NOTE: A 'cycle' is a term I've coined for this fic. It refers to 24hrs, as a Pandora day is something like 90+ hours.


Lawrence laid patiently on the ground, a well worn woven matt protected him from the dirt, and a scarf covered the back of his neck to shield him from the sun. Both hands firmly grasped his sniper, and with his working eye, he watched the gorge below. Two cycles had passed since Angel had run off, if she was as stubborn as her father then she wouldn't be returning anytime soon. He hoped she came to her senses before she died from exposure.

She'll come back.

Lawrence's eye caught movement, and he readjusted his sniper, only to see two skags fighting it out. The alpha tore down a runt and devoured its corpse with little effort. Bored with the blood show he switched his attention back to the bandit camp on the horizon. It was the very encampment Nisha, and he had cleared out almost a year ago. Jack had sent them on some crusade to hunt more parts for the Gortys project, yet all they found was screaming meatheads and bullets piercing their shields.

That battle had been anything but swift and clean, they'd taken a beating, but they conquered in the end. The bandits may have had the numbers, but they outgun them and out skilled them. He remembered the high from battle and them both cursing Jack for missing out on the fun, the bloodshed, and then...

Lawrence felt his cheeks flush at an afterthought, he dismissed it as the sun burning his face.

A shrill call from his Echo snapped him away from shameful thoughts.

Most likely Angel calling to apologise and wanting to return; hopefully. Without looking at the device Lawrence slammed a hand down on the comm, he expected Angel's soft voice requesting to return. Instead, he got her Dad.

"Sup princess, where you at?" Jack's spoke in light and casual manner which caught Lawrence off-guard.

"Sniper practice," Lawrence answered honestly.

"Hmmmm, kay," Jack replied in an incredulous tone, "put me through to one of the Digi-Jacks, I want to chat face-to-face."

Nisha's consistent pestering regarding Jack's lack of battle experience resulted in Jack making a few upgrades to his watch. Lawrence could patch Jack in, allowing him to fill in as one of the digi-structs all while safe up in Helios. It wasn't precisely what Nisha had in mind, yet it soothed her temper whenever Lawrence could call Jack for her on the battlefield. There was no way in hell he was going to summon them now.

Lawrence sighed with mild exasperation and removed his eye from the scope. He glanced down at his arm, a faint tan mark from where his watch was worn was stamped onto his left wrist. He'd not worn the watch for some time, Lawrence grounded his teeth, at the thought of seeing the digi-jacks, but the judgment was quickly shaken away.

No, Nyx and Crake are not Jack.

"You there Timtams?" Jack queried, annoyance crept into his voice.

"Can't really talk right now," Lawrence replied flatly.

"Great," Jack seethed, "Well, you're gonna talk, see the funny thing is that, I sent Nisha to come get ya, but you know she seems to be off the grid as well."

"Get this, the last guy she was seen with was ME!?" Jack exclaimed the tremor in his voice was unmistakable.

"But it couldn't have been me as I've been up here grieving over the death of my daughter who you failed to protect."

"Seeing as Angel is dead I thought I'd take a leave of absence," Lawrence replied.

"Don't you ever say her name, goddammit, don't you dare. Damn, I'm going to enjoy ripping your lungs out," Jack's voice remained taunt with an impending rage.

"See that's exactly what I thought you'd say," Lawrence drawled, "so, how about you calm down a bit and check in with me when you're ready to not kill me?"

"Timtam, did you actually kill my girlfriend?" Jack was barely audible, if he spoke any louder, he'd overflow the dam and sweep the world away in his rage. "Cause honestly, that's kinda pissing me off," he continued, voice scratchy with emotion.

here it comes, Lawrence rolled his eyes before prepping his lie to Jack, "she betrayed us," Lawrence asserted.

"YOU KILLED! MY! GIRLFRIEND!"

The dam broke.

"YOU SHOT HER IN THE GODDAMN FACE!? WHY?! THE FUCK! DID YOU SHOOT HER IN THE FUCKING FACE?! WHY-"

The conversation was over, once Jack was on his rampage there was no point arguing. Lawrence put the echo-comm on mute and let the other man vent his outrage in silence.

With another heavy sigh, Lawrence rolled over on his matt and look up at the Highlands sky. He closed his eyes, and for the briefest of moments, it was silent. Taking him out of that tranquillity was his echo, it vibrated against the gravel. Lawrence reached over and held it up against the sun, shading his face so he could read the notifications.

