[Japan] The Land of the Living

[onlysayinghello]

Jack was standing in front of the grave, the fresh dirt still looking as if it'd barely had time to let the life around it to settle. His hand gestured to the man with the machinery to move forward and start digging. He hated to do it, disrupt the cemetery... abandon the ideals and traditions he knew had been put into place in this area. The small characters written along marble would soon be shaken by the earth getting torn up and pulled free.

All for man.

*** Twelve Hours Ago - Cardiff Wales UK ***

"Jack?"

Her voice cut across the hub with a bit more of a curious tone than one that begged an answer, but Jack still moved quickly across from his office to her station, "What's up Toshiko?"

"This... it's in our registry... marked to you, but... it's in Odessa. Just came up in the scans, and well... you're here."

Jack smiled, "Oh, it's fine." Standing back up he started to head back to his office, rubbing at the back of his neck trying to think of what was in Odessa... of course his mind went to the one thing he knew as a truth, and suddenly he wasn't quite sure if he should have been so... not curious about Adam's intentions for changing the world. There were rumors throughout history, but... Jack brushed it off.

"Jack? It just hopped." There was a pause and Jack wasn't sure what to actually expect the answer to be, but the term hopped... well it didn't exactly instill much faith in the landing spot.

"To?"

"Japan."

That really wasn't right at all. Jack moved back to the screen looking over the readings that were coming up, "Is the elevation reading on that right?" Jack didn't need to look to Tosh to know that she was nodding her head, and he didn't need anything else to tell him that he had to go do something. It was one thing to live forever... it was quite another to do it trapped... beneath the ground.

"Print all that out," Jack said as he headed to his office to make a few calls and head out. "I'm going to Japan."

*** Present Day - Japan ***

It wasn't that he expected it to be easy, but really as he watched the machinery dig and claw at the earth all Jack could think about what the things he'd known... the facts he'd replayed over in his head. All the events of the century that would change it all forever... Odessa had been one of them. New York another, but that one hadn't gone through and he thought for sure... that they were just rumors. But now, now Adam or at least something that Adam had owned up until recently was buried beneath him.

The tap on his shoulder drew him out of his thoughts, "Yeah?" He was just glad that the guy that was working in the cemetery spoke English, because he knew his Japanese was a bit rusty.

"We have hit concrete."

"So?"

"It is not normal to bury with concrete. Who do you believe is down there? I do not think this will dig through that."

Jack just stared at the man, staring him down until the guy knew that answer wasn't acceptable. The man bowed and headed off to make a call hopefully.

*** Two Hours Later - Japan ***

Buried alive. Dirt, concrete... whatever... whoever had done this Jack was certain wanted Adam where he couldn't hurt anyone ever again... or disrupt anything. But the thing about time was that you couldn't control it like this. No one was in the place to play God... no matter how right they felt it was going to be. No matter what they thought was the answer... this was no way to treat another human... willingly.

They had broken through the concrete and three men were down in the chasm passing what pieces they could hand up in buckets and along lines tied to pulleys at the top up to the surface again. Jack paced waiting for them to tell him anything other than the one thing he didn't want to hear... that it was empty. Death wasn't even a worry for him... but effort without results was.

The voice called out to him and Jack moved to the side of the hole dug into the ground and he saw the top of the casket. Taking one leap down he landed a bit shaky and knelt down to pry at the lid along with the other men. The concrete had seeped into the cracks, nearly sealing it up tight, but three men plus Jack managed to finally crack the casket open, and there he was... how healthy he was would only take a bit. The other men upon seeing just what Jack had asked them to dig up, moved with little haste to get the hell out of there. Grave robbing... it was more than offensive, it was probably illegal and against all their traditions.

Jack just didn't care. Someone had buried him... and he was going to at least save him from an abyss of forever. No one deserved that sort of eternity.

