Hello and welcome to Chapter 7, which will continue immediately after Chapter 6. Enjoy!

Lilith's POV

"Soldier boy never betrayed you, but you just send him to his death!? That is hysterical! See this is why you can NEVER trust a bandit!" Jack proclaimed smugly, as he disconnected from the turned to look at Maya. She was frozen in place, all action stopped except for the tears that threatened to spill.

"Lil" She said, her voice throttled by anger. "How quickly can we get to the Bloodshot lair?" Lilith gulped, knowing the consequences of an angry, emotional Siren. "Not far, a couple of hours tops.", She answered cautiously.

"Get Sal and Krieg, we're going hunting." That was how, two hours later, two blood-red runners pulled up outside the bandit stronghold. We all pulled up at the gate, angry and vengeful. Growling, Maya honked her horn. "Alright alright I'm opening the gate!" As the gate lowered, another bandit called Flanksteak yelled out, "Don't open the gate nimrod! Thats not one of our technicals! They're here for our prisoner! KILL THEM!"

At this several bandits jumped over the fence separating the bandits from the Vault Hunters. Yelling out, Maya jumped out of her car, followed closely by Krieg and pulled out their weapons, Maya with a Maliwan Fire SMG, Krieg with the shock variety of the same weapon and Salvador pulling out a Jakobs shotgun. He fired at the first bandit stupid enough to attack him, who exploded into cloud of red mist and dismembered limbs. Krieg jumped over Maya, firing at the bandits while rushing recklessly at them. Angry and vengeful, Maya pulled one of them up in her Phaselock, while she took aim at the other unfortunate bandits who dropped like flies. Shrieking, she pulled out a Torque assault rifle which she used to torture the poor bandit stuck in her Phaselock.

"Reminds me of Elpis" muttered Lilith, remembering the days she spent on Pandora's moon with her boyfriend, until Jack and his team of Vault Hunters had interrupted. Sighing, she went into Phasewalk, sprinting towards a group of bandits that were staying far away from the other Vault Hunters. Blasting them, she pulled out a bandit pistol, and started picking them off. Looking around once she finished, she noticed that the others had just finished as well. "Open up!" Maya cried, slamming her fist on the steel fence separating her from the other bandits, Lilith hesitantly walking up to her. "Maya, maybe we should leave and come back? It looks like we're going to have to get technicals that look like theirs. I know someone in the Dust who can do that for us" Maya turned to the elder Siren with something akin to hope in her eyes.

"Really? But what about Roland? Don't you want to save him?"

"Of course I do, but we're going to need everyone on top form to save him, you especially. C'mon, lets go."

With that they all departed towards the dust, observing the result of what looked like the aftermath of an battle, blood and machinery everywhere. Looking at the blood made Lilith's stomach turn, 'which Vault Hunter died' she thought to herself. It was then a cry of anguish and pain came from Maya, as she had found the katana Zero used everyday. Rubbing Maya's back, Lilith silently prayed for Zero's safe return, as unlikely it might be.

They set off again, this time never stopping to look at the blood or the mess they saw. Eventually Lilith's runner, with Sal stuck as the gunner, turned left, driving into a massive stretch of land, with nothing but sand and spiderants in sight. Driving towards where she knew Ellie's place to be, she quickly saw the woman talking to a bandit, stuck inside a bandit technical. "Screw you! I should of killed you when I had the chance!" The bandit cried, while Ellie, the woman that she was simply replied, "Sorry what was that? You're going to have to speak up!" before crushing the bandit, car and all. Looking around, she saw Lilith and the new vault hunters. "More Vault Hunters? I had one of you come in earlier, but he left with the little girl just a few moments ago, if you want I can ECHO him…?"

Lilith was torn. She wanted to rescue Roland, but they needed Ellie to get them in ASAP, but on the other hand Axton had found Gaige and could both be useful in a fight. Deciding to find them later, Lilith replied, "No thanks Ellie, we need a bandit technical that will fool the bloodshots. Have one around here somewhere?"