JACK: did you put me on mute?!

JACK: YOU GODDAMN SHIT, YOU DID!

JACK: TIM!?

Lawrence tossed it to the side, he'd deal with Jack later.

Lawrence raised his arm to give his working eye a break from blinding light. His gaze focused on his wrist, and the absent digi-struct watch. Lawrence's eyes narrowed as he considered his two digital companions, had they miss him? They hadn't seen him in months. After Jack sent him to the Bunker he'd been so furious, he couldn't stand the sight of another Jack and had kept his watch locked away in his gear-chip.

Lawrence moved his arm down and propped himself up on his elbows, his shot arm tinged with a dull throb as his weight was pushed onto it. Once sitting comfortably upright he accessed his gear-chip and retrieved the watch, its cold metal surface fell into his waiting hand. Before he could change his mind, Lawrence swiped the watch's interface with his thumb.

Pixel's erupted from the watch, purple at first until the two colours separated to form a younger magenta and cyan Jack.

"Sir?" the magenta badass spoke his tone as flat as the expression he gave him, "everything ok?"

"Ah, yeah."

Crake's magenta arms crossed as he considered Lawrence for a moment, "why are you on the ground?"

"Oh, sunbaking?"

Nyx, the cyan Jack, snorted, "need us to rub oil on your back, or would that be all boss?"

Nyx turned away from Lawrence; however, Lawrence didn't need to see Nyx's face to know the cyan Jack was irritated.

"Look, I'm sorry I haven't called on you both...in some time," Lawrence admitted.

"It's been five months, twelve days, 6 hours-" Crake attempted to inform him before Lawrence cut him off.

"Ok! I got the point!"

"Sooooooooo, how's it been?" Lawrence queried them.

"We cease to exist when we're in the watch, so nothing has 'been,'" Crake asserted.

"Ok, I'm sorry!" Lawrence blurted out to them both.

"Things between Jack and I got a little complicated. I spent some time alone and honestly, was just too pissed to see you both, ok?"

Nyx subsequently turned back to face him a wide smirk on his face, "sorry to hear, did your boyfriend find a hotter double?"

"Fuck off Nyx," Lawrence replied without any malice.

Crake just rolled his eyes.

Nyx most closely resembled Jack pre-helios's attack, maybe even pre-second wife? His sass levels were god awful high, and he had the attitude to match, but his tendency for cruelty was lessened. Lawrence was just glad Crake didn't follow suit in the sass department, the magenta hologram was characterised by Jack's older personality traits; more informative and hostile. He could become quite a handful in the heat of battle, sometimes he didn't know when to quit.

The roar of an engine drew Lawrence's attention away from the two digital Jack's. The bandit truck - recognisable by the sound - passed on below, dust kicked up forming an orange cloud, Lawrence clenched his eye shut as the wind blew the dirt overhead. The truck had a trailer attached to the back, if you could call it that, it was a bunch of chains attached to a metal sheet. The trailer caused sparks to fly when it made contact with the odd rock or two, but that wasn't what caught Lawrence's attention, it was the Destroyer chained on top of it.

Lawrence rolled over and brought his scope to his eye, he followed the truck as it reached the bandit camp ahead. Bare chests, masks, and cheering excuses for humans crawled from the compound like ants.

Like flies to the dead, the bandits ran towards the Destroyer to claim a piece. Lawrence watched a bandit dig a crowbar under the Destroyers metal skin, turning it, so it now faced Lawrence.

The red eye of Felicity stared back, the Destroyer was still alive.

Lawrence threw himself to his feet, only to take a few sickly steps back from the edge of the cliff. He dismantled his sniper and flung it over his shoulder and called to his digital companions.

He knew some part of the AI he'd met on Elpis was still in there. With that knowledge, he couldn't let her be torn apart by the savages below.

"Fancy a rescue mission, that may or may not involve killing a lot of Bandits?"

Both of the digital Jacks looked at one another in unison, before turning their attention to Lawrence.

"Sure, sir."

"Only if it involves killing bandits" Nyx grudgingly accepted.

"Oh, I think it will."


Lawrence kept as low as he could, the sand dunes provided decent cover. However, the bandit camp was on a hill embedded in the cliffside. Their position gave the bandits the upper hand, but Lawrence would have the upper hand, he had his cloaking device.

Or so he thought, Lawrence, cursed when he remember Angel had run off with it.

"Nyx I need you to make a decent distraction on the west end of the camp, Crake will provide cover for you."