Comments

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He'd screamed until his throat was raw with it, screaming for Hiro, begging him to let him out, screaming just to be set free. A cell was bad enough, but this? This was hell, and a large part of him couldn't believe he'd been left here, like this. So he'd screamed, offering anything if he'd just let him out, nails raking, clawing at the satin of the coffin until it was shredded.

He'd screamed until the air ran out, until even he couldn't keep his body functioning without it. He'd screamed until he died, caught there, in his horror and in his hell of terror and loss and betrayal like he'd never known. Better to have killed him than this, he thought, with the last thought he was able.

And then there was only darkness.

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

He'd watch a man die beside him, actually stopped him from doing it the first time. Pulled the garage open and let the fumes out... but in the end he let the man take his own life and Jack sat there beside him. Through it all Jack was the one that moved on, and lived on and everyone else around him got to leave.

Crouched down he stared into the features of a man he thought wouldn't leave him, onto pale skin and salt stained cheeks from tears that no doubt came from frustration and anger. Jack knew the pain... the anguish of death... of knowing the life was so fragile. Jack also knew the pain of living again... of feeling it all pull him back into the world as if the world actually needed him in it. Yanking him out of the darkness... and now Adam was in the darkness.

Suzie... Gwen... all of them gone into the darkness and came back... Suzie was gone again, and maybe she understood in a way what he felt, but Adam was different. Adam was a man that he felt like he knew and now Adam was laying there lifeless.

Jack was unwilling to accept it, and unwilling to let someone else leave him so soon after finding them. His hands reached around shoulders tugging Adam up a bit. Jack shifted around, pulling Adam out of the casket and onto the part that was still concrete covering the other half of the casket. His hands tipped his head back and Jack pressed his mouth to Adam's, it was a breath of life... as much life as he had to give, he gave it.

Pulling away from his mouth he listened for breath, and then started compressions on Adam's chest, "You aren't allowed to die... not in my lifetime..."

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He'd died and come back before, his body fixing itself, healing all the pathways. It was never fun. This was different, where there was nothing to heal. Just a flicker where his cells grabbed tight to the air Jack pushed into him, where his heart was determined to beat, where he felt himself pulled forward out of the darkness and gods but it hurt, as he took a breath on his own that promptly turned into a fit of coughing.

The world seemed to swirl around him, everything far away. Adam wasn't sure where he was for a long moment, just gasping for air. Then his fingers hit dirt, and he remembered, and it was everything he could do not to scream out again.

But there was air, cool on his face, and the coffin was under him, not around him. He looked up, half expecting to see Hiro there, a flare of anger already ready to lash out, though there would have been no reason to dig him up. His eyes met Jack's, still disoriented, then steadying and relief settled over the anger.

"Jack..."

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

The last gasp for life, but it wasn't exactly the last.. it often was the first. Letting that string of life wrap tight against a heart, and release letting that first vital beat through the silence of everything... and there it was. Life, as best it could ever be... right beneath him. Jack watched it as if he could finally see what it looked like when he came back, he had some unfound appreciation of it all. Unclaimed before, and now it rested a bit unsettled in his heart to think that this was how his life always restarted, never with a sigh or relief, but a clamor for air desperate and ragged.

Jack gave him the time he needed, seeing the fear and panic rise in his eyes as they darted open, adjusting to the light from the darkness, and Jack just kept silent. His hands resting against his knees as he stayed crouched beside Adam coming back to life. The flash of anger that was there once recognition set in, and then Jack was certain he saw it all subside when their eyes met.

Jack let his hand reach for Adam's cheek, brushing against it lightly, "I'd say I thought I lost you for a moment, but it's gonna take a bit more than eight feet of dirt and six inches of concrete for you to shake me."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

Adam closed his eyes for a moment, just taking in that touch, any touch, his touch. He turned his head and pressed a kiss to Jack's palm before straightening.

The coffin was open, gaping, like the pit into hell, and something in him that remembered men in black with white stocks preaching about eternal damnation sent chills through him and over him. His heart was still pounding, breath coming fast and shallow. He didn't know how long it had been.

