Chapter Text
Jon wanders the wasteland the world has become alone. They’ve lost (almost) everyone they ever cared about, and now all they can do is walk aimlessly. Helen, the only friend of theirs left, shows up sometimes. She doesn’t quite know what to say, but her presence is comforting.
“What do you think of time travel?” Helen asks. Jon looks up at her.
“I’m not sure.”
“I’ve been thinking. Would it be possible to use the rift at 105 Hilltop road to travel back? Neither of us like this new world very much. Is it even new anymore?” Jon can’t even use the growth of their hair to track the time. Sometimes it doesn’t grow at all, sometimes it grows unnaturally fast. It’s long, might even be down to their knees if they checked, but it floats slightly, almost as if underwater.
“If that was possible, what would you want me to do about Helen Richardson? Would you want to become Helen again?”
“I don’t particularly care.”
– - –
Jon ended up going to the rift.
“So you’re going to try?” Helen asked, watching as Jon prepared to go into the rift.
“I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Well, almost nothing. I will miss you.”
“How touching! Well, I suppose I wish you the best of luck!” Jon walked forwards.
– - –
Jon was in the breakroom with the three archival assistants when they collapsed.
“Jon!” Martin exclaimed. He was about to say something else, but stopped and the body on the floor began to change. Jon got smaller and skinnier. Scars began to form on their skin. Martin, Sasha, and Tim watched, horrified. A few seconds later, they sit up.
“Wha-” they cough. “What’s the date?”
“What’s going on here?” Sasha asked instead.
“Time travel. The date?”
{note: I'm guesstimating here. The wiki doesn’t say when Jon became head archivist or started recording statements}
“...March 21st, 2015. You were taking a break after recording the first statement and suddenly collapsed.” Martin said.
“It was freaky boss! You just collapsed and your body started changing! I know weird is what we do, but it was really weird!”
“Ah. If you want an explanation, follow me.” They stood up, and started walking, albeit slightly unsteadily. Soon they found the trapdoor leading to the tunnels and went inside. The others hesitated for a moment before following.
– - –
“Right. Where to start. How about with the evil fear entities? That seems right.”
“What.” Tim said.
– - –
“And what, you’re one of these ‘avatars’ now?” Tim asked, and Jon looked away.
“Have been for a while. I’ve been trying to hold on to my humanity, but that was a bit hard after the end of the world. Even harder as I lost everyone.”
“The end of the world?” Martin squeaked.
“Jonah tricked me into reading a statement. Once I started it was physically impossible to stop.” Jon was looking at the floor, tears in their eyes. Tim jumped to his feet.
“You ended the world? First you say you’re some inhuman monster-” at this Jon flinched. “And now you’re saying you ended the world?”
“I didn’t mean to.” Jon said, so quiet it was almost a whisper.
“I say bullshit! You said you feed off fear!”
“That doesn’t mean…” Jon trailed off, knowing they couldn’t win this one. Desperately, they glanced at Sasha and Martin, who…didn’t seem too worried.
“Listen. I know you’ll want to stop the strangers ritual-”
“The what?” Tim looked confused.
“Shit. I forgot to mention it. The strangers' ritual, the unknowing, will come up eventually. BUT!” They said, seeing Tim's face. “It will collapse on its own. Any ritual attempting to bring only one of the fear through will fail.”
“What, so you want me to not avenge my brother?”
“No, it’s just that…in my timeline that’s how you died. You blew the place up, but you were inside when you set off the bombs.” Tim scoffed.
“I’ll just be careful then. When we get there you WILL tell me how to pull it off.” the ‘or else’ was left unsaid.
“Martin? Sasha? Are you two alright? You’ve been very quiet.” Jon tried. Sasha put on an obviously fake, sunny smile.
“Yep! Just a lot to take in.”
“You three can go if you want.” And with that, Jon was alone.