Author's Note: Hey guys! So I am definitely not where I wanted this story to be at this point, so that just means I'll have to keep up the pace. Luckily, summer's here! I'll try to update more often seeing as how I'm on break. As a special treat and way of apology, I made this chapter a little longer than extra, and threw in something I hope you'll appreciate. Anyway, let's move on. I do not own Borderlands. Enjoy!

"Alright, Killer, I'm back in Sanctuary." Lilith's voice came out over the ECHO.
"A little busy here, doll." Axton grimaced as he dodged a nomad's swipe and emptied his pistol into the nomad's head. Axton then ducked down and reloaded as fast as possible before noticing that all of the attacking bandits were dead. Axton relaxed and holstered his gun and grabbed his tomahawk from a psycho's corpse. The Vault Hunters were ambushed as soon as they reentered Three Horns Divide. Fortunately for Zer0's intuition in assassination, the Vault Hunters came out on top. Axton walked over to where Maya was healing Salvador from a few lucky shots and where Zer0 was cleaning his blade. Gaige was off looting the corpses, whistling a song and almost skipping to the melody. If she wasn't covered in blood and had a floating robot standing (flying?) next to her, it would have been a cute sight. Axton sighed and hit the comms button. "Sorry about that, Lil. What's up?"
"First, if you ever call me 'doll' again, I will liquify your insides." Lilith snarled in a calm manner that made Axton's bones chill. "Second, the Bloodshots have camped all around the dam. You'll probably want a vehicle to soak up some bullets for you."
"Thanks for the advice… uh, ma'am." Axton swallowed.
"This isn't Dahl, Soldier Boy. Just Lilith will be fine."
"Right. We're on it." Axton signed off and relayed Lilith's message.
"So what's the plan? Guns blazing?" Maya asked.
"Pretty much." Axton replied. "We can't do much without knowing exactly where they're camped. So let's take it nice and-"
"I call driving!"
"Me too!"

Salvador and Gaige scrambled to the light runners as Axton, Maya and Zer0 watched. Axton pinched the bridge of his nose, Maya sighed, and Zer0 sheathed his sword. "Shotgun." They all called out simultaneously.

The road to Three Horns Valley was uneventful, save for a few sudden turns that Salvador just had to pull at high speeds. Soon the Vault Hunters came to the entrance of the Bloodshot Dam. The iron walls were tall and surrounded with spikes. The only way in was the front door. Say what you will about bandits, Axton thought. They know fortification. "Huh, nobody seems to be around." Lilith commented. She was watching through Gaige's ECHO vid broadcast, allowing her to see everything. "Guess this won't be so hard after all. Just drive up and honk your horn." Salvador guided the vehicle up to the gate and honked the horn a few times.
"Who's there?" A voice called out from behind the gate.
"Um, bandits?" Gaige called back.
"Are you kidding me?" Axton whispered. "There's no way they'll fall for that. Only an idiot will fall for that!"
"Which bandits?" The voice called back.
"Um, the ones from… the other camp."
"… Oh! Hey, guys! I'll just open the gate for ya!"
"You have gotta be kidding me." Axton stared slack jawed as the gate began to lower. He turned to Zer0 who just shrugged and flashed a "?".
"Hold it, idiots!" Flanksteak's raspy voice screamed through the speakerphones, freezing the gate from opening. "That don't look like one of technicals! They're here for our hostage! Get 'em!"
"Couldn't say we didn't see that one coming." Maya muttered as the gates where raised and bandits came jumping over the fence.
"Gotta say, I am impressed with their loyalty to their own cause." Gaige remarked.
"And their stupidity." Salvador added as he opened fire. "Can't believe they're attacking armed cars with guns and clubs."
"So, any ideas on how we're getting in?" Gaige asked as the gunfire subsided and the last of the bandits fell.
"Vaulting is ideal/ But risky without knowing/ What lies opposite." Zer0 commented as he surveyed the walls. "Maya? Your powers?/ Could you teleport us all/ Or lift us over?"
"I doubt it." Maya bit her lip in thought. "Lilith powers are different from my own. Plus she's way more powerful than me. I could only lift one of us at a time for every few minutes, and I'm not sure how well I could control it. And we still have the same problem with vaulting without knowing what or who is waiting on the other side."
"Front door is the only entrance." Axton concluded. He closed his eyes in deep thought, trying to crack this puzzle wide open. "Y'all ain't gettin' in the dam that way, peppernip!" A hillbillly twang came through their ECHOs.