He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

But he knew he wanted away from that darkness that seemed deeper than a coffin should be. He wanted away before Hiro came back and put him back in there, before he could...do that again.

"I don't want to shake you," he said, looking back at Jack, searching his face with a dark sort of intensity. "Not ever. But god...can we please get away from here? From....this?" He'd thank him, properly, thoroughly, just as soon as he wasn't sitting in his own grave.

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Jack wanted to smile, to crack a joke of some sort to ease the tension that was settling around them, but instead he just kept his gaze to Adam's ensuring that he knew he wasn't going anywhere for the moment. His hand cradled against Adam's jaw, then released lightly reaching for a hand as he stood up.

They were about eight feet deep, which wasn't exactly the easiest thing, but Jack was up for the challenge if needed. His other hand reached for the rope that had been used to pull up the chunks of broken concrete up to the surface. Winding the rope around his fist Jack glanced to Adam, "If it's too much, too soon... I don't mind helping."

He wasn't even sure how it was going to feel climbing out of his own grave, and it almost made Jack wish he'd gotten him to the surface before reviving him, but really in the moment of it all his thoughts weren't exactly with the end result of it all, just in getting him back... in not losing him.

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Adam pushed to his feet, hand in Jack's like a lifeline. He looked up, and the sky was possibly the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Glancing at Jack, he amended that. Second most beautiful.

"I'm all right. I can make it out..." If nothing else, desperation would compel it. He ran a hand down the rope Jack had pulled taut, and managed a wry smile in Jack's direction. "Remind me to tell you about some of my early mountain climbing exploits long before there were harnesses and belayers."

He considered the climb again, then Jack, then got over the whole standing on a coffin thing long enough to brush a kiss over Jack's lips. "And then you can tell me how you found me, and I can..." He smiled a little and there wasn't anything remotely flirtatious in it, given the haunted look shifting still in his eyes. "Thank you."

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Returning the smile, a slight one at that, Jack could feel the sorrow deep within Adam coming through those blue eyes that Jack normally found an odd sense of clarity within. Now he had seen things that no man should rightfully see, and the fact that he Jack could only assume that Adam knew who had done this to him... it no doubt was putting added misery into a man who'd already seen far too much.

The climb up wasn't as daunting as Jack felt it would be and soon both men were standing beside a grave that was meant to imprison Adam for who knew how long. Jack had a thousand questions, or maybe five...

Pressing the toe of his boot into the pile of dirt Jack pushed a bit of it over the edge hearing it scatter atop the casket and concrete a bit, before wrapping his arm around Adam's shoulders urging him to move out of the cemetery with him and toward the car he'd rented, "Do you need some time? I mean understatement yes, but as far as where you want to go right now? I have flight arrangements on standby... we can go anywhere you want."

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It was far too much of a temptation to just lean into Jack and give up being strong for a moment, but the latent hysteria was too close to the surface, still, and he couldn't stand to have anyone see him that weak. Adam allowed himself the comfort of pressing close, though, grateful for the other man's warmth. He just wanted out of this place.

Thinking farther than that was hard, but he hadn't lived as long as he had by letting his brain shut down. "When the person who put me there sees that, he'll know I'm out. Which is good. I want him to know. I want him to be very, very afraid of just what I'm going to do in return." Fury felt good, warmer, and it pushed back the pain of the loss and betrayal. "But he'll look for me, and I don't want him finding me any time soon."

He glanced at Jack, trying to push back the hurt and anger that had nothing to do with this man beside him. "It seems I need somewhere to drop off the radar for a while..."

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Letting his fingers grip a bit into Adam's shoulder easily, just enough to give him a feeling of support, that even though he didn't have all the answers, that he hoped they'd be there in time. Everything that could have happened, and all the things Jack had seen happen... a whole year rewound, a lifetime relived... he'd seen men broken and bewildered by things they didn't understand, or want to trust. Jack didn't want to ask or pry, but he also didn't like not knowing what could have put Adam in such a situation.

