Jesus, this is getting long. I should probably take a break at some point, but I know where this story is going so I don't want to stop writing. It's quite enjoyable to write this – to have the power to mould the story in any way is truly magnificent.

Also, I believe this is the first chapter to be named after one of Salvador's skills. It's a much more tame and less uncouth one, so that's great. And it fits for what goes on in the chapter as well.

Yippee, more romance that I am not great at writing…but what the hell, why not...?

Chapter Fourteen: Inconceivable

Aurora seemed defeated.

'Clearly, the feeling doesn't go both ways,' she finished, immediately brought to the brink of tears. 'He prefers Gaige. That I can see.'

There was silence throughout the room. Matt didn't move to deny any of the things she just said, nor did Gaige deny the latter. She knew that it would get out eventually, but moments after the relationship was just established seemed a bit fast.

Axton instantly felt remorse for asking, realising that the enquiry had made him sound like a bit of a jerk.

'You guys need to get over that,' Maya advised.

'Your friendship is stronger than this,' Lilith added.

'Such disharmony / True friendship is so precious / Don't throw it away,' Zer0 agreed.

'C'mon, they're right,' Gaige added. 'I'd hate to be the reason behind the end of your friendship.'

'You aren't,' Aurora and Matt assured in unison.

Gaige did not seem entirely convinced.

'After you came back, Matt, I…was overwhelmed with emotions. So, I got…careless.'

'It's OK if you didn't mean–'

'I still meant to kiss you,' she interrupted, having easily predicted how that sentence was going to finish. 'My feelings have been there for years. When you were kidnapped, there was this…hole left in me. So it broke my heart when you left. When we made up, I thought we had a chance. But you kept going for Gaige. A girl you met a few days prior to reuniting with me, versus the young woman you've known for years. I didn't understand. I still don't.'

'I'm sorry Aurora,' Matt apologised. 'I just never got past seeing you as my best friend.'

'It's not your fault.'

'We can still be best friends. Even if you do have feelings for me.'

'I don't know. You think so?'

'Of course! I'll try and spend some more time with you, as a friend.' Aurora seemed so desperate at this point to cleave together their now fragmenting friendship that she was willing to accept it. She reluctantly went for a hug around him, before letting go.

'T-Thanks…' The Revolverslinger thanked. 'Um, I guess I'll start moving some of my things back into your house so I can take care of you.'

'Are you sure?' Matt carefully wondered. She nodded adamantly, before strolling away with a more pleased appearance beside her as she left.

'Well that was…easy,' Maya remarked.

'I am so proud of you for that,' Gaige added, giving him a soft kiss on his cheek. Everyone stared as the gears in their brain started turning.

'Oh…! So when Aurora said that you kept going for Gaige…' Axton observed, 'she literally meant you were going after Gaige.'

'Early stages,' Matt replied freely, not certain if he should be comfortable with being so intimate with Gaige following Aurora opening up to him so much.

'Lucky guy,' Axton murmured, almost ashamed of the comment.

'Lucky girl,' Lilith corrected. Gaige blushed slightly.

'I'll be in my home if anyone needs me,' Matt finally resolved. Gaige went to his side again, seeing if she could help him along. He stopped her. 'Gaige. I'm fine. Stay here and try to manage battle strategies with everyone. I can get a hold of Caine, but I need you to come up with a strategy in case mine fails. Caine's not as reckless as he seemed.'

'You entrusting me with something so important?' She did not seem too confident with that order.

'Of course! You're really smart, so you shouldn't have a problem!' Matt confirmed, before turning around and carefully placing the tips of his crutches on the stairs. Gaige stood there, trying to process what he just said.

Matt just called me intelligent…! She marvelled. Wait, why is that so inspiring?

Her brainwaves shifted to Matt's scars, cuts and bruises that adorned his body. The scarred tissue was evident, the damage sickening to look at. Even commencing Matt's return, Gaige had not really spared some thoughts to what her supposed lover had been through. Plainly, it was horrifying. He had been through all of that, just to save them.

Those injuries…they must have been so excruciating.