"Scooter?" Maya realized. Axton's eyes she wide open.
"The Bloodshots ain't lettin' y'all in without a truck like theirs." Scooter gleefully pointed out. "Yeah, they did say something about their technicals." Gaige noted.
"But where can we get one?" Salvador asked. "It's not like the pendejos have them parked for us to just grab them."
"Go see my kin out in the Dust." Scooter replied. "She'll hook you up with some sleepy lookin' wheels! Mmhmm! Elie's way out there in bandit country. Be careful out there, amigos. I really mean it."

It was a long drive out to the dust. Axton stared out the window of the light runner and saw the land shift from snow, to rocky, to sand. The Dust. Aptly named. Axton's eyes began to close from drowsiness. How long has it been since I last slept? He thought with a yawn. Probably since Claptrap's boat. Axton's eyes shut, then open, then finally shut. All he saw was blackness. Then knocking. Axton shook himself awake in his seat. He looked out to wear Zer0 was perched on the runner. "We're here." He said. "Sorry to wake you."
"No, it's fine." Axton stretched in his seat. "How long was I out?"
"Not long." Zer0 responded, readjusting his grip as Salvador made a sharp turn. Axton looked to see that they were headed towards some kind of junkyard. As the Vault Hunters approached, they could hear someone screaming in pain.
"Someone's in trouble!" Maya exclaimed. "Hurry!" Gaige and Salvador stepped on the gas as hard as they could and boosted until they were at the junkyard's entrance. With some careful maneuvering. The hit the brakes and drifted so both runners blocked the way out. The Vault Hunters jumped out of their seats and drew their guns. Axton held a shotgun in one hand and his turret box in the other. Maya held an SMG and her tattoos glowed dangerously. Salvador held assault rifles in each hand and Gaige summoned DeathTrap. Zer0 landed on top of the flying robot and held his sword at the ready. The Vault Hunters were ready for battle. What they were not ready for was the sight of a bandit in his technical being squashed by a huge trash compactor being controlled by an immensely huge woman.
"I shoulda killed your fat ass when I had the chance!" The bandit screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Sorry, what was that?" The woman yelled back. "You gotta speak up!" The bandit screamed his last scream as the compactor smashed down on him, splashing blood in every which direction.
"Um, who was it that we were supposed to help?" Gaige asked, stunned, as the Vault Hunters put away their weapons and just stood in shock.
"I'm not sure." Maya responded, equally dumbfounded.
"Heh, that was awesome." Salvador and the woman said simultaneously. The woman suddenly realized that she had company and turned to greet her guests. Axton tensed up. Whoever this woman was, she was not to be trifled with. Scooter did warn them.
"Oh, howdy!" The woman greeted cheerfully. "I didn't see ya there!" The woman walked over to the Vault Hunters as daintily as she could possibly manage to look. It was almost as if she didn't murder someone in cold blood a few minutes earlier. "Name's Elie, I like cuddlin` and murder!" She said with a bubbly personality. "My brother Scooter told me y'all was comin`! Don't get many visitors around here, especially not ones so cute." She winked.
"Was that to you or me?" Axton whispered to Maya.
"I thought it was to Gaige." She whispered back.
"No! It was Salvador!" Gaige insisted.
"So accordin` to Scooter, y'all are tryin` ta rescue your pal Roland from the dam, huh?" Elie asked, readjusting the straps of her work harness.
"Uh, yes." Maya replied. "But we had trouble getting into the front gate. The Bloodshots recognized us and shut the gate. There's no other way in. Scooter said you could help us with that?"
"Mmmhmmm!" Elie giggled. "I betcha y'all could fool those Bloodshots if you drove up in one of their custom trucks." Elie's face lit up. "I got one over yonder that I…" Elie looked towards the trash compactor and stared at it for a moment. "that I… crushed with the driver still inside." Elie looked back at the Vault Hunters sheepishly. "My bad." She shrugged.
"Great." Axton sighed. "Any ideas on how to get a new one?" "Well," Elie thought for a moment. "I got a vanilla technical in the shop and most of the parts we need. Just gotta doll it up with more of the bandits trimmin's."
"Trimmings?" Gaige inquired.
"Spikes, blood, skulls. That kinda thing. Y'all could probably scavenge that stuff from the bandit patrols around here."
"How are going to get parts from the patrols?" Axton asked.
"You'll have ta blow up some bandit cars and grab the crap from the wreckage." Elie answered. "And don't pay `em any mind if they start calling y'all names. That just makes killing `em that much more fun." Elie laughed.
"Works for me!" Salvador cheered and scrambled back into one of the runners. "Baminos amigos!" He shouted while honking the horn.
"I'm riding with Sal this time!" Gaige called out as she ran towards the runner.
"I'm driving this time./ I am tired of hanging/ Off the side railings." Zer0 announced.
"Fine by me." Maya said. "I'll shoot."
"Hey, what am I supposed to do?" Axton said, offended that he was being left out. He also felt a twinge of unpleasantness at the thought of Maya and Zer0 going solo in the runner, but he didn't know why. They were all just teammates. Friends. So was Sara. He thought before wiping it out of his head.
"You can cover us./ Just hang onto the runner/ And shoot down bad guys." Zer0 suggested.
"Here," Maya handed over her gun. You can borrow my Maliwan Sniper Rifle. It's got awesome fire power, and corrosive too, so that should help against the technicals." Axton looked down at his hands and back up at the Siren. Though they haven't been together too long, he knew she loved the elemental weapons they've looted from bandits.
"Wow. Thanks." Was all he could say.
"I'm getting it back afterwards." Maya quickly said before jumping onto the runner. Was that a blush? Axton thought. Nah. And with that, he jumped on and perched himself next to her, right where Zer0 had been hanging on.
"Hold on tight." Zer0 warned and pressed the gas.

