Ah, you want to hear another story, huh? Well, I've got time.

Let's go back to when the so-called hero, Handsome Jack was attempting to take over Pandora, when our four train-wrecked vault hunters were barely getting their wings, when Sanctuary was finally established as a home to those willing to join the resistance, and when she arrived.

A shy child willing to grow in areas she never believed were possible. She learned the ways of becoming a vault hunter by the drunkard, Mordecai and wanted to be exactly like him. As she grew older, she was headstrong, stupid, and idiotic, but never gave up that dream. She longed to be a vault hunter, and despite the warnings, the girl continued to take what she wanted...

Until one day, her life changed forever.

Now, get out of my face unless you want to buy something!


"Focus on your target. Don't let them scare you. Now, hold up the rifle—just like how I taught you."

Gripping the cold metal, I moved the rifle up into my right shoulder and peeked through the tiny scope with my hazel eyes. One blinked, cursing to myself as I lost sight of the disgusting skag a few yards away from my location. Moving the gun towards the left, I regained contact with the crawling creature. It snarled into the air at nothing, sniffing the soft breeze with its tiny nostrils and clamped its mouth closed with a satisfying snap.

"Good. Ease your finger on the trigger, but be careful; you don't want to shoot him just yet."

Biting my lip, I felt my hand move down to the lever, knowing that if I inched my pointer finger any further, I'd surely shoot the creature and Mordecai would scold me.

"Move your aim to the head, and take a deep breath. Relax your muscles."

I pushed the rifle farther up on my arm, ultimately moving the machine so it allowed me to aim directly at the head of the skag. I knew what he was trying to get me to do. Mordecai would distract the animal, and hopefully open its mouth. From studying, I understood the mouth of a skag was its weakness. I realized Mordecai was waiting for me to take a breath, and so I did.

Clank!

Mordecai had tossed a small pebble off the edge we sat on, in which it flew towards the skag and landed a foot from it. The creature eyed us, growling with all the rage in its body and opened its mouth—

Bang!

I didn't even think; I just acted. I remember seeing the gleam of the bullet, shining the rays from the sun on the backing as it dove neatly into the skag's gaping mouth. The skag sputtered a bit, its body rolling upon the dirty ground and eventually meeting its demise. Even from that spot, I could see it's crimson blood leak into the green grass below. A grin appeared on my face as Mordecai slapped me on the shoulder.

"That's my girl! Awesome job!" he commended me and removed the weapon from my arms. I pouted; I've always liked his rifle. I had my own, but it was old and rusty from my training. Luckily, I was coming up on one year of training with Mordecai, and usually meant I'd be free to go on missions with the others. My frown was then replaced with another grin as I hopped up.

"Thanks Mordecai!" I answered and reached up to untie my blonde hair from the messy ponytail I put it in this morning. It raced down, reaching a little below my upper back and swung with the cold wind. I shuddered, and began to follow Mordecai, stepping over a few stones that blocked my way.

"What a great day," Mordecai commented on the weather, glancing up at the sun. It had gotten to the part in the day were if you were in the sun, it would be extremely hot and in the shade, it would be extremely cold. There's never a happy medium, but I expected that from Pandora.

"If you say so," I snickered.

"Hey Juno? I was thinking about the end of your training," Mordecai began after another awkward silence befell us. My eyes glinted with happiness as I shot an ecstatic smile up at him. Yes? "This Thursday will mark the end of training, and I have to make a tough decision." Yes! "I've decided to take you under my wing for another year." No!

"What? Why?" I demanded, feelings of anger and sadness rushing over me like a whirl pool. How could he do this to me? Mordecai knew how badly I wanted to be a vault hunter, and take down Hyperion once and for all. I mean—I know Roland just now found the whereabouts of four vault hunters, but they still could use my help.

"I'm sorry Juno. I don't think you are ready for this," Mordecai answered. "I couldn't stand seeing you get hurt. You've only killed skags or rahks. You haven't taken on one of Hyperion's robots. They are dangerous." I folded my arms across my chest, pouting.

"They are just pieces of metal. I can easily take them down!" I protested. "Look, give me a chance. Take me to a place where they roam and I'll bring you the head of one, or some barbaric shit like that. Come on Mordecai! You know how bad I want this!" I was practically gripping one of his arms now and attempting to use the old puppy dog eye trick. He grimaced, still shaking his head.

"Juno, no!" he finally began to argue with me, making me stop dead in my tracks. "I've known you since you were a little girl, and to think about someone that I care so much about die at the hands of Hyperion—" He paused, gripping me by my shoulders and proceeded to give me an extremely awkward hug. "I can't lose you, okay?" I bit my lip and allowed him to wrap his arms around me, not sure if I should struggle out of the tight hug.

