Authors note:

This is my first story, I'm not even sure how to grammatically write the speech of characters, there's a lot I don't know, but any feedback or criticism is more than welcome, and I will use it all to become a better writer.

Chapter 1) Eridium

"Heh, no rest for the wicked..."

Lilith says to herself under her breath as she chuckles, walking through the ground floor of sanctuary headquarters, remembering the mess Krieg and Axton created when they tortured the Hyperion goon during Tina's game of bunkers and badasses. She remembered hearing screams from downstairs during the game, mordecia seemed to care, or at least notice. The others (including herself) remained unbothered by the misery of someone that corrupt. Mercy was lacking on Pandora, and as unlikely a source he was, a somewhat small amount trickled from mordecia. Lilith figured after all the hell from pandora, the constant war that always had a new enemy, him loosing his best-friend bloodwing, that he would be dead inside. And not to mention the worst of all, loosing Roland to that psychopath jack. But that didn't hurt him the way it hurt her. It didn't hurt anyone the way it hurt her. Nonetheless, she was amazed any mercy survived the cruel, dry winds of the frigid desert planet, she was always surprised when she found a truly good person. That's what she loved so deeply about Roland. His compassion. A trait almost unheard of on a world like pandora. How did he do it? She used to feel some level of compassion, but not lately. Sometimes she felt like she was good, then she remembered all the things she'd done to prove otherwise. She used to feel bad for betraying jack, but that was before he showed his true colors. She still felt bad for attempting to execute Athena though. They seems to have made up but Lilith wouldn't be surprised if Athena has trust issues with her, which is why they still haven't gone on any missions together. She wondered what Roland would have thought of her. What she almost did to Athena. Who she is now. Brick of all people even told her not to. BRICK! A BANDIT LEADER told her what she was doing was wrong. Would Roland still even want her leading the crimson raiders?

"Shut up Lilith, now's not the time for this"

she told herself, attempting to get her mind off of the topic. Roland... The man she loved, the one who not only saw her good side, but brought it out in her. And that bastard handsome jack just slaughtered him where he stood. Shot him in the back, it wasn't even a fair or honorable fight. It was a snake move. But Roland... he deserved better. He deserved better than any of the others, herself included. God, look at her, what was she doing? Reminiscing like some high school sweetheart, pathetic. It's pandora, you loose people you care about every other week.

"Fuck it, I need some eridium"

Lilith told herself. She had gotten a little bit crazy with her usage lately, so Tannis was more secretive about when she got some in and where she kept it, but Lilith was smarter than that. She knew her hiding place for the unrefined eridium. She moved one of the washers to get to Tannis's secret wall safe behind it, she tried the usual combination, she felt the dial scratch against the safe, and heard the tick with every number she passed, which was getting fainter every day it seemed.

"Damn it."

She mumbled under her breath, and she tried opening it again. Same combination, 23-12-2. Nothing. Tannis must've realized Lilith was sneaking off some eridium and changed the password. Lilith was pissed for a second, but then remembered who she was.

"I'm the most powerful siren in the universe. For her to think she can keep something from me that I want is idiotic. She really is full of herself.."

Lilith said, not realizing the irony of her sentence. She put her hand against the cold metal and phased the eridium out of the safe, similar to how she moved sanctuary, just far, far easier. And hey, this time she phased the eridium mostly to where she wanted to, the desk sitting right in front of her. A few chunks rolled off the desk or just dropped straight down to the floor with a loud crack noise, but her accuracy was getting better, almost perfect now. She held two small chunks, one in each hand and absorbed them, her whole body trembled, it had been a while. She missed this, very, very much. It was like an itch that she finally got to scratch, and then she absorbed another chunk. her siren "tattoos" glowing brightly as a result. The rest she phased back into the safe, and just hoped Tannis wasn't keeping count of how much was in there. Now, it was time to do the only thing that distracted her from the void inside, from everything, from Roland. Destroy. She had heard of a Hyperion assassin surviving the crash of Helios codenamed "saber", and she had heard that he was now the leader of a bandit clan. She had her target, and when she set her eyes on a target, well, only god could save them. And Lilith was convinced god had forgotten about pandora. On her way to scooters old catch a ride machine, gaige saw her -dear god, please let her just ignore me- Lilith thought to herself. Then she heard

"well heya Lilith"

and saw the young vault hunter happily bounding over to her, with the usual perk Gaige always had in her step.

"Hey killer"

Lilith said, using her favorite nickname for the new vault hunters.

"Where ya off to?"

Gaige asked.

"Just a small mission to saber's camp. He's some Hyperion goon that survived the crash of Helios"

Lilith said, knowing good and well she was lying, this was no small mission at all, the plains of guar housed a massive bandit camp, stretched out between the plains and the lorasidious mountains, even going inside of one of the mountains.

"Oooo, can I come? No ones been on a mission with you for a while now lilly..."

she suddenly had a flashback to her grandmothers dinner table, and her grandmother said

"Lilly, go put up your plate"

when her cousin kept poking at her siren marks. Lilith turned to him to maybe hit him or scream, but instead she turned and he looked... different. Colors were different, some colors were absent. She could still make out his shape and what he was doing, he fell over and onto the ground as his mouth opened wide. His scream looked more like a yawn, but she knew he was screaming. Even though the sound was faint and distorted. Her grandmother looked around the room frantically, and Lilith tried running to her grandmother for support, but ran straight through her. Then, she sat down behind her and began to cry. All of the sudden, she was back in her own world, and her grandmother flew back a good 10 feet, being thrown into the wall. Lilith screamed and ran to her grandmother, who just laid there, unresponsive to her screams and cries for her to get up. Her cousin was just frozen. Lilith went to hug and comfort him but she stopped herself, what if she hurt him too? So instead she did the only thing she could think to do. She ran. Then the memory ended and she was back in sanctuary.

"No. You can't come along"

Lilith snapped back coldly.

"And don't ever call me lily again"

she said without much emotion.

"Dang okay "firehawk", just don't get killed out there, please?"

Gaige commented back. Lilith chuckled, transported herself down to the ground, digi-structed a car, and drove off for her next target.