There were things... other methods of getting retribution or revenge that didn't incorporate burying someone alive... especially if they knew truly who Adam was. He didn't think anyone deserved that sort of treatment... and deep down Jack figured everyone had flaws, and faults, and Jack in all his travels, and all of his cons... knew he wasn't perfect... far from it, but he knew the sentence that someone had put on Adam... all on their own. He knew that was inhuman.

Jack pushed away all his doubts and questions for the time being, knowing that the truth would come... he hoped it would come, "We'll head back to Cardiff... I've got my flat, no one will think to look for you there." Jack sighed taking Adam's hand in his and pressing a kiss atop knuckles for a moment, it was a bit chivalrous, but it was just a simple gesture for the moment, "We'll figure it out."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

There is suddenly a sword point near Jack's face. A steel-eyed young Japense man is staring up at him.

"Who are you? And what is your business here?" His voice is cold as ice. In his time Jack has probably seen the typical mask most Japanese wear, but this one seems to have been welded onto this young face in order to let nothing out.

Jack would have sworn no one was there a moment ago and considering the open ground, it would be rather hard for him to sneak up on them.

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Even the top Time Agent in his field wouldn't have been able to predict that happening, nor the reflection of his own nose in the blade before his features. It was a bit startling, but there was a part of him that still could pick up on someone else who had cut through time. It was how he was able to pick out the Doctor in a crowd of people dancing... even when one of them was the Doctor. It was something of a mystery, but Jack suddenly wished he had asked Adam a bit more in those first few moments of his reawakening.

His hand reached up, releasing Adam from his arm so that he could take a careful step back, his hand gingerly attempting to remove the blade from in front of his face, "I'm Captain Jack Harkness... and you are going to put someone's eye out with that thing."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"Not unless you give me reason to. What is your business here?" He only spares the smallest of glances at Adam, but Jack can see a measure of shame and anger cross the mask for the endurance of that glance.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

Adam froze as Hiro appeared, sword or no. He'd never been afraid in battle, never been afraid of Hiro, until he actually left, but with the grave yawning behind him, he felt his heart skip a beat and the block of ice that seemed to have settled inside him grew even colder.

Quick as lightning, though, his fingers wrapped around the sword, heedless of the cutting pain, the slick blood that wetted his palm, and regardless of Jack's stepping back. He knew how quick Hiro could be with that thing.

"I'll thank you not to be pointing my sword at my friends, carp."

He was rather proud of how steady his voice was, how quiet, given that all he could think was which one of these graves he'd end up in next. Jack could heal, and he didn't think Hiro would do anything worse to him. He didn't know Jack, had no reason to hurt him except for freeing Adam. Which meant, he'd somehow have to trust Jack to find him again if Hiro moved them away now that he'd connected. He'd caught the shame, but it didn't do very much to reassure him.

"And his business is undoing what you wrought when you buried me alive." He shook his head slowly. "Did you really think you could keep me in there?" Taunting the boy? Probably not his best move, but he couldn't seem to stop it, lips curving into a cold smile that belied the terror, the screams, the shredded satin and the hours of dark nothingness.

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Jack was really confused, stuck in the middle of something he clearly didn't understand, and despite the sudden appearance of the man, the sharp tones that Adam was using, and the blade now cutting into Adam's palm Jack almost felt like he had about enough of whatever the hell was going on. He hated being a whistle blower, in fact most times he actually was the one getting the whistle blown, now though it didn't even seem his place.

He did of course really didn't like the sword pointed at him, nor did he really like the site of blood now streaming slightly against Adam's wrist. He was trying to follow the conversation as well which was a bit dizzying and filled with a lot of venom and hatred from both sides it seemed. The blood against the pale of Adam's wrist started to fade a bit, no doubt his healing taking over a bit, but still Jack was at a loss for words, except that he knew this was the man who had thought imprisoning Adam this way was the answer.

"So you're the one that did that? To another human... you trapped him in there for an eternity... who the hell do you think you are? Asking me what my business is when you are the one that should be asking yourself what type of a man does that to another person?"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

Hiro's eyes are locked with Adam's. The anger finally breaks through the mask, but everything else that's tangling up his mind and heart is still hidden behind it.

