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ARCHIVIST
How do I bring him back?
ELIAS (JONAH)
From out here? Impossible.
ARCHIVIST
You want me to follow him?
ELIAS (JONAH)
No, Jon. You want you to follow him. I simply want you to know that if you do so, you are almost certainly not coming back. To go into the Lonely willingly is as good as death.
[THERE IS NO HESITATION.]
ARCHIVIST
How do I do it?
ELIAS (JONAH)
Wasn’t too long ago. And I’m sure traces of their passage still remain. Just open your mind. Drink it all in. Know their route, and simply… follow it.
[STATIC BUILDS, SLOWLY AT FIRST, THEN STRONGER AND STRONGER UNTIL IT IS ALL ENCOMPASSING.]
--
Jon opens his mind, reaching for he's not quite sure what--the feeling Peter Lukas carries with him maybe, the scent of salt and a bone-deep chill; or else some trace of Martin, of tea and warmth and safety--and Jon begins to panic as he thinks of Martin being swallowed by the Lonely, all his warmth extinguished by that fog--
But before he can spiral too far down that path, he realizes that he not only can feel the traces of the Lonely that Elias talked of, hovering in the air like the last traces of morning mist, he can also feel--can See--something else.
He hasn't been in close proximity to Elias since before the Unknowing, before he really became the Archivist. He remembers what it felt like before, when he had tried to compel Elias--like trying to pull a stubborn root from the earth, just yanking blindly with no real idea of what was going on underneath.
Now, though, he turns his Sight onto Elias and without even really trying he can See...everything. He's not even sure whether Elias knows how much he can see, how much he suddenly Knows, but he doesn't have room in his mind to worry about that just now, because he's too caught up in realizing what, exactly, he is seeing.
Elias--Jonah--wants to end the world. He has a plan--a plan that he has been working on for nearly two hundred years, a plan he is pretty sure will actually work.
And he has been using Jon to do it.
Everything that has happened in the past two years, every horror, every scar--it's all been to a purpose, just one more step in Jonah's ritual. Every encounter with the Entities he has had since he transferred to the Archives has Marked him, has shaped him into a vessel that Jonah will use to call all the Fears into this world and create a literal hell on Earth.
And the worst part, the part that makes Jon's breath catch in his throat and a sick shame curl in his stomach, is how easy, in the end, he has made it for Jonah to get this far.
He can See--he can feel --Jonah's glib satisfaction at how quickly Jon has racked up Marks in the past two years. At how all he seems to have had to do is give him just enough information to keep him curious, keeping him asking-- and Jon has thrown himself into danger all on his own, again and again and again. Michael and Jude Perry and Mike Crew and Jared Hopworth, the Buried coffin and the Unknowing and Ny-Ålesund. Jon's insatiable need to know has done more to advance his plan that he could have ever hoped, and Jonah smugness is so thick it makes the bile rise in Jon's throat.
Even the times when Jon just wanted to help , to save someone for once--going into the coffin to get Daisy, removing the bullet from Melanie's leg--even those choices only ended up adding another Mark to his collection.
It turns out, Jon thinks bitterly, that Elias was right: he has pressed on at every threshold, always chosen to see, to pursue, to know , and now here they are, at the place his choices have led them to.
He is one Mark away from ending the world, and if it happens, it will be all his fault.
And then another realization hits him, a revelation that nearly sends him to his knees right there in the middle of the Panopticon.
One Mark.
Just one.
The Lonely.
The traces he found before are still there, and he Knows exactly how to use them to step out of this reality and into Peter Lukas's domain. The thought of it terrifies him. He is scared that he won't be able to find Martin, that he will lose him in there, that he will lose himself in there and not be able to find the way out. He is, as always, so scared of so many things.
And that's how it works, he Knows. Fear of an Entity, down to his bones.
If he goes after Martin into the Lonely, there is no way he will leave without a Mark.
And if he does manage to make his way back out, then there will be nothing stopping Jonah from using him to end the world.
Jon's knees tremble and it feels like something is crushing his lungs in a vice as the weight of the choice he now has to make crashes down on him.
It should be an easy decision: the life of one man against the fate of the world. It hurts, more than anything has ever hurt, more than the pain of any of his scars, but he should be able to make this decision--to sacrifice his chance to save Martin, and keep Jonah from completing his ritual.
But as soon as he thinks of it, Jon recoils from the idea on instinct.
He can't--he can't just leave Martin in there. He can't abandon him, not after everything. He will never forgive himself if he does. Martin is the only good thing he has left in this world, the one person he has left to lose–
( arrogant of you, to assume he's yours to lose at all , a nasty voice whispers in his mind, but he pushes it back and for once, doesn't let it take hold)
More importantly--most important of all--Martin deserves a life, a chance to live in the world that Jon is trying so desperately to save.
How could he live on, knowing he gave up on any chance of helping Martin do the same?
Besides, even if he leaves now, walks away, there is no guarantee Jonah won't find another way to mark him, even with Jon Knowing what he knows. Jonah has two hundred years of experience–and with Martin gone, Jon will be utterly alone.
There is so much in their world to fear–but right now, in this moment, Jon can't think of a thing that scares him more.
In the end, really, it isn't much of a choice at all. Whether or not it's what Jonah wants, he knows what he has to do.
Jon takes one deep steadying breath, and reaches out again for those traces of the Lonely.
--
[THE STATIC ONCE AGAIN RISES.]
ELIAS (JONAH)
Very good.
Are you scared, Jon?
ARCHIVIST
(quietly) Yes.
ELIAS (JONAH)
Perfect.
[WITH THAT, THE STATIC OVERTAKES HIM.]
[CLICK]