When he wasn’t listening to Rhys’ humming or the others’ conversations, Jack had spent a relatively quiet few days in the in between space in Rhys’ mind. He’d also learned that his connection to Rhys’ inner workings grew stronger while he was in there, giving him more of an incentive to stay out.

After a quick nap he flickered back into existence in a seriously weird jungle type thing that was apparently situated in the middle of a tundra. He trailed along, watching the party’s varying levels of amazement with idle curiosity.

He felt the thoughts at the back of his mind, not his, the kid’s, revolving around the strange plants and he noticed Rhys actually stopping and taking a closer look far more often than any of his companions.

Growing bored with the lack of anything happening, he stopped besides Rhys. Jack took a second to banish the shiteating grin from his face and leaned in a bit. “Ah, a purple wormtube,” he stated matter-of-factly.

Rhys turned to him, one eyebrow raised. “You know your way around plants?”

“Yup. Gotta know what’s gonna try to eat you down here.”

Rhys squinted at him. His ECHOeye flashed a bright blue as he inspected the plant in question more closely. He turned back to Jack with a frown.

Jack used his access to take control of Rhys’ eye and checked the article on the plant out for himself. It seemed like all the actual information had been replaced with whatever obvious bullshit Jack had come up with on the spot. He did nothing to hide his grin this time.

God, having him in my brain is getting more annoying by the second.

“Can relate, kiddo.”

Ah, shit.

---

Handsome Jack did not get jealous. He didn’t appreciate other people playing with his toys, but he did not get jealous.

If he wasn’t around as much while Rhys was busy with his lady friend then that was an utter coincidence and probably related to Rhys’ uncanny ability to get punched in the face at every possible opportunity.

And if he was a bit rough with said lady friend then that was because she entirely deserved it. Presumably.

He just had to take advantage of the situation, okay? It was… peculiar. He had gotten somewhat used to feeling again, vicariously through Rhys. But then Rhys fell, hitting his head hard and going out like a light. Usually that would lead to Jack being dragged into unconsciousness with him almost immediately. Instead he stayed out and felt a tingling at the back of his neck, drawing him closer to Rhys.

Without any conscious thought, Jack had taken control of Rhys’ metal hand. The sensation spread across his body. He seemed to black out for a second and as he came back to, the kid was nowhere to be seen. His own head, however, hurt like hell. He brought his hand up to his forehead and flinched back when instead of glowing a soft translucent blue it was solid and made of metal.

Now this could be fun.

He said that a lot and it never came true, not since he met Rhys. But now the kid wasn’t there to get in his way or be boring as shit.

He would probably bitch and moan about it afterwards, but that was for future-Jack to take care of.

And even then, realistically… Those electric floaty jellyfish still looked angry. So realistically he was doing it to save both their hides. That was his story and he'd stick to it.

He marched the kid's body up to his friends. Rhys' friends that is. Of course. And, he'd said it before and he'd say it again, he wasn't jealous. So when he made sexist comments and slapped a lady’s ass, knowing full well that she could kill him in a heartbeat, then that's just perfectly normal, standard, not-even-slightly-jealous Jack behavior. He was insulted that you would ever suggest otherwise. No way in hell did he care that the kid was the only one able to perceive him. And did he look like he gave a fuck that the only person aware of his existence would rather spend his time with someone else? No. No, he didn't. He'd fight you on this.

---

Jack didn’t remember getting punched in the face but when he returned Rhys was walking around on his own again all the same. Apparently some time had passed and apparently they were now looking for a way to get back to Helios. Finally. Oh, and apparently they were still looking for the parts of that Atlas project.

They were having some problems coming up with a way to actually get back up there and then also not get shot immediately. He took some time to watch the idiots struggle and come up with one suicide mission after the other. However, he really really really didn’t like being on this planet and being tied to an idiot that didn’t know his way around said planet and almost got himself shot every few hours did nothing to help his unease.

