[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.

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[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

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.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"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.

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

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.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

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.