“Wanna play video games?”

 

That’s it. 

 

That was the first coherent thought of the night. 

 

It’s 12 am, Jake’s body clean off from shaking and sweating excessively from the blur that was in his sleep. His head was spinning from the abrupt awakening, vision fuzzy from the lack of glasses, chest heavy and pressing down into his lungs and heart, breath broken into staccatos as he was trying not the tear the recently changed sheets with his bare hands. 

 

He knows that Adam knows that whatever just happened wasn’t the first time this happened; not that it was really much of a big deal, even if the nights were getting longer the more Jake had stayed up. Instead of responding, his eyes darted to the contents of his room, just to try to get the edge off what just happened.

 

A lone basketball on the floor (he remembers the shape of talons coming at him), the pile of neglected, unfolded clothes on the bean bags (the sharp tear into his flesh), the plain walls decorated with posters from his old room (his throat getting caught but not ever vibrating from, not even a squeak) and LED strips taped to the corners of his room (and Jesus Christ, the pain, the pain, the fucking pain.) 

 

The moonlight was the only thing that painted the room and let him see. Adam came to his room to greet him happy birthday, and the mix of purple and blue on his skin, an effect that only existed whenever the light and dark engulfed it simultaneously, was distracting enough. If Jake squinted any further he could spot the glowing freckles on his skin. His iris-less eyes also glowed white, and his pale blond curly hair that cropped at the sides was messy and loose from sleeping.

 

What did he say again? Happy birthday, wanna play video games?

 

Right. He checked his phone. It was April 18, 2021. He just turned 18.

 

Jake opened his mouth, then decided to shut it as he twisted himself out of bed and grabbed his glasses.

 

“Yeah,” Jake said, pulling on a shirt. He knew that Adam knew that he was gonna need to clear his head just to get some sleep again. 

 

And that was how he managed to time travel to 6 am. Sprawled on the floor while Adam took the rest of the couch (he couldn’t really make room, not when Adam was 6’7 and filling more than just the couch), Tekken permanently on hold since like, maybe 4 am, and the bags of piattos and cheese rings fallen neglected on the floor just by his feet. 

 

Unmedicated and loose from the small semblance of peaceful sleep he’s received these past few days, he decided to keep Adam at peace and pressed his feet gently against the floor, slipping out of the door to make himself some actual food and get something to drink too.

 

The hall of the second floor was still dark, barely illuminated by the peeking sun in the windows, but Jake had noticed the photos of Adam laid about. Nevica rarely was part of the pictures, always taking them. There wasn’t anybody to take pictures of him, which was understandable. (What a waste on a handsome god, though— wouldn’t hurt to capture the dark skin, the bright white tattoos that painted over it, his bright and near glow-y blond braided hair on him, though. Jake could offer to snag some photos for printing.) Rarest out of all of them had to be one particular woman Jake’s never met or even heard about— it was just a candid framed photo Nevica had taken what could’ve been years back. None of them had Jacus in them. 

 

Just as he was about to head down the stares he met eyes with the god he’d been thinking of. Even in the barely lit stairway, Jacus’s shining gold skin glowed with its lilac and cyan accents, and Jake had never really known a more beautiful figure in his life. Aside from the short cropped cowlick, he had long and thick eyelashes, a straight but high-bridged nose and wide nostrils, long and thick eyebrows, dark purple scleras and bright blue pupils. His piercing studs that caught onto his lip, one between his eyebrows, another on his chin, three above his right eyebrow, two on the lower part of his cheek and two more just below his cheekbone. (And Jake had almost never noticed the third eye. He’d never really seen it open.)

 

Jacus had kicked off the knee high lace boots to the side, sporting a red and black corset top that hugged his chest and waist, and a mesh set of sleeves, coming down with a layered black skirt and fishnets. His lipstick streaked all the way to his cheek, his eyeshadow messy and glittering his face. 

 

Holy shit, he was so goddamn hot.

 

As soon as Jacus had caught wind of Jake’s eyes, he held the eye contact. “Good morning.” He said.

 

“H-hey, what’s up?” Jake felt the urge to kick himself. The ‘up’ was that he just came home, dumbass. 

 

Jacus looked up to the ceiling. “What is up?”

 

“Oh— no, that’s like, a saying. What’s going—”

 

“On? We are talking.”

 

“Yeah, we’re talking, but what happened with you last night, you totally didn’t come back until just now.”

 

Jacus blinked. “I suppose you can check my memories for that.”