He spoke up from where he was stood, slightly behind and to the right of Rhys. “A unique piece of Atlas tech, you’re sure is on Helios? That’s gotta be in my office.”

Rhys jumped at the voice, as he’d apparently forgotten already that Jack was there, although he seemed accustomed enough not to draw any attention to himself. He glanced over at Jack out of the corner of his eye. Oh, hey, look who decided to be helpful.

Jack stalked forward and leaned down until he was intently staring at the right side of Rhys’ face, an eyebrow raised up. “Do you want my help, or not? Because I can leave.”

Rhys tensed up before he dropped his shoulders with a long sigh. Are you sure?

Jack leaned back with a grin. “Nope. But it’s your best bet.”

Rhys shook his head subtly. He leaned towards the radio to speak with his little buddy on the other side. “Tell Gortys to focus a scan on Handsome Jack’s office.”

The radio came on with a complaint and an expression of doubt, that was interrupted by a chipper voice in the background. “Oh yeah, my sensor is definitely in Handsome Jack’s office.”

Rhys turned his head back towards Jack with a longsuffering look, only to be greeted by a smug grin. “Well, great. We know where it is. We still have no idea how to get up there,” he said out loud, still looking at Jack.

Rhys’ lady friend spoke up but Jack talked over her. “No idea how you’re gonna get up to Helios, but once you’re up there I can get you in my office no problem.”

I… guess that’s something.

“Rhys, are you even listening to me?” And there his lady friend went again. This time he wasn’t in a position to slap her, so, having said his piece, Jack flickered back out.

---

Jack hadn’t thought about it much since the day they had first talked about it and they hadn’t exactly had much time for in depth discussions between outrunning Hyperion, Vallory, various bandits, and Vault Hunters. But this time Jack found himself sitting in the back of the caravan, rain pouring outside of the window, Rhys holding his forehead and glaring daggers at a wolfish looking guy, and he was reminded of the time before everything went quite as tits up.

“Hey, Rhysie.”

Hag ag agh.

“That was an interesting array of noises.” He leaned back and was only vaguely aware that his hair was now sticking through the wall. “Anyway, I’ve got a question for you.”

Rhys looked over at him, eyebrow raised.

“Remember that one time, when I caught you with your pants down? Of course you do. The view was distinctly different from the view in your dreams, right? So... that’s a thing.”

Rhys’ face scrunched up and he looked like he was at a loss for words at that.

“I mean. I’m just saying. Like, the main reason why I was confused is that difference there.”

Well, uhm. They’re dreams. They’re not real either way, so they might as well be presented in a way that doesn’t make me want to die.

“You realize that I, like, own Helios, and that Helios has an amazing medical team?”

How do you mean?

“I’m just saying that we could make that one dream in particular become a reality.”

Rhys’ mouth dropped open and he blinked repeatedly, but he stayed quiet otherwise.

“If you manage to get me back up there, I’m gonna have to repay you somehow. So I figured...”

At that Rhys’ brain seemed to finally work through the information properly, and Jack felt happiness bubble up in his chest. Rhys threw himself at Jack, in an attempt to wrap his arms around him, bounced off the couch and fell face first into the floor. Jack huffed at the kid’ giddiness, before he felt himself be pulled back into the kid’s head.

---

Jack floated along lazily as Rhys snuck around a small town next to an Atlas facility in the dead of night. “Watcha doing there?”

“Jes-us. Fucking. Shit,” the kid hissed. “Don’t fucking do that.” He turned around and hastily checked his surroundings. I don’t want to be eaten by bandits.

As much as he hated to admit it, the kid had a point. It would be really inconvenient if his host was eaten by bandits. Maybe he shouldn’t startle the kid so much. Just so his meat prison didn’t die.

Still. What the fuck. “Why’re you sneaking around in a bandit town?” Jack asked with what he hoped sounded like idle interest.

