Chapter Text
The chair was metal.
Unforgiving, cold, and bolted to the floor — same as the man strapped into it. Tim couldn’t feel his hands anymore. Could barely lift his head. There was dried blood at the corner of his mouth, more crusted into the split on his cheekbone. His mask was long gone. Probably shattered. His face felt naked without it.
Jack hadn’t spoken in a few minutes. Just paced.
Slow, deliberate, like a predator circling something already bleeding.
Finally, he stopped in front of Tim and crouched to eye level.
“You know,” Jack said, voice disturbingly gentle, “you really could’ve just told me why, Tim-Tim.”
Tim didn't answer. Just stared through him.
Jack clicked his tongue. “I mean—I get it. Betrayal is kind of your thing now. You’re getting really good at it.” He leaned in closer, until Tim could see the glint of sweat at his temple. “But this one? Hoo. This one really fucked me up.”
Tim flinched as Jack grabbed his chin and forced his head up.
“Angel is dead, Tim. Dead. Gone. Because of you.” Jack’s voice cracked, and his eyes — God, his eyes — for a moment, looked almost human. Shining with something between rage and grief.
Tim’s stomach turned.
“And I just can’t wrap my brain around why.” Jack’s grip tightened. “You could’ve brought her in. You could’ve told me where she was. You could’ve done the right thing — but instead, you let those bandit assholes kill her!”
Tim’s breath hitched.
“She’s not—” he started, then bit it back. He tasted blood.
Jack’s brows shot up. “She’s not what, Tim?” he said, mockingly. “Not dead? Aw, you poor thing. Still in denial, huh? Let me help you with that.”
He stood, snapping his fingers.
A loader stormed towards him, and without warning, jammed it’s progged arm into Tim’s chest. A shock of white-hot voltage coursed through him, sharp and sudden — his whole body seized. He clenched his teeth hard enough to make his jaw scream. When it stopped, he sagged forward, the chair creaking under his weight.
Jack leaned over him again, calmer now. Almost pitying.
“Just tell me why,” he whispered. “Tell me why you let her die.”
But Tim just shook his head, jaw clenched. He wouldn’t give her up.
He wouldn’t give him that.
Jack didn’t take the silence well.
He stood there for a moment, frowning — before breaking into a grin that was all teeth and venom.
“Ohhh, right. This again.” He laughed bitterly and threw up his hands, beginning to pace in a tight circle around the chair. “Classic Timmy. Silent. Brooding. Pretending he’s got some noble reason for what he does instead of just owning up to being a complete fuck-up.”
He stopped behind the chair and leaned down, his voice right by Tim’s ear.
“Let me guess. You think you’re a hero now, huh?” Jack hissed. “Saved the poor little Siren from the Big Bad Man, brought her back to your cozy rebel clubhouse, earned yourself a gold fucking star. Maybe a kiss if you played your cards right.”
He laughed again, sharp and ugly.
“Too bad you still ended up right back here. On your knees, in my city, like always.”
Tim shut his eyes. He wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. Not now.
But Jack knew how to poke holes. He always had.
“Let’s get real, Tim,” he drawled, stepping around to face him again. “You didn’t save Angel. You didn’t save anyone. You just left her to die alone. And the best part? I bet you think she’d thank you for it.”
That cracked something.
Tim’s eyes snapped open, jaw tight. But he didn’t speak.
Jack crouched again, tilting his head as he studied the flicker of pain he saw there.
“There it is,” he whispered. “There’s my boy.”
He reached out — not to hit him, not this time. Just to gently tap the side of Tim’s face, mockingly affectionate. “Y’know, I keep thinking about that night. How quiet you were when I caught you after you gave that pretty little siren back to her bandit friends. Didn’t scream, didn’t fight. Just stood there while I burnt that little reminder into your face.” Jack’s fingers hovered near the collar of Tim’s shirt.
Tim jerked his head away.
Jack grinned.
“You should be grateful, you know. Not everyone gets a second chance. Not everyone gets to be mine. And yet…” His voice dipped low, all steel. “You just keep trying to leave me.”
Tim swallowed. Blood and bile burned the back of his throat.
He wasn’t going to talk.
He couldn’t.
Because the moment he opened his mouth — he didn’t know what would come out.
Jack rose from his crouch slowly, hands on his knees, then paced away for a beat before slamming his fist into the nearest metal support. The clang echoed through the room, and for a moment, the only other sound was Tim’s uneven breathing.
“You know what I don’t get?” Jack said, his voice unnervingly calm now. “I gave you everything. Money. Power. A face. I mean, hell, I made you somebody. And you—” he pointed back at Tim like he was accusing a ghost, “—you sold me out to a bunch of half-baked anarchists playing Vault Hunter.”
Tim didn’t respond. He didn’t flinch.