"Course I do, it's the one that's in my grin- oh wait. I crushed it with the driver still inside, sorry about that. I have a vanilla one in the workshop, It just needs some details, blood, spikes, skulls, those sorts of things. If you go and get me them, I can add them to this one right here. Off you go now, shoo!"

Sighing in disappointment, Lilith jumped back in her runner, driving off to find some bandits for herself and the other vault hunters to kill to save Roland.

Zero's POV

"After Promethia, I was found by a group of men who took me into their home, fixed up my injuries. After a while I found out they were a group of assassins, who were being chased by Hyperion. I learned their ways, became an assassin myself. I grew close to one of them, Dante, and we were like siblings, always fighting over silly things but we'd have each others back in a fight. Two years ago Hyperion found us, and killed my mentor, Peter. We escaped to Elpis, Pandora's moon. Dante and I created my 'Zero' suit, that I started wearing all the time on jobs."

"What made you come to Pandora then? There had to be a reason."

"Yes, the assassination of Jack. I swore when Peter died that I would kill Jack, to avenge him if you will."

"Frankie, didn't you try and find us? Let us know you were alright?"

"Who do you think unlocked the shuttle for you back on Themis? I just didn't want to burden you. I'm sorry about what happened to Sarah by the way."

"Don't worry about it. Do you mind if I call Gaige back in here?"

"Nah go ahead." Axton then left the room to find the youngest Vault Hunter. After a short while her ECHO flashed, indicating she had a new message.

"Hey Frankie it's Dante! Miss me? Course ya did, Anyway listen, Khai joined forces with Jack, now you have to deal with him and Jackie at the same time. pain in the ass right? I know. I'm arriving in Pandora soon, I'll come find you, Ciao Kid." Damn, that meant problems for the assassin. Khai was the other member of the assassin group she had joined. He was the reason Hyperion found them, selling them all out for money. But if Dante was coming back it must be serious.

Just then Axton walked into the room with Gaige on his shoulders. Trying not to laugh, Frankie said, "How did that happen?"

"Little tyke hid and jumped me. Anyway, do you feel ready to kill robots? I want to head out to the Friendship Gulag Jack was talking about and try and rescue Sarah. She could help us to fight Jack. What do you say?"

"Sure, but before we go, I wanted to tell you that my friend Dante is coming to Pandora. He'll help as well if it means killing Jack. Turns out another member of the team I was on is working with Jack. Should we head out?"

"Umm Sure." Driving through the Dust was a new experience for Frankie, as dust would blow into her face at high speeds every second. It didn't hurt, as she was wearing her mask, but it was still obstructing her vision. She could only imagine what Axton and Gaige were going through. They were driving in front of her, their blood red runner standing out while her beige runner would be very hard to spot without the rocket launcher on the top. It took a couple of hours, during which Axton found the same gambling machines that you could find in Moxxi's Bar, they all robbed a caravan that was transporting three corrosive weapons for the Hodunks, a SMG which went to Gaige, the assault rifle was quickly snatched away by Axton, leaving Frankie with the sniper rifle. They all left the caravan happy, their new weapons tucked by their sides for Gaige, and on Axton and Frankie's backs.

Eventually they got to the Friendship Gulag. Standing by the gates was a figure dressed in a light grey trenchcoat that moved with the wind, wrapping itself around the figures body. A sword Frankie recognised as a nodachi was strapped onto his back, the sun glinting off the long handle and longer blade.. She couldn't see it, but she knew on the right side of the trenchcoat, a heavy pistol with the inscription, " Never forget who you are." was strapped against his body, ready to pull out at a moments notice. This was Dante, the assassin that Frankie spent the majority of her training with.