The worst of them all: his spine.

Gaige could not possibly imagine the feeling of your spine snapping and then shattering, and the following lack of feeling anything afterwards. She had never experienced anything that a few hypos couldn't clear up. Matt's wounds were things that not even super-hypos could even have much of an effect on.

What kind of drive can one person have to lead to them hoisting themselves out of a hundred-tonne wreckage (somehow) and then crawl almost all the way back? The agony and throbbing pain…how is Matt even still sane after that? I never gave it too much consideration before…

Now, he had those blemishes as signs of the torment he'd experienced. Torture that she had failed to save him from. Instead, she had spent her time mourning his apparent death while he was subjected to literal Hell.

Although, Gaige knew she couldn't think like that. Matt would not want her to, even if the sympathy exploding into guilt was there. She just didn't know what it was truly like to have been him in that situation.

That physical trauma…I think that's burnt into my memory forever.

'Amiga…?' Mordecai called out, but it apparently fell upon deaf ears. The girl appeared to be spacing out for some reason unknown to them.

'You alright, slab?' Brick asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. She was immediately yanked out of her thoughts and stared at them.

'S-sorry, just thinking,' Gaige told them, unsure of herself.

'You're thinking about Matt's scars, aren't you?' Maya perceptively conjectured. Flinching, Gaige briefly threw her a defensive glare, before accepting defeat and nodding.

'I saw those too, cúmbila,' Salvador said. 'I've had some scrapes myself, but…sus cicatrices son peores.' (A/N: "His scars are worse." Sal's of Spanish descent, remember?)

Everyone nodded quite vehemently to that statement, apart from Gaige, who remained mostly silent.

'Has he actually said anything about what happened?' Axton asked.

'Come to think of it, no, not really,' Brick answered, toning down the loudness in his voice.

'It must have been like a living hell,' Mordecai darkly presumed.

'A hell on Earth, yes / He has the marks to prove it / But now he is back,' Zer0 harmonised.

'Terrible that someone as kind as him had to experience that,' Lilith stated compassionately.

'S-Stop t-talking about it,' Gaige stammered.

'Oh, right, sorry, Gaige,' Lilith apologised, noticing the distraught look on her face.

Matt lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. This was something he seemed to do a lot recently, whenever he had the opportunity.

Truth be told, the Anomaly had no idea how he was still alive. The hundred-tonne remains of the Gulag should have crushed his skull and killed him almost instantly commencing the detonation of the bomb. His luck could not have been the reason. Maybe Matt's powers really did save his life.

However, he had been in life-threatening situations countless times before – more so when he had his powers as opposed to when not. In those circumstances, it was Matt's quick-thinking that got him out of it, not his powers. Those had not provided any assistance.

His powers weren't everything. Despite being "The Anomaly" Matt had skill besides slowing time. Well-versed in martial arts, he could quite easily defend himself while his powers were in a cooldown state or had been overused. And his gun proficiency even impressed Duke while they fought, but the man always had the upper hand in that category.

Not that that surprised him in the slightest.

Vaus also enjoyed how he could copy his whirlwind powers (although not to the same level or intensity), but that was with his abilities – most of the time he just held out until he could pull one over on Arcturus. Arguably, Arcturus Vaus was the most deadly of the Vault Hunters, but it was a tough contest.

Violet's light beams were formidable, but she wasn't the brightest of the bunch, nor the cream of the crop, and likewise did not know the more obscure ways to use her powers. She wasn't even certain how she could turn invisible. Not to mention firing light beams quickly in succession was very difficult and took a lot of energy out of her.

Duke Minoosh was a very close third, given that if he was able to aim properly, the guy could get rapid headshots without missing. Matt usually found himself having to quickly dispatch or distract him, and offset his aim.

Dan had a powerful ability, but power did not lead deadliness. Deadliness was directly affected by how easily he could kill someone. His holographic projections were scarcely used but could be physical or intangible. The more powerful or complex the hologram he was making, the harder it was to maintain it. Unfortunately, for him anyway, Dan's projections made him very predictable. He nearly always started a fight by either a direct digital attack to the face, or by means of deception.