"What kind of distraction?" Nyx gave Lawrence a sly wink.

"The kind that distracts bandits; guns, and fire. Sorry but, dressing in drag and doing the hula isn't going to cut it."

Nyx gave Lawrence an exaggerated pitiful look. Crake appeared ready to slap some sense into his digital brother. Yet, they both wordlessly raced away in a burst of pixels. Lawrence prepared to follow suit, he would need to wait until the fire fighting started before making his intrepid dash towards the camp's entrance.

Nyx gave a shrill and eye-rolling call to the bandits, "oh boys!"

That got them started; fire and gunpowder exploded into the wind.

Lawrence leapt down from his cover, his shield took a few hits though he kept moving. The bandit's gate and the tower would provide him with protection, he stormed forward and threw his back against the reinforced wall. Confident that no guards would be able to shoot him from above Lawrence turned and threw a grenade against the gate. It exploded with all the power a Hyperion grenade could offer, splinters and shrapnel were thrown out from the entrance, Lawrence leaned into the wall as far as he could to protect himself from the sharp onslaught of the shattered gate.

Satisfied his path was clear he turned the corner and took his first kill. The bandits head split-in-two, blood painted the trucks behind the collapsed man. Another one screamed, but it was cut shot as Lawrence caught his head with a well-aimed shot.

He dove for cover when a sizable foe emerged forward, his back leaned against the mangled frame of a truck. He could hear the heavy footsteps of the giant approaching, Lawrence peeped under the wheels and saw the bandit's feet were stained with oil. He rested on his chest and fired. The bandit lit up and ran forward, only to take another soul with him.

This was far easier than he could possibly hope for.

A shot rattled his shield, but their bullets were useless against it, he fired back before the bandit could even reload.

Sweat downed his brow, and his shirt was soaked through, Lawrence removed his bomber jacket and stashed into his gear-chip. He waited patiently against the truck, his ears itching to hear another noise, someone else to calm; but the silence ensured.

Satisfied his work was done he strode out from his cover, bodies lined the ground, but they didn't matter. He reloaded his gun before he searched the corpses for anything of value; nothing. Lawrence glanced at his watch, Nyx and Crake must have returned during the chaos as the timer revealed they were recharging within.

A low hum drew his attention away from his wrist, the Destroyer was meekly calling to him.

"Felicity!" he called as he moved into a jog to reach her.

The Destroyer could no longer hover, and half of her yellow plating had been removed, yet she was alive. The bot gave a long deep buzz upon seeing him, she struggled to regain airborne.

"No, don't worry about that. I'll get you fixed up," Lawrence huffed, still a little out of breath from the recent firefight.

Lawrence ran a hand down her side. She was damaged severely, but with the right tools he was confident, he could restore her. He knelt down beside her, so the red glow of her eye was upon him, he chuckled and pointed to his single eye.

"Look, we're the same now, I've only gone one eye too."

She beeped in response.

"Yeah, had a run in with Jack daughter, she's a Siren, did you know that?" Lawrence continued his one-sided conversation with the bot. He lodged a disconnected wire back into its socket, with her plating removed everything was vulnerable to the elements.

"I'm going to get you airborne, so I can get you back to my place, then we'll see about fixing you up," Lawrence explained.

The beep that responded was a high pitch.

Lawrence ran his hand down her side as he found her hoverboard circuit. The plating that had protected it was ripped apart, and most of the wiring was dislodge.

"This may take some time. Can you digi-struct toolkit 1.35."

The bot shook for a moment, blue particles burst forward and soon after a toolbox dropped to the ground in front of her.

"Thanks. I'm sorry about this."

Lawrence got to work, reconnecting what was frayed and wielding back what was shattered. She wasn't in too bad of shape considering, the bandits must have wanted her parts in a functioning state.

Lawrence stood up satisfied with his handy work, "Ok Felicity see is you can get up for me."

The bot beeped in reply, before rebooting her hover system. A low hum thundered below her as the gravitation field was activated. A high pitched beep echoed around the camp as she lifted herself a few inches from the ground. Not as high as she could go in her fully functional state, but enough to get her back to his safe house.

"Brilliant, let's get you home," Lawrence beamed.

"How do you know her real name," a disembodied voice called.

Lawrence sprang to his feet, face flushed red with the realisation his conversation hadn't been private. His eyes darted around the camp for the source of the intruder. He raised his gun - thankfully - he held back from firing as Angel emerged behind a bloodstained truck.