 

“What? No, no, that’s fine, it’s kinda early for me to do that! Besides, your mind’s a lot to— no offense, yeah? Your mind’s just a lot to uncover and I just woke up and I kinda wanna take a break from thinking because I haven’t had any proper sleep and just played video games with Adam and it’s like— it’s like—”

 

“Why do you ask what has happened if you do not wish to think? Do you not think as you speak?”

 

“No— I don’t literally not think, it’s just too early to have any complicated thoughts, right?” Jake’s smile was sheepish at best. He came down the stairs just as Jacus came up, meeting him halfway. “Look. You look great. You came late, like, it’s literally the next day, so I just wanna… talk to you about it? Instead of scanning your brain for it? Because I want to talk to you more.”

 

Jacus tilted his head. “We are indeed talking.”

 

“Well— do you like talking to me?” Oh, that is fucking desperate. He might as well put his index fingers pointing against each other with his feet crooked together while asking that.

 

“It seems that you struggle to talk to me.” 

 

Jake felt the heat of his blood rush to his face. Yeah, no, he’d only lived with the gods for less than six months, interacting with Jacus at all was still difficult because even if Jake had his mind in his hands he could never understand what was actually going on with Jacus’s head. But this… this was embarrassing. 6am and Jake already wanted to collapse, this was the worst day of his life and he hadn’t even started it. 

 

“Haha,” Jake tried not to wheeze out. Jacus simply stared at him. Jake could feel Jacus’s perplexity of this, of genuine interaction, and he knew this because he actually decided to check Jacus’s memories for it. His mind was too complex and layered for Jake to really absorb it, but the memories were fresh and still on the surface and holy shit that’s a lot of sex— 

 

“You are funny.” Jacus said, proceeding to move past him. “Enjoy your breakfast.”

 

How did he— right. 

 

Third eye powers. Right. 

 

I’ll get over it, Jake thought. (Emphasis on thought.) He took a deep breath and proceeded to the kitchen.

 

Or at least, was going to proceed to the kitchen until that familiar sharp pain stabbed right through his chest. 

​

This time it took him by the lungs. This time, he could see the thing with wings again— but it was in the house, and holy shit that was real this time because it was above him and dragging his body up the stairs, causing him to scream (at least he could scream, right?)

 

Then: nothing. He was still caught in the stairway. The whole house definitely heard him scream. They could probably chalk it up to a battle with a cockroach, it’s fine. But then, Adam knows everything. Fuck. Is it going to be bad? Better get up and check just to—

 

Another of that same sharp sensation slashed into his back, knocking him forwards and causing him to stumble down the stairs, right into the floor where his nose was met with a crack alongside his glasses.

 

Great.

 

Although the thought of going to Sunnies was brushed aside when that thing— this Birdlike thing, came back at him again, shoving him to a stool that carried a vase (and a possibly very valuable fucking vase, how is he going to explain this to Nevica?) where the porcelain shards cut into his hands as he tried to have some sort of leverage getting up.

 

But here’s the thing:

 

He couldn’t feel it.

 

He couldn’t feel any sort of pain burning.

 

(Must be shock, right?

 

No.)

 

The Birdlike thing disappeared, and Jake was left bloody and beaten and he had no idea what to do about it. It was Tyler Durden in the office because he was going fucking crazy, beating himself up and breaking his friend’s house’s shit, and he was 100% sure this was going to get his ass kicked out to the streets. Blood spilled onto the floor but none of it was coming from his chest or back, and then another one of those things reappeared (Birdlikes. He’s calling them Birdlikes, because they look like birds but have a human body and jaw and oh, that’s fucking weird as shit—) just to stab its talons right into his head and shove it against the wall.

 

Oh, so now they’re getting tough.

 

Touché. 

 

(Was that the right word?)

 

He already couldn’t fight back, not with the seizure he was just now getting. He actually didn’t know why he knew he was getting a seizure, but with the way he couldn’t move and constantly kept convulsing, barely within sound mind and body, (and aren’t you supposed to be one with the body while this was happening? Then again, what the fuck was happening?)

 

He only knew that he could see it like a camera. Like the Sunken Place or something like that. Barely able to hover behind, just witnessing his body malfunction while he couldn’t do anything except watch it. That’s when he spotted Adam almost jump down from the stairs to get to him, running to put a pillow on his head and yell out to Nevica. (Not like he could hear it, but he could read Adam’s mouth fine.)

