A/N: Hellooooo! Right, well, welcome to the first one shot in what will be a series of one shots detailing random parts of the Mechro/Hunted timeline. Some of them may be scenes that have happened, but more detailed, or scenes that have not happened at all. Some may have sad themes, like this one, or more action packed.

I had this idea rattling around in my head for quite some time, and I just had to write it.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this one shot! It's set just after the Vault Hunters get back from Control Core Angel. Also, Handsome Jack may seem OOC, but it's just for the sake of this one-shot.

Enjoy! :)

"All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family. I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul."

-Mahatma Ghandi

Angel's recent death had shaken up every Vault Hunter, whether they showed it or not. Some were noticeably sadder than others, and some were completely expressionless. It was hard not to be affected by a death like that. While each Vault Hunter had slaughtered hundreds of bandits each, it was still a hard thing to witness. They had ended the life of an innocent girl who had been held captive for years. A few Vault Hunters tried to console themselves by saying it was a mercy killing, but it didn't count for much. Not to mention Roland's death shortly after, along with Lilith's capture. All of these things combined were hard enough to take in, and even harder to live with.

Now, the remaining Vault Hunters sat in the headquarters of the Crimson Raiders. Everyone was here: Axton, Maya, Zer0, Salvador, Gaige, Mordecai and Brick. Each had picked a spot in the room and just sat down, thinking to themselves. Nobody said anything for the longest time, they had nothing to say.

Brick and Mordecai were probably the worst off, having to deal with the death of their close friend Roland as well as the capture of another one of their friends. The rest pitied them greatly, they had been dealt quite a bad hand back there.

Axton were both sitting on one of the bottom beds, with their backs against the wall. Maya was resting her head on Axton's right shoulder, and Axton had his arm around her. She had been crying heavily a while ago. Witnessing one of her Siren sisters being killed was bad enough, but being the one who killed her was a lot worse. While she had managed to get a hold of herself, she still cuddled close to Axton, a depressed look on her face.

Axton kept himself together well, more for Maya's sake than his own. The battle-hardened commando had seen much worse during his time in the military, but watching everyone else's reaction was a completely different story. He felt a lump in his throat when he saw Gaige walk out of Marcus's store room on her own, crying her eyes out. He wanted to help or say something, but he was too busy with Maya at that point to really do anything. He figured he'd leave the teenager to her own thoughts for a while. Then again, maybe that wasn't the best idea…

Salvador and Zer0 were the only two who seemed to have taken the deaths in their stride. They had both stood slightly away from the group while Angel was dying. Salvador had a completely blank expression the whole time, while Zer0's mask displayed no emoticon of any sort. However, the others could have sworn they saw a red ':(' coming from Zer0's mask as they were leaving Marcus's store. Nobody could really tell what the assassin was feeling, if he was feeling anything. The same went for Salvador.

Salvador was sitting on an office chair, with his feet up on Tannis' desk. His head was tipped down and he looked as though he was trying to sleep. Zer0, on the other hand, was leaning against a wall beside the stairs, staying perfectly still. The assassin just stared across the room at the opposite wall, his head not moving in the slightest.

However, out of everyone who had witnessed the death, Gaige was the one who was worst off out of them all. It was hard for the teenager to see another girl who was about her age being killed right in front of her. Even though she had witnessed the death of Marcie Holloway first hand, this was different. This was someone she actually liked and felt sympathy for. Besides, Marcie hadn't been locked up for her whole life by her own father. Even for a girl who had killed countless numbers of people herself, this was too much for her. She began shaking and tearing up as soon as Angel's body went limp. Gaige also had almost no reaction to anything that happened afterwards. But, as soon as they were teleported to Marcus's shop, she completely lost it. She couldn't hold the tears in anymore. The tears streamed down her face. She made no attempt to stop crying, she probably couldn't have even if she tried. The worst part of this was that there was nobody there to comfort her. The only people who would, Axton and Maya, were too busy with each other to do anything, and Zer0 and Salvador really weren't the type for that kind of thing. They were all on the same boat here.