BOOM! Another vehicle went up in smoke. "Zer0! Drive me closer to the tire!" Axton yelled while leaning as far as he could without falling off the runner. Bullets were flying everywhere as Maya covered him from the gunner seat. A huge buzz saw whizzed over Axton's head as he picked up the parts from the wreckage that Elie needed. "Got 'em!" Axton confirmed. "Let me just- Shit!" Axton's left hand began to lose its grip on the railings due to the unexpected weight of the car parts. Shit shit shit shit shit! Suddenly, Axton found himself only a few feet from the speeding ground, his head inches from one of the tires. He looked up to see Maya had grabbed him by his belt in the nick of time. "Thanks." Axton breathed, giving a thumbs up. Maya smirked and hauled him back on top of the runner.
"Close call." She said, getting back into her seat.
"No kidding." Axton responded, shaking off the trauma of nearly being roadkill and handing her the car parts. "Gotta give Z more credit. He makes hanging off these things look easy. And he's a way safer driver than Sal!" Maya chuckled and pulled him down by his collar as another buzz saw passed by. Axton could feel the air shifting as the saw passed overhead. He suddenly noticed how close he was to Maya's face. "Uh, thanks for the save. Again." Maya blushed and immediately released him.
"No problem. Just keep an eye out, Ax. I won't always be there to save you." Maya replied as she turned her gun toward the bandit vehicle. I won't always be there to save you. Axton grimaced as the sting of Sara's voice echoed Maya's words. Though it was a complete coincidence, the reminders weren't helpful. "Hey! You guys got the parts? Because we're about finished on our end." Gaige's voice came through their ECHO comms. "Yeah, Gaige. We're heading back now." Axton answered. He crawled forward and knocked on the railing above Zer0's head. "You got that, Z?" Zer0 flashed him a 0 sign on his visor. "And for the record," Axton added as he repositioned himself, "I am never doing this again!" Zer0 turned around and flashed a ;) before returning his attention to the road and blasting off.