We came up with how we’re gonna get to Helios. The others are trying to get us a rocket from one of their friends. But Hyperion doesn’t really like me anymore so I have to get a disguise. And because they probably don’t know that Vasquez is dead, I’m gonna go get his body, pretend like it’s my corpse, and disguise as him, so they’ll let me in no questions asked. But some psycho took his face and now I'm looking for it.

“Sounds surprisingly well thought out. Can’t wait to see how it all goes wrong. Stop!”

Rhys froze at the command, his foot an inch away from a tripwire. As soon as he looked down, he stumbled backwards, tripped, and fell on his ass with a stifled yelp.

Jack hovered over to him and actually got to his feet. He almost extended a hand to help Rhys up before he remembered that that wasn’t actually possible right now, so instead he went for putting his hands at his hips, chuckling, and shaking his head. “See, Rhysie? We make a good team.”

Rhys got back to his feet with a huff, carefully took a wide step over the tripwire and went on his way.

"So, that lady friend of yours-"

I'm kinda busy right now.

"Should I be jealous? Is it actually a thing? It looks like it's a thing. But I'm not sure. ‘Cause I thought we were exclusive."

Rhys paused in his efforts of sneaking up to a sleeping psycho to look back at Jack with a withering glare. We're not dating.

Jack carelessly walked over to the psycho, crouched down in front of him and studied the face he was wearing on his mask. "Well, yeah, obviously you aren't dating." He stood to walk over to the next psycho. "If you were I would have killed her a long time ago. Also, I wouldn't have to ask."

Rhys snuck along behind him. No, I meant I'm not dating you. You doing weird shit in my dreams doesn't count as being exclusive.

Right. Of course. Jack knew that. Totally. He just wasn’t used to people who would push him out of bed. Although Rhys had expressed a certain disinterest before and he hadn't even been lying because Jack would have known. "Okay, but, about her..."

Oh my god! We're just friends! Why do you even care? … Wait.

Oh no. Jack had a feeling where this might go.

Wait. Are you…

Oh, he had a really bad feeling where this was gonna go. "Shut up," he hissed between clenched teeth.

Are you seriously..?

Goddammit, there it was. "I said shut up."

Oh, holy shit, you're actually serious about dating me?

Jack took a second to think about it. He wasn’t, right? He couldn’t. He was Handsome fucking Jack. He didn't just… Or did he?

He really fucking didn't need this right now.

"Nah, I'm just messing with ya, kid.”

---

Back on Helios Jack made three discoveries. The first thing was really just a confirmation of what he'd seen on Pandora, namely that Rhys was hella good with a stun baton. Secondly, Rhys was also hella good at finger gun fights.

And as he was pondering how that might translate to a real gun fight, and how efficiently the kid could lay waste to his enemies, he discovered that - three - apparently getting boners was reserved to Rhys' dreams and didn't happen while Jack was a hologram.

Sure, looking at Rhys while he was disguised as Assquez didn't really help the objectivity of the research, but that's what fantasies are for.
At least the voice modulator broke, so he didn't have to listen to that weirdness anymore.

“Heya, Rhysie.”

To be fair, he only noticed the jump in Rhys’ shoulders because he was looking for it.

Rhys waited until a bunch of his coworkers passed by him, and he was relatively alone in the corridor. “Jack. What are you doing here?”

“Ooh… This and that. Just checking in to see how my favorite boy is doing.”

Rhys turned his head to the side, looking at the wall opposite Jack. “I don’t know about that. But I’m just about to get to the maintenance shaft of the trapdoor. From there it’s straight to your office and then you’re finally free.”

“Why don't I believe it's gonna be that easy?”

---

It had in fact been that easy.

Jack was impressed.
The pandoran bandits and the idiot kid had only fucked up slightly, and he and Rhys had managed to get into his office with relative ease.

From there getting out of the kid’s brain had been simple enough.

Transplanting him into a new body had taken them slightly more work. But they'd managed.