Rhys's heart raced as his long legs galloped through the Crimson Raiders HQ. Pumping his arms, a swing a second, he must have seemed like a marathon runner. But he was running for a reason. Vaughn and Yvette, and God knew how many others, were in trouble. He needed help.

More specifically, he required the firepower of Vault Hunters.

Yaeger dragged a palm down his scarred, ruined face. He felt the bumps, ridges and craters, all hardened, on the right side of his face. It had been a while since he'd physically touched it. In the past, sometimes, he'd touched it to remind himself of the mess he'd gotten himself into, despite his surroundings being more than enough to make realise how fucked up his situation was. First, slaving away as Handsome Jack's victimised body double, then breaking free of the corporate shackles binding him, tossing the damn mask away and watching the sandstorm swallow it up and at the same time, more imperently, feeling the sting of blitzing sand particles against seared flesh.

Abandoning the mask had been symbolic, he felt. No more Handsome Jack's slave, no more Timothy Lawrence. Lawrence had been a fool who had gotten in over his head after undergoing dubious surgery lacking his consent. Lawrence had been another victim of Jack, had been in Jack's inner circle of freaks and sadists but never truly a part of it.

Lawrence had died the day he tossed that mask away. Yaeger pinched the bridge of his nose, right where the scar intersected and crossed over (ow, that hurt). With a wince, he immediately let go of his face. He felt agitated. He hadn't expected an audience to grace him with its presence. And who better to get front row seats than the very people who kidnapped him.

"Who invited Wonderpunch and Birdmania to this party?" He griped in Handsome Jack's voice, tossing his thumb to indicate Brick and Mordecai. The former was cracking his knuckles, "I wanna punch 'im."

"Yeah, I wonder if ya got the smarts to land a punch right, Ab-stack, 'cause when ya took me on, you weren't too hot."

"Says the Jack copycat who had robot servants shooting and exploding at us." This came from Mordecai, polishing the glass scope of a sniper rifle with a rag. "You're like a fucked up, poor man's Jack. Not sure what I should do more: pity you, or just end you." He hoisted his rifle, picked Yaeger in his sights, and mimed shooting Yaeger's head off. The ex-doppelganger scowled at Mordecai's dark smirk.

Talon, the young bird of prey on the infamous sniper's shoulder, dug her claws into Mordecai's shoulder and squawked aggressively. Yaeger gave a chuckle. "Yeah, no, I don't see you killin' me anytime soon. Any of you." He turned to Maya and Lilith. "See, I'm a keen fan of survival. Real big on it. You could say, I'm its No.1 fan."

He placed his hands behind his head and kicked his feet up. "So, any more questions?"

Gaige, seated beside the Sirens, raised her hand. "Just one: why are you such a - "

Before Gaige could begin her insult/rhetorical question, the doors swept open and a lanky cyborg burst into the interrogation room.

"Hey! You can't interrupt us! We're in the middle of questioning!" Maya argued.

Yaeger waved her down. "No, no. Do interrupt. By all means, please interrupt. God, please interrupt the most tortorous Q&A ever. Of all time." Rhys regarded the relaxing prisoner cautiously.

"Heya Rhysie. What's got your wiring in a bunch?" Yaeger asked, noticing the apprehension on the man's face. Was it Rhys' imagination, or did Yaeger actually sound concerned?

Lilith demanded, "What do you want, killer?"

"Knock it off with that nickname." Rhys scowled at the Firehawk. His heart clenched in sorrow. "Just - stop calling me that." He cleared his throat. "I need some help. It involves bandits dying, you getting some possible loot and a definite paycheck."

"Hell yes, count me in!" cried Yaeger, straightening. "Anything to break the monotony of prison cells, bad rations, and gruelling questions. Though I gotta say, I don't mind the eyecandy. Not one bit." He winked at the Sirens, who looked repulsed.

"I think I need sulphuric acid to melt my eyes out after that..." muttered Lilith, rubbing her chin.

Yaeger cackled at that. "Hell no, you ain't goin' anywhere." Mordecai started towards him.

"Aww, why not?" Yaeger pouted. "Seriously though, why?" The mirth from his eyes had vanished, replaced by steely determination.

"Hyperion or ex-Hyperion, you're all the damn same," scoffed Mordecai. "Hyperions don't change."