Back at Elie's, the Vault Hunters pooled their resources and trophies together for Elie to work with. "We won!" Salvador cheered and high-fives Gaige.
"Boosh! Take that suckahs!" Gaige taunted.
"This was a contest?" Maya raised an eyebrow. Axton just shrugged. "Also, what for? It looks like we got back even."
"But we got here first!" Salvador pointed out. Zer0 just stood by silently and went over to the pile of loot. He reached behind his back and pulled out another car part and added it to the pile.
"You missed one." Zer0 said to Axton. Salvador and Gaige just stared.
"Wh- How- Why?!" Gaige dropped to her knees, dumbfounded.
"I never fail a challenge." Zer0 stated, crossing his arms.
"Um, ok. Now that that's over," Axton turned towards Elie, "ready to get started?"
"Sure am!" Elie smiled. "This'll just take me a few minutes." She gathered up all of the parts and hurried over to the technical in her garage. A few minutes later, after the sounds of sparks, mechanical movement and country whistling, Elie stepped back from her creation. Axton had to admit. It was a fairly good job considering all she had to work with were scrapes and tires. "Now for the final touch!" Elie went over to the Catch-A-Ride system in the garage and began to type out a few key commands. A light on the garage ceiling lit up and went all over the vehicle, scanning it. With a whoosh, the car began to digistruct and soon disappeared. "Now y'all can take her for a spin whenever you want!" Elie took out a cloth and began to wipe her face. She gestured to the Catch-A-Ride behind her, and Axton stepped forward. He selected the bandit technical and added an exploding barrel catapult instead of the buzz saw shooter. He his select and the car digistructed onto the platform.
"Thanks, Elie." Axton marveled. "This is fantastic."
"Aw, shucks." Elie shuffled the dirt around with her feet, bashfully. "Just helpin' folks the best way Ah know how." She nodded towards the car. "Hop on already." Axton climbed into the driver's seat and started her up. The roar of the engine felt like fireworks exploding.
"Now that looks like the car of a psycho murderer." Lilith's voice came through their ECHOs. "I'm diggin' it! Get back to the Bloodshot dam and try honkin' your way in again."
"You heard the lady, all aboard!" Elie rallied. The Vault Hunters did as they were told. Salvador took the catapult while Gaige, Zer0 and Maya took positions on the back of the truck.
"Y'all come one back now!" Elie waved as the Vault Hunters drove off for Round Two.

"Looks like one of ours." Flanksteak said through the intercom back at the dam. "Let 'em in while I try to get Hyperion back on the horn."
"Ok, good sign." Axton breathed as the gate opened. "They haven't sold Roland yet."
"Bueno, bueno." Salvador nodded. "Can I fire this ting up yet, or what?"
"Go nuts." Gaige told him as she climbed out of the technical.
"We've been tricked! Kill them!" Bullets flew all around as the Vault Hunters dove into battle. Salvador, laughing like a maniac, covered them with the catapult, as he launched exploding barrel after barrel at the bandits. "Get 'em, Badmaw!" The Vault Hunters turned to see the drawbridge into the dam had been lowered and a big bandit carrying a huge metal shield leaped out. "It's Badmaw!" Flanksteak cheered. "And his merry midgets!"
"What?" Gaige paused in mid battle to check if she heard right. In response, Badmaw slammed his shield down, revealing three psycho midgets chained to the front. "Oh, nice." Gaige said sarcastically, and opened fire. Axton threw out his turret behind Badmaw as Gaige drew his fire from the front.
"Las cadenas! Las cadenas!" Salvador yelled at them.
"What?" Axton shouted back as he duck behind cover.
"The chains! Shoot the chains!" Salvador exclaimed. "The midgets don't like being tied up!"
"Understood." Zer0 confirmed. He went invisible as his hologram spun forward to keep the giant bandit busy. A few shots rang out seconds later and the chains of the shield snapped off. One by one, the midgets broke free and started their newfound freedom by attacking their former captor. As Badmaw swung at them like gnats, the Vault Hunters focused their fire on him until he was blown away by another exposing barrel.
"Well, that was fun." Axton grunted, standing up to dust himself off. "Think there'll be any more like him?"
"Maybe." Maya warned.
"Great." Axton muttered sarcastically. "Great, great, great." He walked over and pulled a lever connected to the drawbridge chain to lower it completely, and the Vault Hunters stepped inside the dam.