"Dante!" She yelled, running up to the man and embracing him in a big hug. Dante returned the hug and looked over the other two Vault Hunters. "Axton and Gaige right? Quite the history's you two have, one an ex-soldier who's ex-wife is in the gulag behind me, awkward, and the other accidentally murdered her high school bully with the robot she built, which by the way is awesome. Nice to meet you." He took a moment to compose himself. " I'm Dante, been on Elpis for a while before this, after the mess between Dahl and Hyperion a few years be fair I should have killed Jack then really, but never mind! I'm sure we can all work together to save Sarah, who will be executed live on ECHOnet in about 3 hours. Let's go!" And with that, they all walked into the friendship gulag, guns held high.

Maya's POV

Killing bandits was fun. Maya found that when angry, her power increased and became more destructive. She saw this out when she phase-locked someone, which in turn pulled enemies toward him while the phase-lock exploded in a fiery mess, leaving charred, electrofied, slagged bandit corpses around her in a circle. In the Dust however, the brutal sandstorms worked in her favour, with most being too scared to attack her with that weather. She would occasionally help out Lilith ,Sal and Krieg, with the bandits they were attacking but, she couldn't really keep track of them once the storm hit.

The wind blew the dust in the enemy's faces, distracting them until the moment Maya, the swirling embodiment of death that she was,caught up to them. The wind tossed carcasess around like paper bags, the bodies falling like rocks. Lilith had already collected all the pieces that they needed for the car, but their runners blew up a long time ago. Now the four Vault Hunters were stuck in the middle of a sandstorm, bandits constantly swarming them, forcing them to fight to get back to Ellie's place. "Arrrg! For the love of God! I need help over here guys! They think swarming the dwarf is their best option!"

Maya cursed, with Sal out of the fight they would be outnumbered soon. Shrieking in rage, she created a fire nova blast, as she started sprinting savagely towards Sal. Helping the dwarf up, they took care of a number of bandits before the others finally realized the danger they were in. Watching them run away, Maya turned to Lilith, "How far away is Ellie's? We need to get there fast. Sal is seriously wounded and won't be able to walk far."

The older siren looked worried at this news. "Too far. We'd never make it in time, unless we could drive which normally wouldn't be a problem but we are too far away from the Catch-A-Ride."

"Crap." Just then a bandit technical, painted in Hyperion yellow, pulled up beside them. Maya pulled her gun up to the driver, when she noticed his clean shaven chin, and the Dahl turret on his shoulder. "Axton?" She asked hesitantly, as they were in a Hyperion coloured technical. "Hey, miss us?" He asked, his usual cocky grin plastered all over his face. "SHUT UP AND HELP THEM!" came a new, angry, female voice from the back. Looking around, Maya saw a woman, around the same age as Axton, with Gaige on her lap. Across from her, a man she didn't recognise was sleeping, his entire body parallel to the car. Looking in the gunner seat however, Maya saw Zero. "Zero? How did you survive?" He looked at her, with an expression that said it all. Sighing, she helped Lilith load the sleeping Salvador in the back of the technical, and then climbed in herself. Squeezing herself between the bottom back of the gunning seat and the unknown woman, Maya kept her hand on Sal's stomach, in order to prevent him slipping out.

Lilith sat next to the woman, looking at the mysterious man with something like, familiarity. 'Did she know him?' Maya thought to herself, while watching Krieg jump on the side bars next to and above the driver, hanging next to Axton. They drove for hours in silence, no-one wanting to break the awkward tension between them. Eventually they got to Ellie's, fixing the vanilla technical in the garage so that they could spawn one whenever they liked. Leaving the Hyperion one outside, the group spawned three different cars. Axton, Gaige, Zero, the now awake stranger and the unknown woman all sat in the one technical, while Maya and Krieg got in a smaller runner. Sal and Lilith were staying behind, as someone needed to tend to Sal's wounds. Before they left, Maya said, "Alright, who are the new people? If we're going to rescue Roland, I want to know everyone i'm fighting with."