 

Nevica came into view, then Jacus, back in his ordinary clothes, and it seemed that Nevica was trying to calm Adam down as he healed the cuts and wounds on Jake’s body. He looked at Adam with fingers under his chin, said something in his most definitely very Nevica-y soft tone, which dropped Adam’s shoulders as he looked down with despair— 

 

So Jake tried to reach out. Not with his body, his head. 

 

Then a guttural, ear-grating screech engulfed his mind, and covering his ears didn’t do anything because it was coming from the inside. 

 

He looked up. More fucking Birdlikes. 

 

He was in his own head. Sunken Place-ing it. He realized that what he was looking at, this maze-like pattern of flesh and electricity, happened to be his brain, and those things were fucking eating it. 

 

The slam to the head wasn’t causing the seizure, it was this.

 

— 

 

“What happens next?” Nevica asked. 

 

“I have no view on the true timeline.” Jacus said.

 

“What,” Nevica turned to him, “what does that even mean?”

 

“Means he doesn’t know either.” Adam said, gripping his own pants as they watched Jake’s seizure go on for what felt like eons. 

 

“I can’t redirect the oxygen to his brain.” Nevica said, running his fang on his bottom lip, holding Jake’s head up so he doesn’t choke on his tongue.

 

“Nev, he doesn’t— it’s not the oxygen.” Adam said.

 

“What is it?” Nevica asked.

 

“Something— there’s things eating his brain, it’s- it’s- it’s not human, it’s not human, not— do you remember when Nureji got cut up?” 

 

Nevica’s eyebrows furrowed, “I think so, yeah. That was thousands of—”

 

“Yeah, yeah, so— so, like, evolution, shit, the blood went onto these babies, both humans and birds, back in Rapa Nui, and they started evolving into these things and their stars, they— meshed with Nureji’s blood and became these creatures that protected the minds after Kyle died.”

 

“They’ve been here since Kyle?” Nevica asked, eyes wide and blinking.

​

“Yeah— yeah, yeah,” Adam bobbed his head, “they’re saints of the mind. Like Nex! Yeah, like Nex, but, you know.”

 

Nevica’s mouth was open, “I don’t know how I didn’t know about this until now.”

 

“You wouldn’t have been able to feel them anyway, they, they don’t physically exist. Like they’re supposed to be in everybody’s heads but not really. I-It’s a separate realm in the subconscious.”

 

“Is it partial to Ato Jangso, by any chance?” Jacus asked.

 

“No— yes? It’s complicated. Fuck.”

 

“Why do you speak of this now?”

 

“Because— because!” Adam looked back up at Jacus, “those things are eating—”

 

“—him.” Jacus finished for him. Adam looked elsewhere, holding his hair.

 

“Is there any way to reach him?” Nevica asked. They looked down to see Jake’s body finally still, but completely unresponsive. They turned his body to face the side. Nevica’s fingers hovered over his throat, lowering his head in relief as he found the pulse of his heart pass through his veins.

 

“There is. I must use his eyes.” Jacus said, standing between them. His third eye opened, but nothing happened.

 

—

 

Something happened. 

Jake didn’t actually know what it was— but now wondering what Jacus was doing the inside of his mind had a more… coherent appearance to it. The center of it all really was his brain, but the more Jake saw this dreamlike appearance the more it had been clear that this was his subconscious. 

 

Everything was a deep green in different shades that almost looked different from each other, its brightness lining the expanse, its darkness shaping the place like it was some sort of painting with the unreality of the appearance. It was like he was walking under the Aurora Borealis, and as the thought had approached him his mind formed it for him. Colors splashed like fireworks into the dark, but it had been too blurry because Jake had never really seen it in person, just pictures. 

 

But then as he stepped on what was to be the ground he realized he was standing on the top of a building. If the building’s contents also happened to be on the rooftop as well, he’d been given a lot of things to go through before he could get to the next one— the next one, which happened to be what his next thought looked like. He snagged one of the items as he hopped to the next building, then the next fireworks show displayed what he was thinking next: pictures. 

 

Specifically, he managed to take a camera and shuffled through the memories he was thinking about. The fireworks moved like a projector now, and he didn’t know what to take from it besides the most obvious. Him leaving his house. The blood in his hands. The obvious, knowing looks Nevica had given him when Jake left with him, smiling. 

 

The police never figured out what had happened. Just that his parents were dead and he was missing, but that was never going to be the full story. Not with the way Jake had been making it. 

Nobody was going to know.

 

Well, not until now.

 

He heard footsteps and his breath caught onto his throat when he saw Jacus looking up to the sky.