The tip of the sword shifts from Jack to Adam. His voice is still cold. "Are you one of his genocidal group? Do you know just who and what you're protecting? I buried him to keep the world safe or does that not matter to you as well?"

Hiro wants to scream. He has no idea who Jack is. He was staring at Adam with a great deal of affection before Hiro brought his sword to bear. He is unsure if this is another one of his lover/disciples.

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There was anger boiling inside Adam, but a raging hurt, too, that threatened to overwhelm.

"He's not part of this, carp," he told Hiro, eyes never leaving his, the nickname rolling off as sweetly as ever. There was the strangest urge to protect Jack, and to protect himself. And to end this, somehow, even though it wasn't something he could do with any finality, even with rage in his veins. "He's a friend. He's not one of us."

Adam shifted toward the sword, hand sliding down the blade toward the hilt, blooding the blade further. His blade. His symbol. His legacy. His voice was very soft, very intimate, and he didn't even bother with a glance at Jack.

"You had no right to take what I told you and use it against me like that. To do that to me. Where is the heroism, carp? You didn't put me in there to keep the world safe. You have power I cannot match, cannot overcome, for all my ability. You could have frozen time again, teleported me to some desert, taken it straight to Peter, done a hundred different things. What you did? That was vengeance, pure and simple. Maybe you're entitled to it, as I was to mine, but don't you dare say you put me in there, that you twisted everything between us and did that to save the world." There was more hurt, and terror from the hours, screams still in his ears, and his eyes weren't quite sane from it. "Don't. You. Dare."

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

There was something unsaid between the two of them, Jack wasn't blind to realize that the lines of hatred were far too close to the heart in this situation. The words were all things he was trying to take in, trying to understand... big words still hovered over his head and since he still hadn't had a chance to reply Jack did the only thing he could think of at the time, be silent until the lull was there for him to comment for himself.

It was a lot to take in, a lot to comprehend and it felt as if this wasn't even something he should be privy to. That the argument, the discussion... the rage was meant for two. He felt wrong standing there, but he also didn't want to leave... not now.

"I know I'm protecting a man who I care about, whatever his actions were... or were intended I do know that we're not each others judge, jury and executioner these days. I've seen the worst of men given a second chance... from a man who gives no second chances. What you did... to another human... regardless of intent on either of you... it's just wrong."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"Do you have any idea what he was going to do? He was about to murder 97% of humanity. Just like 400 years ago when he almost destroyed Japan. I thought you had changed. I'd hoped you changed. I'm still a fool, aren't I, Kensei? I keep believing you."

His eyes shift to Jack for a moment. "Yes, what I did was reprehensible and I'll regret that for the rest of my short life. He killed my father. I promised otosan I'd avenge him. He knew he was going to die, Kensei. That's how I knew what you'd done - I was there, and I was there 30 years ago when they incarcerated you. But I still wanted to believe that you'd changed. But I knew as soon as Nathan told me you'd killed that woman what you had in mind."

He's desperately trying not to let anything other than anger out. Anger will keep the distance. Anger will make him untouchable.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

That wasn't exactly how he'd wanted it phrased to Jack, and Adam spared the other man a look, a slight flash of guilt in his eyes that was there mixed in with regret, then gone, with the stubborn belief setting in. He at least was getting his side out, if Hiro was going to be that way.

"I was trying to stop it," he hissed. "To be what you wanted me to be, what you tried to make me. The world is going to hell faster than ever, hurtling toward an apocalypse of massive proportions. Children are starving and people are killing in the name gods who never hear their prayers. I've seen it, time and time again. I watched it take the lives of friends, lovers, my siblings. Famine, plague, pestilence, war, death. The Horsemen are riding their way across the land and humanity is bent on destroying each other. Towers fall. Subways explode. Someone has to stop it. Someone has to heal the wounds that have been inflicted before there's nothing left to heal. No dream. No idealism. No..." He shook his head, frowning, pushing the sword up as he move in toward Hiro.