By deception, he meant something similar to Zer0's ability. More often than not, he didn't throw a hologram of himself, but usually someone else. He liked to confuse enemies with multiple copies of his teammates, or even his opponent's teammates. Despite knowing this was predictable, Dan still did it – mainly because he had no other battle strategy.

As for Caine, there was no contest that he was the most dangerous and powerful, but not the deadliest; despite what he would tell everyone. With ability such as his – to increase the air pressure in a certain area, causing a concussive explosion of air – the man was not to be trifled with. (Unless you're Matt Rye, of course.)

His explosions never made fires either, which Caine always supposed reduced his self-destructive capabilities by around 23.2 percent.

Matt and Aurora were the top of the league while they worked for Gemini, but Matt was substantially weaker with his powers during the short period where he had them and was still under their employ. Throughout the years where the Anomaly was non-anomalous, he was barely on par with Duke, as he relied a little more on his own skills in combat rather than actual superpowers.

And Matt definitely acknowledged them to be superpowers. Sirens were essentially superhuman, and since the Vault Hunter was basically one – if Sirens were male – one could treat his abnormal proficiencies in the same fashion.

Although, the young man gave himself the title of a superhero. That just seemed immature and wholly inaccurate.

'Matty? You're muttering,' called someone. He looked down at Aurora, who was standing there with a glass of water and a small slice of skag steak on a ceramic plate.

'Oh, hey 'Ora,' he greeted. Matt knew he needed to be fluent with his former teammates' powers and weaknesses for whenever he might take them on again. 'Wait, is that skag meat?' He sat up animatedly.

'You betcha! Eat up!' She placed the glass of water by his desk and the plate just beside it.

'Thanks, 'Ora!' Matt took a large expressive gulp of the invitingly cold water. Aurora bent over and gave him a minor hug and smiled warmly.

'What are friends for?' She sat down on the bed, watching him eat. She tended to his legs. 'Do these hurt at all?' She started massaging them while Matt ate.

''Ora, you don't have to –'

'Answer the question, Matty,' Aurora demanded firmly.

'It is a little sore but –'

'Oh my God, you poor thing!' She began smoothly massaging his ankle to ease the pain, taking off his right shoe and sock.

'It seems more like scarred tissue since it is more sensitive than –'

'Your muscle tissue's been scarred? I didn't realise the after-effects of your injuries!' The young woman put some ice on his shin and under the leg, causing Matt to wince at the sudden drastic change in temperature.

'There may be some scratches all over, and –'

'HOW MANY SCARS DO YOU HAVE, MATT?' The female Vault Hunter bellowed in disbelief, having pulled up his trouser leg to reveal dozens of blemishes all across his skin. Most appeared to have been marks where his flesh had been scraped and slashed into, while ones that were more serious were surrounded by dark purple-brown bruising. Some areas had pale pink blotches, a sign of wounds having healed over but threatened to bleed profusely if they were even slightly scraped off. She ran her fingers along these pink areas, and Matt shuddered in sensitivity.

'Don't scrape them so much or –'

'I'm sorry! I just got interested and –'

'AURORA WILL YOU LET ME FUCKING SPEAK?!' Matt roared, successfully catching her attention and shutting her up. After realising how she would not respond, he continued, putting away the finished plate on his desk. 'Thank you. Anyway, you don't need to worry so much about me, you know. Nowadays, it's all you seem to do. I know that I went through a lot, but I'm back. Right now that's all that matters.'

'Matty…' She affectionately called, uncertain how she would go about maintaining her sentence. '…You haven't really said anything about what happened…I know it must've been traumatising but…' Matt grabbed both her hands and held them together in his.

'Aurora. I'm fine.'

'It's just…if you ever need anyone to talk to, I'm here.'

'I know, 'Ora. That's why we're best friends.'

'I love you, Matt…as a friend.' He sniggered at the emphasis on the last clause.