 

“How— how did— how did you—” Jake sputtered, the camera slipping from his fingers as it stumbled out and dropped down the building. 

 

“I looked.” Jacus said. 

 

“Suuuuure,” Jake heaved as he looked over the edge of the building, trying to find any source of hope that the camera could come back. Then he looked back up to find Jacus looking down at him (god, he hoped it wasn’t on him) with his trident drawn.

 

“What do you have all that for?” 

 

“For the threat.”

“Ah—”

 

“You look different.”

 

“I- I do?”

 

“You are green all over,” Jacus tilted his head, “and your hair, it is almost white.”

 

“What— what the hell?!” Jake’s eyes went wide, staring at his own hands and realizing that the texture of his skin had also changed alongside its color.

 

Ah shit. He just thought it was the light.

 

“Remain calm.” Jacus said, pulling him upwards as the distant screeches of those Birdlikes drew nearer. “Draw your weapon.”

 

Jake looked around, seeing that the place was starting to crumble. Damn, the first time he’s been here and it’s already starting to disappear, what could these things possibly fucking want with him? 

 

The Birdlikes were approaching, surrounding them as they flew in circular motions, but as his subconscious was starting to collapse the sight of them was beginning to disappear. Jake’s breath shortened at that, back pressing up against Jacus’s as they started to do the same motion just to follow the sound of the screeches. 

 

“I don’t have—“

 

“You do.” Jacus insisted. “It is in your blood.”

 

The screeches were drawing closer.

 

“How do I— can you cut me?”

 

And closer.

 

“We do not have much time-”

 

“Jac, Jac, Jac, you need to cut me,” Jake held out his wrist as one of them soared from the dark and into their direction— 

 

 Jacus slashed it open. 

 

The pain burned through his entire brain and lit up the place, and his gasp of pain melted into a laugh as he drew out the meteor hammers and threw it directly to the Birdlike’s face. The chains were wrapped around his wrist, made out of flesh too, but he didn’t really understand how he’d suddenly known how to move with these weapons just as he swung forward and spun to throw the weight directly at the next Birdlike coming.

 

Jacus kicked his trident up and forward, stabbing one ahead of time and separating their back-to-back position as the next Birdlike came between them. They moved at the same time at that, the crushing weight of the meteor hammer slamming into the thing’s skull and the massive stabbing of the three prongs puncturing right into its jaw and through its mouth, forcing it to drop dead into the rooftop flooring.

 

“WOO!” Jake cheered, hearing the pulse of his heart go off in his brain. Jacus stood next to him.

 

“You are happy?” He asked.

 

“That was cool! That was so cool, dude, up top!” Jake raised his hand. Jacus tilted his head. 

 

“Hit your— yeah, hit your hand against mine—”

 

Jacus followed, but his thumb and pinky wrapped around it as he put Jake’s hand down, letting go. “I do not understand you.”

 

“I kinda don’t either.” Jake said, then widened his eyes as he raised his hands back up, this time in surrender, “W-with you, I mean. No offense.”

 

“It seems we have that in common.” Jacus said dryly, staring at the dissipating plane. “I do not understand many of these human customs. Even after living on Earth for the time I did.”

 

“How long have you been here?”

 

Jacus’s eyes flickered back at him, “10 minutes.”

 

“What— no, I meant Earth!” 

 

“As long as Adam has. Though one would say that I only truly started living only six years back.”

 

“What do you mean by that…?”

 

Jacus was silent at that. Then he tilted his head forward. “You must lead me to where they are eating you.”

 

“We’re not done here, though. You know what this is?” Jake asked with a grin.

 

“No?”

 

“A conversation! We’re talking!” 

 

“I see. How interesting.” Jacus said, seeming contemplative. It was always hard to tell, but Jake could only really tell that Jacus was thinking about things when his eyes drifted to the side, but other than that...  

 

God, I wish I could read you.

 

Jake’s eyes widened. Jacus was also about to look around until Jake had grabbed him by the hand and let them venture to where his brain was supposed to be. 

 

— 

 

“What’s he doing?” Nevica asked, staring back up at Jacus’s still body.

 

“He can see… he can see what Jake’s seeing.” Adam said, now visibly calmer than he was before. “Jake’ll be fine soon.”

 

“I know. I just want to know what you know right now.”

 

“He’ll be fine soon.” Adam repeated. 

 

Nevica shifted on his knees. Adam shrunk in his position, hand moving to brush Jake’s hair aside. His bottom lip was quivering.

 

“Adam,” Nevica said, reaching out to hold Adam’s face, “how will he be fine?”