“You think they care about you, buddy?” Jack snarled, walking back with a dark smile stretching across his face. “They only let you in because they thought they could use you. Or maybe it was pity. Maybe they saw a kicked dog and figured they’d toss you a bone.”
He leaned in again, lowering his voice.
“But you and I both know, they don’t take in Hyperion scum. So that raises the question…”
Jack crouched again, his eyes burning into Tim’s.
“…what did you really give them?”
Tim clenched his jaw, hard enough it hurt.
Jack stared, waiting—then barked a humorless laugh and stood back up.
“That’s the thing about you, Timmy. Always just smart enough to know exactly when to keep your mouth shut. Which is why I’m gonna spell this out real slow for you.”
He raised a finger and ticked each point off with maddening clarity.
“One, Angel’s dead because of you.”
“Two, you went crawling to the Raiders instead of coming home like a good dog.”
“And three?” Jack turned to face him fully, voice low and vicious. “They’ve got Nisha. My Nisha.”
Tim’s head jerked up at that.
“Oh yeah. Thought I didn’t know?” Jack grinned like it physically hurt to hold it in. “I know they used you to sneak into Lynchwood and grab her. You know..she was always too good at telling the differences between us.”
“Fuck you–”
Jack lunged and grabbed him by the front of the shirt, yanking him forward until they were nose to nose.
“Ah ah..Language.”
The silence between them turned suffocating. Jack’s breath was hot and wild, his eyes two pinpricks of fury behind tinted lenses.
“You think they’re not hurting her? You think your little Siren buddy isn’t in there twisting her arm, just like you twisted mine?” Jack seethed. “You did this, Tim. You brought this on her. On all of us.”
Tim didn’t mean to flinch, but he did. And Jack saw it.
He let go, let Tim slump back against the restraints, and turned away, laughing bitterly again. Jack’s fist flew so fast, Tim didn’t see it coming. The punch rattled through his skull like a bell, and stars burst behind his eyes.
He slumped in the chair, bleeding from his nose, blinking slowly to stay conscious. Jack stood over him, panting. Hands twitching. Like he didn’t know what to do with them if they weren’t breaking something.
“You don’t get to lie to me anymore,” he whispered.
Jack paced again, a slow, dragging loop around the chair. He was quiet now, which was worse than the shouting. His gloves flexed restlessly as he studied Tim with something between disdain and morbid curiosity.
“You know,” he muttered, almost to himself, “I used to wonder if you ever got tired of being my shadow. My copy. A walking, talking meat puppet. But I think I finally figured it out.”
He stopped behind Tim and leaned in close, voice dropping to a poisonous whisper.
“You liked it. You liked being used. You liked playing pretend.”
Jack's voice curled with cruel amusement. “Hell, I bet you even liked it when Nisha called you Jack in bed.”
Tim froze. The silence said everything.
Jack grinned and came around the front again, crouching just enough to look him in the eye.
“Yeah. Thought I didn’t know about that, huh? You two sneaking around Elpis while I was out saving the moon? Getting your rocks off in broom closets like a pair of horny interns?”
He gave a low whistle and mockingly shook his head.
“She used to tell me she liked the real thing better. Said you were sweet, though. Soft. Gentle. Guess you were her warm-up act.”
Jack stood again, grinning like it was all just a big joke. Like Tim’s pain was the punchline.
“Must’ve killed you when she picked me, huh? Guess that's just what happens when people get to know you. They figure out what you're really made of. Spoiler alert: not much.”
Tim’s jaw was tight, his whole body rigid in the chair. He didn’t speak, didn’t blink. He just stared at the floor like it might swallow him.
But Jack wasn’t done.
“You know what really pisses me off, though?” he snapped, suddenly deadly serious again. “It’s not that you betrayed me once. It’s that you did it twice.”
He stabbed a finger toward Tim’s chest.
“You could’ve just walked away. You could’ve died in some ditch with a bullet in your back like a good little traitor. But instead, you crawl back into my life. You hand yourself over to the same bastards who destroyed everything I built. You shack up with Roland. With that Siren. Like they’re gonna forgive you for all the shit you’ve done. Like you belong anywhere but under my boot.”
Jack stepped in close again, and this time, when he grabbed Tim’s chin and forced him to look up, the smile was gone.
“You don’t get to be the hero, Timmy,” he said. “You never did. And the sooner you get that through your thick fucking skull, the easier this’ll be for both of us.”
He shoved his face away and walked off, breathing hard. There was a pause, then a faint crackle as Jack opened a comm channel.
“Prep another round. Maybe this time he’ll start talking.”
Tim slumped in the chair again, face stinging, ribs aching, vision blurred. But he still didn’t speak. He just sat in the suffocating silence, blood trickling from his nose, fists clenched until they shook.
Outside the room, the hum of Hyperion tech echoed faintly.
Somewhere deep in Crimson Raider HQ, Nisha screamed.
And still—Tim said nothing.