"Word," added Brick.

"And the second we turn our back on you, the second we give ya any freedom of moment, you're gonna stab us in the stab and laugh in our ear."

Yaeger balled his hands into fists. He tightened his jaw, an aura of rage radiating from him. "I have more reasons to hate Hyperion than all of you combined. I'm the furthest thing from Hyperion. They might have co-erced me into working with them a long time ago, but..." He bowed his head. "You've heard my story. I'm not that man anymore. I'm not Handsome Jack's puppet anymore. And I am still alive," he said defiantly. He nodded to Mordecai. "You hate Hyperion? Hate Jack, right?"

Silence. Yaeger persisted through it. "Well, I hate them - him - even more. Tenfold, twentyfold, a thousand fold - it doesn't matter. Because at the end of the day, I am not ex-Hyperion. I was never Hyperion. Not really. Just like I was never like Jack. Not really."

Rhys challenged, "Then why keep his voice?" Yaeger's speech had him on edge. Maybe he shouldn't bring any of the Vault Hunters, then again, what choice did he have? He just hoped their greed for green overrode any reflexes to kill (ex)Hyperions. It made sense now; why Yaeger had attacked him back in the Dust.

Time stopped.

Everything stopped.

Bewildered, Yaeger turned to him, looking absolutely stunned.

"Now that's a good question," agreed Gaige.

"I... Because, I - ..." Then, Yaeger sagged. He carded a hand through his hair. "...Because I can't remember what my own voice sounds like." He hung his head. Shut his eyes before he teared up. Yaeger sniffed. He looked up, his eyes open once more.

Rhus emitted a very small "Oh". He addressed Maya. Time to get with the programme. "Mainly it's you I'm after. I heard you were a miracle worker."

"You mean my healing powers?"

Rhys gave a nod.

"Huh. It's been a while since I was asked to save a life rather than take one."

"Oh, make no mistake: it's gonna be a bloodbath."

Rhys didn't dole out the specifics, but he had roped three Vault Hunters into the job. Maya. Timothy/Yaeger. Gaige. Mordecai had been appalled when he bore holes into the back of the retreating Yaeger's head with his eyes.

"Okay, why? Why are we letting that scumbag leave? I say we gut him, and hang him out to dry," suggested Mordecai.

Before she left, Maya told him, "We've been grilling him for 4 hours straight. He's told us everything there is to tell. And he's right - he's not our enemy."

"Since when the fuck are you Sirens are supposed to be merciful?"

"Merciful? Oh no, this isn't mercy. This is pragmatism. He is obviously a survivor. Everything - his account, your debriefing of coming across him and fighting him - says as much."

"What about that intel he fed us? What if it's utter skag-crap? I mean, there's nobody to coroborate his boo-hoo sob story. For all we know, he was makin' it up as he went along."

Maya could have said that Lawrence wasn't lying, that she liked to think she was decent at reading people, that she believed. However, she didn't want to seem like she was taking the former body-double's side. Instead, she deferred to Lilith. "I don't hear Lilith telling me otherwise."

Mordecai rounded on the Firehawk with a bottle of beer in hand. "Yeah, Lilly? What you gotta say about that?"

"What Maya told me is that Lawrence agreed to a job offer from Rhys. So for now, he might as well be fighting for us, since Rhys is his boss and all."

Mordecai fumed, but Maya did not stick around to see what happened next. She had loot to steal, bandits to waste, and cash to earn.

They'd made a stop at the armoury, mainly so that Yaeger could reclaim his weapons. Arriving at the hanger, Gaige, Rhys and Yaeger were scoping out shuttles and deciding which one to fly. Rhys stepped aside to make a few calls. He commed Fiona.

No response.

He tried again, and again. There was no one there to answer. He cursed, and then attempted to contact Yvette. Then Vaughn.

Nothing.

Rhys shut off his palm interface in frustration. He felt beads of sweat trickle down his forehead. By now, Gaige had commandeered a sleek, yellow shuttle with stylised wings and a spherical cockpit, and Maya had caught up with them.

But Yaeger got caught up in an awkward reunion. Athena did a double take, and her jaw dropped. Such an uncharacteristic reaction got a chuckle out of Yaeger.

