunno, juvenile? I mean it seems he’s reached his full potential and just seems to act out against everyone else. Like he’s jealous? Very pathetic, really.” Rhys took a sip of his coffee. It was early morning, and if they were on Pandora they would see the sun cracking over the mountain tops now. “I just try to not let it bug me.”
Of course, that attitude didn’t last long, throughout the next day.
Rhys’ eyes narrowed on to the mocking pile of papers that almost blocked his view of the doorway, threatened to spill over and bury him in an avalanche. He glared at the reports on his desk with such hatred that it was surprising a small fire didn’t materialize from the heat penetrating from his ECHO eye. Rhys’ eyes trailed to the clock on the wall. Five minutes till he was supposed to be off. And his eyes came to rest on the one person who just tossed more work on the desk.
Rhys flared his nostrils. He squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Aren’t these your reports,” Rhys managed to get out, waving with his free hand at the insulting mess.
“But that’s what great about being the boss, Rhys,” Vasquez paused. “You can shove work off onto others.”
Rhys sighed again. “Okay, but I have plans tonight, I have to LEAVEat my designated time,” Rhys said, fighting back the anger threatening to claw it’s way up Rhys’ throat.
“Awe, too bad,” Vasquez smirked. “Just shut up and do it for Daddy, okay kid?”
Rhys huffed, he rubbed the back of his neck. “The only man I call daddy is 20-30 years older than me, and has a lot more to offer me then a tiny dick,” Rhys said, clenching his teeth.
By the time that Rhys made it back to his shared apartment, his nose stopped bleeding, though there was dried blood when he blew into a napkin, still. Rhys wrinkled his nose, trying to loosen dried particles as he opened the door, half expecting the apartment to be dark.
He was so preoccupied in his own world that Rhys did not notice the two bodies on the couch right away.
It took Rhys a second to compute and realize these two men were doing the sideway tango.
“Awe! Geeze man! Really? Right when I walk in,” Rhys squeaked, shielding his eyes and scrambling for his room, missing the doorway completely and knocking his forehead. Rhys finally grasped the nob with his free hand and escaped into cool darkness, slamming the door behind him.
On the couch the two men scrambled to their feet, gathering up their clothes and heading to Vaughn’s room, Timmy asked. “So that’s him, then, aye?”
Vaughn nodded “Yeah, it’s so weird. He has no idea,” the accountant said.
“Has he met Jack yet,” Timmy asked.
“No, not yet, but I’m not sure if he’s supposed too,” Vaughn paused. “I’m just supposed to monitor his levels and record what he does all day. Which by the way he met Angel.”
Timmy gulped audially. Seriously,” his voice was eerie in the darkness. They lay curled up to one another, Timmy protectively sheltering the younger man.
Vaughn’s voice shook. “I swear, I thought I was going to be terminated for my fuck up.”
Timmy knew what terminated meant in the terms of Hyperion. He pulled Vaughn closer to his chest. Timmy buried his nose in Vaughn’s hair, Timmy took a deep breath, he missed the scent of his beta.
Rhys was lying down for the night, almost drifting off to sleep when his phone buzzed.
Rhys squinted against the bright light.
“What are you doing” the grey bubble popped up in Rhys screen. Rhys glanced up and saw the message was from Angel.
“Just got off work. My roommate has his boyfriend over.” Rhys rubbed his tired eyes. The light stung against his sore retinas.
“Meet me in the hub, I have to show you something.” The grey bubble appeared on his screen again.
Rhys glanced at the digital clock on the wall. “When? It’s 2am.”
“Right now, dork.” The demanding grey bubble appeared gain against the white background.
Rhys sighed and rubbed his face. He smirked to himself and responded back “fine but you’re letting me win at Mario Cart next time we play.”
Rhys got up, begrudgingly, pulled on some grey sweat pants, and a Hyperion issued long sleeved tee. He shoved his keys into his pants pocket, slipped on flipflops and quietly existed the apartment.
Rhys’ phone buzzed again. “In your dreams, where are you??” Angel had attached an angry red and purple face to her message.
“I’m coming, I’m coming, hold your pants on.” Rhys messaged back. He crossed the elevator threshold and entered the cool lobby.
