We Are Bulletproof

"Please?" He thought Rip hesitated and stammered and stuttered because he was thinking it over. A golem was bound to obey their creator, that was their prime directive, but the soul inside of Rip belonged to Brayden. It belonged to him as his own soul belonged to Jack—and to Rip. To Brayden, who had been longing for and pining after his lover for all these untold centuries, any single shred of him was a priceless treasure in and of itself.

"Phone?" This world was not his own; he was not accustomed to anything here and he was painfully out of place. Brayden felt through the strange clothes that his latest self wore and found pockets—pockets were timeless, thankfully. He turned them out, placing the items onto the bed. A small rectangular object with a flat glass surface, an aged folding leather piece which contained strange papers and hard yet lightweight cards, metal objects strung through another metal coil, jingling musically.

"Is it one of these, Rip?" Brayden stayed close to him, loathe to leave his side—his Jack's side—for even a second. Keith might try to take control of Rip again but he knew that it might take a moment; total control over a golem was tiring and Keith's magic was not as strong as that of a pureblooded prince.

"Can you ask him to come here, to us, darling?" His arm slid around Rip's waist.

Brayden smiled but it held no amusement. "My brother was never good at names," he said wryly with a roll of the eyes. Ripper Nightshade. How dare he name a golem made after Jack's image, with Jack's beautiful soul inside, Ripper Nightshade! The surname took no imagination but Ripper? Ripper?

Regardless of the name, Ripper still bore so much of what made Jack Jack that it was next to impossible to stay angry. Brayden stroked the curls and waves away from his brow, in order to see more of his face. Those eyes, those lips, that chin, the resemblance could not have been more perfect. Keith always had a way with golems; he was an artist of the highest level when it came to living clay.

"You were only following orders," Brayden finished for him softly, leaning in to kiss him again. "I know. I know what Keith is capable of, and I know that you fought him as hard as you could. It's all right... Rip." Mm. Not an ideal name, but it would have to do. "I don't blame you, darling. But I need your help now. I need to find Jack. I have something very important to tell him before I have to... go."

Brayden grasped onto his hand. "Please help me find him, Rip. I need you right now."

"I'm--"

No... He wasn't alive. Brayden wasn't alive. Death had claimed him but his soul hadn't moved on yet--it was merely being kept in that other realm in which he had been biding his time, waiting for one of his reincarnations to figure out the puzzle and to bring it all to an end. In a little while, he would be forced to vacate this body and the connection would be severed.

But both Braydens would still exist! That was the important thing--both would exist and both could still be saved!

He kissed Jack fervidly, passionately, but then swiftly pulled back to look at him. This was Jack, but... not all of him. Brayden held his face in both hands to keep him still, looking into his eyes, then looking at his heart.

"Darling. You're not Jack." His tone was soft, though, musing over the revelation. This wasn't Jack but it was someone who had Jack's soul inside--or part of it. "A golem? Keith made a golem..." This presented... unique opportunities though. Maybe Keith thought that if he made one with Jack's soul inside, after Jack passed, the cycle would be broken. But that worked in Brayden's favor too because if there could be two souls linked to Jack, then both would have to be corrupted equally in order to bypass the loop that he forced all three of them into...

"What's your name, my darling?" He stroked the golem's cheek no less fondly than when he had embraced who he thought was Jack. If it contained some part of Jack, it was no less deserving of all of his love.

"Well... you fucked it."

Brayden let out a long sigh as he reclined in his throne, gazing at the prone body laid at his feet. It was Brayden, of course. Another Brayden—the latest Brayden. Which one was this now? He had gone through more than a hundred of these, he was sure. Maybe close to two hundred.

"You really, really fucked it. Too bad... I had high hopes for you. Me."

With a slow shake of the head, he got off the throne and knelt by his own dead body, gently touching the cold cheek. Half of a rune on the body's forehead formed an incomplete seal. He rubbed it off, puzzled as to why Keith only drew half of it. Not that it would have done any good; it would only prevent Brayden from returning in this life. After Jack passed on, the cycle would reset and another Brayden would be born, to start the song and dance all over again.

Unless Jack fell, but... he wouldn't. He hadn't in close to two hundred cycles. Dear, wonderful Jack. He realized his love every time, as Brayden counted on him doing. Their love was stronger than anything his vile half-brother could conceive.

To his surprise, as he touched the cheek of his own body, it stirred. Brayden actually let out a sound of shock. "What? The hell?" He leapt back as the eyes opened and gazed confusedly up at him. This had never happened... Never! "Brayden? Brayden!" He leapt forward again, reaching out to slap his cheek gently. "Brayden say something!"

"...wha?"