"You wanted me to save the world, carp. You told me it was my destiny. You took me from the nothing I was and you made me what I am with that beautiful belief of yours. Why can't you believe in me now? Japan...White Beard...it was a mistake. I was wrong. I was angry, and I was hurt, and I didn't want any part of what you'd set for me, not if you weren't going to be there by my side, guiding me. Not if you wanted..." Another shake of his head, sliding his hand down the sword hilt to cover Hiro's own. "I'm sorry. For Japan. For White Beard. For hurting you. For the things I said. I was scared, and I was hurt and I made a mistake. I was so very young..." Barely older than Hiro, if forced into adulthood at a much younger age.

"Your father...he locked me up, Hiro. You saw it yourself. He made that virus, he manipulated it, and he never destroyed it. He knew, because I warned him. I gave him time to make his peace, to say his goodbyes. Something he never gave me the chance for. But it was my right to do what I did, to settle that score. He took my life away from me, and his was forfeit in return. He understood it, in the end, what it came to. It had nothing to do with you."

He shook his head, some of the fight seeming to go out of him, sadness lingering in his eyes, his fingers just tracing over Hiro's. "Give me my sword, carp. Let me go. Let it be done, finally. You won." It was a reckless gamble, and it didn't cover the fury still inside him, the hurt, the terror. But he didn't have anything left if he couldn't talk his way out of this, out of whatever Jack thought now.

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"To kill all those people. They never did anything to you. There are other ways, Kensei, there have to be! Slaughter has never been the answer. Save the world, yes, but killing innocent people was never a part of that. A hero protects the innocent."

Anger, hold onto the anger. "You didn't have to kill him! He was wrong. He should have destroyed the virus and he shouldn't have locked you up, but you could have just seen to it he got arrested. The disgrace would have hurt him more!" He looks horrified by what he's just said. "He didn't kill you. You could have done exactly to him what he did to you, locked him away in jail. You let that woman live."

"I have won nothing, dragon." He thrusts the sword into Adam's hand. "As always, my life was forfeit for my betrayal. Take what you will." He knocks the katana from his hand, unsheathes the wakazashi and replaces the katana with it. "End it now, dragon. Cut out my heart again."

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Not being sure about things wasn't always a safe bet. Being completely lost in and trapped in the middle of something that was just unfolding far too fast for everyone involved wasn't a safe thing either. Hearing things... parts of it made sense, parts of it actually read true with things he knew from the archives... Time Agents were nothing if they weren't thorough. All the records of Takezo, even of Hiro... but none of the time shifts tracked to an event like this... which pushed Jack's mind to know that there was always a choice. Even when things were written, and a part of the future he was from... there was still a choice to be made.

And now it seemed Hiro was giving the choice to Adam, and it wasn't a choice that anyone had a right to, and finally Jack broke, his hand reached into his jacket withdrawing his service pistol firing it into the air and then letting his hand hover at his side, "Enough! Look at the two of you! Arguing over who has the right to end another persons life? Arguing over something that didn't happen?"

Glancing to Hiro, to the young man who had just spoken such a truth that Jack was pretty sure he didn't even realize it himself, "Do you even listen to yourself? This fate you expected Adam to give your own father, you couldn't even give to him. How do you expect him to do something even you yourself couldn't do when pushed up against a wall. People make mistakes, they do the wrong thing... they let the girl go... they tell their friend to take a risk... we all make mistakes, it's what we do after... it's how we make up for it all... you say there are always other ways, but you can't even seem to see it that way for anyone else." He wasn't even sure if he had the right to speak, but at the time he didn't even care. One was asking for death and Jack was afraid Adam might be in the state of mind to grant it with ease.