Rhys eyeballed the area. He was alone despite few late-night stragglers. Rhys spied Angel by the Handsome Jack water fountain.
Angel glanced up from her phone as Rhys approached. “You ready for this,” she asked, face splitting into a wide grin.
Rhys shrugged. “Ready as I ever will be,” he said. “What are we doing anyway?”
“Come on,” Angel said, grabbing Rhys’ wrist, “You will see!”
Angel tugged Rhys along behind her as they neared the elevator that he just existed from.
Angel plugged in a code access key and they shot down.
“oooooooooh this is going to be so much fun,” Angel said, clasping her hands together. “I never get to do this!”
“What exactly are we doing,” Rhys asked, starting to get a little nervous.
“Don’t worry, it’s completely safe,” Angel said. Exiting the elevator as the doors slid open to a very deserted hallway. “It’s nearly impossible to get down here since it’s always so busy during normal business hours. But unlike people like me, I have a key to the city and we can do whatever we want.”
Angel winked at Rhys. She keyed a code into the door at the end of the hallway. They slid open with a cool hiss.
In the small steel coded room two computers were on either wall. In the middle two silver space suits hung on racks in glass tubes in the middle of the room.
Angel rushed over to one of the computers and typed away. With a hiss both tubes slid up, exposing the ancient space suits.
“You take the one on the left,” Angel said, appearing at Rhys elbow. “Hurry, we only have a limited time.”
Rhys kicked off his flip flops and slid into the shiny suit, ignoring his germaphobia the best he could.
“limited time for what,” Rhys asked. He finished tugging on the suit, holding the helmet in his hand.
“Well, until they, Dad, finds out we’re doing this, he was asleep when I left, let’s just hope he stays asleep,” Angel said, snickering. “Also, once we are outside they can’t do anything and the chance of losing me. Come on.”
Angel lead Rhys to the back of the space station. She pushed a button and doors closed behind them. Their boot sucked to the floor of tunnel.
“Come on, wanna see how Hyperion fixes meteorite damage,” Angel asked.
She crossed the threshold and entered space. Rhys followed hesitantly behind her.
Rhys has always been in the space station as long as he could remember, he’s looked up and seen the stars when he was still on Elpis, but this, this was different.
“Hit the red button,” Angel’s voice cracked over his thoughts.
Rhys did was he was told and immediately regretted it. He started to float way, up in space. Then a jump cord came out and caught him.
Stars were everywhere, reflecting off of everything. The world was silent, a very large contrast from the busy hub of Hyperion. Peaceful, from a day of Vasquez's paper work. Calm, no one was scrambling from one hallway to the next, avoiding the CEO's wrath and war path.
Angel grasped his gloved palm in hers, stars lit up her helmet, challenging the stars in her eyes.
“It’s beautiful isn’t it,” Angel asked.
“Yes,” Rhys said looking at her.
Angel turned around and laid on her back. Rhys did the same. Together they watched the station hover over the purple planets in silence.
“I come out here sometimes, to get away from – when I’m out here, I’m me,” Angel said. “and for once I’m not Handsome Jack’s daughter.”
Rhys let the words sink in. “Wait, you’re Handsome Jack’s daughter,” Rhys asked shocked.
“Yeah, she is, pumpkin,” a very familiar voice broke over the intercom.
Rhys’ breath hitched in his throat. Rhys looked over at Angel. She mouthed “let me do the talking.”
“H-hey, Dad,” Angel said, almost covering up the waver in her voice. “What are you doing up so late?”
“I could ask you the same question,” Handsome Jack paused. “And with a boy for a matter of fact.”
“Yeah, that’s my friend, Rhys,” Angel said. She nudged Rhys, motioning him to start reeling the jump cord in. “He’s my friend that was over the other day. Right Rhys.”
“Right, Jack, Handsome Jack, sir,” Rhys squeaked out. He could have fainted when his boots it the base again.
Angel opened the airlock again and started in. “Dad, I know you’re mad but just remember we’re gonna look back on this day and laugh,” Angel was doing her best to try and cool the situation. They crossed the last set of doors and both had tugged off their helmets at this point.
Rhys looked up at Jack as a fist came to his face and there was blackness.

