Hello to anyone reading this! My name is Jakob and this is my first fanfiction i time. I've loved Borderlands and Krieg since like late 2014 and I've had a Krieg RP account on tumblr since January 2016. This story involves Krieg and my OC, Nathaniel di Carina. I will be trying to make it as true to the BL Universe as possible, and any reviews would be extremely appreciated! Thank you so so much!

This chapter is just a little bit of introduction to the characters and setting up the story a bit. For the full summary, Nathaniel and Krieg are kidnapped by Hyperion and this fic details their interactions as test subjects and trying to escape and finally, becoming Vault Hunters.

Thanks again! Please feel free to tell me what you think!

Chapter 1: The Prologue

My best friend was missing.

There were fearsome occurrences everyday in Pandora. That was just a fact of life. You venture too far, you get killed. Being robbed and tortured and mutilated and torn apart by bandits was the best way to go. People died, went missing. The denizens of Pandora just accepted it at this point. But when Hyperion came, there were people who thought all of that would change. People who bought into the lies. It was just another mistake we made. Anyone who opposed Hyperion vanished into the night. Anyone who spoke against their policies disappeared. It was awful.

I live in a small village on the outskirts of Pandora's mainland. There aren't many people here. We're just a town of fisherpeople and merchants. We're not too far from the ocean, maybe a 10 minute walk. When I felt awful, I would walk down to the shores and play in the sand and let the waves wash over me. When the sun set, the water would turn a sort of weird, pinkish color to reflect the way the sky bled. I became enamored with the sight and with the feeling of water against my skin quickly, and soon I started going every day. It was just me, staring out at the beautiful waves every day and thinking. Thinking about my life, how lucky I was to be here. Then one day he came into my life. I knew who he was, of course. His nickname was Krieg, and we used to play together when we were toddlers. We went to the same school. But we had never really talked that much. But when I saw him on that shining shore, just standing there with his toes in the sand and a smile on his beautiful face, I knew I had to talk to him. His hair was tied back in a ponytail. He was unbelievably tall. By the time he was 18 he was almost 7' tall. His body was toned and muscular, from what little of it I had seen. He wasn't the type to enjoy being seen. He always tried to hide himself, and I could relate to that. He wore a heavy hoodie and baggy sweatpants, and always kept his hood up over his face.

But here? Standing on the beach, he apparently didn't care if anyone else saw him. Maybe because he assumed he'd be alone. He was simply dressed in a bathing suit, no shirt on. My eyes scanned over his back and I forced myself to look away. Oh. Oh lord. Who gave him the right to be so strong? Now, there are two things I should tell you about myself. One, I am incredibly shy. Like, the most shy person in the entire village. Two, I'm super gay. It's ridiculous. I'm surrounded by cute boys and I am in hell. Every boy is cute and I'm dying. My desire to kiss and hold and talk to cute boys and my complete and utter inability to talk to said cute boys led to a little bit of a dilemma, but eventually my desire to talk to him won out over my fear. I approached him, my feet kicking up sand as I waded my way over to him and gently tapped his shoulder.

He spun around, evidently surprised, but his look of fear turned to a small smile as he recognized my face. "Oh, hey Nathaniel." His warm, rumbling voice put a smile on my face as well and sent shivers down my back. The fact that he even knew who I was told me that I had already made the right decision. "What are you doing out here?"

"I come out here from time to time." And by time to time I mean every single day. "I don't think I've ever seen you outside of school before." I struggled to maintain eye contact with him because a) I'm only 5'2" and b) his chest was level with my face, and it's hard to concentrate when I'm so close to Krieg.

Despite my ridiculous nature, I managed to hold a conversation with him and throughout the next few weeks we grew closer and closer. I had no clue how he felt about me, but I for one found myself just wanting to be with him and love him, and every little thing about him made me smile. He was funny, he was sweet, and he accepted me for who I am. I could just be myself with him, talk freely about anything I wanted to, and he knew he could do the same. But sometimes you have to watch what you say when Hyperion is lurking around every corner.

I have never been a fan of what Hyperion has done on other planets, the things they did to their people. Needless to say, when I first saw those terrifying ships approaching, I thought it would be the end of life as I knew it. Tons of people did. But, again, not everyone felt that way. That's way there wasn't enough people to organize against Hyperion. Half of them didn't recognize the malevolence in their actions. The "ends" (a civilized, bandit free Pandora) justified the "means" (slaughtering thousands of innocents in cold blood and colonizing land that wasn't theirs). Krieg came from a planet worse than Pandora, if you can believe it. He came from Promethea. His family fought Atlas and drove them off the planet so long ago. Krieg was used to fighting back and used to standing up for himself.

But Hyperion was different from Atlas. Hyperion didn't make 3 year olds admirals, though the current CEO of Hyperion certainly acted like a 3 year old. Hyperion was far, far more dangerous. And when Krieg starting getting public with his spite for Hyperion, when he started organizing protests against Hyperion, things went to shit.

His house was burned to the ground. His family made it out okay, but he was nowhere to be found. People said it was an accident, but I knew it wasn't. Hyperion had kidnapped him and burned his house to the ground. It was a fact. And I had to find him.

It was a dumb idea. I shouldn't have kept going out, oh god I knew I shouldn't have. I just NEEDED to know where he had gone. Where Hyperion had taken him. So, I started exploring. Exploring the places my family and my friends had never wanted to. Each day I dared to venture a little further, a little more past our humble village.

I found more than I had ever expected.

I found lush, green forests with beautiful creatures. I found breathtaking little ravines and rivers that were seemingly untouched by the toxicity and danger that the rest of Pandora possessed.

And when I ventured past THOSE, I found huge caverns filled with a beautiful, foreign purple rock. Eridium. And I… I saw something I shouldn't have. What I witnessed… I still can't really put it into exact words, but I can try.

It was… it was disgusting. People were being forced by Hyperion workers to slave away mining the Eridium for hours upon hours. There were no breaks and no rewards. They wore jumpsuits, and if any of them stepped out of line, they were immediately punished by the Hyperion workers. I'd never seen any treatment so horrific. Whatever they were mining that shit for, whatever they were doing, whatever reason they had for killing and abusing and exploiting innocent people, I knew I wasn't supposed to be seeing it. I didn't realize how close to the site I had gotten until I accidentally knocked over a few rocks from my spot up above the cavern and I cursed. Heads turned to face me, and the curses kept coming. Well, time to get the hell out of dodge. As I turned to leave, I heard a mechanical whirr and a yellow and white Hyperion bot surged forward, landing right in front of me.

"Do not attempt to run. You are hereby admitted to Hyperion custody." It's eye wasn't even looking at me. The thing was so huge, I didn't want to take my chances, and so I nodded weakly.

I'm still not entirely convinced that this isn't a nightmare and that this is real, but if it is real, then god is it terrible. I can't believe it. In the blink of an eye, just because of some dumb mistake, I had been found and detained by Hyperion, just because I had seen the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Who knew where they would take me? I sure as hell didn't. But maybe this was a blessing in disguise. I was sitting handcuffed in the back of a Hyperion escort ship so I kind of HAD to stay positive.

Maybe they'd take me to the same place Krieg was being held. Maybe I'd be okay. Maybe I'd see my family again.

There were honestly a lot of maybes involved, probably too many.

Great, now I'm adding probably in too.

Whatever the case, I have a feeling that things will get worse before I find Krieg. I'll just have to wait and see.