"You're in?" Lilith responded on the ECHO to Maya's confirmation. "Great. Roland should be around here somewhere."
"We'll get to looking immediately." Maya assured her. "There's just a lot of Bloodshots between us."
"I'm sure you can handle yourself, but if anything happens to Roland…" Lilith paused. "Make sure nothing happens to Roland."
"We're on it, boss." Axton said, signing off. He turned to where Gaige was handing out ammo for everyone to load up. "Where'd you get all of that?"
"Over there." Gaige thumbed the Ammo Dump vending machine behind her. "It's no wonder that Pandora is the gun capital of the Border planets when even the bandits are involved with the business. They even have their own gun brand!"
"This has Marcus Munitions written all over it." Maya said.
"Marcus? How can you be sure?" Axton asked.
"Because it has Marcus Munitions written all over it." Maya pointed at the words on the machine.
"Not surprising." Salvador said, loading up. "He supplied plenty of guns to mi abuela. And my cousins. And my enemies!" He chuckled. "Good times." Once everyone was ready, they ran up the steps to face off against the Bloodshots.

The Vault Hunters charged into the hydraulics room of the dam, jumping behind concrete stands for fire cover. Axton threw out his turret and Zer0 went invisible. Gaige went a little fire crazy, screaming about anarchy. It was enough to send a chill down Axton's spine. From the hydraulics, they ended up in some sort of engine room with a lot of cover. And a lot of exploding tanks. Salvador was very happy at the end of that bloodbath. As they moved on, they could hear Flanksteak leaving public ECHOs for Hyperion to pick up and buy Roland off of him. "Well that's a good sign." Gaige offered. "Maybe Hyperion doesn't believe him and won't come to pay."
"Hyperion wants Roland, bad." Lilith warned. "Even if they don't buy him from the Bloodshots, they'll be coming for him. You better hurry."
"Oh… Crap." The Vault Hunters doubled their efforts to get through to the next area. They were led to a large room that went around in a spiral upwards. In the center of the room was a swirling whirlpool. Ho, and tons of Bloodshots everywhere.
"Look at all of those murderous Bloodshots." Jack's voice loomed in their ECHOs. "Don't you think Pandora would be better without their scum? That's all I wanna do. Clean up this planet. If that means I've got to kill bandits, like you, like the Bloodshots, like all those Crimson Raider idiots in Sanctuary? Hell, I'm happy to do it."
"Freaking creep." Gaige spat before charging in. The Vault Hunters followed her up the spiraling path of collapsed concrete, all the while shooting at everything that shot back. Salvador led the charge with a Torgue shotgun in one hand and a Maliwan slag pistol. Maya must have been getting a little practice with her powers because she lifted two to three bandits at a time and flung them into the whirlpool below. Axton was providing cover fire for her cover fire, but at the top of the spiral, when they came to a large bridge, he tackled her to the ground, dodging an incoming rocket within a hair's length.
"Thanks." Maya breathed after the explosion went off.
"You had my back in the Dust." Axton grinned. "I've got yours." He held out his hand.
"Deal." Maya replied, taking it and standing up. They both focused their attention on the bandit that was firing rockets from his rocket launcher in the middle of the bridge. There was no accessible way to get to him or distract him. Unless…
"Gaige!" Axton yelled through the comms. "Can you get Deathtrap to-"
"Way ahead of you, cowboy." Gaige quickly responded. The sound of digistructing and bright lights came soon after, followed by Gaige's hover robot flying out to the space next to the bridge. Deathtrap fired its laser at the bandit and deflected the oncoming rockets with its digistruct claws.
"I'll say one thing about the fat bandit," Axton noted as the bandit ran around, dodging the lasers. "He's pretty nimble."
"C'mon, Mad Mike, you wuss!" A voice shouted out just finish 'em."
"Shut up, you idiots!" Mad Mike shouted back, breaking his concentration. That was enough for Zer0 to take enough key shots with his sniper rifle. Mike went down into the whirlpool, but not before leaving a present for Salvador to pick up.
"Rocket launcher! Sweet!" Salvador laughed like a boy getting a Christmas present.