"Angel?" Lawrence blurted out, face still sheepishly red.

Her sudden appearance and in a bandit camp no less was not what Lawrence had anticipated. His eyes scanned about him, abruptly becoming aware of the bodies that littered the ground.

"How do you know Felicity?" She queried him again, her voice quiet yet stern.

"I um… have known her for some time," Lawrence's reply was awkward, he couldn't' fathom that Jacks Siren daughter was standing in a blood-soaked bandit camp.

"Jack never called her that," she spoke absentmindedly as she cautiously approached the side of the Destroyer. "To him, she was Destroyer 5.46"

Curiosity washed over him, forgetting the surprise of her reappearance, "how do you know her name?"

"We used to talk together," Angel replied gravely.

"What?" Lawrence's eyes widened as he looked from the Felicity to Angel.

The bot gave a low hum in agreement.

"I thought my dad had programmed in her personality, someone for me to talk with over the network. I immediately realised he'd never do anything so personally with a war machine."

Lawrence's hand was still resting on the side of Felicity.

"Felicity used to be much more than this…" Lawrence solemnly admitted.

Agnel responded cooly, "I suspected as much. There is substantial unexplained data in her code, data that alludes to a far higher intelligence that a war machine."

"Your Dad and I found her on Elpis. Then we… moved her into this." The words escaped his mouth so quickly Lawrence hadn't realised how badly he needed to confess.

I should've left his service on that day.

"You really aren't him, are you," she spoke softly as her eyes lingered over him.

"I'm not Jack."

He'd spoken those words earlier, but this time the confession seemed more real, a sickening feeling rose in his chest from the admission. Lawrence rubbed the side of his collarbone to extradite the tension.

"We should talk," was all she had to say and Lawrence nodded in agreement and Felicity beeped.


"So who are you?"

Angel's round face glanced up at him, as Lawrence zipped open the Eridium cooler-bag.

"Lawrence," he replied flatly.

Angel returned a silent glare, evidently not satisfied with his answer.

They'd made it back to his safe house in one piece, Felicity had hovered at the back moving slowly across the sandy hillsides and Angel had lingered close to her side. The giant bot protected her from the elements. However, Lawrence suspected Angel sought the Destroyers presence over his own. He wasn't at all surprised, he resembled the man who had imprisoned her.

Trust was all but vacant on Pandora, especially between those who barely had anything to gain from one another. Getting the girl to open up was going to require patience, something he lacked after embodying Jack for so long.

Her weary steps could have been from exhaustion or caution, maybe both. She'd spent two cycles alone in Pandora, without food or water, she must have some darn good luck. However, now they were safely guarded by walls and a roof, Angel was recovering with a bottle of water in hand and Lawrence was getting ready to administer her another dosage or Eridium.

Her bright eyes rested on his, she was still waiting on answers to her first question.

Lawrence rubbed his collarbone, "I'm your Dad's double, but proper double, I don't have a clocking device to look like him. I was...ah, surgically altered."

"Surgically?" she raised a single brow.

"Well that and some gene modifications, they had to change my hair colour and get rid of my freckles."

Lawrence ran a hand through his hair, he knew it should be a copper colour, but he'd long forgotten how it looked like on him.

"He never told me about you," Angel spoke quietly as she fidgeted with his Hyperion sweater. "He used to tell me everything."

Lawrence just shrugged and gave an apathetic reply, "very few people knew I existed. To everyone I was Jack."

Angel's face remained dissatisfied, her lips screwed up as she contemplated his words.

"I should've known, the scar on your face isn't blue like his," her eyes traced the mark across his face.

"Yeah, Jack did regret that. Said he should have had it tattooed...after he'd burned in the mark."

Her eyes widened at the casual tone he took to being disfigured.

"We can probably dilute this down now with some water, or a health-kit, what do you think?" Lawrence questioned, as he swung the syringe forward, Angel gave a slow nod.

Lawrence stood up from the stool he'd been occupying to find his med box. His movements were sluggish, three cycles of the Pandora sun turned his safe house into a miniature sauna. He was tempted to strip his shirt, but reason told him that wasn't the best idea.

"Why did you save me?" Angels voice was quiet as if she hoped he wouldn't hear her question.

Lawrence stretched up to retrieve the med box from the shelf when he turned back around she was relentlessly tearing at the sleeves of his jumper. Lawrence bit his top lip, he had no experience with children, let alone teenagers. He figured honesty was the best course forward, even if it did nothing to soothe her nerves.

