Broken Pasts [ On Going ]

3. The Man Who Couldn't Die

Jack Harkness. Malcolm wasn't sure what that name meant to him, but he was sure that it was important somehow. It kept ringing through his head like an irksome little ear worm he couldn't get rid of. The most irritating thing about it was that he couldn't quite recall where he had heard it before. Had it been in passing? Was it of any sort of segnificance to him at all? Or was it merely an unimportant television character?

Maybe it was his cousin he had never quite gotten close with or an ex lover of some sort who he'd had a rather tramatic experience with? A long forgotten childhood friend? Neither of those options seemed likely. He knew most of his cousins' names, even if he wasn't close with any of them. And it wasn't likely this 'Harkness' was an ex either. Malcolm wasn't likely to forget a name or face of one of his lovers -- besides, he had only ever situated himself with women anyways. And childhood friends? The probability of that was highly unlikely, as Malcolm couldn't recall ever having any friends in childhood to begin with.

Regardless, the name had been swirling around in his head all month, and for the life of him he could not figure out why it was there. So, he did his best to ignore it, stuff it down in the back of his mind, until he got some time to figure out the meaning behind it.

Maybe he had finally just lost it. He was going crazy. After watching his wife die a horrible death, training with the League of Assassins, having Robert Queen killed along with everyone else on the Queen's Gambit, threatening Moira Queen, fighting Oliver Queen, accidentally killing his son in the Undertaking, almost dying more times than once, and working with Eobard Thawne and Damien Darhk... (He was suprised he could still remember all of that. The Legends must have been sloppy with their little mind wiping trick.) Well that was probable cause for insanity if he ever saw it.

And that was another thing. Dying. He just couldn't do it. The first time he noticed it was when Oliver had shot him in the chest with an arrow. He should have died. He really should have. But he had woken up hours later, breathing completely normal, no wound anywhere on his body at all. He managed to come up with some lie, making up some logical reason as to how he survived. Everyone seemed to believe it, but Malcolm still didn't understand it. Especially when it kept happening. The best thing he could come up with was that he was now a metahuman thanks to Thawne's stupid Particle Accelerator. But somehow that didn't feel quite right. For one thing he hadn't been anywhere near Central City when the machine had exploded.

He'd let the issue drop after a short time, happy enough for the convience of the strange new ability, but lately it was starting to get a little concerning, especially when he realized he was pushing sixty now and still wasn't aging. (Not that he could complain. Who didn't love looking younger than they were?) But could he even die at all? Was he just going to go on living until the end of time? Would he out live his daughter? Would he be forced to watch her die just as he had been forced to watch all his other loved ones parish?

He refused to believe that; so as reassurance, Malcolm began to experiment with this 'ability.' He tried offing himself a few times (not that he was suicidal, and, in fact, if he wasn't sure that he'd pop right back up from the dead anyway he would never). Stab wound to the chest, gun shot to the head, he even leapt from the roof of a building once into the freezing water below Star City's docs. But nothing. He came back every single time.

When he was feeling particularly brave about it, Malcolm even cut his arm off once. It grew back.

However, when Malcolm survived a land mine explosion on Lian Yu, he knew that he needed answers. He needed to know where these apparent meta human powers came from if not the Accelorator. How did he get them? And when? Whatever the case, he figured this Jack Harkness man must have had some answers. Malcolm reasoned that if he found Harkness, he would find his answers.