"Shit! He's got a rocket launcher! Run!" The bandits ran off in fear. That made Salvador laugh even harder and fire faster. With this newfound firepower, the Vault Hunters broke through the ranks of the bandits. Zer0 jumped from kill to kill, while scouting for ammunition for Salvador's rocket launcher. Axton and Gaige provided cover fire wherever Sal's rockets couldn't reach and Maya took out the stragglers. They pushed through a few more concrete areas until they reached a prison complex with a lot of cages.
"This must be the place." Axton announced. "Let's look for Roland." The Vault Hunters went forward slowly, searching every cage they could find, until they came to a cell at the end of the block. In it sat two figures. The first was a dark skinned man wearing a beret and a camouflage uniform. The second figure was… "Krieg!" Maya ran up to the cage and gripped the bars. Axton stared. Inside the cage was the same badass psycho that saved Maya back in Three Horns, and the train station apparently. He was just sitting there calmly, but at the sound of Maya's voice, he jumped up and went wild.
"The Lady of Blue shows signs to be gone!" He announced.
"What?" Axton and Gaige said simultaneously.
"I think he meant that us being here is a sign of freedom." Maya guessed.
"The path turns right!"
"See?"
"I was wondering if any of you knew who this psycho was and why he wasn't harming me." The man said, smiling. "Good to know he's with you."
"Are you Roland?" Axton asked, eager to change the subject. The man's smile broadened.
"And you're the Vault Hunters." Roland replied. "Nice to finally meet you in person. Hell of a job fighting off all of those Bloodshots."
"No sweat." Gaige grinned.
"How about we get you two out of there?" Maya said. "There's a lot of people waiting for you at Sanctuary." A sudden electronic hum and whine began to build up nearby. The wall next to Roland exploded and a Hyperion Loader Bot stepped through. "This'll just take a second." Roland smiled casually. He turned to the Bot and tackled it. He ripped its core out of its shell and threw it like a grenade at another incoming Bot. The Bot exploded, only for another Loader to bulldoze him and the remains of the other two Bots into the wall. Before Axton or anybody could raise their weapons to help, Roland blasted the Loader with a gun he ripped from the arms of the destroyed Bots at his feet. "Now, let's see about getting out of here." Axton was about to remake how amazing that was, when a light blue electronic tendril grabbed Roland's wrist. More tendrils came and grabbed his remaining wrist, feet, and waist, and began pulling him out of the cage into a waiting Hyperion robot's cage.
"And that's how Handsome Jack pays ransoms!" Jack's voice came through everybody's ECHOs. "Long time no see, Roland."
"Let go of me, dammit!" Roland yelled and struggled. The robot lifted him and began to float away. Another wall exploded nearby, allowing more robots to pour in.
"Let's go! Quick!" Axton was the first to recover. "Let's save Roland!"

Author's Note: Yes! I finally put in Krieg! The Vault Hunters are at their full numbers! Time for the hilarity to ensue. Shout out to the random guest and Dionnee-Chan for suggesting it. Writing for Krieg is going to be hard, but I've got some fun plans for him in mind. You also might have noticed something going on with Axton and Maya. Well… ;) Anyway, now that I've established all of that, I did like a lot of the suggestions you guys gave me, and I want to try and incorporate them into the story somehow too. So if you have any suggestions for how the story should go, like character interactions, dialogue, reactions to events or missions, please let me know! You guys gave me a ton of awesome and creative ideas and I'm looking forward to seeing more! See you guys next time!