"Timo - Yaeger?!" Athena corrected herself, and Yaeger was silently grateful. He waved with a ruined grin stretching his ruined face and sauntered closer to the assassin.

"Hey, Athena. How's life been treating you?"

"How's - no. What are you doing here? Why are you in Sanctuary?"

"If she sounds incredulous, it's because she is incredulous," said an approaching Janey Springs. "But, I think she means she's happy to see you. And so am I. Happy to see ya, that is."

"How ya doin', Janey? Keeping the gladiator in check - hey, is that a - ?" He spotted the rings Janey and Athena wore. His mouth open a crack, he didn't know what to say.

"Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. You are looking at a pair of newly-weds," Janey beamed proudly, smooching Athena on the cheek, who gave an awkward albeit genuine smile. Yaeger grinned at them.

"Aw shucks, congratulations. How long...?"

"Just under three months."

"Go anywhere nice for the honeymoon?"

"Well, we were saving up for a resort trip to Aquaria, but Ax and Gaige just had to go and blow up the moon..."

"Hey, I heard that!" Gaige exclaimed from within her ship.

Janey shouted back through cupped hands, "Good, because I said it on purpose!"

"It was a FORMER resort moon, anyway! Why you gotta be so sore about it?"

"Maybe my wife and I wanted to go scuba-diving for a Vault - "

Yaeger nudged Athena playfully with his elbow. "You sweeping her up in the Vault Hunter lifestyle?"

Athena replied, "If anything, she's the one trying to get me out of it." Yaeger detected the underlying current of disappointment. Subtle, but it was there.

"She's just saying all that to wind Gaige up," explained the Gladiator.

Rhys strolled past them and up the ramp of the shuttle. "Hurry up. My friends don't have much time."

Yaeger patted Athena's shoulder. "Maybe Janey's right; it's better to quit while you're ahead."

He was the last to climb aboard the ship before the ramp retracted and the doots shut. Then the ship blasted off, streaking across the skies of Pandora, Sanctuary becoming a tiny blip far, far away.

Rhys watched Yaeger guardedly. "Well, that's a bummer," sighed Yaeger. "I missed their wedding..."

"Did you not get an invite?"

"Oh, I did, actually. But at the time, I was a bit preoccupied. What about you?"

"Too busy rebuilding Atlas."

"Hm. So tell me more about Atlas..."

Thirty minutes later, the shuttle flew over the barren rocks nearby the remains of Helios. A metal casing, ginormous in size and uncomparable in scale, designed to resemble an eyeball with thick, thick glass and numerous scitillations. It was rising up from the ground, like a marble being spat out of the earth. It was as big as the moon.

Surrounding it were shards built of durasteel and Plexiglas that were meant to be welded by giants; these were structures once part of Helios. Crumpled, torn and worn down by raids from other bandit camps and a lack of maintenance.

The encampment was suffering an invasion that echoed the attempted Hyperion takeover of Pandora. The only difference being the scale. Of course, nobody onboard the Raider vessel commented this as they were too distracted by the raging gunfire and scorching bonfires dotted across the land.

Helios was burning, and this time it seemed to be on its last legs.

"Uh, dude, you never said you were bringing us to a crap-show on a scale like this," said Gaige, shaking Rhys out of his reverie.

Rhys shook his head. His throat was parched, he craved a drink. "I... I had no idea it was this bad..." he stressed.

"Looks like you'd need an army to liberate the place," noted Yaeger. The trio, along with Maya, crowded the cock-pit while the pilot steered with the control yoke.

"Hey, that's Helios!" realised Gaige. "We were gonna shoot the hell outta it. Remember, Maya? We were gonna fly up there and show those Hyperion losers who's boss."

Maya gave an uneasy nod. "But before we could do that, it came crashing down on its own."

"We threw, like, the biggest party ever that night! The only time I can think of when there was that much free booze was when we messed up Jack." Gaige high-fived Maya. Yaeger smirked. Rhys felt sick. He buried any thoughts of that day, of him, deep in the back of his mind. He inhaled sharply.

"I hired you three to protect the inhabitants of Helios from the bandits," he began. Placing his hands on the dashboard, he looked up at the Eye of Helios. "The people who live there are ex-Hyperions."

Yaeger gave a feral hiss, and jumped like he'd been jabbed with a hot poker. The snarl he wore was animalistic.