 

Adam’s eyes shut, stifling a sob, “he’s going to die.”

 

“Why do you say that?” His thumb had wiped a tear from his cheek.

 

“They can’t fight them off like this. They can’t— Jake’s gonna die, Jake’s gonna die and we can’t do anything about it.” Adam said, pushing Nevica’s hands down but still squeezing reactively. 

“Do you know what Jacus sees right now?”

 

“I just know they’re fighting,” Adam sniffled, “it’s not going to work, it’s not going to work, it’s not going to…”

 

“There has to be more, Adam.” Nevica said, “He’s not going to die just yet.”

 

“How would you know?”

 

“I know because his star hasn’t exploded yet.”

 

Adam stayed quiet at that.

 

“… It will. And when it does, there’s no turning back from there.”

 

“And what will happen next?”

 

Adam rocked himself forward, “I don’t know. I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t…”

 

“It’ll come to you.” Nevica said, moving to hold him. “We just have to wait this out, alright? Do you trust Jake? Jacus?”

 

Adam sniffled again. Tears still kept going, but he nodded anyway. 

 

“Good. He’s going to live.”

 

“He needs to live.” Adam sobbed out.

 

— 

Jake stumbled forward as he watched them continue to eat him. He drew back out the Meteor Hammers in his wrists and tried to follow Jacus as they attacked, but the more they kept on ripping his brain apart he couldn’t keep up anymore. Stepping, stumbling, throwing and then falling over, Jacus had to do most of the heavy lifting in the fight. 

 

“Jac, I can’t—“ Jake wheezed out, body feeling unstable and disconnected, vision fuzzy and falling apart, and just as Jacus tried to reach out to get to him one of the Birdlikes had swooped in from above and took him by the back, throwing him into a deep black abyss. 

 

“JAKE!” Jacus screamed out, but that was the last thing Jake had heard before he tumbled down.

 

(Jack came tumbling down. No. No, that was Jill, she tumbled after.) 

 

He had no idea where he landed, but he was just relieved there wasn’t any… definable, matter, to get himself hurt on something. In fact, even with how hard he landed there wasn’t even a scratch on him. 

 

(But that was to distract himself from looking at what actually was going on here.)

 

And what was going on was that there were— if not thousands, millions of severed heads on the floor.

 

Jake wanted to scream, but then the thoughts had occurred to him all at once: first, the lack of smell. Second, the way none of these were rotten. In spite of the dark, the end of the heads where the neck was to be had glowed all the way through. 

Were these dead…?

 

But then he looked at the heads closer with the lights they provided. He knew these faces. They came from school, his village, the mall. 

 

They couldn’t have been dead. 

 

Just as he touched one of the heads, the theory had turned true. He was overloaded with a sight of someone else’s perspective— dropping from a tree and breaking their ankle in the process, he’d suddenly felt the sting and snap of the bone, the involuntary scream from his throat as they were brought to the hospital to get it realigned. There, he felt the fear, the idiocy, the ‘never doing that again’ phrase repeated over and over. 

 

This wasn’t a decapitated head. This was a human mind— carrying memories, feelings, a whole fuckin’ life under his hands. (He’d known how to handle this— he’s known for it, but the thing is, it’s weird to see a more visual representation of it all. Where the hell was he?)

 

The minds began to glow as his hand hovered over them. Their thoughts and memories began to leak into his mind, and Jake was starting to remember why he insisted on dropping out of school. 

 

The unpleasant nostalgia of having to absorb everybody’s thoughts and feelings and memories day by day was nauseating. He couldn’t concentrate, not even fuckin’ ritalin could help— he didn’t know what he was going through for almost so long that meeting Adam had been a fucking blessing.

 

(“Breathe,” Adam said. This was somewhere about? Maybe 2017? 2015? Jesus, social media was at its peak back then, those times were simpler— “and concentrate on the coins. Don’t think of the thoughts.”

 

“How?” Jake blinked, staring at the coins.

 

“Memorize ‘em,” Adam said, matter-of-factly, leaning to his hip at the edge of the table and waiting. “Look at the order of the coins and I’ll shuffle them. You have to memorize and put it back in order.”

 

Jake scoffed, “and that’s supposed to help me focus? How do you know?”

 

“I know.” Adam said. So he did. The thoughts washed away like a shore after that. They kept meeting up and doing this thing, and as worse as it got the better Jake had with actually coping with it. Only Adam knew how things were going to go— and Jake trusted him with his life for that shit—

 

Why was he thinking of this again?