Now Jack's stare leveled with Adam's for a moment, he didn't know the man that he was looking at now, the anger, the rage... the betrayal... there were parts of Adam that Jack knew he kept to himself, and seeing this in him... Jack knew why now, "Don't do it Adam... everyone has a choice to make... nothing is written in stone. I'm proof... I'm here, forever... I've lived it all over again... and I haven't even been born yet. I'm still here. No matter what anyone does... no matter what anyone is going to do... I am still here. One constant in it all. Make a choice, put down the sword Adam," then his eyes pleaded with him, hoping that he'd see the man he thought he knew for a moment, "Don't do this... please."

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Adam jumped at the gunshot that cut off any further retorts he was planning to throw at Hiro. Eyes wide, he spun for a moment, staring at Jack. When the other man turned to him, he swallowed, but held Jack's eyes for a long moment, head tilting, listening to the words and the words under words. He latched on to the constant, whether that was how Jack meant it or not. There was an urge to thrust the wakazashi deep into Hiro's heart, to cut it out and claim it for his own, if that was the only way he could have it. But then he'd have to bother with healing him and he didn't have a syringe handy. It made him frown a bit in annoyance, and he shook his head slightly.

Lowering the wakazashi, he looked back at Hiro. "I told you before, carp. I'm not going to kill you." He scowled at the katana on the ground, scooping it up protectively, before straightening, both blades loosely in his hands.

He considered his next move, glancing between them, for a long moment, some of the fear receding in a wave of triumph that made his eyes glitter. He half felt like he'd fall any moment, the exhaustion of terror and waves of angst rolling over him, but he drew a deep breath, calling on years of training to stay upright.

Finally, almost casually, he reached out with one of the blades across the very small distance between he and Hiro and placed the point under Hiro's chin, forcing his head up to look at him. "If your life is forfeit for your latest betrayal, then I'm claiming it. I won't kill you. I won't break that promise, no matter how many you break to me. But your life is mine, now."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

Hiro jumps a bit when the gun goes off, but it's in him to run himself through on the wakazashi. He hates himself more than anything else right now. He's so weak! No son more worthless than he. No friend more false. Death would be welcome right now. When the blade lowers, his eyes are full of self-loathing. Again. His useless life continues. When the blade comes up under his chin, he considers slitting his throat on it, then thinks again. He's right. His life is Kensei's to with as it always has been.

"Moichimotsu. I hold nothing, including my own life." He leans just forward enough to have the blade cut into his throat. "When the time comes, dragon, do what you will. However, I may not be 'here'. If you need me, leave a message here. I will get it...eventually."

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

However the hell this scene has unfolded it's left Jack with a few more things to settle in his own mind, and even more to try and sort through with Adam. The only thing that he's most concerned with at the moment is that the two of them... Hiro and Adam seemed to be in a state of almost indebtedness to each other, and it's something Jack doesn't feel comfortable with. To think that someone could feel their life belonged to someone else... Jack never wanted to think like that. The guilt of his own trespasses were enough, and to think that he could add to it all the errors of those that he knew onto his list as well... it put a weight on him he didn't want to carry. He wasn't responsible for them... or for their actions, and he couldn't understand how they could feel this sense of ownership so effortlessly, as if life was nothing at all to them.

Jack moved with a bit of frustration in his step, Jack places his hand on the blade, then another onto Hiro's shoulder, meeting his gaze as he pushes him away from the blade, "Hold nothing somewhere else... this struggle with whatever you have going on isn't going to end here. I won't let him kill you, and he seems pretty set already on not killing you, and I'll be damn well sure you're not doing yourself upon the blade either. I came to get him, and I'm taking him with me."

He forced the blade down, seeing in Adam's eyes just how thin he was stretched at the moment, the tension in the sword barely worth the effort exerted, "This here? Is done. We're leaving and," Jack glanced to the gravesite, "I'll make arrangements to repair this. It was never my intent to disrespect any of this, but I wasn't allowing him to stay there. No one deserves that, no one."

