Chapter Text
Rhys, CEO of the newly reborn Atlas corporation, was having a great day! His coffee was waiting for him on his desk first thing, the perfect temperature and juuuust sweet enough! His morning meetings went smoothly, no technical hiccups today! Atlas, and himself, were on the way up and the future was bright! All the hard-work he had poured into this company these past few years was worth every inch of success, and he was so damn proud of himself and his employees.
It had been three years since he had started Atlas after...Helios. He grimaced as the trauma from that day crept back into his mind, Helios and...Jack felt like a lifetime ago. He had saved the echo eye that contained Jack’s AI and shoved it in a drawer for about a year before finally making up his mind about it. He had manged to negotiate a rather large eridium deal with Hyperion for it, he won’t need to buy anything from them again for several years. Six months later Hyperion had made their big announcement to the world, Handsome Jack was back baby! And in the flesh! Rhys’s heart had dropped to his ass at this news, he had expected them to use the AI sure, maybe toss it into a gun, but not clone a whole new body for the man! Where had they even retrieved his DNA from?!
He hadn’t heard a peep from Jack either, which surprised him honestly. He had expected Jack to rain hell upon Promethea in revenge for Helios, but there was nothing. He did have to admit though, from the videos he had seen, Jack looked better than ever. It seemed Hyperion rolled him back a few years, so he appeared younger but not without removing his whole ‘silver fox’ thing, and Jack was no longer sporting his classic mask. He had teased it at Hyperion’s big announcement party before ripping it off with a flourish to reveal a similar, but still handsome face beneath.
He sighed as he sat down at his desk after a nice, peaceful lunch, trying to get Jack out of his head...again. He tapped his log in into the computer and clicked on his email, not expecting anything too big today, it was the slower part of the year anyway. He squinted at the red-tinged email at the top of his inbox with the title “URGENT OPEN IMMEDIATELY!!1!!” this had better be a joke he thought to himself as he clicked on the email. Not today pleaaaase.
He stared at the email, his jaw ever so slowly dropping open as he read it...please no. The email was from one his 'moles' dispatched to Eden-6, it was clearly typed and sent quickly given all the typos but the message was still clear. Vladof had launched an attack on Eden-6, specifically aimed at Jakobs. Troops, missiles and mechs had poured from the skies out of no where and caught everyone by surprise, no warning shots or anything!
As he was staring in shock at the email, several notifications popped up with even more urgent emails from his other far flung associates. He clicked through them feeling his shock turn into panic...Vladof hadn’t just aimed for Jakobs. They had also launched attacks at the other corporations, Maliwan, Tediore, Torgue, Dahl and Hyperion. The second corporate war had been started by...Vladof? That was the last corp he had expected to finally light the powder keg that was their reality but then again maybe that made the most sense, Vladof did often keep to themselves.
As he considered this he was briefly insulted that he, or rather Atlas, wasn’t under attack right now. Was he too below Vladof? Too small? They were doing great! How dare...he mentally kicked himself. This was a blessing! He needed to alert his troops and get Promethea ready, certainly Vladof would be here soon and he needed to be prepared.
He quickly stood up from his desk, lifting his hand to start an echo call and that’s when he heard it. Explosions...he was too late. As he turned to look out the glass wall of his office it shattered inwards towards him, and he instinctively lunged under his desk towards safety. As he landed and raised his arms to shield his head he felt the sting of glass shards slicing through his clothes and flesh, but nothing felt like it stabbed too deeply. As the dust settled he peeked out from behind the safety of his arms to see a medium-sized, bright yellow ship hovering in the large hole it had just created.
A door on the side of the ship hissed as it popped out and slid open, the shards of glass crunched as a lone figure stepped out towards him, “Heya kiddo,” a familiar voice drawled, “Didn’t hit you too hard did we?”
Rhys glared up at the figure, what in the hell was he doing here? The emails had said Vladof was attacking Hyperion! “Jack...what the hell is going on?”
Jack looked around the partially destroyed office and let out a low whistle, “Well didn’t you decorate this place fancy...looks kinda familiar Rhysie,” he smirked down at Rhys as he stepped closer towards the desk.
Rhys didn’t move, keeping his glare locked on the other man, “Answer me Jack! What are you doing here?” he hissed.