The fact that she deeply missed her parents only added to her sadness. If her dad was here, he'd comfort her. She would have felt so much better if he was there, but he wasn't. So, instead of getting a hug or any form of consolation, Gaige just walked ahead of everyone straight out of the shop, crying heavier than she had in a long time. She didn't really care what the Vault Hunters thought of her at that moment. She walked into the Crimson Raider's HQ and collapsed on to one of the beds, where she buried her face in the pillow and began sobbing into it. After a minute, she heard the rest of the Vault Hunters come in. Again, nobody said anything to her, they just let her be. She herself wasn't sure if she even wanted anyone's company at the moment besides her dad. She would do anything to have him here, now.

Ten minutes later, she managed to sit herself up, leaning back on the wall and wrapping her arms around her knees. The tears had just about stopped, and she was biting her lip and looking straight ahead at nothing in particular. Every so often, she would let out a sigh or a sniff, causing a few of the people in the room to look over at her.

Eventually, she decided she couldn't take any more of this. She felt she had to go and do something or else the sadness would drive her insane. She wanted to be on her own anyway, at least for a while. So, without any warning, she quickly stood up and ran through the open door of the Raider's HQ. She was out and into the street before she heard Axton calling after her.

"Hey, Gaige! Wait!" he called, sliding Maya's arm off him and standing up. He ran out the door after Gaige. He entered into the street just in time to see Gaige enter the building that housed the fast-travel station. The teenager ran up and hit the button to activate the station. Without looking, she chose a destination at random, and within seconds, she was gone.

Axton entered the room just in time to see the last of the blue light from the fast travel fade away. He had no idea where she had gone, and he was not prepared to go searching all over Pandora for her. Not yet, anyway. All he could do was hope that she would eventually return.

"Goddammit…" he cursed, and then, with a sigh, he began walking back towards the HQ.

When Gaige reached her destination, she had no clue where she was. She was in an area she had never been to before. The sky was covered in ash, and volcanoes dotted the area. While lava spilled out from the volcanoes and flowed around a bit, there was also a purple substance embedded in the ground. Gaige reckoned it was Eridium. Thanks to the lava, the place was also incredibly hot. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to have picked a random place.

There was a Catch-A-Ride station right next to where she appeared, along with a bounty board next to it. She decided she would do a mission to take her mind off everything. It was dangerous to do missions alone, but she would see if there was an easy one.

She walked up to the bounty board and activated it. It only contained one mission, entitled 'Kill Yourself'. She frowned at the name but accepted it anyway, wanting to know more about the job. Suddenly, Handsome Jack's voice came over her ECHO.

"Oh, it's you… Gaige, right?" Handsome Jack asked, his tone a lot more depressed than usual, "Look, I will pay you to kill yourself. I got this great spot all picked out for ya. Think about it."

With that, he was gone. Gaige's HUD showed a marker a couple of hundred metres away. While Gaige had no intention of killing herself, she decided to go there anyway, just to check it out. She walked over to the Catch-A-Ride and spawned a runner for herself. She wasn't the greatest driver, but she didn't have much of a choice at that moment.

She made the slow and steady drive over to the location and got out of her vehicle. She could see a cliff hanging above her, that dropped off into God knows what. She climbed a ladder to get to the platform that was on top of the cliff. Once she reached the top, she just about saw a bandit sprint to the edge and jump off.

"I'M GONNA BE RIIIIICH!" he shouted as he plummeted to his doom.

Gaige rolled her eyes at the bandit's stupidity. Then, she heard Handsome Jack's voice again.

"So, you can call the Hyperion Suicide Prevention Hotline from the phone right there, and get nothing, or you can jump off the cliff and become my bitch! And also, y'know… get paid." He said.

While Gaige had planned to walk straight up to the phone and call the hotline, she found herself walking to the edge of the platform. She stopped in front of the edge and looked over. It was a sheer drop into the sea and a flow of lava, or, in other words, certain death.