"Everyone thought you were dead," Lawrence looked her in the eye, "even Jack."

Angel continued to tear at the sleeves. Lawrence pulled out a health-kit and drew the red substance into the other syringe. He tossed the liquid back in forth in the chamber, so the two materials blended to a deep burgundy.

Lawrence let out a sigh, he was exhausted, and the heat did nothing to abate his fatigue.

"I just...saw the opportunity," he reasoned, "that's all."

Angel's eyes broke with his to stare at the floor, her shoulders were hunched in, as if to shrink and hide.

"So does that mean you don't work for him anymore?" She asked quietly.

"Yes," Lawrence lied, he genuinely didn't know.

Lawrence stepped towards the Siren who was meekly waiting on the cot. He stood in front of her and waited for her to admit him into her presence. She rolled up her left sleeve and held out her arm for him. He was swift as didn't want to linger too close to her, the needle was in and out before she could blink.

"All done," he gave her a curt smile.

"So what are you planning to do with me?" Angel pushed her tone to be frimer, yet she could not relinquish her timid approach.

Lawrence quickly adapted, he softened his temper and stepped back to keep his distance. "With you? Nothing. I was thinking of taking you to the Vault Hunters. If you'd like that."

He honestly hadn't thought this far ahead. Save the girl was the plan. Then maybe use her powers to get off this planet? Or trade her with the Vault hunters for a ship? Lawrence bit his tongue at the last thought.

Angel leaned forward, her brow creased together, Lawrence couldn't tell if she was in disbelief or annoyed.

"Why?" She probed.

"I thought that's what you'd want?" Lawrence replied slowly, he was unable to get a read on her. "Unless you want to leave?"

Angel didn't respond. Instead, she rubbed at her arm where the injection site was.

"Ok, but what do you want?" She leaned back upright, evoking more energy than before.

"Ah?"

Angel crossed her arms and leaned back into the wall beside the cot.

"No one does anything on Pandora without a price Mr Lawrence," caution coated her voice, as she eyed him carefully.

"ah, Just Lawrence," he grounded his teeth, before admitting the catch, "get me off this planet, and I'll get you to the Vault Hunters."

She'd finally finished toying with her sleeves and now it appeared another person was sitting in front of him. As if discussing terms inspired some courage into her.

"It's a deal," she nodded, tone firm.

Angel raised her left hand to shake his, and he awkwardly met it with his left.

"Left-handed? Should have told me to inject your other arm," his tone light as he gave her a short smile.

She just shrugged, "guess I'm not used to actually...doing things…"

Lawrence had nothing to say to that.

He ran a hand down the side of his face, exhaustion was clinging to his mind. His hand traced his cybernetic eye, he figured now was as good a time as any to ask for his sight back.

"Well, now that we're on more familiar terms, think you can restore my sight?"

"Oh...sure," despite her weariness she agreed.

Her right hand was thrown forward, and her arm lit up through the jumper. Lawrence grimaced as he felt a tingling sensation run through his veins, everything seemed to emit static before his vision flickered back.

"My thanks," he replied gingerly, still rubbing his temple.

Lawrence checked his digi-struct watch, "this cycle is nearly over, the sun may still be out, but it's time each of us got some rest."

"But-"

Lawrence cut her off, "I'm sure you have many questions, and I'll answer them after I've rested. I don't know if Sirens need sleep, but I do."

"We do," she grumbled back before her eyes darted around the very tiny room, Lawrence chimed in before she could ask.

"I'll take the floor, and I'm sure Felicity can stand guard."

The bot had remained silent during the entire exchange. However, she gave a high pitch beep as if to affirm she was still aware.

Angel nodded and began to curl back in on her self. Confidence seemed to be drawn out of her quicker than she gained it.

Lawrence let out a short groan as he relaxed against the opposing wall. He slowly lowered himself to the ground, his recent venture in retrieving Felicity had worn him thin.

This rescue work was a tiresome business. He just hoped their journey to Sanctuary was swift and painless.


****AUTHOR NOTES*****


I hoped you enjoyed the long chapter! How are you finding it? This was really tricky to write, there were so many things Angel and Tim could have discussed. Hopefully, I got the pacing and their characterisation just right. please let me know in a review/comment x

Also, Lion Kin reference :p

A03 Version, if you prefer to read it there - /works/12897621/chapters/29464575