Jack dropped his smirk and tilted his head, as if considering something then he leaned down towards Rhys and...extended a hand? Rhys had half a mind to kick at him, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to grab his hand. Jack sighed, keeping his hand extended he said, “I am here to collect you pumpkin. C’mon we don’t exactly have a lot of time here so uhhh tick-tock kiddo.” he nodded to his hand, stepping just a bit closer to Rhys.
Rhys shook his head, “Hell no. I don’t know what is going on, but I know you shouldn’t be here right now and I am not going with you. Who even knows where you’d take me anyways! This whole thing feels like a trap.”
Jack dropped his hand, looking disappointed and a little tired, “Well I tried playing nice, but you’re not giving me a choice here Rhys.” Before Rhys could react Jack lunged forward and grabbed him by the legs, pulling him out from underneath the desk. Rhys yelped and struggled, trying to free his legs to kick at Jack, but his hands were like a vise...those muscles weren’t just for show apparently.
“Quit freakin’ fighting me on this and just c’mere!” Jack growled at him, picking Rhys up and propping him over his shoulder. Rhys started slamming his metal fist against Jack’s back, “Put me down!”
“OW, FUCK! Quit hitting me! I’m trying to save your ass you stupid little…” he trailed off with a growl as he turned and hustled back towards the ship with Rhys.
Rhys stared at his office, his wonderful, cozy office as he was carried away. NO. He was having a great day! A perfect day! This had to be a nightmare, too much ice cream before bed maybe. He gave one last effort to struggle against Jack, kicking and hitting with all his might until he landed with a grunt on the floor of the ship. His wonderful, cozy office disappearing from sight as the door slid close with a solid thunk. Who would look after his fish?
Jack looked towards the front of the ship and yelled, “Are the others done?”
“Yes sir! They are already on their way!” a voice called back.
“Good! Get us the hell out of here, we’re on a tight schedule people!” he looked back down at Rhys, “You, get up and follow me. Don’t make me pick you up again.” and he started off towards the back of the ship.
Rhys stared after him, stunned at what all had happened in what felt like seconds. As Jack turned back to glare at him he scrambled to his feet and ran to catch up, “Would you please tell me what is going on?”
Jack shook his head and kept walking, “Best to keep you in the dark until we reach our destination kiddo. Don’t need any more people whispering in Vladof’s ear.”
Rhys faltered, “So...that really happened? Vladof is really attacking everyone?”
Jack shot him an odd look, “Huh...didn’t know you had the resources to know that Rhysie. But yeah, he sure did pick violence this morning.”
“Then why are you on Promethea? Hyperion was getting attacked, why are you not defending your headquarters?”
Jack took a right down a hallway, painted the same Hyperion yellow as the outside of the ship, and paused between two identical black doors, “Rhysie, you should know me better by now! I’ve got plans upon plans upon plans, and this is one I’ve had for a loooong time. I’ve seen Vladof’s army and their tech...do you know what the Ursa Corps are?”
Rhys thought for a moment then said, “Is that the mechs? My sources said they had dropped mechs.”
“They sure are! Big ass mechs called Iron Bears, Vladof’s specialty. They freakin’ shred anything in front of them and are hard as hell to take down. Vladof dropped a fuck-ton of those on everyone this morning, he’s been busy apparently. I knew he had them, but not quite that many...but I had several plans in place to combat it when and if the next corporate war started, and let’s be real it was gonna be any day now,” he shifted his weight and looked at the floor, “However, since there are waaaay more Iron Bears than anticipated I’m having to hit the ‘big red button’ and go straight to plan C.”
Rhys furrowed his brows, “And I am part of plan C how?”
Jack chuckled and looked up back up at him. “Oh no pumpkin, you were part of all the plans,” he stepped forward and grabbed Rhys’s chin, tilting his head up to make Rhys look him in the eyes, “I’m not about to let Vladof get a hold of you sweetheart,” he grinned wickedly, “As much as I hate to admit it you are far too valuable, too much of a resourceful little badass.”
Rhys’s eyes widened, okay yeah this was a dream. There is no way Jack just admitted that to him. He stepped back shaking his head, Jack let go of his chin and watched him, “No this...I am a CEO too Jack, you can’t just kidnap me like...like some random person! Or one of your employees! I’m not yours anymore.”
Jack’s grin widened, “Oh-ho boy you are in for a rude awakening. Listen, I am really trying to be nice here, don’t push me. You were a CEO sure, but as of this morning the next corporate war is in full swing and uhhh you just got captured buddy. Mine now.”