'As best friends.' She nodded, and picked up the plate and drink as Matt finished quaffing down the freezing water. The Revolverslinger gave him one final hug before ordering him to rest for a few hours and leaving.

In some kind of nightmare world, Matt stood before Caine and the door to the Vault. The Anomaly's Pandoran Vault Hunter friends stood behind him. He flinched as the Explosions Master leant his hand against the scanner.

Caine frowned. The Vault door to the pseudo-Brigadoon would not open.

'I guess that Tannis scientist was right,' he remarked, turning to Matt. 'It'll only open for you. You need to put enough energy in.'

'No, Caine,' he firmly told him.

'Matt, we just have to let ends meet here,' Gaige advised behind him. Aurora nodded to that, but remained silent.

'Yeah we can decide what to do with Caine once we take down this Vault, kid,' Maya added.

'Unless you want me to kill your girlfriend,' Caine threatened, pointing his hand at Gaige and creating small air pockets around his palm and exploding them as an example.

'Try it and I liquefy you,' Lilith countered.

'Not as if you'd be able to do it fast enough, bitch,' the man re-joined. Matt felt like warning him about his language, but it just seemed irrelevant at this point. Caine got pissed easily anyway.

Sighing, the Anomalous Hunter placed his hand on the scanner, creating a large portal to form in the Vault door. Eventually, a gateway was created inside, revealing the inside.

The pathway was stony and floated but short, and extended out into a large platform. The platform possessed Eridian statues similar to that inside the Vault of the Warrior. However, these were not crying lava. Outside the platform were simple floating structures of stone, and beyond that was an expanding void of purple Eridian energy.

Matt would have focussed more on this if the situation was not so hazy and unclear.

Dropping out of nowhere was a dark silhouette on the platform. He could not see what the Vault Monster was, or what it did.

However, they still went in to fight.

The mysterious Vault Guardian began attacking them, wiping the floor with them. The colossal creature picked up Salvador and literally ate him, making a comical gulping sound. It also smacked Maya and Axton into a statue, which then collapsed on them, crushing them. Matt tried to scream, but no words would come out.

Lilith lasted much longer, firing Phaseblasts which did some kind of damage to the Monster. It roared, but not like the Warrior, but more distinctly…human. As it did so, it managed to grab her with its arms and tore her into two pieces. She screamed in pain.

Matt kept Gaige back with stern concern, knowing she stood no chance against the beast following the death of her friends.

More of their friends were dispatched – Brick and Aurora were thrown off the platform, Zer0's limbs were bitten off, Mordecai's head was decapitated and Deathtrap exploded.

Caine and Matt did not seem to have too much problem against the Vault Monster however, easily reacting to the beast's fast movements – whatever it was – and responding accordingly. It took serious damage as they used their abilities to destroy it.

The monster fell, as Gaige looked on.

Matt ran over to her, trying to console her over the demise of her friends. While he did this, Caine got more interested in the artefact that rose out of the ground from the middle of the platform. He picked it up, and all the energy from the Void began sucking in it, and Caine was surrounded in a purple aura.

Once the Anomaly finally noticed, it was too late.

Caine had harnessed all the power, and Gaige and Matt ran over to him in an attempt to stop the madman, somehow.

The explosion-wielding Gemini Vault Hunter reacted only by firing purple at them with the circular artefact, throwing them backwards. He fired again. Matt was fast enough to dodge it.

Gaige wasn't.

Matt turned around to see the Mechromancer, with a hole burnt through her heart. It left sizzling smoke.

She only managed to utter the words "I love you" before falling to the ground and dying.

As he mourned her death, another beam of purple energy sped towards him imposingly.

So…Matt's in a tough spot right now.

Aurora's being far too doting, everyone is shocked by his scars, and he feels out of commission.

Also, a little bit more on the Vault. I gave an idea of what the Vault looks like when you're inside it, although I didn't reveal what the Vault Guardian was. I felt like it would anticlimactic to reveal what it looked like in a vision. So, the Vault Monster is left blank. Although, that glimpse didn't seem to promising.

I have a feeling the next chapter is going to be really long – so it may take longer to post.