 

Oh, right.

 

The absorption.)

 

Focus. He had to focus. Ask questions, if ever, that sure would’ve worked. 

 

Although he should’ve done that awhile ago, huh. He thought about Jacus. Thought about the place he was in— ignoring the minds that poured into his brain at the moment. The Birdlikes had come again, screeching their absolute most to let Jake know that he didn’t have the right to hear himself as everything was getting louder and louder. 

 

Jake almost let out a yell until one of the Birdlikes had landed in front of him, shielding him from the heads. 

 

Then: partial silence. The volume of these thoughts suddenly died down. The Birdlike was shielding the thoughts.

 

Then another came. 

 

So did the other.

 

And pretty soon they had formed a circle around him, shielding him from the thoughts that felt like they were a mile away. 

 

He tried to step forward to pick up another thought, but one of the Birdlikes shifted and craned its neck forward. 

 

Oh. 

 

They were protecting the minds.

 

(From him? What could have possibly been the reason for him to—)

 

Then he noticed it. Like a ringing in his ears he realized he found light as thin as string on the tips of his fingers— multiple lights. They all connected to the minds. All of them. He didn’t know how he didn’t see it the first time, maybe it was because he was just holding out on a mental breakdown, who fuckin’ knows. 

 

But it went from his fingers and into his palms and lighting up his veins and he tried to pull it back but another Birdlike had reacted swiftly, flapping its wings and unhappily making another screech just to get Jake to stop. 

 

But he didn’t stop. Instead he studied it. The lights were tangled. The more Jake started to look closer, the more fucked up the lights looked. 

 

Because he could take from these minds.

 

But he was also breaking them in the process. 

 

The light at the stumps of those heads were bleeding in to each other. The Birdlikes were protecting the heads by killing him. They wanted him to die—

 

No. 

 

He needed to die.

 

And if this was how he was going to die, well, shit, this was the worst birthday of his life.

 

He hadn’t even started it yet.

 

There’s no time for tears for this shit. No time to breakdown. No time to say goodbye. He was going to die and he had to accept that. The Birdlikes were surrounding him. They were going to eat him alive and Jake was certain he was going to feel every inch of it. Drawing his weapon was no use. Jacus was no use (hell, couldn’t even find him for this goodbye.) 

 

He can see it from afar now— his brain, deteriorating at a really fast rate. No matter what Jacus was doing, no matter what he was trying to fight with, no matter what Nevica and Adam were trying right now, it didn’t matter.

 

At least his parents were dead.

 

He just hopes the afterlife doesn’t let him see them.

 

He could feel his body collapsing. The vision blurring. A shaking, dissipating, breaking body is the last thing he felt. He could hear Adam’s faded scream from the distance of his senses. 

 

Then suddenly, nothing. 

 

— 

 

Jacus’s vision fell back to his body and he’d nearly stumbled back from its abrupt force. Adam held Jake’s head up, Nevica straining too hard to heal his body— none of it was any use. Still, Jacus dropped to one knee and tried to open his eye again. Nothing was happening.

 

“No—“ Jacus said, just barely heard between Adam’s near-wailing, “no, no, no, Jake— Jake, let me back in—“ 

 

“Jacus, what does the timeline say?!” Nevica asked.

 

“Nev— Nev, he’s not going to—“ Adam sputtered, completely in tears.

 

“FUCK!” Nevica yelled, the gold of his essence flaring up around his tattoos and hands as he tried to force Jake’s body back to life. Nothing was happening.

 

“JAKE, LET ME BACK IN!” Jacus screamed out, but nothing was happening. 

 

Then, something happened.

 

His body rose from the floor and exploded.

 

—

 

It wasn’t a pleasant explosion. But it didn’t have guts in it, thank god. It wasn’t gross or bloody. Instead, it was a beam of light and force and energy that burned right into the world, flooding like a broken dam as Jake could feel everything, everywhere, all at once.

 

It was like his mind was being thrown around.

 

He was falling to a valley of upside down mountains and broken platforms of stone floating into view, and on his way down was a staircase of book after book after book that lead to the trenches of what seemed to be millions of items strewn about.

 

Like a dream.

 

This was Adam’s head.

 

Of course, it only took him a mere few seconds to realize that was the case because another blink had forced him into water.

 

Straight up water— in a tropical, isolated island where the jungle trees hung low and dipped their leaves into the surface, the loud songs of birds and insects coinciding with each other, muffling his hearing but still so obviously there. Something was pulling him back down into the water but he could see the sun baring down on him like a monster baring its teeth.