"Alright Maya." said Axton, "This bloke here is Dante, we met him in the Friendship Gulag. He's agreed to help us out as long as Jack dies along the way. He's an assassin. This lovely lady right here, is Sarah. We rescued her inside the Friendship Gulag. Any questions? Good!" Leaving Maya dumbfounded, the first group took off, going up the ramp outside Ellie's. Not wanting to be outdone, Maya quickly followed them in her onyx runner, Krieg as the gunner.

Trying to catch up to Axton's technical, Maya thought about the fact that Axton had rescued Sarah from Hyperion and what he would do now. He'd been all but accused by her as a traitor, sending Zero to monitor Axton when he went out on his own. Maya knew that if he wanted to, he could just leave and leave the rest of them on Pandora. He had no attachments to them, no obligation to help now that Sarah was safe. Too distracted by her thoughts, Maya didn't realise that she was about to drive off a cliff. Only the fact that Axton had driven up next to her runner and forcefully steered the runner away from the cliff. "Thanks Axton, I was distracted."

"Don't worry about it. Anyways, we're almost there so why don't you get in this tech and I'll drive this runner? Don't want you getting distracted while you're driving."

"Ok." Sitting in the back of the blood-red technical was different. Maya could see the advantages of these cars, as at least three people could not do anything and let the driver concentrate. Dante was cleaning a suspicious red liquid off the sword on his back, while Gaige was playing with a new SMG. Finally they arrived at the BloodShot Stronghold. Honking the horn, the same guy from the previous day answered. "Alright boys, it's one of ours. Let 'em in while I try and get Hyperion back on the horn." At this the gate lowered. "Thats bad news for us…" Dante muttered to Maya, as so Gaige couldn't hear them. "Why?" She answered, at the same volume. "Hyperion don't negotiate with bandits, especially for the 'Leader of the Resistance', they'd probably send a squad here to take him forcefully."

The gate finally lowered, and the 6 figures, 4 Vault Hunters and 2 others, jumped out of the two cars. Pulling their guns out, they sprinted at the wandering bandits. Sarah used a Dahl SMG, taking out anyone stupid enough to attack her. Dante was a whirlwind of death, not even using a gun to kill them. He sliced at enemies, leaving bloody carcass behind. Even after the rest of the rescue party had stopped killing, Dante had sheathed his sword and was using his fists. "Yeah! How do you like that!" he cried, just before a bullet knocked him on his back unmoving.

"Hahaha you cocky idiot..." While the rest of the rescue party stared at the body of Dante, Zero started laughing. Maya was scared by it, as she had never seen Zero display emotion before, let alone laugh. "Alright, Alright. Consider my lesson learned. Finish a fight quickly and get the reward quicker and all that." All the surrounding team were amazed to see Dante stand after speaking to Zero. He reached into his jacket, and in a second, all the bandits were dead and Dante was holding an old pistol, with smoke trailing out of it. In Maya's opinion there was writing on the side of the gun but she could of imagined it. Looking at the dead bandits in awe, Axton said, "Can you teach me to do that?"

" was fun, lets do it again!." He replied. "All you need is training, patience, and specially modified bullets that can decimate a shield in seconds. The sniper rifle I use makes this gun look like a toy. Want to see it?"

At the vigorous nod of Axton's head, Dante laughed and said, "Maybe later. That fight with the guy with the awesome hair and the awesome jacket took a lot out of me. I'm going to wait here and recover. Good Luck!" At this, Dante, legs crossed, fell asleep. Sighing, Maya moved Dante into the back of the technical with his gun and sword next to him. As she got back, the rest of the rescue party heard Flanksteak on the ECHO. "Get 'em BadMaw!"

At this the gate opened forcefully, as a figure leaped from the base. He landed with a thud, forcing the rest of the Rescue Team to stumble. Maya noticed that 'BadMaw' was a big nomad, with a shotgun and a shield with three midgets tied to it. Feeling sorry for the midgets, Maya shot at the rope constraining the midgets, releasing them. As one, the team charged at the bandit, firing their weapons at him, only to hit the shield. The midgets were dead, being battered to death by the steel shield. Annoyed, Maya phaselocked BadMaw, suspending him in mid-air for Axton, Zero and Sarah to fire at. Using this tactic, the giant bandit was soon dead, and the squad was inserting the key into a mechanism that lowered the steel drawbridge.