She stepped backwards and looked around. She saw a small, folding chair placed right beside the edge. She sighed, and then sat down in the small chair, looking out at the view. There were a few mountains in the distance, and the sun was just setting behind them. Pandora, while dangerous, could be incredibly beautiful at times. She still wanted off this planet more than anything. She wanted to go home.

She wasn't even sure why she was still here. She could have probably left by now. They only thing that was keeping her here was their quest to take down Jack. However, Gaige didn't feel like it was her fight. Besides Jack trying to kill them, and then trying to take over Pandora, nothing he did affected her directly. She felt like she had been caught up in someone else's war.

"You… uh… gonna jump off, or what?" Handsome Jack asked over Gaige's ECHO.

With another sigh, she raised the ECHO to her face to reply to him. "Probably not," She replied, sadness still in her voice as well.

"Ah, dammit," Jack grunted, "Thought I had you there. Perhaps if you shot yourself?"

"No, Jack."

"How about letting a bandit shoot you?"

"…No…"

"What if I got you a cyanide pill-" Jack tried to say, but was interrupted by a loud sniff from the other side.

Another wave of depression washed over Gaige, as everything sank in once again. Being berated by this guy to kill herself also wasn't helping. She felt tears coming again, except this time she tried to hold them back, with little success. Gaige ended up openly sobbing into the ECHO device, which left Jack feeling a little confused.

"Uhh, was it something I said?" Jack asked.

Gaige could barely hear him over the sound of her own sobbing. "N-no…" she said shakily.

Jack was feeling a strange mix of emotions. On one hand, Gaige was a Vault Hunter, the people he hated most in the world, even if it really wasn't her choice. On the other hand, hearing a young, innocent girl crying prompts some sympathy, no matter who they are or what they have done.

"Uh, are you… ah… okay?" Jack said sceptically.

Gaige didn't have to reply to him, but she found herself doing so anyway. "I-I… wanna go home…" she cried. She then just thought about what she had just said. Why the hell did she just tell him that? She kind of wished she could take it back.

Up in the Hyperion moonbase, Jack sat at his huge desk inside his office. He had his ECHO device in his hands, and was leaning forward in his chair, his back bent over slightly. This was the last thing he expected to happen when he thought of paying a Vault Hunter to kill themselves.

Jack was still trying to put his finger on why he was feeling a pang of sympathy towards Gaige, considering he himself had just lost his only daughter.

Then it struck him. That was exactly it. Gaige completely reminded him of Angel. There were a lot of similarities between the two girls. Jack then wondered what it would be like if Angel was in Gaige's position. He felt a lump in his throat and he put his head down on his desk. He had no idea what to do at this point.

"Jack?" Gaige's voice came back over his ECHO.

Her voice made him bring his head back up off the desk. He'd had a complete change of heart compared to five minutes ago. He slowly raised his ECHO device to talk to Gaige again.

"Gaige…" Jack said quietly, "You don't have to… y'know… kill yourself. Just go."

Back down on Pandora, Gaige raised an eyebrow, surprised at Jack's sudden change of heart. She nodded slowly, knowing that Jack couldn't see her, before standing up and walking over to the phone. She pressed the button to call the Hyperion Hotline. She didn't stay around to hear what the Hotline had to say, she just walked back to her vehicle. Just before she got into the runner, she heard Jack's voice again.

"Gaige?" he asked.

"Yeah?" Gaige responded.

"Still gonna kill you," Jack said flatly.

For the first time in hours, Gaige allowed herself to laugh quickly. That was more like the Jack she knew. "Right back at ya, Jack," she said with a slight smile, and shut off her ECHO device.

She climbed into the driver's seat of her car and began the drive back to the fast travel station so she could get back to Sanctuary.

She couldn't get everything that Jack had said out of her head. It seemed like those few minutes were going to stay with her for quite a long time.

A/N: Well, hope you guys enjoyed that! Make sure to review if you did/didn't and tell me why :)

I know I promised to write about what happened to Marshall, that's coming next, trust me. Also, my next story, which is a sequel to Hunted, will be starting very soon!

Thanks for reading!

-Kromatick