 

He couldn’t breathe.

 

These were Nevica’s emotions.

 

Then the next blink had whipped him forward. Down to violent streams of light and color, the presence of a filter opening just to keep it safe from destroying… something. It was protection. That was the first thing he’d registered, but then there was nothing surrounding them. Wait. Them? The blue figure in front of him was noticed before he realized he wasn’t alone. Then white wings manifested from thin air, spreading out massively. Even from this distance he noticed that this figure was massive and powerful. Then he turned around. A god with Adam’s face came through— but it wasn’t Adam. His hair was a dark blond, curls falling at one section to the side, his skin an even darker blue. There were gauges on his cheeks and chin, two more on his ears. The marks on his face were white. 

 

He hovered to him. Moving so gracefully in a strange manner. He held his face with a hand and tilted his head up, drawing them closer together.

 

“Silence now,” he said. “Silence only.”

 

Jake tried to speak. Somehow nothing had come out. 

 

“How lucky of you to be felt by him,” he said, smile thin but looking so… amused, “I should know.”

 

With the smile on his face, he looked virtually nothing like Adam. Then he leaned into Jake’s ear, and suddenly he was very aware that he wasn’t in his body in the first place. But this one… he knew that too.

 

“Take care of them for me. Both my son and my I’zhar.”

 

Then, A’dhabake took him by the head and shoved his consciousness away.

 

That was Jacus’s memory. 

 

He just kept falling. He didn’t know where he was falling to, but now having died for the mere seconds he had he didn’t know if he wanted to be surprised anymore. But it was the streams of sparkling light, the intense blare of everything overtaking his entire head that scared him, so he screamed anyway. The full package! Arms flailing, legs kicking, body sinking—

 

He just didn’t expect his arms to get caught in the process.

 

Falling through time and mind and dream and life, Jacus had caught him.

 

“Jacus?!” Jake yelped, gripping his forearms and oh wow, he’s got a lot of arms right now— 

 

“Jake!” Jacus called out, “You are alive!” 

 

“I’m alive?! I know right?!” Jake laughed, almost hysterical. Scratch that, he was hysterical. He was delirious and tired and absolutely ready to go to bed because now he can do that again. He moved to hold Jacus’s face in his hands and pulled him as close as he could, laughing all the way through as the sensation of an explosion happened again.

 

But this time, he was in the middle of the house, surrounded by his friends— his family, with Jacus in his arms and naked as fuck.

 

And it was night time.

 

“It’s night,” Jake said, looking around while still on the floor, “holy shit.”

 

Jacus pulled him off of him. Adam scrambled forward and pulled him in.

 

“Ah— holy shit dude, dude, dude!” Jake tried with a laugh, but nothing came out of it besides Adam’s loud sobs. 

 

“You’re alive!” He cried out.

 

“RIGHT?” Jake pulled back with a grin on his face. Adam buried his face into his shoulder and Jake held on tightly. Nevica stepped over and ran his fingers from his jaw to his neck.

 

“Kind of.” Nevica remarked. “But hey, looks like you don’t need to breathe anymore. But you’re very green. So.”

 

“What the fuck happened to me?!” Jake said, looking at them. Adam pulled back as Jacus stared at him.

 

“You— you died. You died, and then suddenly, boom, your star also exploded. Out in the galaxy!” Adam said, motioning his hands to the words, “but you’re back! You were in our heads because your body was trying to form a new one for all that new power! Well. The creatures are all dead, but–”

 

“Is this my coming of age arc?” Jake said, slightly delirious and totally absorbing the information.

 

“I don’t know, did you learn anything? Besides extinguishing a whole race of fauna?” Nevica asked.

 

“No,” Jake lied.

 

“Uh-huh,” Adam snorted. Jake chuckled as Adam repeated the next, “uh-huh.”

 

“My dick’s out.” Jake said, looking down.

 

“Don’t— don’t say that, I don’t wanna look. We’re gonna get you clothes.” Nevica said, getting up. “Help me get the laundry, Adam.” 

 

“I’ll be fine here, right?” Jake asked Adam.

 

“Yeah. Stay put.” Adam said, walking with Nevica. 

 

Then Jake looked at Jacus.

 

“So do you think Nevica’s gonna dissect me or something?” 

 

“You will not recover from that.” Jacus said, sitting on his knees. Jake tapped his fingers on the floor.

 

“How did you get into my head?” He asked. “I mean— nobody knows how to do that except me.”