Chapter Text

Rhys woke again, lights were dancing before his eyes, he was sitting in an upright position, leaning against a metal wall. He could barely hear the voices on the other side of the door.
Rhys brought a hand to his head, his movements felt heavy, weak, he felt as if he was moving through a dreamlike state of mind.
***
“I would really appreciate it if you wouldn’t go punching the synthetic prototypes,” a doctor huffed, he clutched the clipboard to his chest and straightened his glasses. He glared at Jack. “I have been working on this project for over two years now and I would really stress that punching and knocking out our synthetics – the only synthetic at that – would put back months of research. Especially since we were about to activate his siren abilities.”
Jack gritted his teeth and crossed his arms over his chest. “Well I would really advise you not to have your pet project go out on late nights with my daughter.”
“Well yes, that seemed to be a problem,” the doctor said, agreeing with his boss. “But that seemed to be more of a handler issue.”
Vaughn, who have been watching Rhys from a two-way mirror, looked over at the two men. “I had no idea what he was doing, I know that sounds bad, but he snuck out, after I fell asleep.” Vaughn conveniently left out the comment of falling asleep with Timmy, but Jack knew, everyone knew.
Jack turned back to the scientist. “How soon will it be before he can use his abilities,” Jack asked.
“Well we have to run a few more tests, but soon, within two weeks, a month for sure,” the doctor said.
Jack sighed. “Fine, I want his control to be transferred to me,” Jack said. Jack turned back to Vaughn, “You’re fired.” Vaughn’s face turned white. “You clearly cannot do your job.” Jack turned back to the scientist. “Once your done with the tests let me know. From here on I’m his handler.”
The scientist stammered. “W-well how will that work? We would have to rewire his brain, to ah make up for the new storyline.”
“I promote him to my personal assistant. He personally works for me now, does that work,” Jack snorted.
The scientist nodded quickly.
“You’re get a letter from me,” Jack said to Vaughn, he then turned and left the two astonished men alone.
***
The room’s door opened. The light cracked across the dark tile floor. Rhys looked up to see Vaughn walk in.
“You alright there, buddy,” Vaughn said. He touched his glasses and saw that Rhys couldn’t see out of his echo eye, it was miss functioning.
“Yeah, hold on,” Rhys said. He held out his hand and a blue screen popped up.
After a few sort swipes, Vaughn could see that Rhys could see again. Not a half a second later the words “ACCSESS DENIED” flashed in front of Vaughn’s eyes. No matter how much he fiddled, he could not access Rhys’ echo.
The synthetic had rebuilt his eye. And rebuilt a firewall to keep others out.
“Where am I? Am I fired? How pissed off is our boss,” Rhys said, breaking Vaughn’s thoughts.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Vaughn said quickly, trying to not show how shook he was. “You actually got promoted. To being his personal assistant.”
Rhys sat quietly for a moment, he blinked at Vaughn. “Say what now, bro.”
“Yeah, crazy, isn’t it,” Vaughn said. He held out a hand and pulled Rhys to his feet. “Come one, they took you to the robotics section to fix your echo eye.”
“Really,” Rhys asked. “Because I am sure I just fixed it right now.”
“Oh really,” Vaughn said. “Well maybe it’s not really broken then.”
***
Rhys sat across from the secretary in front of Jack’s office. Becky was chomping away on some gum, listing to Pandora radio just a little to loudly, and not at all paying attention to the synthetic that sat waiting in the lobby.
The only time she spoke to him was to hand him the clip board showing all of Jack’s meetings of that day and wishing him luck.
Luck, luck for what? Rhys had done some research and realized that other PAs barely survived a week.
Rhys gulped. He did not want to fuck this up.
“RHYS,” a too familiar voice yelled down the hallway.
Rhys leaned forward to see Angel advancing, a red headed girl in tow.
“Rhys, I heard that you got promoted,” Angel said, smiling. The red head stopped shortly behind Angel. She too has synthetic body parts, Rhys noticed. “This is my girlfriend, Gaige, I’m showing her the robotics’ department.”
Rhys nodded at them.
“I would invite you but I am sure your busy, so,” Angel shrugged.
