24, Milliways: The Milliways Variations - Option 3 (3/3)
Fandom: 24, Milliways
Characters: Jack Bauer
Rating: R
Summary: Three possible entry posts for Jack's return to Milliways after Season 4, based on the spoilers that were coming out a couple weeks before the finale. This final option is for if Jack had really died at the end of Season 4. For background information on the fics, see Option 1.
Warnings: Character death, dark themes.
Originally written: May, 2005
The first thing he was aware of was cold concrete pressed against his cheek and a pounding in his head. Jesus, it felt as though someone had split his skull open. What the hell happened?
He opens his eyes, blank concrete walls staring back at him. He tilts his head up--it hurts like hell and for a moment he closes his eyes, then forces them open again. Glass. Concrete. Doors.
CTU.
That's it--he's in the middle of one of the back hallways at CTU. An empty corridor, surprisingly.
He slowly pushes himself up on his hands, wincing at the pain in his skull but knowing he hasn't any choice but to get up. He's needed; he knows this, though he can't quite remember why. Then it comes back--Marwan, the nuclear missile. He needs to get back to work. How long has he been out? It can't have been too long if no one's come looking for him. He glances at his watch, but the face is cracked and it's stopped, the hands stilled at 6:58AM. Dammit. Of all the days to break my watch...
He forces himself to his feet, and heads down the hall.
It's the silence that hits him at first. Even in the maze of corridors away from the main room, there was always a buzz of people, always someone coming and going. But all he hears are his own footsteps and there's no one else around. A knot of dread is growing in his stomach, though he's not sure why.
He reaches the floor and stops in shock. The displays are all lit up, every computer monitor on, but there's no one around. Not a single person; as though everyone quietly stood up and walked out of the building. This is wrong, this is very, very wrong. Maybe he's dreaming, maybe he's seeing things, maybe...
No. He turns to the nearest door that he can't see through, pushes it open and sees...a bar.
"No," he whispers aloud, slamming it shut and running to the next door, the next, the next, each looking out on the same scene.
"No, this isn't happening. This isn't real. I'm not-- I'm not! I'm not!"
He remembers Ryan telling him ages ago about how it was for him. That he'd woken up in the train yard, no one around, no idea how he'd gotten there, and the first door he'd opened had opened to Milliways.
And he knows.
He sinks to his knees in shock in the doorway of the last door, unable to take that step inside, because he knows what it means. Because something won't let him give in. Something rages against the dying of the light.
But it doesn't matter what he thinks or believes, how much he rails against Fate, against God. Because like any star or sun, that light--the light of Jack Bauer's life--has winked out.
Characters: Jack Bauer
Rating: R
Summary: Three possible entry posts for Jack's return to Milliways after Season 4, based on the spoilers that were coming out a couple weeks before the finale. This final option is for if Jack had really died at the end of Season 4. For background information on the fics, see Option 1.
Warnings: Character death, dark themes.
Originally written: May, 2005
The first thing he was aware of was cold concrete pressed against his cheek and a pounding in his head. Jesus, it felt as though someone had split his skull open. What the hell happened?
He opens his eyes, blank concrete walls staring back at him. He tilts his head up--it hurts like hell and for a moment he closes his eyes, then forces them open again. Glass. Concrete. Doors.
CTU.
That's it--he's in the middle of one of the back hallways at CTU. An empty corridor, surprisingly.
He slowly pushes himself up on his hands, wincing at the pain in his skull but knowing he hasn't any choice but to get up. He's needed; he knows this, though he can't quite remember why. Then it comes back--Marwan, the nuclear missile. He needs to get back to work. How long has he been out? It can't have been too long if no one's come looking for him. He glances at his watch, but the face is cracked and it's stopped, the hands stilled at 6:58AM. Dammit. Of all the days to break my watch...
He forces himself to his feet, and heads down the hall.
It's the silence that hits him at first. Even in the maze of corridors away from the main room, there was always a buzz of people, always someone coming and going. But all he hears are his own footsteps and there's no one else around. A knot of dread is growing in his stomach, though he's not sure why.
He reaches the floor and stops in shock. The displays are all lit up, every computer monitor on, but there's no one around. Not a single person; as though everyone quietly stood up and walked out of the building. This is wrong, this is very, very wrong. Maybe he's dreaming, maybe he's seeing things, maybe...
No. He turns to the nearest door that he can't see through, pushes it open and sees...a bar.
"No," he whispers aloud, slamming it shut and running to the next door, the next, the next, each looking out on the same scene.
"No, this isn't happening. This isn't real. I'm not-- I'm not! I'm not!"
He remembers Ryan telling him ages ago about how it was for him. That he'd woken up in the train yard, no one around, no idea how he'd gotten there, and the first door he'd opened had opened to Milliways.
And he knows.
He sinks to his knees in shock in the doorway of the last door, unable to take that step inside, because he knows what it means. Because something won't let him give in. Something rages against the dying of the light.
But it doesn't matter what he thinks or believes, how much he rails against Fate, against God. Because like any star or sun, that light--the light of Jack Bauer's life--has winked out.