Gaige started. Maya glanced at Rhys. He didn't meet any of their gazes. "And if you're as good as you're supposed to be, then you better do your jobs right. There's real money on the the table here," he gave a shrug, "figuratively speaking - we don't have a table."

"Approaching the landing zone," said the pilot, looking uncomfortable, though not commenting anything.

"What if we don't wanna help?" snarled Yaeger. He curled his hands into fists bearing popping veins. He was shaking so hard, it looked like he could launch himself at Rhys any minute.

Rhys regarded him coolly. "Then I will gladly let the Vault Hunters throw you back in prison. I have no use for an employee who chickens out on his very first assignment."

Yaeger sized him up, conceding moments later and admitting grudgingly, "Well played, kiddo. Well played."

"And do the rest of you have any objections?" Maya and Gaige could only shake their heads, not trusting themselves to speak.

"Where do I set her down?" asked the pilot.

"Nowhere," Maya spoke. "We're gonna make our own entrance."

The rear ramp yawned open, and four figures treaded towards the edge.

"Okay, so, this is, like, probably a totally dumb question but where are our parachutes?" Rhys asked over the winds. He gave a nervous laugh after Maya smirked and replied, "Who said anything about parachutes?"

"It's official: you Sirens are crazy," Yaeger muttered. He looked at the short girl with a cyber-arm. "And you're totally chill with this? *whistle* Nutcase. None of us have anything that'll prevent the following: 'Hello, fast-approaching ground!' / 'Oh look, a free-falling idiot!' / Splat!"

Maya and Gaige shared a glance, the latter of whom shrugged. "I can get Deathtrap to cushion my fall."

"Excellent. Then out you go!" Maya gleefully booted Gaige off the ramp with a grin.

"Hey, screw you - " Gaige plummeted towards the ground, growing smaller and smaller by the second. Maya noticed the mute horror on Rhys' and Yaeger's faces as they simultaneously took a step away from her. "Pssh, she'll be fine. She's got Deathtrap."

"Now I definitely know you Sirens are crazy," uttered Yaeger.

"I'll catch you both," said Maya with a teasing smile, then she bailed. As one, Yaeger and his newest employer peered over the edge, then shifted back.

Gaige was not having a fun time. Hurtling through the stratosphere was not her idea of fun. Ripple of air streamed over her gangly body, and she positioned herself, arms out, legs out. She opened her mouth to cry out but her breath was stolen away in an instant.

The sky took it from her.

This was exhilarating. She might have enjoyed it if she weren't still cursing Maya inside her mind. She activated the protocols required on her cybernetic limb and summoned Deathtrap, who formed before her rapidly, pixel by pixel, until he was solid and real.

Then Deathtrap soared out of sight, and Gaige panicked. She flailed her limbs uselessly, forgetting where she was, who she was, and what she considered important. All that mattered was that she was not supposed to become a bloodstain upon impact. Well, maybe more of a mangled mess of limbs. The point was she didn't want to die!

Deathtrap boosted itself towards the dropping Mechromancer, and Gaige wrapped around the crashing robot, hanging on for dear life.

Maya nosedived at high velocity, like a bullet ready to strike its target. She felt so utterly alive, and it was amazing. Below her, skirmishes broke out and ended as she descended.

Her tattoos burned electric blue. A dark mass formed in her naked palm, and she felt herself get pulled up by a sudden force. She felt as if her stomach rammed up into her trachea. It was not pleasant. However, her landing gear had been activated, the massive cerulean wings sprouting from her upper back.

They flapped harder, and soon she made touchdown. Gently towing the ground before she physically made contact, Maya let her wings dissapate and she planted her feet into the rocky plain. She gasped. That stunt had taken more out of her than she'd expected.

But where were the others?

"What do you mean, you don't have any landing gear!?"

A warbled reply. Gaige scowled. "Why the hell didn't I install any landing gear? Oh wait, I never expected Maya to throw me off a ship," she droned, sarcasm dripping from every syllable.

Deathtrap beeped indignantly. They were still falling, with Gaige hugging it like some sort of oversized stuffed bear.