Rhys snorted. “Yeah, Angel some of us have to work.” Rhys smiled and raised an eyebrow.
“Your just mad because you suck at video games,” Angel teased back. “Can’t seem to beat the rainbow road.”
Rhys opened his mouth to protest when Jack’s door slid open.
“Angel,” Jack said. “Stop bugging my new assistant. I prefer to keep this one longer than a week.”
Angel just crossed her arms and shook her head. “We all know why your assistants don’t stay long.” But she waved by to Rhys and grabbed Gaige.
Rhys glanced at them as they go. He stood up quickly as Jack approached.
Jack eyed him up and down. “Where’s my coffee, string bean,” Jack asked.
“Here,” Becky said, setting it on the desk. “He’s new so I took care of it.”
Rhys quietly sighed a sigh of relief.
“Thanks, darling, but from now on, pumpkin over here needs to do that,” Jack said. He started to walk.
Rhys stood there frozen, he glanced over at Becky and she waved at him to start following Jack. Rhys jumped to a start and hastily caught up to Jack.
Becky rolled her eyes and started typing on her computer.
***
“…and then at 2p.m. I have a meeting with the board, and I will have to go down to Pandora tomorrow to have a conversation to Vladof on their weapon prototypes,” Jack stopped walking and Rhys stumbled to a stop as well. He was hastily scribbling down what Jack was saying. “You got all that, pumpkin?”
“Yes, meeting, tomorrow Vladof. Yes,” Rhys said, breathlessly.
“Good, I expect you to be at the terminal with my coffee at 6 a.m. sharp, and you’re coming with me,” Jack said.
Rhys gulped, are the coffee shops even open that early. He flipped through the stack of papers that Becky gave him. On the one of the coffee order that Jack likes – and mind you there is a different one for every day of the week – at the bottom scribbled in pen was “If it’s before 6 a.m. he wants a black coffee with two brown sugars, unless stated. BUT if he states he wants something other than that, the barista, Ralf, can be on call, but you have to pay him two extra dollars to make it before the doors open AND they have to be out of your own pocket, because Jack does actually count his change SOMETIMES. I wouldn’t want to be caught on the day that he does. Ralf works at M&M Café. DON’T ASK HIM WHAT KIND OF COFFEE WANTS.”
“Just get me my usual,” Jack said.
Rhys sighed. That means no bartering with Ralf. Rhys looked over the sheet once more. The word “usual” was printed in black bold and capitalized letters next to it the words “CHI LATTE”
Rhys inwardly sighed.
***
When Rhys was finally allowed to go home, after picking up Jack’s dry cleaning, dropping it off at his place while he was at a meeting, arranging a dinner reservation for Nisha, Jack, Angel and Gaige, and finally filing away all the paper work on the lost workers of that day. That were accidentally vacuumed out into space, Rhys collapsed on the couch.
He flipped on the TV but paid no mind to the talking heads. Rhys closed his eyes. He woke up to his phone going off.
Rhys groggily check his phone and realized it was fifteen minutes till 6 a.m.
Rhys woke up in a hurry. He answered the phone.
“You are so fucking dead,” Becky’s voice echoed on the other end. “You are so FUCKING lucky that I came into work early. You are so FUCKING lucky that I need Jack to have a personal assistant as much as he needs one. Did you shower? Go shower, I will stall him and get the pod called up. I hope he wanted his usual because that is what he got. IF he didn’t, well that’s your fault.”
Becky hung up the phone without Rhys saying a word.
Rhys was up on his feet and ran around his apartment. He never flew so fast through his morning routine before in his life.
Becky met him at the terminal, two minutes before 6 a.m. and shoved the hot coffee in his metal hand. “You owe me 5 bucks,” she hissed in his ear and scurried off.
Rhys was still wiping the sleep from his eyes, clipboard pinned under his arm, as Jack came over and grabbed the coffee from his hand.
Rhys blinked awake, seeing Jack inches from his face. “Wake up, pumpkin, you don’t want to be caught sleeping down on Pandora.”
He took a sip of his coffee and grimaced. “I thought I asked for black.”
Rhys’ eyes widened, he gulped.
Jack then shrugged. “Well, come on, we have work to do.”