Jack let go of the blade finally and started to move away from the two of them, it wasn't his place, it wasn't his mess and even though he wanted to show them both just how fucked the world really is, and how this one small event was nothing... nothing at all in the grand scheme of things, he knew he couldn't. Instead he stopped and turned to face Adam, his eyes once more asking something he almost felt like he couldn't bear to hear the truth of, "Are you coming with me... or staying here?"

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In one second, between Jack's question and Adam's answer, Hiro vanishes. The machinery is gone and the hole is filled. The raw ground is the only clue that it ever existed. On the gravestone that stood over the grave, in red, is "Moichimotsu" written in kanji. Adam will recognize it as a promise.

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"I fucking hate when he does that," Adam muttered, mostly to himself, but loud enough for Jack to hear, glaring at the grave, but happy to be out of it. "It's just ... disturbing and creepy." His eyes flickered over the kanji, and he felt a pang he was too tired to process, but nodded a little to himself.

He scooped up the sheath, trying to avoid Jack's eyes until he could manage something close to normal, cleaning the blade he'd bloodied as best he could on his shirt before sliding it back in. It wasn't right. It wouldn't do. But he had no real choice for now and he couldn't bring himself to put it back bloody.

Glancing at Jack, he tried to make his lips form a smile they weren't going to do, eyes almost just as pleading. "I'm coming with you..." It ended almost as a question, with a "if you'll still have me" hanging in the air that he couldn't force down his pride enough to actually ask. His fingers clutched at the sword like a lifeline or a safety blanket as he took a few, now shaky, steps to catch up to Jack.

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Only slightly alarmed at the quick change that the lot seemed to take on in a moment Jack wondered if Hiro himself had to put it all back the way it was, or if there was another force at work as well. Of course the thought of him frozen in one moment for a while was a bit unsettling, even if it only took a second to him. He knew how time worked... and it wasn't right to simply use it in such a way. But who was he to say that really... all the travel he did in his day... and with the Doctor.

Jack saw a man, broken barely able to stand of his own merit and he saw himself for a moment. The moment he realized the Doctor had left him... the moment he realized his life was his forever... the moment that Jack realized he should live... all of it seemed like just the surface of something so much deeper that Adam was dealing with. Rather than stand there in slight defiance of what he had to witness, Jack moved to Adam placing a hand to his for a moment, "I didn't fly all the way out here to dig you up, and leave you behind. Right now neither of us are even capable of sorting through the mess that this made, and I for one haven't even the faintest clue where to even start." Jack paused, "I take that back, I know the way to start is for you to come home, away from here... away from this. The rest will come, in time... there's always going to be time for it Adam."

It was a slight tease, just enough to feign a smile from Jack, and just enough to be earnest enough to be the truth. They could fight over it for a hundred years and still have another hundred to make up for it all... one day... just one day, one choice was nothing for now.

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The thought of time stretching out in front of him, endless and purposeless made him pale just a bit, though as shaken as he already was from the day, it seemed unlikely that any new pallor would even show. Always, always, there had been a purpose. The incarceration 30 years ago he'd managed to see as a temporary setback, but somehow this seemed like so much more. If the virus had fallen, been released, someone would have said so. Hiro would not have said "he tried" to do it. He would have said exactly what Adam had done and how many people were now at risk.

Or Hiro would have gone back and stopped it.

But Peter would have destroyed the virus, which meant it was gone. No Plan B, not in this lifetime. Hiro's words had taken the edge off of his rampant desire to carve him into little pieces and bring him back just to do it again until he screamed how sorry he was and promised to never cross Adam again. How do you strike out at someone who placed their life in your hands? How was there any...there was no fight there either.

For years all he had done was fight to keep himself focused. Fight to keep himself sane. Fight to keep himself on track. Fight to keep the dream alive, and now it was gone, everything slipping away except the man in front of him. That Jack still wanted anything to do with him made his knees almost weak in gratitude.

He managed more of a smile that didn't twist back onto itself in something like a grimace, loosening the death grip he had on the sword enough to return the slight brush of fingers against Jack's. "Home...sounds good," he said, voice soft. It was an unfamiliar word, and not his, but it felt good on his lips.