"But Mordecai, I can protect myself. You've taught me all that I need to know," I informed him. "I'll make a deal with you. I go with you, Lilith or whoever wants to come on a mission and if I mess up at all, then I'll undergo another year. If I do amazing, which I will, you'll need to bake me a cake and throw me a party." I grinned brightly as Mordecai groaned in irritation, pulling away from me.

"Fine," Mordecai agreed and released me. "But if you even so much as get a scratch on you, that's it. I'm pulling you out of there." Shrugging my shoulders, I proceeded to grin up at him. I liked Mordecai, probably more than Lilith or Roland. I guess we just had that special bond. I mean, he was the one to rescue me from a bandit attack when I was six years old and ever since then, he became a father figure for me, and I loved him.

"Thank you Mordecai!" I happily sang and took his hands in mine, jumping up and down profusely. "You won't regret this."

We made it back to Sanctuary after a while, due to some stupid bandits that attempted to take us down with their tiny pistols. We bested them in nearly minutes of fighting. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and walked through the large gate, exposing the small city of Sanctuary. It sparkled like a beacon to all that have been ruined by Hyperion and Handsome Jack.

"We'll get you a mission to carry out. Most likely, you'll be with me," Mordecai informed me as we waited for one of the guards to lower the door. It took a few seconds to do so, and we hopped inside of the city. "You'll also have an ECHO, just in case we get separated."

"I've always wanted an ECHO," I added with a smile. We walked through the center of Sanctuary, and made a left. I knew where we were heading to; Roland's place. My heart beat fast in my chest, realizing that this wasn't a dream anymore. I was finally going out on my first mission. Giggling happily, I raced in front of Mordecai and propped open the door for him.

"Thanks kiddo" Mordecai remarked and ruffled my hair up before entering. Patricia Tannis remained at her desk, murmuring gibberish to herself and jotting down notes with a stubby, black pen. She didn't even acknowledge our existence as she swung her left hand up in the air.

"As discovered by Lilith, the rahks have no sensibility on whom to attack! They just fly around like a horny teenager, waiting to hump whoever and whatever passes by!" she began to shout. I scurried out of the room and followed Mordecai up the metallic stairs. The sound from my boots hitting them echoed throughout the paper thin walls until we reached the top. There were four bunk beds on the left, and a ripped-up couch on the left. On some occasions, Mordecai let me sleep on his bed while he took the couch. I smiled in remembrance, and then entered the next room.

"Hey guys."

We were greeted by Lilith, a siren avoiding Hyperion's radar. She gave us a tiny smile, her thin arms crossed over her chest and shifted her weight onto her left leg. She was the last person I met in Sanctuary when I arrived fifteen years ago; man, has it been that long? Seems just like yesterday I popped up.

"Hi!" I greeted her happily, hopping up on the counter next to her. "Guess who can finally go on missions now." Lilith flashed me a smile, nudging me with her elbow playfully.

"Nice one, kid!" she congratulated me. "You finally got Mordecai to give into you. That takes a whole lot of skill." Meanwhile, Mordecai pouted in the corner and folded his arms over his chest. "What's her first job gonna be, Mordecai?"

"Whatever you have available," Mordecai shot back.

"Well, we have one more vault hunter that needs to complete his task. Since Roland got captured, I want to send the guy out to rescue Roland from the Friendship Gulag located in the Dust," Lilith began. "Maya and Axton ran off to take care of the bandit control, while the double-weapon welder guy is taking care of a cult run by Incinerator Clayton that worships me—" She paused, whispering, "—kinda cool, right?" And then she stood back up to her full height. "The quiet one, Zero was the guy I had in mind for rescuing Roland. If he agrees, Juno can join him."

"I'm coming with them," Mordecai said almost automatically. Rolling her eyes, Lilith gave me a few bucks and asked me to go buy some ammo for my trip. I tiptoed out of the room, but my curiosity got the best of me. I hung back around the wall, still listening to their conversation.

"You can't keep her here forever, Mordecai," Lilith told him. "I know you care about her, but she's not a little girl anymore and you aren't her father." There was a pause.

"I know I'm not her father," Mordecai began. "But she's too headstrong. She thinks Hyperion is a joke, even Jack! You know you can't have that mindset around here, unless you are looking to be killed. If she can't be serious, Jack will kill her."

"Hyperion is a joke. She needs to learn how to be on her own. This isn't doing her any good with you hanging over her like a dead goose," she retaliated. "What happens if you die? What will she do then? She'll be confused because you won't be here to annoy the shit out of her."

"I don't care! I love her, Lilith and I will not lose her to that Hyperion bastard!" he roared. "I've lost too many people in the beginning of all of this mess. I will not lose Juno." I slipped away, shaking my head in confusion. What the hell is going on here anymore? No one can talk without getting into a fight. I mean, I understood why, but still. We were all adults here. With a sigh, I opened the door and walked back out into my home, Sanctuary.