"Oh thank god! You—I could kiss you! Me! Us!" Diving upon himself, he hugged... himself. "You realized your powers! Finally! Finally you did it! He didn't kill you! Well—he did. But. Oh. This is fine. We can still save this. Come on. Come on sit up. Up up up! Right now! Up!" He dragged his confused self up and pulled him over to the throne, pressing him down onto it hard.

"I'm going to need you to sit here and not. Leave. Understand? I'm going to borrow your body for a little while. I need to..." His gaze softened and he cupped Brayden's cheek. "Let me speak to Jack. I'll be back after I tell him what he needs to know. Okay?"

"...okay." Brayden didn't seem to understand but he nodded trustingly. Well, he had to—he had to trust himself!

Slowly, he took off the crown on top of his head and transferred it to Brayden on the throne. The darkness began to seep in again and he smiled as he fell to the ground.

GASP!

Brayden came to with a loud gasp, convulsing against the ground. He grappled with somebody hovering over him, eyes wide open but seeing nothing at all. Not until they focused, and— "Jack!" He clung to Jack with tears forming in his eyes. The ache of his heart was so poignant and so deep that it nearly tore it into pieces.

"Oh Jack. Jack my darling. My prince!" Brayden hugged him, latched onto him, laughing and crying in the same breath.

Jack was in there! Bray knew he was; his soul resonated with the soul inside of Jack's body, even while it was being taken over by Keith and used by Keith to assault him. The hand tightened around his throat and he briefly felt corruption trying to seep in, but he fought it. He fought it with the love that refused to be dimmed, with the strength of his feelings for Jack. Those who experienced true love could never be corrupted and Bray's love for Jack was the truest force in this dimension or any others.

"You're... wrong..." he gasped, trying to shrug off his glamor. If he could access his full powers, he could... he could fight Keith somehow. "He never lo-loved you!" The 'love' Jack felt was not true love. How could it be when Bray was his soul mate? How could he love a foul, vile, hateful man like Keith? Love scorned had burned Keith's heart into a blackened stump. He was incapable of loving and undeserving of being loved!

"Jack..." Bray's glamor finally fell and his wings unfurled, but he was already beginning to lose consciousness. Now Keith wasn't playing around. Perhaps he sensed that his time was limited, or perhaps he had finally had enough. Bray didn't know, didn't care. He tried to gather mana in his wings, tried to force his magic into Keith, fighting the darkness that encroached.

"Jack is... mine...!" The edges of his vision clamoured with darkness and he felt himself losing strength in his limbs. Everything swam hazily; Jack's face with Keith's eyes, that awful, terrible triumphant smile on the face of a man he loved so, so, so much that he refused to die... He refused to die for good unless he could die having lived a full, happy life with Jack.

Maybe Brayden—the first one—wasn't as meek or soft as Bray was in this life. Maybe he, too, felt a certain way about Jack, was enamored with him enough to force him to endure all these lifetimes of pain and suffering. It took an enormous amount of power to change fate. It took a man who loved another so fiercely that the sheer force of his emotions forced fate to step aside.

"I will... I will come back." His last breath rattled in the back of his throat as his light dimmed. "I will... never... lose... Jack..."

"You want... you want me dead," said Bray with more calm than he felt in the moment as his back hit the wall. He reached behind him for some kind of weapon but there was nothing. His fingers encountered the AC unit just underneath the window and unless he wanted to cool Keith to death, there was nothing to use in self-defence.

And Keith, he was approaching, enjoying the hunt—the way he stalked Bray with evident relish was clear indication that he was having himself a blast. Meanwhile, Bray's eyes flicked to the door beyond him. If he could get out... If he could scream or shout, maybe draw some attention to himself...

But

Keith was talking now, giving him clear insight into what it was that he had been trying to do. So Keith was the one who did this. He was the one who set off the chain of events that led Bray to set up an infinite loop of lives. But that meant Keith was aware of what Bray had done, wasn't he? It meant he knew the original Brayden, the one whose death was so tragic that his spirit could not bear the injustice?

And he had come around to kill Bray every time. Every life...

"J-Jack. Jack please... please I know you're in there. Fight him, Jack!" Bray was cut off by the hand at his throat, squeezing meaningfully. Keith was toying with him, he knew that. His hand flew up to try and pull Keith's hand away but he was so strong! He was inhuman! Bray desperately clawed at him, still trying to reach Jack. Jack had to be inside! He could fight this and kick Keith out! He—he didn't want to be the one who killed Bray...

"Fight him, Jack! P—Plea...se...!"

"Jack?" Bray tried to hold him but Jack was not having it. He kept... moving away, running from Bray and saying strange, confusing things. He won't move on... I won't move on... But who was he? Who was Jack referring to? And Jack was so distressed that it was obvious he wasn't entirely himself, but Bray didn't know what to do to reassure him. Should he not have told Jack to try and move on? To be happy?