"Yes, DT, now is the perfect moment to be snarky about that. Because when else am I - whoa!" Maya's Phaselock had them suspended in midair. Gaige sensed the vertigo slam into her full-force, and she nearly threw up there and then. The bitter, caustic taste of bile was swallowed down her throat, and nausea threatened to overwhelm her. She supposed she should be glad her neck didn't snap from the suddeness of the catch.

The blackhole that Maya had produced magnitized Gaige and Deathtrap and they drifted down gently. The Siren stood there, arm outstretched, bodies lying around her. Evidently, she'd gotten a headstart on the kill count.

Yaeger and Rhys had been dropped by the ruins, and the Hooded Bandit had gone inside to check for survivors, as per the boss's orders. If Rhys really wanted to protect the settlers, he should have pleaded for an army to follow him back here. It was a stupid plan, a ridiculous one. He'd mentioned as much and Rhys had lost his cool, telling the scarred man that he had had no idea that it would be as devastating as this.

To be honest, the chaos reminded Yaeger of the forays and incursions he'd used to lead while posing as Jack. They would sweep in, Loaders clanking with Surveyors and Engineers trailing after them, all of them behind the Hyperion menace. Towns were razed. Any bandits unlucky to be still breathing would be rounded up and later executed for the galaxy to behold. Handsome Jack had had Hyperion executions broadcast via an ECHO livestream.

And he... and he... Yaeger stopped, and shut his eyes. Feeling the eyelid glide over the chilling metal of his prosthetic, trying to drown out the memories of unimaginable deeds made public. Things he had done.

He slumped his shoulders and breathed out. He needed to get a grip. With his heart pumping painful throbs, he'd located the command room Rhys had described.

There was a woman fighting for her life. She was spraying wildly, arms raised just over the top of the console she was hiding behind.

Marauders were returning fire, none too willing to get close to their target. Yaeger smirked, flung two of the shiny spheres which he owned. A pair of holographic duplicates emerged and fell into step with him. Unlike himself, these digital copies of Jack - digi-Jacks - retained the mask, the pompadour and the ridiculous amount of layers along with the sneakers.

"Need a hero, kiddo? Handsome Jack here!"

"Hyperion rules, you guys just suck."

"And the world just got 25% more douchey," said Yaeger as he strode forward with confidence no one should have when outnumbered and outgunned. The Mauraders turned on him instead. Over a dozen guns were simultaneously cocked at him. Yaeger raised one hand, making a finger-gun, pointed at a bandit and said, "Bang."

That bandit was instantly felled by digistructed slugs. Yaeger dived out of the oncoming salvo. The digi-Jacks grinned as they got into their element. Grenades were lobbed; bandits launched across the room as they hollered and screamed. The Marauders were getting mopped up - Yvette bashed one's head in with a savage face, teeth gritted and eyes glaring viciously. Then she popped off a slew of slugs and another one hit the floor. Yaeger was no slouch either. His SMG discharged short bursts and multiple foes got clipped, crying out in pain and in the following moments their screams died down.

Between the two of them they cleared out the room in a matter of minutes. After the command hub received new, unwanted decorations, Yvette eyed the newcomer with suspicion. The holographic copies winked out.

Engaged in combat was a gun-nut who was taking hits from all sides. Her fashion sense questionable, her shooting skills impeccable, Sasha was pinned down out in a make shift trench with wounded and others who continued to harry the enemy.

She dropped to a crouch, swiftly reloading her Amplified Bane with a new clip slammed into place. Next to her, a wounded former corporate lackey groaned. He was suffering from a gunshot wound in his stomach. A healing hypo had already been administered, but it hadn't been able to do its job properly.

That was one of the issues with rapid regeneration 'medicine'.

It didn't always work.

"You still there, buddy?" Sasha waved a hand over the guy's face. His glassy gaze was vacant, but he was not gone. She could hear the wheezing intake of air followed by the ragged exhalation.

"You're gonna be okay. We'll get outta here, and a medic will be looking at you in no time..."

It felt weird, trying to comfort the man. Sasha poked her head out of the trench, and what she saw floored her. A floating torso of a mech was dispersing death. A super-hot laser burst from its head and the scorching ray caught half a dozen attackers while swivelling, and they combusted, feeling the flames course through their rags and boots.

"Holy shit," whispered Sasha, wide-eyed.

