The Fantastic Journey Triple Drabble: Chilling Realisation

[badly_knitted]

 


Title: Chilling Realisation
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Varian, Jonathan / Apollonius.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 483: Shiver at drabble_zone.
Setting: Funhouse.
Summary: Something is wrong with Jonathan, but what is it that Varian is sensing?
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.
A/N: Triple drabble.
 


 

A chill threaded its way down Varian’s spine, almost making him shiver, as he saw the fear in Jonathan’s eyes. What possible reason could Jonathan have to fear him, to back away from him, to tell him to stay away? Jonathan, of all the travellers, understood what it meant to be a pacifist, knew that Varian would not, COULD not, harm him in any way. It went deeper than merely his beliefs; to physically harm anyone would have gone against his very nature. And yet…

 
The fear in Jonathan’s face was real, and there was something else, something tugging at the edge of Varian’s senses, something about Jonathan that was simply… wrong. This man was his friend, had sat up late into the night with him while Varian mourned the loss of his bride, his wife. Had been a comforting, steadying presence through those dark hours. Varian knew the man, the kindness and compassion beneath the acerbic exterior, and the loneliness, the sense of not fitting in.

 
The man before him both was and was not Jonathan Willaway. Something, some other presence, seemed to overlay the personality Varian knew. Then he had it; he’d sensed this presence several times already, that was why it had felt familiar enough to fool him, at least at a surface level. The energy waves he was detecting, although they had elements of Jonathan interwoven with them, were the same as he'd sensed around Apollonius! Somehow, the magician had taken control of Jonathan…

 
The chill Varian had felt before spread through him, bone deep. He didn’t know what Apollonius wanted with Jonathan, what he thought he would gain, but Varian did know this was wrong. Somehow, he had to free Jonathan from Apollonius’ control; if he didn’t, there’d soon be nothing left of his friend.
 

 
The End
 



 
 
 
 

Comments

[mrs_sweetpeach]

I can't decide if this story gave me chills or if it just extraordinarily cold in my office at the moment. I hope Varian can rescue his friend.

[badly_knitted]

He does. He's stubborn and determined, and just doesn't stop until he drives Apollonius out of Jonathan's body and mind. It's a battle of wills, and Apollonius tries to distract Varian with visions of his lost wife, but Varian is just not willing to lose someone else he cares about. He has to sit on Jonathan and pin him down while Jonathan/Apollonius is trying to strangle him and push him off, but Varian is taller, heavier, maybe stronger, and wins in the end.

Funhouse is the best episode.

Thank you!