Work Text:
When they step through the mirror, Evangeline recognizes where they are instantly.
The Valory Arch.
The only question is, why would it take them here? How could there be an ending more devastating than the one she had just experienced here not that long ago?
The last time she had exited this place, she had just lost Jacks for good, then subsequently also lost every single memory she ever had, all to end up trapped in a castle with a man who had only wanted to use her for his own personal gain.
She watches as the Evangeline from this universe peeks inside of the arch, and then slowly sneaks her way inside, too curious for her own good.
While this is all happening right before her eyes, she finally takes notice of Jacks, and how suddenly, his carefree, lazy demeanor has become something rigid, afraid. His jaw is clenched so hard the muscle pops, and Evangeline has never felt more lost than she does in this moment.
She is about to ask him about what is happening, and why he suddenly looks like he wants to scoop her up and run far, far away from this place when a bloodcurdling scream suddenly pierces the eerie silence of the hallway.
A blond blur races past the two of them, something she can only assume is the Jacks of this ending, and despite her best judgement and to her Jack’s protest, she’s following into the Valory to find whatever just made that awful noise.
When she finally reaches the source of the noise, she suddenly understands Jack’s fear.
All she can see is blood. Her own blood. Laying in a pool of it on the ground is Evangeline herself, while Castor is standing over her with a horrified look on his face, and her blood all over his hands.
Suddenly, she is taken back to the Phoenix Tree, when Jacks had told her that he wouldn’t have been able to handle it if she had died right in from of him again.
Again.
Somehow, she finds her Jack’s hand and squeezes so tightly she thought she may have been blessed with the strength of a Fate, while the Jacks of this universe is clutching her like she’s the most precious thing he’ll ever hold.
It’s a weird experience, watching yourself die while there is nothing you can do but stand there and watch.
She’s broken from her thoughts when she hears Jack’s wrecked, scratchy voice speak for the first time since they entered this strange memory.
“Bring her back.”
She has never seen him look so devastated before, and it has her turning back to look at the Jacks standing frozen behind her, if only to break him out of his intense glare at this situation, and remind him that this isn’t real.
”Hey,” she whispers, squeezing his hand, “We’re going to be just fine, I’m not going anywhere.”
When she looks back at the scene unfolding in front of her, Evangeline has been picked up, crushed into Jack’s chest while he argues with Honora Valor.
He abruptly turns, and starts stalking towards the exit of the Valory when Honora’s voice cuts through the air like a knife.
“If you do this, Time will take something equally valuable from you.”
When Jacks turns back to look at her, she can only imagine how cutting the look on his face must be when he says the words,
”There is nothing of equal value to me.”
The ending cuts off abruptly, and Jacks and Evangeline are suddenly thrust back into the real world. Immediately, they both collapse to the floor, and are clutching each other so tightly nothing would be able to tear them apart.
She feels Jack’s breath shudder against her as she finally asks the question she had been thinking since the moment she had realized exactly where they were, and what was happening.
“Was that what you meant? When you said you couldn’t watch me die again?”
She pulls back to look at his face, and she’s instantly reminded of why people used to describe him as the very embodiment of heartbreak. There’s a single trail of blood streaking down his cheek, and the look in his eyes is something she hasn’t seen since she woke up in his arms after passing out under the Phoenix Tree.
“Yes,” he replies, his voice thick with the tears stuck in his throat.
He leans back in and kisses her lightly, like he’s still afraid of his kiss being the end of her. When Evangeline presses back, trying to reassure him that she isn’t going anywhere the only way she knows how, he pulls away, slotting her head underneath his chin, the two of them fitting together like perfect puzzle pieces.
“That was what happened the first time you opened the Valory Arch, yes.” He says, running his fingers through her rose gold curls, soothing both her, and probably also soothing himself.
“Jacks,” she whispered, afraid if she spoke too loud, she might scare him off, like some kind of wild animal.
“That can’t happen again, you made sure of it, remember?” She says, holding up the cuff on her wrist, the one that protected her from anything that intends to cause her pain, the one that Jacks had given up his heart to get for her.
“I know that, Little Fox,” He replies, “But that doesn’t make the nightmares go away, it doesn’t erase the feeling of your dead weight in my arms.”
“Well, then I guess we will just have to replace those memories with better ones, won’t we?” Evangeline teases. She knows if she doesn’t break him out of this spiral, then it could spell disaster for them.
“So,” she draws out, “There is nothing of equal value to you then?”
Jacks lets out a huff of a laugh hiding his face in the crook of her neck and nipping at it, to reprimand her for bringing up something that she thinks he probably didn’t ever want her to know that he said.
“No comment,” he replies, the sound a little muffled from the skin of her neck.
“Seriously though,” Evangeline says, pulling Jacks up and placing her hands on the sides of his cheeks , forcing him to look right at her when she tells him,
“I’m not going anywhere. Ever. We said this was for always, remember? I intend to keep that promise.”
When those words register in his head, she sees the tension release from his shoulders and he finally sends her a devastating smirk, with those gorgeous dimples staring right at her.
“For Always.” he agrees.