 

“I looked.” Jacus said, tilting his head.

 

“How did you look?” Jake asked again, eyebrows furrowed and feeling insane.

 

“Just because I am the god of time and vision does not mean I only see through time.” Jacus leaned in, “I see through eyes. I looked into your eyes and saw what you have seen.”

 

“How much did you see?” Jake asked. 

 

“Just enough.” 

 

“C’mon, you gotta tell me!” Jake insisted.

 

Jacus paused. “Your memories of your parents. The joy you took after having killed them. The overwhelming energy and force of your human brain taking in the new influx of power. When Adam returns, he will tell you how your body can now hold the power properly.”

 

“Why don’t you just let me hear it from you?” 

 

“I am not the one who understands this deeply.”

 

“You’re right. But you can just give me the run-down.”

 

“Run-down?”

 

“Summary— summary!” 

 

“You understand this power far more than I do, but we are similar in struggle.” Jacus said, eyes flickering down to Jake’s hands. “Your body has changed to be suited for this power. So has your mind. Can you see your mind?”

 

“I don’t know how I’d—”

 

Jacus took his hands. Jake’s sentence dropped and his mouth tried not to.

 

“You must concentrate. Open the eyes that do not see.”

 

Jake looked down at his mouth— then back to his eyes and wow, they were complicated. He nodded. (What did that mean?)

 

He shut his eyes, breaking contact from Jacus’s. He stood above a sea of minds, fingers and palms completely lit up with its own light, millions of strands connecting to a million more of them— wrapped all the way from his wrist up to his forearms. Then the flesh chains of the Meteor Hammer appeared, so he tapped the end against one mind just to see what would happen.

 

The thoughts were there. So were the emotions. The memories. But as he held the mind away from him it actually begun to disappear. He was in control.

 

He was in control.

 

He opened his eyes back to the real world.

 

“What have you seen?” Jacus asked.

 

“A lot of cool shit.” Jake said with a grin.

 

Jacus caught a pair of shorts mid-air with a third arm. Jake looked back to see Adam and Nevica come back, Nevica’s arms with a basket full of laundry. 

 

“I know what’s up.” Jake said, putting on the shorts. 

 

“Oh, do you now?” Adam asked.

 

“Yeah, but I want to go to bed first.”

 

“You know, I don’t think you even need to sleep anymore.” Nevica tilted his head forward.

 

“I want to.” Jake tilted his chin forward. “You can dissect me tomorrow, I promise I’ll sit still.”

 

“I’m not gonna dissect you!” Nevica said, ears flattening. “… But you still need a check up.”

 

“Soooo am I officially a god now?” 

 

“That ain’t god shit, Jake.” Adam said, folding his arms, “I don’t even know what to call you. You’re dead— but you’re not, but you’re also dangerously powerful right now.”

 

“Huh.” 

 

“Okay, let’s look at this.” Nevica said, putting down the basket to gesture with his hands, “We sleep on it tonight. We worry tomorrow. Sound good?” 

 

“That’s what I wanted to do!”

 

“Sounds good.” 

 

“Mm.”

 

“Okay. I’ll just be at the garden.” Nevica said, picking the basket back up. “See you tomorrow.”

 

“You goin’ up, Jake?” Adam asked, body turned to the stairs.

 

“In a bit.” Jake said, “I gotta have a chat with this guy.” 

 

He jerked his head to Jacus, and Adam nodded, leaving the room. Jacus looked back at him.

 

“Who is he?” Jake asked.

 

Jacus didn’t respond. 

 

“I saw him.”

 

“I am aware.” Jacus murmured.

 

“Do you— oh, okay.”

 

A beat of silence.

 

“… Thank you. By the way.” 

 

“What do you thank me for?”

 

“The—”

 

“—company?”

 

“Yeah. I thought I was gonna be alone in this. I needed someone and… you had my back.”

 

“Your back is here.”

 

“Yeah— I— I meant that you were there for me.”

 

“I see.”

 

Jake shifted in his feet. “I’m gonna head to bed now. I can feel that Nevica’s got plans, don’t you?” 

 

“I can see them, that is true.” Jacus nodded. He was avoiding eye contact. “Goodnight, Jake.”

 

Jake wanted to hug him. He could sense the feelings flooding back into Jacus’s head at the ‘him’ in question.

 

“Goodnight, I’zhar.” He said, getting up the stairs, then quickly jogging halfway through, leading Jacus to watch him leave.

 

For the first time, they saw each other. 

 

Maybe this birthday wasn’t so bad.