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He didn’t know where he was. One second he was with Jesse, the next he had the gauntlet and was teleported elsewhere. It was cold, slightly damp from where the ice melted at contact, and he could only assume the room was one of the trials he and his friends had avoided.
“Fuck.” Jack started to pace, running his unloved hand through his hair as he held back tears. “Fuck!” He had just lost Vos AGAIN. Wasn’t it enough when it happened the first time!?
He was to blinded by relief of seeing his friends ALIVE that he didn’t allow himself to think- to recognize -how that BASTARD had copied his friend. There were signs, though now in his stressed state pacing in this cold room he hardly had the wherewithal to think it over.
“Okay- okay, this is fine, you’ve gone through worse. Just gotta come up with a plan right? Do it for Nurm.” He muttered to himself, forcing his breathing even. He can’t give up, not now, not after everything. He just had to do what he did best, compartmentalize and move on.
“Yess! Do it for /Nurm/!” Romeo sing-songed from behind him, making the half blind man jump. “He’s doing great by the way, lotta monsters knocking on his door but, Y’know.”
Jack glared at the admin as he spoke “Keep his name out of your mouth. What do you want from me?”
“Come now, no need to be so hostile! You’re my friend now, that means you play /nice/.” The admin walked closer.
“I am /not/ your friend. I will NEVER be your friend.”
“Really? You seemed quite fond of me when I was” in the blink of an eye he looked like Vos, taking on the dead man’s kind voice and inflection. “Like this.”
Jack had to clench his teeth and ball his fists to not outright attack the man before him. He had to play this smart. He can’t give in to this…. “You’re not him.” He spoke firmly.
“True, but I do seem like him don’t I? Isn’t this voice so convincing?” He grinned before walking closer, his expression shifting to a cruel mockery of Vos’s kind smile. “He cried out for you before he died, Y’know.”
He felt ice in his veins. “…. What…?” Jacks voice came out a lot smaller than he intended it to.
“He cried out for you.” The admin gave a small pause before mimicking in a high pitched whiny tone, “Jack! Oh Jack! Don’t leave me here! Help!!!”
“Stop- SHUT UP!”
“It hurts! It hurts! Jack! Jack!!” The admin continued to mock.
Without thinking Jack ran forward, throwing his fist at the cruel mimicry of his friend, the prismarine of the now red gauntlet connected with what was now the ice wall, cracks spreading out in a spiderweb up the frosted wall.
A cackle from behind him.
He looked over his shoulder, seeing the now floating form of the admin. “Oh, that really got you /going/ didn’t it? Don’t worry my friend, you’ll have plenty of chances to fight me. Now though is not one of them, I’ve got /plans/.”
The admin grinned, and with the next blink the only thing left of him was the vague fading memory of his form and the red particles in the air.
Jacks hand fell from the wall, the gauntlet heavy on his arm as it sat limply against his side.