But Bray didn't want him to be miserable his entire life. He wanted Jack to find happiness in some shape or form. His greatest desire was not to possess or to own Jack but to see him contented, happy, secure. Jack's happiness was his own; that was what it meant to truly love someone, to be able to place their well-being above one's own. And Bray, oh... he loved Jack so much. So, so much that not even words could describe the depth of feeling he had.

"Jack? Jack please come sit down. We can—we can talk about this."

The feeling of Jack being different suddenly hit him like a tidal wave and he stopped, stiffened like an animal in the headlights. Jack's eyes were... not his eyes. He blinked and the hazel turned dark blue. And for a split second, something flashed through those blue eyes that made Bray's heart quiver and sink in his chest.

"Keith."

He knew those eyes—they were the eyes he last saw before the golem that Keith created in his own image tried to kill Bray. And damn near accomplished that, too. Those were Keith's eyes staring back at him with a mixture of triumph and venom and unfiltered hatred. Bray hurried to get to the opposite end of the room, fear causing his mouth to run dry, his throat to close up.

"What do you want?"

😘 I love you Jack

Ahhh that unbridled Harvard brand confidence! :P

You are my chosen Jack
Forever

There may be other Jacks, but my Jack is the greatest Jack of all time

(THIS THREAD IS GIVING ME THE SADS)

No? No... he didn't think Bray had always loved him?

That wasn't something Jack would have said to him. Jack had no doubts... right? But Bray swore he heard it—no. Jack didn't believe him when he said that he had always loved him and that sowed a little tiny seed of doubt in Bray, too. What... did that mean? That Jack no longer believed in his eternal love?

Yet again, a piece of the puzzle didn't fit. And while Bray put that aside like all the other pieces, the gaps they left behind were beginning to become a little more apparent.

He was desperate to say what he needed to say, though. He needed to tell Jack and... Jack didn't take that well. His reaction was violent, startling. Bray sat on the bed in shock, staring at him as he retreated—as though Bray were shooting bullets at him instead of words. It wasn't pleasant to be told to move on but...

"Jack?" Bray got off the bed too, following him, reaching out for him. "Jack I'm sorry. Please don't—I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. Please." He didn't mean to ruin this beautiful evening alone but they also couldn't ignore the elephant in the room. Ever since those visions happened, they hadn't talked about it. Jack seemed to want to avoid it and Bray didn't want to upset him, so he held off and he held off until he couldn't ignore it any longer.

I am
The chosen Brayden 😆

That makes you my chosen Jack

Like everything is scripted? Haha I guess

But also maybe not
Maybe past me was hoping one of
The future Braydens would figure this out, he just didn't know which one

Most people don't talk about their past lives do they? Or if they do we call them crazy and lock them up.

I'm starting to think these memories were unlocked by me
Or past me or
Some version of me that left one lock open, knowing that one day we'd break through

He traced the shape of Jack's noble brow when Jack closed his eyes, as if to draw from all the dreams that he'd had of Bray and of their past lives together. "I've always loved you," whispered Bray with absolute certainty, and smiled even though Jack's eyes were closed and he couldn't see it. But his smile was sad, too, reflecting the somber reality of their lives and loves.

Then, when Jack sat up suddenly, Bray remained where he was on his side and looked up at him curiously. He pulled one of Jack's hands toward him, first to kiss the knuckles and fingertips tenderly and then to press against his cheek, which he rested against the palm of it. Jack's smile seemed to send mixed messages—sadness and yet joy, hopelessness yet yearning. Why? Why was that smile so new? Bray hadn't seen it before and he was sure he had seen every type of smile from Jack.

"I went away..." He turned into Jack's hand and kissed the palm of it softly. It was a gentle way of saying that he died. He went away. And he never came back because he was already drifting through time and space, waiting for the next life, waiting to be reunited with Jack to begin their tragic love story all over again. Bray closed his eyes as a tidal wave of emotion made it hard to breathe. He wanted to escape the complications and the implications of those visions but it seemed to follow him wherever he went. That wasn't surprising though, was it? His own black fate was not something he could forget on a whim.

"Jack." Bray opened his eyes after taking in a deep, long breath. "There's something I want to say but I don't... I don't know if you're ready to hear it yet. I don't know if you'll ever be ready to hear it." Yet it needed to be said. It had to be said while they had a moment alone, before everyone came knocking down the door. Bray sat up too, facing him, hands clasping both of Jack's hands.

"If I don't—don't make it this time. Please, find a way to move on without me. Find a way to be happy again."

And that was when we'd just met, too!

But really even though we were strangers, we'd already had hundreds of years together. It's still so
Bizarre to think of it that way