The half-robot pivoted 180 degrees and just clapped its hands at the enemies rushing it with buzz-axes and shotguns. They never stood a chance, instantly collapsing into a pool of guts and bones.

Sasha felt sick. But the robot wasn't attacking her and the ex-stooges. If anything, it was helping them.

"Behind you!" cried an unrecognisable voice. Sasha whirled round, only to have a Marauder with an ax launch himself at the trench, leaping up, weapon poised over his head. Automatically pressing the butt of the Bane into her shoulder, she wasted no time wasting him. The bandit dropped like a sack of potatos, twitching and full of holes.

"Nice. Is that a Bane? You don't look like a stooge trying to live the life of an outlaw," said the same voice again. Sasha turned once more, and she saw who it was. A young woman with a gunmetal left arm and pigtails.

She was mowing down bandits left and right, spraying wildly. "Anarchy on Pandora!" She laughed with a mad grin. "Look, pop goes the bandit! I love this game!"

Sasha was greatly bemused. "Who... Why...?"

The robot surged forward, displaying an image of a man with coiffed locks and an ECHOport in his temple. "Rhys...? You know Rhys?"

The hovering robot gave her a thumbs-up.

"Back to the fight, DT! We've got incoming!"

Deathtrap returned to the fray.

"Got plenty of injured, huh. Don't worry, DT will clear a path and we'll get you some place safe," Gaige declared as she hopped down into the trench. She gave a whistle.

Maya accompanied Rhys as they weaved and dodged their way through hell. Explosions all around them rocked Rhys' world.

"Look, it's him! The Great Liberator! He's come to save us!" a Child of Helios cheered as Rhys approached. A wave of embarassment shocked through him, and he turned to Maya, who wore a look of surprise. She mouthed, "Great Liberator?"

"It's a long story," Rhys moaned. He demanded from the nearest Child where Vaughn was. Meanwhile, Maya took matters into her own hands. She got out in the open, Phaselocking anybody that got in the way.

Various members of the CoH watched her in awe. It was surreal. She was shifting through the shots, frying, burning, cuts-a-stinging, bringing unadulterated pain to the bandits. She was on their side. The Liberator had summoned her, a Siren. A Siren to fight for them.

They cheered her on, resulting in a great noise that rang of triumph and awe. Those bandits with an ounce of common sense chose to fall back, but Maya was relentless. She slaughtered them all, and in a wicked sense of the word, it was glorious.

The Electro-Cannon materialised in Rhys's hands and he took the fight to the bandits, too.

Maya joked, "Overcompensating?"

"Don't start," grumbled Rhys. "We need to find Vaughn."

Maya registered the faint note of concern in his tone. "Let's hope he's out there somewhere."

"I've got a bead on his estimated location, but... there's all that." Rhys gestured aimlessly to the sea of Psychos rushing in. Some rode on Skags, herding the beasts.

Maya hummed. "Taking care of 'that' is my specialty."

Her tats were shining like the blazing sun, and she grew wings. "Let's see how they deal with this."

She glided upwards, and held out her hands, projecting a humongous purple orb over the bewildered bandits' heads. Then they were all sucked towards it, and they writhed and twitched in the clutch of the singularity. Some even went on fire.

Rhys was amazed. The Children of Helios around him raised their guns and opened fire. Some had seen it in the holo-vids, how the Siren had trapped foes within her Phaselock and then pumped them full of lead. The outcome this time was no different.

Corpses flopped to the ground, and Maya sagged. With her wings were gone she seemed immensely exhausted. Two Children supported her, and got shrugged off. "I'll manage," she answered Rhys' unspoken question.

"So, this Great Liberator business? Mind filling me in?" Maya had even done the air quotes.

"It's flattery, is what it is," shouted Rhys over the tumult of the battle. "I'm not a Great anything." She mentally noted his rejection of the title. Perhaps he wanted to appear humble.

"Though you do seem like some kind of idol for the Hyperions."

"Ex-Hyperions. They're all about as far from the corporation ethos as possiblly can be."

"I've been wondering about something. Were you - one of them once, maybe?" Maya stopped to heal a Child of Helios. Rhys paled at how close she was to the truth. The injured man clasped her forearm lightly, guiding her over the wounds, much to Maya's annoyance. She let him gaze in wonder at the glow escaping past his grip.