No ones POV.

Entering the stronghold for the first time, the first thing the squad noticed was the overpowering stench of blood. Everywhere they went smelled like it. Wandering around for a few minutes, they came across a few bandits. Yelling and charging in, Axton opened fire on the bandits, dropping them like flies. Sighing, Maya, Frankie, Gaige and Kriegfollowed him, taking out the bandits Axton missed. Throwing a grenade, Axton slid on the ground towards a bruiser, firing two shots from his Hyperion shotgun into the bandits chest at point blank range. Watching the bandit explode into red mist, Axton stood up and leapt at another enemy, firing again.

Minutes later the squad had killed all the bandits, picking up all the guns they had dropped. Gaige chose that moment to come running in, screaming about a badass nomad. At that, said nomad burst through into the room, swinging his shield at Sarah. She was sent flying backward, only to crash into the wall, unmoving. Gritting his teeth, Axton threw his turret behind the nomad, and then proceeded to shoot at the shield with every bullet in his shotgun. Maya, Gaige, Frankie and Krieg watched in fascination as the bandit was torn between defending from Axton, or his deadly turret. Eventually the bandit staggered and, taking his opportunity, Axton fired two rounds point blank into the bandits face. Watching it fall, Axton screamed at the top of his voice, " AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!"

At this Axton and Gaige sprinted forward, while Maya looked at Frankie with something like confusion. "Didn't you say something similar when you killed a bandit?" Under her mask, Frankie was nervous. She didn't tell the other Vault Hunters her identity on the train because what use was a assassin that told others her identity. If Maya had figured out her identity, she would have to leave. Only Axton knew her identity, and she knew he wouldn't tell. Looking impassively at Maya, she walked away, hoping beyond hope Maya wouldn't figure it out.

Catching up to Axton and Gaige, Maya saw they were fighting a horde of bandits in a circular room, with what looked like a whirlpool in the middle. Axton and Gaige were back to back. shooting any bandit in their sights. Frankie was fighting solo, using her katana and a Jakobs pistol to decimate the bandit population. Krieg was slicing and dicing, not caring how many bandits were in front of him. Maya sighed, and then phaselocked a regular nomad, taking him out of the fight while taking out his friends. The five Vault Hunters took out the Bloodshot bandits with efficiency, not letting anyone escape their bullets.

Eventually, they reached the top. They continued down several hallways until they saw a man sleeping on a bed, behind cages. Realising this man was Roland. all the Vault Hunters started to attack the cages. "Vault Hunters? Good to meet you. I'm Roland." Roland said, before the wall behind him exploded, revealing two robots Frankie recognised as GUN Loaders. "This will just take a second." Roland said, before grabbing the first bandit and throwing him against the wall. The second one shot at him, knocking him to the floor. He turned, revealing a machine gun ripped from the first robot. Shooting the second one, he stood up and addressed the Vault Hunters again. "Lets see about getting me out of these bars. Where's Lilith? I thought she would of came with you."

The Vault Hunters saw, behind Roland, a giant robot, that shot beams of light at Roland, trapping him and holding him above it. Creating a giant jail around Roland, the robot floated away, leaving Axton and the others dumbfounded. Seeing the wall next to the cell explode into rubble, the Vault Hunters chased after the robot.

FINALLY! YES! Thank you to all my reviewers, and everyone else who reads this. I couldn't have completed this without Dante, the inspiration behind Dante, and ChaoticChampion who yelled at me every day until this was complete. As a side note, only Axton and Frankie will refer to Zero as Frankie so yeah. I will try to get Chap 8 up soon, but I now have another story to work on aswell. Myabe in two weeks if my exams don't hold me up. Ciao!

~DarkSkul