"They revere you. I mean, sure, they look at me like they'd look at all Sirens, but you..." She finished healing the man, moving on to a woman missing a leg and an arm.

"...Anyone who rises from within their fold to the top is viewed as a god. Just look at Jack."

"What does it matter?" Rhys cradled the woman's head in his hands as she looked up at him with a relieved smile. She thanked both him and Maya, having regained the ability to walk. Maya's healing capabilities were godly, just as were her smiting powers.

She and Rhys provided cover fire for the little group of scavengers and scroungers as they retreated to the safety of Helios.

"So I was right on the money. You were one of 'em." Maya smirked. "Your face gave it away."

Rhys cursed. "Okay, so what?" He threw his hands up into the air. "Big deal. I used to be Hyperion. These people used to be Hyperion. Would you kill them if you'd found them by accident?" He caressed his nose, shoving a palm to her face. "Don't answer that. You obviously would. Be it old reflexes, memories of the war on Hyperion, a half-baked excuse which serves as justification... I don't care."

He stormed past her. Maya was left to ponder her thoughts for a few moments.

They located Vaughn in the midst of a firefight. The leader of the Children of Helios was in a tough spot. His grip was white-knuckled on his Transmurdera submachine gun and his mouth was set in a grim line. He seemed like he didn't expect to come out of the fight alive.

He certainly hadn't expected a Siren coming to his aid. He hadn't expected Rhys. So needless to say, he'd been shocked to see either of them.

"Rhys?!"

"Hey, buddy," said Rhys with a lackadaisical smile. "Looks like you got yourself backed into a tight corner."

"Yeah, well, how did you know I had a situation here?"

Rhys snorted. A situation? This was more akin to a full-blown catastrophe. "Yvette rang me. Said she needed back-up, that you guys were under attack."

"You know, I'd have first called - "

" - Fiona, yes, I know. That was also her first thought. But she couldn't contact her."

"So you brought in the cavalry."

"I brought in the cavalry." Three Vault Hunters hardly constituted as that.

"Bro, I'd hug you so hard right now if we weren't trying to survive a raid."

"Is that what this is? Do these occur often?"

Vaughn shrugged. "More often than not, yeah."

"Guess the whole 'laser pointers approach' thing didn't work out, huh?"

"Guess not." Vaughn grunted and fell to one knee, teeth gritted in pain. He was shaking. "Vaughn?"

"I was riding on adrenaline for a bit there, not anymore I guess," Vaughn bit out a cry cut short by him shutting his lips.

Rhys noticed the rivulets of crimson slipping down Vaughn's chest as his coat was opened. "Shit, Vaughn. We need to get you to safety."

"What's happening?" Maya made her way to them. She had disposed of Vaughn's immediate attackers.

"Vaughn needs help and fast, Maya. Get over here and - do something!" She stooped down beside the Bandit King and did a onceover. "I don't know if I can move him. If I try, then his injuries will only be aggravated even more."

"Then don't. Just work your magic now," Rhys snapped.

Suddenly, a cacaphony of harsh noises sounded in the distance. After perking his ears and listening, Rhys drew back. "Why is there somebody playing dubstep?"

Vaughn sighed. Maya glared into the distance, as if the sound offended her. Just then, a sky platform sped over the cliffs. A hill of speakers on it emitted dubstep and it was agony to their ears. Deafening, in fact.

And piloting it was none other than Bossonova.

[Tell Maya to take Vaughn to Helios]

[Insist on healing Vaughn here and now]

AN: So there you go. Episode 2 is off to a good start, wouldn't you say? By the way, just something to point out: Yaeger and Gaige only came with Rhys because a) Rhys had extended interaction with both of them, and b) in Yaeger's case, you offered the guy a place at Atlas and now he works for you.

If you never chose to offer Yaeger a place at Atlas, well, he wouldn't have contacted Rhys when Rhys was inside Crimson Raiders HQ, since he never would have gotten Rhys' contact details.

Instead of Gaige and Yaeger, Axton and maybe Athena would have gone with Rhys.

There: your choices do affect the story.

Maya would always come along, for the reason that Rhys says when he interrupts Yaeger's interrogation. She's a healer, and she's damn good at being one.

Anyways, thank you for reading! :)